You can dress up a pig anyway you like, but it’s still a pig. (Perhaps that’s an inappropriate reference given the disturbing talk of a Swine flu pandemic.) Back to my point: three hotel companies—Starwood, Wyndham & Marriott—reported earnings in the past few weeks, and in all three cases their PR flacks tried to put positive spins on what in reality is extremely bad news.

Take today’s first-quarter earnings announcement from Starwood. The news was terrible: profits down 81 percent, revenues down 24 percent and RevPAR, everyone’s favorite hotel benchmark, down 24 percent for all same-store hotels and 32 percent for owned same-store hotels.

According to Starwood, however, things weren’t that bad, once you consider so-called special items and other accounting tricks. In fact, despite the horrendous results, Starwood outperformed stock analyst projections. Those expectations are obviously very low.

Wyndham and Marriott told a similar story, but nowhere near as bad as Starwood’s.

The bottom line is that the hotel industry still has many miles to go before it turns the corner on this recession, no matter how we try to dress up the news.

This year’s Asian American Hotel Owners Association kicked off its annual conference today amid a lot of optimism and enthusiasm. And despite the crappy state of the hotel industry, it’s not surprising this group is upbeat. As is typical of many immigrants to the U.S., Asian hoteliers believe strongly in the American dream and are always sure success is just around the corner, if they work hard enough to achieve it.
Unofficially, I heard this year’s conference, which marks AAHOA’s 20th anniversary, has 3,200 attendees and that the trade show is sold out. Another good sign: Marriott bumped up its sponsorship for this year’s meeting.
The conference is being held at the new Gaylord mega-property at the National Harbor mixed-use complex in suburban Washington, DC. What I’ve seen of the hotel impresses me. It may be the most intimate of the Gaylord big-box hotels, if that’s possible.

Marriott kicks off a wave first-quarter earnings reports Thursday with many other lodging companies soon to folliow. The news can’t be good, but hopefully the worst will be behind us. January and February were brutal by all occupancy accounts that I heard and read, but March and April have seemingly gotten a little better. Hopefully that continues and the second quarter doesn’t look as ominous as the first. Wyndham Worldwide will announce its financial results on April 29, Starwood follows a day later and Choice on May 1.
Have these companies done enough in reduced spending and operational efficiencies to meet expectations? And for that matter, what were expectations? Predicting performance in this economy isn’t exactly easy.
Buckle up, the earnings ride could be bumpy.

Check out the April 1 Green Issue of Lodging Hospitality. The contents, all about sustainable or eco-friendly issues and news, were just posted online. It’s the first time, according to Editor Ed Watkins, that an entire issue of LH has been devoted to one topic.
The challenge in putting together the issue wasn’t coming up with enough green content, but narrowing down everything we had to choose from. Heck, from a year ago, the green movement has picked up even more steam. It’s definitely here to stay and that’s a good thing.
The contents for the April 15 issue, featuring the design awards, should be posted by early next week.

I’ve been writing for years about the potential for tourism in Cuba once our nation’s ridiculous embargo on travel to the island is lifted. Judging by recent actions and comments from the Obama administration, it could be soon. Earlier this week, the White House said it will remove all restrictions on Cuban Americans who want to visit their homeland. The next step, some believe, is reversal of the federal ban against other Americans spending money in Cuba. A bill in Congress would do that, freeing the thousands (perhaps millions) of travelers who would like a glimpse of a land so close yet so far away.
Some revisionists—could it be those in the Florida travel industry?—are sounding the alarm that Cuba’s tourism infrastructure couldn’t handle a sudden influx of additional visitors and that chaos would ensue. They argue that the island has fewer hotel rooms than Detroit and many hotels and other tourist facilities are no where near up to par. But isn’t that the point?
Once this artificial barrier is removed, the next step will be legalization of direct investment by American companies in the island. It won’t take long—a few short years and certainly less than a decade—for American hotel chains to plant their flags along the island’s hundreds of miles of pristine beaches and in the major cities, Havana being the prime one. It will be a rare opportunity to transform the island and the entire Caribbean tourism industry in the blink of an eye. I say bring it on now rather than later.
The smart leaders of Florida’s tourism business figure it’s better to join rather than fight the momentum. According to a story in today’s Miami Herald, Monroe County (home of the Florida Keys) already has a marketing plan that envisions a time when tourists split their vacation time between the Keys, and Key West specifically, and Cuba. The group’s working motto is “Two Nations. One Vacation.” This is a smart and astute approach to the looming tidal wave.

Just a quick update to a story I wrote for our Green Issue, the Orchard Hotel in San Francisco earned LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance certification. The significance of this? The hotel becomes the second California hotel to earn this designation—the first was the Ambrose Hotel in Santa Monica—and just the fourth world-wide. The majority of LEED-certified hotels are through the new construction track. Although as LEED EB, a late addition to the USGBC’s green rating system, becomes more prevalent, I think we’ll see more hotels pursue this option. It’s not easy, but an already eco-conscious hotel probably could earn certification with a not-so-significant financial investment (time and effort, though, might be significant). And obviously becoming more efficient in operations and maintenance means a significant payback, potentially enough to cover the cost of upgrades in just a few years.

