Joy Berry and Chris Manning vow to deliver unique experiences through Travaasa Destinations, their new brand. The Denver-based co-founders—she’s president, he’s principal—look to acquire and then turn underperforming resorts into moneymakers in a patient, painstaking process.

Their first project, The Travaasa Austin, formerly The Crossings, is set to open April 14, a 30-minute drive from the Texas capital. The Travaasa Hana, a transfiguration of the chronically money-losing Hotel Hana-Maui, should open in Hawaii in June. The first aims to leverage Lake Travis and the Texas Hill Country, while the second will capitalize on sun and sand, health and wellness.

Green Tea LLC, the hotel arm of Amstar, a Denver-based real estate investment manager with $1.5 billion-plus in assets, plans small luxury Travaasa resorts in natural sites bursting with local flavor. The first two are 70 rooms each. The term “Travaasa” scrambles “travel” and “traverse” with “pravaasa,” Sanskrit for “memorable journey.”

Amstar, where Berry and Manning met, has 19 hotels in its portfolio including two Hiltons, two Westins, a Hyatt Regency, a Courtyard by Marriott, and independents. It also is involved in office, residential, retail and residential real estate. Berry is former senior vice president of real estate development for Marriott. Manning is an Amstar vice president.

The Travaasa Austin is set to capture “great group incentive travel” and is a good fit for small meetings, Berry said, and the Hawaii property is uniquely “authentic.” Both are situated on “inspirational pieces of real estate.”

In a May 7, 2010 article in The Maui News, Berry said Amstar was attracted to the Hana-Maui because it was a chance to buy “a classic property at a distress price.” She indicated there would be cutbacks in the 200-person staff, noting Green Tea’s key task will be transforming the traditional target of the high-end luxury traveler to the “experiential” tourist.

Staying at a Travaasa is pricy, with double-occupancy rack rates at the Austin property starting at $480 a person; tax and gratuities add $115. Those rates will get you Total Travaasa, including a massage, f&b and activities involving five Travaasa “pillars.” A bed-and-breakfast package sans activities is available for significantly less. Pricing “is a value, but it’s not cheap,” Manning said in a recent interview.

“There’s a lot that’s included for the total Travaasa rates. These are true destinations where you’ll get all your meals, a spa treatment or golf, in an amazing location, with a robust menu of activities.”

Many resort destinations are “regimented,” Berry said. At Travaasa, “you come to make your own decisions.”

The target is adventurous baby boomers “who in their 20s put on a backpack and set out to explore new cultures,” she said. The Travaasa pillars are adventure, food, culture, fitness and spa. Guests can focus on one or devise a blend with Travaasa’s multitasking staff, she said. Meanwhile, she and Manning search for distressed properties that don’t interest REITs that “need to put their money into action immediately.

“Our investors are willing to… look at hotels that have not been yielding positive cash flow and have the patience to turn the properties around through marketing, operational efforts and the repositioning of distressed real estate,” she said. “During this recession, it’s a good time look at non-performing properties.” In addition, “we think travelers are interested in experiencing this local, authentic flavor we’re trying to deliver.”

Because of demand for stabilized hotels and the amount of money they raise, REITs are buying at cap rates producing a cash-flow yield of 4% of purchase price, Manning elaborated in a follow-up e-mail. “They anticipate that hotel room rates are going to rise, leading to a cap rate of 6% to 8%.”

“We will look at properties that are losing money. We are a buyer of money-losing hotels.”

The two scour the Southwest and the coasts for “resorts predicated or underwritten on a residential component that failed,” Berry said, noting that in the last seven years, many such complexes foundered as developers discovered that “residential homes combined with hotels is a very challenging economic model.” Also on the Travaasa radar: Costa Rica.

Manning believes “a lot of the hotel brands have commoditized travel, so it doesn’t mater whether you’re in South Beach or Hawaii or California.” It all feels like “the same experience,” clearing the way for a “brand that offers a sense of exploration, a sense of discovery.”

“We’re not looking for a 500-room concrete tower,” Manning said. With Amstar at its back, Travaasa “is really interested in looking at properties that will take time to turn around.”