Hazel Hagans wasn’t pushing for a career in hospitality when she took her first industry position at the W Atlanta Buckhead in 2010. Coming out of the deepest recession the U.S. had seen since the 1930s, Hagans settled on a position that didn’t put her chemistry degree to use.
“Honestly, it was just a job. I loved it,” she said. “I never thought of hospitality as a career, and as I joined the W in Atlanta Buckhead, I just loved the different departments. I love the guest interaction and love making someone’s day special.”
This April, Hagans is set to celebrate her one-year anniversary as the general manager of The Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. She said her first year in the role was a success, with revamped food-and-beverage offerings and strong culture-building amid a brand turnover.
The hotel, built in 1962, currently is owned by Crescent Real Estate Equities and operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts. The hotel previously operated as a Hilton, and plans to convert it into Marriott International's Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts brand slated to begin later this year.
Hagans said she takes pride in being a Black, female general manager and gives credit to having a female general manager at her first hotel industry position to show her it was possible to climb the ranks.
Now a seasoned veteran in the industry herself, Hagans reflected on her first year at The Madison Hotel and her path to this position in a Q&A with Hotel News Now. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are some highlights from your first year as general manager of The Madison Hotel?
It's been an amazing first year. One of my passions is team-building. As a general manager, I love putting together a team. The Hilton associates [who were here before] were very loyal to Hilton and they all left so we had to rebuild the structure, the culture here, and it really turned out for the best.
We have a town hall, which is a meeting where we gather all of our associates monthly and we just talk about what's going on in the hotel. We celebrate our successes and wins, and talk about what's new, what's happening next and we have a really good lunch, too.
We had really great associate opinion scores: We scored a 93.5 overall satisfaction for the hotel, so I'm really proud of that. Knowing where we started and how we finished 2022, it definitely makes me feel really accomplished.
In addition to that, for highlights for the hotel, we rolled out a new menu, reintroduced happy hour, we revamped our cocktail menu and we launched Club Madison, our executive lounge [for Marriott Bonvoy members].
We introduced Tunes on Tuesday in our lobby, so we have live music every Tuesday from 4-7 p.m. We're going to introduce Wine Down Wednesdays this year. All our food-and-beverage programming has definitely improved throughout 2022, and we're looking forward to having an even better 2023.
Overall, we're just really excited to be a part of Marriott. I've been working with Marriott for some time now, and I think it's a wonderful brand. I love the reach of the brand. And I really do love branding.
I feel that The Madison has so much rich history. I'm so proud of being the general manager of this hotel. John F. Kennedy and Jackie were here during the opening and we're about to approach our 60th anniversary on Feb. 7. We're going to have some fun things in store for that. These associates here, they have touched so many lives and they can tell you so many stories about celebrities, politicians, really great people who stayed at The Madison throughout the years.
Today at town hall, we got plaques for all of the milestone anniversaries from 2022. We're going to present them today. We have associates who have been here for 38 years, 30 years, 37, so they've seen a lot. The history of this hotel is just so amazing. Frank Sinatra used to perform for the Reagans back in the '80s in our lobby. Those are just some of the fun stories that I hear from our team.
What are some of your sales and marketing strategies to stand out compared to other hotels in the area?
For sales and marketing to stand out, our No. 1 strategy is really service. That's the only thing that I feel that can really separate hotels from one another. It's the memorable experiences, the personal touches that are very important. To talk about sales a little bit more, packaging is really important, making sure that we're fresh and new. We never want to utilize the same strategies from the past. Making sure that we have competitive packages, making sure for groups — our daily meeting package includes supplies that a group may need during a meeting.
We have a really strong sales department. We have a business travel sales manager and she is the personal rate liaison for all the companies. If they're not able to book the rate that they want, they can contact [her] directly, and she will assist them or she'll work something out to say, "Hey, maybe the rate’s not available this day, but I can work something out for you on Tuesday, Wednesday." I think the personal touches are there and really just our service for sales and marketing.
How has your background of being a Black woman shaped your career?
My background has shaped my career because to be honest with you, just growing up with a Black family and Black parents, there's a lot of pressure on you to be perfect and to perform perfectly. It's almost like you're a representative of your race. I grew up with my mom helping me with my homework and if it wasn't perfect, I had to start all over again.
I take pride in being a Black, female general manager. I learned to accept imperfection, but to strive for perfection. But again, if something is imperfect, it's OK, you can fix it, you can tweak it, it doesn't have to be 100% perfect. I've learned that with my team as well.
I've been blessed in my career. At my first hotel, my very first general manager was a woman and I think that really shaped my career. When you actually see someone in that role, it makes you feel that the role was more obtainable. ... It wasn't until [years] later that I had another one, and I still hadn't really seen any Black, female general managers.
My goal is to uplift others like me, and I love to treat everyone equally. I don't care what you are. That's how my parents raised me. It's about the content of your character, not the color of your skin. What I try to strive for is to instill confidence in women, confidence in minorities and let them know that you have potential to grow in this career and with this company based on your skill set. I see the opportunity in you; I see that.
What does it mean to you to now be in that role model position for others?
It means a lot to me. As a great general manager, you should see the potential in the person versus waiting for that person to come to you and say, "Hey, I want to be a supervisor. I want to do this."
At the W Atlanta Buckhead, I was a director of housekeeping and there was a young lady who I knew was in school for accounting. One day I approached her and said, "I'm just curious, do you like your job? Why are you in this role? I know you’re in school, are you interested in accounting roles?"
And she said, "Yes, I would love to have that position. I applied for some and I just didn't get the job." So I worked with my director of finance, had some cross-training opportunities for her lined up where she would work a couple of days in accounting each week and then work in housekeeping, and as soon as a position opened up at one of our sister properties, she went for it, she got it and that made me feel so good.
It's what makes me feel accomplished at the end of the day. I really love helping others get promotions, love internal promotions here, but no matter who they are, of course we want to see more diversity. That's really important, but when I see that someone has that spark, that passion or bone for leadership in their body, I try to cultivate that. That’s what I think good leaders just do.
Growing teams is part of my passion, but I get even more proud when I'm able to cultivate a talent and they're able to grow in this industry. There's so many different departments in this industry, from accounting to human resources, it's not all about service at the end of the day, so I really love that about hospitality.
What programming plans does The Madison have for Black History Month?
We're going to have some cocktail specials that feature Black cocktail creations like the mint julep. That will be one of our specials for the month of February. We're going to highlight that by promoting it at the front desk and the bar.
What are some goals that you have in the future, both personally and for The Madison?
As far as goals, I always like to improve. I always like to perfect. I really want to fine-tune this operation to be just better. Like I said, we're introducing more food-and-beverage options such as room service. I feel like a lot of hotels still haven't been able to get that service back. So I'm really excited about relaunching that.
I really want to fine-tune some of the amenities that we offer to our guests. I really want to have more promotional events here at The Madison. For example, we're celebrating the 60th anniversary here. We want to have an event to bring the community in because this hotel was built on the community and it was designed to be the first luxury hotel in the D.C. area and I really want to highlight that and have a lot of fun with it.
To start the renovation successfully, that's one of our goals. But for me, it's really just to be a better person or a more well-rounded person and just to get this hotel back on the map as one of the places to stay in D.C., the most luxurious place to stay in the D.C. So that's my goal.