Parent company Associated Luxury Hotels has significantly expanded its global footprint, its collection of member hotels and resorts, and its worldwide sales, marketing, distribution and hospitality services with the acquisition of Frankfurt, Germany-based Worldhotels.
The acquisition adds to Associated Luxury Hotels’ growing portfolio of Global Sales Organization (GSO) and hospitality services providers – the company already owns and operates Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI), the leading independent GSO serving the North American meetings and incentive marketplace for over 30 years, according to a press statement.
Like Associated Luxury Hotels’ ALHI, Worldhotels is a highly respected, leading global group consisting primarily of independent upper-upscale and luxury-level hotels and resorts and independent hotel brands around the world. Worldhotels’ primary focus is on the transient travel sectors, meetings and loyalty solutions. Associated Luxury Hotels and ALHI are headquartered in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., and Worldhotels will remain headquartered and based in Frankfurt, Germany. As private operating companies, the terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
The acquisition represents a timely and unique opportunity to increase Associated Luxury Hotels’ competitiveness and profile with the addition of remarkably complementary, membership-based service offerings and a geographically diverse network. Worldhotels will remain focused on the individual business traveler (IBT), leisure and meeting sector solutions and expertise for its 75,000 rooms among 350 member hotels and resorts around the world. ALHI will continue focusing on the North American meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (M.I.C.E.) marketplace for its membership of more than 250 luxury-level independent hotels and resorts totaling 138,500 rooms, plus their Global Luxury Alliance members across the globe. ALHI had already announced to its members that it plans to establish “ALHI boots on the ground,” augmenting its ALHI GSO sales team into Europe in 2017. Both ALHI and Worldhotels have been exploring means of expanding their geographic reach, talent pool, market penetration, and tactical deployment, making this strategic combination beneficial to both organizations and their memberships.