Tobias Arff, general manager of two Alexandria, Virginia-based hotels, knows that building high-performing teams that drive strong results to stakeholders isn't always easy, even during high-demand periods.
Arff, who oversees the 241-room Alexandrian Old Town, Autograph Collection, and the 45-room Morrison House Old Town Alexandria, Autograph Collection, said the market isn't entirely over the hump of the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Luckily, he said, both properties are expected to benefit from high demand from group business around the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The two hotels are operated by Sage Hospitality.
"There are days we might take a little more group business if we can. Especially going into ... an election year," he said, adding that there is a definite difference in demand when Congress is in session versus when it is not.
Arff added that average rate at most hotels in Alexandria, and across D.C., Maryland and Virginia, should have exceeded expectations this year.
But the reality is many of those hotels rely on business travelers, and that demand segment hasn't come back a strong as expected.
Despite more workers returning to offices, Arff said he believes the new norm is remote or hybrid work.
"If you look at office vacancy numbers within our markets, it just means less travel for us and still something that will take a little time to recover. ADRs are great but we don't have the same amount of guests coming to our hotels at this point," he said.
Arff, who grew up in Germany and became fascinated by hotels at an early age, said that experience at luxury hotels across Europe and the U.S. has honed his skills for building high-performing teams.
"It's very rewarding for me to bring exciting, unique programming, my trained eye for detail and strong service culture to the properties, which ultimately allows me to build high-performing teams [at] these two iconic Old Town properties," he said. "It's not always an easy task, though. What really makes a difference is developing a strong culture. I think that should go for any good company."
Arff said he looks to hire associates who want to be part of a winning team, who hold each other accountable for excellence and strive to reach a common goal.
"And never forget to have some fun doing so along the way," he added.
To learn more about The Alexandrian Old Town and the Morrison House Old Town Alexandria, read through this Q&A with Tobias Arff.
How are you filling demand holes at your hotel?
There are days we might take a little more group business if we can. Especially going into next year; it's an election year.
[Demand] is pretty front-loaded. My sales team successfully built a good base for the first quarter [of 2024] for group.
The Congress and Senate historically spend a large part of fourth quarter [2023] campaigning their home states. There are less days in session, and that impacts negatively the business travel.
There's a clear correlation, especially in the D.C. market, between Congress [and] Senate in session and demand on hotels.
Even though we call it the lame-duck session, I'm encouraged about the definite bookings [the sales teams] are able to put on the books for the first quarter [2024], which is important because we all know that the last quarter will be challenging.
How do you balance overseeing two hotels at once?
I really think it's time management and being strategic about it. It's very important to prioritize. You're always going to get pulled for some emergency, but in a regular week I have one-on-one meetings with all my leaders each week at both properties.
It really gives them quality time to see what they need from me and and vice versa. That includes walk-throughs of each property, strategy meetings, marketing meetings. Communication and a strong synergy between both properties is key to success.
We host appreciation events, orientations for both properties to make it fun. We just had breakfast with Santa where we had hundreds of employees and I was an elf. It's just really [about] keeping the team together.
But it is important to recognize in my two properties, they're different from size and design and also from the offerings and business mix. For us, it's important to really develop separate strategies from a sales, revenue management, activation and operations standpoint for both properties.
The Alexandrian is 241 rooms, large meetings space, big restaurant, right on King Street. The Morrison House is an iconic property, which actually was my first general manager job many years ago. [It's a] 45-room hotel, small meeting space, small restaurant, very refined. So they're very different and about four blocks away from each other.
My office is at The Alexandrian and then on certain days I work out of the Morrison House. Then for a specific event or need, I flex my days.
As a general manager, what keeps you up at night?
I try to not focus so much on things which are out of my control. What keeps me up at night, my youngest son, he's a night owl for sure.
But other than that, it definitely is a challenging labor market. It's recovering a little bit but it's very tough to find amazing associates who want to join hospitality. Especially in my market, it's an unstable political environment in D.C. The looming fear of a potential government shutdown on and off, it doesn't help. It negatively impacts hotels and tourism in general.
These are the two things I worry the most about because they're interconnected. If the government shuts down, there's less business, less hours for your team. It's a trickle effect.
It's unpredictable, you can't plan for it.