Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) Acquires Hinton + Grusich

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WASHINGTON, DC (January 2011) –

Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) announced that it has acquired Hinton + Grusich (H + G), which merges two of the largest and most respected independent National Sales Organizations in North America which specifically serve the meeting, incentive/recognition, convention, and exhibition marketplaces exclusively for their hotel and resort member portfolio. Fully effective January 1, 2011, the acquisition of Hinton + Grusich in its entirety will result in the significant expansion of ALHI’s National Sales team, in order to address the growing business demand being experienced from corporate and association meeting professionals, incentive/recognition specialists, product launch specialists, and business executives across North America. The merger effectively augments ALHI’s National Sales network in order to be even more far reaching and effective in serving its impressive membership portfolio of more than 130 Four- and Five-Diamond quality member hotels and resorts worldwide, with over 100,000 rooms, which focus on meetings and conventions. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. 

Expansion Timely In Order to Serve the Growing Demand

"After 25 years of each successfully and passionately serving the meetings and incentive industry with our National Sales responsibilities for our member hotels and resorts, it is a logical step for ALHI and the H + G teams to join forces," said David Gabri, president and CEO of ALHI (www.alhi.com). "This is our Silver Anniversary, and we’re blessed to add the incredibly talented and well-respected Hinton + Grusich sales executives and leadership to our ALHI team. The timing couldn’t be better as our nation is recovering and we feel business is eagerly back in the business of business, including using meetings and conventions to effectively advance their goals and objectives. This merger enables ALHI to provide even more comprehensive National Sales services to our members, and will augment our busy staff to professionally address the needs of our expanding client base and the general growing business demand from planners across the U.S. and Canada."

Gabri added, "We’re joining forces in order to build the most professional, formidable, and effective National Sales organization in North America that specifically serves the meetings marketplace. Both ALHI and Hinton + Grusich are highly-respected, with decades of experience, strong core values and character, top talent, longstanding relationships built on trust, and a strong desire to serve our clients. It is a logical ‘marriage,’ that will truly serve our clients and our members. The future is definitely very bright, and it is a great way to start our 25th year with this significant announcement."

With the H + G acquisition, Kevin Hinton has been named Executive Vice President of ALHI; Bill Grusich, CMP, Senior Vice President; Kathy Kozminske, Vice President of ALHI; and the majority of the staff of H + G are being added to the ALHI national sales organization. Gabri remains president and CEO of ALHI, and while the ALHI family will be larger, he assures the core values, and commitment based upon personal sales relationships for serving accounts remains unchanged. ALHI will expand its ALHI Chicago office, while all others will remain integrated into the current regional NSO operations in their cities. Stacy Lucherini, Regional Vice President for ALHI Midwest and Canada, will remain in leadership of those regions. Chris Riccardi and Ashly Balding will be leading the ALHI West and Southeast regions, and ALHI’s senior executive team of Don Macumber and Mike Coutu remains unchanged. 

"We’re very proud to be joining together with such an outstanding and respected organization as ALHI," said Kevin Hinton. "Rather than compete for the same business, we are now able to combine efforts and work together to better serve the business community and the hotel and resort members of ALHI. This is simply a merging of two great companies to become an even stronger resource for the valued clients of today and tomorrow. Planners and our hotel members now have an even stronger National Sales team to meet and exceed their needs; as well as having consolidated NSO contacts, which will save them valuable time and resources. We are all excited."

ALHI may selectively extend membership opportunities to some of the Four- and Five-Diamond quality hotel and resort members in the H + G portfolio, which address market demand.   With the addition of Hinton + Grusich, ALHI’s national sales professionals staff expands (to nearly 50) and its market presence for its members will grow even larger nationally,  particularly with gains in the Midwest area (as Hinton + Grusich was headquartered in Chicago).

ALHI maintains its 16 professionally staffed National Sales Offices to serve the meetings marketplace, with locations in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Louisville, New York City, North Carolina, Orange County (CA), Orlando, Philadelphia, Richmond, San Diego, and Toronto. ALHI is simply expanding its professional staffing levels. Go to www.alhi.com to identify the "ALHI Contacts" for sales professionals in your area.

"Like with ALHI, H + G has served the marketplace on a dues-based basis with a no cost to planners’ or executives’ organizations’ platform to utilize and benefit from the dedicated national sales services to research, identify, and to book specific program solutions. The members’ dues fund their and our National Sales services, making this merger even more compatible," added Gabri.

100,000+ Reasons For Merger With a worldwide portfolio of over 100,000 rooms and suites and more than 10 million square feet of meeting space, ALHI provides planners and their organizations experienced National Sales services with diverse options among its outstanding worldwide member hotels and resorts which specialize in meetings and incentive programs requiring from 10 to more than 6,500 rooms, with easy and professional one-call local access. Member hotels include extraordinary meeting and incentive resorts, incomparable city hotels, exclusive smaller hotels, golf resorts, historic and landmark properties, island destinations, resorts with spas, properties in international destinations, and hotels and resorts with world-class gaming and entertainment.

For a complete list of ALHI’s entire worldwide portfolio, visit www.alhi.com, and preview details of ALHI’s impressive portfolio, including easily useful information on several defined specialty segments within the ALHI portfolio to serve specific meeting, convention and incentive travel event requirements and desires. Included among these are:  "ALHI Level 5 Collection," for ALHI’s 18 hotels that have earned the highest and most distinctive recognitions including the prestigious AAA Five-Diamond rating, and/or the esteemed Forbes (Mobil) Five-Star rating; and the "ALHI Big Box 5-50 Solutions Collection," featuring ALHI’s 27 member hotels and resorts that offer more than 500 rooms, feature over 50,000 square feet of meeting space each, and have at least one 20,000-square-foot ballroom or more.

Other specialty segments include:  the "ALHI Historic Collection," consisting of 36 legendary hotels and resorts with more than 50 years of heritage; the "Mountain Collection," for planners desiring to conduct programs with inspiring mountain views; the "ALHI U-200 Gems Collection," consisting of ALHI members with 200 rooms or under, which specialize in serving meeting and incentive programs; the "ALHI Golf Collection," consisting of ALHI’s 42 Four- and Five-Diamond golf resorts that cater to the meetings and incentive marketplaces; and the "ALHI Beach & Island Collection," featuring 33 Four- and Five-Diamond beach and/or island resorts and hotels with distinction which are designed to serve meetings and programs worldwide.

To make it easy for planners to access options within any of the specialty segments, there is an "ALHI Specialty Segments" quick reference button on the www.alhi.com Home Page. The button provides easy access for planners to preview the options available in each specialty segment, to be augmented by their ALHI national sales executive, also easily identifiable at www.alhi.com . On the site, planners can quickly see details of the properties’ meeting, accommodation, recreational and dining offerings, as well as destination information and "Luxury on Sale" value opportunities. A photo gallery, meeting floor plans and specs, and a location map for each property are also easily available.

For more information about ALHI, to inquire about a future meeting at any of the ALHI member properties, and/or to acquire a free copy of ALHI’s new "2010-2011 ALHI National Sales Guide To Meeting Facilities," contact your nearest ALHI National Sales Office, call the "ALHI Group Desk" toll-free at 866-303-ALHI (2544), and visit www.alhi.com .

PR Contact: Karen Lamonica at (407) 788-7070, ext. 207 or klamonica@chisano.com
ALHI Contact: Karmen Finney at (407) 295-1950 or kfinney@alhi.com