Panelists in a session, "Hotel Investment Review" discussed the role of US buyers on the European market. The session speaker, the executive vice president of Europe for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Nick Marsh, noted that US buyers are focusing predominantly on hotel properties on the continent, rather than the United Kingdom.

While across the Atlantic their colleagues were contemplating the impact of the NASDAQ, Dow and S&P woes, in London, professionals talked about the links between a lack of quality product in 2000 and the view of the UK as being at the top of a cycle. Marsh said that liquidity increased in 2000, the hotel trading cycle had become more attractive and market growth provided safer "outs" for owners. He also noted that the debt markets are relatively liquid and that there has been a growth in pension funds around Europe.

Marsh observed that in the first nine months of the year, the continent saw an 82% increase in transactional activity. He explained the reasons for this include New York companies riding the high of Wall Street's bull market earlier this year were looking to diversify and expand their portfolios, increasing transparency, tax reform and the euro dollar. At the conference, 61% of the delegates expected transactional activity to increase in 2001.