NEW YORK — Despite the first half of the year being plagued with macroeconomic uncertainty, Mike Everett, executive vice president of CoralTree Hospitality, said the resort business has been "surprisingly positive."
Everett, speaking during a video interview at the recent NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum, explained that group business has been leading the way for CoralTree, and leisure has been holding strong as well.
"We came into the year with numbers, with budgets that we felt were maybe a little aggressive but achievable," he said, adding that tariffs added to the stress of meeting their ambitious goals. "As the scare of the tariffs has started to recede somewhat, our performance has maintained itself quite impressively."
When it comes to expanding the company's portfolio, Everett said he's targeting "measured, thoughtful growth," specifically in the resort and urban markets.
"We have been successful in growing our resort portfolio in an incremental, thoughtful, strategic way," he said. "We're never going to be the company adding 15 or 20 hotels in any given year. The nature of our assets and the complexity really doesn't allow [us or] any management company to take on that kind of volume."
Everett said CoralTree has plans to expand in the Northeast and specifically alluded to an upcoming project in Boston.
"We've had the desire to continue to bring our portfolio up into the mid-Atlantic and into New England, and we've now succeeded in doing that," he said. "We want to continue to build the presence that we're building there."
CoralTree has also expanded its residence program via an acquisition a year and a half ago. Everett said that one way the CoralTree Residence Collection is able to stand out in that space is its dedication to prioritizing a high-quality service.
"Where we see ourselves differentiated in this space is we're able to bring all of the hospitality elements of what I would call traditional hotel — so providing service with food and beverage, providing spa and wellness, really connecting with the guest in a in a meaningful way — alongside the residential management end of the business," Everett said.
He explained that some of the residence programs CoralTree is competing with are only focused on the distribution and booking side of things.
"With our organization and our history providing full service, luxury service across our entire portfolio, we can marry those two businesses together," Everett said of providing both distribution and service with its residence program, "and really provide a focus on service and quality that you tend to not see in the residential management space."
For more from CoralTree's Mike Everett, watch the video above.