Dimension Hospitality, which manages 80 hotels across the U.S., has its sights set on 20% growth over the next 20 months, Chief Operating Officer Joe Viglietta said.

For the third-party hotel management firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that would nearly bring its portfolio to the 100 mark. The firm manages hotels under the brand flags of Hilton, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and IHG Hotels & Resorts, and in the all-suite, full- and select-service segments.

In the company's 35th year of business, Dimension is focused on adding high performing, higher-end select-service brands, such as Homewood Suites and Residence Inn, as well as full-service brands, such as Embassy Suites and DoubleTree, to its portfolio via third-party management contracts, new hotel development and acquisitions, Viglietta said.

"That's kind of our wheelhouse and where we want to position ourselves as far as growth is concerned. Does that mean we won't consider anything else? Not necessarily. It would have to make sense," he added.

Jeff Shockley, executive vice president of development and analytics at Dimension, said the company's relationships in the banking sector enable it to get a first look at opportunities.

"We continue to build our infrastructure of high-net-worth clients that really want to do business with us. That is a golden opportunity to find the diamonds in the rough out there, that have the opportunity to come in and potentially rebrand an asset that may be struggling because of contribution or because of the way the debt makeup is set up," he said. "There's huge opportunity for us with our experience to be able to peel back that onion and figure the better stuff out."

Dimension recently tied with Davidson Hospitality for best in overall guest satisfaction in the J.D. Power 2023 North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark. Both companies scored 725 on a 1,000-point scale.

"This is the first year we've been included in the rankings ... [J.D. Power requires] a minimum of rooms under management to be included. This is the first year Dimension's been above that threshold, and for a first year to come out on top was amazing," Viglietta said.

He attributed that success in part to more positive interactions between guests and staff.

Viglietta said he is passionate about building up teams and providing associates — from entry level, to middle management to general mangers — with opportunities.

Dimension recently shifted its manager-in-training program to a leader-in-training program, which better allows it to teach leadership skills that apply to every level of the organization.

Viglietta is traveling to various colleges and universities, including Florida State University and Pennsylvania State University, in hopes of recruiting new team members by the time students graduate next spring.

Hospitality students today are most interested in sustainability and artificial intelligence, he said.

"AI is getting to be a buzzword, and it's a very invigorating question that we're being asked — how [we're] planning to incorporate that or what have we done to at least start that ball rolling. That ball is coming fast. It's not 10 years away; it's now," he said.

Shockley added recruiting the next generation means taking their interests in social media and branding and spinning that it into existing jobs in the industry.

"Having the ability to expose people to things that they don't necessarily think about in the hotel industry that they [could] be a part of" is key, he said. "We have all these in-fill positions, where people can dive into some trendy, unique things that are available to our youth now that they come up learning. Tying that back into our industry, and making sure that's part of our training programs can [help] draw some people out of some other industries that may not think it's cool and hip to work in the hotel business. But it is, it's a lot of fun."

Shockley said recent budget meetings revealed that the "incredible volatility of wages" remains chief among concerns for owners and managers.

Dimension represents ownership groups that include real estate investment trusts.

"While I was in California [for budget meetings], the city of Anaheim actually voted down an increase of minimum wage. We were literally changing our strategies in real time as we were doing the budgets, because I was supporting the 20 California and Washington [state] hotels that we have out there," he said. "Staying on top of all the administrative changes that are coming through the different states for us this year is really challenging."

Viglietta said he believes costs for owners will level off. Notably, the past few years brought on spikes in wages across all departments, as well as food costs.

"That's a good thing as far as how we're planning and how we're budgeting. But at the end of the day, it's that [net operating income] target that owners expect. To deliver that, it has to be a very focused attention given to the cost controls, with labor being the biggest controllable expense. We're putting a lot of investment into that side of it," he said. "But also ... I believe in the long term, [it's] far more prudent to not chase margins through cutting costs. In the grand scheme of things, it's much more beneficial for an organization to drive margins through driving top line."

Viglietta: "Resilience, opportunity and purpose. Those three things are going to be driving factors in the way we operate our business at Dimension. The first two quarters, we're going to have to be resilient ... still there's some headwinds. With that brings a great deal of opportunity. And finally, purpose ... managers do things great and leaders do great things. That's part of our purpose for 2024."

Shockley: "When you step back and think about the travel tendencies of America, at this point most everyone has already blown through all those COVID savings that they had. We really are starting to see that in the third and the fourth quarters. Next year, once again, will be travel with purpose. I do still think we will see a lot of the bleisure travel continuing to happen. I don't see a lot of the corporate office environment racing back to the actual offices themselves, although I do think that there is going to be the need for training and some project work going into next year."

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