Airbnb has eye on Wyndham: Airbnb is among potential suitors for Wyndham Worldwide Corp.’s European vacation-rental business. First-round bids are due this month for the travel company’s European home unit, which could fetch more than US$1 billion, said the people, asking not to be identified as the details aren’t public. Airbnb is in the early stages of considering acquiring the business, which may also attract interest from private equity firms, the people said. The home-rental upstart could also team up with a buyout firm to make a bid, one of the people said.
Luxury Tasmania: The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts will debut the brand’s first-ever hotel in Tasmania in late 2018, following a full-scale renovation. Owned by Trawalla Group Parliament Square Hotel Operator Pty Ltd., The Tasman, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Hobart will reside in repurposed heritage buildings in Parliament Square, a new design-led, urban development.
Loyalty’s where it’s at: New data from Phocuswright found that four in five US travelers were members of some type of travel-related loyalty program. The survey, conducted in March, found that business travelers were more committed to loyalty programs than leisure travelers across pretty much every segment of the travel market – for the obvious reason that they are likely to travel more frequently. For instance, 62% of business travelers had signed up for a hotel’s loyalty plan, compared with just 54% of leisure travelers.
Dusit Hua Hin: Dusit International signed a hotel management agreement with Enrich Paranimmitr Company Limited, a subsidiary of Bangkok-based Enrich Group, to operate the dusitD2 Hua Hin Hotel and Residences in the heart of the beach resort destination’s main Petchkasem Road. Slated to open in Q1 2020, the property will comprise the upscale dusitD2 hotel with 154 keys, a dusitD2 branded condominium with 364 fully-furnished residential units, and retail and office spaces.
Global tourism data: According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, between January and August 2017, destinations worldwide welcomed 901 million international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors), 56 million more than in the same period of 2016. This corresponds to a robust 7% increase, well above the growth of previous years. With upbeat prospects for the remaining months of the year, 2017 is set to be the eighth consecutive year of continued solid growth for international tourism. By UNWTO regions, growth was strongest in Africa (+9%) and Europe (+8%), followed by Asia and the Pacific (+6%), the Middle East (+5%) and the Americas (+3%).
Lodging Econometrics data U.S, markets: According to recent reports, analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) state that the five U.S. markets with the largest hotel construction pipelines by project count are: New York with 181 projects/30,225 rooms; Houston with 148 projects/16,398 rooms; Dallas with 143 projects/17,580 rooms; Nashville, which hit a cyclical peak this quarter, has 124 projects/16,699 rooms; and Los Angeles has 112 projects/16,780 rooms.
New York has the most New Hotel Openings forecasted for 2017 with 39 hotels/6,128 rooms, then Dallas, which is expected to open 37 hotels/4,510 rooms followed by Houston with 27 hotels/2,828 rooms. New York is also forecasted to open the most hotels in 2018 with 48 projects/7,905 rooms and in 2019, with 35 projects/5,046 rooms.
JHM gets name change: Greenville, South Carolina-based JHM Hotels will transition into four new independent hotel companies: Auro Hotels; Sima Hotels; Sarona Holdings; Siddhi Hotel Group.
Choice 3rd quarter earnings: Choice Hotels headline 3Q EBITDA of US$92.5 million (US$94 million from franchising less US$1.5 million investment in “non-franchising activities” aka SkyTouch and vacation rental) was above Sun Trust’s US$91 million projection (US$92.9 million from franchising less US$1.9 million of non-franchising investment) and consensus of US$91.8 million. Headline EPS of US$0.95 outperformed Sun Trust’s at-consensus US$0.92 estimate and guidance of US$0.90-US$0.92. Due to the hurricanes, some on the street appeared to raise their numbers above consensus.