MIAMI—Independent hoteliers can prosper because the rules of independence provide more possibilities for properties with unique personalities, according to hotel industry veteran Robert Gaymer-Jones.
Gaymer-Jones, named president CEO of Panorama Hospitality Management in January when San Antonio, Texas-based Panorama Group formed a joint venture with Gaymer-Jones’ Blue Horse Hotel Management Company, said he will use his turnaround expertise culled while leading Sofitel Hotels to enhance the position and performance of hotels that enlist Panorama Hospitality’s services.
“It’s all about being able to identify the weak points and focus on the strengths of the property,” Gaymer-Jones said during an interview with Hotel News Now.
“Once you understand why a property lost money and you fix that, you focus on the strengths—things like the location, the service and the amenities,” he added.
From 2007 until 2014, Gaymer-Jones led the repositioning of the Sofitel brand by culling nearly 100 under-performing properties from the system and adding the So and Legend brands to its family.
Size isn’t the only way to achieve efficiencies of scale, according to the Panorama leader.
“That is more of a perception than reality,” he said. “The efficiencies come in managing your business effectively, managing employees effectively and managing your purchasing effectively. On the grand scale, efficiencies of scale based on size tend to be more beneficial to brands rather than to owners.”
Panorama Hospitality isn’t striving to be the largest hotel owner-operator in the world, but plans to have a portfolio that attracts affluent travelers, Gaymer-Jones said.
“Over the next eight to 10 years … we can have 15 to 20 hotels that are well managed, successful in the high-end luxury space and delivering fabulous owner returns,” Gaymer-Jones said.
A global reach with an early focus
Hotels in the Panorama portfolio will prominently feature the location and/or original name of the property, Gaymer-Jones said.
“It’s the independence of the hotel which will be important. They will have indigenous names based on the environment they are in. We want to create this appeal of destination … of truly being there,” Gaymer-Jones said.
Gaymer-Jones set up Miami-based Blue Horse as a management, asset-management and consulting company after leaving Sofitel last year. Panorama Group reached out to him to form a joint venture in which the San Antonio-based company takes care of the real estate financing and Gaymer-Jones handles the operational side of the business under the umbrella of Panorama Hospitality Management, he said. Panorama Group is headed by CEO Bill Clover.
The entity began in January and is working with an investment partner to develop a new-construction hotel near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. However, most of its portfolio will come from acquisitions and repositionings, Gaymer-Jones said.
The company will focus on what Gaymer-Jones called independent 5-star properties. Its portfolio will eventually include hotels around the world, but one of its early targets for growth is the Caribbean region.
“We’re looking at three or four projects in the Caribbean, and I’d like to think we’d have two or three more signed by the end of the year,” Gaymer-Jones said. “The Caribbean is cleaning up its act a little bit—there are a number opportunities.”
Panorama Hospitality has its eye on the Caribbean for good reason, he said.
“The focus on Cuba and the focus on the positioning of all-inclusives have changed somewhat the perception of the Caribbean,” Gaymer-Jones said. “That’s a move in the right direction.”
Government agencies are more interested in supporting hotel investment and understand the importance of tourism and the impact of people living on their island, he added. That will help companies such as Panorama make an impact in the region.
“There just happens to be a lot of assets that have tendency to not be properly managed, and that presents a number of opportunities to turn those around,” Gaymer-Jones said. “But that’s the case elsewhere, too. There are opportunities around the world.”
Consumers are looking for consistency
One of the big issues Panorama will immediately tackle is the distribution puzzle—which Gaymer-Jones called a significant disruption in the industry—and how brands fit into the equation.
“The (online travel agencies) are really taking a much larger slice of the reservation pie at the hotel level and you have to question what value a brand brings you if you are not able to maximize the reservation systems,” Gaymer-Jones said. “There’s a place for the brands if you want consistency, a certain standard, a cookie-cutter approach.
“Independents are much more focused on creativity and understanding the local environment,” he added.
Affluent travelers are looking for experiences over consistency, Gaymer-Jones said.
“They’re looking for unique experiences that they have not seen before,” he said. “For them to walk into a room with the same colored carpets across the globe does not do it for them.
“Because of social media people have tools to research what is best,” he added. “The new consumer would choose uniqueness over loyalty.”
The biggest challenge for the company is the comfort zone investors have with brands, Gaymer-Jones said.
“Sometimes they feel more comfortable going with a branded concept,” he said. “However, there is now more reassurance from owners willing to take the risk with a non-branded concept.”