Aimbridge Hospitality, the world’s largest third-party hotel management company, has acquired hotel operator Prism Hotels & Resorts, a third-party hotel management, investment and advisory services company.
As of the announcement, the deal has closed, bringing Dallas-based Prism, its team of 2,145 employees and a portfolio of 48 hotels in 20 states under Plano, Texas-based Aimbridge’s umbrella and its approximately 1,500 hotels.
In an exclusive interview prior to the announcement, Aimbridge President and CEO Mike Deitemeyer said the deal was the result of the company exploring hotel receiverships. Because of the expertise Prism has in that field, Aimbridge’s team reached out to Steve Van, president, CEO and founder of Prism.
“They’ve been leaders in the space and really crafted a unique niche in the space, and that led us to reaching out to Steve,” Deitemeyer said. “The reality is ... Prism brings so much more than just that, but that really was the catalyst in the beginning of the conversation.”
Van said he’s been leading Prism for decades and never before considered joining forces with another company. However, in meeting with Aimbridge’s leadership team, he learned about the resources the company offers its staff, hotels and owners, and saw an opportunity.
“It’s not just because they’re the largest,” he said. “It’s because they’re the best in terms of the systems that they have. Their values are like ours. It’s about the resources and the opportunity. It means more resources for us to do what we focus on the most, which is having the most satisfied owners.”
Aimbridge’s team is excited coming off its acquisition of Grupo Hotelero Prisma earlier this year, Deitemeyer said. That deal supercharged the Grupo Hotelero Prisma team, and he expects the same from the Prism deal.
“We have complete confidence that’s going to give Steve another turbocharge just from a bandwidth perspective,” he said.
The Integration Process
Deitemeyer said Prism has done an incredible job building deep relationships with the owners of the hotels it manages, and has an impressive portfolio that is complementary to what Aimbridge does.
As Aimbridge further explores receivership services, Van will provide knowledge and help develop leaders within the organization, while helping to improve owner relations, Deitemeyer said.
Prism will continue on as it has, and Van will be able reach deep into Aimbridge’s organization and help all parts of the company, he said.
Under the new arrangement, Van will serve as Prism's president.
As the two moved forward with the deal, Deitemeyer said he and Van got to know each other better, learning each other’s values and developing a relationship that allowed them to understand the core of each company.
Aimbridge and Prism are two groups of great people with great cultures that will do well together, Van said.
“It’s a pretty easy integration,” he said. “I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the quality over at Aimbridge, and I think it’s reciprocal.”
The Value of Scale
While he’s previously been on the other side of things, Van said that as he’s become more familiar with the resources that Aimbridge offers, bigger is better.
“This is something I’m a convert of,” he said, explaining his previous mindset was that it was better to be a smaller operator. “There's a long list of things which are valuable for owners and employees, which are because bigger is better. It's a world-class company with worldwide technology.”
Van said he explained to Prism's hotel owners they will get the best of both worlds. They’ll still have Prism operating their hotels, but Prism will be powered by Aimbridge and the resources it can provide.
“Uniformly they're happy. They're happy for us personally because we have a personal relationship, but they're happy for the business because they're going to get better services from their hotel management company,” he said.