Hotel Execs Check Into New Opportunities

NEW YORK CITY-As REITs ramp up and group rates continue to climb, it’s been one hot summer for the hotel market. With a near $5 billion in transaction volume during the first five months of 2011 alone, big brands and big names are beginning to drive business in top-tier markets and secondary and tertiary regions once again.

But as the economy remains in flux and unemployment remains high, concerns over the stability of the industry is still on everybody’s minds post-recession. “These secondary markets didn’t get hit as hard as these urban markets had,” said David Pepper, senior vice president of global development for Choice Hotels International, during GlobeSt.com’s “New Era for Hotel Opportunities” webinar on July 27, sponsored by Choice. “The leisure traveler has stayed consistent. But now there are some world politics going on. If gas prices continue to go back up, that’s where the leisure traveler is really going to be affected.”