Westmont Hospitality started with one hotel in the Pacific Northwest. Over the years, Westmont has owned and operated or advised hotels across North America, Europe, Japan and Africa.
This is how Westmont grew up.
Westmont Hospitality started with one hotel in the Pacific Northwest. Over the years, Westmont has owned and operated or advised hotels across North America, Europe, Japan and Africa.
This is how Westmont grew up.
In Westmont’s infancy, the focus was on acquiring individual hotel assets with the help of friends, family and other limited partners.
In the 70’s, the focus was on opportunistic investments throughout the United States and Canada.
The first branded property Westmont acquired was the Rodeway Inn in Beaumont.
Westmont was granted its first Holiday Inn franchise in 1978.
Westmont opened a base in Houston, Texas in the early 80’s.
With distress comes opportunity. The oil and financial crisis of the 80’s created acquisition opportunities for Westmont.
This was around the time that “vulture funds” were established to cater to investments in distressed assets. Westmont was able to partner with major financial institutions which allowed investment in larger hotel assets, portfolios and international growth.
Institutional Partnerships
Westmont’s earliest partnership was with Goldman Sachs and some other US-based institutions. Westmont invested alongside these financial institutions and managed the operations of the assets. Westmont became the largest operating partner of Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall funds and acquired more than $2 Billion of real estate assets worldwide.
Strong relationships with leading hotel brands
In addition to building a stellar operations team, Westmont created strong relationships with the world’s leading hotel brands.
At the end of the 80’s and the beginning of the 90’s, Westmont entered the European market.
During the 90’s, Westmont invested in almost every major country in Europe and also expanded its relationships globally with the largest international hotel brands and became the largest franchisee of IHG worldwide.
As Westmont established itself further across Europe, more relationships with existing and new capital partners were founded.
Westmont became truly global after expanding into the Asian market with a primary focus in Japan.
Real Estate Investment Trust
From various acquisitions of private assets and publicly owned companies, Westmont accumulated significant assets to create a REIT listed on the Toronto stock exchange in Canada. InnVest was created in 2003 and became the largest hospitality REIT in Canada. The REIT was sponsored by Westmont and Whitehall funds with Goldman Sachs.
During the 2010’s Westmont continued to expand its reach in its existing markets and cultivated new relationships with different capital partners and hotel brands.
In 2015, Westmont expanded into a new market- Africa.
In 2018 Westmont launched its first non-profit
In 2018 Westmont launched its first non-profit project with The Westmont Enterprise Hub in partnership with The University of West London to support students who want to start businesses and entrepreneurs in the local community. The goal of the Hub is to support education, entrepreneurship and create positive impact.
In 2020, The Westmont Institute of Tourism and Hospitality was launched in partnership with Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal to develop and promote education in hospitality, tourism, and service management. For more information please see our ESG page.
Continued Growth
Westmont continues to look for opportunities in the hospitality field in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
To speak with our team about acquisition or disposal opportunities, please refer to our contact page.