Prevent New Hotel Construction
Hi All,

My relative owns a hotel in CA. Apparently there is a new hotel (large worldwide chain hotel) being constructed across the street. A public hearing has been scheduled for the new development. Obviously this will be detrimental to the business. I was wondering if there was anything that could be done to prevent this hotel from being constructed. 

What I have so far:

1) The lot is very small, so it'll have to build underground parking. If the city does not allow them to build, most likely won't happen unless they can acquire an adjacent lot and tear it down.

2) Since the lot is very small, it'll have to build up many floors. An exception probably will have to be granted for this.

3) Flyer all the nearby residents and notify them of the new construction.

Was wondering what the community can come up with.
[{"id": "dr46acq", "text": "You could just tell your relative to be good at his job, offer something that a large chain hotel can't and then let market forces dictate the next step. Competition is healthy, your line of thinking is not.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dr4aiks", "text": "That's not how capitalism works. However, you're making real progress toward douchebag.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dr4dsoe", "text": "RE developer here. You won\u2019t win, they have more money than you and most likely have fought greater opposition to projects. If it\u2019s a good developer they will already have met with all the various city council members to find out how to get them in favor of the project. This isn\u2019t detrimental to your family hotel.  Like other people have said use this as motivation to improve what you have so you don\u2019t go out of business (you won\u2019t). ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dr6yls6", "text": "Wrong sub, bud", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dr7mx3s", "text": "If you're in hospitality, in a free market economy, you should really provide a great service, and be competitive in that sense, and garnish your patrons from great service and even by providing competitive rates, or great features. It sounds like your butt hurt about the new project and trying to rally to stop it probably won't help you because developers have their own PR people and methods to get the approval. If you can't compete with your current services, you should improve the property, and improvement your staff and methodology, to compete this way. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dr9p1yj", "text": "Ok I'll think we'll concentrate on customer experience and services instead. That seems to be the general sentiment here.", "replies": [{"id": "drcj1jh", "text": "The presence of a new name brand hotel may actually be good for you. Haven\u2019t you noticed how hotels congregate, just like restaurant rows? Guests like having choices and might shy away from an area with only one choice.", "replies": [{"id": "drct7gh", "text": "Don't know the real reason, but I'm assuming they are congregating around businesses / attractions, but not other hotels.", "replies": [{"id": "drctcw8", "text": " Sometimes the same parent owner is building multiple brands at the same location, so there is something to this. ", "replies": [{"id": "dreaa9b", "text": "Seems possible also.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "drhrh0w", "text": "As a comparison, you could look at malls: you'll very often see a concentration of similar stores, usually a big brand (like Macy's) and smaller stores selling clothes as well. There is a provision in most of these small store's leases that allows them to leave early if the big brand leaves the mall - because they expect traffic from the big brand. Your situation looks pretty much the same - I think it would be beneficial to your business to have this big brand hotel around - I think your relative will benefit from the fallout of their advertising....", "replies": [{"id": "dri36kk", "text": "That\u2019s interesting and makes sense. Anchor tenant I guess. \n\nThe hotel situation is slightly different though I think. It\u2019s generally going to be mutually exclusive. You are only only going to book one whereas for retail it\u2019s highly more likely to purchase from multiple. \n\nIf the new construction drives more traffic to the area I could see the fallout effect, but this more a business area.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dratqgh", "text": "I work in a hotel private equity firm and underwrite a lot of them from independents to franchised ones by Marriott, Hilton, Starwood, etc. PM me details and I can discuss with you if it will be a competitor or not. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "drbnh0v", "text": "We 0wn a portfolio of boutique hotels in many major metropolitan cities (San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Dallas, Phoenix, miami, and a few others ) my guess is you will probably can benefit from the hotel being built. But you have to be smart, and hardworking. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "drkrwty", "text": "There\u2019s even potentially a play to use the new development to recapitalize your deal. Maybe the time is right to do a major renovation. Add a brand, upgrade the brand etc. obviously if the other developer thinks the market supports new build then your in a good position with the existing asset and I assume at a nice basis. \n\nYou could bring a direct competitor to the market  much faster. Heck even announcing plans of a major renovation or upgrade may have them rethink their investment model.\n\nI do hotel development for a living and have been through many of these situations. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]