White Lodging Leaving Suburban Markets Behind To Focus On Urban Hotels

White Lodging is moving forward with its plan to entirely offload its assets in suburban markets. The Indiana-based company, which owns, develops and manages hotels across the country, announced it closed on an agreement to sell 25 management contracts for suburban locations. 

The company also plans individual hotel sell-offs, but it did not provide details of those sales beyond noting that the transition would occur over multiple years. Jettisoning its suburban properties “focuses the company’s resources across a concentrated urban portfolio with more complex hotels that deliver memorable and elevated guest experiences,” according to a statement from White Lodging.

That portfolio includes hotels in Indianapolis, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Nashville and Charlotte.

“This strategic portfolio shift further defines our position in the industry and reinforces our focus on urban luxury and lifestyle hotels with independent destination restaurants,” White Lodging Chairman and founder Bruce White said in a statement.

Luxury hotels, while not seeing pre-pandemic occupancy rates, are receiving a boost in room rates, STR data comparing February 2019 and the same month in 2022 showed. While occupancy was almost 20% less than it was prior to the pandemic, rooms were charging an increase of almost 30% over pre-pandemic rates. 

White Lodging’s announcement emphasized that, moving forward, the bars and restaurants in the hotels will be a critical part of its targeted focus on urban markets. 

Hotels catering to domestic leisure clientele are doing well now, and that includes both urban leisure travelers and city dwellers looking for a place to have a good meal or drink, JLL Hotels and Hospitality Global CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado told Bisnow in December. 

“A lot of these hotels have discovered that maybe they don’t need to rely on the guest who’s staying there overnight, they can rely on the resident or the neighbor who wants to go eat at the hotel or have a beverage at the hotel,” Perez-Alvarado said. “Hotels are being redefined finally as living places, not just staying places.” 

Last year, White Lodging opened four new urban hotels with nine food and beverage offerings in Charlotte, San Antonio and Austin.