Nearly 20 years after its launch to develop and manage hotels—and with growth into other businesses—Oliver Companies has rebranded its hotel division to OCI Hospitality.
This change will allow OCI Hospitality to have a singular focus: “hotels and only hotels,” according to Linda Saron, president/COO, who added the president title with the rebranding. The company also hired Danny Givertz as its new CEO.
OCI Hospitality acquired the DoubleTree by Hilton Rocky Point Waterfront in Tampa in January.
“As we grow and prosper, it is important to have a hospitality-specific distinction and continue to build on the Oliver family’s 40-plus-year foundation of excellence,” said Givertz, who comes to the company after a quarter-century in hospitality real estate, previously running the West Coast office of Hunter Hotel Advisors.
“After 25 years of hospitality brokerage, I love and live the lodging industry,” he said. “I wanted to join a company that was going to be a name I could stand behind with really good people that I can help support.”
Givertz has worked with the Oliver Companies for the last 15 years. “I’ve sold a number of assets, and I have invested in the platform in various ways,” he said. “When I was looking to push pause on brokerage, the opportunity came up and, based on other things I was looking at, there was nothing else I would rather do or any group of people I would rather work with than OCI Hospitality.”
“Danny and Linda are amazing at their respective disciplines,” said Seth Oliver, owner, Oliver Companies. “This is a case where 1+1=3, and I am excited to watch OCI grow and prosper under their capable leadership.”
Third-party management growth
While the company has managed its own properties since the beginning—and currently operates 24—one of the focuses for OCI will be to take on third-party management. “In 2022, we dipped our toe in the water, if you will,” said Saron, who originally joined the company in 2018 after working for a few management firms, including North Central Group, where she started as a GM. “We worked with a couple of owners and started third-party management. We love that relationship, and it’s gone really well. Our intention is to continue to grow that platform.”
The company owns and manages the Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix Chandler-Fashion Center AZ in Chandler, AZ.
She pointed to early success with the three properties the company third-party manages at this time. “One of the reasons we have been so successful in our third-party management is that we treat those assets just like they are our own, and we treat those team members just like they are our own,” she said.
Saron said the most of the assets in OCI’s management portfolio fall into the focused-service category, adding, “We also have five full-service assets we’re certainly capable of that as well. That’s an avenue that we continue to focus on—getting more into it from an ownership side as well, as we grow organically within OCI Hospitality. Currently, the majority of our assets are extended-stay properties.”
When developing hotels, OCI works with Kaizen Construction, another entity under the Oliver Companies umbrella, which Saron views as a great benefit to an owner. “They can do ground-up construction for any hotel, or even a third-party owner. We support that development as well.”
She continued, “They also do all of our renovations. So, as we take on third-party management, if an owner has a need for renovation, it’s a great asset to be able to use our arm of Kaizen Construction and work with those owners to help renovate their hotel as that partner as well.”
Linda Saron OCI Hospitality
When asked about what makes OCI different from other management companies, Saron pointed to its revenue management skills versus that provided by the brands. “When I transitioned into my role [when first joining the company], our hotels used brand revenue management, and there is nothing wrong with that,” she said. “It’s a great tool, and we’ve had great success with that, but we realized the integration of our sales and revenue teams working together much more collaboratively with our GMs was very valuable.”
In 2019, the company brought all of its revenue management in-house. “We have brand-certified revenue managers now, so that’s a great benefit as we have that in-house team that really connects closely with the GM and sales team and helps provide strong revenue strategy,” she said.
Saron said the company has also been focusing on technology development since she was brought on. “We have been integrating systems for the purpose of evaluating the data that is out there, and managing efficiently and strategically,” she said. “For a small management company, we really have a strong handle on those tools.”
The company pairs those tools with what she describes as a great company culture. “Our team is very happy, and our survey data is outstanding,” she said. “The level of engagement is high within OCI Hospitality in our team member surveys, and our level of turnover is very low in relation to industry standards.”
Acquisition phase
In addition to its push into third-party management, the company is in what it calls an acquisition phase, having recently purchased the DoubleTree by Hilton Rocky Point Waterfront in Tampa in tandem with Tampa Bay Operating Group LLC/Black Pearl.
“This was a great addition to our portfolio of hotels,” said Saron. “From an ownership perspective, we are working to balance out our portfolio with focused-service and full-service assets. We’re on the hunt, if you will, and looking to continue to grow our OCI Hospitality portfolio of hotels. We are really looking for the right opportunities and the right markets at the right time.”
Givertz was brought in to lead the company specifically with an eye on growing the ownership portfolio and other financial aspects. “My main focus is to handle discussions with our equity partners and with the third-party owners we work with, assist them in underwriting and analyze deals that they may be looking to acquire and may want us to manage.”
Danny Givertz OCI Hospitality
He plans to grow the company by “at least five to seven assets minimum this year, and we have a number in the hopper that we are working on currently,” he said.
Beyond that, he said bullish on the markets where the company is keen on adding assets and plans to grow management and ownership by approximately five to 10 properties a year. “That could be a mix of five assets that are being purchased by the family platform with our equity partners, or it could be assets that we are going to third-party manage” he added. “We are looking to sell a few assets and buy a few, and we’re looking to grow our management platform in markets that we know we can excel in.”
Givertz is excited about the new opportunity. “It’s really a chance for the Oliver Companies to grow their wings and shed the lodging division of the company into its own true platform, which it should be, based on the quality of the talent we have here—whether it is in our C-suite, the executive office, our regionals and GMs, all the way down to the entire staff,” he said. “I’m here because it is a family-run, but institutionally focused company, and that’s where we are going to go.”
