In 2026, Zelering said Brookfield will take advantage of broken assets, looking for properties that are either overleveraged and need new capital structures, or others that need capex where tired owners don’t have the wherewithal or desire. As an owner-operator, Zelering said Brookfield knows how to take these assets and realize the upside as “the fixer.”
Watch Zelering talk about these stories and the rationale behind other high-profile owned assets in their portfolio, including the recently acquired Generator brand, Atlantis in the Bahamas and The Leela brand in India.
ALIS: Brands v independents — franchising, outperforming
Hotel development experts discuss how the luxury customer has changed, luring independents and focusing on organic growth.
https://www.hotelinvestmenttoday.com/ALIS-Conferences/2026/ALIS-Brands-v-independents-franchising-outperforming?
LOS ANGELES — In an era of bifurcation, when luxury hotels are seeing unbridled growth compared to the rest of the hotel sector, it’s fair to ask whether any segments are undeserved.
Raul Leal, CEO of Miami Beach, Florida-based
Starwood Hotels, said it’s not so much that luxury customers are underserved as much as the type of luxury customer coming to hotels has changed in the past few years, as have their expectations.
“We're definitely seeing that there's more of what we call new money versus old money,” he said. “When you talk about your traditional legacy, luxury hotel customers that have been coming for years (compared to “new money” customers), they obviously want the same thing. They want a high level of execution and service and making sure that you deliver on that promise.”
As Starwood continues to gather more customer input, Leal said, the company wants to ensure it offers a variety of “activations” beyond previous offerings, including wellness, F&B, and offerings from local partners that can curate different experiences.
“They're just looking for different things,” he said. “It may be maybe the same thing as 10 years ago, but the experience has be to more curated. You have to take into consideration the youth and a lot of money that’s out there right now that want experiences.”
While the panel lodged complaints about the “hundred” of different brands offered by the biggest brand companies and whether customers understood what they were and who was offering them, Leal answered a query about the opportunity to add a new brand to Starwood’s current offerings of 1 Hotels, Baccarat and Treehouse. He said that opportunity might exist, but the conversation made him wonder if it was necessary.
“There’s probably an opportunity for us to create another brand. But if you listen to this conversation, we probably shouldn't,” he said. “We are very deliberate about the brands that we are growing… I think there will be some opportunities with some brands out there and assets that have reached a level of losses… and we can step in and acquire the hotel, and if it's a good box and good market that fits one of our brands, that's a big part of our plans, especially for Treehouse.”
Leal was part of the “Boardroom XXV: Growth Gameplans” panel on the second day of the ALIS by Northstar conference at the JW Marriott/Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The panel included Joseph Bojanowki, president of Chevy Chase, Maryland-based PM Hotel Group; Christopher Hartley, CEO of Dubai-based Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) and John Murray, president and CEO of Newton, Massachusetts-based Sonesta International Hotels Corp. Daniel Peek, president, Americas for JLL and Mark Owens, vice chair for Colliers, co-moderated the panel.
The risk of ‘generic’ luxury
For Hartley and GHA, the world’s largest collection of independent hotel brands, his biggest concern is luxury hotels that don’t offer anything extra or special.
“Generic luxury is a risk where it becomes very difficult to justify the rate premium if you're just offering a standardized luxury experience and it’s somewhat superficial,” he said. “You have this huge luxury segment and you have to have a completely different type of experience, and it's very difficult to deliver that... There's only so many people who are willing to pay $1,000 (a night) if they’re only getting a generic experience.”
That creates a real opportunity for the types of hotels in GHA’s network, or for the types of hotels it is trying to get to join its network.
“We have a list of about 300 independent brands around the world sitting out there, operating on their own. They're trying to figure it all out… They want to stay independent,” Hartley continued. “Our growth comes from the opportunity to expand into markets that are becoming popular internationally. In Japan, we're going to be adding assets via the independent route there this year.”
Those growth opportunities for GHA aren’t limited to top international destinations with favorable exchanges like Japan, Hartley said.
