During our forty-five years of combined experience in the management of independent, boutique and upper-upscale and luxury hotels, we have had the opportunity to participate in the success of dozens of upper-upscale independent hotels in markets where the independent hotels compete against chain affiliated competitors.
As we observed more boutique hotel developers electing to affiliate with the various chain’s soft brands, often largely due to their investors and/or lenders inability to get comfortable with a hotel project without chain affiliation, we lamented that there was not the data readily available to support and prove to investors and lenders that an unaffiliated boutique hotel of good quality and well operated by a qualified operator who understands effective marketing and room inventory distribution for independent hotels can not only compete with the chain affiliated properties but outperform them on GOPAR and EBITDA.
In the table below, are the results of comparing twenty upper-upscale independent, boutique hotels with twenty that are chain affiliated.
In the table below, are the results of comparing twenty upper-upscale independent, boutique hotels with twenty that are chain affiliated.