NEW YORK? During an NYU Conference panel entitled, ?Back to Basics: The Full Service Segment,? full service owner/operator/franchisors noted that strategies adopted this year in their segment directly relate to their position in the industry. Panelists, who included Tom Arasi, president of Bass Hotels & Resorts? The Americas; Fred Kleisner, CEO of Wyndham International; Scott Miller, president of Hyatt Hotels Corp.; Chris Nassetta, president/CEO of Host Marriott Corp. and Ronald Silva, executive vp, Lowe Enterprises, said that as time goes by, size and branding will become more and more important. Nassetta said that from a REIT?s perspective, Host Marriott will spend $400 million in renovations on its existing properties, and that the company may ink a small handful of deals for new hotels this year. It will also seek to buy back more of its undervalued stock. Meanwhile, Arasi said that more than $700 million will be spent this year on Inter-Continental, Crowne Plaza and other brand developments worldwide for growing hotel giant Bass Hotels and Resorts. In particular, Bass will look to continue forming joint ventures to move into new geographical regions much like it did in Latin America with Presidente Hotels, and will build several new Inter-Continental hotels as well as seek out acquisition and management contracts. Smart growth is on the agenda for Wyndham International, according to Kleisner, who said the company will be focusing on revenue generation and cost controls as it looks to grow its portfolio carefully and strategically in locations that will be most beneficial to the brand. Similarly, Hyatt will seek to improve its brand presence as well as its stature by generating new value-added programs such as Hyatt?s Gold Passport frequent guest program and a new spa concept called Spa Hyatt that will be rolled out later this year. On the technology front, Wyndham?s Kleisner said that hotel customers are now expecting to have the same accommodations as they have at home. He noted that having a consistency in technological offerings could be challenging because ?many hotel companies lack control over their owners.? Meanwhile, Hyatt?s Miller said he is still not sold on the necessity of high-speed in-room Internet access. Noting that the three properties in which Hyatt has the service (Bellevue and Spokane, WA and San Jose, CA) report only a five-percent usage of the service, Miller said he is a ?wait-and-see guy. I do believe we need it in all of our meeting rooms and we are putting T1 lines in those. But at the moment I am not absolutely convinced that in-room access is a necessity regarding the guest.? Miller said that Hyatt?s on-line purchasing alliance with Marriott will at first include buying items like fax machines and telephones but will evolve eventually to ?purchasing all kinds of consumables all the way through to electricity.? The executives were all upbeat about the next 12 months the industry faces. Bass? Arasi said that ?things feel quite good to us, despite rising interest rates. Barring anything unforeseen, we will have a consistent story. The operators seem to be able to hold costs in line and we will begin to see more revenues come in from e-commerce. The next 12 months will represent a favorable e-commerce environment for what is going on in the industry.? Arasi said that he sees a lot of opportunity ?coming up with smaller regional players running out of room in markets; we will continue to be strategic in where we grow.? Miller noted that ?we will all be surprised by RevPAR growth; we will see it in the high three?s on average. And a year from now we will be talking about technology joint ventures.? Host Marriott?s Nassetta said that the ?next six to nine months will be better than anyone is saying. Earnings expectations will continue to be strong. In the next year we will have a lot of supply, with the economy?s slowing. One year from now we will have slower RevPAR than now but it will be offset
