Each Friday, the HotelNewsNow.com editorial staff picks the most compelling (or downright gutsy) quote and reader comment from the previous week.
There’s a big difference in who you think your hotel should compete with and who it actually does compete with, according to panelists during an HSMAI webinar Tuesday. When choosing comp sets, hoteliers should always lean toward the latter.
This simple piece of advice is often lost on supposed industry experts, according to a comment from Anonymous:
“Amen! I try to teach my students this in their lodging management courses. I cannot tell you have many times I've had owners or management company "experts" with very incorrect/almost illogical competitive sets. Nice article! Sorry I missed the webinar.”
Have any thoughts or advice on comp set selection? Join the conversation by posting a comment to “Comp set selection key to driving strategy.”
Quote of the week
The re-emergence of commercial mortgage-backed securities and the fact that there are lenders playing in the hotel space again are the two biggest changes in the hotel-lending environment in 2011, according to experts participating in an International Lodging Finance Council roundtable discussion held at this month’s Meet the Money conference.
Warren de Haan, chief originations officer and managing director for Starwood Property Trust Management LLC, said it’s refreshing to see lenders paying attention to potential borrowers who want to invest in existing hotel assets.
“Certainly the resurgence and the appetite for the CMBS marketplace to want to do hotels again at the senior mortgage level (is a big change). And the second change is the appetite and desire of sub-debt buyers to look at the hotel asset class again, to believe the hotel upside story again, and to also underwrite into assets where there is a clear disconnect between value and cash flow.”
- Read “Big changes spark lending debate.”