NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Across Raines' management portfolio, hotel employees know they have an advocate at the executive level in Dan Paola.
As vice president of operations at Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina-based Raines, Paola has his ear to the ground on the challenges facing on-property employees. He's worked in just about every position in hotel operations during his hospitality career: housekeeping, food and beverage, sales and even as a general manager.
"I think it gives me a lot of perspective, a lot of empathy, a lot of understanding of the pressures and the daily environments that our teams are in," Paola said during an interview at the Hotel Data Conference in Nashville. "I have had the opportunity to come up through this business and do a little bit of it all.
"Being able to be out front of our core branded company has allowed me to make some strategic decisions to put our associates first, because they are super important and we need them so we can take great care of our guests, provide hopefully great results, and keep our owners and investors happy as well."
Paola said Raines has acquired more third-party management contracts and kicked the tires on development projects so far this year. The company manages 20 hotels with a combined 1,927 rooms located across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Its portfolio includes brands affiliated with Marriott International, Hilton, Hyatt Hotels Corp., BWH Hotel Group and IHG Hotels & Resorts. Raines also has an additional three hotels under development.
At the start of 2022, Raines rebranded and launched its Woven segment, which contains three boutique properties: Waynesville Inn & Golf Club in Waynesville, North Carolina; Hotel Florence, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, in Florence, South Carolina; and The Foundry Hotel, which is part of Hilton's Curio Collection and located in Asheville, North Carolina.
Paola said Raines executives saw a lot of potential in emphasizing the boutique segment of its portfolio with Woven to "really take advantage of that experience-driven hospitality segment."
"Traditionally, we'd had more of a typical core of branded properties," he said. "And we knew that this was a space we wanted to do more in, specifically with our soft-branded hotels in that boutique space."
For more from Raines Vice President of Operations Dan Paola, watch the video above.