Greg Presley has a lofty goal for his new hotel management company, Presley Hospitality.
“One day, I’d like to manage The Guest House at Graceland,” he said of the 450-room hotel steps away from Graceland Mansion.
It would be fitting considering Presley, who is CEO of the company, is related to Elvis Presley. “My grandfather Joseph and Elvis’ grandfather Jesse were brothers,” said the l industry veteran.
He also has the resume to do it. His career path has included stints at Marriott International, Vision Hospitality Group, Hotel Equities, WaterWalk and Stonebridge, among others. He even got his start in the industry at 19 at a Residence Inn before Marriott bought the brand.
“Marriott taught me the foundation of how to manage people,” Presley said. “Take care of your associates, associates take care of the guests and guests take care of the owners. At Hotel Equities, I learned how third-party managers operate.”
He also learned about the importance of company culture at Hotel Equities, and Presley said he’s just beginning to build the company’s culture and mission statement.
“As a third-party hotel operator, you really need to think like an owner,” he explained. “You need to be honest, as your integrity is everything. But you also need to have results that deliver. You have to roll up your sleeves, get in there and figure it out.”
He added that what will make his company unique is that it will focus on the small owner, “someone who maybe is struggling in sales and marketing, is waiting on that brand contribution and just needs that extra leg up.”
For the time being, Presley wants to focus on properties close to the company’s headquarters in Nashville. “I want to start in a 100-mile radius from where we’re located because I want to be able to touch and feel a hotel every single day,” he said.
While Presley Hospitality offers the services most third-party management companies have in their repertoire, the CEO expects to do things a little out of the ordinary.
“I can offer the whole spectrum of what a third-party management company does, but what makes me different is that a client can pull pieces out of specific services,” he said. “I don’t have to do everything the big boys require. For example, if the accounting is working at the hotel, and the owner is comfortable with it, there’s no reason to disrupt that and allow me to bring it over to my company. I can just plug and play with these owners and really create results and save them money as well by doing that and not charging additional fees.”
The company is currently a one-man operation on a full-time basis, with Presley contracting personnel for sales and marketing, revenue management and accounting. He has, however, built an advisory board that includes his longtime friend Scott Thompson, the founder of The Gardner School, which operates a network of preschools, and Reggie Piercy, a former SVP of operations at Vision Hospitality Group and a personnel trainer at Marriott International for many years.
“Reggie and I have been together through many life cycles of our career,” said Presley. “He’s now with the Sandler training company and teaming with him will allow me to plug-and-play Presley Hospitality’s training process. He’s also on my board because I value his opinion.”
While Presley Hospitality has yet to sign its first management contract as of press time, the CEO said he has been very busy.
“I have some hotels in Pensacola that I’m doing a lot of consulting work with right now,” he said. “I also have some management agreements in play in Nashville, including a City Express hotel that Marriott has approved me to run.”
The long-term goal may be managing the Graceland property, but Presley said that he will initially be looking to build a portfolio of 10 to 15 hotels within the Nashville region.
“I could reset down the road but, at this stage, I have to have a goal,” he said. “I have to have a roadmap on what I’m shooting for. First and foremost, I want to be good and, in order to be good, I have to be hands-on and be committed to being at those hotels on a regular basis.”
