PHOENIX — Raines is leveraging its smaller, hands-on culture to "bring something to the table" when growing its portfolio, Managing Partner Grey Raines said.
Raines, speaking with Hotel News Now during the 2021 Lodging Conference, said the South Carolina-based development, management and investment company is focusing on its third-party management platform.
"We feel like we're bringing something to the table in that we're smaller but selective. We're hands-on, we deal principal to principal, we're able to bring that value-add from having an owner-operator background," he said.
Raines was first founded in 1988 as a family-owned company, with a focus on developing, operating and owning both branded and boutique hotels.
The company currently has a total portfolio of 20 hotels, with equity in all but three. It also has three hotels in development.
Raines said his company is fortunate in the way that it's structured, with strong leadership in each division of the company.
Its Woven division focuses on providing development and operation strategies for boutique hotels, and its Array division specializes in commercial real estate and office development.
Properties within the Woven division include the Foundry Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina; Hotel Florence in Florence, South Carolina; and Waynesville Inn and Golf Club in Waynesville, North Carolina.
While growth is a goal, Raines described it more as a long-term approach by partnering with those who truly want to invest in properties.
Despite construction coming to a halt in 2020, the overall sentiment is that it's heating up, and Raines is focused on that, too.
Raines is gearing up to kick off new construction on some projects, he said, as well as moving forward with a Tru by Hilton property, a historic Courtyard by Marriott and an upcoming master development agreement for WoodSpring Suites.
To read more about Raines growth strategy, maintaining guest satisfaction and outlook on recovery, read more through this Q&A.
Which types of properties and partnerships intrigue your company?
On the boutique side, [we look for properties] from 60 keys up to about 150; we really feel like that's a sweet spot for our Woven [division]. We love working with the soft brands on that. We found secondary and tertiary markets where we can develop these assets, and they perform on top of the market. That's really a niche we feel like we've found allows us to drive profitability.
On the core branded side, we continue to stay focused on [brands including] Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott.
Profitability is needed for recovery, but how do you balance that with ensuring a level of guest services needed to keep guests happy?
Everything we do is a long-term approach. We play the long game in everything we do. Even last year during COVID, we were making investments, whether that's investments in people, investments in properties.
We've really tried not to sacrifice the guest experience. We tried to figure out the pieces that were broken ... that really had no profitability. We've gone back and we're working with our brand partners now to show them we can't afford to miss [on service].
To go back to the discipline of a line-by-line approach that we have, we want to make sure that every segment of the hotel is as profitable as possible.
Describe some of your portfolio's top-performing markets and what can be done to keep that momentum going.
The biggest thing is continuing to drive the guest experience, invest in the guest experience, invest in our marketing and e-commerce. We are keeping our teams active. We believe [in a] boots-on-the-ground sales approach. We know we just have to be that much more aggressive after the summer leisure peak.
As far as specific markets go, Asheville and Charleston have been fantastic for us. In Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville, we have six proprieties, and the Asheville area is two.
What is your outlook on the return of business travel?
What we're projecting is still second quarter of next year before we see our major business traveler [return]. The [smaller groups] are getting back out, they know that as their competitors get out and take [a client] to dinner, they need to be back in the game taking someone to dinner. So we are seeing a trickle, and I think we've got to get through another winter, unfortunately, with the delta variant. We're going to have to see [when businesses] are comfortable sending their folks on the road.
In our Charleston market, we have several manufacturers that are international, so [international travel] is not a major driver, but it is a segment that we notice when they're not there.
How is your company supporting leadership teams?
We've looked at everything. It's the best time to be well-rounded in our industry. As far as what we've done in growing our next group of [general managers], [assistant general managers] and leaders in our company, they've gained so much tough experience over the last 18 months.
Our focus lately is trying to prevent that COVID burnout. It's finding ways to re-energize the teams. Our industry as a whole, we're losing really great people to other industries because we're 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It's about cross-training, getting people to understand and enjoy all aspects of the hotel. Every day is learning, when you're dealing with the current guest and their needs changing. It's a level of sensitivity that we've never dealt with either.
We don't have the playbook. Where we as a company are growing, we're definitely stubbing our toes here and there, but we're not going to make the same mistake twice. That's the goal.
What's next for Raines in the short term?
We have some really neat boutique projects that we're working on. They may go soft brand, they may be independent, but [they] really have the ability to drive an experience for certain markets that have never seen anything like this, being able to push the envelope from a design, a guest experience [and] a food and beverage [standpoint]. We're really fired up about these projects.
And continuing to see folks grow within the company. We've had several promotions here [just in the last month], folks that have been with us a long time [and] we're hiring new team members. So it's good seeing the team grow, especially coming out of the last 18 months.