Sonesta Appoints REIT Vet to Replace Flores as CEO

Real estate investment trust Service Properties Trust CEO John Murray will succeed Carlos Flores as president and CEO of Sonesta International Hotels Corp., effective April 1, the company announced Monday.

Service Properties Trust currently owns a 34 percent stake in Sonesta.

Flores will resign from his position on March 31. He will remain a consultant, according to the company.

Murray was president and CEO of Service Properties Trust – also known by the Nasdaq symbol, SVC – and president and CEO of Industrial Logistics Properties Trust. He will resign from both positions before taking on the leadership role at Sonesta and continue as a managing trustee of both SVC and ILPT.

Flores and SVC, one of BTN’s most influential in 2021, designed Sonesta’s massive expansion that began in 2020. In August, Sonesta recorded 103 IHG properties that had defaulted on payments to SVC. In October, a similar default brought 122 Marriott properties into Sonesta’s portfolio. Sonesta also acquired the Red Lion Hotels brand, which consists of 900 franchise hotels, in March 2021. From a portfolio of three hotels in 2012, Sonesta now has 1,200 accommodations, totaling 100,000 rooms from 15 brands in eight countries.