LOS ANGELES—Attendees at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit this year will not only find themselves in a new city after several years in San Diego but also in a distinctive three- layered property that houses a JW Marriott at the bottom, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the middle and a Ritz-Carlton Residences at the upper levels.
The multibrand hotel, which opened in 2010, is a centerpiece of the US$2.5-billion L.A. LIVE sports, residential and entertainment district and sits across from The Los Angeles Convention Center. ALIS attendees will check into a property where the first 21 floors comprise an 878-room JW Marriott; floors 22-26 the 123-room Ritz-Carlton; and floors 27 to 54 the 224-condo Ritz –Carlton Residences.
It’s all staffed by approximately 700 employees and presided over by Javier Cano, who holds the title of GM for all three operations. If an owner of a Ritz-Carlton Residence has a problem with the water pressure, Cano might get a phone call. In fact, Cano might get a call if anything goes wrong anywhere in the hotel or residential building.
The way it works involves a combination of resources when possible, but separating them to maintain brand integrity is no easy task. What helped from the beginning, Cano said in an interview with HotelNewsNow.com, was that he got the job several years before opening, giving him a chance to figure it all out.
Delegating tasks
The differences begin on arrival. The building has three entrances—one for each destination—and a total of 36 elevators and escalators. There is one driveway for the JW Marriott; and another one for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Ritz-Carlton Residences.
“Each area of the building has a group of dedicated experts,” Cano said. “For instance, dedicated staff works at the arrival areas of the JW or Ritz-Carlton. For other areas, like maintenance, engineering or security, that staff is responsible for the entire building.”
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Food and beverage, not surprisingly, gets tricky. There is one executive chef and one F&B department for the building. A single, in-room dining team serves all three hotels, as does one main kitchen, where all room-service food is prepared.
However, Cano said, “There is a chef for each of our two restaurants, WP24 (a Wolfgang Puck restaurant) in the Ritz-Carlton; and LA Market at the JW Marriott. And each restaurant has its own kitchen.”
There is a hotel manager dedicated to the JW Marriott and one to the Ritz-Carlton. On the housekeeping side, there is one leader for all three operations but dedicated housekeepers for each brand.
Some amenities and services are specific to each brand, including three fitness centers (the largest at the JW Marriott, to which Ritz-Carlton guests and owners have access). Owners of Residences can use their own spa or the one at the Ritz-Carlton; guests at the JW Marriott also have access to the Ritz-Carlton spa.
Melding cultures
All those physical operations are one thing, but melding three cultures that aim to be distinctive is an even greater challenge. “Among the most difficult things we do every day,” Cano said, “is to maintain the individual cultures, including at the Residences. It is not an easy thing to do. We have great ladies and gentlemen on our staff, and it helps to start with them. Everybody gets a full week of orientation, and we don’t allow anybody to interact with guests until we feel they are fully prepared to deal with any possibilities.
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“Each organization is steeped in its own culture and that is reflected in little things that happen along the way,” he added.
Staff name tags, Cano said, do not carry the name of any brand. “We seek to train everybody in all brands, even if they are not going to overlap in their duties,” he said. “We try to drill down to individual transactions with guests and individual connections. There is a sequence of service for each brand, and it’s critical for us to understand how to act depending on where in the building an associate is at a given moment.”
Since this kind of facility represents new ground for Marriott, Cano said operations are constantly tweaked. “When we bring new people in, we tell them that we will never say that we have always done something a certain way. We are always open to change,” he said.
During daily staff meetings, there will be lineups for individual brands, and sometimes for all brands. “If there is a conflict, we might have to choose one brand’s approach over the other,” he said.
Brand separation is more boldly drawn in selling and marketing the hotels. “From an external point of view, JW Marriott is a big convention property and Ritz-Carlton is a small luxury hotel,” Cano said. “They have different customer bases. If there is a citywide meeting, they might have VIPs in the Ritz-Carlton. In terms of focusing externally, as far as sales and marketing, we target those separate customer bases. Each of the three brands has dedicated salespeople.”
On top of marketing three lodging brands, Cano said it’s his job to market the destination. AEG is the single owner of L.A. Live, which includes the hotel complex, movie theaters, the Staples Center, retail, restaurants and more. “If you have a group or convention,” Cano said, “it’s not only the hotel you’re buying.”