Blackstone Group tips

Europe’s pace of hotel and short-term rental dealmaking has accelerated lately. Recent headline deals include Blackstone buying the UK’s Village Hotels for a reported $1 billion and Trinity Investments’ bid to acquire $1.5 billion in hotel assets across Europe within the next three years.

Blackstone, one of the world’s largest real estate investors, said Wednesday it had acquired Village Hotels from KSL Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in travel and leisure. The deal expands Blackstone’s footprint in the British travel sector amid an apparently growing consumer demand for experiences over goods.

Blackstone’s real estate division is once again considering selling G6 Hospitality, which owns the Motel 6 and Studio 6 chains, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Military planners describe moving equipment and personnel into a region where they plan to fight a war in as “setting the theater.” One might also apply the metaphor to hotel investment in 2023. Giant players like Blackstone and Starwood Capital Group are right now “setting the theater” for financial conquest, lining up capital and short-listing assets they want to buy in case optimal conditions fall into place later this year.

It may have taken a quarter century for Extended Stay America to find its stars aligned. Yet several factors, such as U.S. infrastructure spending and the resilience of blended travel, look ready to support U.S. domestic demand for extended-stay hotels. And privately owned Extended Stay America has been adjusting its strategy to benefit from these trends over the next few years.