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Briefs: Dallas market leads U.S. pipeline | Ashford’s Q3 results

Dallas market leads U.S. pipeline: In a recent report released by Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the close of the third quarter of 2020, the top five U.S. markets with the largest total hotel construction pipelines are Dallas with 154 projects/18,592 rooms; followed by Los Angeles with 150 projects/25,188 rooms; New York City with 144 projects/25,147 rooms; Atlanta with 134 projects/18,670 rooms; and Houston with 109 projects/11,384 rooms. These top five markets account for 15% of the rooms in the total U.S. pipeline. Twenty of the top 50 markets in the U.S. have more than 50 projects in their hotel construction pipelines.

Ashford’s Q3 results: Dallas, Texas-based Ashford Hospitality Trust today reported financial results and performance measures for the third quarter ended September 30. According to analysis from Baird Equity Research, “fundamentals continue to improve gradually on a sequential basis (albeit slower than expected) and hotel-level cash flow breakeven levels are nearing; however, significant uncertainties and challenges remain regarding the company’s ability to right-size the balance sheet and meet monthly debt service requirements.” Key highlights include:

  • Net loss attributable to common stockholders was US$109.0 million, or US$9.26 per diluted share for the quarter
  • Comparable RevPAR for all hotels decreased 72.1% to US$36.63 during the quarter
  • Adjusted EBITDAre was negative US$22.7 million for the quarter
  • The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of US$120.9 million and restricted cash of US$89.5 million. The vast majority of the restricted cash is from lender and manager held reserves. Ashford is working with its property managers and lenders to utilize lender and manager held reserves to fund operating shortfalls. At the end of the quarter, US$13.2 million was due from third-party hotel managers, which is Ashford’s cash held by one of its property managers and is also available to fund hotel operating costs
  • During the quarter, the company transferred ownership of 13 hotels to lenders

Chicago’s first ‘ghost kitchen’: Chicago-based REIT Oxford Capital Group will partner with Butler Hospitality as the New York City-based ghost kitchen operates a new all-day dine-in restaurant at The Godfrey Hotel Chicago and expands virtual room service to additional hotels in Chicago. Butler will operate the restaurant and will be Chicago’s first ghost kitchen for hotels specializing in virtual room service and catering. 

Wellness trend grows: Raffles Hotels & Resorts has released a white paper, “Answering the Desire for Wellness in Luxury Travel.” The area of wellness has grown from grassroots movement to core framework and is now considered an essential practice that promises longevity, physical and mental health, and social well-being, the paper says. According to a recent report by the Wellness Tourism Association, 44% of travelers are looking to the wellness segment for their next trip, once they return to traveling. The most important reason for taking a wellness vacation, according to 38% of travelers is “to return to everyday life feeling rejuvenated.” In 2020, the importance of nature and spending time in the outdoors has also been reinforced as a key pillar of wellness vacations.

Read the report 

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