Ueberroth Buys Stake in Guest Quarters Hotels

In another investment in the troubled travel industry, former Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth has acquired an interest in Boston-based Guest Quarters Hotels.

Ueberroth joined Richard Ferris, the former chairman and chief executive of United Airlines, to purchase a stake in the chain from General Electric Investments Corp., which earlier this year became majority owner of Guest Quarters when it bought a share held by Westinghouse Credit Corp.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ueberroth and Ferris will serve as co-chairmen of the board of Guest Quarters. But Richard Kelleher will remain president of Guest Quarters, and the company will keep its headquarters in Boston.

“Guest Quarters is well capitalized with no debt, and its strategy will be to enhance and grow its brand image by providing outstanding customer service to its guests and a competitive investment return to its hotel owner-clients,” John Myers, executive vice president of General Electric Investment Corp., said in a prepared statement released Tuesday.

Ueberroth, who is spearheading efforts to rebuild Los Angeles after last month’s civil unrest, was president and managing director of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and founder of First Travel Corp., the second-largest travel business in North America when Ueberroth sold out in 1980. Ueberroth’s other travel-related investments include an interest in HAL Inc., operator of Hawaiian Airlines.

Analysts generally applauded Ueberroth’s latest acquisition despite a travel slump brought on by a sluggish economy, a glut of hotel rooms and cutbacks in vacation and business travel.

“I definitely think there are buying opportunities out there,” said Robert T. Patterson, director of hospitality consulting for the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand. “Hotels in California are off as much as 40% from their peak prices” in the late 1980s.

Guest Quarters Hotels, which caters primarily to business travelers, manages 38 hotels throughout the country and is the owner of the Guest Quarters Suite Hotel brand, which is made up of 27 all-suite hotels, including one in Santa Monica.