LOS ANGELES — Remington Hospitality President and CEO Sloan Dean saying he's seeing a big uptick in hotel owners looking to change management, which will be a big driver for growth for operating companies like his, but he said the biggest opportunity for Remington could be south of the border.
Dean told HNN in an interview at the 2025 Americas Lodging Investment Summit that the hotel industry across the Caribbean and Latin America is opening its eyes to third-party management in a way it never has before, and the Dallas-based firm is well poised to jump on that trend.
"Two years ago, we opened a office in Miami [because] we really saw an additional swim lane [there]," he said, referring to the Caribbean and Latin America. "Because if you look at the Caribbean and Central America, it is either the brands manage for the owner or it's owner operator. There's really not any scale in third party. And so we thought we could be a good option for owners who don't want to self manage and don't want to sign a 30-year management contract with Marriott. So we're filling that void."
He said that focus is already paying off.
"Percentage wise, we're growing faster in CALA than anywhere else," Dean said. "We have basically grown 100% each year because we started from nothing. And I think we probably do that again in '25."
He said this region in particular benefits from the perspective of being an American company.
"Most of the travelers to these hotels, about 50% of travelers are American," he said. "So we feel like we do a great job at marketing and revenue managing and selling to the American consumer domestically. We're bringing that skill set to some some new territories and new countries."
Domestically, he sees an increasing desire from hotel owners to improve performance at hotels, which is opening opportunities. He noted he saw more management change requests for proposal in 2024 than in the previous three years combined.
"In COVID, owners were reluctant to change managers," he said. "[They] kind of kicked the can down the road, hoping that valuations come back. And transaction volume for deals in '24 was pretty down because of, I think, the debt markets being really troublesome, and kind of seller, buyer valuation differences, but we really started to see an uptick in management change."
For more from HNN's interview with Remington's Sloan Dean, which includes the impacts of mergers and acquisition for hotel management companies, how artificial intelligence could expand the hotel workforce, and more, watch the video above.