Asset-light only works if someone else owns the asset. And that’s the concern.
Sometimes, it’s the most obvious thing that is overlooked. For all the talk in the hotel industry around asset-light this and asset-light that, there is the other side: somebody has to hold the asset to make it all work. And it took an asset-light company chief to bring it to the fore. At ALIS, one of the largest hotel investment conferences of the year, during a panel session, IHG Hotels & Resorts CEO Elie Maalouf said the quiet thing aloud: ”If somebody isn’t willing to be asset heavy, then the asset-light game stops.” It prompted a bit of a stir in the crowd and rightfully so: companies like IHG and its peers succeed off the backs of hotel owners, such as real estate investment trusts, who own the hard assets that allow lodging companies—and their breadth of brands—to remain not weighed down. It sounds like something that a country crooner could croon about.
Hotel owners have been battered by escalating expenses that have driven down profitability and a high-interest-rate environment that has kept cap rates elevated and property values reduced. The challenges have led to a large delta when it comes to stock valuations. Hotel REITs over the past five years have had a –9.5% return versus the overall S&P, which is up 74% over the same period. Meanwhile, lodging companies, from Marriott to Hilton, have shined: up more than 110% in that time span, superior to the overall S&P return. The irony is this: share prices of the large publicly traded companies are up dramatically while the value of the hotels they brand has, for the most part, declined.
Perhaps it’s an embarrassment of riches that led Maalouf to state the obvious. Then again, some in the industry voice concern that his admission is just lip service. One former management company CEO told me that it is mostly just talk from the brands that are focused on net unit growth and not the overall health of their ownership base. Owners, he said, are getting pummeled. Ouch!
Another hotel executive told me that the expense side of the ledger has to fundamentally change—and he is a brand exec! At its core are the fees and line-item expenses that owners contend with—and that comes before debt-service coverage and other below the-line costs. ”Expense items continue to grow ahead of the historical base and it has put extraordinary stress on the return proposition of an investment,” said Tony Capuano, president & CEO of Marriott International. Brand companies have aimed to ease the cost burden by examining some of the fees they charge franchisees and leveraging scale to save on procurement. ”There is urgency around making these investments as compelling to our partners as they once were, because that’s not where they are,” Capuano said.
Which came first: the hotel or the brand? Unlike fowl, we know this: the brand cannot stand without the hotel.
The chief competition regulator in the United Kingdom has opened a probe into Marriott International, Hilton and IHG Hotels and Resorts, along with data company CoStar, over whether the companies were sharing data that could potentially harm consumers by making their rates less competitive, Reuters first reported.
The Competition and Markets Authority is the principal competition regulator in the UK and responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair behavior.
The inquiry is into whether the three hotel chains supplied competitively sensitive data through CoStar’s data analytic tool, which suggests that the company’s could then use to see other company data and fix pricing.
Hotel chains, individual hotel owners and management companies have historically supplied hotel data to companies like CoStar, through its data arm, STR, in order to receive back intel on key performance indicators like average daily rates among broader comp sets. The data, however, and as outlined by companies like CoStar and others in the hotel data collection business, is obfuscated to show only averages and not data specific to one hotel.
CoStar’s guidelines state that a compettive set must include a minimum of four participating properties, not including the subject property. Of the four, there must be a minimum of three properties not affiliated with the subject property. In its guidelines, CoStar also says that it performs isolation checks to ensure individual property data is not isolated from report to report.
“When rival businesses share competitively sensitive information, including through a third-party data analytics provider, this reduces the uncertainty competing businesses normally have about how each other will act. This can affect how strongly companies compete because it makes it easier for them to predict what each other will do and coordinate their behaviour,” the Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement.
In response, CoStar in a statement said: “We are surprised at the CMA’s interest in a long-standing hotel data analytics and benchmarking platform, that for decades has been used by companies and government entities alike to better assess market dynamics.”
