Hotels and Resorts
Discover Hotel and Resorts insights on hospitality markets, investment trends, design evolution, operational strategies, Airbnb and micro-hotel impacts, and case studies that help ULI members navigate business challenges and opportunities in global lodging and hospitality.
In a competitive global market, resort designers are racing to define the “new luxury.” The modern concept of luxury is “really about elegance and simplicity,” said Richard Centolella, a principal in design firm EDSA, during a panel discussion at the ULI Fall Meeting.
Tourism is a critical factor in the U.S. and world economies. “The impacts of tourism on a community can be beneficial if planned and managed, or extremely damaging if left without controls,” says Michael Kelly, former chairman of the APA’s tourism planning division.
Technology and changing travel habits are checking in as long-term guests.
The “fear of missing out” is a major motivator for today’s most affluent millennials who want every travel moment to be memorable—and tweetable.
Resorts and vacation homes—always the last real estate sector to recover from an economic downturn—are seeing increased activity, but developers are looking toward the future.
Built on land acquired during the Great Recession, Swire’s Brickell City Centre could transform downtown Miami.
In many--and sometimes surprising--ways, 55-and-older consumers are seeking the same housing amenities and lifestyles as their youngers.
At a 2014 ULI Spring Meeting panel in Vancouver, three successful resort developers discussed how they are achieving success by focusing on health, wellness, and activities that bring together family members across all generations—even ex-spouses.
The redevelopment of the historic Metropole building represents the first full-service hotel to open in downtown Cincinnati in 28 years.
Perhaps nothing illustrates the precipitous fall of the U.S. resort sector as the saga that put a quartet of household-name properties under the control of a sovereign wealth fund.
Three years into the recovery of the destination resort sector, the wayside remains littered with casualties from the previous boom-and-bust cycle. The primary culprit: crushing debt.
Chicago is experiencing a surge of hotel development—and seeing the repurposing of classic historic structures in the process.
The 21st-century challenge facing Hilton Head, a resort town steeped in 20th-century tradition: how to reach beyond the affluent retirees drawn to its famed golf resorts to a broader market that includes baby boomers and members of generations X and Y who enjoy its pristine beaches, but who have many other recreational and cultural interests as well.
With an inclination for hiring the young and entrusting them with much responsibility, Charles Fraser employed many budding real estate professionals who eventually became accomplished leaders in both the industry and ULI, including four who became ULI chairmen.
In July of 2012, the community of Mammoth Lakes in California filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The third most-visited ski area in the United States, the community is fighting its way back from the brink.
Far from the gloomy tone of last year’s discussion on the same topic, lifestyle resort developers at ULI’s 2013 Spring Meeting in San Diego were saying: “Viva Mexico!” and touting the success of developments from Virginia to Montana to Hawaii.
The Colorado Convention Center is one of the country’s busiest meeting venues. The work of a ULI Advisory Services panel played a significant role in Denver’s decision to build the convention center. But it had a humble and fractious start.
Risk, other than literally, is not a four-letter word when investing in Asia real estate. Risk is a fact-of-life that needs to be constantly assessed on the ground, a trio of experts said at a session on Asia real estate capital markets.
Resort developers and operators took a hit during the recession, but are making a cautious comeback, according to a panel at ULI’s Fall Meeting.
How do you guide the resort and real estate businesses through an erratic economy—and the fickle whims of Mother Nature?
As providers seek to bring care closer to the community, health care campuses may come to include hotels, retail, research facilities, and more.
Natural assets, combined with inventive design, help transform a global gateway.
With the world economy struggling and Europe facing deteriorating political, financial, and social conditions, participants at the ULI Japan Summer Conference in Tokyo speculated about the potential of the island nation as an international financial center and destination.
Following the resort bust in 2008, many developers, investors, and lenders in the condo-hotel market were left with broken projects. However, they can minimize their losses by converting those properties into traditional hotels or by selling or renting them as multifamily units.
The Arizona Biltmore, often called the “Jewel of the Desert,” was awarded the ULI Heritage Award for architectural integrity, landscaping, and high quality of service in 1997. Through the hotel’s 83-year history, its owners have been able to maintain the Frank Lloyd Wright–influenced vision that made the resort famous.
As long as lenders keep a tight grip on their wallets, the much-anticipated trend toward smaller houses probably won’t materialize, according to data presented at the NAHB’s recent annual convention.
Once the butt of jokes by late-night comedians, Newark now has building cranes dotting its skyline—proof that the Garden State’s largest city is experiencing something of a renaissance.
People are resuming travel. In some spots hotels are trading at prices that are above where they were in 2007. New York City just experienced record hotel occupancy rates this past May. As long as the market did not get overbuilt, hotels are coming back, says Greg Cory, principal of San Francisco–based Land Use Economics LLC and chairman of ULI’s Recreation Development Council. However, areas that got overbuilt are predicted to take longer to recover.
The Sea Pines Resort in South Carolina, which received the ULI Heritage Award in 1995, has influenced planned communities and the way projects work to balance nature and development
Six members of ULI’s Recreational Development Council discuss what is affecting their market, including the prospects for the resort and vacation home industry in an uncertain economy, the mind-set of potential buyers, the changing nature of second-home products, and strategies for navigating the challenges ahead.
