Shah and his Noble Investment Group had seen a lot of broken deals and narrower booking windows for hotels over the last quarter. Ford noted the swift drop in the GDP and a "tightening" of lending, which spiked in 2007, based on a Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey. There was also a lot of foreign capital in the market. But the two speakers did not see a hopeless market.

[IMGCAP(2)]"There is doubt as to whether we are in a recession," Shah said. "I'm not sure that it matters." He continued to explain that there is a lot of opportunity in the current market if one exercises discipline and returns to the basic techniques for successful hospitality investment: buying at the right base, branding and market location. He also reminded attendees that a lower dollar means that foreign travel to the US is up, especially from Canada, Europe, India and China.

Ford reinforced the idea of opportunity in his presentation, looking to the construction pipeline as an indication of growth. As of the first quarter of 2008, Econometrics has a preliminary prediction of 760,000 rooms in the construction pipeline as compared to 256,000 in 2003. "Why would the pipeline continue to develop in the downturn of an economic crisis?" Ford queried. "Local lenders see hotels as an attractive asset class. Hotel funds have been solid. We're in the middle of a branding revolution."