In its 2017 earnings results, American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP disclosed several updates on its portfolio during the fourth quarter of 2017 and the changes made to its board in 2018.
During 2017's fourth quarter, the hotel real estate investment trust converted 46 Oak Tree Inn-branded hotels to Wyndham Worldwide Corp., under a 15-year strategic branding agreement with the latter's unit Wyndham Hotel Group.
The move, intended to effectively market the excess room capacity available at American Hotel's Economy Lodging Hotels, rebranded 15 properties as Baymont Inn and Suites hotels, 28 as Travelodge hotels and two hotels under the Super 8 brand.
Among the restructured hotels, two were newly acquired by American Hotel and included the 74-room asset in Fargo, N.D., which will retain its Days Inn Wyndham brand status.
Separately, effective Jan. 1, American Hotel changed the name of its two reporting segments to Premium Branded Hotels and Economy Lodging Hotels from their previous Branded Hotels and Rail Hotels monikers, respectively.
In addition, the Canadian trust designated Charles van der Lee as lead independent director. The appointee, who joined the board in May 2016, also was named chairman of the trust's nominating and governance committee.
Meanwhile, Richard Frank joined the nominating and governance committee and became chairman of the compensation committee, with Minaz Abji becoming a member of the latter, as well as of the audit, finance and risk committee.
The company also revealed plans to conduct hotel refurbishments costing approximately $20.0 million, alongside its third-party hotel manager, in 2018. American Hotel will revamp lobbies, atriums, guestrooms and amenities using funds procured from its lenders, according to the release.
