“ There were a lot of big changes within the market ; the owners , really started pushing a lot on the operators . There were so many requests for accurate forecasts , which created a lot of pressure , a lot of problems sometimes . But everybody worked together and as the time went on the hotels started seeing some recovery , especially in 2021 , in the luxury market , at the end of the second semester .
“ We even saw an increase on the stay of the clients , the guests starting changing little by little . And especially in the resorts , there was a significant increase in ADR .”
With the market still recovering , Tom Magnuson , CEO , Magnuson Hotels pointed to the need for hotels to be flexible . He said : “ We ' ve seen furlough , rent freezes , business rate holidays . But the situation we ' re seeing today is that these were just plasters or Band Aids that were put on the problem . Peel them off , we ' re seeing a more difficult situation .
“ The amount of people travelling is growing at about four times the GDP of the westernised countries . They ’ re just travelling in in different ways . And where we ' re finding it with hotels here in the UK , and in the US , is with a fresh approach to business segmentation . world , the brands are not resisting the move to franchise , they know that there are white label operators who are capable of running hotels pretty well , sometimes better than they are . And they know quite a few owners are able to do that as well
“ I think where it makes sense for both parties , even in the luxury space , is that you are going to see the beginnings of franchise arrangements . I think that ' s coming down the track more and more .”
Change is not just coming , it is here and how luxury was delivered two years ago has changed .
“ Hotels are going to have to look to new sectors . Predominantly leisure hotels are going to have to look to new sectors and we ' re going back to the old school method of the phonebook and the sales manager . How many local businesses there within a 30-mile radius ? How many new corporations are moving to town and actually calling on those people ? And asking for the business ?”
And for the market itself ? Simon Allison , founder of Hoftel , called change . He concluded : “ When I set up Hoftel 16 years ago , all the hotels were management agreements , it was really designed as a forum for owners who had management agreements .
“ Now over half of our owners have some sort of hybrid ownership structure . Some of them have franchises , some of them have franchises with white label , and some of them have their own brand and operation . And that seems to be spreading more and more .
" So you ' ll see owners all the time , and the pandemic has really pushed it ahead , reviewing whether they want the operator with all the very heavy burden of recharges with often very heavy operating structures , and sometimes the lack of flexibility to stay in the hotel or whether they want to look at something different . I think more and more across the
About the author Katherine Doggrell is a co-founder at NewDog PR , the strategic PR agency focused on the hotel investment community . Katherine was a journalist for 20 years in the sector , working for publications including the FT , Business 2.0 and the leading hotel B2B titles . She is the author of Checking Out - What the Rise of the Sharing Economy Means for the Future of the Hotel Industry , published by Bloomsbury .
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