PHOENIX — Amid a tough deals and development environment with more uncertainty on the horizon, Meyer Jabara Hotels is focused on controlling what it can as it pursues more deals and more growth.
It received its first Michelin Key with The Menhaden in Greenport, New York, and its recently repositioned The Wentworth in Jackson, New Hampshire, was included in Conde Nast Traveler's Top 20 Resorts in New England list.
Justin Jabara, president of Meyer Jabara Hotels, said it's been a busy year for the management and ownership company. It recently overtook the management portfolio of Griffin Hotel Management, which will transition 14 hotels in new markets like Texas, Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota and Michigan into Meyer Jabara's portfolio.
Meyer Jabara will reach the 50 hotel mark by the first quarter of 2025 thanks to the Griffin Hotel Management merger and other deals in the pipeline.
"All of their staff are going to come join us, which is great. Spectacular company, wonderful reputation, very similar culture. So it's a win-win for everybody," he said.
Small management companies are at an advantage in the current hotel landscape, he said.
"From a third-party management standpoint, there's a real void in the system created by larger companies who aren't giving the attention to the customers that they want or the resources to their assets, and that's where we come in," he said.
Jabara said it still takes double the work to get a deal done compared to 2019. All of its deals have been "pretty complicated," with some failing multiple times before breaking through.
"It's harder to run hotels than it was last year, and it continues to be very difficult to get deals over the line," he said. "New construction is just brutal, and even on the acquisition front, there's still this disconnect which is present in the market."
There's currently a lot of uncertainty in the industry, he said. Insurance rates and the cost of financing continue to rise while margins decrease. New York passing the Safe Hotels Act could set a precedent for other cities across the U.S., and it's already being taken into account with underwriting on hotel deals and developments.
Meyer Jabara is trying to position itself to get ahead of this uncertainty.
"Looking into my crystal ball, the next 12 months are probably going to be a lot of what we see," he said. "We've worked to structure to that to try and get deals done and grow. The good news is there's a lot of product out there that owners are hungry for responsive and thoughtful management, and that's a great vein to keep us busy."