What is HOFTEL?
HOFTEL is the world's leading association of hotel property investors - the only one which is both international and multi-branded. It is specifically designed to represent the disparate owners of hotels and provide them with a voice as a distinct industry sector.
Why was it established? Because hotel property investors are the groups which provide most of the capital for the sector, but are much less well recognised by investors, trade journalists and the general public than the big management/branded groups - and are sometimes less experienced in the sector and less powerful. However, the sector has been institutionalising quickly and can only benefit from greater visibility and coherence.
HOFTEL seeks to accelerate this process. We provide an association and a forum for hotel real estate companies which receive rents or pay management fees as well as for hotel franchisees who both own and manage properties, but pay a third party to provide the brand and marketing. Our members range from multi-nationals to single-hotel companies and include institutional investors, private entrepreneurs and asset managers.
Thus, our members may be essentially property companies who take little active part in the day-to-day running of the hotels or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, highly active owner/operator property managers.
That said, we do not invite owner-operators with their own brand to be members, nor companies which operate hotels for third parties, nor pure asset-managers who are not investors. This exclusivity allows HOFTEL to focus on serving a specific membership base.
As of late 2011, HOFTEL has members with stakes in over 300 hotels valued at close to US$ 25 billion (see the Members page on this website).
