Mitigating risks helps cut insurance costs for hoteliers
Financial
Mitigating risks helps cut insurance costs for hoteliers
From left: Highgate's Marsha Bonner speaks as Ashford Inc.'s Adam Tegge and Aon Risk Solutions' Ryan Fulton listen at the 2025 Fall meeting of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association. (Sean McCracken)
https://www.costar.com/article/1198578174/mitigating-risks-helps-cut-insurance-costs-for-hoteliers?
AUSTIN, Texas — While the insurance market is not at the crisis levels seen in recent years, it's still difficult to manage for hoteliers, and experts say taking steps to mitigate risks at a hotel can help reduce both costs and headaches.
Ryan Fulton, managing director of Aon Risk Solutions, said hoteliers should be celebrating the fact insurance rates seem to be coming down as insurance adjusters get a better handle on the storms and climate issues that have changed the landscape in recent years.
"I think the property market is [more] stable, and the underwriters understand what they have in their portfolios," he said at the 2025 Fall meeting of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association.
Marsha Bonner, executive vice president of risk management for Highgate Hotels, said being proactive can help hoteliers manage costs and not rely on the whims of the insurance market or weather.
"The best thing that we can do is prevent the loss, whether the property market is going up or down or whether the liability market is going up or down," she said.
"We never have to convert to how many rooms we missed during that month because we paid the loss from the hotel operations," she said. "We didn't have a disruption, potentially, in staffing, because the employee never got hurt. They didn't have to stay home, and we didn't have to defend the workers' compensation case."
Bonner stressed the importance of having plans in place for natural disasters, including informing on-property teams of what's required of them in situations like hurricanes before you're in the middle of dealing with one.
Fulton agreed that being proactive and prepared is key. He said one hotel he works with in a flood zone makes sure to have buckets and barriers ready to go, but even properties less likely to see major weather events need to be prepared for more specific problems such as kitchen fires and knowing who to contact in the event there are damages.
In addition to being prepared ahead of time, Fulton said it's also important to be as detailed after an emergency because that will also help with insurance payouts.
"We've had some clients in the Caribbean that were down for two or three years before they got back up and running and [the takeaway] is track everything," he said. "Track every expense. Like Marsha said, insurance is there to make you whole, not to make you profitable."
Business
Airbnb’s global head of real estate
Airbnb’s global head of real estate, Jesse Stein, right, is bullish on South Florida’s thousands of new condominium units under development with many offering short-term rental options. (Joshua S. Andino/CoStar)
https://www.costar.com/article/286654060/heres-why-airbnbs-global-head-of-real-estate-is-betting-on-south-florida. By Joshua S. Andino
The Miami metropolitan area has thousands of multifamily units under construction, many of them with short-term rental flexibility, and that makes the city one of Airbnb’s favorite markets, said Jesse Stein, the company’s global head of real estate.
Unlike other global markets, Miami has embraced Airbnb and the short-term rental concept wholeheartedly, said Stein, who joined Airbnb in 2020 and launched the company’s apartments program in 2022 in which renters sublease their units for short-term stays and revenue is shared among tenants, landlords and Airbnb.
It’s a stark contrast to other global cities. Miami “welcomes us with open arms versus other markets like New York and Barcelona and Seoul,” which have banned or severely limited the availability of Airbnb to operate, Stein said.
New York, for example, implemented a law in 2023 that requires short-term rental hosts to register their listings and obtain a unique registration number in a move meant to help combat rising costs, but it’s effectively a “crackdown,” said Victor Rodriguez, CoStar’s senior director of market analytics for New York.
While Miami’s growing inventory swings in the opposite direction, which may pose a concern for a smaller short-term rental provider, “Airbnb is huge, and we have consumers globally,” Stein said. “Time will tell on supply and demand, but I’m still very bullish on the market,” he added. “There’s so much demand for investment properties in Miami, specifically.”
Airbnb also brands for-sale properties, Stein said, providing building marketing materials that carry the short-term rental company’s official branding. That further insulates the company and the developers that partner with Airbnb from what could otherwise become a crowded market.
