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1. Dalata Hotel Group up for sale
Ireland’s largest hotel firm, Dalata Hotel Group, has implemented a strategic review of its business and announced it is for sale. CEO Dermot Crowley reiterated the firm’s view that its share price did not reflect the company’s growth and ambitions.
In a release on the London Stock Exchange, he said Dalata has “an excellent management platform in place to deliver [our] strategy but access to capital is essential to achieve our vision. A thorough strategic review will enable us to assess available options to increase our access to capital and enhance shareholder value.” Its share price has rallied on the news.
The firm also released its full-year 2024 results on Mar. 6. Revenue grew over last year by 7.3% to €652.2 million ($698 million), and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 5.1% to €234.5 million ($251 million). Dalata has a mix of owned and managed hotels. The stock-exchange announcement added that “since 2021, [Dalata] has driven the growth in the portfolio by circa 35% to 11,990 rooms, with a further 1,624 rooms in the pipeline.”
2. Hyatt tweaks, adds leadership roles
Chicago-based hotel firm Hyatt Hotels Corporation made some tweaks and additions to its C-suite. Javier Águila is now chief growth officer, a role that is in addition to his recently announced role as president, Inclusive Collection. Jim Chu, the current chief growth officer, will now head up owner relations. New to Hyatt is Marc Jacheet, who takes over Águila’s current of group president, Europe, Africa and Middle East. Jacheet arrives from a role as senior adviser at public-equity firm Premius Capital.
The new roles will be effective from March 17, with full transition on July 1.
3. Cape Verde opens new air routes, hotel industry business models
The Republic of Cape Verde, the island archipelago nation 900 miles south of the Canary Islands, is making changes to move its hotel and tourism offering away from sole dependence on the all-inclusive and tour-operating model, reports HNN's Terence Baker. One initiative is the formation of the Macaronesia group of nations, a legal entity consisting of four archipelagos — Cape Verde, Canary Islands, The Azores and Madeira — to market the area collectively.
New air routes and carriers, notably the October 2024 debut of United Kingdom’s EasyJet, are also changing the makeup of the country, according to Alexandre Abade, CEO, Oásis Atlântico Hotels & Resorts, who added Cape Verde is not part of the European Union but does have special arrangements with the EU and has its currency, the escudo, pegged to the Euro.
4. US posts mostly positive metrics across the board
U.S. hotel performance for the week ending March 1 saw slight performance metrics increases nearly across the board. Occupancy rose 0.4% to 62.8%, average daily rate increased 2.7% to $159.26 and revenue per available room grew 3.1% to $100.06, according to CoStar data.
In terms of chain scales, performance was largely positive, save for occupancy in the midscale, economy and independent segments, which fell 0.3%, 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively. Luxury posted the only double-digit metric increase, with its RevPAR increasing 10.7% in year-over-year terms to $322.78.
In the top 25 U.S. markets in the same period, no market saw a full sweep of double-digit increases. New Orleans scored the highest ADR and RevPAR percentage increases, with its ADR increasing 36.8% to $233.77 and its RevPAR increasing 30.6% to $148.54, but its occupancy fell 4.6% to 63.5%. Across all the top 25, occupancy also decreased, by 0.4% to 70.5%, but ADR increased 3.2% to $190.79, and RevPAR increased 2.8% to $134.45.
5. Fyre Festival 2 makes incorrect hotel claims
Fyre Festival, the 2017 failure of a luxury music festival in the Bahamas, is back for a second round, but hoteliers in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, say they're not on board. Original festival founder Billy McFarland, who served a six-year jail sentence for fraud associated with the first festival, is promoting Fyre Festival 2 on Mexico's Isla Mujeres from May 30 to June 2.
While the festival website promotes Impression Isla Mujeres by Secrets as a host resort, its GM said in a USA Today article that the resort is not working with Fyre Festival at all. "We are not sponsoring Fyre Festival 2 or affiliated with it in any way," said GM Mourad Essafi. "Reports to the contrary are false."
Isla Mujeres' city hall also declared in a statement that no permits for the event have been secured.