Julian Tucker joined the Andaz West Hollywood hotel as general manager just one year ago but has already made a lasting impression.
Tucker described his first year as leader of the 240-room property as a "juggling act." However, his leadership style of leaving no stone unturned has proven to be a success at a time of uncertainty.
"My method, in terms of my leadership style, has always been, No. 1: making sure that we're all protected, people are safe and healthy. And of course trying to make sure that spills over to the guest experience," he said. "I send out weekly videos to all the team members giving them an update on what's happening in the city [and] with the company."
The Andaz West Hollywood has been on a bit of a roller-coaster ride during the pandemic, as the hotel industry recovers and amid restrictions imposed federally and by the state of California. Tucker said the hotel began to bounce back in the second half of 2021.
"Omicron put a little bit of a wrench in January unfortunately, with slowing some business travel a bit, but we really think we're going to have a relatively good year. We're going to hopefully get some of that international travel back — it's so critical to us," he said.
With a driven leader comes a team that outperforms.
"I couldn't be prouder of my team. They've really hung in there, and I feel very blessed and fortunate to be able to lead such a great group," he said.
Because maintaining health and safety is a priority for Tucker, he said about 99% of the on-property team is vaccinated against COVID-19.
A Focus on Celebrating Community, Culture, Diversity
Tucker's passion for enriching the hotel through its surrounding community has led to "bringing the outside in" via partnerships with local businesses.
A recent partnership he's proud of was with Band of Vices art gallery, which created a gallery on the second floor of the hotel.
"It's a Black-owned art gallery here in LA and we partnered with them as a way for us to give people the opportunity that would not normally go to an art gallery," he said. "They put some phenomenal artwork up there from three women. We called it SHE'd."
For February, another local artist is partnering with the hotel to commemorate Black History Month. An artist for March is already lined up, too.
Additionally, the hotel partners with three minority-owned vendors. The most recent addition is Napa, California-based winery Brown Estates, which is the first and only Black-owned winery there.
These partnerships "are something we continue to go after, [director of sales, events and marketing at Andaz] Terrance Frederick and I. It's top of mind, we're held to a standard. So not only is it something that we're held to from a corporate responsibility standpoint, it also is something that we fulfill on the local level. My director of finance and purchasing are always on the hunt to look for local businesses to partner with and make sure we're fully representative of the community which we serve," he said.
Tucker said having a workplace culture that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion is "critically important" at Andaz West Hollywood. In addition to his role as general manager, he's a chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corp.'s Hyatt Black — a diversity resource business group at Hyatt — and is a chairman of the West Hollywood Small Business Foundation.
"Being a Black man myself, I take this one very, very seriously and to heart. It really starts from the top," he said. "Our company [Hyatt] has been a leader in the industry of not only having DE&I be this catchphrase that everyone's using ... it's about understanding that a diverse team is a better team and allows us to operate more effectively," he said. "That's how I try to cultivate things around here."
When hiring new talent, Tucker said he requires his human resources director to bring a diverse pool of candidates.
Outlook for 2022
February is expected to be a winning month for the hotel, he said, as the 2022 Super Bowl takes place in Inglewood, California, which is just 17 miles from Andaz West Hollywood.
"There's a lot of excitement around that; we have a buyout with Budweiser for that week," he said
Tucker anticipates a pickup in travelers arriving from Australia, which is its No. 1 feeder market in that region.
"They haven't been able to travel for the past year and a half but we're starting to see some really positive bookings coming in the summer months. We hope that will continue ... as things continue to ease up, we feel pretty good about this year," he said.