Simon has advised Canada Life on several hotel investment and lending activities since November 2010.
With respect to Canada Life’s ownership of Holiday Inn Birmingham-Walsall M6J10 and Holiday Inn Cardiff North, Simon was part of our Project Management Team during the planning and execution of two full-property refurbishment and re-branding exercises that culminated in re-openings in 2012 and 2014, respectively.
He continued to advise Canada Life as Owner’s Representative/ Hotel Asset Management Advisor from opening until our disposal of the hotels in late 2017 and late 2018, respectively. That role involved regular reviews of management reporting, separate independent reporting to Owner, attendance at regular meetings with the Management Company (Kew Green Hotels Limited), as well as reviews/ advice to Owner on annual budgets and capital expenditure projects.
Throughout this eight-year involvement, Simon has been an invaluable part of the Canada Life Asset Management Team for hotel investments. His advice and support have been critical to our understanding of many hotel-specific and hotel-operational aspects of our investments, particularly in dealing with management companies. Simon’s sector-specific experience kept Kew Green focused on Owner’s financial and property-related objectives, and helped us to achieve those objectives in partnership with Manager.
Simon Hudspeth advised The Ingenious Group and North John Street LLP (NJS) from April 2016 until December 2017 in respect of NJS’s ownership of The Aloft Hotel, Liverpool.
During this period Simon acted as Hotel Asset Management Advisor, a role that involved regular reviews of management reporting, separate independent reporting to Owner and Lender, attendance at regular meetings with the Management Company (Redefine BDL Hotels), as well as reviews/ advice to Owner on annual budgets and capital expenditure projects.
During this period, Simon’s advice and support were important to our understanding of many hotel-specific and operational aspects of this investment, particularly in dealing with the Management Company and Franchisor. Simon’s sector-specific experience kept Redefine BDL focused on Owner’s financial and property-related objectives, and helped Owner to work effectively together with Manager.
Patron had the opportunity to work with Simon Hudspeth on the Jarvis transaction in 2011. The process and transaction were incredibly complicated in nature, with multiple parties involved. The transaction consisted of 41 hotels sprinkled throughout the UK, and the varying nature of the submarkets and geographies presented a complex challenge. With this complex challenge in mind, Patron brought Simon on board to provide a detailed asset by asset assessment. Simon’s bespoke analysis went far deeper than what most consulting firms could have provided. Our need to truly understand each nuance and angle of each asset was clearly addressed by Simon’s work and end report. His attention to detail, insight into the particulars of an asset, and his overall market knowledge were superb. We successfully completed the transaction as a result of Simon’s work, and we look forward to working with him again here at Patron Capital.
I had the pleasure to work with Simon in 2009-10 throughout a process where Linstow AS developed a strategic plan for the 2,400 room Reval hotel portfolio, went through an operator selection process, and completed negotiations for commercial management agreements for 10 Hotels in the Baltics and Russia. Linstow AS is one of Norway’s leading property developers with focus on Norway and Eastern European countries and with a large portfolio in the Baltics. Simon’s skills and experience were key for Linstow during the process of developing a new strategy for the hotel portfolio. Thanks to his great experience and network Linstow AS managed to have an effective operator search and selection process. During our negotiations Simon’s input was of great importance both as a facilitator of the internal discussions as well as in the negotiations with operators. He has surely added a lot of value to the largest structural change for Linstow AS’s Hotel Portfolio.
For close to ten years Simon has been known to me as a colleague and in most recent time as a valued adviser. He possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience in the hotel field and is widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading independent advisers. I strongly appreciate Simon’s integrity and honesty, and his work is well supported by detailed market research. Whether it be hotel development, hotel acquisition, hotel repositioning, or hotel valuation services you require I would not hesitate in recommending Simon.
Simon is widely regarded as one of the leading hospitality and real estate consultants around, specializing geographically in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and I was lucky enough to spend a high proportion of my assignments at HVS with Simon being the lead director. Simon’s meticulous attention to detail and his consistent methodical approach to personal primary research in the field led to Simon having the very highest of reputations among many of our clients at the time . . . . as being a ‘no stones unturned’ type of guy . . . . able to call from a wealth of knowledge through years of experience. I personally found my time working with Simon as an invaluable life experience and many of his teachings/ influences . . . . are still with me on a daily basis in my working life.
I met Simon when I joined HVS back in 1997. I had the pleasure of working with him a great deal over the five years I was at HVS and he never failed to amaze me with his diligence. Whether a five star resort, major city centre hotel, or budget hotel he always spent an enormous amount of time and energy in diligently analysing the project. He was extremely creative and always willing to think outside the box in order to ensure that all angles were covered. Obviously over the years we spent a great deal of time together and he is nothing short of a gentleman and an inspiration when I was starting out in my hotel career. I still speak to Simon for advice today and his broad spectrum of work in all areas of the hotel industry make him a good sounding board.
Simon Hudspeth was a director at HVS London, and my supervisor and coach when I joined the company in 1999. He taught me the value of hard work, attention to detail, diligence and integrity, which are essential in the hotel consulting business; unfortunately also scarce in this particular sector. These key values have been important to me personally - in my career growth with HVS International (subsequently opening the HVS Madrid office) and thereafter with Marriott International. It is with this same integrity that I can say that Simon is the most responsible hotel analyst/consultant I know. I have recommended him at every possible opportunity since as, in the end, the value of the report is really determined by the trustworthiness of the consultant signing off, and not the company logo.
Whilst he was employed by Christie + Co Simon proved to be an exemplary professional, with very high standards in work and in business relations. The quality of work produced by Simon and his team has been of great value and importance to Christie + Co, and this has helped establish the firm as a credible provider of high-level corporate advisory, agency and investment services. Simon represented the firm at many industry conferences and events, speaking on a wide range of topics relating to hotel investment, development, and valuation, and on hotel leases and management contracts. He and his team published numerous articles that have underlined his, and Christie + Co’s, status as respected industry experts. Simon’s wide-ranging industry contacts and his high profile in the international hotel investment sector have helped to promote Christie + Co to a wide audience of large corporate and international hotel owners, investors and operators . . . . Simon has created a sustainable legacy in our corporate and international hotel advisory services. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon for his valuable contribution to Christie + Co’s development in the large corporate and international hotel area during the past four years. He has played a vital role in our recent successes, and I wish him every success in the future.
Simon demonstrated strong analytical skills and a thorough approach to the work he conducted. (He) was especially respected by our team members for his training skills . . . demonstrated strong client relationships, flexibility and a willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ whenever required.