MEDIA CENTRE - Events

Serviced Apartment Summit, London (Jul 2016)

Serviced Apartment Summit, London (July 2016)

Philip was invited to moderate a panel at the Serviced Apartment Summit in London. The panel was called "Meet The Money" and his excellent panellists were Tim from Barclays, Huw from HSBC and Diane from Lloyds. Phil's "takeaway nuggets" from the panel and other sessions include:

• One bank is forecasting that GBP could rise to EUR 1.52 in the next 12 months (from EUR 1.17 today).
• The big retail banks are open for business as usual when it comes to financing hotel and extended stay deals (including new development for two of the three banks).
• A brand is not necessarily a pre-requisite to secure bank funding, provided the bank is persuaded that the operator and the underlying business are considered to be of high quality and reliable.
• Banks will consider all forms of operating structures and are not necessarily wedded to leases only. They will support HMAs, FAs and any hybrid structures, again provided the business fundamentals are sound.
• One way to make a banker smile is to wear broken glasses whilst moderating!