Salter Brothers announce the official launch of their hotel management platform, Salter Brothers Hospitality (SBH) to address the gap in the market for a specialised and dedicated boutique lifestyle luxury manager with regional and CBD capabilities and expertise.

Whilst Salter Brothers had an established team that focused on core hotel management functions (separate to its ever growing investment management division), following the acquisition of the Spicers Retreats, Milton Park & Escarpment Group acquisitions, it was decided to amalgamate a number of functions into a single platform. Salter Brothers is pleased to announce that from today a single hospitality management platform, will operate with its own management and be known as Salter Brothers Hospitality (SBH).

This business has material scale and breadth, already encompassing:

17 operating retreat hotels and estates;

• More than 20 restaurant and bars;
• 8 Spa AniseTM spas and other wellness facilities; and
• Spicers Scenic Rim Trail, one of the largest ecotourism ventures ever to open in Queensland with 38 rooms over five amazing camp sites.

Combined, these operating assets generate more than $110m annually, employing more than 500 staff. In addition, SBH directly employs over 40 staff operating from offices in Brisbane (head office), Sydney, Melbourne and Vietnam.

Future Growth

In addition to operating the above assets, SBH will be seeking to grow the number of properties operated under the Ardour Hotels & Estates, Spicers Retreats & Lodges and Spa Anise brands as well as the number of high quality, celebrated restaurant and bars.

• Salter Brothers recently announced the launch of its latest hotel brand Ardour Hotels & Estates, after many months of research and development. Coming to market in 2024, Ardour is a brand specifically developed for large groups, events and corporates to experience a retreat-style escape at a range of boutique lifestyle luxury hotels and estates in unique settings. Facilities will include special event spaces, day spas and outdoor wellness, and multiple restaurants offering a curated food and beverage program for groups – ‘celebrated luxury.’ More information about the brand, including announcements about the first Ardour properties, is expected in the coming months with the first Ardour properties slated to open in Q2 2024.  Please visit https://ardourhotelsandestates.com for more details.
• Salter Brothers recently acquired Australia’s premier retreat & lodges brand Spicers Retreats & Lodges, which already has 14 branded properties, located in unrepeatable settings across NSW and Queensland.  Spicers brand is targeted at boutique luxury lifestyle retreats and lodges that will offer a personalised retreat experience in unique environs, with intimate spaces, day spas and restaurants – “relaxed luxury”. More information about the brand can be found at https://spicersretreats.com.
• Salter Brothers recently acquired the Spa Anise spa and wellness business, which today operates from Spicers Retreats & Lodges across NSW and Queensland.  It is intended that the Spa Anise offering will be rolled out across the Ardour and Spicers properties over the coming year, with further growth opportunities to be pursued across Salter Brothers CBD located hotels.

SBH now operates over 20 restaurants and bars. There are 12 hatted restaurants in the portfolio, including such well known restaurants as:

• Circa 1888, éRemo and Botanica in the Hunter Valley
• Darleys and Amara in the Blue Mountains
• The Long Apron and The Tamarind in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland

In explaining the launch of the new Salter Brothers Hospitality division, Managing Director Paul Salter commented, “Over the years we have had many enquiries for us to manage assets on behalf of owners, but our main focus has always been in the management of our own assets. Now with the number of assets we are operating in our hotel and retreat portfolio, it warrants us establishing the hospitality platform as a stand-alone division and we will be announcing a number of senior appointments in the coming weeks.

It is expected that this platform will see hotels, restaurants and bars, and spa and wellness facilities under management double in the next 24 months.

“Whilst we will continue to grow our branded portfolio of assets, we will also seek to provide our unique skills and capability to the broader hospitality sector in Asia Pacific. In Europe and the USA third party management is the predominant operational model over hotel management agreements (or HMAs), which exist in this part of the world – we expect this model to change over time and there to be a growing demand for this type of service in the Asia Pacific region,” Salter concluded.