DiamondRock Hospitality to Buy Bellmoor Inn for $31 Million
The lodging REIT framed the independent resort as a supply-constrained asset with in-place cash flow and operational upside.
DiamondRock Hospitality Company (DRH) agreed to acquire The Bellmoor Inn & Spa for $31.0 million in an all-cash transaction, or approximately $392,000 a key.
The lodging REIT said the purchase is an attractive opportunity to add an independent resort in a supply-constrained market, with strong in-place cash flow and meaningful operational upside.
Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey J. Donnelly said the company’s acquisition basis and asset-management platform, combined with those fundamentals, position the property to generate free cash flow growth and long-term shareholder value.
The $392,000 per-key price sits in the same band as other independent and branded resort purchases disclosed by lodging REITs in recent quarters. Ashford Hospitality Premium reported a 260-room Motto Nashville hotel under development with an anticipated gross purchase price of $98.2 million, or about $378,000 a key, and a 234-room AC Hotel by Marriott in Washington, D.C., bought in March 2024 for $116.8 million, or about $499,000 a key. Ryman Hospitality Properties closed the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa for about $865 million, a large branded resort with 950 guest rooms and two golf courses.
DiamondRock’s stated case is narrower than those scale plays: an independent property whose cash flow and operating room, rather than brand conversion or a multi-hundred-room footprint, drive the return. The company pointed to the same asset-management platform it uses across its portfolio as the mechanism for capturing that upside.
The Bellmoor Inn & Spa is the asset in question; DiamondRock described it as an independent resort in a market where new supply is limited. The all-cash structure and the per-key multiple leave the rest of the underwriting to the company’s operating plan rather than to a mix of stock and cash or a long development timeline.
Donnelly’s comment that enduring fundamentals position The Bellmoor to generate meaningful free cash flow growth is the forward indicator the company attached to the purchase. The acquisition is framed as a cash-flow and operations story at a $31.0 million price, with the supply-constrained market and in-place earnings as the two facts DiamondRock put in front of shareholders.