Skift Travel News Blog

Marriott International said on Friday that its chief financial officer, Leeny Oberg, will now also lead the company’s global development organization, responsible for the strategic growth at the world’s largest hotel operator.

As executive vice president for development, Oberg will advocate for the Bethesda, Maryland-based company’s portfolio of 31 brands as the company aims to woo investors and developers to pick its offerings.

In related news, CEO Anthony Capuano on Friday became president, not just top boss. Capuano added the title after Stephanie Linnartz, the previous president, left Marriott to become CEO of Under Armour.

Marriott also said on Friday that it had appointed veteran Tina Edmundson president of luxury, and long-time leader Peggy Fang Roe as executive vice president and chief customer officer.

Leeny Oberg has long had an intimate fluency with the group’s strategic plan — regularly on display in analyst calls with investors and public presentations. She spoke on-stage in New York as Marriott International’s chief financial officer at Skift Global Forum 2019. Video, here:

Jumeirah Group said on Monday it had bought the Le Richemond, a five-star hotel on Lake Geneva. The move signaled that the luxury hospitality company based in the United Arab Emirates is focused on growing worldwide in key gateway cities.

Le Richemond is the fifth European property to be acquired by Jumeirah, which operates a 6,500-key portfolio of about 25 luxury properties across the globe.

“As the gateway to the mountains of Europe, Geneva is strategically significant for us as we look to diversify our portfolio in major cities with both summer and winter resort destinations,” said Katerina Giannouka, the recently appointed CEO of Jumeirah Group.

Giannouka said she plans to hire architects and designers to renovate Le Richemond — pushing it further upscale and turning it into an “ultra-luxury” hotel by 2025.

While 2022 was a post-pandemic boom year for hotel demand in much of the world, total global hotel investment volume decelerated slightly to $71.9 billion, a decline of 2 percent relative to 2021. The relative lack of outbound Chinese hotel investment, the Russian war in Ukraine, and recessionary pressures in several markets tamped down the pace of growth.

That’s according to a Global Hotel Investment Outlook report released on Monday by JLL Hotels & Hospitality — an investment advisory firm that helps manage more than $6.8 billion in hotel assets.

A few charts from JLL’s report stand out.

In 2022, global portfolio transactions dropped 27 percent year-over-year, but small trades spiked. The total number of trades reached an all-time high, meaning that the market had a lot of smaller players and a lot of smaller assets being traded, compared with years with large assets and large portfolios shifted hands. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

There’s been much less ross-border investment in hotels than one might expect for quite some time. The five years before the pandemic, 2015 to 2019), saw cross-border hotel investments account for an average of 17 percent of total global hotel investment volume. Yet in that period, the investment declined as a global total year after year. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

Two of the most eye-catching data points from the report are the growing demand for hotel investment from high-net-worth individuals and the growing presence of these individuals in Singapore.

In fact, 16 percent of the year’s global investment volume was generated by first-time hotel buyers, predominantly comprised of family offices and high net-worth individuals. In Singapore, there are now an estimated 700 family offices, more than double the amount pre-pandemic. Expect this trend to continue in 2023 and beyond as lodging demand accelerates.

—Global Hotel Investment Outlook report released on Monday by JLL Hotels & Hospitality 

UPDATE: JLL released the report on Tuesday in sync with the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles.

U.S. hotel construction spending rose 30 percent year-over-year in November, suggesting a sustained rebound is in place based on developers’ confidence.

In November, private U.S. non-residential lodging construction rose to $19.8 billion, adjusted for seasonality but not price changes, according to the U.S. Census bureau’s release of overall monthly construction pending.

The numbers could represent a rebound in hotel construction after supply-chain constraints and labor woes plagued projects in 2021.

But it was unclear if the spending may be a lagging indicator when it comes to the impact of rising interest rates on future hotel deals. Demand to close deals may have dropped for some of future projects that are having trouble getting financing as inflation fears disrupt financial markets. The projects underway may have been approved before the interest rate hikes.

Kerzner International has unveiled its new brand Siro, a set of fitness-themed lifestyle hotels. The developer said on Wednesday that it has slated to open its first property in a tower in One Za’abeel, a luxury community in Dubai, U.A.E., in the last months of 2023.

Kerzner, a developer and operator of hotels, casinos, and residential units, said that Siro One Za’abeel will have a fitness center across two floors that will include the latest gym equipment and studios for yoga and meditation. A so-called “recovery lab” will offer cryo, infrared, and oxygen therapies along with acupuncture and coaching in mindfulness.

CEO Philippe Zuber said his company consulted with top international athletes, including Olympic athletes Ramla Ali and Adam Peaty and footballers for the team A.C. Milan, in designing the brand’s details and amenities.

Ithra Dubai is principal developer of the hotel and the whole One Za’abeel project.

Other lifestyle wellness brands and properties include IHG’s Even Hotels, Equinox Hotels in the U.S., and Swissotel The Stamford in Singapore.

The following excerpt is from today’s edition of Daily Lodging Report, a subscription newsletter.

The Hoxton is set to expand its global community, with seven hotels lined up to open in some of Europe’s key cities by early 2024.

The Hoxton will open its fourth London hotel in Shepherd’s Bush this December, followed by a huge 18 months with openings in Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Edinburgh, Vienna and Dublin.

The hotels are:

• Shepherd’s Bush with 237 rooms
• Brussels, opening spring 2023 with 198 rooms
• Amsterdam, opening in spring 2023, the second property in the Eastern Docklands district, will offer 136 rooms
• Berlin, opening in summer 2023 with 234 rooms;
• the 211-room Edinburgh property is opening in the summer 2023;
• Vienna will be opening in late 2023 with 196 rooms;
• …and opening in 2024 in Dublin with 129 rooms.

For context on The Hoxton’s parent brand Ennismore, co-owned by Accor, see this video from last month’s Skift Global Forum.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has been teasing since March its plans to debut an economy extended-stay brand, apparently named Echo. On Wednesday, Sandpiper Hospitality filed plans to build what will likely be the first Echo hotel in western Henrico, Virginia, according to a news report.

“Plans show the Echo hotel would reach four stories and include 124 rooms and 133 parking spaces,” reported Richmond BizSense. “HG Design Studio is listed as the project’s landscape architect.”

The site is at 9940 Independence Park Drive. Intriguingly, the rendering submitted by Sandpiper Hospitality showed the name of the hotel being Echo. Until now, the project had been referred to by Wyndham as Project Economy Hotel Opportunity.

Wyndham executives said earlier last month they had deals with developers to roll out 72 projects, with a goal of 300 hotels over the next decade.