“There are few markets like Miami in the U.S., to be honest,” said Stein. “When we look across the playing field, the international buyer wants to buy in the gateway market. LA is not going to be a huge opportunity in the [short-term rental] market. New York? No. Miami is green like go,” he said.
Marketing
why-purposeful-marketing-must-lead-the-way-in-hospitality
https://www.costar.com/article/256097106/why-purposeful-marketing-must-lead-the-way-in-hospitality
By Dan Kubacki
In hospitality, marketing is so much more than messaging. It’s about meaning.
As we move deeper into an era where guests seek purpose and personalization, the businesses that will rise to the top are those that align what they offer with what they believe and communicate that belief clearly, consistently and authentically.
This past year, in my Experiential Marketing course at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, I watched student teams work with real hospitality businesses — from hotels and restaurants to gyms and destination organizations — exploring how wellness, sustainability and community engagement could be better woven into the guest experience and the brand message.
When the message is meaningful
Wellness is not just about yoga mats and smoothie bars. Sustainability isn’t just about LED lights or signage encouraging guests to reuse towels. These efforts, while valuable, are only effective when they’re part of a bigger story — one that reflects the business’s genuine commitment to people and planet. When that story is clearly told visually, emotionally and strategically, it resonates.
In our classroom projects, we saw how properties that want to be perceived as wellness-driven must offer more than amenities; they must communicate care. That could be something as simple as stocking the minibar with electrolyte-enhanced water or as strategic as creating menus built around nourishment and recovery. When done with intent, these small moments build a guest journey that feels personalized and not performative.
From the guest-facing side, this means building messaging touchpoints across your entire marketing ecosystem: on your website and booking path, in online travel agency listings, in social media storytelling, at trade shows, and even in simple verbal moments at check-in or check-out. That’s where your purpose lives — not in a single campaign, but in every interaction.
Focus brings clarity and connection
One of the most important lessons we learned was that good marketing doesn’t try to do everything at once. In one project, a team was initially overwhelmed by a hotel’s broader rebranding efforts. But when they focused on the assignment at hand — enhancing the on-site gym experience — they uncovered a host of actionable ideas, from in-room workout options for business travelers to recommended outdoor walking paths that started at the gym and ended there, too. When they recentered on the guest and the purpose, their strategy became clear.
It’s a reminder to all of us: Resonance comes from focus. Marketing with meaning means starting with what matters most to your audience and building your story from there.
Purpose is the new differentiator
Purpose is no longer optional. It’s the differentiator. That’s why I encourage marketers to think beyond traditional advertising and invest in strategic storytelling that highlights values and invites participation — without “wellness-washing” or “greenwashing.” Brands with a strong sense of purpose grow twice as fast as those without (Kantar, 2020), and more than half of consumers say they are willing to pay more for offerings that support their well-being (McKinsey & Company, 2022). Here is where marketing can push the operator to deliver even more for a truly authentic connection.
Partner with micro-influencers who live your values. Highlight team members who embody your mission. Create activations — on-property and online — that show your commitment to wellness, sustainability or community in action. Let your content inspire and inform, not “sell.” This is particularly crucial given that many consumers want sustainable choices but lack the information to act on them (McKinsey & Company, 2023). That gap is the marketer’s opportunity.
When we connect with audiences in ways that feel meaningful and authentic, we’re no longer pushing messages; we’re building relationships. And in hospitality, that’s everything.
Hospitality is how we make people feel; so is marketing
As I say often, hospitality is about how we make people feel. So, too, is marketing. If we want to build trust, inspire loyalty and stand out, purpose is essential. We must surface the stories of care, of commitment, of community and market that in ways that feel personal and powerful. That’s effective marketing — the kind of marketing our guests, and yes, even our planet, deserve.
ReferencesEdelman. (2023). 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer.
Kantar. (2020). Purpose 2020: In it for the Long Haul.
