KANSAS CITY, MO As of June 1, 2001, the Hotel Motel Brokers Association (HMBA) will become Hotel Brokers International. The name change will be supplemented by the unveiling of a new logo as well as the launch of a new website.
Although the name change and new look roughly coincide with the American Hotel & Motel Association s (AH&MA) decision to shed the word motel from its moniker, Tony DeGeorge, HMBAs 2001 president, told HOTEL BUSINESS. that the driving force behind the decision was not linked to AH&MA s impending name change.
We want everyone to know that we truly recognize the fact that we have been working on an international basis. Over the last few years, we have seen so much more business coming from overseas investors that we need to acknowledge the scope of our presence in our name, said DeGeorge.
According to Sharon Lemon, vp/marketing and communications for the HMBA, although the association does not analyze and quantify which sales involve domestic versus foreign investors on a transaction-by-transaction basis, a marked increase in international investment has been noticed over the past five to seven years, with the sharpest upswing being realized over the last two to three years.
Currently, the HMBA membership includes approximately 45 broker offices that handle hotel real estate transactions with an equal number of affiliate members in various hotel-related industries including lending and appraisal companies.
According to DeGeorge, the website is slated to go live sometime after June 1 and definitely will be operational by the end of the summer. Included on the site will be a list of brokers and properties for sale.
The new logo, which is in its final stages, will be unveiled on June 1 to coincide with the HMBA name change.
Our new logo will incorporate elements of our previous logo and look. We are keeping the same colors blue and gold, said DeGeorge. We don t want to separate ourselves from whom we have been in the past or appear to be something brand new, we simply want to update our image, he added. (3/21/01) Kelly Wayne