BERLIN—It was another relatively quiet day at the 18th International Hotel Investment Forum, where some 2,000 attendees seemed more content to get work done than announce work having been done. Save for InterContinental Hotel Group’s signing of a multiple development agreement with Interstar to develop 10 hotels by 2019 and Qbic Hotels announcing “aggressive” expansion into 2016, the show was conspicuously devoid of the brand launches or headline-grabbing deals that typically mark such conferences.
Photo of the day
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| A panel of owners (Keith Evans, Starwood Capital, far left; and Jean-Philippe Chomette, Algonquin, second right) and operators (John Ozinga, Accor, second left; and Nick Smart, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, center), along with referee Clive Hillier of Vision Hospitality Asset Management (far right), half way through a serious but often light-hearted session titled “Professional owners,” on what really ticks off each about the other. (Photo: Terence Baker) |
Quote of the day
“This industry does not need more brands. It needs better operators.”
—Pandox AB’s CEO, Anders Nissen, during a breakout session titled “Management by brands: Growth or decline”
That Nissen beat the anti-brand banner at the beginning of this annual panel was not the surprise. The so-called “active owner” has been doing so for years. Perhaps more noteworthy was when he later complimented the big-box chains: “You have someone who is good at revenue and revenue management. You have someone who is good at online marketing,” he said.
Key takeaways
• The Kool-Aid has been drunk. No matter whom I talked to, whether in private conversations or on the main stage, the message was the same: Things are really, really good. I should have seen it coming, after the typically contentious panel on brand management saw participating owners, operators and middle men conclude that, generally speaking, different operating models work under different scenarios. Even the prickly Pandox’s Nissen issued a half compliment to his big-box brands nemeses. (See quote of the day explanation above.) I can’t remember it being like this before. But then again, I never attended IHIF during the boom days of 2006 and 2007. (Here’s hoping the industry doesn’t fall of a cliff like it did back then.)
• It really feels that Europe in the current point in the cycle is like the Wild West of the United States in the latter half of the 19th century, a free for all, albeit in the most pleasant way possible. For sure, everyone is happy at hotel performance and the underlying industry fundamentals, but how one goes about realizing that is up in the air. Different companies have different models for success, and the conversation, argument and badinage on this second day of the conference centred on the idea that perhaps no one way was better than any other. Europe is a fragmented space, and the hotel industry seemingly there has space for everyone. Time will tell who ends up better off, or worse off, or destroyed.
Tweet of the day
If GMs don't step in and respond to reviews within a certain amount of time then we step in and do it for them. Then we fire them - @Choice — Katherine Doggrell (@KDoggrell) March 3, 2015