Vancouver-based Coast Hotels Ltd. has expanded to the U.S. by spending an undisclosed amount to buy a master franchise agreement that includes nine American hotels.
Years ago, Coast Hotels allowed a separate ownership group to own a master franchise agreement and start franchising the Coast Hotels banner in the U.S. That group, named Coast Hotels USA, signed nine franchise agreements with various operators to run four hotels in the state of Washington, one hotel in Hawaii, three hotels in California and one hotel in Alaska, Coast Hotels' vice-president of revenue, strategies and communication, Brigitte Diem-Guy explained to BIV.
Owning that master franchise agreement enables Coast Hotels Ltd. to also open its own hotels south of the border – something that it previously would have been unable to do.
"I can't tell you how many [new hotels] we're expecting to open but definitely our plan is to have an acquisition in in the Seattle area, and to kind of build a second headquarters for the U.S.," Diem-Guy said. "We are actively looking."
Coast Hotels Ltd. currently owns and manages six hotels (four in B.C. and two in Alberta), manages three other hotels that it does not own (two in Alberta and one in B.C.) and has franchise agreements with operators of 20 other hotels across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yukon.
All of those hotels use Coast Hotels Ltd.'s booking system, and the company also does marketing that benefits all hotels that have the Coast Hotels banner.
While Coast Hotels is headquartered in Vancouver, it has long been owned by Tokyo, Japan-based APA Hotels through its APA Hotel Canada Inc. subsidiary.
