tl;dr – An attractive acquisition target or not?
I’m profiling a few hotels chains I believe would make for intriguing acquisitions and today I wanted next up is Rosewood.
In late 2025, rumors floated that Rosewood Hotels was up for purchase, and many folks listed Marriott as a potential buyer. While nothing has come of those rumors of yet, it is reasonable to believe that there’s at least some truth to one part of it – the ‘Rosewood might be for sale’ part.
A Brief History of Rosewood
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts was originally founded in Dallas in 1979 by Caroline Rose Hunt, the magnate-daughter of oil tycoon H. L. Hunt. In 2011, Rosewood was acquired by the Cheng family, owners of Chinese conglomerate Chow Tai Fook and its associated company New World Development for $229.5 million. From there, there’s been a bit of a weird corporate dance with the company. The company was sold from one conglomerate to another but has stayed under the control of the Chengs – daughter Sonia Cheng is currently the CEO of Rosewood Hotel Group.
Rosewood Hotel Group currently consists of two brands – the luxury (and better known) Rosewood brand, and New World Hotels. At present, there are 58 existing or planned Rosewood properties across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and APAC. Select existing locations include:
- Rosewood Hotel Georgia (Vancouver)
- Rosewood Sand Hill (Menlo Park, California)
- The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel (New York City)
- Rosewood Washington, D.C. (Washington, D.C.)
- Rosewood Miramar Beach (Montecito, California)
- Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek (Dallas)
- Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
- Kona Village, A Rosewood Resort (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii)
- Rosewood São Paulo (Brazil)
- Rosewood Mayakoba (Mexico)
- Rosewood San Miguel de Allende (Mexico)
- Las Ventanas al Paraiso, A Rosewood Resort (México)
- Rosewood Bermuda (Bermuda)
- Rosewood Baha Mar (The Bahamas)
- Rosewood Little Dix Bay (British Virgin Islands)
- Rosewood London (London)
- The Chancery Rosewood (London)
- Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco (Italy)
- Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel (Paris)
- Rosewood Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
- Rosewood Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)
- Rosewood Sanya (China)
- Rosewood Beijing (China)
- Rosewood Miyakojima (Miyako Island, Japan)
- Rosewood Phuket (Thailand)
- Rosewood Bangkok (Thailand)
- Rosewood Yangon (Myanmar)
- Rosewood Luang Prabang (Laos)
- Rosewood Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
- Rosewood Hong Kong (Victoria Dockside)
- Rosewood Guangzhou (Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre)
Some of the upcoming properties are:
- Rosewood Ranfaru
- Rosewood Exuma
- Rosewood Seoul
- Rosewood Rome
- Rosewood Mexico City
- Rosewood Blue Palace (Crete)
- Rosewood Calistoga
- Rosewood Shanghai
- Rosewood Dubai
- Rosewood AMAALA
- Rosewood Hangzhou
- Rosewood Ningbo
- Rosewood Red Sea
- Rosewood Shenzen
Is Rosewood for Sale?
It might be. According to a Business Times article for late 2025, the Cheng family was reportedly “seeking buyers for Rosewood Hotel Group properties amid liquidity challenges for New World Development. New World, the most indebted major Hong Kong developer, is offloading assets and issuing debt to improve cash flow. Previous divestment attempts have stalled, and New World reported a HK$16.3 billion loss from continuing operations.”
In other words, New World Development, the aforementioned associated company of Chow Tai Fook could use some cash. A sale of Rosewood – either all or part of its assets – which is valued by many estimates at $3 Billion, could be very attractive to some of the larger hotel chains or even private equity investors.
Rosewood has a strong brand, solid name recognition, and generally puts forth a quality luxury product. I stayed at the Rosewood Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands a few years ago and found it to be a solid experience, though nowhere near approaching mind-blowing. The property itself is very nice, in particular its associated beaches. The service was just OK.
In addition to the strong brand, there are several things that make Rosewood an attractive target, two of which are its dual brand setup and its planned growth. Let’s talk about the growth first. Above, I listed 14 planned locations, and they are spread out all across the globe. Several of them are in very exotic markets, others cosmpolitan cities – which speaks well to diversification. Any potential acquirer would likely love to note that there’s already something to ‘look forward’ to, and in this case, there are several exciting new properties. Secondly, the fact that there are two brands – Rosewood and New World – provides a lot of versatility. It’s not every day that there’s a legitimate luxury brand for sale on the market, so for a would-be acquirer in need of a bona fide top-tier addition to its portfolio (ahem, you know who), Rosewood would be there for the taking. The 19 New World Properties are all in either China or Vietnam, so there’s also value to be gained in fleshing out the portfolio in those two markets with the second-tier brand.
As for who should/might acquire Rosewood? More on that in a bit!
