The HospitalityVIEW working group recently met for its first quarterly meeting of 2021. The group reflected on the tumultuous year the industry has had since the onset of the pandemic, and looked ahead to better understand where innovation and industry transformation are leading.
Zach Aarons, partner at Proptech Venture Capital firm Metaprop, keynoted the session with observations on the industry from the perspective of real estate, operations and technology investment.
From experience in other sectors of commercial real estate technology, he noted that hotels have traditionally lagged behind in innovation. This predated the onset of COVID, culminating in the period of the industry’s strongest performance during 2019. He argued there has been tremendous fluctuation in asset values and expectations which extended across the value chain and started even prior to 2020, adding that a cyclical decline in asset values and overall operating performance was inevitable—even without the pandemic.
