Alan Woinski

Mandarin Oriental Singapore is temporarily closing its doors to undergo a six-month transformation. The Marina Bay property will reopen in September 2023 Accor has entered into a strategic partnership with Ecotourism Australia to certify all Accor hotels, apartments and resorts across Australia and the Pacific. A dozen new star hotels have been added during the last year in Nepal . According to the Department of Tourism, 12 new star hotels and three new resorts have come into operation in the last 11 months

voco hotels celebrated 100 properties signed and opened globally. The emerging IHG Hotels & Resorts’ brand reached the milestone in just five years after its first-ever hotel opening. Island Hospitality Management announced the company added 14 hotels to its third-party management portfolio during 2022. Moxy Williamsburg debuted today as the brand’s first hotel in Brooklyn, New York.

CNBC produced a segment on how hotel rates in Asia Pacific are surging . CBRE said Australian hotel sales hit $2.14 billion in 2022, the second highest transaction volume on record The Ritz-Carlton, Fukuoka will open its doors on June 21, 2023 on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan.

Truist lowered their price target on Park Hotels & Resorts to $19 from $20 while maintaining their Buy rating. BRE Hotels & Resorts and The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua are celebrating the recent success of the property following a $100 million transformation. The iconic Fairmont Hotel in downtown Vancouver, Canada, is looking to expand with an annex tower, but it will not provide any additional hotel rooms.

Savills Vietnam issued a report saying despite improvements in 2022, occupancy and room rates in Ho Chi Minh City have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels . Thai hotel operators are ramping up plans to expand investment at home and abroad according to Nikkei. The huge fire in Hong Kong Thursday night into Friday which received so much attention was the 48 story luxury Kimpton Hong Kong hotel that is under construction in Tsim Sha Tsui .

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Inc . upped their quarterly dividend by 9%, announcing a quarterly cash dividend of $0.35 per share up from the $0.32 a share quarterly dividend they paid during 2022. CoStar said that most Lodging Industry Investment Council members expect full-year lodging real estate transactions in 2023 to exceed the volume in 2022. A joint venture of NewcrestImage and Hospitality Capital Partners completed the acquisition of 11 hotels in seven states with a total of 1,551 rooms.

Choice Hotels International announced the board of directors approved a 21% increase in the quarterly cash dividend on their common stock. Concord Hospitality is preparing for a year of expansion in 2023 as the company recounts 2022 milestones and projects significant growth for the year ahead. AC Hotels by Marriott has opened its newest property in St. Petersburg, Florida, AC Hotel by Marriott St. Petersburg Downtown .

STR said hotel RevPAR in China was up 58% year over year for the week ended February 25. The number of foreign tourists arriving in Vietnam in February reached 933,000, up 7.1% versus January. Hilton announced it will bring its Doubletree brand to The Orange City for the first time with DoubleTree by Hilton Nagpur .

Lodging stocks were mixed but the big movers were all to the downside. SLNA traded down another -7% to another all-time low. VCSA and MCG were both down -6%. Service Properties Trust kept its positive momentum going, reporting a 159% increase in normalized FFO in 4Q22. Xenia Hotels & Resorts reported 4Q results slightly ahead of expectations but gave a mixed 2023 outlook.

STR said the reopening of Japan’s international border several months ago, along with the National Travel Support campaign, have helped boost Tokyo’s hotel average daily rate beyond pre-pandemic comparables for two straight months. Nikkei reported that Japan will launch a project to encourage global hotel operators to open luxury properties in national parks as early as in 2024. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee announced the general requirement for indoor and outdoor masking has been lifted.