LOS ANGELES — The hospitality industry has historically lacked women and minorities in investment and leadership roles, but hoteliers say there has been significant improvement.
Research by the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers in 2022 found that nearly 20% of the lodging workforce is Black, but less than 2% of hotel owners are Black.
Donohoe Hospitality President Thomas Penny said during the "Advancing Women and Minorities in Hotel Ownership" panel at the 2023 Americas Lodging Investment Summit that work done in the past three years to promote underrepresented groups has resulted in noteworthy progress.
"There's a [Russian revolutionary leader and politician Vladimir] Lenin quote, where he says, 'There are decades when nothing happens, and then there are weeks when decades happen.' I will modify it to say there are months when decades happen. And over the last 36 months, we have seen a significant change in the industry for the good," Penny said.
In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, "African Americans, both at the ownership level as well as within the business were looking for some assurance from the industry that we were going to show some leadership in this moment," Penny said.
One example of leadership shown in 2021 was the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, together with Howard University, forming the Marriott-Sorenson Center for Hospitality Leadership.
"For the Marriott family foundation to partner with Howard University, to address the need around diversity, showed significant leadership," Penny said.
He also praised other hospitality brand companies for joining in diversity efforts.
"When I look and I see the brands adding more diverse representation of women and minorities on the corporate boards, when I think about the brands specifically targeting underrepresented minority groups to help deal with the challenge around equity and the lack of equity, I am encouraged by that," he said. "But we still have a long way to go. I hope that we can accelerate the resources deployed to this important subject."
Promoting Progress
Tracy Prigmore, managing partner of TLT Solutions + She Has a Deal, said women and groups of minorities have the talent and are comfortable taking the steps to become hotel owners. It's a matter of making opportunities available to them.
"It's important for programs like She Has a Deal to exist and for there to be the entire industry supporting these programs that help bring more women into ownership," she said. "I have been impressed by the number of women who are competent and capable, who just have not had access and have not felt like the [ownership and development] is for them."
Prigmore's She Has a Deal launched in 2020 and focuses on two tracks: "Early Career" for women pursuing college or recent graduates, and "Today's Woman" for those already established in their careers.
"When we have these types of opportunities for them to see the path forward and we have all the brands that are rooting for them and providing them resources to be successful, then it's just going to be magical," she said. "I believe that when this industry has more women on the ownership and development side, we're going to see explosive, innovative growth. We don't have that representation at that level today, but we will."
Penny added that women and minorities used to be up against a ceiling for opportunities.
"This is also center to our ability to attract and retain talent," he said. "The folks who we're trying to attract and work in our business ... they no longer have an interest to work, with the thought that there's a ceiling to the opportunities. They're interested in ownership to the extent that they can see it as a possibility."
Penny said about 15 years ago when he was talking with his daughter about hospitality companies, she noticed she didn't see women or women of color represented on the leadership pages of company websites.
"She said, 'Dad, how can I come and work for that company when I don't see myself?'" he said.
Janis Cannon, senior vice president of upscale brands at Choice Hotels International, said the real opportunity now is for brands, companies and lenders to build "allyship" and give chances to all interested individuals.
"We've also got to change the way we think about our risk tolerance with certain types of investors or certain types of people that want to make application for lending, financing, so that they can actually go forward," she said. "That's the reason that companies like Choice are putting programs in place like HERtels. We're saying this is a qualified candidate, this is somebody that may be a hometown hero that perhaps doesn't have the real estate investment background ... [but] is invested in their community, understands that adding a hotel there may actually be a form of revitalization in terms of economic growth and development."
Cannon said individuals are becoming interested in owning hotels at younger ages, too. Some of the recent success stories of She Has a Deal were by new college graduates.
"Think about hotel ownership as being a career path and a path to multigenerational wealth as well as financial freedom," she added.
In 2022, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts launched its Women Own the Room program and Bold, which stands for "Black Owners and Lodging Developers."
Wyndham Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Checchio said if these programs helped open a door for even just one hotel owner, that would have been a success for the company.
"It would have at least been progress to move one step forward," she said.
However, during the first year of Women Own the Room, dozens of hotels opened across multiple states. Dozens more are coming in 2023, she added.
"One of my favorite most recent stories of Women Own the Room was a woman doctor in Wisconsin; she had a family farm and she decided to turn it into a wedding venue. She thought, 'This would be a perfect opportunity for me to have a hotel,'" Checchio said. "Here's a very successful, professional woman who had a vision to build a hotel on her family farm but didn't know where to start. That's where, [with] all these programs that are in the industry now, that's not a problem for her anymore."