Lease or own?

FT
On the advantage that hotel chains have when they lease rather than own.

"The property-light model has lower fixed costs, permits rapid expansion and provides some cushion against the cycle because franchisees pay a fixed service fee in addition to a share of room revenues. UBS estimates that a 1 per cent drop in average room rates for a notional operator with fully owned hotels would knock 6 per cent of pre-tax earnings. A fully franchised operator would see profits drop by just 1 per cent."