WHO WE ARE
DAVID A. BERINS
PARTNER
BIO
David Berins is a veteran of the lodging industry with a career encompassing operations, asset management, development, planning and consulting.
The early years of his career were spent in operations management at both the property and regional level. Since 1974, David has provided senior-level asset management and advisory services to hotel owners, investors, management companies and lenders in areas such as strategic planning, development, operations and marketing.
In addition to his role as a senior lodging industry advisor, David has also served as Senior Vice President - Research & Planning at Strategic Hotel Capital, an opportunity fund which in 18 months grew to a portfolio of 24 hotels valued at $2.1 billion. And, as Managing Director of Cypress Hotels & Resorts, a unit of The Staubach Companies, he oversaw development of six ground-up full-service hotel & resort projects.
His consultancy, Berins & Co., LLC, was originally formed in 1983 and quickly grew to three offices in Dallas, Newport Beach and Princeton serving clients such as The Irvine Company, Hyatt Corporation, First Boston, Wells Fargo, Holiday Inns, Mass Mutual, Equitable and Rosewood Hotels.
He has also led large lodging consulting practices as global leader of Hospitality Industry Consulting at Arthur Andersen and as head of the U.S. consulting practice of the firm formerly called PKF Consulting (now CBRE Hotels).
He is a member of the Panel of Neutral Arbitrators in Complex Commercial Cases of the American Arbitration Association, and a founder and Chairman Emeritus of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, an invitation-only professional society which now numbers 250 professionals globally.
DEBBI BERINS
IN MEMORIAM 1955-2023
BIO
Debbi Berins was a 40-year veteran with an impressive list of successful hotel, restaurant, nightclub, and luxury residential projects and contented clients. After graduation from the Atlanta Art Institute, Debbi’s hospitality design career began at INDEX, Inc. in Houston where she quickly became a lead designer of high-profile hotels, restaurants and clubs.
Later, she expanded her work to include large custom residences in Austin as Director of Design for a custom builder and as Director of Interior Design for Cornerstone Architects. Her projects there included homes of up to 12,000 sf as well as commercial developments such as office spaces, medical facilities and retail. Her attention was always directed not only to aesthetics, but to the owner’s needs, functionality, maintainability, and of course, budget.
After teaming up with David in 2005, Debbi was deeply involved in evaluation of competitive hotels, CapEx budgeting and planning, programming of new hotels, oversight of design teams, and product strategies.
On acquisitions, renovations and new-development projects, workouts and strategic planning engagements, Debbi took the lead on estimating project costs, often under several scenarios, so that those could be paired with cash flow projections to guide clients on their options. On valuations, her expertise provided critical input on whether reserve assumptions in a projection would be sufficient to maintain market position of the hotel, and how much deferred CapEx needed to be built in to the initial underwriting.
With her untimely passing in 2023, Berins & Co., LLC will continue to provide those services through joint engagements with highly skilled consultants who are Members of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants. (www.ishc.com)