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1. STR Makes 'A Few Slight Adjustments' to 2024, 2025 Forecast
During the forecast panel at the 2024 Hotel Data Conference, STR and Tourism Economics maintained their overall U.S. hotel performance forecast for 2024 and 2025, with a few slight adjustments, which led to STR President Amanda Hite stating that the latest outlook “feels very familiar.”
STR is CoStar's hospitality analytics firm.
The new forecast downgraded the average daily rate growth projection by 0.1 percentage points to 2% while upgrading occupancy by 0.2 percentage points to 63%, leaving revenue per available room steady at 2% growth for the year.
“RevPAR growth is solid, and it’s driven mostly by rate growth than occupancy,” Hite said, adding the third quarter this year will see more occupancy gain than in the fourth quarter, and because ADR was weaker in the second quarter, there’s some downside risk for rate as that will drive most of the growth for the rest of the year.
2. Choice Focuses on Organic Growth Following Failed Wyndham Takeover
Following an unsuccessful public takeover bid of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts earlier this year, Choice Hotels International executives said the company is now in a position to achieve its international growth projections organically, reports Hotel News Now’s Sean McCracken.
Choice President and CEO Patrick Pacious, speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, highlighted the 1.6% growth of the company's international portfolio, with twice as many new hotel openings outside the U.S. compared to the same quarter in 2023. One example of this, he said, is in Japan, where Choice now has a master franchise agreement with Hoshino Resorts REIT that brought 22 properties to Choice’s Comfort brand, bringing the company's portfolio in the country up to 96 properties.
3. Nomura Acquires Hokkaido Japan Hotel For $43 Million
Tokyo-based, publicly-listed owner Nomura Real Estate Master Fund will buy the 261-key La'gent Stay Hakodate Ekimae from developer Daiwa House Industry for 6.3 billion Japanese yen ($43 million), according to Mingtiandi.
On Japan’s most-northerly island, Hokkaido, the 11-story hotel sold for 24.1 million Japanese yen per key and, according to the source, “at a 26% discount to the independent appraisal value."
4. Boston Hotel Union Members Vote For Possible Strike Action
Some 4,000 hotel employees at 35 hotels in Boston have voted to authorize a strike that would be held in September, according to the Boston Business Journal. Ninety-nine percent of Unite Here Local 26's membership voted in favor of authorizing the strike.
The newspaper said the Boston vote is one of 20 or so votes around the U.S. and Canada involving more than 40,000 hotel workers and that the “union workers are demanding a series of measures, including a $10 raise over the next four years; a pension for ‘old timers,’; severance packages; and healthcare guarantees that will ensure benefits are maintained at a low rate.”
Along with hotel workers in Boston, 5,000 Unite Here members in Hawaii voted to authorize a strike at seven Waikiki-area hotels, reports Hawaii News Now.
5. British Airways, Virgin Suspend Flights to Beijing, Shanghai
Starting in October, British Airways will no longer fly from the United Kingdom to China due to Russia’s ban on Western airlines crossing Russian airspace, the BBC reports. Russia put this ban in place in reaction to Western nations, including the United Kingdom, placing sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The ban “has forced [British Airways] to fly longer routes, leading to longer flight times and higher costs, including for fuel and crew,” the BBC reports.
Chinese airlines are still able to fly over Russia, but another Western airline, Virgin Airlines, also plans to cancel flights to its one Chinese destination, Shanghai.