As someone who covers the hotel industry, I hear an awful lot of broad pronouncements on the fates of individual markets. A lot of these are built around relatively recent — historically speaking — market dynamics and get extrapolated to assume the current trajectory will continue ad infinitum.
This is the logic that leads people to believe San Francisco is untenable for hotel investments and wide swathes of the Southern U.S. will only ever be positive. At least the second half of that has already proven false.
But I think it's worth remembering a big part of why people travel to cities domestically, just like they do internationally, is to experience some sort of culture that is unlike their own. Now, admittedly, the messaging on that is trickier today than ever before given the fractured and contentious media environment we all have to navigate on a daily basis, but the general idea that I travel to experience something I haven't before still rings true.
So I'd suggest something that is already exceedingly obvious: From a long-term perspective, the best markets are the unique ones. The ones that can't be replicated.
And some of these markets are the ones that have been among the most criticized by hotel investors of late.
Just look at Seattle. That is clearly a city that has established itself as one of the most unique and culturally relevant in our country over the span of decades, even if there are operational challenges.
Not coincidentally, I'm thinking of Seattle because one of my colleagues spent most of the past week there, which spurred me to spend a day playing the music of Seattle for our newsroom. There is fundamentally no other place that is exactly like Seattle.
The same could be said for the aforementioned San Francisco.
Without naming names, I'd say there are a fair number of markets that have performed well coming out of the pandemic that could be set up as fairly interchangeable with others.
Just like any hotel or real estate investment, it then comes down to how long your investment hold is and what your goals are for an individual property, and things like barriers to entry still matter.
But so does unique experience, and you can't get that in every city.
Let me know what you think on X, LinkedIn or via email.
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