SAN DIEGO—The  RAR in RAR Hospitality is Robert A. “Bob” Rauch, an industry veteran with more than 40 years experience ranging from general manager to consultant to CEO of the management firm which is celebrating its silver anniversary this year. He is also known as The Hotel Guru (or @truehotelguru, as his Twitter handle proclaims), and has run the hotelguru.com website for 20 years, providing insights on all aspects of the hospitality industry. He has also taught at Arizona State University for 25 years.

So, when he forecasts what is to come for the future of his company and for the industry, people listen.

He predicts the U.S. lodging industry “will do very well in 2O16, with a solid 5% RevPAR growth. [However,] there are some headwinds ahead, and I’m calling for a soft landing in 2017, driven by some global economic changes, Airbnb supply and new hotel supply.” About his company, which is headquartered here and has an office in Phoenix, where Rauch resides, he said of the near future: “I think we’re going to get to, most likely, 25 properties by the end of this year.

Right at the moment, I would forecast we’ll be in the mid-20s.

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The company has already been busy this year, adding three properties to its portfolio over the first two months.

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