Hospitality isn’t unlike the entertainment industry—they’re both about pleasing people. For Larry Spelts, president, Lodging & Lifestyle Adventures, Indigo Road Hospitality Group, he’s aware of these crossovers, having started in the arts. Hotel Business spoke with Spelts about opening and managing boutique hotels and curating memorable and experiential F&B concepts.
—Abby Elyssa
Where did your passion for hospitality come from?
I grew up in community theater and got my undergraduate degree in fine arts, with a concentration in opera. I worked in all aspects—set building, creating props, constructing costumes, acting, singing and dancing, so I loved putting on a show and entertaining people. This and my innate desire to please others attracted me to the hospitality industry. As I moved into the luxury and boutique segments of the industry, I became passionate about creating memorable experiences. The teamwork required to pull off an amazing event is akin to producing a great show in the theater.
What was your first hospitality job? What did you learn from it?
As a young teen, I bused tables at an S&S Cafeteria in Greenville, SC, and eventually worked my way into the kitchen, butchering chickens, slicing liver and peeling potatoes. I learned early in my life that showing up, punctuality, going above and beyond and being pleasant and cheerful were not difficult to do and went a long way toward upward mobility.
How long have you been with Indigo Road? How have you seen the company evolve?
Indigo Road was started in 2009 by Steve Palmer, my friend and colleague from earlier in our careers. My interest in seeing Steve succeed led me to watch Indigo’s growth attentively. In 2015, while I was head of development at Charlestowne Hotels, Steve and I developed a strategic partnership between the two firms. We did the Hotel Clermont in Atlanta with BNA Associates. I departed Charlestowne in 2017, and in 2019, Steve, after being approached by other hotel developers asking for Indigo Road to do the F&B in some new projects, asked me to start a lodging division for Indigo Road so that Indigo could manage the entire hotel— rooms and F&B.
Can you describe your role at Indigo Road?
Since Indigo’s entry into hotel development and management has been a startup enterprise, my first role was assembling a team representing all essential disciplines to operate independent, boutique hotels successfully. Having participated in similar startups at Charlestowne Hotels in 2009 and then Village Hospitality in 2017, this was a familiar challenge and one that I enjoyed. With a talented team in place, leading and supporting them is now my most important role, which aligns with our team member-first culture. My next most important role is supporting our partners and clients’ hotel projects to grow our portfolio.
What’s unique about Indigo Road?
There are two unique things about Indigo Road. First, at its beginning, it was an early adopter of Danny Meyer’s “Enlightened Hospitality,” and, as such, Indigo Road has put its team members before every other aspect of the business. Secondly, Indigo Road is a full-service hospitality management company that began as a restaurant company. It started with one restaurant and now has 30 restaurants. Being a hotel operator that leads with food and beverage and has a large and deeply accomplished team of restaurant professionals has proven to be an inimitable competitive advantage and a lot of fun.
What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?
We are opening four hotels with clients and partners between now and the first quarter of 2024. All of these are unique, independent boutique hotels with a lot of great food & beverage. Probably the most exciting one is the conversion of the beautiful, historic Flatiron Building in downtown Asheville, NC, to a hotel with three F&B concepts within it. Meanwhile, we are involved in designing five others, two of which will be our first soft-branded boutique hotels—a Joie de Vivre by Hyatt and Kimpton by IHG.
Let’s talk about boutique hotels. Why are they important to the industry? What have you learned about opening and managing these types of properties?
Boutique hotels have been important because they have been the one product class in hospitality to elevate what is considered important for a good stay beyond the room size, plumbing fixture counts, free breakfast and the like to the human emotional connection and the experience. When this happens, the boutique hotel delivers an authentic, rooted experience that creates opportunities for discovery and joy for the guest and the team members who facilitate those often unique experiences.
What are your professional and personal goals for this year?
We invest time and resources at Indigo Road in helping each other become better team members and servant-leaders, which requires working on ourselves as healthy, happy human beings. For 2023, we have asked all of our leads to share three goals for this year, and one of them personal. For me, it is to be authentic in everything I do, share more with my team and move our hotel management venture into profitability.
What’s your five-year plan?
We just began year four of a five-year plan wherein we had forecasted years one and two would lose money, year three about break-even, year four make some money and year five make a healthy profit. Thanks to a lot of hard work by many people and despite a pandemic, we are doing just that.
