GlobeSt.com: Has the downturn at all impacted your development plans?

Wyatt: We're still seeing deals. I would say they are a bit slower, but we're still about 20% ahead from 2007, although it has slowed down a little over the last month or so. The reason is that focused service is easier to get financing for; and many of our owners are long time hotel people who have been doing this for a while and are really used to fluctuations in the economy and tend to have relationships with local banks.

They're all having to put more equity into their deals, but I've been spending a lot of time with owners lately, and many of them have the feeling that this kind of economy is actually a good time to begin to find sites and establish a presence in markets that you want to get into. That's a bit truer for focused service that upscale. In the luxury business, it's a little more difficult to get money right now. That's a much tougher place to be.