Spinoff from Banyan Investment Group stable wants to be
among the top 25 management companies within four years.
ATLANTA -- There are the giant third-party management companies who
have the expertise, but some would argue are becoming too big to truly give
owners the attention they need. Then there are so many smaller management
companies lacking in systems and experience. Charles Oswald, CEO of newly
launched Aperture Hotels, sees a sweet spot in the middle and has assembled a
senior team that has the collective experience of operating more than 400
hotels across every segment.
Aperture Hotels, formerly Banyan Tree Management and
historically almost exclusively an extension of Banyan Investment Group, was
launched on March 22 to create its own identity and expand its third-party
management portfolio. Oswald told Hotel Investment Today that acquiring other
third-party players that’s a good cultural fit with a complimentary portfolio is
definitely in the cards to jump-start growth.
For brands like Fairmont, InterContinental, Kimpton, Autograph and Curio, don’t count us out of the conversation.
Charles Oswald
Atlanta-based Aperture currently operates more than 2,000
rooms across 15 hotels (mostly through Banyan Investment) and many of the major
brands. It follows a value-based approach to management, which Oswald says
delivers above average gross operating profit margin.
Oswald, former CEO of HP Hotels and with 10 years of
experience running operations for Noble Investment Group, believes he has put
together a team that will punch way above its weight. “We have a ton of
capacity and we’re ready to take on third-party management contracts,” he said.
Oswald added that his team has spent the last year building the right tech stack, operating systems and processes, and hiring top-notch talent in preparation for this day to attract new third-party management contracts and possible M&A opportunities. "Being a truly independent third-party operator allows for accelerated growth as we can work with a broad array of owners and not solely captive to one investment firm," he said.
Aperture just brought in its first couple of new third-party
contracts and Oswald said they are building a pipeline now with two different
owners. “Four years from now, we’ll certainly be a top 25 company within the
third-party list,” he said.
Oswald said he anticipate most of the growth will be in the
premium select-service and lifestyle segments to complex full-service hotels.
“In terms of the individuals that we brought in for leadership, our range is
midscale to luxury, soft brands and boutiques. For brands like Fairmont, InterContinental,
Kimpton, Autograph and Curio, don’t count us out of the conversation.”
Hotel Indigo Tuscaloosa is part of the Aperture portfolio
To prove their mettle, Oswald cites a repositioning of a select-service
brand-managed property that led to a 5.7% increase in RevPAR index versus
pre-COVID results. “We’ve added 9% in GOP margin to that property,” he bragged.
Oswald also cited a $2.9 million renovation project that
came in on time and on budget. “It starts with knowing the hidden costs on the
front end of the renovation to make sure you have flushed as much of that out
with your client so that they’re not surprised,” he said. “Then we take
decision around adjustments to the product and who we’re going to get it from.
In another case, it was changing which ports the products came into, and
changing the warehousing and how we’re going to route it. We found substantial
savings by looking hard and being creative.”
When it comes to challenges, Oswald says it’s inflationary
pressures in the labor market. “The reality is that since 2019, we’ve seen a
30% increase in average non-supervisory wages in an industry that’s labor
intensive with 40% of its cost structure coming from labor. That’s a big hit.
So, we have to find ways to be more efficient, more productive than ever.”