HOUSTON—Bob Cowan has beaten a wide and varied track around the hotel industry during the course of his 30-year career.
From his beginnings in the industry as a desk clerk, a partial list of the positions lining Cowan’s resume include:
- Regional VP for Crestline Hotels & Resorts;
- Regional director of room operations at Interstate Hotels Corporation;
- Senior VP of operations at HEI Hospitality;
- VP of development at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide; and
- Housekeeping manager at Marriott International.
All told, it adds up to a total 14 position changes over the course of 30 years. “I’ve got quite a baseball card,” Cowan said of his career.
Today, Cowan is running the show at the Omni Houston Hotel—Galleria (one of two Omni-branded properties in the Houston market) as area managing director and GM. It’s a position he expects to be in for a while. He enjoys guest interaction, so being on the front lines as a GM suits him well.
Still, Cowan said the past roles he has held as a hotel executive are helping him in his role with Omni Hotels & Resorts. He said corporate executives have to know how to deal with multiple properties, and they have a tendency to be more numbers-oriented.
This means he knows how to speak a language an owner understands.
“It’s made me a better manager here because I understand what the owner wants” and what the customer wants, he said while sitting in his ground floor office of the Omni earlier this week. “I feel I better prioritize things.”
He added that he has benefitted in his career by having the opportunity to interact with many different kinds of people, including hotel staff, owners and asset managers. The experiences he gleaned from these interactions have helped him motivate his team at the Omni.
“You have to balance that long-term/short-term mentality,” he said of an executive’s mindset.
Cowan’s prowess as a GM will be on display this weekend as the hotel gets caught up in the rush of the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Game. Oversized-artistic depictions of NBA players are adorning the lobby of the 378-room hotel.
Dealing with the the business the NBA throws the hotel’s way is handled in the same way as any group business would be, Cowan said.
“Like any major group, you work with them to promote what the NBA is doing and further their brand,” he said.
As for his future career, Cowan expects to be sticking around the Omni property for quite some time. “Omni is the best company and the staff at the hotel are the best I’ve worked with in my 30-year career,” he said.
Having grown up in Galveston, Texas, located approximately 50 miles from Houston, Cowan is also happy to be closer to home.
“I’ve enjoyed them all at the time I’ve done them,” he said of his roles in the hotel industry. “If you focus on what your job is at the time, you’ll have success in the job you’re doing at the time and that will take care of your future.”