Read the latest news from around the Asia Pacific region.

Chinese investors had for years been major players in U.S. hotel deals, but recently these firms have significantly slowed their pace or even reversed course, reports HNN’s Terence Baker.

“In recent years, Chinese companies that were active in acquiring Western hotels have reduced their investments,” Baker writes. “Some have disappeared or shrunk — most notably insurance firm Anbang Insurance Group and travel operator HNA Group — as the Chinese government railed back on what it saw as excessive spending in non-core markets. Some of the Chinese firms buying these assets and hotel firms have been acquired by other Chinese companies — such as when Jin Jiang International Holdings acquired Radisson Hotels Group from HNA in 2018 — potentially at the insistence of the Chinese government.”

Oyo Hotels & Homes International President Prasun Choudhary said his company has high expectations for 2022 given the momentum of the recovery in the second half of last year, reports HNN’s Bryan Wroten. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for travel as the worst of the COVID-19 omicron variant appears to be over.

“The last two years also gave us a lot of time to think about our strategy, to think about how we can innovate more on our products, more on our technology,” he said. “It really made us even a much more technology-first company.”

Many owners of India’s independent and boutique hotels and regional chains have turned to larger hotel brands to aid in their recovery from the pandemic, reports HNN contributor Chitra Balasubramaniam.

Travelers in India have turned to hotel brands since the start of the pandemic, said Basant Sabu, general manager of business development and feasibility at Concept Hospitality, which manages the Fern Hotels & Resorts brand.

“This pandemic period has acted as a catalyst for the same," Sabu said. "Guests are looking for safe, secure and hygienic places to stay — this environment they feel [was] better provided within the confines of branded hotels."

Hotel real estate investment trust Summit Hotel Properties has made $900 million in deals over an eight-month period, and more than $1 billion in 2021, thanks to its partnership with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, reports HNN’s Sean McCracken.

Among those acquisitions are the 26 hotels from its $776.5 million deal with NewcrestImage, a six-hotel portfolio for $172 million and a $33 million deal for the 110-room Residence Inn Steamboat Springs.

“We’ve only owned the Newcrest portfolio for about 40 days, so we’re definitely well on our way to integrating that portfolio within the company,” said Summit President and CEO Jonathan Stanner during his company’s fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. “I think we feel better today than we did even when we underwrote or even when we announced the acquisition about what the opportunity set looks like.”
Name check: https://www.shpreit.com/team/jonathan-stanner/

• Japan’s Onward Holdings sold its 428-room Onward Beach Resort at Agana Bay in Guam to Guam Hotel Management, a subsidiary of Japanese hotel operator Hoshino Resorts for 8.5 billion Japanese yen ($68.7 million).
• Singapore-based Travelodge Hotels Asia will launch the 138-room Travelodge Honmachi Osaka, its first hotel in Japan, later this year. It has opened the 159-room Travelodge Phuket Town in Thailand with another planned in September, the 406-room Travelodge Nimman Chiang Mai.
• The Laundy Hotel Group has acquired the freehold going concern of the 72-room Mercure Centro Hotel in Port Macquarie from Australia’s HTL Property for 25 million Australian dollars ($18.7 million).
• Hong Kong-based Cheer Sky Investment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harbour Centre Development, sold its full equity interest in China-based Wharf (Changzhou) Estates Company to Changzhou Youzhong Catering Management Company for 402 million Chinese yuan ($63 million), and the deal included the 302-room Marco Polo Changzhou.
• Thailand’s Narai Hospitality debuted its new luxury brand, Marasca Hotels & Resorts, with its first property, the 18-room Marasca Khao Yi, set to open later this year.
• Hong Kong-based Weave Living has partnered with Singapore-based SLB Development to acquire the 88-room Hotel Clover in Jalan Sultan, Singapore, for 74.8 million Singapore dollars ($54.9 million).
• Philippines-based Alliance Global Group will invest $152 million to its subsidiary, Travelers International Hotel Group, a joint venture between Alliance Global Group and Hong Kong’s Genting Hong Kong, to operate Resorts World Manila.

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