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Hotel CEOs bullish on U.S. corporate travel demand

January 26, 2012 | Hotel Marketing

Multibrand hotel company CEOs speaking at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit here projected strong demand and rising rates for the next several years, as most do not expect economic challenges in Europe to have a significant impact on their business.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said corporate transient demand was strong in 2011 and that "transient dynamics in the U.S. continue to be good." He added that group demand also increased last year but lagged transient demand. Booking windows, Hoplamazian said, "are not getting shorter but not lengthening out, which is my key in keeping tabs of corporate confidence."

According to Carlson president and CEO Hubert Joly, "More companies are planning to increase travel than are planning to cut travel. We have some economic headwinds, so it seems like travel has some legs, here."

Those trends coupled with little hotel development in the United States should translate to strong performance by U.S. hotels during the next four to five years, said Choice Hotels International president and CEO Stephen Joyce. "We're still seeing struggles to get development going, and financing markets won't improve anytime this year, so there will be no real new inventory until 2014 or 2015," he explained. "The supply-demand balance is better than I've seen in 20 years. We'll have a good run, regardless of the economy, and if we get some help from the economy, we'll have a really great run."

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