LOS ANGELES — Amid the headwinds the hotel industry faced in 2025, Jason Kreul, chief operating officer at Remington Hospitality, said the third-party management company is focused on cost management and expanding in promising markets including the Caribbean.
Last year, Remington underwent a series of leadership changes, with Ben Perelmuter joining the company as CEO in May. Perelmuter named Kreul COO a couple months later. In an interview at the recent Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Kreul spoke of the workforce evolution for Remington.
"We inherited a great group of very talented people to work with. Success in this business is always about great talent," he said. "We had some open positions when we first came on board, and we were able to find some talented people outside the organization to come join us."
With the team now in place, Kreul said Remington is focused on where it can grow, and at least geographically, that's the Caribbean and Latin America.
"From a growth standpoint, we've been leaning in heavily to the Caribbean-Latin America market, and we've had some great opportunities that have come our way there," he said. "We've delivered great results for a lot of different owners, and there's still a lot more opportunity for great operators in the Caribbean and Latin America, and we just need to continue to capitalize on those opportunities."
As some of the headwinds for hospitality continue into 2026, Remington has been able to control costs, which is increasingly challenging across energy and labor, he said.
"There's really no company in our industry that manages costs better than Remington. And so if you couple that focus with great performance on the top line, you know it's going to translate to higher [net operating income] on the bottom," he said.
Even with the added challenges, Remington outperformed its competitors on market share, growing revenue more than other operators in "just about every market" they operate in, Kreul said.
Revenue per available room "growth is still going to be a challenge. The teams with the best strategy are going to win," he said, adding that pushing average daily rate will be one strategy Remington employs.
For more from Remington Hospitality's Jason Kreul, watch the video or listen to the podcast embedded above.