McKinsey & Company. (2022). The Future of Wellness.
McKinsey & Company. (2023). Consumer Pulse: Sustainability in Financial Services.
Leora Halpern Lanz, ISHC is Associate Professor of the Practice at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration (BU SHA) teaching the Experiential Marketing and Digital Marketing courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
This column is part of ISHC Global Insights, a partnership between CoStar News and the International Society of Hospitality Consultants.
Investment
Certares-likes-that-It-s-hard-to-sell-hotels
https://www.hotelinvestmenttoday.com/Development/Owners/Certares-likes-that-It-s-hard-to-sell-hotels
By Rob Schneider |
Certares’ Nolan Hecht talks about the factors that have created an opportunistic deal environment and what he thinks it will take to get more buyers back in to the market.
NEW YORK CITY — Nolan Hecht knows a lot about buying and selling hotels. He said it’s especially hard to sell right now, but he also thinks that situation can create buying opportunities for companies like his.
“In my career, some of the best buying opportunities have been while others have been on the sidelines,” said Hecht, senior managing director and head of real estate for New York City-based Certares.
Last week, Certares had a notable sale with the East Miami hotel (which it owned with Trinity Investments) to Blackstone Real Estate. The company also recently made a notable acquisition by again partnering with Trinity to acquire a majority stake in the Hyatt Regency Greenwich in Connecticut from Trinity.
“You will probably need one or two interest rate cuts — and I think they’re coming — until you get more folks off the sidelines. That’s what it’s going to take,” he said. “But while folks have been off the sidelines, we’ve been opportunistically buying.”
Hecht said hotel investment is in a period where the REITs haven’t really been buying assets and foreign capital isn’t coming to the U.S. So, that really leaves private equity and high-net-worth individuals or offices as the main players. Plus, the bid-ask spread is still a problem.
“There’s been a bit of a disconnect in terms of what sellers are willing to sell for and what buyers are willing to buy for,” he said. “It probably was a 100 basis points spread in the cap rate last year. It’s come down to more like 50 basis points. So, we’re getting closer to a period that has more liquidity.”
Hecht said in certain markets (like Florida), there are buyers, but in general, many are taking a “wait-and-see” approach. But not Certares.
“We are much more bullish,” he said. “We have a longer-term focus on the hotel business, not what’s going on necessarily in a market today or tomorrow. We love the supply/demand fundamentals right now in the U.S. and we play more on in the upper scale [of hotels].”
Why Certares is bullish
Hecht said Certares’ bullish nature comes from the fundamentals it is seeing with leisure and group numbers. But it’s also coming from the lack of new supply in markets where it wants to acquire.
“We’re seeing a pretty resilient upscale customer… We’re seeing strength on the demand side, certainly leisure strength and certainly group strength,” he said. “This is the best supply picture, or lack of supply, that I’ve seen in my 28 years in the business. We focus on the urban cores and the central business districts and coastal assets and resorts and there is nothing getting built. When you parse it down, it’s less than 0.5% in supply in these urban markets, and historically that’s been 2-2.5%.”
“In my career, supply is always the killer for the hotel industry, and we’re terrible about it. Anytime things get good, we start overbuilding,” he said. “The barrier to building right now is really strong. Right now, the cost to rebuild a hotel is 30-50% from where it was pre-pandemic and the banks have zero appetite for hotel construction lending. They’ll give you a loan for an acquisition. They’ll give you a loan for neutral financing, but there is no demand for construction financing. When you put that together, you really have a muted pipeline.”
State of leisure
Leisure travel is here to stay, Hecht said, as people are prioritizing travel and experiences over things like home improvement.
“COVID may have been the catalyst to that… and we’re really not seeing a slowdown,” he said, noting that any leisure slowdown is coming from Canadians not coming to the U.S., but even that will eventually lessen, he said.
“We’re seeing really opportunistic opportunities to buy things. Some of them are assets that are overleveraged. We’re taking advantage of owners that need to sell because their debt is either too high or too expensive,” he said. “Both Boston and New Orleans are examples of assets in great locations with great flags that needed to be renovated.”
