Posted on: September 23, 2011 Home Topics Hotels & Resorts At confab, hotel execs toss barbs at Obama, Congress By Danny King PHOENIX -- Moderating a panel at The Lodging Conference 2011 trade show here this week, Don Landry, owner of Top Ten Marketing and Hospitality Consulting, joked that with the proliferation of brands and sub-brands, every major hotel company should look to launch a badge that begins with the letter "A." A few minutes later, panelist Monty Bennett, CEO of Dallas-based Ashford Hospitality Trust, turned the joke into a political barb about President Obama. "Were starting a hotel called "A-bama," Bennett told a packed house at the Arizona Biltmore's McArthur Ballroom on Wednesday. "You pay a lot of money for crappy service. You'll get it whether you want to or not." While analysts and hotel executives were cautiously optimistic about the prospects of a recovery in travel spending, that optimism was tempered by the general opinion that any recovery will occur despite, rather than because of, U.S. government policies. Whether the industry executive was what Landry jokingly termed either "a socialist, wealth-distributing Democrat" or "a Tea Party, hostage-taking Republican," conference panelists were generally frustrated by what they considered an ineffective president and a hostile Congress, both of which they saw as hampering any efforts to solve the debt crisis and push down stubbornly high unemployment rates. Not helping matters was news from Reuters that President Obama had ordered a review of Justice Department conference expenses after the Washington Post reported that $16 muffins were served at a 2009 meeting. "There's a lot of talk about politics that's never existed at previous conferences," Jeff Higley, vice president of digital media and communications at STR, said while moderating a Thursday morning panel. Much of the concern stemmed from the bigger-picture issues such as the debt crisis facing both the federal and state governments and the inability to solve it largely because of partisan ideologies. "One day it's Greece, and the next day it's Italy," conference panelist and American Housing & Lodging Association CEO Joseph McInerney said of the press coverage of similar debt issues facing Western Europe. "We should be worried about California, which has a bigger debt than either." Additionally, the U.S. nonfarm unemployment rate in August, while down from a year earlier, was unchanged from July at 9.1% and has been at least 9% since April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "What we really need is fiscal stability, political stability and an avenue to jobs growth," Stephen Hagerty, global head of real estate and development for Hyatt Hotels, said during a conference panel last Wednesday. Such issues have taken their toll on President Obama's popularity. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week showed that 47% of Americans have a favorable view of the president, marking the first time in Obama's presidency that the number was less than 50%. "With all of the partisan politics happening in Washington, how are we going to jump-start the economy?" Jim Kauffmann, chief operations officer of Marriott International's Americas-Western region, asked on the Thursday morning panel. "I don't think it bodes well for Congress or the president." Additionally, McInerney said the industry must cope with homeland security policies that hurt the travel business by making it more difficult for travelers from countries where the economies are growing rapidly -- China, Brazil and South Africa in particular -- from obtaining visas to travel to the U.S. In particular, the AH&LA is lobbying against a proposal to double the per-person fees for visas of travelers from such countries starting Sept. 30. So far, conference panelists say, such issues haven't hindered a steady recovery in U.S. hotel-room demand. On the Thursday morning panel, Marriott's Kaufmann, Best Western International CEO David Kong and Magnuson Hotels CEO Thomas Magnuson all said business was good, and the numbers for the most part back them up. Only Choice Hotels Senior Vice President of Global Development David Pepper dissented, primarily because hotel building has slowed to a trickle. Both STR and PKF Hospitality are pegging U.S. growth in revenue per available room for 2011 in the 7% range. And both research firms say room discounting is on the wane, and room rate increases are contributing to such RevPAR advances and higher occupancy, both of which contribute to hotel operators' bottom lines. Still, such numbers didn't stop the sense of dread among some at the conference because of political instability, the jobs situation and a still sluggish real estate market. "The industry number crunchers are all telling us we're having a decent year," Landry said. "All it takes is one single crisis to screw it up." With such political concerns front and center, STR's Higley posed a question to panelists about whether they wanted to see a change in the presidential administration in 2012. No one took the bait, though McInerney gave a response that was mildly defensive yet somewhat philosophical. "What are you looking at me for? I'm a Democrat," said McInerney. "We're stuck with what we have." This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy. Purchase Reprint