NEW YORK — Ben Rafter believes the recent combination of Springboard Hospitality and Hotel Equities is truly different than the type of hotel management mergers and acquisitions seen in recent years.
In a video interview during the 2025 NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum, Rafter said the combined company will truly benefit from having two very different skill sets.
"What made it interesting was most mergers are the big company sort of subsuming the little company," he said. "And when we met — Hotel Equities and Springboard — we thought that the two companies were very complementary. So unlike synergies and reduction, we're merging the two to grow, and you have Springboard's commercial capabilities, [revenue generation], marketing, content creation sitting on top of a much bigger platform now with Hotel Equities and their traditional revenue-management strength and brand-flag strength."
Hotel Equities and Springboard merged in early May with Rafter taking over as CEO of the combined company after heading up Springboard. Former Hotel Equities CEO Brad Rahinsky became chairman. The two companies had roughly 250 hotels combined in their portfolios at the time of the merger, 200 of which came from the Hotel Equities side.
"Between our — Springboard's — entrepreneurialism and nimbleness and Hotel Equities' historical strength with the brands and its size, it just felt right," Rafter said. "There was no redundancy or overlaps or anything like that."
For all of the conversation with Springboard Hospitality's Ben Rafter, watch the video above.