Quest founder Paul Constantinou has farewelled the business he founded in 1988.
Announcing his departure from the apartment hotel chain on LinkedIn on Friday, Constantinou wrote “Ascott Limited has finalised the purchase of the remaining equity I had in the business. I wish them nothing but success in the future.”
In the statement he thanked the “many wonderful and truly inspiring people” he came across as he built the portfolio of hotels which now number more than 170 and stretch across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the UK.
“It has always been very humbling to see so many wonderful team members and franchisees reach their personal best,” he wrote.
The idea for the hotel business was to cater for extended-stay business travellers by providing home-from-home, serviced accommodation. The business was rebranded from Quest Serviced Apartments in 2015.
The same year, the franchise chain signed a $500 million strategic partnership with Singapore-based real estate subsidiary The Ascott Limited. This brought funding and advisory board members into the business.
Early in 2021 the former chief operations officer at Quest, David Mansfield, took on the mantle of managing director at The Ascott which, at that point, had an 80 per cent stake in the Quest business. Constantinou remained as executive chairman.
In 2019 the business was the first in Australia to be awarded an independent five-star franchise rating.
Constantinou told Inside Franchise Business Executive in a podcast, “It allows our brand now to stand above others. To the potential franchisee, it gives them surety.”
He was a judge for the Inside Franchise Business Executive’s Top 30 Franchise Executives 2020 report and and last year Constantinou was admitted to the Franchise Council of Australia’s Hall of Fame.
Constantinou didn’t go into detail about his next move, but he doesn’t intend to retire, he said.
“This is certainly not a time that I ride into the sunset and retire, I now look forward to the many opportunities that still exist, even through these uncertain times.”
