As a real estate investment, development and hotel management company, Chicago-based Prominence Hospitality Group covers a lot of bases—and it recently expanded its third-party management presence. The company entered into an agreement early last year with Pennsylvania-based Forge Hospitality Group to manage five of its properties, including four Hilton- and one IHG-branded hotels.
Dhaval Brahmbhatt, principal, Prominence Hospitality Group, believes that his company’s expertise and knowledge of the industry beyond the management of hotels gives it a perspective that is appealing to owners. The unique piece of our team is we have an in-house real estate development portion of our business, as well as an in-house construction portion of our business, and, of course, we manage our hotels as well,” he said. So, that has given us a unique ability in this space. And we’re doing our own deals.”
Dhaval Brahmbhatt Prominence Hospitality Group
When the founders of Prominence launched their own hotels, they used third-party management companies and did not find a fit. Brahmbhatt was brought in in 2018 because of his management experience. “We can do the real estate development so we can deal with the brands and all of the things that go into creating a new development,” he said.
Forge had struggled to find a management company that could handle its properties, with Prominence being its third in three years. “The agile, personalized approach of Prominence, coupled with the innate industry knowledge and strength of their leadership team, has resulted in a fruitful and what we hope to be a long and growing partnership with Prominence,” said Tonya Muncey, VP, operations and development, Forge Hospitality Group.
Prominence also manages two properties for an ownership group in California. “I think the two partners we found have been appreciative of that particular piece to say we can do it a little bit differently,” said Brahmbhatt. “We can take on those complex problems, we’ve got that expertise. But we’re also small in terms of footprint, and we’re owners ourselves so we know how close you need to be in hotels, how close you need to be to the folks, so we don’t lose touch of that.”
He said that hands-on approach from management companies has been missing in hospitality lately. “You either get the big, cookie-cutter boxes and companies that can do it or folks that don’t have the expertise to deal with it,” he said. “I think we fall right in the middle. And it just seems to be a little bit of a need—especially the last two years with the way the [hospitality]environment has gone. That’s been part of our success, as we’re able to navigate through these problems a little bit quicker because we’ve got that expertise in hand.”
The company currently owns and manages eight of its own properties, including the Hampton Inn & Suites Chicago-Burr Ridge in Illinois.
In its partnership with Forge, the company has developed and implemented company culture and a program called IGNITE, which was designed to hire, engage and retain top-tier associates at all Prominence and Forge properties. “We have taken an intentional look this past year and saw that we have some good folks who drive culture, but if we are not able to define it clearly, it’s not going to be usable in the future,” said Brahmbhatt. “We want to focus on the acquisition of new associates, but obviously, retain them as well.”
He stressed the importance of a culture that recognizes the hard work that employees do. “I started out busing tables at a Holiday Inn when I was 15 and I made a career out of it,” he said. “I think that is the missing piece in hospitality today. It started to become transactional and people are taking it as just a job, but a lot of folks who have entered this, including myself, have done this from a career platform standpoint. I really want to bring that back—the industry is down right now, but the industry is going to be there.”
The company’s success will be with its associates, according to Brahmbhatt. “We have to make some investments back and I think the development of our associates is key to that,” he said.
Brahmbhatt said that the addition of the five Forge properties is part of the company’s growth strategy across all aspects of the business, which has eight hotels in its portfolio beyond those for which it acts as third-party manager. “The acquisition of these Pennsylvania hotels in 2021 was ideally aligned with our deliberate growth strategy,” he said. “Their addition moved the needle for Prominence, giving us national footing and perfectly positioning us for more aggressive growth in 2022. Our processes and industry tools, along with the personal, leadership-involved approach we take with each of our hotels, has allowed our company to grow and thrive, even with the industry downturn.”
The company expects to double in size in the next two years. “We’ll do that in several different ways,” he said. “Part of the core strategy is to acquire more hotels, as well as add more third-party management properties. The third piece is putting shovels in the ground and doing new-build construction.”
