Conference Venue:
Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel
811 7th Avenue 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
USA
Phone: 800-325-3535
Fax: 212-262-4410
Website: http://www.sheratonnewyork.com
IMN Real Estate Conferences is please to announce that Mr Robert Sonnenblick, Chairman of Sonnenblick Development LLC, has been added to the speaker list at its upcoming Real Estate and Mezzanine Financing Conference to be held in New York City on November 18, 2013.
Mr Sonnenblick will be speaking on the topic of:
A Borrower’s Perspective on Today’s Real Estate Lending Market
| 4:00PM Track B: |
Portfolio Lenders Vs. Non-Traditional Lenders Vs. CMBS & Conduit Loan Financing – Convergence Among Lenders? The Borrowers’ Perspective |
As competition for good deals and credit worthy borrowers continues to heat up, are lenders originating loans that are outside of their core product lines? Are commercial banks originating loans customarily associated with alternative lenders? Are B note buyers looking to get into CMBS origination? What are insurance companies doing to remain competitive? Are there new players coming to market looking to originate loan products across the spectrum? Are lenders more willing to follow their clients across state borders and do deals in new markets? Is the convergence among lenders here to stay?
Panelists:
Robert Deckey, CIO, GEORGE COMFORT & SONS [ BIO ]
Adam Altman, Partner, KABR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT PARTNERS
Arvind Bajaj, Managing Director, MADISON MARQUETTE [ BIO ]
Kyle Allan Morque, Vice President, Finance, MOINIAN GROUP
Bob Sonnenblick, Chairman, SONNENBLICK DEVELOPMENT, LLC [ BIO ]
IHIF Summit-Series Conferences is pleased to announce the addition of Mr Robert
Sonnenblick, Chairman of Sonnenblick Development LLC, to its speaker list at the
upcoming North America Hotel Investment Conference in Chicago on Nov. 22. 2013.
Mr Sonnenblick will be joining the Hotel Finance panel.
NATHIC History
A Look Back
Launched in 2010 as the Distressed Hotel Summit, the North America Hotel Investment Conference has since evolved into the North American anchor of the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Summit Series. Presented by Hotel Management, the IHIF Summit Series produces premier, world-class investment conferences that focus on growth and financing opportunities for the hotel industry.
Since inception, NATHIC has delivered a timely service, focusing on the issues pertinent to current hospitality investment professionals. NATHIC concluded its fourth annual event in Washington, D.C. Nov. 28-29, 2012. Anthony Melchiorri, star of Travel Channel’s hit show, Hotel Impossible and President and Founder of the New York-based consulting company Argeo Hospitality, was the keynote speaker, and answered audience questions in a session moderated by Mike Cahill, Chief Executive Officer of Hospitality Real Estate Counselors (HREC).
Justifying add-on fees to guests
20 Aug 2013
Hoteliers who add extra fees and surcharges to guests’ bills need to communicate the rationale for the practice and provide value for the extra charges, sources said.
By Ed Watkins
Editor-at-Large
ewatkins@hotelnewsnow.com
REPORT FROM THE U.S.—Hoteliers who add fees and surcharges to guests’ bills need to communicate why they do so and what value customers receive from the extra charges, sources said.
“Transparency is critical, especially with the younger generations of travelers, who expect everything to be transparent,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, travel industry analyst with consulting firm Hudson Crossing. “Their friends share everything through social media and they expect companies to be completely open to them. Their mindset is if you’re going to charge me for something you need to let me know what it is for and what value it represents and you need to tell me upfront.”
According to new research, this year hoteliers in the United States will collect $2.1 billion in fees and surcharges from guests. That’s up from $2 billion in 2012, a 6% increase, and nearly double from the $1.2 billion collected in 2000. The research is conducted annually by Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University.
The total includes items such as resort fees, early cancellation fees, telephone surcharges, minibar re-stocking fees, in-room safe charges, automatic gratuities and charges for high-speed Internet access.
Hanson said in recent years hoteliers have become more effective in communicating fees and surcharges by placing tent cards in guestrooms, including information in guest directories, requiring guests to initial a form at check-in or simply “placing a collar on a bottle of water with the price on it.”
“As a result, there is less of a sense that fees and surcharges are an ambush to get more revenues from guests,” Hanson said. “(These fees) have become more well-known. It doesn’t mean guests like them, but they’ve become used to them.”
He said the intense media attention as airlines ratcheted up their fee schedules has made it easier for hoteliers to adopt the practice.
“The fact that airlines started implementing what can be viewed as more-aggressive fees and surcharges has heightened awareness of (the practice) but also almost made it a common travel standard, making it a little bit easier for hotels to implement fees and surcharges,” he said.
Hotel marketing consultant Brenda Fields said it’s important for hoteliers to provide fair value for fees they charge or risk a backlash from guests.
“The key for hoteliers is to get it right,” Fields said in an email. “That is, charging appropriately, without gouging. Offer a product or service that works, and communicate it to the guest. Negativity can be overcome or minimized when there is a better understanding.”
The best approach, Harteveldt said, is for hoteliers to explain to guests how bundling the fees gives them better value than paying for services on an a la carte basis.
