How The Boca Raton Fared After Dropping the Waldorf Astoria Name

When The Boca Raton took down its Waldorf Astoria branding in 2021, it walked away from the machinery big hotel groups say properties can't live without. The 200-acre Florida resort lost Hilton's loyalty program, the reservations and property-management tech, the group sales force, and nearly all of the historical guest records. MSD Partners, the investment firm of Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell (now BDT & MSD Partners), had bought the resort from Blackstone in 2019 for $875 million. It put close to $450 million into renovations and added about 200 rooms since its purchase. In the past year, the resort has had an average daily rate of $980 (excluding groups), it said. That's up from about $390 pre-pandemic, according to a S&P Global Ratings pre-sale report. Brands like Waldorf-Astoria sell owners a few things: guests, technology, and operating expertise. The Boca Raton replaced each one: creating word-of-mouth amon