In a sense, the creation of Renegade Hotels is a matter of supply and demand.
The new select-service division from Rebel Hotel Company came from hotel owners asking the boutique and lifestyle management company to operate other hotels in their portfolios.
“We’re boutique lifestyle. We’re doing full-service, branded properties, but we figured there was an opportunity to solve for a problem,” Rebel President and CEO Brian Sparacino said. “The way we set up Renegade Hotels, we call it the tenacious, nimble sibling of Rebel. Same DNA.”
Three companies make up about 80% of the third-party management market share in the hotel industry, he said. This new division is an opportunity to take what makes up Rebel, its operational intensity and strong relationships, and go to the market with something that takes a different approach and uses a different playbook.
The approach calls for the alignment with the hotel owner to make the operations more nimble and less bureaucratic, allowing teams to move fast, make decisions and implement strategies, Sparacino said. Of course, there will be respect for the brand standards set by its partners, but there’s still room for something new.
“There’s the brand standards that apply, for sure, but the music may feel a bit different,” he said. “There’s different parts of the hotel that we’re trying to creatively think about, of how to weave some art in. The scent that’s a little bit different. How to take that scripting and the approach and tie it to the local area and communities where you have this unique authentic feel but you have the consistencies that a brand would deliver.
“We’re trying to bridge the gap between all that.”
Rebel has a guest-facing service program called Service Alchemy, Sparacino said. There’s a person called a chess master who is lifestyle-oriented, and now Renegade has its own chess master who has a lot of branded hotel experience.
“You’re taking both programs and you’re bringing them into the center,” he said.
The company has a leadership meeting coming up within 30 days, Sparacino said. For someone coming to Renegade with years of experience working at a Residence Inn or Fairfield Inn & Suites, they’re going to experience all different types of pull-throughs of creativity. They will sit in orientation and will learn about scripting and different types of guest engagement to create the relationship between the customer and the associate.
There’s going to be a type of exposure that one wouldn’t normally get with another management company that uses the same playbook over and over again, he said.
“It gives you a little bit of creative experience and could sample the DNA from Rebel that made it successful from the initial launch,” he said.
Out of the gate, Renegade is starting with three hotels in its portfolio: the Fairfield Inn & Suites Fresno Clovis, the Comfort Suites Clovis and to-be built Hyatt Place Clovis. There will be a few more hotels in its portfolio announced in the near future, Sparacino said.
The goal is to take a thoughtful approach to growing the portfolio, he said.
“We have no desire to be the largest company,” he said. “I want to say that up front. We just want great partnerships. We want to be able to manage success. We don’t want to get to a point where we’re just overwhelmed and we’re taking on any assignment.”
The management agreement has to make sense and be mutually beneficial for Renegade and the hotel owner, he said. The relationship has to work, and both the market and the property have to click. There also needs to be an opportunity “to install Rebel DNA” through Renegade into the property.
Renegade also prefers working with owners who have a longer hold period on a hotel, Sparacino said.
“We don’t want to get into a situation where we’re just flipping and exhausting a lot of our efforts, a lot of creativity into something that’s a 30- or 60-day assignment,” he said.
Renegade will offer a new option to hotel owners who've worked with the big three operators and want an alternative, which should give it some leverage, Sparacino said.
"Because we're thinking about things differently, it's not difficult to penetrate the space when you have people coming to you and saying, 'Hey listen, we really think you should be here,'" he said.
By remaining consistent and sticking to its core belief that if hotel teams are driving results, they're creating happy customers and relationships, which in turn opens new opportunities.
"That's the smart way to grow your business," he said.