DRIFTWOOD CAPITAL PIPELINE EXCEEDS $1B: Driftwood Capital, the commercial real estate company, has announced that its hotel development pipeline has exceeded $1 billion in projected value. The portfolio includes $800 million worth of projects under construction or anticipated to break ground this year. Driftwood Capital’s upcoming projects include the $54 million Element by Westin Melbourne, Fla. (expected to open in June); $74 million Element by Westin Mission Valley San Diego, Calif. (completion expected in 2026); $410 million Westin Resort & Spa Cocoa Beach, Fla. (scheduled to break ground in the third quarter); and the $267 million Riverside Wharf Miami, Fla. (expected to break ground later this year). Driftwood Capital offers a full suite of services for new projects, including funding, construction management and traditional as well as alternative capital raising strategies.
IHG, GOOGLE CLOUD BUILD TRAVEL PLANNER: IHG Hotels & Resorts and Google Cloud have expanded their partnership to build a new travel planning tool. IHG will launch a generative AI-powered travel planning capability, with the help of Google Cloud’s technologies, which guests can use to plan their vacation on the IHG One Rewards app. IHG’s Travel Planner, along with other new features, will be launched later this year. Guests can use this feature to get recommendations and ideas for all types of requests. The Travel Planner will be developed using Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s AI platform, and Google’s Gemini models. The AI technology for Trip Planner was based on several factors, such as Google Cloud’s suite of AI technologies which can help IHG grow and Google’s ecosystem of consumer products and services which can enable guests to create personalized experiences. Google Cloud has been IHG’s cloud provider since 2022, when IHG migrated components of its data to BigQuery, the fully managed, serverless data warehouse.
ERAS TOUR DRIVES SINGAPORE HOTEL PERFORMANCE: Singapore’s hotel industry recorded its highest March ADR and RevPAR on record, boosted by six Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts, according to CoStar.
- Occupancy: 79.1% (+5.1%)
- ADR: SG$358.91/ US$266.61 (+12.7%)
- RevPAR: SG$284.03/ US$211 (+18.5%)
Occupancy in the first and second quarters are usually lower, following the Chinese New Year and prior to events picking up in Q3. The Eras Tour were a much needed push to Singapore’s occupancy, with the daily levels climbing during the six concert dates – March 2-4 and 7-9. March 2 (Saturday) and 3 (Sunday) led with occupancy at 92.7% and 92.5%, respectively. The market’s overall occupancy levels were more than 70% in all but three days. The concert also drove ADR levels as high as SG$438.36 (US$325.63) on March 2.
MINOR TO DEBUT NH COLLECTION IN SOUTH AFRICA: Minor Hotels has entered into a strategic partnership with The Cavaleros Group to manage a hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. The hotel will mark the introduction of the NH Collection brands to Africa. Minor will manage the hotel, located in Sandton, from July 1. The hotel will operate as NH Sandton and rebrand as NH Collection Sandton following refurbishments. Operating for 30 years, the hotel features lead-in rooms, suites, one-bedroom suites and a 145-square-meter Royal Suite. Amenities include two restaurants, two bars, an executive lounge, conference facilities, a gym and an outdoor pool. In Africa, Minor Hotels currently comprises 27 properties under its Anantara, Avani and Elewana Collection brands, with more properties in the pipeline. NH Collection’s global portfolio includes more than 90 properties, with the brand set to debut in Asia later this year with an opening in Thailand.