It is highly likely that I am the only one geeky enough to have watched Max Headroom. For those of you still with me, in the first episode of the 1987 science fiction television show Max Headroom, blipverts were new high-speed, concentrated, high-intensity television commercials lasting about five seconds. Their purpose was to prevent channel-switching during standard-length commercials. But they had the side-effect of causing the nervous systems of “particularly lazy, petulant viewers” to overload and their heads to explode.
As to Sound Bites, Mark Twain described the concept as “a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.” It is characterized by a short phrase or sentence that deftly captures the essence of what the speaker is trying to say. Such key moments in dialogue (or monologue) stand out better in the audience’s memory and thus become the “taste” that best represents the entire “meal” of the larger message or conversation. Sound bites are a natural consequence of people placing ever greater emphasis on summarizing ever-increasing amounts of information in their lives.
By now at least three-quarters of the intial readers are gone. Those of you left will now be rewarded with some current thoughts and facts on the hospitality industry.
1. According to Deutsche Bank the best potential buying opportunities are 9-12 months away.
2. A comment for the sponsors of hospitality conferences, if you are going to sponsor conferences (especially on distressed hotels and resorts) please have them in a hotel. Choice Hotels International is sponsoring a webinar (cost $59) on Distressed Hotels: How Bad will it Get? I have an answer, much worse if people don’t actually go to hotels.
3. According to Barclays, the underlying fundamentals of the lodging industry have been so weakened by the economic downturn that industry recovery is likely going to significantly lag economic recovery.
4. Bloomberg reported that as many as one in five U.S. hotel loans may default through 2010.
5. A University of California economist believes hotels will have the highest foreclosure rate of any commercial real estate sector.
6. Realpoint LLC said a third of the $8.6 billion in securities backed by hotel loans due in 2010 are at risk of defaulting. Twenty percent of the $99.8 billion securitized loans due over the next 12 months are hotel loans.
7. The unfortunate reluctant owners of hotel and resort assets need distressed hotel/resort solutions that recapture the exposed value of their hospitality assets. This hotel industry specific help should come in the form of hotel asset managers that offer comprehensive solutions from establishing control up to and including disposition.
HARDISTY BAXTER can be contacted through the web at www.hardistybaxter.com.
