LOS ANGELES – In an interview with Thom Geshay, CEO of Davidson Hospitality Group during ALIS, he says that a high-end, 3rd party manager has set his sights in the luxury spaces and looks even further towards Europe for expansion. He said he was starting.
Under the new owner’s nautik partner, Gesh said Davidson, which currently has 85 hotels and around 23,000 rooms, will be set up a luxury division at the end of the year or early 2026. Residential space allows us to serve the entire stack because all luxury projects today have the housing components that come with it,” he said. “Nautic Partners already have it (they own a luxury home management company). They help us lead us.”
You need something to replace your brand, and no one in the third party field does that. So we want to go ahead and set the resources to be able to have that credibility.
Tomge Shay
Geshay is seeing more opportunities for third-party operators in the luxury space as more brands bring outside operators.
“Maybe it’s not today, maybe it’s not tomorrow, but looking back at 10 or 15 years, my opinion is that most of the brand’s growth will be on the franchise side, not on the managed side,” Geshey said. said. “Five years from now, we have a small portfolio of gorgeous assets. I think we’ll see other players enter the luxury management space too. Given the refinement that investors enter the space, we’ve seen 30 and 50 years of experience. We need something to replace the management contract… we need something to replace the brand, and no one does with the third brand – party space. So we go ahead and have that credibility I want to prepare the resources so I can have them.”
Regarding the move to Europe, Geshey said he was “trying to sniff the UK a bit and be smarter.” He added that there is no major announcement about the European division being set up a pending European division, as they need to be cra before they can walk. “We need boots on the ground,” he said. “So we move team members out there, get smarter about the market, learn where, learn not, build relationships, make sure it makes sense to do that and make time. I spent it.”
Again, Gesh first pointed out the Iberian Peninsula and Britain as potential landing sites. “We want to make sure we can do that well. If we can’t, we’re not going to do that,” he said, adding that they think there’s a big opportunity. “It’s a very divergent industry, the same many of the equity groups that own assets in the US, we manage and we own assets in Europe.”
Forever bull
After being owned by KSL Capital Partners for 10 years, and then about 90 days after new owner Nautic Partners, Geshay said his initial recognition was great.
He said Nautic is about 40 years old and just ended the termination of the 11th fund with an over-registered $4.5 billion. They were the first players in the hotel space, and Geshey said he set up a search committee to study business before moving four years ago.
The current growth plan will be roughly the same after organisedly doubling the company over the past five years. “We will continue to do that and continue to push the luxury up above the luxury space. They give us a strong balance sheet and they want to support our business,” Geshay added.
Davidson Hospitality recently adopted management of Asher Adams in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Davidson has just signed his first contract with the Westin French Leaf in the Caribbean and will continue to push. It also opened the new Margarita Building in Kansas City after opening Asher Adams, a Sign Lake Collection hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Geshey also said he never said “no,” but there was no immediate strategic plan to attract competitors. “Choice, we’re open to it, but it has to be appropriate.”
When it was recapitalized, they chased financial buyers in particular, rather than trying to combine them with another management platform. “We weren’t right at the time, combining it with other companies, and not that it wasn’t. We may have time and we have new partners who want to grow.”
Looking at the performance, Gesh is very bullish and suggests that the industry is planning to surprise the benefits.
“Everyone projects RevPar growth of 1% to 2%. But consumers are strong. Expense statistics with consumers are still very good, and business revenues are still strong as ever.” He said.
“The group rate is actually strong. Geshay continues. “On a temporary basis, we are standing up at night in the room, but we are down in the rate. That’s what I have the advantages I think… we also have to do a better job of simply providing things in hotels, in addition to the fees. We need to get them in spas and restaurants. All the aids The growth has risen much more, and we are budgeting to ensure that its supplemental revenue growth is once again high. So we wouldn’t be surprised if this summer is a better travel season than we expect. It’s probably… it could be 3% to 4% in RevPar, not 1% to 2%. It’s especially going to be just as tight as the margins.”
