The strategy Henssler described
Centara Hotels & Resorts plans to grow through partnerships with large property investors. Michael Henssler, the company’s chief operating officer, set out the approach to Skift in an interview published on 16 October 2026. Centara is “going more into [an] asset-light” strategy, he said.
The model puts hotels under Centara’s management while outside investors own the buildings. Centara funds part of the portfolio with its own capital, and the target mix puts that part at 30 percent. Management agreements carry the other 70 percent.
Centara sits inside Central Group, the Thai retail group the Chirathivat family controls. The brand set runs from Centara Reserve and Centara Grand to Centara and Centara Life. Operations reach the Maldives, Japan and the Middle East alongside Thailand.
Twenty-three owned and twenty-nine managed
Centara operated 52 hotels at 30 June 2026, the last figure the company filed. Twenty-three are owned and operated and hold 6,085 rooms. Twenty-nine run under hotel management agreements with 5,309 rooms.
Skift reports another 41 properties in the development pipeline. The company’s own second-quarter filing lists 40 hotels under development.
A target mix of seventy-thirty
The geography follows the contract type. Centara pursues management contracts in the Middle East, Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. It reserves its own capital for Japan, Thailand and Bali.
Twenty-nine of 52 is 55.8 percent of the operating portfolio. The 70 percent target moves the book further toward contracts.
Forty-one properties in the pipeline
Forty-one properties against 52 in operation puts the pipeline at 78.8 percent of the current portfolio. Every entry opening takes the count to 93. Doubling 52 needs 104 hotels. The pipeline covers 11 of that gap.
Skift frames the plan as a company that wants to double in size without doubling its balance sheet. Each pipeline entry needs three signatures: a property investor with an asset, a brand selection and a management agreement.
Ten openings dated to 2027
Ten openings are planned for 2027. Four sit in Thailand. One sits in Cyprus. Skift attributes the schedule to Henssler. The company’s last filed pipeline figure carries no dated opening list.
Skift names Krabi as a reference site for prospective owners. Centara’s own portfolio lists two Reserve hotels, Centara Reserve Samui and Centara Reserve Krabi. The Hua Hin property the company operates is Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin.
Two Reserve hotels carry the shop window for a 41-hotel pipeline. An owner weighing a management agreement can walk one, read its operating numbers and meet the team.
The Middle East window
Henssler points to distressed assets and broken partnerships in the Middle East as openings. Skift reports that framing as the company’s read on the region.
Centara’s own second-quarter filing attributes softer Dubai performance and a Phuket rate decline to “the situation in the Middle East”.
A distressed asset reaches the market when an owner cannot service the debt or when a partnership ends. Skift’s own question list sets the price gap between buyers and sellers against the opportunity. The piece prints no property count for the region.
The scale gap against Minor and Hilton
Skift sets Centara against two larger operators. Minor Hotels reports more than 640 properties in operation and under development across 67 countries. Hilton’s 30 September 2026 update reports more than 9,400 hotels and more than 260 million loyalty members.
Centara reports 52 hotels in operation. Skift’s question list asks whether Centara keeps a seat at the table with institutional hotel owners against that distribution and loyalty reach.
Henssler’s answer is the partnership model. An investor brings assets across several markets. Centara brings the brand, the operating team and the two Reserve hotels.
What the portfolio arithmetic says
Four numbers carry the plan. Fifty-two hotels operate. Forty-one sit in the pipeline. Twenty-nine of the 52 run under management agreements. The target puts 70 percent of the book on that model.
The 2027 schedule needs ten completions inside a year. The Middle East openings need owners willing to transact at a price both sides accept. Both wait on a third party’s signature.
The piece prints no per-market pipeline split, no count of signed agreements for 2027, no development cost, no return target and no named investor partner. A reader underwriting Centara’s growth needs each of those from the company directly.