Hotels' Future Looking up--at Last

NEW YORK CITY-”Being English, I am quite optimistic,” noted Andrew Cosslett, chief executive, IHG, regarding the near-term future of hotels. Clarifying, he explained that “quite” means: “It might be [good] and it might not.” Lalia Rach, divisional dean and HVS professor, Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, NYU, moderated a panel of hoteliers in a discussion called, “The CEOs Check In.” The panel was comprised of Cosslett; Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian; David Kong, president and CEO, Best Western International, Inc.;  and Arne Sorenson, president and COO of Marriot International, Inc.

Hoplamazian said that the hotel sector is “in very early stages of recovery. Year over year looks fantastic, but [that's] coming after one of the worst year’s on record. We need to see some more durable evidence that we’re in a recovery.”