Hotel Equities (HE) has released a new website that is telling the company’s story—and focusing on its latest endeavors—in a new way.
“What the new website represents is much more reflective of the full-service shop that we’ve become and been very intentional around building, particularly over the course of the last several years as we’ve come out of COVID,” said Bryan DeCort, COO, Hotel Equities. “It’s much more representative, aesthetically [and]cosmetically, and you’ll find the functionality really accretive to the messaging that we’re trying to send the industry. We offer a full suite across every discipline at Hotel Equities.”
Hotel Paso Del Norte, Autograph Collection (top) in El Paso, TX, and Hotel Northland, Autograph Collection (above) in Green Bay, WI, are part of Hotel Equities’ new lifestyle division.
New lifestyle division
While, over the last 33 years, the company has built a reputation as a top operator in the select- and focused-service space, the website puts a spotlight on its new lifestyle division.
“About 10 years ago, we saw some white space in the industry specifically related to upper-upscale, full-serve and lifestyle hotels,” said Brad Rahinsky, president/CEO, Hotel Equities. “In particular, the lifestyle segment was really starting to explode both from an independent standpoint, but also from a soft-brand standpoint.”
The company was approached by some of the brands that were becoming active in the soft-brand space—including Marriott and Hilton—who asked them to get involved as operators. “They thought that there was going to be a significant opportunity to identify independent hotels, bolt on their reservation system and have a good operator plugged in and really accelerate their plan around soft-branding lifestyle,” he said. “So, very intentionally, over the last 10 years, we have invested heavily into creating additional infrastructure, in particular around human talent that has a lot of experience and expertise in the lifestyle upper-upscale, full-service and resort segmentation.”
Part of that investment is the company’s strategic alliance with Colorado-based Greenwood Hospitality Group, which was revealed in March. The Greenwood portfolio of 30 hotels spans coast-to-coast and consists of high-end independent and branded hotels including Marriott, Hilton and IHG.
“We saw a unique and significant opportunity with our partnership with Greenwood knowing that they were absolutely best-in-industry, best-in-class in that space…which would accelerate…our plans around leading the experiential lifestyle segmentation from an operational performance standard,” said Rahinsky. “We could look to their expertise because of their history and experience in that sandbox, and the talent that was already embedded on their bench. So that was really the genesis for Greenwood not only being our partners but also overseeing and running the lifestyle division within our collective.”
Food and beverage
As part of the showcase of the new lifestyle division, the website also spotlights the food and beverage offerings at its hotels. “We firmly believe in the soft-branded space that you lead with food and beverage,” said Tom Conran, principal, Greenwood Hospitality, which runs HE’s lifestyle division. “That becomes a large part of the overall positioning of that asset. If you do it extremely well, it translates that people think that everything upstairs in the guestrooms is going to be the same. If you fall flat on your face in food and beverage, no matter how nice your guestrooms are, they are not going to visit.”
Brad Rahinsky Hotel Equities
He said that about 38% of lifestyle portfolio revenue is generated through food and beverage. “We concept all of our own restaurants through the space,” he said. “We have a full execution team and when we go into hotels with the concept, we are able to hit the ground running and get those concepts firmly in place and deliver at a very high level.”
Rahinsky believes that when it comes to development of lifestyle properties, food and beverage will be key. “It will not be a part of the story, it will lead the story,” he said.
In fact, the company is adding a unique food and beverage program as part of its management in training (MIT) program, which has been around for a decade. “We are taking that MIT program and putting it on steroids around the food and beverage discipline specifically,” he said. “We are hearing from a lot of these college students and college graduates that they want some background in F&B because that has become a very exciting part of what they do.”
Bryan DeCort Hotel Equities
The company will be developing a test lab kitchen in its headquarters in Alpharetta, GA. “It will allow for real-life learnings and applications for everything in terms of delivery, conceptualization and programming, to the proper way to drop a plate, if you will,” said Rahinsky. “We think that is a real differentiator, particularly for folks who are passionate about F&B, to be able to get out into the hospitality space specifically within our collective.”
Strategic partnerships
In addition, the website highlights the HE’s other partnerships, including Witness Investment, Coakley & Williams, The Hotel Group and Sethi. “What the website does effectively is showcase Hotel Equities and how we have evolved,” Rahinsky said. “It is a much better representation of who we are today versus 8-10 years ago…It showcases the partnerships that we have put together over the past 20-22 months.”
Tom Conran Greenwood Hospitality Group
He said it was very important for each of the company’s partners to have their own significant footprint on the site. “While there are now five partners along with Hotel Equities that are in this collective, they all have their own unique DNA and individualism,” he said. “It speaks to everything about what these partnerships really are, which is a collective, and what it isn’t, which is something other companies in our space are really executing on, which is more transactional, which is a true acquisition and dissolution of an organization or entity. This is the antithesis of that—this is the proverbial 1+1=3.”
