Chains want to keep travelers and hotel developers loyal through proliferating offerings. Marriott has 32 brands include the apartment-like StudioRes coming next year. Hilton has 22 brands, such as premium-economy Spark and an extended-stay chain, temporarily dubbed Project H3. Accor has more than 40 brands.
Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy began taking reservations. The typical unit offers private bedrooms, a separate living room, full kitchen, and washer/dryer but does not provide traditional hotel services such as food and beverage, meeting spaces or daily housekeeping.
As of Friday, 557 stocks listed on U.S. exchanges were trading below $1 a share, up from fewer than a dozen in early 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Many of these sub-$1 stocks went public in 2020 and 2021 during a boom in initial public offerings and deals with special-purpose acquisition companies.
The national vacancy rate increased to a record 13.5% in the third quarter of this year, up from 9.4% at the end of 2019.
Blackstone announced the final close on $2.6 billion for its latest real estate secondaries fund, Strategic Partners Real Estate VIII L.P.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures home prices across the nation, rose 3.9% from a year earlier in September, compared with a 2.5% annual increase the prior month. The September level was the highest since the index began in 1987. Home sales have slumped from a year ago because higher mortgage rates have pushed buyers out of the market. But the decline in demand isn’t causing prices to fall, because the inventory of homes on the market is unusually low.
Interest-rate futures indicated last week a roughly 60% chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter-of-a-percentage point by its May 2024 policy meeting, up from 29% at the end of October.
The University of Michigan’s sentiment index, based on a long-running survey of households, remains far below prepandemic levels and lately has been near levels experienced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Another bid by Choice Hotels to strike a deal with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has fallen flat. After months of on-and-off talks for a deal that would unite two of the biggest budget hotel owners in the country, Wyndham’s board received a letter from Choice to restart negotiations and strike a deal with Wyndham before the end of the year. Choice hasn’t boosted its cash-and-stock offer, currently worth $86 a share. That is down from $90 given a decline in Choice shares since the takeover offer was made in October. Wyndham views the offer as too low and worries it would saddle the combined company with too much debt.
