In its first acquisition, tech-focused brand and management company Life House has acquired management contracts for four of Imprint Hospitality's independent hotels, which are mostly focused on the West Coast.

These hotels will be transitioned to Life House's tech-enabled management platform by the end of the first quarter and additional properties will be selected from the Imprint portfolio in the coming weeks to be switched over to the platform.

In a recent interview with Hotel News Now, Life House Founder and CEO Rami Zeidan said it takes "critical mass to make a management company profitable," which his company plans to help Imprint Hospitality do with its portfolio of independent properties on the West Coast.

Life House operates hotels "extremely well" in the independent hotel space, and there's more opportunities for growth through acquisitions, with 12 other hotels under letter of intent or in advanced negotiations, Zeidan said.

Life House has 27 hotels across North America that are signed, opened or under development. Of those hotels, 12 are branded Life House.

The company acquired Imprint's management contract and is not bringing on its team, but Zeidan said the company is interested in exploring that option for future deals where it makes sense.

In a news release announcing the deal, Alexandra Walterspiel, Imprint Hospitality managing partner, said Life House "has the ability to materially improve the performance of our portfolio."

Some hoteliers who thought they would create the next Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants or Two Roads Hospitality in the independent hotel management space are now trying to get out because that path is "harder than it looks, and it does require capital to be a leader in that space," Zeidan said.

That's where Life House comes in because "we're well-positioned to basically buy groups that don't have a lot of other options and build our portfolio and add value to the underlying real estate," he said.

Some hoteliers have a brand or real estate they really care about but "a management platform they care a little less about that are not necessarily well-equipped to be successful," he said.

"We have seen opportunity for us to work with groups like that to acquire their management portfolio and dividing and conquering [control of the properties] at large," he said.

Zeidan said some see Life House as an automation platform, but he describes the company as a full-service brand and management platform.

Life House is a Silicon Valley-backed company that uses software to "create value for hotels, and that means on the revenue side, on the guest experience side and optimizing the cost structure as well," he said.

Life House has been able to increase revenues by 30% to 50% for its hotels "because the software that our staff on-property uses allows us to focus on the guest experience instead of being in spreadsheets or [another] technology system," he said.