Hyatt puts Napa and Savannah Andaz properties on the market

US: Hyatt Hotels has put the 141-room Andaz Napa and the Andaz Savannah up for sale.

The Napa property has a reported asking price of $75 million. Hyatt will continue to manage both properties after any sale, according to reports.

Don Winter, a hotel and restaurant consultant told the Napa Valley Register: "It's a pretty common strategy for Hyatt to shed assets. They don't like to tie up too much cash in hard assets. It doesn't surprise me. The management contracts are pretty much pure cash flow to a company like Hyatt."

"All of the underlying factors for hotels in the Napa Valley are pretty strong and favorable. For an institutional investor or private owner, downtown Napa looks pretty good as opposed to so many other areas. Napa is highly desirable for hotel companies because our seasonality is far less than most other destinations and we are closer to a major dense population centre," he added. The downtown hotel "is a relatively safe and promising investment."

Andaz Napa opened in 2009 as an Avia brand hotel. In 2011, Hyatt Hotels bought 20 hotels, including the Avia Napa, from Avia's parent company LodgeWorks for $661 million. In 2012, the Avia hotel was renamed Andaz Napa.

www.andaz.hyatt.com