Waterford Hotel, Waterton Form New Venture

David Schwartz, CEO, Waterton

Waterford Hotel Group and Waterton just became partners. The hospitality management company recently created a new venture with Waterton, a real estate investor and operator, for the purpose of bolstering and expanding their hotel portfolios.

With the establishment of the venture, Waterford took over operations of a 1,600-key group of eight Waterton hotels—including six full-service properties—increasing its portfolio to 41 assets totaling 6,200 keys in nine states. In turn, Waterton will focus on real estate investment strategies.

“Combining our hotel management platform with Waterford allows Waterton to remain in the hotel business with a more strategic focus on asset management and acquisitions, while creating a larger portfolio with greater synergies for our assets and growth opportunities for our operations professionals,” David Schwartz, CEO of Waterton, said in a prepared statement.

Hospitality investment banking firm RobertDouglas served as advisor to Waterford and Waterton on the transaction.

Lodging sector success persists

“Good news: U.S. hotels continue to make money,” according to hotel benchmark service HotStats. The hospitality sector saw a 3.4 percent annual increase in profit in 2018, spurred in part by year-over-year growth in gross operating profit per available room in December. The increase marked the third consecutive year of GOPPAR growth. Additionally, the year-over-year revenue per available room rose by 2 percent and the average achieved room rate grew by 3 percent, denoting the 12th straight monthly increase in this measure.

“Owners and operators hope the positive performance in 2018 will carry through 2019, despite macro concerns and worries over expenses,” David Eisen, director of hotel intelligence for HotStats, said in prepared remarks.

Image courtesy of Waterton