Lavish Hotels out of Vogue: Marriott
Luxury hotels with $1,000-a-night room rates and extravagant Caribbean resorts may face a tougher recovery than the rest of the industry, Marriott International Inc (MAR.N) executives said on Wednesday.
"The most over-the-top excesses will probably be a long time -- if ever-- coming back," Marriott President Arne Sorenson told the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit.
He drew a distinction between these hotels and the typical Ritz-Carlton luxury hotels the company operates. Marriott's other brands include its namesake properties and Courtyards.
Sorenson added that some projects in the Caribbean, which tend to be smaller and partly rely on residences, "may never come back" because they rely on the kind of lavish spending that has gone out of vogue with travelers.
"They require really that conspicuous consumption to support their entire business model," Sorenson told reporters in a telephone interview.
Of all hotels, luxury properties were the hardest hit last year. While rates sank nearly 9 percent for the U.S. hotel industry, luxury hotels saw their rates tumble more than 16 percent, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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Source - Reuters
