LOS ANGELES — To stand out amid "hundreds of third-party operators out there," Davidson Hospitality Group President Thom Geshay said his company's growth strategy centers around individualized attention to owners and targeting properties that might be too difficult for other hotel managers.
Speaking with Hotel News Now during the 2021 Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Geshay said his company targets "that complicated, full-service property with a heavy orientation to food and beverage." In 2021, Davidson launched a resort-focused division.
"We have some hotels with six, seven, eight [food-and-beverage] outlets in them and have multiple spas and lots of retail offerings, membership clubs — things that take very specific skill in order to deliver," he said. "We've differentiated ourselves by not being all things to all people."
The resort division has grown recently, with KSL Capital Partners choosing Davidson in July to manage a portfolio of four resorts in Islamorada, Florida — Amara Cay Resort, La Siesta Resort & Marina, Pelican Cove Resort & Marina and Postcard Inn Beach Resort & Marina.
Geshay has said that his goal for Davidson isn't to be the largest hotel operator, in large part because its goal is to give owners more specific care and attention than competitors. But with a growing portfolio, the company has had to get creative to continue delivering on that service expectation from owners.
The Atlanta-based company oversees 67 hotel properties and now has four divisions: heritage full-service hotels division Davidson Hotels; Pivot Hotels, the lifestyle and independent hotel division; Davidson Resorts, which now has 11 assets that drive $400 million in revenue; and Davidson Restaurant Group, which was founded in 2019 and now manages 165 restaurants.
"The reason we designed those different verticals is so we can give that customized experience," he said. "The team that oversees our lifestyle division, Pivot, they're dedicated just against that. They're not dedicated against the rest of the portfolio."
Geshay said it's also been important for the company to keep its overall property count relatively low even as the overall enterprise grows, which is why the company doesn't chase small, select-service assets.
"Still, comparatively in number of properties, we're a lot smaller [than other third-party operators]," he said. "The difference with us is our average revenue per property because the complexity of our properties is very high. Our average revenue per property is higher than most every other third-party operator."
For more with HNN's conversation with Thom Geshay, watch the video above.