LOS ANGELES — More than doubling a portfolio in the year leading up to a 40th anniversary is certainly one way to celebrate a milestone.
Coury Hospitality, the Dallas-based hotel ownership and third-party management company, added 22 hotels last year, bringing its total up to 42 properties.
“We knew it was coming,” President Andrew Casperson said in an interview at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit. “We spent a lot of time preparing for it.”
That meant putting systems and the right people in place, he said. The company has brought on good people as it has grown, and while it can take a while to find the right people, that’s what it’s all about.
The company is structured for further growth, but it’s not looking to repeat last year’s expansion, he said. Instead, the goal is to add a couple large or small hotels. The team likes the lifestyle space, including the soft-brand collections, but it’s also getting more involved with the larger brands.
Sustainable growth is the goal, Casperson said. Companies can grow too fast and cause themselves problems. The company created a transition team that allows its regional support teams to keep doing their jobs while adding new properties. The transition team comes in and makes sure everything stays connected and everyone is doing what they’re supposed to, and then they turn the keys over to operations to run it.
“It allowed us to not get stretched too thin,” he said.
Though it took a sizeable investment to create the team, in the end, hotel owners have been thanking the company because it made the transition process much smoother, he said.
Making sure the bank accounts are still connected and the tech still works are important details, but they can take the focus off actually running the hotel, he said. Being able to onboard a new property smoothly and deliver results quickly improves its reputation with owners.
Stabilization is a priority after adding so many hotels to its portfolio, Casperson said. That means making sure there are plans in place for its teams to further develop talent and that its systems are functioning correctly. That’s especially important in a year when there won’t be massive growth in occupancy or rate.
“It's not going to be easy in ’26, I think we all would agree with that,” he said. “So, making sure that all of our leaders are trained, all our systems are in place — it's an everyday, ongoing thing to make sure we're still running things the way we want to.”
Further growth
Even after such a big year, Coury Hospitality is still growing, Casperson said. It's currently building a new hotel in northwest Arkansas, and it’s expanding one of its current hotels. There are a few management contracts it expects to come its way, as well. Most of the growth is organic, coming from existing owners or friends of those owners.
The company is building its second Hotel Vin, this time in Rogers, Arkansas, he said. It’s scheduled to open in September, and it’s already topped off and the walls are closing off. The hotel is near Bentonville, where Walmart has its new 350-acre campus and where Coury Hospitality already has an AC Hotel. Rogers is an affluent area not far from the University of Arkansas, and many corporations, likely driven by Walmart, are interested in the area.
“We’re already getting a lot of inquiries from high-level corporations for group meetings, for weddings, and we’re really excited about this one being a little bit different,” he said.
The Hotel Vin in Grapevine, Texas, has a food hall, but the one in Rogers will have a rooftop restaurant and bar, he said. The company is also adding another 120 keys to the Grapevine property, doubling its size over the next 18 months.
Construction costs are increasing, and while the projects that are already funded are moving forward, Coury Hospitality will focus more on third-party management contracts, Casperson said. Even so, there’s still a development pipeline out there, and the company is talking to people about opportunities all the time.
The company’s formula with lifestyle hotels, whether it’s independent or branded, has been working, he said. It focuses on food and beverage, markets the property as it needs to be and sells it the right way.
“We believe that's an untapped market,” he said. “I think a lot of people are really figuring out that in a lifestyle hotel, you have to do that.”
Coury Hospitality is interested in unique markets, Casperson said. Some are in tertiary or secondary markets, and others are in major cities. Some properties have strength in self-contained group and don’t need to rely as much on citywide events. In that space, there’s potential for limited rate growth in the upper-upscale segment.
“People want to be someplace special,” he said. “They want to say, 'This is where I went last night. This is where my significant other had my birthday.' There is still a market for that, and if you can do that and do that well, you may be able to move your ADR, a little bit, but it's going to be tough.”
Labor strategy
Retention is always going to be important, Casperson said. It’s more difficult in food-and-beverage operations than in other parts of the hotel.
Having a good culture remains the key element, he said. Employees need to be treated with respect, and leaders need to listen. Coury Hospitality rolled out a leadership training class across the company to teach people how to work with and lead others. Having the right leaders who listen and communicate allow companies to make and follow through on their plans.
“We all know that this generation, the previous generation, everyone wants to grow and develop,” he said. “We have a lot of internal training programs, whether you’re a supervisor or just coming out of college and meeting managers.”
One thing Coury Hospitality offers is that it will take a No. 2 in a hotel, whatever the discipline, and put them in a “CEO in Training” program to become a general manager in the future, Casperson said. Four general managers have come through the program already.
“It's more metaphoric, but we call our general managers CEOs on paper, maybe not on their offer letter, but because they truly run the business,” he said. “This ‘CEO in Training’ program for us really allows people to get exposed to every discipline.”
The role of general manager has changed over the years, and their responsibilities have grown considerably, he said. Giving them the necessary training helps with retention as they feel more secure in what they’re doing and that they’re receiving support.
Coury Hospitality has added corporate trainers to grow these programs as having more prepared general managers helps the company grow, he said.
“We are going to grow again, not to the tune that we did last year, but if we can put a Coury-trained person in some of those hotels, it helps our culture get in place faster and helps the hotels move forward in the way want to move them forward,” he said.