Orlando, Fla.-based Associated Luxury Hotels has acquired Frankfurt-based Worldhotels, adding to ALH’s growing portfolio of global sales organizations and hospitality services providers. The company already owns and operates Associated Luxury Hotels International, an independent GSO serving the North American meetings and incentive marketplace.
Worldhotels’ portfolio, like ALHI’s, features city-center business hotels, historic grand landmark hotels, lifestyle hotels, boutique hotels and large-scale resorts. Most of Worldhotels’ member hotels and resorts are outside of America, with major concentrations in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.
Worldhotels consists primarily of independent upper-upscale and luxury-level hotels and resorts and independent hotel brands. It has 350 member hotels and resorts for a total of 75,000 rooms, while ALHI has 250 luxury independent hotels with 138,500 rooms. As private operating companies, the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“With this strategic acquisition, Associated Luxury Hotels is preparing to become more valuable to hotel owners and operating companies as a significant, full-service ‘soft brand’ that provides GSO sales with broad-reaching reservations connectivity solutions to market their distinctive, unique and independent properties to transient segments and M.I.C.E. planners worldwide,” Gabri said in a statement. “These two companies have very common and complementary characteristics. Both serve independent brands and properties across the globe.”
In conjunction with the acquisition, Gabri announced that Associated Luxury Hotels’ Chief Commercial Officer Tom Santora will assume the additional role of executive chairman of Worldhotels, where he will oversee the strategic direction for Worldhotels. Worldhotels’ CEO Geoff Andrew will maintain his title and lead Worldhotels and its organization of 140 sales professionals and expert staff from the company's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.