The fame of Stonebridge Corporations as a distinguished lodge operator has little question been “rock strong” over the previous 30-plus years, however new President/CEO Rob Smith expects to construct even additional on that basis with a robust emphasis on the third-party administration facet of the enterprise.
Smith—a hospitality business veteran with practically 30 years of expertise, together with his most up-to-date place as division president with Aimbridge Hospitality—took over the reins of the corporate in July, succeeding Navin Dimond, who based Stonebridge Corporations in 1991 and has assumed the position of Board Chair for the corporate. In his new position, Smith is charged with overseeing the operations of Stonebridge and main the event and execution of the group’s long-term methods, reporting to its board of administrators.
Though Smith acknowledged he “wasn’t actually trying on the time” when the corporate’s board of administrators approached him earlier this yr to debate the chance to imagine the highest spot for the privately held administration firm, the chance proved too good to go up. After assembly in Dallas for a number of hours with the corporate’s board of administrators, Smith asserted that “each side felt fairly strongly there was a match there.”
Smith went on to debate the attraction of the corporate, particularly referencing distinctive tasks, such because the Renaissance Denver Downtown Metropolis Middle Resort, an adaptive reuse that had been the Colorado Nationwide Financial institution earlier than being changed into a luxurious lodge. “I’ve all the time admired Stonebridge as a developer. I’ve all the time thought that they’ve accomplished a very good job with ground-ups and growth [projects] that they then take over and proceed to handle. So, it’s all the time been a enterprise mannequin that I admired, however turning into extra conscious of them as a third-party supervisor is what actually excited me to change into a part of the corporate,” he stated. To that time, the Denver-based firm not too long ago took its third-party operations up a notch with the acquisition of Actual Hospitality (see sidebar). Now boasting a portfolio of roughly 160 inns—together with select-service, extended-stay, and full-service properties in major and secondary markets all through the USA—the corporate contains two separate entities: a property possession entity and a third-party administration firm. The not too long ago shaped property firm contains 5 wholly owned inns and 10 belongings through which it has coinvested with third-party homeowners. Moreover, in response to Smith, the working firm has some 61 homeowners for which it manages inns. He identified, “Going ahead, the primary goal of the possession entity is to be the car to coinvest with homeowners excited about our administration platform to develop the administration firm.”
Numerous Expertise
Smith is not any stranger to progress with a various background of expertise, together with a number of roles on the property stage, along with spending the previous 12 years with Aimbridge. Throughout his tenure at Aimbridge, he was instrumental within the progress of the full-service, luxurious, and resort portfolio. From a multi-property perspective, Smith famous he began on the backside as an space director earlier than being promoted to govt roles resembling VP, SVP, EVP, and ultimately president. Smith—who identified he acquired his first common supervisor job when he was 26 and labored for some 20 years—talked about his “direct property expertise” and potential to use a few of his background.
“I began on the line stage in inns in school, labored my manner by accounting after which again into operations, and did nearly each job within the lodge. I feel it’s fairly uncommon in our business uncommon {that a} CEO has not solely been by all of the experiences on the lodge stage, but in addition on the third-party [management] stage. So, I feel now that I’m on the CEO stage, I can empathize with all of the completely different positions inside the firm, and I can method my job with an understanding at each stage,” he stated.
Smith’s expertise additionally contains practically 20 years within the Caribbean, the place he held positions at a number of giant resorts and ultimately served the island of Aruba as president and CEO of the Aruba Resort & Tourism Affiliation and Aruba Conference Bureau. “I wouldn’t commerce my time offshore for something. It was an incredible studying curve for me to work in offshore and overseas international locations. Aruba, particularly, has 40 completely different nationalities that dwell on the island. It’s an effective way to construct empathy and work with numerous skillsets and numerous opinions and views. It taught me how one can actually work by constructing a consensus,” he stated.
Whereas Smith credited the corporate’s current tradition with being “excellent” when he arrived, he additional detailed the kind of tradition he’d prefer to instill, which he described primarily as one among “accountability and excellence.”
Smith continued, “I’m very targeted on our homeowners, in addition to our associates, and I wish to make it possible for’s the tradition right here. I simply wish to construct on it and make it very owner-centric and really result-centric in order that we construct each our enterprise and the careers of those who work for us. It type of is a circle of success for my part.
