pproximately 950 people attended
LendingCon 2025 Aug. 19 to 20
at Renaissance Seaworld hotel
in Orlando, Florida, more than the 800
organizers had expected. Attendees
heard from economists and members of
Congress about the current state of the
economy.
It was the fifth year for the conference,
founded in 2021 by Jan Gautam, president
and CEO of IHRMC Hotels & Resorts, to
give hoteliers more access to financing
options.
Along with a variety of educational
sessions and networking opportunities,
attendees at LendingCon 2025 heard
reports on the current economic
dynamics from experts from CoStar and
Oxford Economics. Those forecasts were
mostly concerned with the slowing of the
economy under President Trump’s tariffs
and immigration policies.
This year’s event will include keynote
speakers, panel discussions, one-on-
one meetings, and exhibitions. It will
provide a platform to discuss lending
and development practices and invite
professionals from banks, fintech
companies, credit unions, regulators,
investors, developers, consultants and
policymakers.
“We are reshaping lending, making
it simpler, more accessible, so you
can unlock new opportunities with
confidence,” Gautam said. “Last year,
lenders free networking session sparked
the real momentum. Deals were made
right on the conference floor.”
Follow the money
Past AAHOA Chairman Vinay Patel, who is
president and CEO of Fairbrook Hotels in
Herndon, Virginia, emceed the welcoming
session of the conference. He explained
the importance of LendingCon.
“We all need money to develop, to grow,
to build, to buy, to whatever else we do
in our businesses, we need money,” Patel
said. “That's what fuels the growth that
we have out here. And what better place to
be than at a conference where you meet a
lot of different vendors.”
Gautam stressed the event’s
opportunities to network.
“Over the next two days, you will
hear from experts on market trends,
innovative loan programs, AI’s role in
hospitality, development, planning and
much more,” he said. “But the real power
of learning power lies in the connection
you make.”
The first expert speaker at the
conference was Daryl Cronk, senior
economist at Oxford Economics. He
began with addressing the state of the
labor market.
“That's been top of mind lately. The
most recent report was much weaker
than expected,” Cronk said. “Hiring has
slowed significantly, and in fact, hiring
is quite narrow right now. There's only
a couple industries that are really in
any meaningful way adding jobs. Most
industries are flat to slightly declining
in employment, so we've seen a big
slowdown in jobs.”
At the same time, Cronk said, the
unemployment rate has stayed around
4.2 percent. There have not been
many layoffs, but companies haven’t
been hiring, either, he said. There
may be a couple of reasons for the
stable unemployment rate, such as the
retirement of Baby Boomers and the
reduction in the immigrant component
of the labor force resulting from current
immigration policies.
“People aren't quitting their jobs, which
if you're the company owner, maybe
that is a good thing and means reduced
turnover. But we see that as a lack of
confidence in the labor market,” Cronk
said. “People are less inclined to quit
their job if they don't think they can find
another one fairly quickly, or if they're
worried about the economic outlook, they
may not want to be the newbie hired into
the company, the old expression of last
hired, first fired, if things go soft.”
Cronk said tariffs are impacting the
economy even if inflation has only just
begun to increase.
“The reality is that tariffs lead into
inflation with a lag. There's a lag to the
More than 900 attend
LendingCon 2025
Speakers addressed impact of tariffs on the economy
www.asianhospitality.com
September 2025 | Issue 240
LendingCon ’25
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Jan Gautam, president and CEO of IHRMC Hotels & Resorts and founder of LendingCon in Orlando,
Florida, welcomes attendees to the 2025 conference.