Certares, a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on the travel and hospitality industries, today announced it has completed the final closing of its first real estate hospitality fund, Certares Real Estate Holdings I LP, with $284 million of equity commitments.
Certares Real Estate builds on the firm’s deep expertise and track record in private equity and credit investing across the travel and hospitality industries. The strategy is focused on acquiring hospitality real estate assets in growth markets and gateway cities across the United States, leveraging the firm’s industry relationships to identify attractive investments. Certares Real Estate benefits from the firm’s extensive leisure and business travel distribution assets, which enhance demand and provide market intelligence for the Fund’s hotel assets.
Since its launch in March 2021, the Fund has made investments in 10 hotels, investing approximately $228 million of Fund capital in equity investments. Its acquisitions include the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in Cape Cod, the Courtyard San Diego Downtown, and the EAST Miami. The Fund has generated a net IRR of 35% and a 1.4x multiple on invested capital as of March 31, 2023, and has already made distributions to investors while maintaining an active pipeline of new investments.
“A targeted real estate strategy is a natural extension of our experience in travel and hospitality and provides another avenue for us to create value for our investors by capitalizing on our extensive industry expertise,” said Greg O’Hara, Founder and Senior Managing Director at Certares. “COVID-19 caused unprecedented disruption across the entire travel industry. As demand has returned robustly, hotels represent a category where investors who know the industry well can identify attractive assets. We are thrilled with the performance we have delivered for our valued investors thus far and appreciate their support for this strategy.”
“We are pleased with the portfolio we have built to date and believe there is ample runway for our strategy of acquiring well-located, high-quality hotels in growing markets that display both strong leisure and corporate demand fundamentals,” said Nolan Hecht, Senior Managing Director and Head of Real Estate at Certares. “The current market environment is especially well-suited for a specialized travel and hospitality investor like Certares to deliver differentiated value for investors and portfolio assets. We look forward to growing a leading real estate hospitality platform that benefits all of our stakeholders.”
About Certares
Established in 2012, Certares is a global investment firm focused exclusively on the travel and hospitality industries, leveraging deep sector experience, proprietary transactions and hands-on partnership with management teams to drive growth. With approximately $9.9 billion of assets under management, including co-investments, as of March 31, 2023, Certares brings together a team with decades of both operational and investment experience in private equity, travel, tourism, hospitality and travel-related business and consumer services. Since launching its real estate platform in early 2021, Certares has acquired 10 hotels comprising over 2,100 keys across the U.S. For more information, please visit www.certares.com.
