NEW YORK CITY-"Being English, I am quite optimistic," notedAndrew Cosslett, chief executive, IHG, regarding the near-termfuture of hotels. Clarifying, he explained that "quite" means: "Itmight be [good] and it might not." Lalia Rach, divisional dean andHVS professor, Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourismand Sports Management, School of Continuing and ProfessionalStudies, NYU, moderated a panel of hoteliers in a discussioncalled, "The CEOs Check In." The panel was comprised of Cosslett;Hyatt Hotels Corp.'s president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian; DavidKong, president and CEO, Best Western International, Inc.; and Arne Sorenson, president and COO of Marriot International,Inc.

Hoplamazian said that the hotel sector is "in very early stagesof recovery. Year over year looks fantastic, but [that's] comingafter one of the worst year's on record. We need to see some moredurable evidence that we're in a recovery."

Sorenson said that he was "wildly optimistic" noting that rateswill be coming back very soon, although currently rates on groupbusiness is not great. Cosslett explained that Asia specifically ismoving ahead in rate, but that it's slower for places in Europe.There was a question as to challenging construction. Hoplamaziansaid, "It's not binary in building and not building, butconstruction is challenging. It takes a long time to build, harderto finance and there will be a lag [behind demand]."