ATLANTA – HP Hotels CEO Kerry Ranson recognizes 2021 as a year of opportunity. Earlier this year, he took the CEO role at the third-party hotel management company he helped found in 2002 after serving as its chief development officer since 2016, and he’s firmly focused on the future.
That means thinking strategically and “staying in the zone” regarding growth, he said.
“Getting through the pandemic, our thoughts were to get the house in order, stay alive, and then from that, see what we could do to be even better,” he said. “We have opportunities now and as we grow, we want to be within a few hours” of the company’s established footprint.
The company operates 25 hotels comprised of 3,316 rooms across limited-service, full-service and lifestyle brands from Marriott International, Hilton, Choice Hotels International, IHG Hotel & Resorts, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Hyatt Hotels Corp. HP Hotels has 1,023 rooms in its pipeline.
Within the next two years, Ranson said he expects the company could reach the 50- to 60-hotel mark, especially now that Ed Robison, formerly with Hilton, joined the company in March as senior vice president of owner relations and development.
Ranson said pockets of opportunity exist in and around markets where the company has a footprint, including New Orleans, Alabama, South Florida and Charlotte.
“From a growth perspective, I’m pretty bullish on where we are, and I feel really confident coming out of the pandemic,” Ranson told Hotel News Now in a video interview held during a break at the recent Hunter Hotel Investment Conference.
Select-service and traditional full-service hotels make up the company’s core portfolio, but lifestyle and soft-branded hotels have become a particular strength in recent years, Ranson said, citing The Troubadour Hotel in New Orleans, part of Tapestry Collection by Hilton.
Today’s guests, whether they’re business or leisure travelers, want some elements of experience, Ranson said, and hotels that can forge good local partnerships and make strong hires, in addition to activating a great hotel, succeed in delivering.
That applies particularly to the hiring aspect.
Let employees “be themselves,” he said. “The days of ‘you’re not going to have facial hair; you’re not going to wear a nose ring; you’re not going to have gauges in your ears’ — that’s something we’ve taken out of our employee policy for that exact reason.”
Ranson embraces change across all facets of hotel operations, including shift scheduling and charging for housekeeping.
“We can’t continue to give things away and expect that … we’re going to make our way out of this when margins have already been tightened beyond belief,” he said.
Watch the video above for more of Ranson’s thoughts on attracting a strong workforce to hospitality and what sort of long-term operational changes are realistic for the U.S. hotel industry.
Video was recorded on May 11, 2021, by HNN’s Stephanie Ricca.