Tuesday 04 May, 2021
Home2 Suites has largest US pipeline of any brand US: Hilton's extended stay brand Home2 Suites has 39,243 rooms in its US pipeline, the largest of any flag in the country.
EDITOR'S COMMENT
• Having seen peers such as Domio and Stay Alfred shut up shop as a result of the pandemic, Sonder has become the latest US company to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The deal with Gores Metropoulos II is worth $2.2 billion, and will close by the end of the year. Having raised $170 million in a Series E round at a valuation of $1.3 billion last year, Sonder will seek to invest $650 million in cash proceeds from the float in technology and to continue its global expansion.
While the deal may be a suitable one for Sonder, enabling it to speed up its growth, investment guru Warren Buffett and his right hand man Charlie Munger have both sounded the alarm over the latest wave of SPACs.
Munger said many City firms and investors launching SPACs were not buying companies "because it's a good investment. They're buying it because the adviser gets a fee. And of course, the more of that you get, the sillier your civilisation is getting". Munger said the boom also indicated a "moral failing" because City advisers were making "easy money".
• Staying in the US, a much more traditional model - Hilton's Home2 Suites - is going from strength to strength, along with many other extended stay brands which are emerging from the pandemic in a healthy position.
The latest research from Lodging Econometrics has revealed that Home2 Suites has the largest pipeline of any hotel brand in the US at 39,243 rooms. Of the 1,866 US hotel projects scheduled to begin construction in the next 12 months, 26.8 per cent belong to extended stay brands, "a segment of the industry that developers have become increasingly interested in over the last few years".
The extended stay sector is looking strong across the board as travel in the US being its upward curve.
• Don't forget that the entry deadline for the 2021 Serviced Apartment Awards has been extended to May 10th. The awards have quickly established themselves as a highlight of the industry calendar, and indeed for many of us, the 2020 awards in early March were the last gathering of any size that we attended.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony in London on June 24th. For more information and to enter, visit www.servicedapartmentawards.com
• Scroll down for more of the week's news.
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Katie Houghton
Group head of sales: +44 (0)7535 135 116
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