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1. STR, Hotel News Now Host First All-In-Person Hotel Data Conference Since 2019
The Hotel Data Conference, hosted by STR and Hotel News Now at the Omni Nashville, got underway on Aug. 11 with a sellout crowd all in attendance. Panelists and speakers were united in the belief that the hotel industry is in full recovery mode, but differed on just how that recovery will pan out.
At the first all-in-person HDC since the start of COVID-19, Daryl Cronk, director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, the parent company of STR, said he expects full recovery of business transient demand by the end of 2023, but several hoteliers were gloomier in their predictions, saying they believe some percentage of business travel will never come back, Hotel News Now’s Robert McCune reports. On the first day, STR and Tourism Economics announced the revised U.S. hotel forecast, in which occupancy is adjusted downward while average daily rate projections are lifted.
2. Aman Debuts in New York City With Big Apple’s Most Expensive Rooms
The 83-room Aman New York is commanding the highest room rates in New York City, according to Bloomberg News, a little more than a week after it officially debuted on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in the former Crown Building.
Aman Resorts executives have so much faith in the firm's new portfolio addition, according to the news outlet, that New Yorkers and others have already paid “$100,000 initiation fees to become founding members of [the new] Aman Club during a pre-opening period,” a fee that does not include annual dues of $15,000.
“The hotel’s humblest rooms aren’t even sold on their own … the 340-square-foot studios can be booked only as an adjoining option for $20,000-per-night corner suites as a way to make them bigger," Bloomberg reports.
3. Argentina Interest Rates Soar To 69.5%, a 20-Year High
Think interest rates are high in the U.S., United Kingdom and other markets? The interest rate in Argentina has soared to 69.5%, a 20-year high, according to CNN Business, which said the current rate of inflation in the country is 71%. In 2022, the government in Argentine capital Buenos Aires virtually ran out of money, with state employers being paid in “patacones,” essentially IOU notes.
The country’s central bank raised its 28-day benchmark rate from 60% to 69.5% about two weeks after it raised the rate by 800 basis points. In July, the government fired two finance ministers. CNN suggests inflation might reach 90% by the end of 2022.
4. Likelihood of Recession Raised in UK
The U.K. economy contracted between April and June, albeit very marginally, by 0.1%, according to the government’s official statistics body, the Office for National Statistics, following recent comments by the governor of the Bank of England that a recession is very likely.
“The level of quarterly gross domestic product in quarter 2, 2022, is now 0.6% above its pre-coronavirus level (quarter 4, 2019) and 2.9% higher than quarter 2, 2021,” the ONS said.
According to the BBC, these latest statistics might make the picture rosier, with the second quarter of 2022 having enjoyed pent-up demand for spending, good weather and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee holiday and celebrations. Most economists predicted a recession might begin in the fourth quarter of 2022, but the latest statistics have, for some, pushed forward the likely date for the start of a recession.
5. Stocks Soar But Investors Wonder For How Long
Share prices are expected to enjoy their best run in 2022 in the next quarter, according to The New York Times, which reports signs that the economy is robust and inflation is settling down. However, it added some investors wonder how long the rally can be maintained.
James Masserio, co-head of equities, Americas, at Société Générale, said the Federal Reserve “task of lowering inflation back to its target of 2% was akin to turning an oil tanker around: slow and fraught with risk," the newspaper reports.
The S&P 500 improved on Aug. 12 for a fourth consecutive positive week, which hasn't happened since October 2021. The index is “now almost 15% higher than its low point in June, though it remains 10% lower for the year," the newspaper reports. "The rally stands in stark contrast to the first half of the year, when Wall Street suffered its worst start in half a century.”