Wyndham Sells Knights Inn to RLH Corp.
Date: April 2018
Location: 362 hotels across North America, with a further 47 hotels in the pipeline
Name: Knights Inn
Americas Best Value Inn (RLH) San Mateo, California, USA
Knights Inn Lake Powell, Arizona, USA
No. of Keys: 21,500
Seller: Wyndham…who announced European expansion plans this year. in January 2018 they agreed to buy La Quinta Holdings for US$1.95bn – 900 managed and franchised hotels across the USA and Canada.
Buyer: RLH Corp – Red Lion Hotels…said it expects the transaction to enhance franchise revenue and EBITDA growth and boost franchise profit margins as the company will be able to leverage existing technology and support systems.
The transaction will be immediately accretive (no we didn’t know this term either!) to the company’s earnings and cash flow.
RLH started life in 1959, and have several brands besides Red Lion – Settle Inn, Lexington, gh GuestHouse, Jameson Inn and Signature Inn. They also owned TicketsWest, an events ticket company, sold to Paciolan in 2017.. In 2016 they had 73,000 rooms in 1,100 properties. They acquired Red Lion Hotels from Hilton Hotels in 2001and Vantage Hospitality Group in 2016.
The company is now headed up by Greg Mount, RLH Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer.
Price: US$27m
Price per Key: US$1,256
THPT Comment: C. Patrick Scholes, analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, said he sees the deal as a win-win, adding distribution to RLH’s growing platform, while strengthening Wyndham’s strategy to focus on its higher quality and higher related core economy brands such as Super 8 and Days Inn.
First Seen: RLH Press Release via GlobeNewswire