OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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Chris Stritzel
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by Chris Stritzel »

^ Downtown KC will be back and busier than ever. It's pretty solidified now
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by DColeKC »

Chris Stritzel wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:36 pm ^ Downtown KC will be back and busier than ever. It's pretty solidified now
It’s certainly in a great position to come back strong. Fingers crossed the Covid issue is under control ASAP and plans can go back to being made.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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Is that a McLaren? I don't know anything about sports cars, but Tom Segura owns one and talked about it in a video recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C04PH-_JTA

It's surprisingly "affordable" compared to comparable cars from Ferrari or Lamborghini (~250K).
Last edited by sumajestad on Tue Oct 06, 2020 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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it's the new Pene Piccolo italian sportscar
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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Funny.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by earthling »

I haven't been able to find recent KC hotel occupancy numbers (last found was 39% KC metro in Aug) but here are national for 2020 according to...
https://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article113938.html

Aggregate data for the Top 25 Markets showed identical occupancy (32.5%) but higher ADR (US$94.36) than all other markets.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Miami/Hialeah, Florida (47.5%) saw the highest occupancy level.

Top 25 Markets with the lowest occupancy levels for the week included Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota-Wisconsin (22.3%), and Boston, Massachusetts (23.5%).
Typically hotels profit around 60% occupancy depending on profit from services but with a skeleton crew, some claim they are breaking even in the 30s% range.

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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by normalthings »

earthling wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 10:46 am I haven't been able to find recent KC hotel occupancy numbers (last found was 39% KC metro in Aug) but here are national for 2020 according to...
https://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article113938.html

Aggregate data for the Top 25 Markets showed identical occupancy (32.5%) but higher ADR (US$94.36) than all other markets.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Miami/Hialeah, Florida (47.5%) saw the highest occupancy level.

Top 25 Markets with the lowest occupancy levels for the week included Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota-Wisconsin (22.3%), and Boston, Massachusetts (23.5%).
Typically hotels profit around 60% occupancy depending on profit from services but with a skeleton crew, some claim they are breaking even in the 30s% range.

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Loews has had a pretty consistent bar business. I hope it’s helping them.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by earthling »

Hotel services that can draw outsiders can do pretty well, can survive with much lower occupancy. If hotels continue to do below average long term, we might start to see a return of hotel investor funded star-chef-driven restaurants inside hotels like in the 60s and 70s. And might see some partial conversions to residential in buildings where it makes sense.

Just got annual report from a Marriott hotel operating group I'm (privately) invested in - not in KC market. Fortunately they averaged near mid-50% occupancy for 2020, down from low 60s in 2019. I invested in them several years ago because as an independent operator they consistently rank in top 2% satisfaction of all Marriott hotel brands, which is paying off in a drought.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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Must be limited services focused. They are definitely doing better than full service not to mention convention hotels.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by normalthings »

KCPowercat wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 8:03 am Must be limited services focused. They are definitely doing better than full service not to mention convention hotels.
Loews told me that business really started to pick up in late summer/fall. I bet what full service and large group traffic there is has mostly condense into the Loews. I know that the football teams have started staying there.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by flyingember »

I would expect a huge increase in travel confidence by late summer.

Fall travel will probably be double of summer numbers, summer double over spring.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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From a survey of business travel a large percentage indicated that they will never reach pre covid levels.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by Highlander »

SingleMalt12 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 1:48 pm From a survey of business travel a large percentage indicated that they will never reach pre covid levels.
The Teams/Zoom meeting Genie, all the downsides notwithstanding, is out of the bottle and will never be put back in.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by earthling »

Yeah, with more businesses accustomed to web based meetings more and more may stick to it long term as primary preference. Then there's the potential for liability issues if expecting employees to travel while COVID still active, and it may never go away. The penetration and effectiveness of COVID vaccine should be a factor of course, for conventions as well but would expect a slow recovery of biz travel either way. Individual/personal travel will probably ramp up much faster, already appears to be. Would think concerts will return on larger scale before conventions do.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

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SingleMalt12 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 1:48 pm From a survey of business travel a large percentage indicated that they will never reach pre covid levels.
Vision of the future in the middle of this isn't a good gauge of reality. Most everybody I know hates online and ready to get back to normal business meetings.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by earthling »

Even 10+ years ago I did mostly online meetings and cut back travel significantly. Once companies build up standard easy to use procedures to do it, more likely to continue - perhaps as requirement and not by choice. In my case, most (IT) projects were based in other cities so all meetings online. It got to the point that even if several on project were at same site, PM wouldn't even book a physical meeting room because many/most were not in the room and was better for all if all online, able to share documents on screen, anyone can update screen and can hear everyone better. That started 10+ years ago. Remote tech even better now.

Now that COVID is driving companies to build up processes or infrastructure for WFH and remote meetings, both are likely to continue long term. More will return to office and travel post-COVID but doesn't seem likely it will be anywhere near same levels as before COVID. It's also a big cost savings most of the time, so more likely to become standard procedure once companies adapt and get used to it. That is biz travel becomes the exception, not the norm in more cases than before.

Same goes for online clothes shopping. Now that online retailers make it easier to return clothes and more give it a shot during COVID, a higher % will probably continue it after COVID is manageable. A higher % than if COVID didn't happen that is.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by DaveKCMO »

I can send three people to a virtual conference for less than sending one to an in-person one. Duh.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by KCPowercat »

DaveKCMO wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:24 pm I can send three people to a virtual conference for less than sending one to an in-person one. Duh.
Depends on industry but it's not getting the same value.

We all said this after 9/11 too.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

Post by earthling »

This seems different because a longish term pandemic is forcing biz to invest and adapt to a different routine and when the pandemic is over/manageable many will still maintain the routine because... they are finding the 'new' way more cost effective and/or already invested in infrastructure/processes so will continue to use it and/or significant enough % will prefer the new way. There are many things that will return to some degree but won't fully return to pre-COVID conditions. Pretty good chance many types of conventions will be impacted long term if not permanently if many stick with virtual conferences. Ditto with a good chunk of biz related travel due to getting used to remote methods (and cheaper).

Seems things that involve more open public participation more likely to return more quickly... concerts, car/boat/RV shows, home/garden shows, etc. And those are typically regional events so typically don't book as many hotel rooms as national conferences/conventions.

Hopefully if KC hotels don't make it they can be converted to residential, then maybe partially/fully back to hotel when market conditions right. Might be opportunity to add 'co-living' residential format that's hugely popular in Europe - shared kitchens, shared living rooms - college dorms meets high end condos in some cases. Some motel-like formats around country are also converting to storage units. One in OP did.
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