Franchisees of the Motel 6 brand are looking forward to the leadership of Blackstone Group, according to a report from HotelNewsNow.com’s Jason Q. Freed.
Blackstone acquired the Motel 6 and Studio 6 brands from Accor last month. At least two Motel 6 franchisees are looking forward to speeding up renovation requirements and will be looking to Blackstone to invest some capital in the corporate-owned assets as well.
“The good thing is all the corporate-owned properties will be rehabbed. It will have a bigger impact,” said Harshad Patel, who owns and operates 35 Motel 6 locations across the United States. “That’s what we, as franchisees, are looking forward to.”
U.S. hotel values increased by nearly 3% during May, according to Green Street Advisors’ Commercial Property Price Index.
The CPPI score for hotels during May was 75.73, up from 73.57 during April. That’s still a far cry from the sector’s high point, a reading of 100 in April 2007.
Overall, commercial property values edged up 2% during May.
If the Memorial Day weekend is any indication, U.S. hoteliers might be in for a solid summer travel season, reports HotelNewsNow.com’s Patrick Mayock.
The 25-28 May weekend—which is viewed as a bellwether for performance in June, July and August—saw strong gains in average daily rate and revenue per available room over comparable weekdays last year, according to STR, parent company of HotelNewsNow.com.
“It’s really the unofficial start of the summer season,” said Bill Sutherland, VP of travel services for U.S. motorist group AAA. “Typically the Memorial Day weekend … is fairly consistent with what will happen in the summer.”
HotelNewsNow.com today kicks off its “Leading Women Executives” special report. Included in the package of stories is a report focusing on how women are entering the operational side of the hotel business.
Starting in sales and marketing, a “stereotypical profession for a woman in the industry,” Lara Latture said entering the operational side of the hotel business was merely a fluke.
“When I started (in the industry) 20 years ago, you rarely saw a female in the roles that we all aspire to now,” said the executive VP and principal of The Hotel Group, which is why Latture still laughs about her inspirational climb up the corporate ladder. “Strangely enough we had an opening for a GM, and I was asked if I could take it on temporarily. I always kind of laugh. It was really a fluke.”
Fifteen years since that fluke, Latture is overseeing operations for the same company. “You didn’t see (women) leaders of hospitality companies (back then),” she said. “You didn’t see a lot of females (in general). You don’t see a tremendous (number) of us,” but the tide is turning, she said.
Spain during the weekend agreed to take up to $125 billion in aid from eurozone companies, as the country tries to revive its failing banks.
“Nobody pressured me, I was the one who pressured to get credit,” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said during a news conference, according to The New York Times. The aid, worth up to €100 billion, or about $125 billion, for its cash-starved banks, is a deal, he said, that ensured “the credibility of the European project, the future of the euro, the solidity of our financial system and the possibility that credit will flow again.”
Rajoy said the money does not represent a bailout, but rather a “line of credit” that would be funneled to its bank restructuring fund that is meant to replenish the reserves of the nation’s weakest banks.
Compiled by Shawn A. Turner.
