Hardly a week seems to pass without a big deal in the hotel industry. This week alone, Starwood Hotels & Resorts has announced that it is spinning off its timeshare business, Hilton Worldwide has completed the $1.95 billion sale of the Waldorf Astoria New York to a Chinese investor and reinvested $1.76 billion of the proceeds in buying five more American hotels, while Travelodge has revealed plans to open 15 hotels with a value of £100 million.
There is no doubt that the notoriously cyclical hotel industry is riding an upwave at the moment, with improving trading and the reopening of the debt markets driving a surge in demand for assets, or at least high-quality ones. Which explains why Diageo has decided to test the