HHM (formerly Hersha Hospitality Management) has added 25 hotels totaling approximately 4,000 rooms to its portfolio since last year. At the same time, the business retained all of its existing management contracts in 2020 by working closely with owners to deploy hyper-focused approaches to preserving cash, driving sales to outperform its competition and maintaining outsized cost efficiencies across each of its submarkets, according to the company.
HHM’s portfolio is comprised now of roughly one-third lifestyle and independent, one-third resort and full-service and one-third urban and select-service hotels. The company’s full portfolio includes 140 hotels operated on behalf of more than 20 institutional and long-term owners.
“Our senior leaders have worked together through many prior cycles and knew how to adapt very quickly to the many challenges and opportunities resulting from the pandemic,” said Naveen Kakarla, president/CEO, HHM. “We focused immediately on our existing owners and understood that being scrappy—and helping them manage liquidity, streamline operations and drive market share—was our singular priority. For example, our proprietary and cutting-edge revenue management techniques, when combined with an unrelenting focus on direct sales, resulted in HHM growing market share at a record pace throughout the past five quarters.”
“Our recent and marked growth is not only geographically diverse, but also represents an expansion of our client base to include more than 20 institutional and long-term owners,” said David McCaslin, chief development officer, HHM. “These clients are increasingly recognizing our expertise and leadership in their submarkets, with all major brands, and certainly our independent hotel capabilities. For example, our growth includes new hotels ranging from Silicon Valley to New England to Florida. We really have focused on finding experiential properties that will stand the test of time, such as Hotel Nia, an Autograph Collection Hotel, in Menlo Park, CA; Sea Crest Beach Resort in Cape Cod, MA; and Islander Beach Resort in the Florida Keys.”
Independent hotel launches
Despite the pandemic, HHM successfully launched and/or opened three new luxury or lifestyle properties: The Whitney Hotel in Beacon Hill/Boston, the THesis Hotel in Coral Gables/Miami and the Plaza Hotel at Pioneer Park in El Paso, TX. These new additions complement HHM’s existing portfolio of more than 25 luxury or lifestyle hotels, including prominent hotels such as Sanctuary Beach Resort in Monterey, CA, the Envoy Hotel and Rooftop in Boston’s Seaport and the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club on Miami Beach.
Investment platform expansion
HHM also has been productive as an investor and asset manager, having completed seven sponsored investments in the past two quarters alone. “While we think of ourselves primarily as a hotel manager, we have available capital and dedicated teams whose sole focus is on acquiring hotels and expanding our investment portfolio,” Kakarla said. “We have been moving quickly and decisively in this area and look forward to making additional investment announcements soon.”