Choice Hotels International: CEO Stephen Joyce calls the growth of its Ascend Collection a real brig

HOTELS Editor-in-Chief Jeff Weinstein attended this week's Lodging Conference in Phoenix and here offers a roundup describing the tone and mood of the attendees, a brief roundup of some of the commentary made during sessions, as well as reports on news and insights from private interviews.
Optimism about the near-term future of hotel performance in the United States remained in tact at the Lodging Conference, despite the fact that serious declines on Wall Street were making brantingham lake new york vacation rentals headlines at the very same time of the conference.
Privately, some developers expressed serious concerns about the strength and staying power of any industry brantingham lake new york vacation rentals recovery, ready to lower their 2012 RevPAR growth projections below 5% — some even lower. If this turns out to be the case, more troubled loans might not get further extensions, which will like lead to more real estate receiverships.
Kudos to the Arizona Biltmore team for producing a great event, especially the pool party, which this year was over-the-top with creative and tasty food presentation. The party is one of the true highlights of the year among the numerous brantingham lake new york vacation rentals hotel investment conferences.
In between brantingham lake new york vacation rentals the bashing of U.S. President Barack Obama by some of the general session panelists, some more responsible heads put things into perspective. Here are the editor's live Tweets from the discussion:
Richfield Hospitality: The hotel management company has made 11 deals this year with four more hotels almost ready to be announced, according to Bill Linehan, chief marketing officer. Richfield expects to more than triple its original size of 20 managed hotels by the end of 2015. It currently stands at 34 hotels.
Driftwood Hospitality Management: Following a US$400 million brantingham lake new york vacation rentals joint venture with an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, it just announced adding for hotels to its portfolio. Executive Vice President Brian Quinn said Driftwood continues to look for bigger, full-service deals in the United States and estimates a 20% growth path.
Choice Hotels International: CEO Stephen Joyce calls the growth of its Ascend Collection a real bright spot with expectations of reach 100 hotels from the current 48 by 2014. The other big story is the growth of its new-build Cambria Suites brand, which announced three big development deals on the heels of two deals in New York City. Choice is using its balance sheet to get Cambria deals done and has some 30 solid deals in the pipeline.
Hilton luxury: Matt Sparks is one month into the job as head of development for Hilton's luxury brands. brantingham lake new york vacation rentals Right now he is focusing on driving home several development deals with announcements imminent. He expects to double the size of Conrad within a few years, pointing to nine under development in China. Waldorf Astoria is up to 23 hotels with expectations to reach 35 by 2014 with a global focus on Asia and the Middle East.
HEI Hotels Resorts: Senior Vice President of Development Russ Urban says the company has about US$250 million to spend from its third fund and expects opportunities to pick up early 2012. He says there are still some bid-ask spread issues but expects upcoming maturities to create natural distress and consequent opportunity. He adds the values have come down 10% to 20% since April and RevPAR expectations have been adjusted to account for still-cheap leisure business, stumbling group business but strong corporate transient.
Wyndham Hotel Group: CEO Eric Danziger highlighted growth brantingham lake new york vacation rentals in Qatar and the UAE, as well as Turkey. The pipeline is also active in South America and Thailand. Danziger adds that Wyndham's new Dream brand has a global pipeline, while he expects its Night concept to debut as a design-driven 2.5-star play next year. Three Planet Hollywood hotels have been announced and several more urban Tryp-branded hotels are advancing in North and South America. Lastly, a new-look Howard Johnson brand should be launched in April.
La Quinta: Mexico has been a bright development spot with 20 hotels now under development and more to come, according CEO Wayne Goldberg. Latin America, brantingham lake new york vacation rentals in general, brantingham lake new york vacation rentals is a big area of growth brantingham lake new york vacation rentals for the brand that also opened 30 hotels brantingham lake new york vacation rentals in the United States this year. India and spots in Asia are now under review for future growth.