Hotel investors are increasingly captivated with the outlook for investment opportunities in Latin America, according to results from Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ “Latin America Hotel Investor Sentiment Survey.”
Highlights from the survey include:
- Investors’ outlook for hotel performance fundamentals across Latin America is exceedingly positive, with respondents most bullish on Mexico City, Brazilian metropolitan areas, Los Cabos, Mexico, and Cancun/Riviera Maya in Mexico.
- Respondents’ targeted capitalization rate (initial yield) for the acquisition of an international-grade hotel averages 10.2% across Latin America.
- Hotel assets in gateway markets represent the biggest “buy” targets; the highest sentiment to “build” new hotels is reported for secondary cities; the survey suggests a considerable increase in the number of investors reviewing development feasibility in markets outside of the countries’ capital cities.
- Surging home-grown demand is dramatically boosting the performance of the hotel industry across Latin America, creating an attractive environment for growth.
In terms of performance outlook, as defined by revenue per available room, expectations are most favorable for hotels in Brazil, followed by Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. Investors’ responses were less enthusiastic for Argentina, with a greater share of respondents expecting the investment environment to worsen rather than improve.
Hotel developers are moving to take advantage of the evolution of the “new World Trade Center,” which will include five new skyscrapers to be completed in the next few years, writes HotelNewsNow.com contributor Harvey Chipkin. A centerpiece of the development will be the world’s tallest Holiday Inn, a 50-story, 400-room, full-service property under construction at 99 Washington Street.
The Holiday Inn is a project of the McSam Hotel Group, a major developer in New York, and is expected to open in October of this year.
Another nearby project will be the conversion of a classic office building at 5 Beekman Street by Commune Hotels & Resorts, which will become a Thompson Hotel. That property is being developed by GB Lodging, an affiliate of GFI Capital, which owns the trendy Ace and NoMad hotels in New York. The landmarked building, built in 1883, will become a 297-room boutique hotel with 90 residences.
Also, a 176-room Fairfield Inn on Fletcher Street is scheduled to open in March 2014. The owner is Lam Generation, which currently owns a Fairfield Inn in Midtown Manhattan.
Consumer confidence fell to a five-month low in May, according to The Conference Board, reports CNNMoney.
A survey released Tuesday by The Conference Board showed an overall index reading of 64.9, down from 68.7 in April. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected confidence to tick up to 69.4 in the latest survey.
Only 13.6% of those surveyed said business conditions are good, and only 7.9% believe that jobs are plentiful. Both readings were down from surveys in the previous two months.
When asked about what they expected for six months in the future, only 16.6% said they thought business conditions would be better, while only 15.8% said they expected there to be more jobs. Both those readings were the lowest results since late last year.
Whether consumers were making their plans for summer vacation or simply finding their way around town, more than half of U.S. Internet users visited travel websites in April, according to research from Nielsen.
The top 10 visited travel sites in April
1. Google Maps – 79,374,00 visits
2. MapQuest – 29,590,000 visits
3. Yahoo! Local – 15,247,000 visits
4. TripAdvisor – 13,241,000 visits
5. Expedia – 12,933,000 visits
6. Priceline Network – 12,219,000 visits
7. Bing Maps & Local – 10,815,000 visits
8. Travel Ad Network – 10,792,000 visits
9. Southwest Airlines – 10,245,000 visits
10. Orbitz Worldwide Network – 8,587,000 visits
Simplicity and convenience are the most important factors for Russians when it comes to booking online, according to a recent study by Russian hotel booking website Oktogo.ru and Synovate Comcon.
Highlights of the study, featured on Argophilia, found that 81% of Moscow and St. Petersburg inhabitants plan their vacations by using online booking services. However, vacationers from Moscow tend to use one single service they know about, while St. Petersburg residents named several online services of this type when they were asked.
Seventy percent of online bookings are accompanied by phone calls or letters to customer service.
Regarding business trips, men always look to obtain financial documents for accounting while women pay more attention to factors such as reliability, low prices and the free option of canceling reservations.
Compiled by Stephanie Wharton.
