Executive interview with Paul Harnedy, Executive Vice President of Cedar Capital Court, anticipating Hospitality Marketplace event

Executive interview with Paul Harnedy, Executive Vice President of Cedar Capital Court, anticipating Hospitality Marketplace event?15,16,22,23 November

I had the pleasure to interview Paul Harnedy, Executive Vice President of Cedar Capital Partners who invests exclusively in the hospitality sector with an emphasis on luxury, full service and lifestyle hotels. Founded in 2004, the firm has made investments in excess of $4 billion and has maintained a consistent track record of strong performance and value creation throughout various market cycles.

How the current macro economic outlook has impacted hotel performance and investment plans

Rising costs across the board are neutralised by the demand being very strong?across the markets and pricing following suit. ADRs remain strong hugely thanks to leisure travel, corp travel has most definitely returned strong.

The gap in the market is very much group travel and meetings and events which had formed a large part of Cedar Capital Group business historically, the question is when will that come back and will it be to 2019 levels?

Inflation and utility impact on food supply chain, linen, laundry - seeing upwards 25% increase in laundry rates, utility gone up triple digit in some cases, in a number of European markets you can’t even contract utility bills having to go with day by day pricing.

At some pint the gap will narrow and business should start seeing profit erosion.

Main KPIs under review

Rooms still the biggest driver of profitability in the hotel industry - REVPAR , ADR?and Occupancy remain the big three to look at whenever reviewing a P&L schedule but more and more pertinent?for the type of multi faceted business run by Cedar Capital Court is TREVPAR - with spa, golf, leisure and good quality F&B outlets - it’s important to understand the whole spend. The way ancillary is approached in the properties, TREVPAR is absolutely head and shoulders above its competitor set.?

TREVPAR coming to the fore to be the second biggest measurement after REVPAR from a revenue perspective.

The guest has more choice and paying more for services naturally with the increase into the demand, thus customer data is more important than it was before, in terms of building loyalty and delivering to that guest’s expectation.

Tools that tells you how you’re doing in terms of guest satisfaction and how you’re doing against your compset are important to stay ahead against what your competitors are doing from a guest perspective.

From a cost base looking at cost per kw/hour, more and more utility or cost KPIs that are in laser focus,?

The Role of technology to grow the business?

Technology plays a huge part across the board, more and more in terms of control of usage, energy and utilities, with RMS continuing to be the no.1 system.?

Why Hospitality Marketplace

''Hospitality Marketplace is extremely valuable for sharing views and understanding how other experienced and knowledgeable people within the industry are seeing things.''

We are better collectively as an industry?although we’re all competitors in many different way, nevertheless we continue to learn from each other and undertaking how other people are measuring and focusing on the performance of their business is really helpful!

Don't miss out the upcoming Hospitality Marketplace and register here: ?

15 November : #REVENUE MAXIMIZATION, 5PM -?Register?here?:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6970661926787776512/ ?

?16 November: #DISTRIBUTION , 5PM -?Register?here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6970661010684690432/ ?

?22 November: #DIRECT BOOKINGS, 5PM,?Register?here?:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6970662288978554880/ ?

?23 November: #OPERATIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY, 5PM,?Register?here?:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6970662712288645121/ ?

Follow more exclusive interviews on the current state of play at Open Revenue Consulting here: