Interesting, during a period of time where undeniably just about everyone focuses on discussing the importance of social media and building brand equity through vehicles such as Twitter, Facebook, etc., that many serious CRE organizations seem to have taken a step back from all of these exact vehicles. Why?
Has anyone else noticed that over the past couple years the information that has been prevalent via social media in the CRE world ( particularly that of lodging) has been self promotion? Not in the sense of real stories, properties that have sold and how those specific properties are relevant to current trends in our industry, but seemingly more self promotion of information that really isn’t press worthy at all. Press releases regarding new listings (kind of the business we are in), or new offices (not normally actually with a human being in said office). The reason to start blogging again is partially because it seems nobody has much to say of interest, so anything that is based in original thought should appear unique in our business. More important however, there’s a lot of important stuff going on. Yes, tweets provide everyone the opportunity to in a very short manner basically regurgitate information we get in daily emails from industry publications, but the idea of putting some thought behind it seems to be the proper thing to do right about now. I can’t say I have a clue why I feel this way, but that’s the beauty, we get to blog when we want for whatever reason.
Life has been very interesting of late. Business is great. We can’t complain about our clients and I don’t think they can complain about us. We find success in the engagements we take on right now at very high percentages. Blah blah blah is what I assume most would say to that, anyone can say anything (although it’s true!). But why start blogging again now, why feel the need to express opinion. The simple reason is people are asking. Conference panels, articles, it seems the organizations responsible for putting out information are interested in original thought again and that’s fantastic. But also I think it has something to do with where we are. Life is good, business is good, the world is good, but is there a proverbial shoe that has been talked about for about 4 years now that folks have been waiting to drop, correct? I don’t really believe it’s going to, not at a macro level, but I do believe if we don’t start planning for more change, that shoe may be just large enough to kick any individual or business in the ass.
So I will try to start blogging again because I think it’s a good time to and also because I’m experiencing a tad of insomnia so maybe I have a little extra time. Over the next few weeks we have the Global Wyndham Conference, The Lodging Conference, etc. Also, I’m very excited NATHIC has moved to Chicago, come visit our beautiful city Nov 20-22 for a hotel investment conference that will not be like any others.
Most important though, and what I will want to blog about in detail, is that something feels strange, feels funny, tastes odd. There is almost too much news that is simply too good to be really considered news. Chicago alone has had announcements seemingly every other week about how great things are (and they have been) but this is a city with really strong rate ceilings. The trades that are happening are not all going to pan out for new owners. We may be losing focus again on certain fundamentals. Equity is cheap as we all know, lenders are being less vigilant in their underwriting, CMBS is truly back. This can all be great stuff but only for the right deals.
Those of you who make fun of Mubaho… Matthew Good is coming out with a new album in September and touring with a full band through the US for the first time in who knows how long, so I’m not the only guy thinking let’s take something old and make it new again, or let’s try something different in general. If you know the artist just imagine hearing “While We Were Hunting Rabbits” with a full band, and how different it will feel and sound compared to just an acoustic version. Maybe you think there is no comparison, music to the lodging industry, but I venture to say there are direct parallels. Let’s visit some of them soon.