NEW YORK — With widespread economic uncertainty, softening demand and creeping costs, there are a lot of things to give hotel operators and investors headaches in 2025.
But Peregrine Hospitality CEO Greg Kennealey said the formula for success in an environment like this is to just continue to try to do the best one can with what's available.
"We talk a lot about focusing on what we can control," he said. "I can't make more [potential hotel] sellers motivated, but what we can do is make sure we've got great teams that are properly supported in terms of systems and processes. We can make sure that we're doing a better job than our competitors, attracting and retaining the best people, taking great care of our guests and creating all the things that make hospitality special."
He said that mentality will have tangible long-term benefits.
"If we do that well over the long term, we'll end up being an employer of choice, we'll end up being the place where people want to go and spend their vacation or have their business trip," he said. "In the long run, that's the winning formula."
Peregrine was formed roughly a year and a half ago with the combination of hotel management platform KSL Resorts and KSL Capital-backed investment platform Mission Hill Hospitality, which Kennealey founded and led.
He said it's been a "remarkable" stretch since the combination of those two entities, which have particular expertise in select service hotels and "complex resorts."
"We function now very much like an owner operator or an operating partner in a pretty tight relationship with KSL Capital," he said.
For more from Peregrine Hospitality's Greg Kennealey, including discussions on what the biggest challenges the industry faces right now are and what locations the company is looking to grow in, watch the video above.