It confirmed that its UK team is cooperating in full with the CMA.
IHG issued a statement saying it had been notified of the investigation into suspected sharing of competitively sensitive information among competing hotel chains and expressed it would cooperate fully with the CMA’s inquiries. “The CMA noted that no assumptions should be made about whether competition law has been infringed,” the statement added.
A Hilton spokesperson told HOTELS that it’s “cooperating fully with the CMA’s inquiries.”
Marriott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is not the first time claims like this have been leveled against CoStar and other hotel chains. Last September, a judge sided with CoStar and six hotel chains, including Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott, to dismiss a lawsuit that claimed they improperly shared data to keep room rates artificially elevated.
The lawsuit alleged that hotels were violating antitrust law by sharing pricing, occupancy, room supply data and other data points allowing them to inflate prices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York, Nashville, Austin and other cities.
Belvilla, the European short-term rental and apart-hotel brand owned by PRISM, which is also the parent company of OYO, has entered the U.S. market through the misfortune of Sonder, securing 10 properties from the former short-term rental company though its bankruptcy court process. Belvilla selected 10 assets out of 79 offered during the court-led proceedings.
The transaction moves Belvilla into key urban markets across the country, including New York, Louisiana, Washington and Colorado.
The properties are:
- Court Square — Long Island City (Queens), N.Y.
- The Industrialist — Brooklyn, N.Y.
- RailSpur — Seattle, Wash.
- The Schaeffer — New Orleans, La.
- Skyline — Denver, Colo.
- The Queen — Philadelphia, Pa.
- East Fifth — Austin, Texas
- Ida — Phoenix, Ariz.
- The Louie — New Orleans, La.
- The Dutch — Long Island City (Queens), N.Y.
Operations have begun at The Dutch and Court Square in Long Island City (Queens), New York and at The Louie Hotel in New Orleans. These properties are operating under Belvilla District Six, the company’s upscale urban brand.
Belvilla’s U.S. arrival was shaped by the bankruptcy court process, which provided access to assets that met the company’s criteria on unit economics and operational feasibility. The brand has stated it is prioritizing properties where a consistent guest experience can be delivered while maintaining cost discipline.
The expansion reflects a measured strategy. Belvilla said it will initially operate a limited number of properties as part of an economics-led approach rather than broad portfolio growth.
“The U.S. represents an important opportunity for us, and our approach has been deliberate and selective,” said Ankit Tandon, global COO & CEO Europe, PRISM, the parent company of Belvilla. “We chose properties where the fundamentals work from day one, ensuring a balanced and sustainable model for guests and property owners. We are already in touch with additional owners who are keen to sign up with Belvilla as we expand our presence in the market.”
“Belvilla’s focus on operational clarity and long-term economics gives owners like me confidence. The model creates a win-win partnership built on sustainability rather than short-term expansion,” said Peter Papamichael, owner at Court Square, Long Island City (Queens), New York.
“We are delighted to begin our collaboration with PRISM and view this partnership as the foundation for a long-term and strategic relationship. We are excited to welcome Belvilla to The Dutch and to see its energy and operational expertise brought to the property,” said Shimon Siboni, CEO of Issta Nadlan (Assets) owners at The Dutch.
European Scale, North American Footprint
Belvilla operates more than sixty thousand holiday homes across Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Spain. Its parent company PRISM operates Motel Six, Studio Six and OYO in North America. In Europe, PRISM also operates full-service providers such as Belvilla, CheckMyGuest and DanCenter as well as the online marketplace Traum-Ferienwohnungen.
PRISM is rated by Moody’s, Fitch and S&P, with all three agencies upgrading the company compared to prior ratings. Moody’s projects earnings of around USD 280 million for the financial year ending March 2026 reflecting operations across Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America.
Belvilla’s U.S. debut unfolds not through ground-up development or large-scale acquisition but through a court-supervised restructuring process. Ten properties now form the starting point of its North American chapter
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