A Proud History, Anchored in Growth
M&R Hotel Management evolved from a development company focused on acquiring and building hotels in the New York metropolitan area into a focused, third-party management company with a portfolio of 24 hotels.
The story begins with M&R Hotel Group, a development company focused on acquiring and building hotels in the New York metropolitan area and beyond, that was founded in 1992 by Madhu Patni and the late Rajendra Gandhi. Both had been principals in Hersha Hospitality Trust, a real estate investment trust formed in 1984 and traded on the American Stock Exchange since 1998.
In recent years, leadership of M&R Hotel Group has passed to the second generation of both families. Amit Gandhi and Manish Patni are fully vested in all aspects of development and serve as principals of M&R Hotel Management, a company created in 2001 to serve as the operating arm of M&R Hotel Group.
M&R Hotel Group’s first project was construction of a 45-room Howard Johnson Inn on East Houston Street in Manhattan in 2001, which the company managed until 2005 when the property was sold. In 2002, M&R Hotel Group opened an 80-room Comfort Inn in Long Island City, New York, the first nationally branded, limited-service hotel to be constructed there, and managed it until 2005 when it was sold.
In 2004, the company constructed an 80-room Comfort Inn on West 39th Street in Manhattan, near Times Square, which M&R managed until it was sold in 2007. That was followed in 2005 by a 211-room Holiday Inn Express also built on West 39th Street, which M&R managed until it was sold in 2009.
Also in 2005, M&R Hotel Group purchased three limited-service hotels – an 87-room Best Western, a 128-room Holiday Inn Express and a 73-room Days Inn – adjacent to one another near John F. Kennedy International Airport off South Conduit Avenue in Jamaica, New York.
M&R assumed management of the newly constructed 93-room Comfort Inn Staten Island and 95-room Holiday Inn Express Staten Island West in 2008. That year, the company also became manager of the 83-room Holiday Inn Express LaGuardia Airport hotel in Flushing, New York, which subsequently was expanded to 120 rooms in 2018.
M&R Hotel Group’s development in Manhattan accelerated in 2009 when it acquired property at the corner of Delancey and Suffolk streets and built the 132-room, full-service Holiday Inn NYC ─ Lower East Side, which opened in 2013. Also in 2009, the company acquired land for two hotels on West 48th Street, where it built the 177-room Holiday Inn Express Manhattan Midtown West and 89-room Comfort Inn Midtown West, which opened in 2013.
M&R Hotel Group built a 186-room Hyatt Place on West 36th Street at Herald Square, the brand’s first hotel in Manhattan. Only the sixth Hyatt hotel in New York City, it opened in 2013 and was sold later that year.
In 2013, M&R Hotel Management announced the signing of a third-party management agreement to operate the 201-room Holiday Inn New York JFK Airport Area at the intersection of Brookville and Rockaway boulevards in Jamaica, New York.
M&R Hotel Group constructed the 103-room Holiday Inn Staten Island on Wild Avenue, which opened in 2014. That property, along with the adjacent Comfort Inn Staten Island and Holiday Inn Express Staten Island West, were sold in 2017.
Also in 2014, M&R Hotel Management was selected to manage the 76-room Alegria, An Ascend Collection Hotel, in Simpson Bay, St. Maarten. Alegria left the M&R portfolio at the end of 2015. In 2014, the company was appointed operator of the 103-room Holiday Inn Express Braintree in Massachusetts, which left the portfolio at the end of 2016.
M&R was picked to manage the 136-room Holiday Inn L.I. City – Manhattan View at 39-05 29th St. in Queens, New York, beginning in 2015.
M&R opened the 271-room Holiday Inn New York City – Times Square at 585 Eighth Ave. in 2015 and the 226-room Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Central Park at 538 W. 58th St. one year later. The Fairfield was the first Marriott-branded hotel to be owned by M&R Hotel Group and managed by M&R Hotel Management.
M&R was contracted to manage the 60-room Holiday Inn Express Roslyn ─ Manhasset Area on Long Island beginning in 2016. That property left the system in 2019. From 2017 to 2019, M&R was asset manager of the 170-room Club Quarters Hotel Midtown, 289-room Club Quarters Hotel Wall Street and 230-room Club Quarters Hotel Opposite Rockefeller Center, all in Manhattan.
Also in 2017, the company opened its first Hilton Worldwide franchise, the 250-room Hilton Garden Inn New York Times Square South at 326 W. 37th St., and became manager of the 80-room Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Chester-Monroe-Goshen in Orange County, New York. The latter property left the system in November 2018.
M&R assumed management of the following hotels in 2018: the 216-room Hampton Inn NY-JFK in Jamaica, New York; the 60-room Fairfield by Marriott Indianapolis South; the 99-room Hampton Inn Anderson, Indiana; the 83-room Courtyard Indianapolis South; the 96-room Hilton Garden Inn Joplin, 62-room Fairfield by Marriott Joplin and 89-room Hampton Inn Joplin, all in Missouri; the 62-room Fairfield by Marriott St. Louis Collinsville, IL, 101-room Hampton Inn Mount Vernon and 89-room Hampton Inn Marion, all in Illinois; and 114-room TownePlace Suites New York Manhattan/Times Square, between Eighth and Ninth avenues. The Courtyard left the system in August 2019.
The 428-room Crowne Plaza Dallas Near Galleria-Addison in Texas and 84-room Comfort Inn Prospect Park-Brooklyn in New York joined the M&R portfolio in 2019. The Crowne Plaza left the system in October 2019.
The 162-room Hyatt Centric 39th & Fifth Avenue in Manhattan opened late summer 2021, as well as the 103-room Comfort Inn JFK in Jamaica, New York, near John F. Kennedy International Airport.