Lifestyle brand and hospitality management company Lark Hotels has formed a joint venture with contextual hotel brand and operator Life House. The joint venture will operate under Lark Hospitality LLC, doing business as Lark, encompassing all Lark Hotels and Life House-branded hotels, 33 restaurants and bars, and the groups’ combined portfolio of nearly 100 independent properties, with locations throughout the continental U.S., Hawaii and Mexico. As part of the transaction, among the Life House stakeholders, both Inovia Capital and Thayer Investment Partners will continue to support this joint venture.

Combining their assets and expertise to form Lark Hospitality, Rob Blood, founder, Lark Hotels; Peter Twachtman, CEO, Lark Hotels; and Marc Ghobriel, CEO, Life House, join forces with Blood as Chairman, Twachtman as CEO and Ghobriel leading the Life House transition team.

In addition to doubling Lark’s footprint, the combined entity grows the company’s centralized team by bringing key positions over from Life House. The new entity will have nearly $1 billion in assets under management, and represent accommodations in 27 states, more than 3,000 total keys, nearly 1,500 employees in peak season and total annual revenue of more than $150 million under management.

“There is no company that has made everyone at Lark Hotels sharpen their pencils more than Life House,” said Blood. “Over the last five years, they have made us think deeply about who we are as a company, what our value proposition is for our stakeholders and who we want to be going forward. As we come together, we look forward to incorporating the best practices of both of our companies to deliver exceptional experiences for our guests, investors, hotel owners and teams.”

Ghobriel added, “The complementary strengths of Life House and Lark, both geographically and operationally, create a leader in the independent and boutique hotel management market. We’re eager to continue focusing on delivering a great experience, to guests at the properties we manage, as well as to their owners, and we plan on investing in building a strong portfolio of brands across North America.”

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