Bennett weighed in on the Fed's plans for extend and pretend (amend). "It looked like it was working," he said, with the CMBS market improving, but now with the CMBS fading and a growing economic uncertainty, the government will be faced with making the decision once again of whether to leak out distressed assets or revert to an early 90s RTC mass sell-off strategy. He mused that it may be as simple as who the next president is which will decide its fate in 2013.

Denziger focused on an issue he felt has gotten out of control: brand standards. It is the "fuse on the debt bomb" in lodging. He said, "It should be only the essence of what a customer wants." The competing pieces of technology, from only stainless steel appliances to whether or not anyone needs a phone in the toilet, has become an arms race which was slowly strangling owners. Wyndahm, in fact, recently did a 100% evaluation of all of its brand standards, essentially asking each one, "Why do we need this?" or "Does the customer really want this?" He noted they had success in rooting out excess, without naming names.

In turn, the innovation factor seems to have led to the rise in boutique hotels and pressuring brands. Haggerty added, "Customers are not stressed out about this." Denziger thinks the pressure should always be on the brand and if boutiques begin outperforming certain brands, "Shame on the brand for letting them." Denziger also pointed out that it is best to keep the ego out of the way with brands and boutiques merging. A soft branding, where the brand name is not on top, but the boutique has access to frequency programs and reservation systems seems to work well, he felt.

Bennett revisited the larger economic concerns, albeit globally this time, and explained the impending Greek default--which he said had already happened and that Greece simply didn't know it yet--would trigger larger, broader problems that could be another Lehman collapse "where we all get creamed." This lingering uncertainty will stimy the lending markets, regardless of any quantitative easing, since banks just don't have the stomach for risk investments in this environment.

This led to another issue in that many on the panel felt tax credits for building may go away. "The problem is municipalities don't have capital," Haggerty noted. A simple tax credit won't do it when it comes to building a hotel from scratch, thus keeping construction unemployment particularly high in the US. Haggerty pointed out that all of these things can be boiled down to stability and job growth. Until those problems are dealt with, the ancillary issues will persist.

Bloss noted the bright note of the future, that Gen X and Y will be the "biggest consumers in history" and it was time for hoteliers to be aware and take advantage of these trends. There is a need to embrace the infrstructure and resources necessary to build on these current and future customers. "Engage now, as opposed to OTAs," he explained. Hoteliers cannot put it off like they did the online travel agencies and then try to jump on late. And thought fundamentals in the market will not change of what a customer wants, innovation will be key.