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1. US Debt Ceiling Bills Passes House
Legislation negotiated by President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy to defer the cap on U.S. debt has passed the House and now heads to the Senate for approval, according to the New York Times. The New York Times reports that “a broad bipartisan coalition lined up to cast a critical vote to pull the nation back from the brink of economic catastrophe.”
The newspaper reports 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats backed the measure, while 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats opposed it. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deal will “suspend the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit until Jan. 2025 [and] would cut federal spending by $1.5 trillion over a decade.” If the bill is passed in the Senate, it will go to President Biden to be signed into law.
2. Europe Hotel Transaction Volume Rises in First Quarter
Despite high financing costs and economic challenges, Europe hotel investment activity totaled 4.1 billion euros ($4.4 billion) in the first quarter of 2023, a year-over-year increase of 18%, according to real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Europe.
Major deals drove this growth, including the sale of Westin Paris, Mandarin Oriental, Bodrum, Turkey, and Le Richemond, Geneva. Investment activity analyzed on a 12-month basis, “which smooths the impact of unusually large deals,” the year-over-year percentage increase is 3%. The United Kingdom, France and Spain accounted for 52% of the volume; European buyers acquired 76% of the volume, and upscale and upper-upscale hotels “accounted for half of the quarterly transaction volumes, with resorts in high demand with investors. ”
3. Remington Rebrands To Expand Management Beyond Hotels
Third-party management firm Remington Hotels is now Remington Hospitality, and executives said the rebranding signals a goal to grow the portfolio of managed properties beyond hotels, including alternative accommodations such as glamping sites.
"We're getting more and more into non-traditional lodging, and so the noun 'hotels' seemed a little too isolated or too specific," Remington Hospitality CEO Sloan Dean said in an exclusive interview with Hotel News Now's Dana Miller. "We've got several glamping projects here in the states as well as in Costa Rica and Mexico that we're partners on. It's non-traditional lodging; it's more eco-tourism. We thought that 'hospitality' was better suited if we're getting into that type of management."
4. My Place Signs Deal To Bolt on 10 Southern US Hotels
Aberdeen, South Dakota-based My Place Hotels has entered into a two-phase franchise and development agreement to open 10 extended-stay hotels with Jacksonville-based Rimrock Companies, a privately held real estate development and investment company.
Locations announced include Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, and all 10 hotels are expected to be completed by 2029. In October 2022, My Place signed a similar agreement with Wichita, Kansas-based TGC Group for nine hotels. Currently, it has 70 hotels operating in 29 U.S. states, and the current deal ups its pipeline to more than 130 hotels.
5. B&B Hotels Announces CEO in UK
Budget hotel firm B&B Hotels, which operates nearly 700 hotels in 15 European countries and Brazil, has appointed Patrick O’Connell as its CEO in the United Kingdom with “growth ambitions to open 100 new hotels in the U.K. by 2035,” the company announced. Currently, the firm has no hotels in operation in the U.K.
On March 17, the Brest, France-based hotel firm opened an office in the U.S. to begin development on an initial pipeline of 400 hotels. O’Connell, a 30-year hotel-industry veteran, previously was head of hotels at Queensgate Investments and has had roles at Doyle Collection, Mint Hotels and Hilton.