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1. TUI, Hansainvest, Partner on $571 Million Hotels Fund
Package vacation and hotel operating firm TUI Group has partnered with a Luxembourg-based division of German pension fund Hansainvest on a 500 million euros ($571 million) pool of capital to invest in and develop hotels, according to a news release.
TUI said it will retain a 10% share in the fund, which has a focus for hotels outside of TUI’s core market of Europe. It added the fund might invest in properties already held in TUI’s portfolio and that it would “receive ongoing remuneration on the one hand for operating the hotels and on the other hand for providing investment advice to the fund.”
2. JLL: Hotel Industry’s 2021 Resilience Bodes Well for 2022 Uplift
Business advisory JLL has released findings that show the resilience of the hotel industry in 2021 will likely fuel the industry to respectable levels in 2022, though “post-COVID headwinds threaten operating margins and may hinder [revenue per available room] growth.” Concerns include inflation, supply-chain issues and increased energy costs.
In its report, JLL said in 2021, global transaction volume grew in year-over-year terms by 131% to $66.8 million, with the Americas leading the way in both transaction volume and hotel performance metrics. One major finding, it said, is that “investment dollars [will] chase markets that have augmented their profile since the pandemic.”
3. UK Energy Costs To Rise as Much as 54%
Energy costs for business and residents in the United Kingdom will increase by as much as 54%, S&P Global reports. The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, the country's energy regulator, stated “the increase is driven by a record rise in global gas prices over the last six months, with wholesale prices quadrupling in the last year.” Businesses are pleading with government to cut business rates to help them not pass all the additional costs to consumers.
The BBC said consumers will experience energy prices rise for many by 693 pounds sterling ($937) a year, a hard burden to bear for many coupled with higher inflation in other spheres such as food. It added chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has announced plans for a 150 pounds sterling rebate to 80% of the population to help offset the extra costs.
4. HVMG Exec Says Pandemic’s Altered Landscape Provides Third-Party Opportunities
The pandemic has resulted in opportunities for third-party management companies due to changing conditions and the reevaluation of hotel operations, said Robert Cole, president and CEO of Atlanta-based hotel management firm HVMG, who spoke at last week’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit with HNN's Bryan Wroten.
Cole said his firm, which has added 24 hotels during the pandemic, two-thirds of them last year, has a 127-point checklist of due-diligence items, some of which need to be done before a deal is signed.
“We’ve done about 120 total transitions in our company history, so we’ve learned from our previous mistakes. We’ve got a pretty tried-and-true process in terms of integrating hotels," he said.
5. Study Finds Guests React Better to Female Hotel Robots
Hotel guests prefer to react to robots with female voices than they do to those with male voices, according to research at Washington State University’s Carson Business College. Soobin Seo, assistant professor of hospitality management, said her findings might have more to do with stereotypes than it does about vocal tones.
“People have a tendency to feel more comfort in being cared for by females because of existing gender stereotyping about service roles. That gender stereotype appears to transfer to robot interactions, and it is more amplified when the robots are more human-like,” Seo said of her findings from a survey of 170 people who were presented with four different scenarios in which robots provided service.