Jonathan Stanner, president and CEO of Summit Hotel Properties, Inc., participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2022 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.
Stanner discussed the differences Summit is seeing between weekday and weekend RevPar across its markets. “We’re clearly having much better performance on the weekends than we are on the weekdays,” with Friday and Saturday nights running well above 2019 levels, driven by a robust recovery in leisure travel, he said.
Even Thursday and Sunday nights are above 2019 levels, Stanner added, reflecting robust leisure demand but also the remote work environment where people are extending leisure trips. Summit is also seeing some of the Monday to Wednesday traffic coming back.
Looking to 2023, Stanner said the REIT expects more growth to come from mid-week travel, more from urban markets, as well as a nascent recovery in business transient and group travel.
Stanner also discussed emerging guest preferences, including the company’s recent glamping acquisition in Fredericksburg, Texas. He noted that the high-quality property can charge high rates while having only one full-time on-site employee. “We like the core unit level economics of the business,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stanner said the long-term outlook for the lodging sector is bullish, noting that the resiliency of travel, especially leisure travel, has been demonstrated. At the same time, growth in supply is expected to be muted for a number of years.