Appointed president of Staypineapple in October, Dina Belon has plans to propel the brand into the future. With more than 25 years of hospitality experience, her appointment is
part of the company’s goals to increase its footprint through management and branding of
third-party-owned assets.
—Abby Elyssa
Why hospitality? Why are you passionate about the industry?
I love making people happy and creating experiences that are memorable. My goal is for people to leave a Staypineapple hotel feeling like they were staying at a friend’s house, and that the service was so personal and all about them.
What was your first hospitality job? What did you learn?
I was an interior designer early in my career, and I learned that the building was only the stage. The people—both the team members and the guests—were what created the energy in the building. It is a fact that a building without people in it will deteriorate more quickly than with inhabitants. I learned that people were the key.
What has your career journey been like, especially as a female in the industry?
Within five years of graduation from college, I realized that I wanted to be more of a disrupter. Interior design was too “expected” and not going to give me the opportunity to make a lasting change, so I shifted to construction, where I had the opportunity to learn project management. I knew it was a very male-dominated path, but I was attracted to the permanence of what I was doing.
It was an amazing experience, learning how to navigate getting done what needed to be done with little to no direct reports, only having influence in my toolbox. I worked for Marriott during this transition and learned so much. I also had a few exceptional sponsors in my career that helped me navigate my next steps. At multiple stages through my development, women in my life have promoted my skills and raised me up. I am very appreciative of them. My journey overall has been very circuitous, and I think that is a benefit. It has given me a broad perspective.
What drew you to the Staypineapple brand? Why is it unique?
Most of my career was in large brands, and I had not worked in the boutique hotel space prior to Staypineapple. I thought going into the new job, it would be the same, just smaller. Oh, was I wrong. Truly boutique hotels are a completely different business than a 500-room, big-box branded hotel.
Our business model at Staypineapple is about personalized, friend-style service. You just can’t have that kind of one-on-one experience at a large hotel. Staypineapple punches well above its weight from a brand perspective because we have been able to find the balance between a single-proprietor, bed-and-breakfast type of experience and having a brand with standards only where it is important for the guest experience.
What are your goals for Staypineapple? How do you plan on increasing its footprint?
Staypineapple has been a vertically integrated organization for the past 12 years. We own, operate, brand and design all of our hotels, 10 total to date. As of January 2023, we launched Staypineapple Hotels Inc., which is focused on providing licensing and management services to third-party owners.
We are very excited about our growth over the next five years with the goal to have 50 hotels under the Staypineapple brand. However, our strategy is built on thoughtful growth—finding the right owners and partners that share our vision of what a boutique hotel is.
Can you talk about some industry challenges and how you’re managing those?
One of the challenges we are facing is bad press coverage in urban centers. We really need to look at how we are talking about cities and not exacerbate or inflate individual circumstances into something that makes people hesitant to travel. The honest truth is that you always need to be aware when you are in a city, no matter if it is San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh or Miami. In both San Francisco and Portland, OR, the negative sentiment of coverage recently is having a drastic effect on the hotel industry, which is just exacerbating the problem. With fewer people on the streets, the streets feel less safe.
San Francisco is an amazing festival city, so we have been creating some great promotions in partnership with events like the SFFILM Festival and San Francisco Pride that make for a really fun and inclusive experience. We’ve also been running some incredible hotel offers to attract people to the city, reminding them what is so great about visiting.
What about some opportunities? What are you excited about?
It’s a really exciting time for us. I am so thrilled about growing our brand—expanding into new markets where we currently do not have hotels and providing our loyal guests with more places to Staypineapple, more opportunities for our team members, as well as sharing and learning with new owners. Staypineapple has a really unique, quirky and creative character that produces memorable experiences and long-term friends. I really look forward to having a larger platform to share our service with more guests.
