Extended Stay America (STAY) names Bruce Haase CEO, effective immediately

Note: acquired by Blackstone Real Estate and the Starwood Capital Group (June 2021)

Extended Stay America, Inc., the largest owner/operator of company-branded hotels in North America, owns and operates 682 hotels in the U.S. and Canada comprising approximately 76,000 rooms and employs approximately 10,000 employees in its hotel properties and headquarters.

Extended Stay America names Bruce Haase CEO, effective immediately

Haase succeeds Jonathan Halkyard, who will continue to advise the company through February 25, 2020.

Haase has served as a director of ESH Hospitality since 2018. He has more than 20 years of lodging experience with particular expertise in the extended stay hotel segment.

The company also announced today the appointment of Kelly Poling as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, and Randy Fox, as Executive Vice President, Property Operations.

Extended Stay America (STAY) began trading on the NYSE on 13 Nov 2013

• Long-stay hotel chain Extended Stay America rises 16% as company goes public. 
• Company is headed by ex-Starbucks CEO Jim Donald 
• Average stay of guest is 26 days

The hotel chain, which specializes in mid-priced hotel rooms that mimic apartments and are rented by the week or month, priced its IPO at $20 per share, near the top of the range of $18 to $21. The shares rallied as high as $23.90 in early trading and were up $3.20 to $23.20 at midday.

The company, which is headed by ex-Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, raised roughly $565 million with the sale of 28.25 million shares.

IPOs have been hot lately, witnessed by the 70%-plus first-day return of micro-blogging site Twitter last week.

The hotel chain, which operates about 700 hotels, was bought out of bankruptcy three years ago by investment firms Blackstone Group, Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co. Extended Stay sold about 14% of the company, giving the company a market value of roughly $4 billion.

Guests stay an average 26 days at the hotel. And the average nightly rate for extended-stay hotels was $54.77 last year, compared to $119.88 for upper-level long-stay companies, according to Bloomberg News, citing data from STR Analytics.

In an interview with cable business channel CNBC this morning, CEO Donald said the proceeds of the IPO will be used to pay off debt and that no new hotels were currently in the pipeline. He wouldn't rule out a moderate room price increase in the future.

He said the company's $626 million renovation program, which he dubbed the "Platinum Renovation" would be 50% complete by the end of the first quarter of 2014.