Dive Brief:
- Castle Peak Holdings, the investment firm behind outdoor-centric hospitality brand Trailborn, closed its second real estate investment vehicle with roughly $315 million raised over a four-month period, the company announced Thursday. The funds will be used to expand the Trailborn portfolio to new destinations across the U.S.
- The firm’s April acquisition of Snow King Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, marked the new vehicle’s first investment, according to Castle Peak. The firm plans to renovate the property and convert it under the Trailborn brand.
- The capital raise will help Castle Peak deliver customers access to outdoor-focused accommodations in top leisure destinations, “what they’ve been searching for,” according to co-CEO Mike Weiss. The firm has been rapidly scaling Trailborn since its launch in 2023, including tying up with Marriott International late last year.
Dive Insight:
Castle Peak’s newly raised capital will help the firm expand Trailborn, starting with bringing the brand to Jackson Hole, “Wyoming's premier four season mountain destination,” according to the Castle Peak.
The investment firm will renovate the 203-key Snow King Resort to expand its on-site amenities and enhance the building’s exterior, lobby, meeting spaces and dining offerings.
Once complete, the hotel will offer travelers “an elevated experience” with family-friendly amenities, expansive meetings and events spaces, dining, a spa and access to world-class skiing, as well as Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park.
Castle Peak’s larger expansion strategy for Trailborn includes buying off-market properties in “iconic outdoor destinations with growing demand and high barriers-to-entry, and executing a tactical repositioning” of those hotels, according to the firm’s other co-CEO, Ben Weinberg.
Trailborn has an additional property debuting in Mendocino, California, within the coming year, per Castle Peak. The brand has opened five hotels within the last year at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the North Carolina coast.
In December, Trailborn entered a long-term agreement with Marriott to bring its collection of hotels under the Marriott system, gaining access to the hotel heavyweight’s distribution network.
Hilton and Hyatt Hotels have also recently partnered with outdoor-centric accommodations providers as travel demand for the sector ramps up.
