May 10-12, 2021 a team from the Emerald Hospitality Associates, Inc. corporate office comprised of Art Borowski, Chief Financial Officer, Lori Berhent-Vice President of Revenue Generation & Business Development along with Ed Pavente, Chief Operating Officer had the distinct pleasure of “getting back to business” at the 32nd annual Hunter Hotel Investment conference. The Hunter team, led by Lee and Teague Hunter, in partnership with CLEAR and the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, were true pandemic trailblazers as they forged forward to bring over 1,000 industry partners together once again.
When asked about conference experiences & key takeaways from the conference, our team shared the following insights:
● First, and foremost, the amazing opportunity to celebrate recovery and the ability to be back together as an industry for the 1st time in over a year. The positive vibe was palpable.
● High-value connections were made with multiple real estate investment companies, several of which are eager to identify and purchase hotel assets. Hotels are still a sought-after commodity giving an added sense of confidence in our industry resilience
● STR shared revised forecasts for the remainder of 2021 and 2022 reflecting escalated recovery data that shifts some of the previous 2022 demand increase to 2021. Increase leisure transient demand business is even greater than anticipated with Fall corporate business anticipated a bit stronger than originally forecasted as well.
● Opportunity to meet with Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG executives about continued recovery measures operationally. We are collectively looking for new ways to meet & exceed guest expectations while running more efficiently and in a distressed labor market.
Bottom line, Emerald Hospitality Associates is strong and aggressively seeking growth opportunities both from a 3rd party management perspective as well as acquisitions through Nimbus Investment Fund, the investment arm of Emerald Hospitality. The conference provided us the mechanism to shout this to the hospitality world – we are back to business and looking forward to the 33rd Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in 2022!
