Just don't tell Horst Schulze, the former president and chief operating officer of Ritz-Carlton. The 68-year-old Mr. Schulze now runs hotel-management company West Paces Hotel Group, which was started by him and former Ritz-Carlton executives and operates the premier Capella brand.
Defying skeptics who warned that the market already was oversupplied, Mr. Schulze recently opened an ultraluxury hotel called the Breidenbacher Hof in Düsseldorf, Germany. Confident that the global boom in luxury hotels will continue, he plans to open seven more Capella-brand hotels around the world in the next 10 months.
"If there is a slowdown it isn't because the hotel and luxury business is slowing, but because the banks are reluctant to lend money," Mr. Schulze says.
The hotel industry has had a good run over the past decade. Operators and developers have reported years of bullish earnings, driven by surging emerging markets from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Shenzhen, China, and stable growth in the U.S. and Europe. But as the U.S.-led credit crunch ripples through Europe, leaner times could be on the horizon.
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Source - WSJ
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