Dec. 13–Aqua Hotels and Aston Hotels, once fierce Hawaii competitors, are joining forces.
Vacation Holdings Hawaii, a subsidiary of Miami-based Interval Leisure Group and owner of Aston Hotels & Resorts, has bought Aqua Hospitality/Aqua Hotels & Resorts.
The deal, which closed on Thursday for an undisclosed amount, unites two Hawaii hotel management powerhouses. The changes are not expected to yield discernable differences for guests or for employees of both businesses, which will maintain separate leadership and images. However, it will give both hotel brands an expanded presence, which spans Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Hawaii island, Molokai, Lanai in Hawaii and extends to Guam, Florida, California and Nevada.
“We look forward to leveraging the expertise of the Aqua team to enhance our already successful management and rental segment,” said Craig M. Nash, chairman, president and CEO of Interval Leisure Group, which is a spinoff of Interval International, which in 2007 acquired Aston. Aston was known as ResortQuest Hawaii at the time.
Aston and Aqua will manage about 50 properties across the Hawaiian Islands, said Kelvin Bloom, who is president and CEO of Aston and president of Vacation Holdings Hawaii, in which he has an equity interest.
“We were strong competitors of each other. Through that, I certainly gained a lot of respect for Aqua as a company and for its associates who have proven themselves time and time again,” Bloom said. “The company strength and the strength of the brand were all important factors in the acquisition of the company.”
Aston, which was founded in 1948 as a two-story walk-up hotel in Waikiki by a shipwrecked sailor from France, has grown from those humble beginnings. The company now has management contracts at about 27 hotels, condominium resorts, villas and cottages in Hawaii, Florida, California and Nevada.
“We celebrated our 65th anniversary this year,” Bloom said.
Similarily, Aqua was founded by a sailor who had Aston ties. Mike Paulin, who launched the company in 2001, got his start in Hawaii in the 1950s as a merchant seaman. Before starting Aqua, Paulin launched chains like Colony Hotels and Marc Resorts and, with Andre Tatibouet, helped put what was then known as Aston Hotels on the map.
Aqua, which started with the conversion of the aging Aqua Marina hotel into a condominium, was known as a low-price leader in the beginning. Later the company began offering amenities more often found at higher-priced traditional hotels, making it a pioneer in Hawaii’s rapidly expanding inventory of boutique hotels. Aqua’s unconventional strategies, which also included direct marketing to the same-sex travel market well before most other chains, were designed to help the company hold its own against the much larger corporate hotel brands, such as Outrigger and Aston. Aqua represents more than 20 properties on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Hawaii Island and Guam.
“We will have a tremendous offering from budget to midrange and upper-scale hotels and resorts to fit every pocketbook,” Bloom said.
He said the deal, which was a few months in the making, proves that Hawaii is indeed a “very, small town.”
Since the closing, Paulin is no longer affiliated with Aqua. However, Ben Rafter, whom Paulin recruited to join Aqua in 2008, will remain Aqua’s president and CEO.
“Both companies are really looking forward to working closely together and collaborating,” Bloom said.
