TH CA E NA DI HO AN INV TEL EST ME IS NT SUE PLUS Investment Roundtable Christiane Germain Interview 2013 Financial Outlook 0 7 4 3 6 0 0 4 # T N E M E Profita bl e E R G A S E L A S T and C U D O R P L I A M (l to r) Blake Hutcheson, N O president and CEO, Oxford Pol ished I T A Properties Group Inc. and Drew C Oxford Properties Group boosts its I L Coles, VP, Hotels, Oxford B U P Properties Group Inc. hospitality profile during turbulent times N A I D A N A C hoteliermagazine.com STRENGTH TO BUILD ON When you give guests a great experience, they return again and again. Our nine distinct lifestyle brands, powered by a global booking platform and the award-winning Starwood Preferred Guest® loyalty program, enable us to capture the hearts and devotion of our guests like no other in the industry – giving you a competitive advantage to build on. STARWOODHOTELS.COM/DEVELOPMENT 203 964 4468 HOTELS FROM LEFT FOUR POINTS BY SHERATON EDMONTON GATEWAY, ALBERTA, CANADA // ALOFT VAUGHAN MILLS, ONTARIO, CANADA THE WESTIN WALL CENTRE, VANCOUVER AIRPORT, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA ©2012–2013 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Preferred Guest, Aloft, Element, Four Points, Le Méridien, Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin and their logos are the trademarks of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., or its afliates. Volume 25, Number 3 // May 2013 Cont ents Features 8 THE EARLY YEARS A centennial tribute to the Hotel Association of Canada highlights the organization’s first 20 years By Adrian Bell Scan to view 10 ICONS & INNOVATORS SERIES: HAUTE HOTELIER our website Christiane Germain, co-founder of the Quebec-based Hôtel Le Germain and Alt Hotels, reveals her operating playbook Interview by Rosanna Caira 16 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS For real-estate powerhouse Oxford Properties, it’s all about the right deal at the right time By Laura Pratt 20 HOSPITALITY HUDDLE Hotelier magazine and Starwood Hotels and Resorts host the third-annual Investment Roundtable Interview by Rosanna Caira 29 REAL-ESTATE RENAISSANCE A look at the ups and downs of 2012 By Colliers International Hotels 37 READY, SET, GROW The Canadian hotel investment market is on pace for Departments another record year By CBRE Hotels Canada R 2 EDITOR’S PAGE/ E T S 43 R MONEY TALKS MASTHEAD O F With the cost of borrowing still low, hoteliers see G 3 CHECKING IN U O great opportunities for development By Laura Pratt D 52 HOTELIER: Y B Robert Mercure, Y H 47 DOES SIZE MATTER? P A Fairmont Le Château R Across Canada, in big cities and small towns, hotel G Frontenac, O developers are looking to grow their brands T O Quebec City, Que. H By Carol Neshevich P R E V O C hoteliermagazine.com MAY 2013 HOTELIER 1 EDITOR’S PAGE O FOR OPPORTUNITY ow can you tell a new season is upon us? This spring didn’t feel much like a new season, given the MITCH KOSTUCH | PRESIDENT & H GROUP PUBLISHER wonky weather. And, to make matters [email protected] worse, the spring budget offered little to the ROSANNA CAIRA | EDITOR & PUBLISHER hotel industry. If that isn’t enough to make rcaira@ kostuchmedia.com us shake our heads, could anyone have DAVID HEATH | ART DIRECTOR imagined the tragedy that struck the dheath@ kostuchmedia.com Boston Marathon, where three American BRIANNE BINELLI | ASSOCIATE EDITOR bbinelli@ kostuchmedia.com spectators were killed and hundreds more ADRIAN BELL | ASSOCIATE EDITOR abell@ kostuchmedia.com injured? A new season: some days it feels JACKIE SLOAT-SPENCER | ASSISTANT EDITOR more like the end of the world. jsloat-spencer@ kostuchmedia.com Still, as we move closer to summer, there MAYA TCHERNINA | WEB COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST is anticipation in the air and hope that the warmer weather will drive trav - mtchernina@ kostuchmedia.com ellers to Canada to keep the hospitality industry busy. DEREK RAE | PRODUCTION After all, Canadian hoteliers are ready, a trend reflected at Hotelier MANAGER drae@ kostuchmedia.com magazine, where this spring we hosted an Investment Roundtable ( see BRENDA JAMES | SALES & MARKETING MANAGER Q&A on p. 20 ), as well as another instalment of our Breakfast Speaker Series bjames@ kostuchmedia.com called Icons & Innovators, featuring the queen of boutique hotels, Christiane JIM KOSTUCH | DIRECTOR Germain ( see story on p. 10 ), co-founder of Groupe Germain. Later this jkostuch@ kostuchmedia.com month, the hotel investment community will gather in Toronto at the annual CIRCULATION PUBLICATION PARTNERS Canadian Hotel Investment Conference, which will undoubtedly uncover [email protected] (905) 509-3511 growing opportunities in the competitive hotel industry. ELSIE REDEKOPP | ACCOUNTING eredekopp@ kostuchmedia.com The good news is the industry is moving in the right direction, and, after TINA DIMITROPOULOS | EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT a few lethargic years, business is back. Last year was one of the strongest on tinadim@ kostuchmedia.com