Taking the hotel industry by storm
Jones Lang LaSalle’s history (link to main JLL history page) spans more than 200 years, but we’ll just give you the highlights of how Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels became one of the world’s leading professional services teams, specializing in hotel real estate:
1983: In response to growing demand for hotel real estate services, particularly valuations, Jones Lang Wootton (JLW) & Sons establish a division dedicated to hotel real estate in London. This also coincides with a trend by major US airlines to divest their hotel assets around the world.
1987: In Australasia, our Hotels business was first branded TransAct with its primary office in Sydney.
1988: Grand Metropolitan, a major British conglomerate, sells InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) to Saison, a group of Japanese companies for US$2.27 billion. Having bought IHG for US$500 million only six years earlier, this transaction raised the profile of hotel investment globally. JLW are retained to provide annual portfolio valuations and advise on the disposition of non-core assets.
1989: In the Americas, JLW opens its first office committed to hotel services in New York.
1991: TransAct merged with JLWs International Hotels division to create JLW TransAct. JLW TransAct dominated the Australian hotel investment market during the Southeast Asian investment wave with involvement in over 60% of hotel transactions.
1993: JLW TransAct acquire Sunotel, a leading hotel asset management and advisory group in Australia, and in the process open an office in Brisbane. In Europe, the Queens Moat House bankruptcy presented another market expansion opportunity, this time into Germany with offices opening in Munich and Frankfurt.
1994: The enormous impact of the relatively small merger in 1991 starts to hit home and JLW TransAct takes a strategic direction to write a five-year plan to become the leading global hotel advisor.
1996: Client demand for hotel investment services increases throughout Asia Pacific and JLW TransAct expands into Asia, opening offices in Singapore and Jakarta.
1997: JLWs hotels business was also rapidly expanding in Europe and North America, with offices opening in Frankfurt and Los Angeles. With a strengthened presence in both the agency and advisory sides of our global business, offices dedicated to hotel investment services subsequently opened in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco.
1998: JLW TransAct’s five-year plan to go global is completed one year ahead of plan and the team merges into one global specialist business.
1999: In the largest international real estate industry merger to date, JLW and LaSalle Partners join forces and form Jones Lang LaSalle. The resulting company was—and still is—the leading global commercial real estate services and investment management firm. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels becomes the first – and leading – global hotel investment services firm.
2000: Japan’s economy went from boom to bust and its hotel capital markets started to show some liquidity after several financial institutions went into bankruptcy. It was an extremely busy period for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, during which we opened an office in Tokyo.
2004: The Hotels team’s presence in China was made official with the opening of an office in Beijing. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels has since enjoyed a market leading position whilst leveraging the enormous growth opportunities in the burgeoning China market.
2005: Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels acquires Atlanta-based ThompsonCalhounFair Hotel Brokerage, the leading hotel real estate broker and advisory firm for select service hotels in the U.S. The global hotel industry experiences a sharp shift from public to private ownership as global private equity players buy 37.5% of traded hotel assets.
2006: As our parent company begins a period of strong growth both organically and through acquisitions, which continue to this day, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels open offices in Shanghai, Mexico City and Moscow.
2007: Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels maintains its global success, dominating hotel transaction activity with US$13.9 billion in sales and a strong advisory business, and opens offices in Melbourne, Istanbul, Milan, Rome, Milan and Dubai. A highlight of one of Jones Lang LaSalle’s 15 mergers and acquisitions was the transaction that created Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, the largest real estate firm in India. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels subsequently open an office in New Delhi.
2008: Hotels continue to be a highly sought after asset class despite turmoil in the global debt markets. As such, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels adds teams in Glasgow, Auckland, Washington DC and Sao Paulo; marking the firm’s expansion into South America.
Today, we have the strategic advantage of our parent firm Jones Lang LaSalle, which now has more than 125 offices worldwide and operates in more than 450 cities in over 50 countries. Our team also continues to draw on the resources of our sister company, LaSalle Investment Management, the company's investment management business, with close to $50 billion of assets under management.
Moving forward, sustainability will be a key issue for hoteliers - being driven by both consumers and investors. A long-term view will need to be taken for environmental issues, as they begin to affect hotel valuations and an asset’s attractiveness as an investment. The inherent complexities and variability associated with both the hotel trading markets and increasingly complex capital markets will require in-depth knowledge of the local, regional and global market dynamics.