COLLIERS INSIGHTS HOTELS | ASIA | Q1 2020 Govinda Singh Executive Director Valuation & Advisory | Asia +65 6531 8566 [email protected] HOTEL INSIGHTS A quarterly digest of key trends in the hospitality sector COLLIERS INSIGHTS HOTELS | ASIA | Q1 2020 2020 Hospitality Trends: FOREWORD WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT? “… Millennials are driving change starting with sustainable travel. Hotels of the future must go green if they want to attract the millennials …” “Technology driving decision making. … Modern travellers turn to online channels to surprise and help them make travel decisions – from where to go to best accommodation options and best local experiences.” “A rising expectation of a frictionless experience with smarter hotels and Welcome to the Q1 2020 edition of Colliers Hotel Insights, our quarterly magazine for hotel and personalized service. Thanks to technology, other accommodation stakeholders across Asia. This edition features key destination trends across Asia, a highlight of key industry disruptors, and a technical section. We also provide insights and guests want more without doing much –they opinions on topical issues within the gaming and leisure sectors. expect you to know … Some implementations of this are smart keys, cloud‐based check‐in, Hotels across Asia Pacific have had a mixed performance in 2019, with overall room occupancy and facial recognition, smart electrical controls in average daily rate (ADR) showed decreases to 69.3% and US$97.35 respectively. This resulted in the room … and this is just the start …” Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) for the region showing a decline of some 5.4% year‐on‐ year. However, we note this figure may have been negatively impacted by forex currency “Hoteliers aim to drive up direct bookings… movements together with declines in Australia, New Zealand, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. In through wins on their website and a booking terms of room occupancy, Delhi‐NCR, Hanoi, Manila, and Seoul remain the stand out performers, engine that works smarter, supported by with year‐on‐year growth in excess of 2.0%, according to STR. Hong Kong, HCMC, Phuket and integrated social and email marketing to Jakarta led the field in being the worst performers. deliver the message.” In local currency terms, Bali, HCMC, Hanoi, Manila and Tokyo, all witnessed increases in excess of 3.9% in terms of ADR. Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, and Phuket witnessed declines. “Hoteliers adopt homestay concept … and evolve it…while Airbnb expands into hotels, Evidently, the trade dispute and political impasse between the USA and China had weighed on hotels are expected to continue extending into business and consumer confidence, thereby tempering demand in 2019. Looking ahead, global home‐sharing …” economic outlook is expected to remain muted in the near term given the developing situation of the novel coronavirus outbreak notwithstanding the relief from the easing of the trade tensions –Extract from Hotel News Resource article between the USA and China. As such, the outlook for the hospitality sector in the region is expected to be moderate to negative in the near term while intra Asia and growing domestic travel (December 2019) in the larger destinations across Asia is likely to continue to underpin demand in the region in the longer run. 2 COLLIERS INSIGHTS HOTELS | ASIA | Q1 2020 TABLE OF CONTENT Page Page HOTELS 4 CRUISE 15 Opinion: Disruptors In The Hotel Industry 4 About Colliers Hotels 16 Destinations of the Quarter – Singapore 10 Next Quarter / Contacts 16 Destinations of the Quarter –Ho Chi Minh 13 HOTEL INVESTMENT AND VALUATION 14 Capital markets insights 14 Recent notable transactions 14 3 COLLIERS INSIGHTS HOTELS | ASIA | Q1 2020 HOTELS OPINION Disruptors in the hotel industry Disruption is changing the face of a broad range of industries and its happening at a staggering rate. Underpinning this is an intermeshing of technology development, shifts in demographics, and globalization which has also brought about rapid urbanization. This in turn has led to a change consumers’ expectations and needs. In the face of the disruptive market forces, companies need to be agile and able to evolve, innovate and/or reinvent to sustain or stay at the top of their industries . This ultimately means adopting to technologies and changing attitudes as the way we consume and experience evolves. The hotel industry is no exception and has not gone unscathed amidst waves of disruption. New technologies, online platforms and markets are seen manifesting in new initiatives of all sorts ranging from metasearch engines evolving into one‐stop reservation options, chatbots, and robots providing butler services to alternative accommodation options. The initiatives are sometimes driven internally by major players within the industry, while at other times by the changes made in response to disruptors playing in the accommodation space. Although disruptions are commonly perceived by incumbent players as threats to their businesses, disruptors could also be sources of significant opportunities for incumbent players to create newer cum better services and experiences for their guests, hence entrenching themselves even more within the industry. The hotel industry is not new to technology, just consider the evolution of the in‐ room entertainment system and room control pads. Considering this, hoteliers should be prepared to proactively embrace and seize these opportunities to strengthen their relevance and competitiveness. On this note, what are some of the disruptors that are influencing the landscape of the hotel industry. 