Brad Pitt, hotelier: Brad Pitt now has a stake in a US$2.5 billion resort development in Zablance, Croatia. Currently in development, the resort will include a luxury hotel, golf course, several bars and restaurants and high-end boutiques. The resort will also be designed by Nikola Bašic, a Croatian architect who created the country’s Sea Organ, a staircase with subterranean tubes that play music powered by waves. Alongside Pitt’s own investment, a Swiss investment fund has reportedly added US$82 million to the hotel’s bottom line.
Marriott Denver rebrand: Chesapeake Lodging Trust has entered into a management agreement with Hilton to rebrand its previous 613-room Marriott hotel, located in Denver, Colorado, to the Hilton Denver City Center. The rebranding and management change is expected to occur on December 1.
Hotel markets during Irma, the good, the bad: According to an initial analysis by STR, most major hotel markets in Florida saw dramatic performance declines during the days ahead of Hurricane Irma’s landfall, while evacuation destinations like Orlando, Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga experienced significant performance growth. Miami took a 37% occupancy hit and a 47% hit in RevPar over those three days, while the Melbourne area had a 39% occupancy decrease and a 43% RevPar decrease. Areas that benefited from the storm included Macon, Georgia with a 82% occupancy increase and a 118% RevPar increase, along with Chattanooga, Tennesee which saw a 39% occupancy increase and an 82% RevPar increase.
Keys update: An official from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council said that Key West might reopen for tourism by Oct. 20 in a little over a month. Residents have been allowed to return to the upper Keys in recent days, as no one has been permitted back to the middle and lower Keys.
Irma update from AccorHotels: An Accor representative says that its Pullman Miami Airport is back to full services as of today. In Cuba, guests were evacuated from Pullman Cayo Coco before the storm, but the hotel on the island’s north coast will remain closed to assess damage; the goal is to reopen on November 15. The Mercure Sevilla Havana remained open during the hurricane. The Mercure on the badly battered island of St. Martin is still being evaluated.
Europe pipeline data: The Europe Hotel Construction Pipeline trend report states that the total pipeline has 1,186 projects/185,799 rooms, up 25% by projects year-over-year, according to data from Lodging Econometrics.
There are 559 projects/94,170 rooms under construction, up 32% by projects year-over-year. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 401 projects/58,646 rooms, up 70%, while projects in early planning at 226 projects/32,983 rooms are down by 23%.
The top hotel companies in Europe’s construction pipeline are: AccorHotels with 201 projects/24,593 rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 166 projects/26,269 rooms, and Marriott International with 165 projects/28,758 rooms. The largest brand in the pipeline for each of these companies are: Accor’s Ibis Styles with 47 projects/5,693 rooms, Hilton’s Hampton Inn & Suites with 69 projects/10,527 rooms and Marriott’s Moxy with 50 projects/9,461 rooms.