The Hotels Mag

1 week ago | hotelsmag.com | David Eisen

NEW ORLEANS — The annual AAHOA Convention attracts scores of the association’s members. It makes eminent sense, then, that the executive brand panel be equally substantial. This year’s did not disappoint in size, numbering a total of 10 on the dais—all speaking about the state of hospitality, but even more focused on the power and voice of the Asian American hotel owners community that own the majority of hotels in the U.S.—more than 60% by many estimates.

1 month ago | hotelsmag.com | David Eisen

It’s déjà vu all over again for Mark Harmon, who for 30 years flourished as the founder and CEO of Auberge Resorts Collection, which played no small role as an originator in the luxury boutique space, with a portfolio of properties whose services and amenities may have only been outdone by their natural surroundings. Consider Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley, which was opened in the late 1980s by Harmon’s father, Bob.

1 month ago | hotelsmag.com | David Eisen

ATLANTA — “It’s the economy, stupid” is an aphorism that stretches beyond the American voter. It also impacts the way hotel investors invest, the way hotel operators operate. In this current economy, both are tight as a drum and seeking out a softer cloud in which to cozy into. At the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, a gathering of dealmakers, large and small, sounded deathly similar: 2025 was positioned to be a year of growth; it could end up being a year of reckoning. The jury remains out.

1 month ago | hotelsmag.com | David Eisen

ATLANTA — Lee Hunter, chairman of the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, walked on stage to “Highway to the Danger Zone,” a song popularized in “Top Gun,” a film about a maverick fighter pilot flying on the edge of peril. The hotel industry hopes its flight path forward is less precarious. And while it’s not pulling the eject cord yet, a smooth landing won’t come easy.

1 month ago | hotelsmag.com | David Eisen

Hotels don’t run on their own. They need myriad items to serve guests: furniture, fixtures and equipment, operating supplies, food and beverage—the list can be endless. It’s not an easy task: costs for supplies fluctuate, products change, and all the while hotel procurement specialists work with and vet the supplier community. Beyond this, there are things out of the hands of these specialists, including federal-level policy changes, like tariffs, that can upset the normal hotel purchasing flow.