4 COLLIERS INSIGHTS HOTELS | ASIA | Q1 2020 Pop‐up hotels While pop‐up restaurants, pop‐up exhibitions and pop‐up shops are a common sight nowadays, pop‐up hotels have caught on as well. This is unsurprising given consumers’ increasing emphasis on immersive and authentic experiences when they travel, and pop‐up hotels have the agility of providing on‐demand accommodation in locations that traditional hotels could not and/or travelers would not necessarily have access or ease of access to alongside customizable accommodation settings, thereby delivering an entire bespoke guest experience. The pop‐up hotel concept may have owed its origins to the ice hotel in Sweden; contemporary pop‐up hotels have however come in various other forms such as yurts, tropical villas, sand hotels, canvas tents, shipping containers amongst others. Take for instance, “Blink”, launched by travel company Black Tomato, a temporary on‐ demand pop‐up hotel that is customized to guests’ needs in terms of experience, type of accommodation (from yurts to tropical villas to canvas accommodations) and location (including remote and Source: Black Tomato hard‐to‐reach locations). Concurrently, the company offers developers with a new way to utilize units during Other concepts include Zand Hotel in the Netherlands which lease‐up and provides guests with a new way to travel. opened two pop‐up one‐bedroom hotels made from sand –with reinforced walls of course –and complete with furnishings, a In Asia, Singapore has its first shipping container hotel in operation in January 2020. bathroom with running water, electricity, windows and intricate Targeting millennials as its primary consumers who are more adventurous and carvings. These pop‐up hotels were built to coincide with the looking for an experience, the shipping container hotel will shift to a different Brabant and Friesland sand sculpture festivals in the Netherlands location every two to three years, allowing guests to explore various parts of and will close once the festivals end in late September and Singapore. Each cabin features a 300 sq ft air‐conditioned room with two queen‐size early October. beds, a study table, living and dining space, kitchen and bathroom. Similar to the traditional hotels, guests will have access to a 24‐hour customer service hotline and One of the recent players that have come into the space is the rooms will also be cleaned after each stay. WhyHotel, a D.C.‐based hospitality service provider, that operates pop‐up hotels within newly built apartment buildings during the Key players of the pop‐up space are predominantly boutique groups although major lease‐up phase being a hybrid of a hotel and a Airbnb‐style unit. brands such as Marriot and Accor have started to experiment with pop‐ups. Indeed How WhyHotel does this is by turning vacant apartments in these this may well lead to other brands exploring the feasibility of pop‐up hotels, buildings into furnished apartments offering guests with considering that consumers’ increasing desire for personalized experiences is accommodation that combines the home comforts of Airbnb‐style expected to continue for years to come. However, the planning, resources and rental units with high quality amenities that one would expect in a financial outlay required may put a dampener on the interest. Therefore, it remains hotel, such as smart concierges, dry‐cleaning services or a gym. to be seen if pop‐up hotels will go mainstream. 5 COLLIERS INSIGHTS HOTELS | ASIA | Q1 2020 Facial recognition technology for hotels For travelers, checking in to a hotel can be a laborious process involving hotel staff performing manual checks on travel documents, for example. In addressing this, other than mobile check‐in which is hardly a new concept, more hotels are seen taking it a step further with the use of biometric technology such as the facial recognition technology to speed up guests’ check‐in time and thereby improve the customer experience, make processes more efficient and enhance security. In China, facial recognition technology has already come into play at multiple properties, including at selected Marriott hotels and FlyZoo, a futuristic hotel built by tech giant Alibaba. At Marriot hotels, facial‐recognition technology is used at lobby kiosks to speed up the check‐in process. At Flyzoo, facial recognition technology is incorporated as part of the guest reservation and access journey in which a Chinese customer uses the Fliggy app (via Alibaba) to choose his/her hotel room and make reservations.