When Mit Shah looks back at the modern history of the hotel industry — and the 30-year history of his company, Noble Investment Group — there have been enough black swan events that it can "seem pretty depressing."
But he thinks the ultimate result of surviving everything from the dot-com bust to the pandemic is the hotel business is a resilient industry.
"It can seem pretty depressing when you look back on it, but it's also very, very formative," he said.
Speaking to Hotel News Now at the 2024 Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Shah said the current investment opportunity that gets him excited is the growth in the select-service and extended-stay segments. He said the increasing sophistication of those segments is the biggest difference between today and the day Noble was founded in 1994.
"We've actually seen this in the quick-service restaurant business and others, where it used to be just McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's in that space," he said. "We can play this out as it related to [hotels]."
Noble is setting up to be a particularly active buyer after closing a $1 billion fund, which comes on the heels of investing over $2 billion in 50 hotels since the onset of the pandemic.
Shah said that investment is a sign of his continued confidence in hotels and consumers' resilient desire to travel.
"It's very clear that consumers around the world prioritize experiences over merchandise, and we see that living and breathing all of our daily lives and also in our data," he said.
For HNN's full interview with Noble's Mit Shah, watch the video above.