Lodging Industry

When the $301 million, city-owned Hilton Baltimore Convention Center Hotel opens this month, city officials believe it still can bring sorely needed convention business to the city despite a weak economy that has dampened demand for lodging. Hotel and city officials, who offered yesterday the first peek inside the 757-room hotel, say early booking results by convention groups and other travelers are promising. And the hotel will achieve its goal of opening on time and on budget, they said.

When the $301 million, city-owned Hilton Baltimore Convention Center Hotel opens this month, city officials believe it still can bring sorely needed convention business to the city despite a weak economy that has dampened demand for lodging. Hotel and city officials, who offered yesterday the first peek inside the 757-room hotel, say early booking results by convention groups and other travelers are promising. And the hotel will achieve its goal of opening on time and on budget, they said.

Marriott International Inc. reported yesterday net income of $86 million for its third quarter.The results came at a time of slowing growth in the lodging industry and represented a 16 percent increase over the corresponding period last year.However, the Bethesda-based company, the nation's largest hotel company, lowered its expectations for revenue and earnings growth to the mid-teens from 20 percent.Marriott's stock fell $2 per share to close at $21.875 yesterday.In the quarter that ended Sept.

Peralynna Manor is a dream of a house for Cynthia Lynn that opened the doors to a business she never imagined. Now her white mansion-turned-boarding house - stretched behind a white stone wall off Route 108 in Columbia - is doing so much business that Lynn and her husband, David, are expanding, transforming a six-bay garage into eight new luxury suites. The $500,000 project, which will include renovating the existing eight suites and expanding the kitchen, is planned to be completed by September, and will more than triple revenue, Lynn said.

Beltsville-based Micros Systems Inc., an information systems supplier for the restaurant and lodging industry, is going global.The publicly held company, which had profits of $11.6 million last year from its computerized point-of-sale systems, agreed yesterday to buy Fidelio Software GmbH for $28.8 million.Fidelio, a German company that supplies computer information systems to the hotel industry, has 3,700 customers in nearly 100 countries.Micros was listed by the Greater Baltimore Committee as one of Maryland's 40 fastest growing companies in 1994, with revenues up 125 percent, to $79.3 million.

NEW YORK -- The NAACP called yesterday for a boycott of three major hotel chains, saying they did not respond to a survey of blacks' role in the lodging industry.NAACP President Kweisi Mfume gave F's on a hotel report card to the Best Western, Holiday Inn and Westin chains. In a preliminary report in February, the NAACP gave eight chains failing grades. Five later responded and improved their standing.Mfume said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and three dozen black professional and fraternal groups hoped to mount a boycott of the three chains by midsummer in the nation's 25 largest markets, including Baltimore, where the NAACP is based.

Peralynna Manor is a dream of a house for Cynthia Lynn that opened the doors to a business she never imagined. Now her white mansion-turned-boarding house - stretched behind a white stone wall off Route 108 in Columbia - is doing so much business that Lynn and her husband, David, are expanding, transforming a six-bay garage into eight new luxury suites. The $500,000 project, which will include renovating the existing eight suites and expanding the kitchen, is planned to be completed by September, and will more than triple revenue, Lynn said.

Marriott International Inc. yesterday reported that its first-quarter income jumped 29 percent over the same period a year ago, the result of a healthy lodging industry, acquisitions and increases in average room rates.The Bethesda-based hotel giant generated net income of $89 million in the three-month period ended March 27, fueled largely by its purchase of the Renaissance Hotel Group N.V. and a 9 percent gain in daily average room rates."The U.S. lodging industry remains very robust, and Marriott lodging continues to set the pace in terms of both [revenue available per room]

Host Marriott Corp., continuing to benefit from acquisitions and a robust lodging industry, yesterday reported its first-quarter earnings rose 42 percent from a year ago.The Bethesda-based hotel owner generated earnings of $218 million before interest expense, taxes and noncash charges in the period ended March 27, largely on the strength of its upscale and luxury hotels."

Host Marriott Corp.'s earnings surged 42 percent in 1996, fueled by the strength of its upscale hotel acquisitions and continued gains in the lodging industry.The Bethesda-based hotel owner's earnings before interest expense, taxes and noncash charges of $442 million for the year represents the latest evidence that its strategy of focusing on so-called full-service hotels is paying off."We acquired, or purchased controlling interests in, 23 hotels with an aggregate value of approximately $1.5 billion and completed the divestiture of our limited-service properties," said Terence C. Golden, the company's president and chief executive officer.

