There are many more questions than answers about the immediate future of the hotel business-chief among them is the moment in time when debt will again become more available, allowing hotels to be bought, sold, reflagged and refinanced. The answers to that question varies depending on who you talk to, but the prevailing and more conservative wisdom seems to point to the second half of 2010 as the moment to act on any contrarian impulses and start buying again. Until then, for most hoteliers the game plan is to hunker down, find ways to keep costs in line without destroying their value proposition for even choosier guests, and to use marketing tactics to drive business as best they can. The bigger question remaining for operators is whether to or not to hold the line on room rates in hopes of a quicker recovery, or to bite the bullet and discount now to drive cash flow. At some point, in what appears to be a slow-to-recover cycle, driving revenue becomes more important.
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