This week’s show featured our periodic hotel market review with Bo Ashbel. Bo is a Managing Director with me at the Aztec Group. Bo has 30 plus years in the hospitality business as an investor and intermediary. He is an expert on select service hotels. He has significant expertise in condo hotels, resort hotels and business oriented hotels.
We discussed trends, opportunities and the long term outlook for the hotel market.
His opinion is that the hotel market is almost as strong as the apartment market at this time. Institutional debt and equity are readily available to quality operators with strong balance sheets.
Miami has seen an explosion of quality high end hotels in the urban core and they are doing well. The Brickell Avenue area is evolving with many restaurant and entertainment options to support the many luxury and super luxury hotels located there.
“Core” markets across the country continue to perform well. Miami is number three in Average Daily Rate behind New York City and Honolulu.
Occupancy in the South Florida beach front market is very strong. Many buyers’ pay “crazy prices” for hotel properties just to be on the beach. There is no substitute for being on South Beach.
When asked about other markets he simply stated the Miami International Airport market is simply a ‘Machine”.
His outlook is for sunny times in the near term since it is still hard for inexperienced operators to get funding and lenders still shy away from poorly located projects. It is time to make money in the hotel business.
