Two hotels in Kissimmee went up for auction this month, and an Orlando hotel is facing the block early next year, as one expert warns that a “tsunami” of sales and foreclosures could be on the horizon, the Orlando Sentinel reported. “There’s a lot of pain out there,” said Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of Driftwood Hospitality Management, adding that only cash infusions from the government or lenders would stop the wave. But with news of the vaccine rollout and approval of the second stimulus package, Rodriguez and other market professionals see reasons to be optimistic, especially about Central Florida. “The hotels here in town going into the pandemic were actually in a very good position,” said Paul Sexton, senior vice president at Hospitality Real Estate Counselors. While data analyst group STR doesn’t see the tourism returning to 2019 highs for three or four years, Sexton said most hotel owners learned valuable lessons in the recession of 2008 that gave them breathing room. “The banks did a better job of not lending too much money,” he said. “The owners did a better job of not taking too much money.” With a capital cushion and PPP money from the first round of stimulus in March, hotel owners are playing a waiting game. The new stimulus package likely will deliver millions of dollars more to hotels under the Payroll Protection Program. “The question for owners, effectively, is can they outrun the pandemic?” Sexton said.
