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1. Essendi sells hotels in Argentina to Cyprus’ ISWM Group
French hotel owner Essendi, formerly AccorInvest, has sold its Argentine portfolio to Limassol, Cyprus-based ISWM Group. Essendi describes the move as a “strategic sale” and comprises five hotels in Buenos Aires and Mendoza.
According to Benoît Léger from CoStar News French publication Business Immo, “following this sale in Argentina, 96% of Essendi’s hotel portfolio is now located in Europe.”
In South America, Essendi still owns hotels in Chile, Colombia and Peru, and it also has assets in Mexico, which the company is “actively collecting and analyzing investment proposals from interested parties.”
Essendi CEO Gilles Clavié said the company remains focused on its “most profitable assets, primarily owned, in the economy and mid-range segments in Europe.”
Essendi was founded in April and is the largest hotel owner-operator in Europe with €7.8 billion ($8.87 billion) of properties in its portfolio as of the end of 2024.
2. Hurricane Melissa leaves devastation as it moves into open Atlantic Ocean
It appears as though Hurricane Melissa has done its worst as it moves into being a Category 1 tropical storm in the Bahamas and out into the open Atlantic Ocean. On Wednesday, the storm passed through Cuba and Haiti, where 25 Haitians were killed after a river burst its banks, CNN reports. According to the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, “most houses [in Haiti] are not designed to withstand strong winds, earthquakes and flooding.”
In Jamaica and in Cuba, the biggest peril has been flooding, resulting in numerous people needing assistance to escape their homes. CNN said in Cuba, where the storm mostly affected the eastern end of the island, 140,000 people have been cut off by rising rivers. There were very few deaths reported in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Hurricane Melissa is expected to pick up a little intensity as it moves towards and through Bermuda but not to the levels that it has over the last two or three days.
3. PPHE Hotel Group reports robust third-quarter numbers in line with expectations
Amsterdam-based PPHE Hotel Group has reported year-over-year increases in revenue and revenue per available room for the third quarter, according to its earnings release. CEO Greg Hegarty said in the quarter revenue rose 5.2% and RevPAR increased by 2.7%, “driven in part by a strong occupancy-led and rate performance from our United Kingdom hotels.” PPHE has recently opened two in house-branded hotels: the 357-room Art’otel London Hoxton and 99-room Art’otel Rome Piazza Sallustio.
Hegarty shared some concerns stemming from the uncertainty around the upcoming U.K. government's budget in November. He said while he is continuing “to monitor the volatile macro-economic environment as we enter an important period for our U.K. business and margins remain sensitive to movements in room rates and cost inflation, current trading is in line with expectations.” Hegarty added that in year-over-year performance, PPHE’s London hotels performed well even against a strong performance seen in the corresponding quarter in 2024.
4. US hotels performance continues negative trend
For the week of Oct. 19-25, U.S. hotels continued to see performance declines. Occupancy fell 3.6% year over year to 66.6%, average daily rate dipped 1.7% to $166.36 and revenue per available room dropped 5.3% to $110.78, according to CoStar hospitality data. The economy chain-scale segment saw RevPAR down 8.5% even luxury hotels reported a 4.4% RevPAR decline for the week.
Orlando hotels led the top 25 markets for the week as occupancy increased 6.3% to 78.4%, ADR increased 10% to $219.37 and RevPAR increased 16.9% to $172.02. The worst-performing market among the top 25 was New Orleans, which posted a 10.2% occupancy decrease to 68%, a 35.3% ADR decrease to $195.39 and a 41.9% RevPAR to $132.94. A year ago, Taylor Swift brought her Eras Tour to the New Orleans' Caesars Superdome for three nights from Oct. 25-27, 2024.
5. US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates again
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates in its second consecutive meeting, but future cuts are in doubt, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Fed lowered its benchmark short-term interest rate to between 3.75% to 4%, its lowest mark in three years and second cut of 2025.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said investors shouldn't expect another interest-rate cut in December. He added there are divisions within the Fed committee overseeing interest-rate changes regarding the impact of tariffs and the U.S. government shutdown has reduced the economic data available to the Fed.
However, this week U.S. President Donald Trump is in China and might be close to striking a trade deal with Chinese officials. The proposed deal with China could see tariffs on Chinese imports being lowered and the U.S. gain more access to Chinese rare earth metals, the BBC reports.