Ryman buying Austin block: Ryman Hospitality Properties has reached an agreement to acquire the Block 21 complex in Austin, Texas, from Stratus Properties for US$260 million. Block 21 is home to the 2,750-seat entertainment venue ACL Live at the Moody Theater (ACL Live), which serves as the filming location for the Austin City Limits television series. The Block 21 complex, which was completed in 2010 and is located on an entire city block in Austin’s 2nd Street District, is also home to the W Austin Hotel, the 3TEN at ACL Live club and nearly 53,000 square feet of Class A commercial space. The deal set to close near the end of the fourth quarter of this year includes the assumption of nearly US$138 million of existing mortgage debt. Ryman will also receive approximately US$11 million of existing cash reserves. The two companies had previously reached an agreement on Block 21 for US$275 million in December 2019, though the agreement was terminated in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Graduate alums launch Revival Hotels: Former Graduate Hotels COO Saxton Sharad and VP of Operations Mike Hoover have launched Revival Hotels, which is offering a fully integrated management platform, hospitality investment fund, and revamped consulting firm focusing on non-institutional, independent assets. Revival is differentiating itself with its management fee model based on gross operating profit compared to the traditional revenue-based model. Sharad told HOTELS the new company has one management deal secured and is underway on several others. He said the new company is also actively pursuing a few acquisition opportunities.
Red Sea Development signs 9 hotel projects: The Red Sea Development Co., wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, has signed nine management agreements with major hotel brands — EDITION Hotels and St Regis Hotels & Resorts (part of Marriott International); Grand Hyatt; Fairmont Hotel & Resorts, Raffles Hotels & Resorts and SLS Hotels & Residences (part of Accor); Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts and Six Senses (part of IHG Hotels & Resorts); and Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts — to operate resorts in the first phase of development of The Red Sea Project in Saudi Arabia. The brands will operate nine out of the 16 hotels which are under development in the first phase and will collectively comprise 1,700 keys of the total 3,000 planned for the first phase across five islands and two inland sites. Once the project is completed in 2030, it will host 50 hotels offering around 8,000 rooms along with 1,000 residential properties across 22 islands and six inland sites. Once it’s fully operational, the Red Sea project is expected to host 1 million visitors annually and contribute around US$5.3 billion to the country’s GDP.
Bain Capital, Omnam acquire in Italy: Bain Capital Credit, Boston, Massachusetts, has entered into a joint venture with Omnam Group, London, and announced their first acquisition of the 285-room Hotel Britannia Excelsior through a fund managed by Kryalos SGR. The hotel, spread across 13,500 square meters indoor and 5,300 square meters outdoor on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, will be refurbished into a luxury, 5-star property. Bain Capital and Omnam were advised by DLA PIPER, LinkLaters, CBRE and Addleshaw Goddard. Bain Capital currently owns 35 hotels in Italy with 2,500 keys and more than 115 hotels in Europe with 8,000 keys. This will be Omnam’s fourth hotel venture in Italy.
Marriott Bonvoy to move to dynamically priced awards: Marriott Bonvoy announced it will migrate to fully dynamically priced hotel awards in 2023. The Flexible Point Redemption Rates will be implemented partially in March 2022 till the end of the year and will come into effect entirely from 2023. Rates are expected to resemble hotel rates and provide more options and flexibility to members while redeeming points for stays. Marriott will reportedly add more price points than the fixed off-peak, standard, peak rates for members and more rooms overall will be available for redemption stays. Bonvoy expects 97% of all hotels will need the number of points close to their current peak and off-peak awards in 2022.
Tripadvisor gets 1 million fakes: Tripadvisor received almost 1 million fake reviews, 3.6% of the total number of reviews received, last year, it said in its 2021 Review Transparency Report. Out of these reviews, 67.1% had been caught by its pre-posting algorithm before being uploaded on the website. The company received paid reviews from 131 countries, with an increase of such reviews originating from India. However, not all of the reviews were meant for Indian businesses. India topped the list of countries from which most paid reviews originated last year, pushing out Russia from the top 10. Submissions were blocked from a total of 372 paid review websites, with 65 new sites being identified last year. Travelers submitted more than 26 million reviews, more than 8 million for hotels, more than 12 million for restaurants and more than 4 million for experiences, attractions and activities. While 54.1% of submissions were about customer experiences in Europe, 23.5% were about North America.
Slow start for European business travel: Although European business travel will not resemble the pre-pandemic levels, conferences and industry events are likely to revive in 2022, according to the ‘Europe Predictions 2022: The Future Of Work’ analysis by Forrester. About 36% of employees are willing to resume business travel, according to Forrester data. While offices will reopen on a larger scale in early 2022, business travel will have a slower start due to heightened health and safety concerns, reduced travel budgets and ambitious sustainability targets.
AKA’s debut in Miami: AKA, the hospitality division of Korman Communities, announced the addition of the 201-room Hotel AKA Brickell in Miami, Florida, to its portfolio. A joint venture between Electra America Hospitality Group and AKA acquired the property, providing AKA both management and a stake in the ownership. Formerly the Conrad Miami Hotel, the property will be redeveloped from now till spring 2022 while staying open for business. This is AKA’s first project in Miami.
Dallas tops construction pipeline: Dallas tops the U.S. hotel construction pipeline with 147 projects/17,711 rooms in Q3 2021, according to analysts at Lodging Econometrics. Atlanta comes second with 139 projects/18,659 rooms, followed by Los Angeles with 133 projects/22,145 rooms, New York City with 130 projects/22,417 rooms and Houston with 90 projects/9,225 rooms. These top five markets constituted 13% of projects and 15% of rooms in the total U.S. pipeline. The top 25 markets in the country accounted for 33% of all pipeline projects and 37% of all rooms in the hotel construction pipeline. There was no decline in the renovation and conversion pipeline, with 1,253 hotels/176,305 rooms under renovation or conversion in the U.S. A total of 665 hotels with 85,306 rooms opened in the country in the first three quarters of 2021.