Fear of terrorist attacks, flight cutbacks and a sagging economy are prompting travelers to cancel or delay vacations and trips, dampening tourism in Maryland and around the nation. Cancellations of tours and hotel reservations reach well into next month in the wake of last week's attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and killed thousands. It could be some time before tourism returns to more typical levels, with the timing of a rebound depending on consumer confidence, the economy and the airlines' ability to return to more regular flight schedules, analysts said yesterday.

Crestline Capital Corporation, a spinoff of Host Marriott Inc., yesterday spun itself in a new direction. Bethesda-based Crestline, which owns and leases hotels and senior living communities, said it is shifting its focus to being a hotel-operating company. In the past, the company's hotel holdings have been operated by others. Crestline announced it bought two hotel operators, Stormont Trice Management Corp. of Atlanta and Durbin Companies Inc. of McLean, Va., for $20.5 million, forming a new subsidiary, Crestline Hotels & Resorts, Inc. The acquisitions gave Crestline 27 management contracts, making it one of the 20 largest hotel management firms in the country.

Crunched by a glut of senior housing construction, Marriott International Inc. announced yesterday that it will delay development of several assisted-living projects and cancel others.The Bethesda-based hotel operator's move, together with higher than expected start-up costs, pre-opening charges and higher reserves for accounts receivable, is expected to lower its fourth-quarter earnings by $12.3 million, or 5 cents per share.Marriott said the lowered earnings estimate stems from one-time charges associated with its senior-living business.

With a flock of jittery, curious sea gulls overhead and the constant noise of heavy machinery surrounding him, Alan Hunt surveyed the holes in the ground that many believed would never be dug.Several yards away, a drill rising eight stories pierced the wet ground, on its way to creating a cavity 70 feet deep and the future foundation of the Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel."

Marriott International Inc. reported yesterday net income of $86 million for its third quarter.The results came at a time of slowing growth in the lodging industry and represented a 16 percent increase over the corresponding period last year.However, the Bethesda-based company, the nation's largest hotel company, lowered its expectations for revenue and earnings growth to the mid-teens from 20 percent.Marriott's stock fell $2 per share to close at $21.875 yesterday.In the quarter that ended Sept.

Hoping to protect his investment in a planned $350 million commercial development east of the Inner Harbor, local baking magnate John Paterakis Sr. has acquired the troubled Harbor Inn at Pier 5 hotel.Paterakis' H & S Properties Development Corp. bought the downtown hotel late Thursday for $12 million. The purchase avoided a foreclosure auction scheduled yesterday by a Paterakis-controlled group that had acquired the debt on the 65-room waterfront hotel from a New York lender."The main motivation here was, he really didn't want to see the project shut down," said Michael Beatty, an H & S Properties vice president.

Marriott International Inc. yesterday reported that its third-quarter net income rose 26 percent to $58 million, the result of additions to its portfolio and the overall health of the robust hotel industry.As it had in recent quarters, the Bethesda-based lodging operator posted net income gains well ahead of its sales growth. For the quarter ended Sept. 6, Marriott's revenue rose just 15 percent to $2.2 billion from the comparable period last year."This was a very good summer for the lodging industry," J. W. Marriott Jr., president and chairman of Marriott International, said.

Marriott International Inc. reported yesterday that its earnings in the second quarter rose to the highest level in the company's 41-year history, thanks to gains in room rates and additions to its portfolio.The Bethesda-based company's net income of $101 million, 37 cents per share, was 20 percent higher than in the comparable period a year ago, further evidence of the strong U.S. economy and the hotel industry's continued strength. Marriott's total sales in the three months that ended June 19 also increased significantly, to $2.5 billion, a 16 percent gain from the corresponding period in 1997.

Marriott International Inc. reported yesterday that its earnings in the second quarter rose to the highest level in the company's 41-year history, thanks to gains in room rates and additions to its portfolio.The Bethesda-based company's net income of $101 million, 37 cents per share, was 20 percent higher than in the comparable period a year ago, further evidence of the strong U.S. economy and the hotel industry's continued strength. Marriott's total sales in the three months that ended June 19 also increased significantly, to $2.5 billion, a 16 percent gain from the corresponding period in 1997.