In his opening remarks at the 17th annual African American Hotel Ownership and Investment Summit, held this week at the Marriott Biscayne Bay in Miami, Fla., Andy Ingraham, president and CEO of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators, and Developers (NABHOOD), reflected on the achievements that African Americans have made in the hospitality industry.
At the start of the association in 1998, African-American hotel franchisees in the United States were scarce. “When you think about 15 years ago, you might think that African Americans didn’t own hotels,” said Ingraham. “But they did. They just didn’t own Marriotts or Hiltons.”
Now, NABHOOD members own and operate 523 hotels, most of them franchised through the major brands. With the industry recovering to peak levels and financing coming back, Ingraham and leading hotel executives encouraged African-American members to get involved in the business of hotel ownership.
Recent hotel data demonstrates that the time is ripe for hotel investment. Jan Freitag, senior vice president of global development for Smith Travel Research (STR) told the audience that the month of June produced the highest monthly room revenue ever at $11.5 billion. June also saw the highest revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth of the past six months. And with supply holding very low at .08 percent and demand staying strong at 2.3 percent, the outlook looks good through 2015.
Hotel executives from Marriott, Choice, Hilton, and La Quinta all agreed that the industry as a whole is on the upswing, but they stressed that prospective hotel owners need to have the equity in place in order to get financing. “The banks are out to make money,” said Bill Fortier, senior vice president of franchise development for Hilton Worldwide. “So you have to present them with a good location, strong sponsorship, and a good business plan. It has to be a quality project. Quality projects today will get financed.”
Hello Gentlemen!
I am very interested in your information, guidance, and advice. I currently own land (12 Acres) in Ghana (West Africa). My idea is to carve out approximately 4 acres of the site to construct a Hotel. The plan is to develop the entire site in a Mixed-Use capacity with their being a Commercial component to enhance the HOTEL portion. My site is located in the town of “Prampram”, approximately 1 mile from the BEACH, 15 miles from Ghana’s new International Airport and less than a half mile from Ghana’s proposed new “FUTBOL” Stadium site.
It is my desire to speak with someone in your organization about the “Hotel” possibilities associated with my site.
Thanks in advance
Craig Norman
240-351-1242
Very interested in hotel ownership need guidance and would like to know where so you get financing for hotel in the first place last question when are you guys going to hold a conference in Atlanta, Ga