Investors seeking hotel industry financing and banks providing it have entered a phase of “frank and direct dialogue,” according to speakers at the UKHospitality Summer Conference in London.
Some of those seeking capital might not be happy, though. Cost pressures, high wages and the threat of a recession have combined to make loans more tenuous and expensive.
Panelists at a discussion on investment in the United Kingdom expressed a range of fears for the next 12 months to three years.
Luke Johnson, owner of Risk Capital Investors, which invests in hotels among other assets, said he fears the industry is heading into the worst recession of his adult life.
“Companies should be raising money to protect themselves. In the U.K., we have higher inflation, and we have a worsening currency against the dollar. … When the top line softens, we’ll see the weakest profits in living memory, or losses,” he said.
Jim Turner, corporate relationship director for hospitality and leisure at…