LOS ANGELES, CA— “We’ve been stress-tested over the past few years… and we’ve survived,” Strategic Hotel Capital Chairman/CEO Laurence Geller told a packed house at the 2003 edition of Meet The Money here yesterday. During the course of a presentation discerning where the hotel community has been as well as where it is likely to go in the months ahead, Geller maintained— what with the dot.com crash, 9/11, struggling economy, war in Iraq, a depressed airline industry, insurance rate hikes, SARS, etc.— it sometimes seems “the industry has suffered more plagues than Pharaoh.” Accordingly, he contended the real challenge for the hotel sector these days is to demonstrate it “deserves to succeed.” As such, Geller noted achievement of this objective must necessarily include: greater transparency in reporting; a closer alignment of ownership and management interests; and further growth restraint, particularly the recognition that “unit profitability— and not ever-increasing market distribution— is the answer.” Looking ahead, the SHC chieftain suggested: “The industry’s big companies are likely to get bigger… but not big enough to allow them to impose their will on the hotel marketplace.” Summing up, Geller claimed: “In the long run, the industry will come out of this [present-day difficulty] stronger and more realistic than ever.”—Michael Billig
