Walter Isenberg is Co-Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Sage Hospitality, one of the top hotel investment, management and development companies in the United States for more than 30 years. Based in Denver, Sage Hospitality owns and operates over 75 hotels and 10 restaurants in 23 states, from urban full-service hotels to smaller select-service suburban properties. Isenberg directs all company operations, including property management, development and finance.
Last year, Hotel Business ranked Sage Hospitality #17 in their Top 100 Management Companies of 2014 report.
Isenberg co-founded Sage Hospitality in 1984 with partner Zachary Neumeyer. The company’s history in hospitality includes ground-up development, historic-adaptive re-use, acquisitions and third-party management. Sage hotels include well known brands such as JW Marriott, Renaissance, Westin and Hilton, as well as several independent hotels. In 2006, Sage formed the Sage Restaurant Group, which operates unique high-volume restaurants inside its urban hotels.
Sage Hospitality has been consistently recognized for its significant commitment to corporate citizenship. The company was the first recipient of Marriott International’s “Spirit to Serve Award,” which is given annually to a franchise partner that lives the vision to be an outstanding corporate citizen. Sage Hospitality has also been an industry leader in implementing green operating practices, committed to developing Gold and Silver LEED certified hotels as well as making it a company-wide mission to make each of its hotels as environmentally friendly as possible. Sage Hospitality has also been recognized for its superior customer service, receiving Excellence in Service awards at many of its hotels. Sage’s development group has won numerous awards for excellence in the development of hotels and has been nationally recognized as a leader in historic preservation.
A graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, Isenberg is a member of the American Hotel Lodging Association Government Affairs committee as well as Marriott International and Starwood Owner Advisory Boards. Isenberg was recently inducted into Denver & Colorado’s Tourism Hall of Fame, which is the highest award given by Denver’s travel industry. Active in the community, he currently serves on the boards of Visit Denver, The Downtown Denver Partnership, The Children’s Hospital Foundation, Colorado Concern and the Metropolitan State University of Denver Board of Trustees.
Walter Isenberg
Sage Hospitality
1575 Welton Street, Suite 300
Denver, Colorado 80202
Phone: 303-595-7200
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.