record, with $1.2 billion in transaction volume and steady RevPAR growth. Clearly, opportunity does exist, whether it’s developing a new brand, ADVISORY BOARD: Bill Stone , CBRE; Anthony Cohen , GLOBAL EDGE converting properties, the spurious growth of the select-service market or INVESTMENTS; Christiane Germain , GROUPE GERMAIN the potential for growth through casino development ( see story on p. 16 ). HOSPITALITE; Lyle Hall , HLT ADVISORY INC.; Charles Suddaby , HOSPITALITY & GAMING GROUP CUSHMAN & What has changed is the context of the opportunities. As Tony Cohen, WAKEFIELD LTD.; Scott Allison , MARRIOTT HOTELS vice-president of Crescent Hotels & Resorts, said at last month’s invest - CANADA; Ryan Murray , NIAGARA’S FINEST INNS (NFI); Drew Coles , OXFORD PROPERTIES; Tracy Sherren , PACRIM ment roundtable, “There’s no real new demand generators [in Canada]. HOSPITALITY SERVICES INC. (PHSI); David Larone , PKF We always say within our portfolio, don’t expect new demands; steal from CONSULTING INC.; Geoffrey Allan , PROJECT CAPITAL MANAGEMENT; Stephan Renard , RENARD INTERNATIONAL the competition. And, that’s really all you’re doing.” HOSPITALITY & SEARCH CONSULTANTS LTD.; Anne Hoteliers and analysts at our roundtable agreed on the need to repair the Larcade , SEQUEL HOTELS & RESORTS; Michele McKenzie , THE CANADIAN TOURISM COMMISSION; David McMillan ; damage of recent years. “The government has to wake up and say protec - Michael Haywood , THE HAYWOOD GROUP; David Mounteer , tion isn’t the way to grow the business or grow the country,” said Steve THE HAZELTON HOTEL; David Whitaker , TOURISM TORONTO (TORONTO CONVENTION & VISITORS Giblin, president of SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts. “Basically, that’s what ASSOCIATION) we’re doing. We are protecting Air Canada and the airports through our HOTELIER is published eight times a year by Kostuch fees — so what? The end-game here is not to say we’ve got a small [piece Media Ltd., 23 Lesmill Rd., Suite 101, Toronto, Ont ., of the] pie, let’s hold onto it for the rest of our lives; let’s expand it. Cana - M3B 3P6, (416) 447-0888, Fax (416) 447-5333. All rights reserved. Subscription rates: Canada: $25 per year, single issue $4, da is recognized around the world as a tremendous place for tourism, and, U.S.A.: $30 one year; all other countries $40 per year. Canadian yet, [tourists] are going to other countries. And, they’re leaving us in Publication Mail Product Sales Agreement #40063470. Member of: Canadian Circulations Audit Board, the American Business droves. That shrinkage is a tremendous loss to the industry.” So, what are Media and the Canadian Business Press. We acknowledge the we going to do about it? financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing ROSANNA CAIRA activities. Printed in Canada on recycled stock. Editor and Publisher [email protected] FOLLOW US: For daily news and announcements: @hoteliermag on Twitter and Hotelier magazine on Facebook . 2 MAY 2013 HOTELIER hoteliermagazine.com CheckingTHE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS FOR HOTEL EXECUTIVES FROM CANADA AND AR InOUND THE WORLD ONLINE EXPOSED The 8th annual Online Revealed conference previewed the latest digital marketing innovations in hospitality BY MAYA TCHERNINA he Online Re - recession than the U.S. ity photos translate to a 4.5- online properties by opti - vealed Conference Continuing on to discuss per-cent higher conversion mizing photos, reviews, attracted more technology, the Expedia VP rate and an extra $3.50 in blogs and social media to Tthan 200 attendees to quoted stats from the U.S.- ADR. But, he cautioned reach their core cus - Caesars Windsor Hotel & based market research com - operators against using low- tomers. And, it was no Casino in Windsor, Ont., pany PhoCusWright, which quality, outdated images of surprise that mobile was last month to hear the lat - reports on social media and their properties online, while pinpointed as the fastest- est trends in digital mar - growing trend. “You don’t keting and best practices want to just look into for marketing tourism and Leading the Pack mobile, you want to invest online travel sites. April’s Online Revealed conference wrapped with in mobile,” said Expedia’s Over the course of three The Canadian e-Tourism Awards luncheon, hosted by the Nair. Canadian Tourism Commission. Winners were selected from more days, attendees heard from Another interesting dis - than 45 entries internationally and included the following: industry leaders at Face - Best Western (best online campaign); New Brunswick Tourism cussion at the conference book, Google, Expedia and (best website); Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism detailed Facebook’s new LinkedIn with keynote ad - (best user-generated content) and Tourism Vancouver Custom Audience feature dresses from execs such as (best innovative use of technology). that helps marketers find Mitch Joel, president of their offline audiences Twist Image, a Toronto- travel planning.