He said some guests will accept some fees when they feel they’re “paying for a product that provides some kind of added value, whether it’s improving the quality of the stay or its efficiency.”
Resort fees and charges for Internet service are the most controversial hotel fees, Harteveldt said.
“Resort fees are simply ridiculous because they are indirect rate hikes,” he said. “Consumers generally don’t like them, but especially when the property isn’t even a resort.”
Guest responses to resort fees fall into several categories, Hanson said. Some might not like extra fees but they understand it’s become an industry practice, especially at resorts.
“Some guests actually like the resort fee because for them it’s better than paying separately for a pool chair, towel or an umbrella or to receive faxes,” he said. “And, of course, there are those who say, ‘I don’t want any of those services yet I’m being asked to pay for them.’”
Robert Sonnenblick, president of Sonnenblick Development, is especially vocal in his criticism of resort fees, calling them “a highly deceptive practice.” He said he would never add a resort fee to any of the hotels he owns.
“My biggest problem is not the concept of resort fees; it is the concept of involuntary resort fees, and there is a distinction between the two,” Sonnenblick said. “When you call to reserve a room, you ask for a room rate and if they then add on a mandatory $20 fee, the $150 room rate they told you on the phone becomes $170, which means they lied to you.”
Even the perception of extra fees can upset some guests, said Birgit Radin, managing director of the DoubleTree Magnificent Mile and The Inn of Chicago, and a Hotel News Now columnist.
“It depends on how you define fees and surcharges,” she said. “Some customers perceive an Internet connection charge as a fee; they perceive not including breakfast in the rate as a fee. They see it as a nickel and diming.”
She said because many guests are accustomed to free Internet service and free breakfast when they stay at limited-service hotels, they don’t want to pay for these things when they stay at full-service properties.
At one time, energy surcharges were another source of many guest complaints. In the early 2000s, some hotel companies and properties instituted these charges to offset rising utility costs. Facing consumer complaints and possible legal actions, hoteliers gradually dropped the unpopular add-on fee, and Hanson doesn’t believe they’ll be back.
“It’s highly unlikely, unless there is some extraordinary spike in energy costs,” he said. “It’s a very sensitive issue. It would be very unpopular unless it could be justified by a significant jump in energy costs, but even then when there is a surcharge of $5 (per night) guests are wise enough to know it doesn’t cost that for the energy they use in their guestrooms.”
Press Release: (New York, NY). August, 2013.
Los Angeles-based real estate financier and developer Robert Sonnenblick, chairman
of Sonnenblick Development LLC, has been chosen by IMN Conferences Inc. to speak at
their upcoming Real Estate CFO Forum in NYC on September 30th.
The conference will be held at the Downtown Marriott Hotel on West Street.
Mr Sonnenblick will be headlining the 12 noon panel on “Financing and Capital Raising
for Real Estate Projects”.
Conference Venue:
Marriott New York Downtown
85 West Street
New York, NY 10006
Phone: 877-513-6305 or 800-266-9432
Website: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/nycws-new-york-marriott-downtown
12:00 Capital Raising Techniques & Financing
[ Submit Session Question(s) ]
Health of the commercial real estate market * Finding available sources of financing * Raising third party capital * Alternative capital raising strategies * Markets for funds of various sizes * Fund structure * Co-investment opportunities * Marketing and strategy * Raising funds outside of the United States * Regulation, compliance and oversight * Reporting, governance & transparency
Moderator:
Steven M. Moore, Managing Director, Real Estate Advisory Group, KPMG CORPORATE FINANCE LLC [ BIO ]
Panelists:
Jason Tighe, VP Regional Finance Director, AREA PROPERTY PARTNERS [ BIO ]
Austin Khan, Chief Investment Officer, LAURUS CORPORATION
Frank Falbo, Partner, MAYER BROWN LLP [ BIO ]
Bob Sonnenblick, Chairman, SONNENBLICK DEVELOPMENT, LLC [ BIO ]
PRESS RELEASE: Santa Monica, Calif.
Bob Sonnenblick, Chairman of Los Angeles-based Sonnenblick Development LLC has
been chosen by IMN Conferences Inc to moderate the “Debt-to-Equity” panel at their
upcoming Real Estate Finance Conference to be held September 9th at the Fairmont Hotel
in Santa Monica. The panel begins at 12 noon. See: http://www.imn.org/real-estate/
| 12:15 Dequity Plays: The Equity Player & Why You Would Go Debt? |
|
• Seller financing • Buying debt • Cost of capital implications • Recap opportunities • What is the goal of acquiring the note? • Cost of debt • Funds: Did you have to run this by your investors? Why/Why not?When is an equity player a debt player? When there is $$ to be made is the easy answer but it is more involved than attacking the death star. This session will be the Yoda to your young Skywalker discussing some of the more detailed reasons that equity players turn to the force know as the dark side of debt investing.
Session Chair:
Bob Sonnenblick, Chairman, SONNENBLICK DEVELOPMENT, LLC
[ BIO ]
Panel Participants:
Andrew Brian Brog, President, BROG PROPERTIES [ BIO ]
Leslie Lundin, Managing Partner, LBG REALTY ADVISORS, LLC [ BIO ]
John Warful, President, METROPOLITAN PACIFIC CAPITAL
