SCHAUMBURG, IL—The current financial turmoil on Wall Street is creating problems throughout the business community, noted Jerome Cataldo, executive vp of the Hostmark Hospitality Group, a third-party hotel management firm. “It’s increasingly difficult for anyone right now to forecast and budget for 2009 with the economic situation changing almost daily,” Cataldo told HOTEL BUSINESS®. Consistent with analyst reports that see lodging demand continuing to soften and the development pipeline slowing only moderately, Cataldo expressed deep reservations as 2008 entered the fourth quarter. “I don’t see 2009 being a very positive year for the industry,” he said. With 27 properties under management across the country from La Quinta, CA, to Tampa, FL, Hostmark is national in scope. Yet Cataldo casts his forecast in more local terms. “Performance will be on a market-by-market basis, customer-by-customer. But I still think overall it’s going to be fairly soft. In terms of improvement, I don’t see anything significant on the horizon until 2010.”
