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1. Arizona Biltmore Sells for $705 Million
Blackstone-owned BRE Hotels & Resorts sold the 703-room Arizona Biltmore, LXR Hotels & Resorts for $705 million, or roughly $1 million per room, to U.K.-based private equity real estate manager Henderson Park.
Prior to this deal, the hotel was last traded in 2018 as a three-hotel portfolio sale from Singapore's GIC Real Estate for $1.64 billion. That portfolio deal included the Arizona Biltmore, the La Quinta Resort & Golf in La Quinta, California, and the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa in Hawaii.
2. European Commission Cracks Down on Booking.com, X
The European Commission has deemed hotel reservations platform Booking.com a "gatekeeper" based off strict tech rules under the Digital Markets Act, and it is now opening an investigation to determine if social media network X also qualifies as that, Reuters reports.
"Following its designation as gatekeeper, Booking.com now has six months to submit a detailed compliance report, the Commission said. However, some DMA rules are applicable with immediate effect, notably the obligation to inform the Commission of any intended concentration in the digital sector," the news outlet reports.
The Commission can impose fines of up to 10% and 20% of the company's total global turnover as well as put limits on takeover activity if a gatekeeper doesn't meet compliance within that time frame.
3. Hotel Execs Encouraged by Future Demand
Though U.S. hotel demand during the first quarter was overall weaker than expected for many companies, executives are more confident that things will turn a corner in the second half of this year thanks to strong group bookings pace and less price-sensitive consumers, HNN reports.
“Our group pace for quarters two through four shows group room nights ahead of the same time last year by 8.5% and group revenue ahead by 10.2%. With transient revenue pace up by 3.9%, our total room-night pace is ahead by 7.9%, and our total revenue pace on the books is ahead by 7.1%. [The third quarter] continues to represent the quarter with the largest pace advantage followed by [the fourth quarter] on a percentage basis," said Jon Bortz, chairman and CEO, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, during his company's first-quarter earnings call.
4. Disney's Swan & Dolphin Resort Refinances for $735 Million
JLL's Hotels & Hospitality group arranged a $735 million loan to refinance the 2,619-room Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs were the lenders and JLL arranged it on behalf of Tishman Hotel & Realty and MetLife Investment Management. The loan is a five-year, floating-rate single asset borrower commercial mortgage-backed security loan.
"The Swan & Dolphin Resort SASB CMBS loan priced at the tightest pricing levels seen for hotels since 2021. The market pricing was an affirmation of the strong in-place cash flows, the unique competitive position for the Resort and the incredible 35-year track record that Tishman and MIM have created in Orlando," JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group Americas CEO Kevin Davis said in the release.
5. AAA Projects Nearly 44 Million Memorial Day Travelers
The volume of Americans expected to travel 50 miles or more from home over the Memorial Day holiday period will fall just shy of the 2005 record of 44 million. This year's projected 43.8 million travelers number is a 4% increase over 2023, according to a news release.
"We haven’t seen Memorial Day weekend travel numbers like these in almost 20 years. We’re projecting an additional one million travelers this holiday weekend compared to 2019, which not only means we’re exceeding pre-pandemic levels but also signals a very busy summer travel season ahead," Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, said in a news release.