The following excerpt was originally written and published by Hotel Investment Today on February 9, 2026.
The long-time distress investor talks at ALIS about deploying their first fund and what they see ahead for M&A and performance.
LOS ANGELES – Investor AWH Partners is starting to deploy its first income fund since its founding in 2010 and Co-Founder Chad Cooley talked about the group’s evolving strategy in conversation at ALIS last month.
A deal-by-deal investor with a current portfolio of some 30 hotel assets. Cooley said the new fund will target high quality limited-service or compact full-service assets in strong markets with good brands, low leverage and strong cash flow profiles. Cooley added that the first investment is in a unique soft-branded Residence Inn in an affluent California resort market.
In 2026, Cooley sees the deal pendulum slowly swinging back toward more activity with more credit investors starting to return to the equity side.
As for performance, he is among the bulls, suggesting comps will become easier as the year goes on and a believer that the World Cup will deliver better results than forecast.
