Earlier this year, a large group of hotel owners began to organize and create a comprehensive push back at the hotel franchising model.
Fair Franchising Initiative held its launch conference on March 5, a little more than a week before President Trump declared a national emergency as the new coronavirus pandemic spread to the U.S. The crisis has all but paralyzed the lodging sector and the U.S. economy as a whole.
It has also exposed the cracks in the franchiser-franchisee relationship as frightened and frustrated owners say hotel companies are not doing enough to protect their businesses from collapse.
This episode of Lodging Leaders is the second part of a series examining the hotel franchiser-franchisee relationship that we began in early March. It is also part of Long Live Lodging’s special report on the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.
You’ll hear from owners and veteran industry leaders as well as a lawyer well versed in brand license disputes.
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Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.