In advance of Aimbridge Hospitality’s acquisition of Prism Hotels & Resorts, the CEOs of both companies went backpacking for three days near the Pecos River in New Mexico.

Steve Van, president and CEO of Prism, is an avid backpacker, while this trip was Aimbridge President and CEO Mike Deitemeyer’s first. The two were thousands of feet above sea level carrying 40 to 45 pounds of gear with no cell signal and an emergency beacon. The water they drank they found along the way and purified.

“The first day was brutal,” Deitemeyer said. “We flew that morning, went straight to 9,400 feet and went hiking, but we had a great time and bonded in advance of the deal, just the two of us in the middle of nowhere.”

The hike was supposed to be rated easy to moderate, but Van said he read the papers wrong, sending them on a “strenuous” path.

“[Mike] said, ‘I thought you said this was easy, and I said, ‘I thought it was, too,’” Van said. “The last mile and a half, we’re going up the side of the mountain. We finally get to the campsite, we just collapsed. But it was a great bonding experience, so we’re going to try it again, but I’m going to read the book more carefully.”

Despite the grueling nature of their hike, the two were able to enjoy the views and their time together.

“Getting out there, I mean there’s no better way to get to know a person but to sit in a camp for this beautiful sight,” Van said.

About eight years ago, Van said his team decided to do the “good to great thing,” so they read “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t.” Their goal was to make Prism a lasting, generational company, and the book said they would have to be the best at something.

The Prism team determined that what they truly cared about is people, and that turned into being the best at making hotel owners happy, known as Prism’s “most satisfied owners” approach, he said. That strategy has worked well over the years, especially in recent times when the company doubled its portfolio since the start of the pandemic.

Hotel owners’ income was down 90% at the start of the pandemic, he said. Instead of making cuts, Prism held on to its team but asked owners if they would consider paying Prism a third of its budgeted fee. All of Prism's owners agreed to it.

“I’ve never heard of that before, but they did it because we’d spent years giving them what they wanted, listened to them,” he said. “It fits our personality on making people happy. The owners are so critical. If your owners are happy, they’re not going to terminate your management contract, and, more importantly, they’re going to give you the new hotels like that.”

The No. 1 goal through the integration will be to maintain Prism’s existing client relationships, Van said. As those grow, that means more hotels will come into Aimbridge’s fold.

When the news of the deal came out, many of Prism’s hotel owners said they hoped nothing would change, he said. The company’s response was that nothing would change, but the deal did mean Prism would have more resources to offer its hotels because of Aimbridge. Prism's owners are seeing the benefits now, particularly cost savings thanks to Aimbridge’s scale.

“It seems like every day, we discover something else, we have a resource we can use,” he said. “It doesn’t cost our owners another nickel, and it’s easier for us to use.”

Aimbridge’s density in certain markets is another plus for owners, Van said. There are times when some Aimbridge-managed hotels are slow while others it operates in the same area are packed. That creates an opportunity for the company to move staff around to fill labor needs when other properties are slow.

“Instead of being, ‘Well, we don’t have enough work for you,’ it’s 'Why don’t you go down the road three miles and work there and get paid?'” he said. “When we need extra people, we get them from other owners. That’s just another benefit for owners because of the size.”

Prior to the acquisition, Prism considered Aimbridge “the enemy” and they had demonized the company as being too big, Van said, laughing. Having built Prism and its team, he said it was great to find out how similar Aimbridge's team was.

"They’re just like us over here,” he said. “They are just bigger.”

In their time together on the hike, Deitemeyer said he and Van got to see how they share similar values.

“We both have an appreciation for the people on our team, and a strong focus on culture as a differentiator for associates and owners,” he said. “Steve has a contagious energy, and I knew he would add excitement to the teams with a merger."

There’s so much that Aimbridge can learn from Prism, he said, calling out the “most satisfied owner” strategy as a powerful opportunity to add value. Prism Lender Services is best in class, he added.

“Our teams are already connected and collaborating,” he said. “When we officially welcomed the Prism team to our headquarters at the beginning of the year, it was clear from the reaction from all that this was a great idea.”

Naturally, many of Prism’s team members were nervous about the deal and what it would mean for them, Van said. Many didn’t want their company to change because they liked the environment they had created themselves.

That apprehension has since changed. The acquisition has opened up a “universe for opportunities” beyond Prism’s portfolio of hotels, he said. Several Prism team members have moved to different Aimbridge departments because there was more room for them to grow.

Initially, the plan was for the incoming Prism team to have its own floor at Aimbridge’s corporate headquarters, but that has since changed.

“We’re scattered out, which is better because you integrate faster,” he said.

Overall, the transition has been positive, Van said. His best meeting was when Scott MacMillan, Aimbridge’s director of learning and development, led Prism’s corporate staff through an introduction to Aimbridge. Looking around, Van saw how happy his team members were learning about the opportunities they would have with the new company.

“Before I signed the letter of intent, I spent a lot of time wondering if this is the right thing for me to do,” he said. “I went, ‘Cool, it was the right thing to do for our people.”

As a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, Van was named one of the university’s outstanding students. Calling it a “pretty big deal,” Van said he received the award — a plaque with his name on it — at halftime during a school football game and later attended a party with the board of regents.

Roughly 20 years later, he was packing up some items and found the plaque.

“I took it, and I threw it in the trash, because I didn’t own that whole living in the past thing,” he said. “That’s gone, that’s the past.”

Having seen too many people cling to their letterman jackets from high school, Van said he’s looking forward, not back.

That’s why once Prism fully integrates with Aimbridge, he’s fine with the possibility that Prism won’t exist on its own like Evolution Hospitality, the lifestyle management company Aimbridge acquired in 2015.

“The reason I didn’t name the company Steve Van Hotel Management — I’m not an ego guy,” he said.

Prism has served its purpose, Van said. The company provided people with great jobs, put a lot of kids through college and made both employees and owners happy, he said, adding that the company had the highest employee satisfaction among hotels in America.

When looking at Aimbridge’s verticals, Van said he couldn’t find a spot for Prism to fully stand on its own because it does a little bit of everything. Prism Lender Services will continue to be its own entity, but all the hotel management aspects it handled before fit into what Aimbridge does.

When new contracts come in, they should go to Aimbridge, not Prism, he said.

“So, the Prism name ends up dissolving into its Aimbridge deal, and Aimbridge is better for it,” he said.

As for the legacy of the company he founded in 1983, Van focused on his team. When he walks by them in the office, he sees them smiling and excited for their new careers.

“I think the only thing I really care about is that all these people have better careers and opportunities,” he said. “I think that’s happening. We’ve got a great team, so that to me is the legacy.”

Editor’s note: Aimbridge Hospitality paid for meals and accommodations at The Dallas Statler, Curio Collection by Hilton, to allow for a series of interviews at the company’s headquarters. Complete editorial control was at the discretion of the Hotel News Now editorial team; Aimbridge had no influence on the coverage provided.

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