Tourism
Our Favorite Caribbean Island Isn’t in the Caribbean
Bynder courtesy of Bermuda Tourism Authority
https://www.fodors.com/world/caribbean/bermuda/experiences/news/photos/bermuda-travel-guide-why-this-atlantic-island-isnt-the-caribbean
By: Rachael Levit
An island with a very distinct vibe.
“Aruba, Jamaica/ooh I wanna take ya
To Bermuda, Bahamas/come on pretty mama…”
I can’t be the only one, right? The foolish listener who assumed the islands from the famed song “Kokomo” all belonged in the Caribbean Sea? Should I not have relied on surf-rock legends The Beach Boys as my geography teachers?
Listen up carefully, beach boys and girls: Bermuda is not the Caribbean. Bermuda is, in fact, its own thing; an inimitable, incomparable country and fusion of cultures. And probably your new favorite vacation destination.
Ok, So Where Is Bermuda?
It’s not in the Caribbean Sea. Less than 90 minutes from New York and under two hours from pretty much everywhere on the East Coast, Bermuda is on the same latitude as North Carolina–north of the Caribbean–smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
It bears repeating: a subtropical island less than 90 minutes from NYC. That’s a quicker trip than to the Hamptons. Everyone in the Northeast loves to escape the city to the Caribbean, but the plane ride south can eat up your travel time. Even with close islands like the Bahamas, it can be a four-hour plane ride, while Aruba’s more like five. Bermuda’s hop, skip, and a jump means you have plenty of time to enjoy the destination, even on trips that only last a weekend.
PHOTO: Dabarti CGI/Shutterstock
But What Is the Bermuda Triangle?
But besides “Kokomo,” Bermuda’s infamy feeds its geographical confusion. The wedged area angled between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida has (as the legend goes) disappeared planes, ships, and people within the bounds of the Bermuda Triangle. While mostly disproven, the appearance of the Bermuda Triangle and its mysteries have shown up in pop culture across media, from Fleetwood Mac to The X-Files; in Atari and Milton Bradley Games, and in episodes of Scooby Doo. Everyone is worried about the conspiracy of what goes on within the Bermuda Triangle; there isn’t much pop culture conversation about its namesake. The supposed mystery of the triangle feeds even further into the where of it all.
What’s Unique About Bermuda?
Bermuda has many distinctive qualities, but perhaps its most fascinating is its existence as a destination at all. The island should be uninhabitable since it lacks freshwater springs, natural rivers, and lakes. But ingenuity rules Bermuda: the population relies completely on rainwater harvesting. Bermudians have built terraced limestone roofs to collect rainwater for their daily use. The steppes serve to slow down the rainwater and guide it to a cistern or collection tank positioned under every Bermudian home and building. Law requires that every house collect 80% of the water that falls on its roof, and each building is self-sufficient. While other destinations boast about sustainability efforts, Bermuda has been making it a reality on the island for over 400 years.
PHOTO: Bynder courtesy of Bermuda Tourism Authority
Why Is Bermuda Different Than the Caribbean?
Bermuda has its own unique culture. An uninhabited island discovered in the early 1500s, Bermuda is a melting pot, with Spanish, Afro-Caribbean, Portuguese, British, and Native American influences. Gombey, a vibrant Bermudian dance tradition dating back to the early 1800s, fuses African, British, Native American, and Caribbean influences. “Gombey,” likely derived from an African word for “rhythm,” underscores the central role of drumming and percussion in these dynamic street performances. Originally, enslaved people danced once a year in masks to protest injustices safely. Bermuda was emancipated from slavery on August 1st, 1834, and today, Gombey troupes—adorned with peacock‐feather headdresses, painted masks, bells, and tassels—perform at holidays and festivals as a proud symbol of island identity. Today, Bermuda’s population is diverse, resourceful, tight-knit, and proud.
DUHC&S | Strategic Hospitality Consulting & Advisory
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