Give me shelter, in the park: Collective Retreats, the experiential travel company bringing unique tented accommodations to unexpected destinations, has secured US$15 million in series A financing to support the launch of their new Outlook Shelter product. The new room-types are custom-built, luxury modular hotel rooms with a light footprint designed specifically for Collective Retreats’ asset-light business model. It is set to debut this August at Collective Governors Island, with additional locations to come. Each unit is a custom-built modular luxury hotel room, with 225 square feet of interior space, and 175 square foot of private outdoor space. The six new hotel rooms at Governors Island will be HVAC enabled with spa-style soaking tubs, mini-bars and built-in convertible extra bed. Each unit is a custom-built ‘hotel room’ that is asset-light by nature and able to be transported to more Collective Retreats locations and unexpected places.
Tough Q1 in Manhattan: Revenue per available room (RevPAR) in New York City fell to the lowest first quarter average since 2011, as average daily room rate declined across all Manhattan submarkets, according to the first quarter 2019 edition of the PwC Manhattan Lodging Index. During the quarter, increases in lodging supply, which continued to outpace growth in demand, resulted in the largest year-over-year decline in occupancy since 2009. Despite more positive expectations coming into the New Year, the quarter ended on a weak finish with March RevPAR down 11.1%. With a 7.7 percent decrease from prior-year levels, first quarter RevPAR was driven by a combined decline in ADR and occupancies. Across all Manhattan hotel classes, luxury properties exhibited the most notable decline in RevPAR for the quarter, decreasing by 10.2% over Q1 2018 levels.
Oyo OPEN for business: Oyo Homes has launched a credit facility, which offers a cash-in-bank (CiB) option to its asset owners. With CiB, Oyo allows its asset owners to benefit from quick and collateral-free business advances to upgrade or renovate their buildings, the company said in a statement. This is their second such initiative under the recently launched partner engagement program called OPEN (Oyo Partner Engagement Network). All buildings onboarded by Oyo less than two months old and all the existing buildings of Oyo are eligible to apply for the cash in bank facility. A CIB calculator will allow asset owners to enter the building code and the business advance amount required along with the tenure of the advance. This will tell them whether the building is eligible for the advance along with the charges applicable and the maximum amount eligible for that building. Oyo will be charging a minimal service fee to the asset owner over and above the monthly installments to repay the principal amount.