Robert R. Nelson

Public-Private Financing Structures Used in the United States to Develop Convention Hotels

Public private partnerships, also known as PPPs and P3s, have become increasingly important in the development of convention headquarter hotels in the United States. This industry perspective looks at why government agencies want to encourage convention center hotel development along with an analysis of the methods employed to do so. Several recent case studies from the State of California are presented as examples of current practices. The paper also examines how rising resistance to public expenditures on convention hotels, along with tighter state and municipal budgets, are likely to impact public–private financing schemes going forward.

Current issues in hotel room rate discounting

Abstract This article discusses how an over supply of rooms, a weaker economy, and more widespread use of powerful computers are forcing hoteliers to increasingly use discounting as a marketing tool. An over supply of rooms and a weaker economy have combined to create a price sensitive buyers market. The increased availability of powerful computers has accelerated the use of discounting by providing management with the information it needs to use discounting more effectively.

The Impact of Publicly Owned Hotels on Competing Properties

Substantial public subsidies, and even outright public ownership, of hotels have become common in the United States as communities target tourism as an integral economic development tool. A critical question that is increasingly being raised about the public sector entering the hotel business is, are these government-funded facilities unfair competition to properties developed by the private sector? The common reply to these concerns is that the publicly owned hotel is critical to growing demand for lodging accommodation and that once it opens, the new hotel will attract enough new business that all hotels will benefit. We use an event study to test this hypothesis across all of the 100% publicly developed hotels for which there are sufficient data to conduct the analysis. In looking at these 21 hotels, we found strong evidence that the performance of neighboring hotels worsens after the introduction of a publicly owned hotel.

The All-Important First and Last Impression: A Guide to Auditing the Trip to and from Your Airport

The first and last impressions of a destination are critical to the guest experience. This article details a protocol to systematically analyze what guests experience as they enter and leave a destination via the airports. The article pulls from the authors experience researching for, and participating in, such an audit of the Philadelphia International Airport on behalf of the State of Delaware and includes a convenient list of points to be assessed in an audit.

A protocol for Reviewing Hotel Anchored Public Private Partnerships

ABSTRACT This article examines public subsidies used to encourage hotel development and proposes a robust protocol for their review by authorities having jurisdiction. The article begins by examining the size and scope of Public Private Partnerships to encourage hotel development in the United States, and with a discussion of the rationale for and against the subsidies. It goes on to provide an overview of typical subsidy financing arrangements and presents a methodology for the evaluation of public subsidies for proposed hotels. The case is made that publicly subsidized hotels can create benefits for both private developers and sponsoring governmental units which can include local, state, and federal levels. However, there is often an asymmetry of political power and data that favors private developers over those negotiating on behalf of taxpayers (Laslo and Judd 2004, Perry 2003). The article examines typical processes used to review subsidy proposals and recognizes the challenges of overcoming the significant political momentum behind them that favors developers at the expense of taxpayers. The framework will assist authorities in their economic review of proposed subsidies for hotels by providing a template useful for addressing what is oftentimes an imbalance of information that favors developers over those representing the interests of the public sector.