Sonesta Names REIT Vet to Succeed Flores as CEO

Real estate investment trust Service Properties Trust CEO John Murray will succeed Carlos Flores as Sonesta International Hotels Corp. president and CEO, effective April 1, the company announced Monday.

Service Properties Trust currently owns a 34 percent interest in Sonesta.

Flores will resign from the position effective Mar. 31. He will continue as an advisor, according to the company.

Murray has been president and CEO of Service Properties Trust—also known by its Nasdaq symbol, SVC—and president and CEO of Industrial Logistics Properties Trust. He will resign from both roles before assuming the leadership role at Sonesta and continue as a managing trustee of both SVC and ILPT.

One of BTN’s Most Influential in 2021, Flores and SVC architected Sonesta’s massive expansion that began in 2020. That August, Sonesta picked up 103 IHG properties that had defaulted on payments to SVC. In October, a similar default brought 122 Marriott properties into Sonesta’s portfolio. Sonesta also acquired in March 2021 the Red Lion Hotels brand, consisting of 900 franchised hotels. From a three-hotel portfolio in 2012, Sonesta now has 1,200 properties, totaling 100,000 guest rooms across 15 brands in eight countries.

Terri Hardin  www.businesstravelnews.com