Everything that the San Francisco-based third-party hospitality management company Sightline Hospitality sets out to do requires unique vision and execution from team members, according to President Kirk Pederson. However, avoiding a cookie-cutter business approach is not always easy to do.
"It's hard because there are certain policies and procedures that you want to put in place to make sure that you're not missing anything," he said.
Pederson describes Sightline Hospitality, which launched in September 2019, as a boutique management company that's "an extension of an ownership group."
"I know a lot of management companies say they're owner-centric, I get it, but we really view ourselves as an operating partner," he added. "Most of the deals that we're in ... we're working directly with owners as opposed to working through asset managers."
Pederson said every single project his company works on requires a unique playbook. Each playbook's strategy depends on the market the property is in, the owner and their expectations, and the product itself.
"There really aren't any two projects within our portfolio that are the same," he said.
Although the company launched just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, growth was achieved.
Sightline is currently working on 25 new projects across the country, and all growth so far has "been 100% organic," Pederson said, via relationships he's built during his 30 years in the industry as well as with existing owners.
Brand companies, including Marriott International, Hilton, Hyatt Hotels Corp., IHG Hotels & Resorts and Choice Hotels International, have also been advocates of Sightline, he said.
"It's been great to see [the brands] come to us as an operator and say, 'Sightline, what do you think about this market or this project? We have an owner who could really use your help,'" he said.
Sightline has not yet acquired any hotel portfolios. Instead, the strategy is more so going by one project at a time and going after ones that are unique from the competitive set. Doing so can lead to charging higher rates, Pederson said.
"Trying to stay out of the box, being creative and unique in everything that we do is really driving our projects," he said.
Starting out, several of Sightline's projects were small room counts — about 75 to 120 rooms. Now, the company is venturing into 350- to 500-room resorts.
Pederson isn't aiming for any certain goal in terms of number of properties he wants in the portfolio to include.
"If we grow five, six, seven projects a year, I think that's phenomenal for us," he said. "We'll take them on one by one as they come."
In the past year, Pederson's company opened two hotels, including the Radio Hotel in New York and Evo Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Evo Hotel is in partnership with online retailer Evo, which sells outdoor gear and sports equipment.
"They decided they wanted to get into the hotel space and we've been working on this project with them for the last couple of years to get something done in Salt Lake City," he said. "There's a skate park, there's a bouldering gym [and] they're working on finalizing the food and beverage now."
Sightline's current portfolio consists of boutique hotels, branded hotels, island resorts, co-working spaces, hostels and ski lodges across California, New York, Nevada, Hawaii, Utah, Louisiana and Wyoming.
Pederson's Leadership Style
Pederson said the key to leading a successful company is being surrounded by the right people.
Without Chief Operating Officer Phil Tufano, who manages teams out in the field, Pederson said he wouldn't have the ability to exercise his creative approach to projects.
Pederson has often been described by others as a chameleon, embodying the spirit of someone who wants to wear multiple hats, which he said has to do with his desire "not to be stuck in a box."
"I definitely like to get outside of the box. I would say that creating the vision and the selling my team, ownership and Phil on that vision, then letting the experts you hire in their field execute the vision. I love standing on a blank piece of dirt with an owner and trying to visualize what could be ... and bringing that back to return on investment."
Opportunities for Growth
Pederson said it's been nice to see tourism return to Hawaii.
"We do a ton of work in Hawaii, and it was a little slower to recover. The outer islands have done really well. Waikiki was struggling because they didn't have the Japanese consumer. That is slowly coming back. Those hotels that were running 30% or 40% in the middle of the pandemic are now back up to 89% to 95% occupancy and will continue to grow from there," he said.
Most of the opportunities for his company going forward are in leisure-oriented destinations, such as near national parks, he said. Very few properties in the portfolio are in downtown, 100% corporate-centric locations.
Reigniting Excitement in Hospitality
When asked what the biggest challenge third-party management companies face today, Pederson said, "by far, 100%, it's the talent. It's not inflation, it's not the owners, it's not too much product being built — those aren't the problems that we're facing. It's the people in your hotel.
"The glory or joy of saying that you are hospitality professional has lost its luster a little bit," he said.
Pederson hopes, however, that as companies begin to reinvent themselves and step away from cookie-cutter approaches by tapping into more experiential avenues, it will reignite that luster in the talent pool.
"If GMs can come and work for us and be excited about a project or a sales team can be really excited about the product they're selling, it brings that excitement back to working in the hospitality industry," he said. "When you're working in a normal vanilla box and selling that every day, it's not that exciting. And I can see how people would change from job to job just because of a dollar more there."
For more from Sightline Hospitality's Kirk Pederson, watch the video above.