The research division of the National Hotel Realty, LodgingEconometrics, predicts a slowdown in hotel stays, thus hotelprofits, in the year to come, but adds that the Big Apple is amongthe few that "shouldn't decline much as their Active DevelopmentPipelines suggest a lesser impact on occupancy." With few projectsin the works and high demand for rooms, most industry experts agreethe hotel industry will continue to do well even as other citiesmay be hit hard by an economic slowdown.

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, for example, has generated morereports this year on the status of the European markets than any inAmerica. The company has described Paris as "Europe's mostinternational hotel investment market." Earlier this month itreleased findings that read, "Europe's Continental hotel marketsare showing strong signs of growth in the first year of the newMillennium, with hotel room yields increasing significantly acrossthe entire continent, from Paris to Prague and Madrid to Milan."Vienna and Prague are "riding the wave of recovery" and in anupswing. In fact, very few companies have focused very muchattention on American cities, and even less on New York.

That's not to say nothing new has been happening here. Aspokesperson for Tishman Realty reports, "Despite one of thetightest hotel financing markets in a decade, Tishman Realty Corp.arranged the $300-million financing of the luxury, 863-room WestinNew York at Times Square, which it is developing and buildingthrough its affiliates. The debt financing for the property wasprovided by lenders from five nations on three continents."