Amidst Ongoing Strikes, UNITE HERE Launches Website with Analysis of Deferred Capital Expenditures (Capex) in the Hotel Industry

Business Wire 13-Sep-2024 3:51 PM

The website includes customer reviews of hotels owned by lodging REIT Park Hotels and Resorts

UNITE HERE, the hotel workers union, has launched a website collecting customer reviews of hotels owned by Park Hotels and Resorts (NYSE:PK), one of the largest lodging REITs in the world. The launch of the website comes amidst ongoing strikes across the country, including over 1,250 hotel workers on strike in Boston, New Haven, and San Diego as of September 12. Over Labor Day weekend, over 10,000 hotel workers went on strike for higher wages, fair staffing and workloads, and the reversal of COVID-era cuts.

ParkHotelsCapExProblems.org collects TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews of certain Park properties, including five where workers were on strike over Labor Day Weekend and are currently labeled "At Risk" of a labor dispute on FairHotel.org. The site includes analysis from hotel industry experts about how many hotel operators, like Hilton Hotels and Resorts (NYSE:HLT), Marriott International (NYSE:MAR) and Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) allowed hotel owners, like Park Hotels and Resorts, to defer their capital expenditures, or scheduled maintenance and updates to hotels, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to TPG Hotels's "Spring 2024 Lodging Investment Roadmap," "Transactions could also be triggered by the buildup of CapEx needs at hotels across the country. CapEx-intensive to begin with, many hotels have been starved of capital as brand obligations were waived during the pandemic and capital reserve accounts were drained to service debt. There's also no certainty that owners will receive a return of or on the capital invested in many of these projects, creating a real incentive to pass along deferred capital needs to the next owner."

Park Hotels and Resorts indicated in their Q2 2024 earnings call that there are "10 to 15 hotels" that the company is actively looking to sell.

Coinciding with the launch of the website, UNITE HERE has purchased social media ads aimed at REIT executives and other potential buyers of hotels, and distributed information outside of the NAREIT REITworks 2024 Sustainability and Social Responsibility conference in Tyson's Corner, VA on September 10.

ParkHotelsCapexProblems.org will be periodically updated with the latest TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews of Park-owned hotels. Visitors are encouraged to leave their own reviews of the hotels as well.

Learn more at parkhotelscapexproblems.org.

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