July 8, 2010 - Hospitality Markets / Travel / Resorts / International Property Markets Trends and Issues

Dia Cinco.





One reason the hospitality industry has weakened is due to families scaling back on destination trips which would require hotel lodging. Families are cutting down on expenses during this weak economy. Hotels revenues have also weakened due to new technologies that allow business meetings over the internet in lieu of having face to face meetings at hotel conference rooms. This technology helps companies reduce traveling expenses which effectively allow savings on operating costs. Technology such as webinars and teleconferences are alternatives to face to face meetings and they reduce a company’s traveling expenses significantly. In addition, business team members that are located in different parts of the country may monitor real time progress of development projects via live web video feeds.
It is important for hotels to discover new ways for generating revenue. Some ideas shared in class were that hotels should provide the following: dry cleaning service, restaurants, selling toiletries, new release movies, late night eatery, etc. Providing these simple items may help attract clients. However, I believe Wi-Fi internet should be free at hotels. I stayed at the Marriot Renaissance hotel recently and I was disturbed to find out there was a $12 dollar internet access fee per day, so I used my cell phone to access the internet instead.
Hospitality businesses are suffering from the damage the Gulf Coast oil spill. Most of the people lodging at hotels are the environmental cleanup crews. The environmental crews are primarily in the Gulf Coast to work, so they are not spending money on entertainment attractions like tourists would.

Real estate property values in China are increasing and there is belief by some experts that it is headed toward a real estate bubble.

Latin America scores low in transparency according to John Lang LaSalle. This is essentially due to Latin American markets not having market performance data. However, this is changing since Brazil just two years ago enacted in indexes market.