Patrick Sanville: "The owner is becoming more and more demanding.  But the operator acts as a real partner than just taking fees out from him, and that, so he wants to be able to, if the hotel is not performing he wants to be able to have a say and eventually terminate the contract.  And the performance clause, that there are, there can be really put together, that can really be, most of the profitable ... they come into play, because they’re too difficult to work out.  So they want to have a say in that.  They want to have a say in the, of course in the CAPEX programme. They want to be able also to … if the debt is not being paid, also to be able to terminate the contract."

Patrick Sanville: “First of all, in business market is a deal finance now, you know. There’s sufficient cash flow to cover the debt.  Is the equity that is required to make the deal finance available?  Is there a story to deliver?  Is there an upside?  Even if there’s no upside, is the yield sufficient to cover the debt payments?  These are the kind of things that we will be looking at.  Of course, you know, we have to think first, the banks, the kind of deal that can be achieved, because they’re all looking for gateway cities, branded … the good buildings, branded hotels.  Everyone is looking for the same type of advance and of a certain size that can, you know, support all the due diligent cost.  The banks are lending, if the deal is good the banks are lending.  The issue is that there aren’t so many good deals around.  The picture is not so rosy.  But there’s always a silver lining.  I think that, you know, of course it’s going to take time to do the leverage.  But there’s always niches and there’s a play, in downmarket, probably even more so.  But there will be some … some decent asset to be picked up.  And there is plenty of money around.  So there will be deals to be done.  We’re in that period of recovery and rebuilding the economies.”

Patrick Sanville: "First of all, I would overhaul completely the fiscal … all our fiscal schemes which are far too complicated to read and with, you know, different layers adding up each year, nobody is understanding it really as a clear picture.  That probably would be the first thing that I would do.  And I would also, you know, eliminate all the barriers for new construction due to visa, and that’s part of what I just mentioned, the fiscal system, which has to be overhauled."