‘Investing in hotels: is it always the right time?’ April 2025 | Rydge Webinar (ex-Kpmg)
I listened carefully to the webinar I was invited to by Rydge (ex-Kpmg) and 123IM on 09 April 2025 on the subject of ‘Investing in hotels: is it always the right time?’
Obviously, yes!
But you have to remain selective and vigilant about opportunities, cherry picking. It's very interesting to note the continuing evolution of trends or, more accurately, concepts, geared towards hybridisation and new uses (of the hostel, lifestyle and youth hostel type...), hotel residences or boutique residences, or even residential seminars ‘in the green’ as in the countryside !
This trend is also accompanied by projects to refurbish existing assets, with a view to renewing, redesigning and repositioning hotels. I would add the even more upstream route of dismantled industrial wastelands or vacant châteaux surrounded by vast estates of several dozen hectares... to be transformed and converted into future (upmarket) hotels.
Every word counts, and the hotel investment industry may be a dream, but it must keep its feet firmly on the ground.
In conclusion
Despite the acceleration of increasingly short cycles (crisis cycles, Covid, wars, global political and economic upheavals, sometimes earthquakes or other climatic events....), the key word is ‘resilience’. Real estate resilience of hotel properties, operational resilience of hotels.
Hotels and, more broadly, the hotel industry, an asset to watch? Yes, but with a sharp eye and a highly selective approach, based on location, the underlying tourism industry, the condition of the property, performance and profitability, control of the interest in the real estate and the hotel business, the opportunity for reversibility, value creation, income security, and anticipation of the exit in the short, medium or long term....In fact, never forget the old adage that you have to think about the exit as soon as you enter the property of a hotel project or an existing hotel !
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