WASHINGTON, D.C. At the March 23rd CEO Panel held at the Cornell University Hospitality Industry Strategy Conference, some of the industry s top executives noted that the last four weeks have shown a sizeable dip in business, as previously anticipated.
While panelists agreed that the drop-off in hotel performance was inconsistent across the U.S., they also said that the low performances would not be long lasting.
Featured speakers on the panel included Jim Abrahamson, Baymont Inns & Suites; Pres Kaybacoff, Historic Restoration Inc.; Ed Mace, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts; and Stephanie Sonnabend, Sonesta International Hotels. The session was moderated by David Butler, dean, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University and Tom Hewitt, Interstate Hotels.
“Today I feel more like Mr. Magoo than (Alan) Greenspan trying to see the magic behind our economy,” Abrahamson said. “Generally, things have been holding steady but over the last four weeks, rate growth has slipped. More than anything, we are looking to just hold on, remain steady, or keep to a 2% drop-off and we ll be happy.”
“The challenge is how to keep the panic out of our industry. We don t want our GMs to drop rates to make up for dips in business,” said Sonnabend.
“We began the year expecting 5% RevPAR growth. But the year has opened slowly, so we are in the process of re-forecasting for the year. It s been spotty,” said Mace. He noted that the Scottsdale, AZ and Hawaii markets are good, New York and San Francisco are slow, as is the Caribbean. (3/23/01) Shannon McMullen