Marriott International, the first major company to offer mass newspaper delivery to its rooms more than 25 years ago through a partnership with Gannett Co. and its flagship paper, USA TODAY, is streamlining its program as a result of waning newspaper demand, according to a release.
Beginning June 1, Marriott’s full-service brands will deliver papers based on customer preference, allowing the 30 million Marriott Rewards members to update their profile and choose from USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, the local paper or none at all. Non-Rewards members will be asked for their preference at check-in. Beginning April 20, the limited-service brands—Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites—will offer newspapers free-of-charge in their lobbies. Residence inn and TownePlace already did this, but Courtyard, Fairfield and SpringHill used to delivery papers to the room.
Marriott, which says demand for newspapers has dropped 25 percent across its 2,600 U.S. hotels, estimates the new distribution method will cut 50,000 papers daily, which will reduce carbon emissions by 10,350 tons a year.
This can’t be a good thing for the newspaper industry, which is already reeling more than most. The Internet and ease of access to free news has affected nearly every paper’s circulation, ad sales and ultimately revenue. USA TODAY, the nation’s biggest paper, will certainly take the biggest hit from this. The Wall Street Journal, from the sounds of the release and the quotation from an executive from Dow Jones Consumer Media Group, could get a boost as an added option for Marriott guests. The WSJ is the nation’s second largest paper by circulation.
USA TODAY has long been a favorite spot for hotel companies to advertise, no doubt because such a large chunk of its circulation came from those staying in hotels. I’d guess that could change, especially if more companies follow Marriott’s lead, which they did 25 years ago. And I wonder if USA TODAY’s coverage of the industry, also robust, changes going forward?
Personally, I love getting any and all newspapers delivered to my hotel room. If given a choice, I always opt for the local paper for variety. I can’t imagine not getting a paper at my door and I’d be upset having to trek down to the lobby for a copy. As a former newspaper editor, I admit I’m probably in the minority. It’s just not the same reading the news on a laptop or PDA.
And I’m not faulting Marriott for the new program. If demand is dropping, and I wish I could argue it isn’t, why not save some money and help the environment? If I’m faulting anyone, it’s those people out there who never learned the joys of spreading out with the morning paper and a cup of coffee, or those who have instead chosen to drink their cappuccino while perusing the news online…

Although a few signs point to an improving economy—or at least one in less of a tailspin—the meeting business is still taking it on the chin. This morning on CNBC, Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen (or “van Passion” as CNBC referred to him on its website) said meeting cancellations at the company’s hotels are up by 50 percent.
And this story in the Orlando Business Journal shows that the Home of the Mouse is getting hit particularly hard. A survey by the local CVB of 15 hotels showed 114 cancellations worth 146,000 roomnights and $26 million in revenues during the first quarter. Also, according to the story, the U.S. Travel Association says $1 billion in meeting business was lost nationally in the first two months of the year.
Hotel companies are pulling out all the stops to incentivize travelers to get back on the road. These promotions may have an impact on individual business travel, but groups and companies—even ones in the hotel business—are uniformly rethinking their meeting plans and, more often than not, canceling or severely altering get-togethers of most any kind.

“Flattening” was the operative word for Starwood chief Frits van Paasschen in a generally lackluster interview this morning on CNBC. While he admitted that group cancellations for the brand company are up by 50 percent, he believes that trend is “flattening out.” He thinks the “sense of panic” among U.S. companies over the wisdom of meeting in hotels is going away.
Without being specific, he says the declines in RevPAR the company has seen in the past six months is also, you guessed it, “flattening out but not yet bouncing back.”
Finally, not surprisingly, van Paasschen is bullish on the long-term prospects for the hotel business, particularly at the upper end. “Over time, luxury will come back. It’s a basic element of human nature to take care of yourself,” he told the generally ineffective team of interviewers lobbing him softball questions.
He admitted–and here’s the rub for the industry–that hotels generally lag the recession, both going in and out, by six months or so. Given that the economy probably hasn’t reached its low point yet, it’s still a long time before hotel results are anything to crow about.

I’d almost forgotten that Pennsylvania approved limited casino gaming back in 2004. To date, seven of a possible 14 gaming facilities are open. Yesterday, the state gaming board approved a license for its first so-called resort casino at the Valley Forge Convention Center, a complex that includes two hotels and meeting space and will add a 500-slot casino parlor later this year or early in 2010.

The story now becomes who gets the state’s other resort gaming license. (The law approved seven racetrack casinos, five standalone casinos and two in resorts. The resort casinos can each have 500 slot machines; the others, 5,000). Anyway, one early bidder for the other resort license was Nemacolin Woodlands, the plush resort built by 84 Lumber magnate Joseph Hardy deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania.

The hotel withdrew its application, leaving a group in the Poconos as the only other applicant. Now word comes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Nemacolin might be back in the hunt for a license.

The property could get a shot in the arm with the addition of slots, assuming it’s done tastefully. The property is plush with great accommodations and facilities, but it must be hurting these days since it’s bread-and-butter business is meetings and conventions.