trends in the hotel industry
Guest Loyalty Programs Provide, But They Cost
Robert Mandelbaum, Christine Bang | September 5, 2023
By Robert Mandelbaum and Christine Bang Over the years, the fees hotel owners pay to franchise companies have typically grown at a pace greater than the rise in hotel rooms revenue. Most franchise-related fees are charged as a percent of rooms revenue, and therefore, by assessing the relative changes in rooms revenue and franchise fees we can make some assumptions. In 2021, acknowledging the financial stress hotel owners faced during the pandemic, the franchise companies were sympathetic and provided some reprieve. While rooms revenue increased by 55.4% in 2021, total franchise-related fees rose by just 45.9%. Equilibrium returned in ...
U.S. Hotel Owners Eyeing Interest Coverage
Bill Grice and Robert Mandelbaum | June 1, 2023
By Bill Grice, Robert Mandelbaum According to CBRE’s February 2023 Investment Performance forecast, total revenues for the average U.S. hotel returned to 2019 levels in 2022, but the recovery of hotel profits will be delayed until later this year. Hotel franchise and management companies have benefited the most from the ongoing revenue recovery because the fees they receive are frequently earned as a percent of revenue. However, for many hotel owners, along with their lenders and investors, the lag in the return of profits has been a hardship. Afterall, it is the profits of hotel operations that enable owners to pay their debt obli...
Incentive Management Fees Return With Recovery
Robert Mandelbaum and Tim Dick, Ph.D. | May 4, 2023
By Robert Mandelbaum and Tim Dick, Ph.D. Most management contracts include an incentive management fee in addition to the base management fee. The incentive fees are designed to make management more conscious of the bottom line since owners achieve their returns and pay their debts from profits, not revenue. Incentive management fees are earned by the operator once a designated profit threshold is achieved. Given the depressed performance of hotels during the 2020 industry downturn, unsurprisingly almost no hotel owners paid an incentive fee to their managers that year. Fortunately for U.S. hotel operators, incentive fees have risen con...
Quantifying the Franchise Relationship During COVID-19
Robert Mandelbaum | August 8, 2022
By Robert Mandelbaum In 2020, the average hotel in CBRE’s annual Trends® in the Hotel Industry survey experienced a 108 percent decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), resulting in an EBITDA margin of -5.5 percent. For hotels, EBITDA represents the cash flows from operations that are used to fund debt service and provide returns to investors. This is by far the greatest decline in EBITDA since CBRE began tracking the performance of the U.S. lodging industry in the 1930s. Facing such traumatic declines in profitability and insolvency, hotel owners reached out to their lenders, investors...
How Changes in Hotel Revenues Suggest Changes in Guest Preferences
Robert Mandelbaum | October 22, 2019
By Robert Mandelbaum From the high-tech preferences of Generation Z, to the experiential fondness of Millennials, to the health and wellness realities facing Baby Boomers, hotels continually adjust the amenities and services they offer to satisfy their guests. These adjustments are based on extensive consumer research, much of which has been published in the lodging industry trade publications. From the owner’s and operator’s perspective, the changes in guest preference manifest themselves on the hotel operating statement. Over the years, income from the variety of revenue-generating departments operated at hotels rise and fall as g...
Managing RevPAR for Profits
CBRE | September 18, 2019
By Robert Mandelbaum and Bram Gallagher Ph.D. Per the name, the historical role of revenue managers has been to maximize revenue - specifically rooms revenue or RevPAR. RevPAR growth is achieved by increasing occupancy and/or average daily rates (ADR). Basic economic theory says that prices influence changes in demand (rooms occupied). Depending on the date and market conditions, an increase in ADR typically tends to mute, or reduce, changes in demand. Conversely, a lowering of ADR will most likely stimulate demand and increase occupancy. Historically, revenue managers have adjusted ADR to find the best mix of occupancy and ADR that...
U.S. Hotels Enjoy Profit Growth, But It Is Becoming Harder to Achieve
CBRE | April 29, 2019
Atlanta – April 29, 2019 – While U.S. hoteliers enjoyed a ninth consecutive year of increasing profits in 2018, it is becoming increasingly difficult for managers to accomplish this task. According to the recently released 2019 edition of Trends® in the Hotel Industry by CBRE Hotels Americas Research, total operating revenue increased by 2.6 percent in 2018 for the average hotel in its survey sample. Managers were able to limit the growth in operating expenses to 2.8 percent, thus allowing for a 2.3 percent increase in gross operating profits (GOP) at the Trends® properties. The 2.8 percent growth in expenses is less...
Unit-Level Hotel Marketing: P&L Reveals Changes In Department Functions
CBRE | February 22, 2019
By Robert Mandelbaum and Viet Vo Technology, online intermediaries, social media, revenue management software, shared-services, and the proliferation of market intelligence reports have reshaped the way hotel Sales and Marketing Departments conduct business. The traditional organizational structure of assigning personnel by demand segments (commercial, group, leisure) has given way to assignment by function (revenue management, social media, channel distribution, customer relationship management). According to one industry executive, most of the "selling" of hotel rooms has moved from the property level to corporate and regional offices...
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