Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset ManagementCornell

Certificate Program

Investing in hotel real estate is a complicated and rewarding endeavor. To be successful, hotel investors must be able to determine the financial interests of those involved in any project. 

In this course, Professor deRoos demonstrates several analytical tools used by real estate professionals to evaluate hotel investments. You will explore how owners, operators, and lenders evaluate potential hotel projects. Using an Excel-based tool, you will estimate the return on investment and return on equity for a hotel investment. Debt and equity financing are critical to every project and in this course, you will learn how to estimate the size of a mortgage loan given the lender's requirements. With real-world examples, practical tools, and opportunities to practice, you will develop the skills necessary to structure your own hotel real estate investments.

The control and management of hotel real estate is a complex process with a wide variety of options for both hotel owners and companies. Determining  who manages the hotel on a day-to-day basis and whether or not the hotel should affiliate with a brand can make or break your property. Based on his many years of academic and real-world experience, Professor deRoos provides you with the tools and knowledge you need to navigate the options and make sound decisions for your hotel investment. 

In this course, you will examine the most prevalent ownership structures in the industry and determine how these structures impact costs, benefits, and risk for both the owner and the hotel company. To evaluate decisions about affiliating with a brand, you will use an Excel-based tool to calculate the costs and benefits of converting an independent hotel to a franchise. Finally, you will examine the most commonly used control mechanism in the industry, the Hotel Management Agreement. 

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Financial Analysis of Hotel Investments

The hotel asset manager is responsible for managing lodging investments to meet  specific objectives. Their role in building value is analyzed at both the portfolio and the property level. In this course, Professor deRoos focuses on the importance of developing a strategic vision for asset management and explores the latest asset management techniques in pursuit of that strategic vision.

During this course, you will examine the role of the asset manager in real estate portfolio management and learn how to develop a strategic vision. You will also learn how to create an asset management plan designed to meet long-term financial goals, create forecasts, and build models that analyze sell versus hold alternatives and make optimal recommendations consistent with the asset management strategy and plan.

The courses Financial Analysis of Hotel Investments and Control of Hotel Real Estate are required to be completed prior to starting this course.

Ultimately, the goal of an asset manager is to strategically oversee hotel operations to meet the hotel owner's investment objectives. To help you meet that goal, Cornell University professor Jan deRoos introduces the latest asset management techniques and provides a set of five practical tools that both owners and asset managers can use to achieve their strategic objectives.

In this course, you examine the various negotiation tactics and conflict resolution approaches that you can use to help when issues arise between owners and the hotel manager. You will examine capital expenditure planning and benchmarking, which can enable you to strategically  increase hotel performance and its overall long-term value. Finally, you'll learn how to  manage and analyze risk appropriately, in order to  make refinancing decisions that use debt creatively.

Once you've completed this course, with its in-depth case studies and step-by-step guidance, you will be equipped with the asset manager's toolkit, ready to tackle the challenges of this dynamic role.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Developing an Asset Management Strategy

For a hotel investment to be successful, you must first have accurate and reliable data about the critical aspects of the hotel operation, such as occupancy, revenue, expenses, and cash flows. But how do you generate these detailed forecasts? In this course, Cornell University professor Jan deRoos leads you through this analysis using the Hotel Valuation Software he developed with HVS International. 

Starting with the market study, you will forecast hotel occupancies for new properties and for existing properties and calculate average daily rates using a variety of cutting-edge techniques. Using the occupancy data, you will  then forecast hotel cash flows, respecting the fixed and variable revenue and cost structure of a hotel. At the end of this course, you'll  estimate of the market value of the hotel, a critical component of any sound investment decision. Given that forecasts are only as accurate as the starting assumptions, you'll learn how to develop data to support your forecasts. 

With step-by-step guidance and sophisticated software tools, you will walk away from this course with the skills necessary to conduct detailed forecasts and valuations for any hotel property.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Financial Analysis of Hotel Investments

Accurately assessing the value of hotel intellectual property is critical when  structuring the most advantageous deal. This course is designed to help you develop a high level of financial sophistication so you can properly assess hotel management agreements and franchise agreements, as well as assign value to the real assets.

Professor Jan deRoos will guide you through the valuation of management agreements as well as franchise agreements using Excel-based spreadsheet tools. You will examine how debt and equity capital markets are used to financially engineer enhancements in the value of the real estate. To make sound financing decisions, you will calculate the costs of many of the commonly used mortgage loan features. Finally, you will explore how private equity sponsors design cash flow distribution mechanisms to align incentives and to achieve high returns. 

This course emphasizes the role of debt capital in creating value for equity and the role of public and private equity in modern real estate capital markets. Throughout the course, you will use sophisticated spreadsheet tools to support and quantify the analyses, all of which can be used to analyze real-life opportunities.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Financial Analysis of Hotel Investments