Hotel operators got a pass, but now they’ll be held accountable for performance
Jarrad Evans is the Chief Investment Officer for Remington Hotels, which manages more than 120 branded and independent hotels. In his role, he works closely with hotel owners and investors to help them get the most out of their properties.
Owners drive change in hospitality
In Jarrad’s view, owners are the most important driver of change in hospitality.
“It all starts with owners, and management companies need to be the best possible steward of their hotel assets. We do this by really getting to know owners and their investment thesis – what they want to get out of their hotel investment. Through this, we discover a wide range of desires on how we should execute the business plan and operate their property.”
Operators unlock value
Jarrad has seen many times where a change in ownership for a hotel leads to a change in operations – and that change in operators unlocks value.
“We’ve taken over assets that are about to undergo massive renovation and repositioning. We’ve taken over independent hotels and had them flagged with different brands. We’ve overseen the change of brands on a property. We’ve supported design and construction with our team in concert with the owner. At the end of the day, operators are responsible for the hotel property and investment.”
“Operators had a bit of a pass”
Unlike in the pre-pandemic era, Jarrad hasn’t seen a lot of management turnover recently that was not tied to some sort of transaction.
“A lot of operators had a bit of a hall pass throughout the pandemic, quite frankly. But now we’re starting to see more management changes by owners because as the industry recovers, those who can maximize market share and performance will be rewarded.”
“Now that the industry is coming back, operators will be held accountable for performance. That makes me very excited.”
Remington Hotels focuses on several areas to succeed in this era of accountability.
Delivering performance through better staff-hotel ratios
For Jarrad, the ratio of support staff to hotels that Remington manages provides them with an advantage.
“We have more than 270 home office team members covering 120 hotels. Specifically, our regional operations and commercial teams have among the lowest ratio of properties to staff in the industry.”
Remington aims to have only 10 hotels overseen by each Regional Director of Operations, while the industry average is closer to 15-25. “If you think what that means in terms of the time and attention and the value we can provide each property, you can see where it makes a difference.”
Delivering performance through focusing on financials
Remington‘s focus on delivering financial results is also a priority.
“We’ve always been a very commercially-driven organization and very aggressive in driving topline revenue. That said, while we are very top-line driven, having been an owner-operator in the past, we have an extreme dedication and focus on cost control. We have operating models that allow us to manage labor effectively, and we leverage proprietary technology systems and tools that give us an advantage.”
Delivering performance with technology
“One thing I am very excited about that we’ve been working on for several years is a proprietary business intelligence tool called Remi. It’s a customized version of Microsoft’s PowerBI, and it provides our owners with 24/7 live access to reporting. We pride ourselves on being a very transparent company, and this tool provides owners full transparency of their property’s performance.”
Owners are looking for innovation through technology, Jarrad observed. “By investing in the development of Remi, we can make better decisions in real-time and be more nimble than our competitors, whether it’s adjusting top-line strategy or labor contracts. I can tell you that platform alone has helped us win multiple management deals.”
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