June 21, 2010
Glenn Haussman


Forget doom and gloom, lodging industry leaders are starting to feel the market is getting ready to vroom, vroom, vroom. And the summer season should signal the start of the recovery s representatives from most of the major hotel companies, said these executives during a general session panel discussion at this year’s Asian American Hotel Owners Association’s Annual Convention & Trade Show.

It was a seismic shift in attitude that took nay saying hotel owners by surprise, but the evidence provided seems to be the clearest indication yet that business is returning. Though modest it looks like bookings for summer and beyond are shoring up. And that includes groups and business travelers too; not just leisure travelers whose dedication to travel has not faltered nearly as much as the other sectors.

“Summer travel should be excellent, we have high expectations,” said Jim Ambrahamson, President, InterContinental Hotels Group – Americas. “We are looking for business travel to come back. The pace on corporate bookings and meetings is growing quickly. We see continuous growth curve out.”

Ambrahamson equated the recovery to what looks like a Nike swoosh. That is a long upward recovery after a steep drop.

At Marriott, they’re seeing swings in business as much as 10 percent off what they had predicted late last year, said Liam Brown, COO, Select Service & Extended Stay Hotels, The Americas, Marriott International when the company expected a five percent decline for 2010. Now they expect to see between a three to six percent increase for the year. At Ritz Carlton Brown said they’re seeing double digit increases in business.

“May was good. June looks very strong as well. We think we have turned the corner, though it is along slow corner,” said Brown.

Hubert Joly, President & CEO, Carlson Hotels, is also bullish on the rebound. “We have seen a faster than expected change in the trend. Corporate travel and bookings are up 10 percent so far this year compared to last year. Leisure is also up in the high single digits and RevPar too,” said Joly. He did say he felt business was still skimming along the bottom and suggested saving cash is a good strategy. But Joly also indicated its critical to upgrade properties to be in line with others as the market recovers.

At Choice Hotels, Steve Joyce, President/CEO, Choice Hotels International said success for hotels in under his flags is “directly correlated” to unemployment statistics. But he’s still confident the operating environment is getting better.

“If you have made it at this point you can’t [stop now] The RevPAR environment is going to be pretty positive. Based on what we are seeing, summer should be better than expected,” said Joyce, who aso warned that until real job growth occurs and there is some settlement in the European banking and debt crisis it’s not going to be smooth sailing.

Keith Pierce, President of Brand Operations, Wyndham Hotel Group, said occupancy is recovering but a pace more quickly than rate. “We are seeing marked improvement in occupancy. However, it’s coming back there times faster than rate. But business is definitely coming back. Fuel prices are staying low and we are bullish on the remainder of this year. It also helps that new construction is down.

Finally, Olivier Poirot, President, Accor North America, agreed the fundamentals are shoring up and the business is headed back in the right direction.

“We see a green light pretty much everywhere. As an industry good indicator of the future is consumer confidence, which is up. We should have pretty good summer and that will lead into a better 2011,” said Poirot.

However, not all AAHOA attendees were as confident as the brand leaders. In a real time poll conducted at the onset of the panel discussion, just 55 percent answered affirmatively when asked “Do you think were at the bottom of our economic downturn?”