“In other emerging markets that we don't talk about as much, like Brazil, Indonesia, India, they've got huge middle-class wealth that's expanding rapidly now, and you're going to see these markets starting to move, and they're going to create their own hotel brands and they’re going to have independents there,” he said. “We see that opportunity to expand.”
One of the draws for his organization, Hartley said, is the opportunity to help independent brands expand their customer base.
“The challenge for us is how do we get that message to consumers,” he said. “Does AI make an opportunity for us to continue to promote independents?”
Meanwhile, Murray said there are numerous growth opportunities for companies like Sonesta in more affordable hotel segments.
“The vast majority of Americans are not staying in ultra-luxury or luxury hotels,” he said, noting that most of them are staying in lower-priced or economy hotels, “So, there's a lot of growth opportunity there.”
That’s why Sonesta continues to lean so heavily into its franchise business, Murray said.
“The margins are good. There are a lot of family-owned and operated hotels that are profitable, which is why our partners have been gradually selling select-service or mid-priced hotels,” he said. “We've been converting them from managed to franchise. Keeping them in the brand is enabling us to become a little bit more fee-generative and expand profits.”
Growth through outperformance
Bojanowski said PM Hotel Group is focused primarily on organic growth over the next few years, mainly because of the three companies it has acquired or merged with in recent years.
“The foundation of stability is to be able to deliver growth via the owners that we're working with through those acquisitions,” he said.
The other things PM is focused on are outperforming its peers, especially in an environment where RevPAR declined without a recession last year and is projected to decline again in 2026.
“For us, it's operational outperformance. It’s RevPAR through market share… It's customer loyalty,” he said. “It's the things that drive organic growth. Outside of that, we will be focused from an acquisition perspective on where we might be able to accelerate market penetration in a geographic area that we are not in.”
But organic growth in an anemic revenue environment is challenging, Bojanowski said.
“You have to outcompete. You have to grow market share,” he said. “There's money for some, but there's definitely not business enough for everyone and there'll be some winners and losers.”
Aimbridge claims former CEO Dave Johnson lied in court filing in ongoing lawsuit
Management company seeks sanctions against founder in new motion
Aimbridge Hospitality is headquartered in Plano, Texas. (CoStar)
https://www.costar.com/article/408580253/aimbridge-claims-former-ceo-dave-johnson-lied-to-court-in-ongoing-lawsuit
Aimbridge Hospitality is seeking legal sanctions against its founder and former CEO and executive chairman Dave Johnson, alleging he purposely misled the court.
Aimbridge first accused Johnson in a lawsuit filed Dec. 5 of violating an exclusivity requirement in a consultancy contract. The company alleged Johnson was working with Dreamscape Hospitality Management, an Aimbridge competitor.
In 2021, Johnson left the company he founded, a few years after Aimbridge merged with Interstate Hotels & Resorts to form the world's largest third-party hotel management company. He was under contract with Aimbridge to consult with them.
Now, Aimbridge says Johnson made several intentionally false statements about his relationship with competing management company Dreamscape Hospitality Management in his initial response to Aimbridge’s lawsuit filed last month.
Johnson’s attorneys would later seek to withdraw his declaration to the court, saying Johnson would agree to a temporary restraining order as outlined by an earlier agreement between the parties.
In his now-withdrawn response, Johnson acknowledged a friendship with Dreamscape executives but denied having any working relationship with the company.
According to a motion Aimbridge filed Jan. 22 with the Dallas County 14th District Court, the Plano, Texas-based third-party management company is seeking a finding of contempt of court against Johnson and reimbursement of its attorney fees and costs associated with the motion.
In this motion, Aimbridge said it found multiple pieces of evidence in the discovery process that contradict Johnson's assertions.
“The Johnson Declaration, which Johnson signed ‘under penalty of perjury,’ contained multiple demonstrably false representations that Johnson knew were false when he made them,” the filing states. “Even worse, Johnson made those false representations about factual matters that occurred just three weeks prior to the date he signed the Johnson Declaration.”
