“Once you go Black, you never go back!” Black hotel owner and commercial real estate investor Davonne Reaves hopes the popular cheeky catchphrase rings true for those who stay at one of thousands of Black-owned hotels and bed & breakfasts across America this summer.
“In 2019, MMGYGlobal reported that African Americans spent over $109 billion on travel, but according to The National Association of Black Hotel Owners Operators and Developers, a trade organization, African-Americans own less than two percent of the nation’s hotels. Clearly, there’s a disconnect there and I’m trying to change that,” explains Atlanta-based Reaves who nabbed national headlines in January 2021 for her $8.3 million acquisition of a Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel in El Reno, Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City.
She secured the all-suite property with business partner and former Georgia State University roommate, Jessica Myers and a diverse group of investors, mostly Millennials. The purchase earned her and Myers the unique distinction of becoming what is believed to be the youngest African American woman to ever co-own a major hotel chain property.
