As a company that has doubled in size every year since 2019, EOS Hospitality is on the right course—and its new leadership wants to keep it that way.
In June, the New York-based management arm of EOS Investments promoted Simon Mais to CEO from his previous role as COO, and Mark Keiser added president to his chief development officer responsibilities.
While the company was launched to manage EOS’ owned properties, it has added third-party management, with 49 EOS hotels and 11 owned by mostly institutional investors, including DiamondRock Hospitality and Sunstone Hotel Investors. Its portfolio also includes vacation rentals and outdoor recreation areas.
Mark Keiser EOS Hospitality
Mais plans to expand on where the team has been successful—and that success has been from not being afraid to do things differently. “We view everything from a commercial team focus, in that we really want to go in and have revenue, sales, marketing and PR all harmonistically looking at our properties to drive revenue,” said Mais. “And the biggest thing that I’m pushing everyone on our team is we have been known to drive revenue where revenue does not exist.”
What makes EOS Management different from other management companies, according to the CEO, is its corporate structure, which gives the GM the power to make decisions on property.
“They will react best and the fastest, as long as we’ve got the right general managers in place,” Mais said. “In all of our properties, our most successful GMs are the ones who are thinking like entrepreneurs, saying, ‘I don’t really want to be constrained by a brand book,’ and ‘I am just not going to follow the playbook.’”
To attract those type of thinkers—and keep them with the company—EOS has adopted several policies and programs to treat their employees well—something that its founder, Jonathan Wang, has emphasized from the beginning.
“If you look at our differentiator as a company, it really starts with the people, and Jonathan himself,” said Mais. “You don’t often see in a company ethos humility and kindness. That has certainly attracted a lot of people that are looking to come work for a company that is both humble and kind and treats a lot of people with respect and looked at it as a core culture.”
The company has created a Community Impact Fund, which is funded by a 1% fee collected from guests. “The goal of the fund is to invest in the communities in which we operate, improving the lives of our associates, reduce turnover, retain the best talent and create sustainable change,” said the CEO.
Simon Mais EOS Hospitality
In less than half a year, EOS was able to raise more than $133,000 from just six of its hotels to better their individual communities. The hotel teams select where in the community the money will go. For example, hotel teams in Maine contributed $15,000 to help build Kennebunk High School’s athletic complex.
“We are expecting to give back about a half-million dollars within our respective smaller communities,” he said. “When you look at the dollar amount, is it big? Not on a national average, but within those small communities when you give a local organization $5,000, it really raised awareness and increased our profile. It works hand in hand because now, when we are in these small communities, we’re giving back and raising awareness for these properties, and people want to work for employers who are giving back.”
EOS also launched its Family Matters program, which provides paid-parental leave that applies to all genders, for those welcoming a child through natural birth, adoption, foster and surrogacy. Any level of employee who has been with the company for at least a year is provided with 16 weeks of time. “In the last year, we have had about 26 employees who have taken part,” said Mais. “The whole reason we do this is that we want to attract individuals to come and work and develop a family and grow their family with us.”
Keiser added, “From an industry perspective, there’s really no one else in the hospitality world that lends that all the way down to line-level employees, which was exciting for us. It resonated really well.”
Mais said that by offering these programs to employees, it provides a win for owners. “An owner might say, ‘Why would I give that away? It is not an industry standard. Why are you going to incur that expense?’ Our belief is that it’s going to attract people to come and want to work for us. When someone comes to work for us, we recruit less, and they are staying longer. It was intended to be a win-win for everybody.”
The company’s analytics have shown that while it is paying for the cost of the Family Matters program, the reduction in marketing, recruitment and turnover is paying for itself.
“It’s about constantly looking for the ways we can be different than anybody else,” said Mais. “How we can operate wiser and smarter and, looking full circle, how it benefits the owner on their mission to drive their profitability and performance on their property.”
EOS did something outside the box by purchasing a Holiday Inn Express in Bethany Beach, DE, and deflagged it. “That isn’t the norm,” said Keiser.
The hotel did not switch to another brand. Instead, EOS worked with several third parties to become a full-service resort. The company partnered with the restaurant next door, the nearby miniature golf course and a company that rents out branded beach chairs on the adjacent beach. “We just weren’t going to own any of the components [of the resort]other than the guestrooms and the check-in area,” said Keiser.
Unique fee structure
EOS has also introduced a nontraditional fee structure. “When Mark joined the company, we were going to owners and saying that we didn’t want to charge them the traditional model of fees on top-line revenue,” said Mais. “We would only charge fees on NOI to show that we are fully aligned with driving profitability. While no one has taken us up on the offer, we’re trying to look at how can, again, do things differently and really bring new things to within the management world.”
Keiser said that the company is actively pursuing ways to improve on the way things have been traditionally done in the management sphere. “If there is an opportunity to create true alignment with our owners, that is what we are looking to do,” he said. “That was the original genesis of a fee based off of GOP as opposed to a fee based off revenue. No one has taken us up on it quite yet, but someone will at some point.”
He said that owners have expressed frustration with them about hidden costs in some other management contracts. “We look to give our owners a very transparent view of what is part of the fee and what it not part of the fee,” he said. “We believe that part of the equation is that we should make money when our owners are making money. Any time we hear a frustration from one of our prospective owners, we’re looking for ways to solve that in a way that works for both us and them.”
Mais said that it is important that the company stays nimble. “Jonathan instilled when we started this company that if the action is reversible, he was perfectly fine with moving ahead,” he said. “It is nonreversible actions that need longer thought and decision-making on what to do.”
From a philosophical perspective, Mais views it as sticking stakes in the ground. “I challenge our property teams to continue to stick stakes in the ground,” said. “We stick 10 stakes in the ground, seven will fall over, but three are going to stick and we are going to use those and compound them and say, ‘How do we continue to grow to make us better and stronger?’ We then take another 10 stakes to constantly evolve and grow.”
