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1. Accor Appoints CEO of Raffles, Orient Express
Accor appointed Omer Acar CEO of its Raffles and Orient Express brands effective March 1, according to a news release. Acar will be based in New York and report directly to Accor Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin on Accor's luxury and lifestyle executive committee.
Acar's previous leadership roles in the hospitality industry include general manager of the Ritz Paris and later the Royal Monceau Raffles, and most recently the managing director for Europe and the Americas for Katara Hospitality.
2. Davidson Kempner Closes Deal Valued at 850 Million Euros
Davidson Kempner Capital Management has closed on a deal for a portfolio of hotels in Portugal valued at 850 million euros ($908 million) from seller ECS Sociedade Gestora de Fundos de Capital de Risco, reports HNN’s Terence Baker. The deal had stalled over the past year due to a disagreement over which hotels would be included in the sale.
According to Portuguese real estate publication Vida Imobiliá, the portfolio of 23 hotels includes the 60-room Palácio do Governador in Lisbon and several in the coastal vacation destination of The Algarve, as well as the 149-room NAU São Rafael Atlântico and 98-room Morgado Golf & Country Club.
The deal also includes the 154-room Conrad Algarve and 176-room Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa, also both in The Algarve.
3. Financing Available for Hotels but at Higher Cost
Despite concerns over debt maturities and a recession, as well as cautious lenders, there’s still a considerable amount of financing available to hotel owners, but they’ll have to accept the higher cost that now comes with it, reports HNN’s Sean McCracken.
"The [commercial mortgage-backed securities] lenders are out there looking for deals; there's just not a lot of people that want to pay the freight for that," said Peter Berk, president of PMZ Realty Capital. "Those are fixed-rate loans. On the floating rate side, there's also a lot of lenders, but those loans are priced anywhere from the 8% to 10% range, and people don't want to pay that."
4. Dry Tortugas National Park Closes Temporarily
The U.S. National Park Service has closed the Dry Tortugas National Park near the Florida Keys to manage the arrival of 300 immigrants from Cuba, Reuters reports. A historic level of people are fleeing Cuba, and while most head to the U.S. through Central America and Mexico, some seek refuge in destinations bordering the Caribbean Sea.
The National Park Service expects the closure to last several days. Park personnel have been providing the immigrants with food, water and basic medical attention while they wait for U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials to take over relief efforts.
5. Companies Pay More To Retain Workers
Wages rose 5.5% in November from a year earlier for workers who stayed at their jobs, the Wall Street Journal reports. That tops the 3.7% annual growth in January 2022.
At the same time, employees who left for new jobs had their wages increase by 7.7% over the same period.
“If I can see that the Burger King down the street is offering $22 an hour, and I’m making $20 an hour at the Dunkin’ Donuts that I work at, then I know very clearly what my opportunity cost is,” said Layla O’Kane, senior economist at Lightcast. “Employers are reacting to that and saying, ‘Well, we’re going to increase wages internally because we don’t want to lose the staff that we’ve already trained.’ ”