LOS ANGELES — Omni Hotels & Resorts’ growth trajectory has always happened on a track that may look different from its big-box hotel counterparts, thanks to its ownership by Dallas-based investment company TRT Holdings for the last 25 years.
The brand’s ownership profile meant development and dispositions did not slow down during 2021 and 2022 for the company, which president Peter Strebel refers to as “operating at the intersection of leisure and meetings.”
The brand owns and operates 51 hotels in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, opened three in 2021 and have two in the new-construction pipeline now, with projected 2023 openings.
Despite pandemic construction delays — the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Frisco, Texas, was delayed more than a year but broke ground last May — and many pandemic-related layoffs, Strebel said Omni leadership and its TRT owners have never wavered from their long-term commitment to the business.
“We just kept going,” Strebel told Hotel News Now in a video interview held during the Americas Lodging Investment Summit.
Recent Growth
In 2021, the brand opened the 320-room Omni Viking Lakes Hotel in Eagan, Minnesota, in partnership with the Minnesota Vikings; the 605-room Omni Oklahoma City Hotel attached to the $288-million Oklahoma City Convention Center that opened in January 2021; and the 1,054-room Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport.
While the brand’s hotels all have significant meeting and event space, Strebel said the company’s practice of “overprogramming” its properties with significant investments in outdoor spaces, restaurants, spas and entertainment helped attract new customers when group business evaporated.
“Opening during COVID has been tough, … but we overprogram our hotels and make them city center resorts,” he said. The Oklahoma City hotel, for example, sold out every weekend in the summer as leisure guests took advantage of the pool, spa and restaurants.
Dispositions are just as critical to Omni’s growth strategy as openings, Strebel said.
Last March the company sold five suburban hotels, four in Texas and one in Jacksonville, Florida, as part of its shift to focus on resort destinations and convention center cities.
“We re-funneled that capital back into renovations,” Strebel said, citing renovations at the Omni Mount Washington Resort in New Hampshire, Omni Las Colinas Hotel in Dallas, the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, and a $150-million renovation underway at the Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia.
Strebel said growth and differentiation for the Omni brand is on an even faster track, as owner TRT Holdings transitions from founder Bob Rowling’s day-to-day leadership to his son Blake Rowling.
“Blake is a dynamic individual who sees the company the same as his dad but with much faster growth,” Strebel said. “He really loves the resort and experiential part of our business, so he’s pushing us to be creative, offer better food and beverage, see what can we do differently?”
“I think you’re going to see us as a little more fun, a little more exciting,” he said.
Operational Challenges
Strebel acknowledges that running properties the size and scope of Omni requires a lot of human capital, which he says has “been real difficult” during the pandemic.
But the company centralized hiring and grew wages in many markets, which Strebel said couldn’t have happened without Omni’s strong culture.
“Because we own and manage all our hotels, everyone works for Omni, and the best thing about working for Omni is the culture we create,” he said.
Even after temporary layoffs, Strebel said many came back. “It was interesting because depending on the location, [at hotels where] the culture was stronger and better, like in Fort Worth, Texas, basically everyone came back,” he said. “Where there may be a hotel that was struggling with culture and a different competitive environment, it was tough getting associates back.”
Omni centralized its recruiting and hiring practices during the pandemic, moving it away from individual properties, and its new approach to hiring hourly and supervisory roles at the property level allows managers to make an offer after a single round of interviews.
“And wages have gone up,” he said. “I don’t lose sleep over that because I feel that working in a hotel is very hard, and we should be paying our employees more, so I was really pleased.”
For more on HNN's interview with Omni Hotels & Resorts' Peter Strebel, watch the video above.