Hotel Outlook: Far from Gloom and Doom

Van sees “terrific opportunities for quality hotels in need of recapitalization.”

DALLAS—For the past several months, the word on the street, and within the sector itself, is that the hotel industry has peaked for this cycle. Fundamentals are declining, industry experts say, or at very least are slowing in their growth.

In the view of Prism Hotels & Resorts’ Steven Van, though, the reality is more nuanced, and in fact depends largely on the vantage point of the individual observer. President and CEO of Dallas-based Prism Hotels, which manages more than 25 properties for multiple institutional and private owners, Van sees plenty of blue sky ahead, even as he acknowledges in this exclusive interview that it’s a challenge to look past the clouds.