Australia’s Trilogy Hotels pursues ambitious growth

Since its launch in late 2023, Trilogy Hotels – an independent hotel management company formed by three high-powered hospitality execs​ ​– has netted deals to operate some 2,500 rooms across 13 properties and several global brands.

With 90 years of combined hospitality industry experience across operations, sales and acquisition, and asset management, the company brings together Scott Boyes as CEO, Grant Alchin as COO and Tony Ryan as executive chair.

As industry acceptance of white label operators develops in Australia – bringing it in line with global markets – the time was right for the idea, said Boyes, a former Accor vice president.

“When you look at our backgrounds, me the hotel operator, Grant on the hotel owner side of the table and Tony working with hotel brands and owners, we were all interested in the third-party approach. We’d all done our research and it was fortuitous that we all came together,” Boyes said.

While he and Alchin had discussed it, Ryan provided the capital to make it happen.

Overall, third-party management is growing in Australia. According to STR, of approximately 6,300 hotels in Australia, 15% are under traditional hotel management agreements, 8% are franchised hotels and 77% are independent.

As the industry shifts towards brand franchising (up 50% in five years), STR forecasts many owners will choose third-party management companies to drive revenue and brand growth. Less than a handful of white-label companies compete for that business, including Trilogy, La Vie Hotels & Resorts, and 1834 Hotels.

Trusted, known

Boyes said the business is developing because of their experience and long-term relationships, which was always the strategy.

“We understand the market, we understand the consumer, we have large degrees of trust with owners and we understand the people who want to work with us,” Boyes said. “If you put those things together, we have a very good chance of being successful and we want to grow and be successful across Australia.”

The group has ambitions to become “the best operator of hotels in Australia”, he said.

“In terms of opportunities, we’re very lucky. Ultimately, on the back of our performance, we are very gratefully receiving third-party endorsement and people are reaching out for help... They want to work with us, so that means we can build something special here,” Boyes said.

From the first to the latest partnership deal – which will see the conversion of the Smith Hotel Darwin to a Courtyard by Marriott in Australia’s northernmost capital, Trilogy’s success with third-party operating platforms has attracted $165 million in annual revenue, Ryan said.

“We operate 2,503 rooms across three brand platforms – Accor, IHG, and Marriott – with two unbranded hotels. For 2025, we have a strong pipeline of existing and new-build properties,” he said.

Ryan, who brings commercial and legal savvy in hotels to the business, believes many opportunities coming their way are about being in tune with what hoteliers want.

“We take into account the needs of the owners – using the best possible team – to create the best possible experience. We’re very mindful of the place hotels play in a community and bring all that complexity together,” Ryan said.

Ryan added that the name Trilogy has nothing to do with the operating trio behind the business.

“We’re called Trilogy because we just focus on our owners, teams and guests. These three things – the Trilogy approach – flow through everything,” he explained.

That is proving a game-changer, Boyes added, “revolutionizing hotel performance in Australia”, just as it has done in the U.S., where 80% of branded hotels run on this model.

“By aligning interests, we are getting tangible results for owners, reflected in performance metrics.”

For Alchin, the model is “very growth driven” – and the use of data is key but not without the people factor.

“Quality data is critical when combined with an intimacy of connection with hotel leadership teams, and we’re seeing it drive significant improvement in market performance, revenue delivery, and profitability,” he said.

Alchin also pins the company’s success on “relationships forged over many years in the industry.”

“They have supported us in our infancy to provide the platform for future growth,” he said. “We are excited at the level of interest and opportunities to date.”

Boyes believes data has an important role in helping them to customize the way Trilogy does business with different partners.

“We do feel we can be a lot more focused than most – and a lot more bespoke in understanding how a hotel works and the decisions that need to be made. So, we are building our own data platforms to be able to benchmark and review and deliver a better level of performance than traditional platforms,” he said.

Boyes said he has a trait that might help explain the decision to launch Trilogy.

“I’m very open to risk, I’m very open to change,” he said. “Ultimately the way we make a decision on whether we partner is can we genuinely make a difference and do we think we are a good fit for that owner. Our primary objective right now is to grow a really robust and capable platform here in Australia – using our knowledge of markets here.”

Boyes does not rule out growing on an international scale. “I think if we have that solid platform in Australia, then there’s room to grow beyond that. Once we have the capacity here, there’s no reason not to apply that elsewhere. If you look at how other hotel groups have grown historically, you will see that Australia has typically been a launchpad for the region.”

But any growth will happen “in a way that has proven to be sustainable”, he stressed.

“The key to entering any market is the ability to hit the ground running, so we have the degree of scale to harness that.”

First customer

Hotelier Jerry Schwartz was Trilogy’s first customer with a deal to manage four of the Schwartz Family Company’s Accor-brand hotels. He believes the group has a market edge in Australia.

“It’s a win-win,” Schwartz said. “The franchise model is so important for hotel branding and distribution, but management needs to be local and in a way that doesn’t get lost by being part of a huge international company.”

Before he left Accor, Boyes said he was already looking after Schwartz's hotels.

“He has continued doing so, only with more attention to detail and less intrusion by ‘brand standards,’” Schwartz said. “If we look overseas, especially to the U.S., this is definitely the future. My only worry is that they grow so big, I lose the individual attention… But I was promised that this wouldn’t happen.”

Boyes is wary of this risk. “We can’t grow in a way that compromises the current people that rely on us,” he said. “So, the focus is on intimacy and maintaining that – growing sustainably, with a total focus on hotel operations.”

By Tamara Thiessen