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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Blackstone Group LP is looking to cut up to US$5 billion in debt from the US$20 billion debt load of Hilton Worldwide, in an effort to protect the private-equity firm’s single biggest investment. (WSJ subscription required) The firm already has written down the value of its investment by two-thirds, a paper loss of about US$3.7 billion on the investment. The original deal was worth about US$26 billion when it was completed in July 2007, with US$20.6 billion of debt and US$5.7 billon of equity at the peak of the real estate cycle. Oh, and the hotel industry was doing a lot better back then, too.
Blackstone is considering contributing US$800 million of new equity to buy back debt at a discount, according to the WSJ story. It also is seeking to extend debt maturing in 2013 to 2016, while converting some junior slices of debt into equity. The US$800 million in additional equity would come from funds managed by Blackstone that already have invested in the deal.
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Just when we thought the online travel agencies couldn’t stoop any lower to cut the value of a room night, Travelocity announced its plan to offer refunds when customers find the same hotel room for less, according to Michelle Higgins’ In Transit blog in The New York Times. Beginning today, the guarantee of a refund for the difference in price applies to any hotel booking site, except for the opaque booking sites, such as Priceline and Hotwire.
It gets better. Customers who book through 31 December get a US$50 discount on future travel. Travelocity’s guarantee goes beyond the low-price guarantees offered by competitors, according to Higgins.
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The October 2009 travelhorizons survey, co-authored by Ypartnership and the U.S. Travel Association, included several questions on the H1N1 (swine) flu subject in order to gauge the potential impact of an extensive outbreak on the travel intentions of Americans. The results suggest the impact could be significant, as revealed below: • Fully two-thirds of U.S. adults expect the incidence of swine flu in the U.S. to be higher this fall and winter compared to last spring;
• among respondents who intend to take a leisure trip during the next six months (from now through the end of April 2010), over one third would be “very/extremely likely” to alter their travel plans should their intended destination experience a widespread outbreak of the H1N1 virus; and
• when asked how they would change their travel plans, almost half (45 percent) said they would postpone their trip until the outbreak subsided; fully one-third stated they would visit a different destination, and three out of ten (31 percent) said they would cancel their trip.
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Ritz-Carlton will open the world's tallest hotel in Hong Kong in 2010 with its top floor on the 118th floor, the Economic Times reported. The 312-room hotel will occupy the top 17 floors of Hong Kong's tallest building, the 484-metre International Commerce Centre (ICC), which is under construction.
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InterContinental Hotels Group signed a 20-year management contract with Splendid Hotel Group for a new 254-room InterContinental property in London. The InterContinental London Westminster is set to open in late 2011. InterContinental London Westminster will occupy the former Queen Anne’s Chambers, originally built in the nineteenth century. The 120,000 square foot freehold site close to New Scotland Yard is currently office and retail space.
The hotel will be the second InterContinental hotel in the capital. InterContinental London Park Lane was first opened in 1975, and reopened following extensive renovations in 2006 in celebration of the brand’s sixtieth anniversary.
Compiled by Stacey Higgins.