Skift Take
The love-hate relationship between chains and owners is boiling over in Asia-Pacific where the trade war and Hong Kong protests are impacting owners in many destinations. Chains can be less hated by showing more meaningful support to struggling owners rather than just paying lip service.
There was a time when the big global hotel chains owned hotels or had some equity in them. They were fond of saying they were not just an operator but an owner, hence they could run the business better than an operator only, since they understood being both.
Now everyone’s gone asset-light and why not — less risk, low capital, high cash. Even in bad times, the management fees would roll in as chains keep signing up new hotels.
Who’d blame the Asian owner for being mind-boggled: “Hey, my RevPAR (revenue per available room) is down, and you’re adding more hotels to compete with me?” Or for losing sight of the fact that chains — like online travel agencies with whom owners also have a love-hate relationship — do have to keep investing on customer acquisition, technolog
