Second-generation IHG hotel owner aims to change the blueprint for the family business…and aspiring female leaders
Shazma Charania, president of ZS Holdings and owner of seven IHG Hotels & Resorts properties, presents during the May 2022 IHG Americas Investors & Leadership Conference.
Early into her now two-decade hospitality career, Shazma Charania quickly realized that before she could move mountains, she first would have to move mattresses.
“I wanted to learn the ins and outs of the business, whether that was setting up rooms, working banquets or even staffing a graveyard shift,” said Charania. “I was confident this hard work and ‘hands on’ experience would later prove valuable.”
While Charania—the daughter of two prominent Canadian hotel owners—grew up “watching, learning, living and breathing” hospitality, she has forged an identity of her own largely through her versatility and dedication. As the president of ZS Holdings, Charania oversees a nine-figure business which owns and operates seven IHG Hotels & Resorts properties throughout Red Deer, Edson and Hinton, Alberta—the same municipalities in which her family built the company years earlier. And, in true form, ZS Holdings’ operations remain a family affair—Charania’s husband, Jamil, serves as VP, while sister Zainul (the “Z” in “ZS”) sits on its board of directors.
The company’s success and longstanding engagement with IHG largely stem from Charania’s keen ability to balance the strong foundations and principles her parents established with her own unique vision and the changing demands of the modern economy and traveler.
“My relationship to the business is much different than my parents’,” said Charania. “You always have more room to take risks when you’re assuming control of a business, rather than launching it, but that’s provided the flexibility to reimagine the culture and identity of our organizations.”
Charania also understands the importance of leveraging her expertise and influence to pave the way for emerging female owners. As a chair of various committees within the IHG Owners’ Association and former board member at the Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) and Tourism Red Deer, Charania is working to reposition hospitality as an industry ripe with possibility for both personal and professional growth.
“There’s still a perception that women can’t negotiate or ‘close the deal’ at the bar or the golf course like men can, and I welcome the opportunity to show that women can be visionaries and do more than micromanage,” said Charania. “We haven’t done a great job of explaining the benefits of hospitality, or correcting the idea that we’re a transitional or unskilled labor industry. I’d love to leave a legacy as a leader and mentor, and someone who can show the next generation the diversity of opportunity and potential for success within hospitality.”