Administration Tendencies
That circle of success has yielded optimistic outcomes, in response to Smith, who famous that many Stonebridge and Actual Hospitality properties have constantly been within the high 25 % to 30 % of visitor satisfaction scores for all the main manufacturers. Nonetheless, he acknowledged among the working challenges that exist in right now’s setting. “
It’s important to be a wiser operator right now than we had been 5 years in the past, and on the similar time the client right now is actually on the lookout for an expertise, not only a place to remain. It’s a balancing act of creating positive that we’re delivering the visitor expertise and on the similar time ensuring that we’re cognizant of the funding thesis and returns which might be essential. … [Performance is] an actual focus already so my job now’s an organization that’s actually good and taking it to nice, and that’s the main target that I’ve,” he stated.
Smith supplied some ideas on how lodge possession has developed lately, significantly in the case of third-party administration and the expectations that include it. “
Increasingly more homeowners wish to be married long-term to the model, however they really need an operator that may be held accountable. So, I feel that the third-party area goes to proceed to develop and develop. We’re even seeing the manufacturers begin to franchise among the larger finish luxurious product, which many thought that they’d by no means do,” he stated.
Lengthy-Time period Imaginative and prescient
Lastly, Smith defined a few of his targets for Stonebridge going ahead.
“My long-term imaginative and prescient is to proceed to be acknowledged because the main third-party operator and to proceed that in a really diversified area. I would like homeowners to think about us once they’re investing right into a lodge as the corporate that’s going to have the ability to efficiently execute their funding plan. It doesn’t matter what their objectives are, whether or not they’re a long-term REIT holder or whether or not they’re any individual who desires to purchase a lodge and switch it round and promote it in 5 years, we wish to be that supervisor for all of them. And we’re one of many few on the market that has entry, curiosity, and the arrogance in co-investing as a result of we all know that we’re going to ship the outcomes for the proprietor and for ourselves,” he concluded.
The ‘Actual’ Deal: Additional Assessing Stonebridge’s Current Acquisition
Energetic on the acquisition entrance inside the previous yr, Stonebridge Corporations took its portfolio to a different stage this previous Might when it acquired Actual Hospitality Group, considerably stepping up the corporate’s presence in distinguished way of life markets, significantly on the East Coast.
Previous to the Actual Hospitality Group acquisition—which roughly doubled the corporate’s portfolio of 80 inns—Stonebridge added a five-hotel portfolio of roughly 1,200 keys in December. Resulting from that deal, the corporate re-entered the larger Phoenix market with the acquisition of the Embassy Suites in Flagstaff, Arizona, and entered each the North Carolina and Georgia markets with the acquisition of the Marriott Analysis Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina, and the W Downtown in Atlanta.
Nonetheless, with the addition of Actual Hospitality, Stonebridge recognized a possibility to broaden its third-party presence whereas diversifying its portfolio.
“If you have a look at the Actual [Hospitality] acquisition, Stonebridge may be very targeted on sensible progress and progress with the precise individuals. We wish to do enterprise with individuals which might be like-minded and homeowners which have the identical objectives and aspirations that we do, and Actual Hospitality very a lot slot in with that. We wish to develop within the third-party area, and so they even have an amazing deal with on unbiased, way of life properties. It actually simply diversified us,” stated Rob Smith, president/CEO, Stonebridge Corporations.
As a part of the deal, Actual Hospitality founder, president, and CEO Ben Seidel has joined the mixed Stonebridge Corporations as chief progress officer and sits on the corporate’s board of administrators. The corporate is sustaining its Ocean Metropolis, Maryland workplace.
“At the beginning, Ben Seidel was only a actually good match inside the tradition of Stonebridge,” stated Smith, who added, “He’s been an amazing accomplice thus far.”
He added that the combination of the 2 corporations continues, and “we’re taking one of the best of two corporations and turning it into one stronger firm.”
Smith additional touted the general personnel of each corporations as he’s settled into his position.
“After I have a look at the deployment of oldsters and the way we handle above property, the very first thing that I all the time have a look at is vertical experience, and we have now that right here each on the Stonebridge facet and the Actual facet. We have now a really numerous portfolio, and we have now the personnel that matches proper together with that vertical experience. So, I used to be very completely satisfied and happy to seek out the expertise that’s inside each buildings,” he stated.