The documents Aimbridge’s legal team received as part of the discovery process “revealed unambiguous evidence” that Johnson was a co-founder and owner of Dreamscape. The documents, excerpted in the Jan. 22 filing, seek to show Johnson built Dreamscape from the ground up and actively sought Aimbridge’s customers and employees for Dreamscape.
In his withdrawn response to Aimbridge’s lawsuit, Johnson said he did not work for Dreamscape, did not consult for it and did not have an ownership interest in it. He also said he hasn’t solicited any of Aimbridge’s customers or employees on behalf of Dreamscape.
However, “documents produced in the limited discovery conducted to date reveal that every single representation in this sentence is bald-faced lie,” Aimbridge’s motion said.
In the evidence exhibits that Aimbridge included in the motion was an email Johnson sent on May 7, 2025, in which he said “Adam is my guy. I own his company but no one can know. Sucks,” followed by a smiley face emoji wearing sunglasses. The quote refers to Adam Patenaude, president of Dreamscape.
There are multiple other exhibits attached to the motion:
- In an email dated Jan. 3, 2025, Johnson directs his financial adviser to wire $40,000 to Dreamscape to fund the company for the month. A slide from a Dreamscape presentation deck names Johnson as a co-founder of Dreamscape.
- A draft email about the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas intended for the Dreamscape team sent from Dreamscape Companies CEO Eric Birnbaum to Johnson for review said, “I also want to acknowledge Dave Johnson, who brought us all together. Dave and I are now quietly building Dreamscape Hospitality Management into a new, improved Aimbridge — more focused, agile and aligned with ownership.”
- An email dated June 11, 2025, from Johnson to a hotel owner working with Aimbridge reads, “I heard a rumor that you may be making a change with Hotel Managers at few of your properties. I think I mentioned it to you but I use Adam Patenaude President of Dreamscape Hospitality for seven assets that I am a Partner in as of today and three more I am developing. He's the best. Just passing along and would love to reconnect soon."
- An email dated Aug. 13, 2025, from Johnson to another hotel owner that reads “Freaking hire Dreamscape and let’s be done with it!!!”
- An email dated July 11, 2024, from a former Aimbridge employee to Johnson reads, “It was awesome seeing you this morning. I can’t tell you how excited I am about the possibility of being a part of your Dreamscape project. Assuming it all works out, you have my word that I will give 125% at all times and be significant part of Dreamscape Hospitality's success. I have the most ultimate respect for Adam [Patenaude] and love the opportunity to build this venture with him at the helm."
There is also a Sept. 25, 2025, email from Dreamscape Chief Investment Officer Bill Stadler to a hotel owner with two properties in Nassau, Bahamas, managed by Aimbridge, about discussing switching management companies of the properties. A follow-up email that same day from Stadler said he and Johnson would like to meet with the owner to discuss “the change in management.” An Oct. 14, 2025, email mentioned that Stadler and Johnson looked forward to meeting to discuss management.
Following the owner’s agreement to meet, Johnson sent an email to his executive assistant to arrange a flight to the Bahamas for him and Dreamscape executives. He said to “[h]ave Dreamscape pay for all the transportation.”
An Oct. 29, 2025, email confirmed the Nov. 18, 2025, meeting with Dreamscape executives, Johnson and the hotel owner.
Johnson and the Dreamscape executives then traveled to the Bahamas on a private jet for the Nov. 18 meeting with the hotel owner. The filing includes two photos: one of Johnson meeting the owner alongside the Dreamscape executives; and another of Johnson at the hotel’s restaurant having lunch with the owner and Dreamscape executives.
Three weeks after this, Johnson would file his response to Aimbridge’s initial filing in which he denied any connection to Dreamscape beyond being friends with them and denied any business was conducted on that flight.
A hearing has been set for Feb. 9 regarding the sanctions motion.
Aimbridge declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. An email seeking comment from Johnson’s attorney did not receive a response.
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