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Blackstone announced the company has closed on its acquisition of Crown Resorts Limited, which marks the company's largest transaction in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a news release. News reports peg the deal, which includes "three premium resorts and casino properties in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney," at $6.3 billion.

“We are thrilled to become the new owner of Crown, bringing our expertise in hospitality to help the company achieve its full potential as a leading travel and leisure company," Alan Miyasaki, head of Real Estate Acquisitions Asia, Blackstone, said in the release. "We first invested in Crown two years ago, seeing the tremendous underlying potential of the company and its people. We look forward to working with the teams at Crown and applying our experience in owning and operating marquee hospitality brands around the globe with the highest levels of ethics and integrity to create something unique for employees, local communities, and visitors.”

High interest rates and a lack of available properties is holding back the overall transactions market for hotels, HNN's Dana Miller reports.

Speaking during the 2022 NYU International Hospitality Investment Conference, Lonny Henry, global chairman of investment banking at JPMorgan, said the cost of debt is making things more difficult.

"As a buyer of a hotel, generally speaking today, unless prices reprice, you've got negative leverage; you're essentially funding debt service with reserves. In an environment where we've got all these headwinds, my sense is that the transaction market is sort of on hold," he said. "You've got the public market with a lot of volatility and prices trading in a fairly tight pattern. While at first the REITs started to buy and recycle capital and use their balance sheet, I think they're pumping on the brakes a little bit here and taking lead from the debt market."

After nearly a decade as the company's chief executive, TUI Group announced plans for Friedrich Joussen to step down as CEO at the end of September, Reuters reports.

Head of finance for TUI, Sebastian Ebel, will take over CEO and possibly chairman of the board.

"When the pandemic in spring 2020 turned us into a company without a business virtually overnight, all our attention was focused on one goal: rescuing TUI," Joussen said. "Now that the existential crisis has been mastered, the time is right for a change at the top of TUI."

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has bought the Gurney's Newport Resort & Marina in Newport, Rhode Island for $174 million, HNN's Dana Miller reports.

In a news release announcing the deal, Pebblebrook President, CEO and Chairman Jon Bortz said his company was drawn to the 257-room Newport resort because it is located in a high-barrier-to-entry market and draws strong demand from New York, Boston and Providence.

"With group and individual travelers increasingly seeking a unique resort experience with open-air amenities, Gurney’s Newport is well-positioned to continue to grow in the highly attractive Newport market," he said in the release.

The Real Deal reports Hospitality Investors Trust is suing its insurers over their refusal to cover pandemic-related losses. The private real estate investment trust, which owns Hilton, Marriott International and Hyatt Hotels Corp. properties, filed bankruptcy and was taken over by Brookfield Property Group.

The news outlet reports: "The insurers dispute the claim that the pandemic caused physical damage and argue claims for loss or damage due to the pandemic are excluded by the policies, according to the lawsuit."

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