Benchmark Acquires MTM Luxury Lodging

Launches Personal Luxury Collection® with 13 Properties

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. June 02, 2011

Houston, TX - June 1, 2011 - Benchmark Hospitality International, a leading US-based independent hospitality management company, announces the acquisition of MTM Luxury Lodging. Based in Kirkland (Seattle), Washington, MTM Luxury Lodging is a hotel and asset management company specializing in full service luxury hotels. The acquisition brings four existing managed properties into Benchmark Hospitality's portfolio and an additional property soon to begin construction. These five hotels will join eight other properties operated by Benchmark to form a new brand within luxury hospitality -- the Personal Luxury Collection® (PLC), also announced today.

"I am particularly pleased to announce this acquisition and the launch of our new Personal Luxury Collection®, as they go hand in hand," stated Burt Cabañas, chairman and CEO of Benchmark Hospitality International. "MTM has done an incredible job creating a group of high end and highly customer-focused properties. They bring five superb small luxury hotels in terrific destinations to our company, as well as the opportunity to penetrate the Northwest. With this addition, it is the ideal time to launch our Personal Luxury Collection® of 13 highly distinctive independent hotels."

The purchase of MTM Lodging adds extraordinary properties to Benchmark Hospitality International. These include Hotel 1000 in Seattle, Washington; Sorrento Hotel, also in Seattle; Willows Lodge in Woodinville, Washington; and Bardessono, located in Yountville, Napa Valley, California. The new Bellevue Park Hotel, being constructed in Bellevue, Washington, is expected to open in 2013.

Equally important, the skilled management talent that developed and grew MTM Lodging has joined Benchmark's executive team. James Simkins, previously partner and CEO of MTM, has been appointed Benchmark's new chief operating officer of the just-announced Personal Luxury Collection®. Jim Treadway, founder, partner and previously the chairman of MTM, joins the company as general manager of Bardessono in Napa Valley and as vice chairman of Benchmark Hospitality's Advisory Board.

Benchmark Hospitality's new Personal Luxury Collection®
Nearly five decades within the top end of the hospitality industry and extensive personal experience as a traveling executive have inspired Benchmark's Founder, Chairman & CEO Burt Cabañas with unique perspectives on the meaning of highly individualized, personalized travel. He and his team, along with MTM's expertise in this arena, now bring these insights to Benchmark's Personal Luxury Collection®.

Burt Cabañas noticed as far back as the early 2000s a void in the luxury hotel marketplace for distinctively individualized service products that reflect the unique preferences of each guest -- and deliver on a brand promise of a highly personalized luxury experience for every guest. This is a brand promise that begins long before the guest arrives, and never ends. The Personal Luxury Collection® is Benchmark Hospitality's response to this need.

In the 30 years he has built Benchmark Hospitality International, Cabañas has imbued the company with profound sensitivity to meeting guests' individual expectations for a superb experience, whatever the reason they are at a Benchmark property. Guest sensitivity is a distinctive platform for service excellence, which is the essence of PLC, “because luxury is so much more than bricks & mortar and the best china and silver,” says Cabañas. “It's what makes each guest feel expected and genuinely welcomed over and over again.” Cabañas continued, “MTM has demonstrated excellence in delivering this extraordinary level of service, and more importantly, they've refined the ability to make each person feel they are a guest in MTM's 'home.' That's a memorable and highly personalized welcome experience. It's why we're so pleased to have them join our company and the new Personal Luxury Collection®.”

Jim Treadway, MTM's founder and chairman, heartily "seconds" this. "We are and will be all about understanding each of our guest's wants and needs, and then fulfilling them. No two guests are the same.” Mr. Treadway continued with, “All of our guests have a purpose in coming to our hotels. It's up to us to understand what their purpose is in staying with us, and how we can facilitate its accomplishment. That's our mission!"

Cabañas and MTM are mirroring what is increasingly appearing to be the emerging trend of "the new luxury," which is no longer about quantity, but is about quality and the experience of living. "We are not just developing this idea overnight," continued Cabañas. "We've been germinating and carefully refining this over the last decade. Hotels within our new collection that joined during the past decade have seen significant success with the PLC model of individualized service excellence we were developing. Even through managing through a challenging economic climate, many have achieved higher ADRs than most other properties within their competitive set, and gained placements on Travel+Leisure's World's Best Hotels lists, CondeNast Traveler's 100 Top Hotels lists, and more.” Cabañas concluded with, “Those are great measurements of success, but our most satisfying endorsement is the overwhelmingly positive guest response."