![]() ![]() That's the argument made by Sean Hehir, managing director of Trinity Investments, a real estate firm that purchased Honolulu's iconic Kahala Resort in 2006. Why does a guy who admits chains outperform independents go ahead and open an independent anyway? The Avia opened in January in Savannah and was promptly named a great romantic getaway by Travel & Leisure magazine. LodgeWorks manages hotels in the Hyatt and Hilton chains, helped create the Residence Inn brand (now owned by Marriott), and is building its own Hotel Sierra chain.īut Isaac has just built an upscale independent hotel too. "Chains always outperform" independent hotels, says LodgeWorks' Tony Isaac, a man who knows the industry from both sides of the fence. The Dorchester in London? It's part of the Dorchester Group, which is aligned with the Beverly Hills hotel, the Plaza Athenee in Paris, and the Principe di Savoia in Milan. The newly renovated Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii is run by Prince Hotels of Japan. The Pierre, which reopens in New York this spring, is operated by Taj. The Plaza in New York, which reopened last year, is managed by Fairmont. And some luxury hotels you may think of as independent are actually part of a chain. ![]() Regis is owned by Starwood, best know for its Westin, W and Sheraton hotels. Other luxury brands have huge corporate parents too. It is aligning its independents like the Boca Raton Resort in Florida and the Boulders in Arizona with the Waldorf Astoria Collection, which was created by Hilton using the cachet of its eponymous New York hotel. The Blackstone Group, which owns many of the world's best-known luxury independents as well as Hilton Hotels, is building a deluxe brand too. About half of the properties on the Condé Nast Traveler Gold List and half of those that earn the prestigious five-star rating from the Mobil Guide are part of chains now, albeit luxury and ultra-deluxe operators such as Four Seasons or Fairmont of Canada Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula of Hong Kong Aman Resorts of Singapore and Taj of India. (CSX recently spent $50 million on improvements in a misguided attempt to regain the fifth Mobil Guide star it lost in 2000.) And despite the loyalty of generations of repeat visitors and fanatic golfers, the Greenbrier was disproportionately dependent on corporate meetings, a travel category that has been devastated by the weak economy and the "AIG Effect."īut the Greenbrier's sale to Marriott also raises a more universal question: Can any luxury hotel or resort thrive - or even survive - as an independent property? In a world where a handful of global hotel chains - Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt, Accor of France and InterContinental of Britain - dominate the lodging market, can a single property, no matter how famous, stand alone?Īt least on the surface, the answer is no. The sprawling resort is physically isolated and expensive to operate. Like all luxury hotels that have hit the economic and emotional skids, the Greenbrier's tale is unique: CSX has been a distracted and ham-fisted owner, battling both the hotel's unions and the resort's former president, who sued for $50 million. Newspapers statewide have cast Marriott's arrival as a "rescue." And locals in hardscrabble Greenbrier County support anything that will save the resort's approximately 1,300 jobs. West Virginia governor Joe Manchin publicly applauded the deal. The unions seem amenable to Marriott's arrival. Now, no one is aghast at the prospect of a chain running the Greenbrier. ![]() Pending bankruptcy court approval, the deal could close by summer. Marriott will then buy the resort within seven years for between $60 million and $110 million. ![]() CSX is so desperate to unload the hotel that it will provide Marriott with as much as $50 million to operate the Greenbrier during the first two years. And CSX promptly called in - you guessed it - Marriott. The owner, railroad company CSX Corp., put the Greenbrier into Chapter XI bankruptcy in late March, claiming $90 million in losses during the last six years. Well, the 230-year-old lodging icon has succumbed. ![]()
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