trends in the hotel industry
Loyalty Program Membership, Contribution, Liability, and Costs Continue to Grow
CBRE Hotels | November 4, 2024
By Rachael Rothman CFA, ISHC, Robert Mandelbaum, and Christine Bang Strong loyalty programs help hotel brands lower customer acquisition costs, increase direct-to-consumer access, and offset occupancy shortfalls during shoulder periods and weaker economic conditions. After analyzing publicly available data from five large hotel companies, we found that while growth in several key metrics slowed in 2023, loyalty members' overall contribution to occupancy increased, though marginal contribution per member contracted. Benefits The average number of loyalty program members at the subject five companies increased 11.3% in 2023, slower tha...
Parking and EV Stations Charge U.S. Hotel Performance
Jim Hurless | September 9, 2024
By Robert Mandelbaum and Jim Hurless Parking revenues have increased by 23.1% from 2019 to 2023, based on a sample of U.S. properties in CBRE’s Trends® in the Hotel Industry database, which is more than four times greater than the growth rate for total hotel revenues during that period. Not only is parking a growing source of revenue, but it is relatively profitable as well. In 2023, parking department profit margins for the CBRE sample were 61.3% of total department revenue, while the average profit margin for all other-operated departments was 58.7% at those hotels. While the contribution to revenues and profits is welcomed news to hot...
Hotel Property Tax Relief Varies by Geography
CBRE Hotels | October 2, 2023
By Robert Mandelbaum and David P. Fuller MAI Based on a sample of more than 3,000 hotels from CBRE’s Trends® in the Hotel Industry database, U.S. hotel property tax expenditures averaged $2,626 per available room (PAR) in 2022. This is 10.8% less than the $2,943 PAR recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Concurrently, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for these same properties fell by 1.7%. From 2019 to 2022, the combination of EBITDA decreases, and cap rate increases put downward pressure on values. A 100 bp increase in cap rates, coupled with the 1.7% decrease in EBITDA correlate...
Guest Loyalty Programs Provide, But They Cost
Robert Mandelbaum, Christine Bang | September 5, 2023
By Robert Mandelbaum and Christine Bang Over the years, the fees hotel owners pay to franchise companies have typically grown at a pace greater than the rise in hotel rooms revenue. Most franchise-related fees are charged as a percent of rooms revenue, and therefore, by assessing the relative changes in rooms revenue and franchise fees we can make some assumptions. In 2021, acknowledging the financial stress hotel owners faced during the pandemic, the franchise companies were sympathetic and provided some reprieve. While rooms revenue increased by 55.4% in 2021, total franchise-related fees rose by just 45.9%. Equilibrium returned in ...
U.S. Hotel Owners Eyeing Interest Coverage
Bill Grice and Robert Mandelbaum | June 1, 2023
By Bill Grice, Robert Mandelbaum According to CBRE’s February 2023 Investment Performance forecast, total revenues for the average U.S. hotel returned to 2019 levels in 2022, but the recovery of hotel profits will be delayed until later this year. Hotel franchise and management companies have benefited the most from the ongoing revenue recovery because the fees they receive are frequently earned as a percent of revenue. However, for many hotel owners, along with their lenders and investors, the lag in the return of profits has been a hardship. Afterall, it is the profits of hotel operations that enable owners to pay their debt obli...
Incentive Management Fees Return With Recovery
Robert Mandelbaum and Tim Dick, Ph.D. | May 4, 2023
By Robert Mandelbaum and Tim Dick, Ph.D. Most management contracts include an incentive management fee in addition to the base management fee. The incentive fees are designed to make management more conscious of the bottom line since owners achieve their returns and pay their debts from profits, not revenue. Incentive management fees are earned by the operator once a designated profit threshold is achieved. Given the depressed performance of hotels during the 2020 industry downturn, unsurprisingly almost no hotel owners paid an incentive fee to their managers that year. Fortunately for U.S. hotel operators, incentive fees have risen con...
Quantifying the Franchise Relationship During COVID-19
Robert Mandelbaum | August 8, 2022
By Robert Mandelbaum In 2020, the average hotel in CBRE’s annual Trends® in the Hotel Industry survey experienced a 108 percent decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), resulting in an EBITDA margin of -5.5 percent. For hotels, EBITDA represents the cash flows from operations that are used to fund debt service and provide returns to investors. This is by far the greatest decline in EBITDA since CBRE began tracking the performance of the U.S. lodging industry in the 1930s. Facing such traumatic declines in profitability and insolvency, hotel owners reached out to their lenders, investors...
How Changes in Hotel Revenues Suggest Changes in Guest Preferences
Robert Mandelbaum | October 22, 2019
By Robert Mandelbaum From the high-tech preferences of Generation Z, to the experiential fondness of Millennials, to the health and wellness realities facing Baby Boomers, hotels continually adjust the amenities and services they offer to satisfy their guests. These adjustments are based on extensive consumer research, much of which has been published in the lodging industry trade publications. From the owner’s and operator’s perspective, the changes in guest preference manifest themselves on the hotel operating statement. Over the years, income from the variety of revenue-generating departments operated at hotels rise and fall as g...
