Travel plan idea blog

Luxury hotels like Four Seasons San Francisco in serious trouble?

This news (if the link doesn't work, just search Bloomberg news for "hotel" - that's actually what I had to do after following the Google link - not sure what's going on there) is very surprising to me. I knew the economy would hurt the travel industry and I've known it has been hurting the travel industry, but this is a shocker:

A $90 million loan secured by the Four Seasons San Francisco, a 277-room, five-star property, is 90 days delinquent and foreclosure proceedings have begun, according to Realpoint. A notice of default has been filed, according to Bloomberg data.

This article talks about the AIG effect, which they say has had a profound effect that is starting to fade:

"Resort communities have been demonized,'' Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch complained during a recent interview at the company's 790-room hotel in Miami Beach.

For South Florida's hotel industry, the "AIG effect" distinguishes this recession from past ones, with meeting bookings dropping farther and resisting a rebound, industry watchers said.

"Nobody could have forecast the weakness in group bookings", said Scott Berman, a hotel analyst in Miami and head of PricewaterhouseCoopers' hospitality division. "I use the word unprecedented."

And for good measure, we have some travel deals including spa hotels...

Posted by James Trotta at September 25, 2009 10:23 PM