With much of the work complete to integrate Chesapeake Hospitality with Remington Hotels following the merger of the two companies in April, Remington President Chris Green said he's now focused on fostering a company that people want to work for.
For example, in Dallas, "there's enough great associates to fill Remington hotels. We have got to be a thought leader, benefits leader and opportunity leader in the market so that when somebody's going into hospitality, they're going to come to a Remington hotel. If we can do that ... it puts one of the biggest headwinds we've got facing us away," he said.
Dallas-based third-party management company Remington Hotels elevated Green from divisional president to president on Dec. 1. Sloan Dean, previously president and CEO, is now CEO.
Remington purchased third-party management company Chesapeake Hospitality in April for $26 million. Green was previously CEO of Chesapeake.
The biggest challenge facing the company and the hotel industry at large — labor — was made more acute by a loss of future leaders in previous downturns, Green said.
In the 2001 recession and the Great Recession of 2007 to 2008, a lot of front-line employees left the hospitality field who, had they stayed, would be leaders now, Green said.
"We lost some future leaders. Those leaders in '01 and '09 would be, let's say 45 and 35 ... they were junior managers. Then, we go through the pandemic and we lost a bunch of people to other industries," he said. "What I would say is the hidden issue is the business is coming back ... but we have a gap. We need to build and grow more leaders in the industry."
Green also is focused on reducing the risks that come with combining companies to ensure that promises to owners are fulfilled.
With the merger, Remington manages 118 hotels in 27 states and Washington, D.C., across 24 brands, and the company's portfolio includes 18 independent and boutique hotels.
"The benefits of scale can also be a negative if you're not careful," Green said. "How do you achieve the benefits of scale, while operating as a boutique, guest-centric, client-centric firm? These are the responsibilities Sloan has given me."
Green said one of the goals of the merger was to have the overall hotel market "respond to two great companies coming together."
He and Dean regularly talk about "how the market feels about bringing together these two companies," Green said.
"Remington really was one of the companies that I didn't compete with because they ran in a different lane than [Chesapeake] did," he said, adding both companies at the time had little to no overlap in markets or owners. "We were able to take two organizations that really didn't have any conflicts; it was all about forward progress."
Green said the integration of Remington and Chesapeake is complete and all employees are working together as one team.
Often when mergers are announced, executives will say it's to create "the best company," he said.
"Of course people say that. But here's the difference; I believe that Sloan supporting me and elevating me to this role shows that we were telling the truth that we believe a combined organization ... [has] turbocharged us both," he said.
Honoring Core Values
Green often uses the analogy of a coffee filter to help his team understand the importance of core values in the workplace and the commitment to providing superior guest service.
"If you imagine in your mind a coffee filter, only certain things are going to pass through that. [In our workplace] we use honesty, integrity and humility as filters. If [things] don't pass through the filter, they don't belong in Remington; they don't belong in our operation," he said.
"If you promote yourself as a professional third-party manager, then it's out of integrity — and it won't pass through that filter — if you don't keep a clean hotel. If you don't have amazing guest service, if you don't drive the sales process through your commercial efforts, those things are out of integrity."
Green said this idea is taught to every level of hotel staff, including general managers and front-line workers.
"As a general manager, it's out of integrity to talk in a demeaning fashion to your staff. It just doesn't pass through the filter," he said.
Industry Headwinds, Tailwinds for 2023
Challenges that Green expects to persist into 2023 include the recessionary environment as well as the availability of domestic and international labor.
"The markets that have been so busy and are really thriving right now — resort and city-center — those locations normally call for [international] labor, so that's definitely a headwind," he said.
Green said the recessionary environment puts a damper on the availability of debt to renovate and refinance hotels as well as the pace and volume of transactions.
In contrast, a major tailwind for the U.S. hotel industry is that the development pipeline — new hotels in construction — is "way down," he said.
"Not only no new supply but some negative supply in some markets," he said. "As an operator, that's just more share for me to win."