$84M Hotel Renovation Project Wraps Up

MCLEAN, VA-It was three years in the making, but Barcelo Crestline Corp. has completed a major $84-million renovation of about 45 of its leased properties across the country. The devastating effects the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks had on the hotel and travel industry did not dissuade the company from moving forward with this project. Among the 45 properties that were submitted to a makeover were 18 Courtyard by Marriott hotels and eight Residence Inn by Marriott locales. The remaining group of 19 hotels operates under various other flags. “It took some forward thinking on the part of our management team to invest capital in properties in the midst of a market pullback,” Barcelo Crestline vice president of asset management Phil Borkowski says. “However, our experience in the hospitality industry gave us confidence that the recent slowdown presented the perfect opportunity to take room inventory out of commission and focus on enhancing the hotel’s ultimate performance so that when the market resumed we would have superior properties in place.”The timing is just about perfect for the conclusion of their massive renovation endeavor, as the hotel industry is primed for a rebound. “They’re getting much more bold in terms of the rates they expect for 2005,” PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Bjorn Hanson said during a New York panel discussion in March. “They’re going to end 2004 with two points of occupancy gain and start to feel they can be much more aggressive and actually try to recover some of the rate that was lost.