LOS ANGELES — Broad operational expertise has long been Davidson Hospitality Group's calling card — especially with large or uniquely complicated hotels and resorts — but the company could be looking at more niched areas for growth.
Speaking with Hotel News Now at the 2023 Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Chief Operating Officer Pete Sams said the strength of the company's marketing department represents a big growth opportunity, even beyond the value it provides to existing owners.
"I'd say today [marketing is] our unofficial fifth vertical," he said, referencing the company's four existing divisions: Davidson Hotels, Pivot Lifestyle Hotels, Davidson Restaurant Group and Davidson Resorts. "We've grown that team to 16 people and think of it as an in-house marketing agency."
Sams said the company is focused on both the scale and structure of the marketing operation.
"Now for every region we operate in, we have an integrated marketing manager. Traditionally in our space, in a region you have a sales leader and a director of revenue management," he said. "The third leg of that stool is marketing, and that has become really evident through the pandemic and with the leisure recovery."
Sams said a plan to sell marketing services to non-Davidson operated hotels, resorts and restaurants is not in the immediate future, but it's something he sees broadly as a need in the industry.
He said he's particularly proud of how his company handles social media.
"If you hire one of the third parties that does social media, the ratio of hotels to dedicated resource are typically in the 1-to-40 assets," he said. "We do 1 for 6, and they're our team members. So they work for Davidson and are invested in the outcomes."
Sams described the current marketing operating as a "value-add" for owners — particularly of independent hotels, most of which would fall under the company's lifestyle division Pivot.
"We have a substantial number of independent hotels, and the branding process of creating a name and a story — we can do that all in-house," he said. "The next vertical for us is formally recognizing marketing within the Davidson Hospitality Group."
Recent Growth
Sams said the company has added several interesting new properties to its portfolio, including the 21c Museum Hotel Chicago to the lifestyle division.
In the resort business, the company added The Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach and the Hilton Singer Island Oceanfront/Palm Beaches Resort. The latter is the latest hotel owned by a real estate investment trust to join Davidson's portfolio.
"We're very proud to work with our great partners at Host [Hotels & Resorts] on that project," he said.
The company also recently took over the Newport Harbor Island Resort, which is owned by Pebblebrook Lodging Trust.