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LEADING OWNERS: PAUL SALTER, SALTER BROTHERS
LEADING OWNERS: Paul Salter
Founder and Managing Director, Salter Brothers
THE KEY TREND for 2022 was the speed of the industry recovery across Australia, with continued improvements and a steady return towards pre-COVID operating levels. We are delighted that many of our hotels have in fact rebounded beyond 2019 numbers.
2022 was another huge year for Salter Brothers’ growth, with major acquisitions and a new hotel management agreement. We settled on our Travelodge portfolio of 11 hotels located across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Newcastle. We also entered into one of the largest hotel management portfolio deals in Australian history, partnering with Accor to rebrand each of the assets on settlement under the Mercure, and ibis Styles brands. We welcomed Accor’s commitment to an Australian first, innovative ESG-linked management agreement. As a result of this record AU$620 million transaction, we were very proud to win the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) Deal of the Year award for 2019-2022.
Salter Brothers experienced strong growth in 2022 with major acquisitions and a new hotel management agreement
In December 2022, we announced the acquisition of the Spicers Retreats business, including the Spicers brand and six of the 10 Spicers Retreats located in Queensland and New South Wales. The acquired portfolio of award-winning freehold retreat assets includes Spicers Clovelly Estate, Spicers Tamarind Retreat and Spicers Peak Lodge in Queensland, Spicers Guesthouse and Spicers Vineyards Estate in the Hunter Valley and Spicers Sangoma Retreat in the Blue Mountains, totalling 127 rooms.
The Private Collection by Spicers business is also included in the acquisition. We are excited about the luxury retreat market and look forward to growing the Spicers Retreats brand both in Australia and globally. We also share Spicers Retreats passion for the environment and will continue their vision to become Australia’s most sustainable organisation.
Robert and Paul Salter, Salter Brothers
2022 was also a year of seeking more key industry talent, to broaden our hotel platform. The Salter Brothers hotel platform now consists of over 30 highly qualified executives in our asset, development, investment and transaction managements teams, with experience across 52 hotel brands in 79 countries. We have an entrepreneurial culture at Salter Brothers, where we think differently and encourage our team to analyse opportunities from multiple perspectives. It’s a culture we are very proud of and it continues to underpin our success.
Looking forward in 2023, we see the demand in sustainability to increase at pace for both owners and operators. At Salter Brothers, we will have a continued focus on ESG initiatives – in 2022 we participated in GRESB for the first time and improved our NABERS ratings and will be taking further steps on our sustainability journey.
Hyatt Regency Brisbane is recognised as one of the city’s top luxury hotels
The international events market is also expected to rebound, with confirmed events driving a volume of forward hotel bookings. We look forward to supporting the ongoing recovery and improved trading conditions, as we continue with our hotel refurbishments to benefit from this trend. An excellent example is our Hyatt Regency hotel in Brisbane, where we’re experiencing a great outcome post refurbishment, with recognition as one of the city’s top luxury hotels.
Our achievements and investments over the past twelve months have set us up for another busy and exciting year in 2023.
SNAPSHOT: SALTER BROTHERS
Year the company was founded: 2011
Year first hotels purchased: 2015 InterContinental Melbourne, Crowne Plaza Coogee, Crowne Plaza Melbourne, Crowne Plaza Canberra, Holiday Inn Potts Point
Number of brands in the organisation: 7
Current number of hotels and rooms (America): 1 hotel; 291 rooms
Current number of hotels and rooms (Australia): 18 hotels; 4,192 rooms Head office location: Melbourne
