A company that manages more than a dozen hotels in Hawaiʻi has merged with a larger company to create a portfolio of nearly 300 properties. The combined company CEO may be a familiar face to Hawaiʻi's tourism community.
The merger combines the resources of Hawaiʻi-founded Springboard Hospitality and Hotel Equities based in Atlanta.
It creates a hotel management company that will operate a combined portfolio of nearly 300 hotels in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Springboard Hospitality's chief executive Ben Rafter is now CEO of the combined company, which is keeping both names. Rob Robinson, formerly executive vice president of Springboard, will be Springboard's president.
Rafter said the companies will focus on revenue generation and technology innovation. He has led Springboard Hospitality since he and other partners bought the company in 2018 and later rebranded it.
Before that, Rafter was the president and CEO of Aqua Hospitality and president of Aston Hotels and Resorts in Hawai'i.
Springboard is headquartered in California and Hawaiʻi and manages 51 independent hotel and resort properties, which include a dozen hotels in Hawaiʻi, such as the new Hampton Inn and Suites Maui in Kahului, the White Sands Hotel in Waikīkī and the Pacific 19 hotel in Kailua-Kona on Hawaiʻi Island.
