As Morgans Hotel Group's own SEC filings have shown, it desperately needs to be bought by someone. New revelations suggest that the company’s deal with SBE might be in question.
Yes, Alaska paid a fortune for Virgin America. But that doesn't mean it is a bad deal. Alaska believes it needs Virgin America's assets to compete and grow.
The flow of Chinese investment into travel and tourism, along with other sectors, continues unabated. China is not only making its mark with outbound travelers but its money is flowing into strategic assets as well.
No hospitality merger or acquisition is ever as simple as it seems and, as this case shows, hotel buyers need to consider what kind of impact their purchases may have on their other investments.
Can these two companies--one with a somewhat questionable track record and the other, whose star has lost its luster--work together to relive their glory days? We'll see.
Now-former Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston's decision to emphasize organic growth, his insistence that all properties sold on Booking.com be online bookable and instantly confirmable, and his strategy to keep Booking.com solely focused on the hotel business all set his tenure apart from those of his peers at Expedia. If you can set aside his apparently reckless behavior for a moment, it's a shame Huston won't be around to see his strategy through or to pivot, as required.
Anbang, who? We thought this day might never come, but here we are: Marriott and Starwood are now just a few months away from becoming the world's largest hotel company.