Hotel Development Chatter from the Blogosphere
Chris · October 12, 2007
Andrew Calvo is a young commercial real estate advisor in New Jersey who also writes a terrific hotel industry development blog called ”Passions of a Zealot”. If you want to read an insider’s perspective on major U.S. brand development, this site is for you.
Back in July we featured a post about the huge sale of Hilton Hotels to the Blackstone Group. Although Blackstone has claimed that the purchase is part of a long-term strategy, many hotel industry insiders feel that the deal will likely result in the dismantling of the Hilton brand--particularly in their non-core brands such as DoubleTree and Embassy Suites.
In a recent article, Andrew contemplates the Hilton/Blackstone deal:
“It will be very interesting to see what happens once Blackstone’s purchase of Hilton Hospitality is completed - Blackstone has not been known for keeping their purchased hotel brands together.. Through the last 4 years Blackstone has owned Wyndham, La Quinta, AmeriSuites, Summerfield Suites, Extended Stay Hotels, Wesley Inns, and Meristar Hospitality. Out of that entire list, Blackstone currently only owns La Quinta and Meristar Hospitality (which has been renamed LXR Resorts).
At first thought, you may think that Blackstone bought Hilton for the Real Estate (Look what they did with Equity Office Properties), yet out of the 2,900 Hilton Family properties - 60 are owned by Hilton, and another 203 are leased by Hilton - the rest are Joint Ventures, Franchised, or Managed Properties. (These numbers are from Hilton’s 2006 annual report).”
And in an earlier blog post, Andrew sticks-it to hotelier Donald Trump in fine form:
“I’m not too fond of Donald Trump - not because he’s successful, not because he’s rich, not because he’s famous, but because he is rudely ruthless, self-centered, and takes credit for more than he deserves. There are plenty of ways to succeed in business without having those three qualities. I don’t respect people who build their “reputation” on those traits.”
I’ll bet many Canadian hoteliers are in-line with Andrew’s feelings...and probably some hotel consumers too.
Check out Andrew’s blog for more engaging dialogue, and you can read a rather scathing feature on Andrew Calvo on HotelChatter--dubbed as the “W Hoboken Stalker”.
You’re not alone Andrew...I routinely stalk hotel developments in Vancouver!
