So you want to be a RockStar? Go online.

NEW YORK—Less than two years after debuting RockStar Hospitality Group with the aim of buying, developing and managing hotels on a global basis, President/CEO Robert Santucci last month launched RockStar Hotels, an affiliate online platform for boutique hotels.

The premise for the venture is to compile a collection of smaller, often eclectic, sometimes off-the-beaten-track properties, which are sourced by company team members with boots on the ground in various locales. They anonymously vet the properties during guest stays and/or visits, and if it’s felt the property is RockStar worthy, owners are invited to join the platform.

So far, 40 hotels, representing approximately 3,000 rooms—all in Europe—have accepted the invitation, according to Santucci. Representational properties include Armani Hotel Milano in Italy; Mykonos Blu Grecotel Exclusive Resort in Greece; Le Roch Hotel & Spa in France; Aria Hotel Prague in the Czech Republic; Hotel Park in Croatia; Valverde Hotel in Portugal; and Hotel Alfonso XIII in Spain.

Properties are pending in Germany and the U.K. and, according to the company’s CEO, a strong focus will remain on Europe “because you can always find great properties there.”

In the years ahead, the Caribbean, Far East and eventually the United States will be target markets. Santucci, an industry veteran with credentials in general management, operations and sales and marketing, does not consider rockstar-hotels.com strictly an online booking platform.

“I call us a hotel marketing company. We have marketing agreements with properties whether they want help with social media, yield management, sales calls or trade shows. We took our management contract and turned it into an a la carte menu,” said the CEO.

The seed for the enterprise was planted about 18 months ago as Santucci and his team surveyed the boutique booking landscape and felt it was more rocky than rock star in terms of what travelers were experiencing.

“Between my travels and the staff’s travels—and also speaking to guests—it seemed no one was getting a clear direction about properties in terms of where to go. They’re getting confused by having to go through numerous pages on certain websites, and hotels are not getting fair representation when they have a great, five-star boutique property. So we started toying with a platform, saying there’s got to be one place where we can go and take my 30 years of experience and provide a service to the hotel and the guest,” he said.

The site is designed to have not more than 10 properties appear for any city.

Santucci is proud to say the RockStar platform was started from scratch, with interesting hotels being sourced, he said, “the old-fashioned way: by pounding the pavement.”

The team flew to Europe, where, for example, “We’d spend a month in Italy and walk every street of Rome,” said the CEO. “We’d find properties, inspect them unannounced. We would then either have conference calls [about them]or, when back in the States, go through the list.”

If the team was in agreement on a particular property, the hotel owner, general manager or director of sales was approached about joining RockStar Hotels.

Standard “inspections” include breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, a stint sitting in the lobby, asking the front desk to see a room, considering the design of the property and its features, and engaging service aspects of the hotel.

“We also look for something that’s the ‘intangible,’ the ‘wow’ factor,” he said.

Ideally, the room count should be about 50 to 75 rooms, with a basic cut off at 125 rooms. “If it is more than that, there will be exceptions granted, but it’s got to be extra-special,” he said, adding the same would apply to a minimum number of rooms.

The revenue stream back to RockStar Hotels is commission based. “It’s 12%,” he noted. “We also make money from the property if we add on services.” For example, if the property wants public relations services, there’s a monthly fee. Similarly, social media management, website design and other services would generate fees.

The company also works with the property to see what special perks the hotel would be able to offer RockStar guests. These include early check-in/late checkout, upgrades and complimentary amenities.

The Armani Hotel in Milan, for instance, offers RockStar guests a complimentary minibar for their stay, a welcome drink and breakfast, and if suites are available, an upgrade.

“They gave us about 17 items they would like to do for the guest. Also, at the Hotel Palazzo Manfredi in Rome, where they have a Michelin-star-rated restaurant on the rooftop, they said: ‘We will always have one table for a RockStar guest [available]every night,’” said Santucci.

The executive declined to comment on how much is being invested in the start-up, only that it is “well-funded, and 100% funded by me right now.”

The CEO sees the business mix coming to the RockStar site as varied, although like many hoteliers, he feels millennials will be key.

“What we found out through a lot of research is the millennial today is more in tune to traveling as much as they can before they settle down. They take an average of three trips a year overseas. So, that’s one of our key demographics,” he said. “I am trying to make the site and the property selection we have make the traveler say, ‘I want an experience.’ I told my staff the best souvenir anyone can give themselves is a memory—and I want our properties to give them that memory.”

Another target is so-called empty nesters where, said Santucci, big-ticket debts are paid off “and the couple says,  ‘It’s our turn.’”

The CEO recalled his own experience in that realm prompted him to “really start traveling,” something he has been doing since first visiting Europe at age 14.

It also got him moving in the direction of his RockStar enterprise, something he considers unique as an online business model, noting it is both a B2B and B2C model. Asked what he sees as competition, Santucci cited Tablet Hotels, Design Hotels, Kiwi Collection and Mr & Mrs Smith.

“What’s actually been a major plus, I believe, is that I’ve never looked at or paid attention to Preferred Hotels, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, yet we have two or three [of those members]joining our portfolio,” he said, indicating some hotel owners feel lost among large membership groups.

“One thing that I have instilled in our company is that, at the end of the day, it’s all about the guest. We make that clear to the properties. I make that clear to my staff. That is one of the reasons we go back every 90 days to review a property. It is about the guest. You don’t get into hospitality for six-digit salaries. You get into this business because you enjoy it.”

To which some guests might say: “Rock on, Robert.” HB