Record-breaker for London: Preliminary data for STR shows record-breaking ADR and RevPAR for London in July: Year over year, supply is up 2.0%, demand is up 6.1%, occupancy is up 4.0% to 91.2%, ADR is up 4.7% to £171.25 (US$220.24) and RevPAR is up 9.0% to £156.15 (US$200.25). Both the ADR and RevPAR levels were the highest for any month in STR’s London database. Performance for July 2018 even topped the levels achieved in July 2012, when the market hosted the opening days of the Summer Olympics. STR analysts attribute the strong performance to an unseasonably warm summer, as well as popular events, including Wimbledon and London Pride.
Stockyard hotel: Stockyards Heritage Development Company, a partnership between Majestic Realty Co. and The Hickman Companies, plans to renovate part of the Fort Worth, Texas, stockyard mixed-use development into the Hotel Drover, a 200-room Autograph Collection boutique with “event barn” and resort. It’s part of the first, US$175 million development phase for the area. Planned opening is spring 2020.
Dublin airport hotel sale: The Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel was purchased by Canadian hospitality group Westmont for approximately €22.5 million (US$26.0 million). The 166-room hotel is the first Irish purchase for Ontario-based Westmont, a large franchisee and co-owner of Hilton hotels.
Voco in Australia: Australian entrepreneur Martyn Barnes signed a management agreement with IHG to make his next Yarra Valley property an upscale Voco branded hotel. It’s the second of the brand in that country. The 170-room new-build hotel will open in 2021, with 20 cabins, a gin distillery, lavender farm and mirrored maze.
New York pipeline groove: According to Lodging Econometrics, New York City has a total of 169 projects/29,365 rooms in the construction pipeline, the largest pipeline of any market in the U.S. Of this total, hotels under construction are at 101 projects/17,108 rooms, projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 43 projects/6,384 rooms, and those in early planning are at 25 projects/ 5,873 rooms. If all of the projects in the pipeline eventually come to fruition, this will increase the city’s guest room supply by 25.2%. For the first half of the year, the city has ranked third nationally for the number of new hotel projects announced into the pipeline, with 24 projects/3,796 rooms.
Payout to Wynn’s Sinatra: Former Wynn Resorts Ltd. EVP and General Counsel Kim Sinatra will receive a US$1.8 million cash settlement as she leaves the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Sinatra left the company in July after more than a dozen years; the an outside team recently concluded an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by founder Steve Wynn, whose departure has roiled the company.