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5 Things for Feb. 18

Today's Headlines: Marriott, Hilton Focused on Growth; More Snow, Accusations of Price Gouging in Texas; Canadians Bypassing Hotel Quarantine; Holiday Weekend Helps US Hotels; Boost for Hotels on France's Atlantic Coast
Vehicles navigate snow and ice on Memorial Drive into downtown Houston on Monday. Another snowstorm overnight Wednesday hit the state and parts of the southeast U.S. (Getty Images)
Vehicles navigate snow and ice on Memorial Drive into downtown Houston on Monday. Another snowstorm overnight Wednesday hit the state and parts of the southeast U.S. (Getty Images)
By the HNN editorial staff
February 18, 2021 | 3:56 P.M.

1. Marriott, Hilton Focused on Adding Hotel Rooms in 2021

Reporting fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings results today, Marriott International executives acknowledged the loss this week of President and CEO Arne Sorenson and the importance of continuing his legacy of growing the company.

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Leeny Oberg said in a company earnings release: “We are all deeply saddened by Arne Sorenson's unexpected passing. We are grateful to have been able to work with such an inspiring and talented leader and will always treasure our memories of working with him. Our leadership team is committed to honoring him by building on his incredible legacy as we move the company forward.”

Building on that legacy will in part entail expanding the company’s portfolio of rooms globally, which Marriott is poised to do, according to Tony Capuano, group president of global development, design and operations services, who along with Stephanie Linnartz, group president of consumer operations, technology and emerging businesses, is overseeing the company's day-to-day operations until Marriott's Board of Directors appoints a new CEO. A new CEO is expected to be named within two weeks.

"Our pipeline grew during the quarter to more than 498,000 rooms as of the end of 2020, with 46% of those rooms under construction,” Capuano said in the Marriott earnings release, noting “we expect gross rooms growth could accelerate to approximately 6% in 2021.”

Hilton, which announced quarterly and full-year performance Wednesday, has also made net unit growth a top priority for the year, Hotel News Now’s Stephanie Ricca reports.

For the full year, Hilton added 47,400 net additional rooms, representing 5.1% net unit growth in 2020, slightly ahead of its forecast. Nearly half of those — 20,900 rooms — were added in the fourth quarter, “largely driven by new development in China, where our focused-service brands continue to drive a disproportionate share of growth,” said President and CEO Chris Nassetta on the company’s fourth-quarter 2020 earnings call.

2. More Snow, Accusations of Price Gouging in Texas

Texas, where more than 1.6 million homes and businesses are without power and more than 30 have died due to severe cold, is in the path of another snowstorm that started overnight Wednesday and is expected to stretch over the next few days “from the southern Plains to the East Coast,” according to the National Weather Service and reported by USA Today.

Desperate Texans without power are flocking to hotels for shelter, leading to a surge in demand and higher rates and raising some concerns about price gouging, The Washington Post reports.

“Dallas local news station WFAA reported that at one point, Hotel.com searches for rooms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area showed Super 8 nightly rates at $400 and Days Inn at $900. On Twitter, screenshots of Ramada by Wyndham in South Austin nightly rates, from $500 to $999, went viral,” The Post reports.

However, hotels can raise rates to meet higher demand without it being price gouging, the Texas Office of the Attorney General told the news outlet.

In at least one case, a posted nightly rate of $999 for a Ramada by Wyndham hotel in South Austin was claimed to be the result of inventory management and employee error.

A spokesperson for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts told The Post that no guests were charged the spiked rates, and the brand does not tolerate price gouging.

“In speaking with the owner of this hotel, which is independently owned and operated as a franchise, it’s our understanding that the temporary rate increases seen online were the result of the property working to close out its inventory as it managed the loss of power and other utilities,” the statement said.

3. Canadians Plan To Bypass Hotel Quarantine

Canada’s federal government on Monday announced a new rule requiring air passengers entering Canada to quarantine for 14 days, including up to three days in a designated hotel at their own expense, but as news station CBC reports, some Canadians are already planning to circumvent this rule by crossing the U.S.-Canada border by foot instead of by plane.

Brian Cross of Burlington, Ontario, told the news outlet that he and his wife, who have been vacationing in Mesa, Arizona, this winter, plan to fly to Buffalo instead of Toronto, take a cab to the Rainbow Bridge land border at Niagara Falls and walk across to where friends have left their car.

“We'll just pick it up and drive home,” he said. “It's kind of discriminatory that you fly and you've got to stay in a hotel, but you drive in, you don't.”

4. US Hotels Get Demand Boost From Holiday Weekend

A three-day holiday weekend, which included both Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day, helped lift overall hotel occupancy in the U.S. by four percentage points from the previous week, according to the latest weekly performance data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

Data for the week ending Feb. 13 shows occupancy at 45.1%. While that figure is an improvement over the prior week, occupancy was still down 29% from the comparable week in 2019. Average daily rate for the week stood at $99.21, which was down 25.7% year over year; and revenue per available room was $44.72, down 47.2% from 2019 levels.

5. Hotels on France’s Atlantic Coast Benefit from Sacked Ski Season

Parisians on a two-week school holiday normally would be flocking to ski resorts, but with ski lifts closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, they instead are taking in unseasonably sunny weather along the French Atlantic coast, where hotel bookings have surged, Reuters reports.

“Normally, we are not the number one destination for French people in February, but this year people have traded their ski suits for anoraks,” said Franck Louvrier, mayor of La Baule, which is a five-hour drive west of Paris.

Compiled by Robert McCune.