Best path to Hospitality Investing?
Hey guys - I am currently a second year analyst in the Energy Group at a BB. My goal is to break into Hotel/Hospitality Investing. It's a fairly small/niche sector and I've been having trouble directly recruiting in, especially given my industry background.
I have a few paths before me and am not sure on the best one to take to bring me closer to my goal of Hospitality PE.
Would you recommend I:
- Take an A2A promote and keep trying to recruit directly into Hospitality PE (keeping in mind I am in Energy)
- Recruit broadly for a REPE firm then try to specialize/lateral into Hospitality PE from there
- Recruit for Infra PE then try to lateral into Hospitality PE from there
The third one sounds cool but won't help you get into hotels. I'd do 1 & 2 simultaneously. Go buyside if you get a great offer, but otherwise, keep biding your time.
I know you're PE focused too, but don't sleep on major owners too. If you find an ownership group than owns some flagship buildings with flagship brands, I'd give them an honest look.
Thanks, this is helpful! So said differently to make sure I understand - being on the buyside in Infra PE wouldn't make it any easier to break into hotels than simply staying in banking?
That's hard to pinpoint because it all comes down to internal politics of wherever you end up. Might want to ask around in the PE forum—they'd have a better sense of how easy it is to move within teams/coverage areas and if that changes from firm to firm.
Infra investing is a different ballgame from hospitality/RE investing.
Why not try to lateral to the REGL group at your bank?
Definitely a top option for me, just would presumably take longer than the options I listed in the OP. Would wait for the promote Summer 2026, serve out a year as to not piss off my team, transfer to REGAL in Summer 2027, then serve out another year to not burn bridges and recruit for Summer 2028.
Please let me know if you think I'm being too generous and can cut this timeline down though, just don't want to burn bridges.
1 might be the hardest. 2 might not be that much easier, plus it narrows your universe of shops (not a lot groups with big/good hospitality teams esp. if you want BB/MF caliber exposure). 3 makes no sense. Would try to do 1 (have a clear story, know sector in and out, study a couple transactions in depth, network) and have 2 in back pocket as backup.
#2 or what CRE mentioned, work for a hospitality group.
Here’s a scenario for you which was a parallel for my life (#2):
That’s the start of your hospitality career after some years at a REPE.
The moral to the story is get a good foundation in investing and work. Then, don’t be afraid to take a small detour and work a position in the field you want that is kind of “beneath you” (I went from working in tall office building to out of a house next door to the facilities). Because if you’re talented, it won’t be long until better opportunities come up.
For Hospitality, being Director of Revenue is one of the best learning experience positions on-site (vs up at the management company). They help set pricing and oversee the group sales team.
At the management company level, a finance person might help with FP&A, data analyst (a lot of FTE “full time equivalents” especially full service hotels). A lot of parallels to what I do: I work on acquisitions and also development.
My advice is learn accounting and be willing to do anything (including property management). You are immediately useful for big or small management companies (especially start ups). But can do the fancy stuff too. Combined with your love for hotels/resorts, a creative business mind, and strong analytical abilities and experience, you’ll have an interesting career.
Thank you for the detailed response and perspective. It's an unfortunate expectation in finance where everyone expects these super linear and planned out paths (Target School > Top Bank > MFPE > H/W/S), so it is very re-assuring to hear that sometimes life can take you down a longer and windy-er path than expected and it'll still all work out. Probably obvious to you, but reassuring to this young and dumb 24 year old!
I’d also check out the cornell certificate program for hotel investments and asset management - it’s expensive but will give you solid background on the sector and show you’re committed to the asset class.
look into KSL Capital Partners
I have, they're top dawgs and my dream firm. Do you happen to know which headhunters they use? I tried reaching out to a few associates directly to network but sadly no response
Also wonder if they get free Ikon passes lol
HSP
Hospitality groups care a lot more about deal relevance than your current coverage, so the easiest entry point is usually through broader REPE. Once you are in a platform that touches operating assets, underwriting, and capex heavy models, it becomes much simpler to position yourself for hotels later.
Jumping straight from energy to hospitality works only when the shop is very flexible or you happen to hit perfect timing. Infra PE can help too since it teaches you to think about assets with long life cycles, but REPE still maps closest to what hotel funds do day to day.
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