The merger of two prominent third-party hotel management companies into Benchmark Pyramid came about as a “blind date” between two CEOs set up by their investment partners.

Benchmark Global Hospitality and Pyramid Hotel Group announced the deal Sept. 30, with Pyramid Hotel Group President and CEO Warren Fields taking on the role of CEO for the new company and Benchmark Global Hospitality CEO Alex Cabañas serving as president. The combined company has a portfolio of 210 branded and independent hotels in the select- and full-service segments across the U.S., Caribbean and Europe.

In an interview with Hotel News Now, Cabañas said both companies had looked at similar growth opportunities over the years, but a successful deal requires the right cultural fit and to follow the formula in which “one plus one’s got to be more than three.”

Cabañas said he and Fields knew each other but hadn’t spent much time together. They didn’t even view each other as competitors. However, each company’s investor groups started talking and made the introductions, with talks starting July 28, 2020. The more the two companies’ teams talked, the more they liked each other and the more they saw the value in this partnership.

“So, 15 months of dating and courtship after the first blind date, and here we are married,” Cabañas said.

Though the deal is now official, the companies have been working together over the past 15 to 16 months to prepare for the integration process, Fields said. The integration work will be at the corporate level, so it will not affect a single hotel property within the combined portfolio, he said.

The integration of accounting, human resources, IT and other systems is already in progress, he said.

Both legacy organizations are excited, and the new company is receiving support from its corporate owners as well as hotel owners, Fields said.

“We think, as that song says, the future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades,” he said.

Benchmark Pyramid goals include being the employer of choice and helping employees realize their career aspirations, Fields said.

Complicating that is the ongoing labor shortage in the U.S. broadly and the hospitality industry specifically. Some of the reasons behind the shortage are outside of Benchmark Pyramid’s control, he said. Therefore, the company will focus on the things that it can control: talent acquisition, training and helping employees realize their goals by giving them the opportunity to grow.

“If we lose a good person because we can't give them the opportunity that they want to do within the framework of our organization, quite frankly, we failed,” he said.

Given the competition for employees both inside and outside of the hospitality industry, the Benchmark Pyramid team knows it has to be smarter, better and faster than other employers in talent acquisition and retention, he said.

Another company goal is to take advantage of its newfound scale.

“We don’t like to talk about scale, but, by definition, we should be able to provide benefits not only to our associates but to our owners,” Fields said, referring to insurance plans, contracts and overall buying power.

The leadership team wants Benchmark Pyramid to become a center of excellence in different segments, such as independent lifestyle hotels, Fields said. The company will seek to improve on its record of driving revenue and managing the middle of profits and losses through better tools and combined resources.

“If we become the employer and manager of choice, growth will not be an issue for us,” he said.

The company has investment models, but Cabañas said neither he nor Fields are interested in telling people how many hotels they can manage or how big the company will grow.

“While growth is hugely important, it’s going to come from us doing the right thing with our teams, with our talent,” he said. “Take care of owners, continue to deliver, continue to have owners come back to us.”

Within the first 48 hours of signing the merger papers, Cabañas said he and Fields called their respective ownership groups to inform them. They shared a 12-page “sizzle deck” to give them a better sense of what drove the deal. All of the roughly 60 calls they made this week were positive.

“We had 100% of our owners continue on this journey with us, which is an incredible testament to the success of both organizations coming into this opportunity,” he said.

Cabañas said the leadership team has spent a lot of time this week thinking about how to deliver some “quick wins” for owners.

Hotels will continue to operate as they have with no interruption caused by the merger, he said. Along with that, they’re working to create savings for the properties and provide more resources, talent, tools, systems and marketing to keep driving the bottom line.

“We were fortunate to do this right around a budget season, which just helps to deliver the message we're already into planning mode. Everybody's thinking about next year,” Cabañas said.