Maximizing Hotel Asset Value

Elite Hotel Advisory is an independent hotel asset management and advisory firm founded by Mark Sample to help hotel owners, investors, and lenders maximize the value of their hospitality investments. Drawing on more than three decades of leadership in hotel operations and asset management, Elite Hotel Advisory provides institutional-quality strategic oversight, financial analysis, and owner representation focused on improving operating performance, optimizing NOI, and enhancing long-term asset value.

Throughout his career, Mark has overseen luxury, full-service, select-service, and resort properties across the United States, representing private equity firms, public REITs, institutional investors, and international ownership groups. His experience includes portfolio asset management, hotel acquisitions and dispositions, operational turnarounds, capital investment planning, management company oversight, budgeting and forecasting, and performance benchmarking.

By combining hands-on operational expertise as a former hotel General Manager with extensive institutional asset management experience, Elite Hotel Advisory delivers practical, data-driven recommendations that align hotel operations with ownership objectives and create measurable long-term value.

About Mark Sample

Mark Sample is the Founder and Principal of Elite Hotel Advisory, bringing more than 30 years of hospitality leadership experience spanning hotel operations, asset management, investment strategy, and owner representation. Throughout his career, he has partnered with institutional investors, private equity firms, public REITs, international ownership groups, and independent hotel owners to maximize asset value through disciplined financial oversight and operational excellence.

Mark’s experience combines the perspective of an owner, operator, and institutional asset manager. He has served in executive asset management roles with leading hospitality investment organizations, including BRE Hotels & Resorts (Blackstone) and RLJ Lodging Trust, while also owning, repositioning, and operating his own boutique hotel investment. This unique combination enables him to bridge the gap between ownership objectives and day-to-day hotel operations.

Over the course of his career, Mark has provided strategic oversight for portfolios of up to 57 hotels representing virtually every major brand, including Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG. His experience includes luxury, upper-upscale, full-service, select-service, extended-stay, and boutique hotels throughout major U.S. markets.

Mark has built a reputation for identifying opportunities that create measurable value for owners by improving operating performance, increasing revenue, optimizing expenses, strengthening management company accountability, and enhancing long-term investment returns. His expertise includes hotel acquisitions and dispositions, asset repositioning, capital investment planning, operational turnarounds, management agreement oversight, budgeting and forecasting, market analysis, and NOI optimization.

Selected Accomplishments

• Comprehensive hospitality leadership experience spanning every major discipline of hotel operations, including 16 years as a General Manager overseeing boutique, resort, select-service, compact full-service, and luxury hotels of up to 600 rooms. Career progression includes Executive Housekeeper of a 400-room luxury hotel, regional corporate operations leadership, Director of Finance responsible for budgeting and forecasting for a 240-hotel portfolio, and multiple Vice President of Asset Management positions representing institutional hotel owners.

• Generated approximately $10 million in incremental portfolio revenue by creating and implementing an innovative Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) sales initiative across the RLJ Lodging Trust portfolio, allowing hotels to capitalize on growing corporate supplier diversity requirements.

• Created more than $5 million in recurring annual high-margin revenue at BRE Hotels & Resorts by developing and implementing paid parking strategies across multiple hotels, securing brand approvals and municipal support while delivering significant NOI growth with minimal incremental operating expense.

• Repositioned underutilized meeting space at the Marriott Redmond into a high-tech collaborative workspace aligned with local market demand, increasing group business and ancillary revenue opportunities.

• Personally acquired, repositioned, and operated a 39-room oceanfront hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, transforming the property into a boutique destination hotel that increased ADR by more than $100 while improving occupancy and ultimately achieving a 22% internal rate of return (IRR) upon sale.

• Led operational teams throughout a distinguished General Manager career and received multiple industry recognitions, including General Manager of the Year at Dream Hotel Midtown Manhattan and Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Hotel of the Year.

Today, Mark applies the same institutional-level asset management discipline to every client engagement. Whether advising investors on acquisitions, representing ownership interests, evaluating management company performance, or identifying operational improvement opportunities, his objective remains the same: to maximize hotel value by aligning operations with ownership goals and delivering measurable financial results.