“Be passionate about what you do, serve others with love.”
This core value is the motivational force that has propelled Davidson Hospitality forward for 50 years now—and it was the conversation starter at the Hotel Business roundtable held at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Bethesda, MD.
Sponsored and hosted by Davidson Hospitality, the executive event brought together industry leaders for a high-level discussion about the spirit of giving and the hospitality industry’s proactive approaches to creating a positive impact on society—as well as creating best practices to engage employees in this important mission.
What is the industry doing to give back? The 90-minute conversation centered on all the good that is being done by the industry to care for team members and the communities in which they have hotels.
Christina Trauthwein, VP, content & partnerships, Hotel Business, moderated the discussion that featured Thom Geshay, CEO/president, Davidson Hospitality Group; Mark Hoplamazian, CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corp.; Liam Brown, group president, U.S. & Canada, Marriott International; John Cohlan, CEO, Margaritaville; Leslie Hale, CEO, RLJ Lodging Trust; Jim Merkel, CEO, Rockbridge; Kevin Carey, interim president/CEO, AHLA; and Pam Landwirth, CEO, Give Kids the World.
Davidson’s principles of love, character, integrity, how you do business and how you treat others, have remained consistent throughout its five decades, according to the company.
“We have a lot of long-term employees in our company,” said Geshay. “I think that matters because they work hard so they don’t let each other down. I work hard. I don’t want to let those people down because I love them. They put so much effort into producing what we do for our owners, brands, clients and our team members. That is a lot more powerful than someone with a bigger title saying, ‘Just do this.’”
Culture is a core value of Davidson, and Geshay noted, “We can’t do what we do without all of our team at every level—and the last 50 years through up cycles and down cycles, through pandemics, the dot-com bust and great recessions, we’re proud of that longevity. But the culture piece matters so much because people will work harder if they don’t want to let their coworkers down.”
That type of culture is important to have a successful company. “If you ask Mr. Marriott, our chairman emeritus, he would say it is all about culture—providing a culture of opportunity, growth and development,” said Brown. “You have to have people who want to work every day for you. Those are the most successful companies over time. It has to be culture—there is some kind of magic to it.”
Having Jimmy Buffett as a founder and incorporating his life philosophy as inspiration helps put employees in the right state of mind for Margaritaville, said Cohlan.
“The people who work for our company feel a little bit like there’s a higher purpose—underscoring that ‘vacation state of mind,’ which aligned with the brand,” he added. “The employees feel like they are providing that, and that’s true of this industry. We always emphasize that this is a career. There aren’t a lot of industries where you can start at the grab-and-go and work your way all the way up.”
Hyatt’s Hoplamazian stressed that culture is extremely important, but purpose also plays a part. He shared a question he has posed during several meetings he’s had with employees at all levels of the company: ‘Why does Hyatt exist, and why does it matter?’
“It is really about us,” he said. “Would the world be a better or worse place if we didn’t exist in it? Culture is the way it comes to life daily. For us, purpose has been something that people have related to. Our purpose as a company is to care for people so they can be their best.”
He emphasized that the company uses the word “care” instead of “serve,” adding, “There is a huge difference between the two because you have to practice empathy in order to care for someone. People means all people, not just guests.”
With guests staying at a hotel for a variety of reasons, from celebrating a wedding, being on a business trip, seeking medical treatment at a nearby hospital or attending a funeral, the staff needs to “meet people where they are,” said Hoplamazian. “The guests’ lives don’t start or stop when they come through the doors of the hotel. We’re sort of a guest in their lives, as opposed to them being guests in ours.”
He added, “Culture is tantamount. I think purpose actually ends up giving you an extra boost of rocket fuel.”
The culture of care and love that so many companies in the industry live by has spread beyond guests and staff to the communities they serve, and the participants shared how important that is.
Rockbridge has done business with Davidson for 30 years, and Merkel jumped at the chance to be a part of the roundtable. “We share values,” he said. “Those values are giving back. It is not enough just to do well. We want to make a difference.”
Rockbridge has given back in a major way, as the company founded RTRX in 2012, an event that has raised more than $7 million for cancer research.
“The way we can really make a difference in people’s lives is by engaging them and giving back. We have made it a cornerstone of what we do,” said Merkel. “What we found early on is that the business benefit to that aligned everyone in the organization. They shared the values, people were engaged and people got to know each other in different settings to be close across the company.”
Margaritaville’s Cohlan said that giving back makes people feel good, especially those working at its properties. “It makes people feel better, which is certainly an encouraging, wonderful thing,” he said. “If you give people an opportunity to do that, it creates pride in what they do.”
Working in the industry long enough, everyone can find amazing stories of giving back. “I think it is a combination of top-down and bottom-up,” said Brown.
He spoke of Marriott employees’ responses following the wildfires in Maui. “What they do at the hotels is remarkable,” he said. “They step up if something happens and they do the right thing. It is all about creativity on the ground, as people make that happen.”
While so much of the giving back and caring for guests happens on the property level, the corporate level encourages it. “You set the tone of ‘We have to be good stewards, and we have to help our communities where we do business,’” he said.
He pointed to an example of leading from the top when Bill Marriott, who was in his 70s at the time, spent the day painting homes for Habitat for Humanity. “He led by example,” he said. “That really translates to others.”
Hale said that at RLJ, the company has a unique responsibility because of the diversity it represents within the industry.
“A lot of what we do is focused on giving access,” she said. “When you look at the population of people who are in the properties, a significant portion of them are women and minorities. What we try to do is make sure that we teach them a path forward. People talk about the opportunities, but when you look at the top, there are still not many women or minorities.”
The company is very focused on the pipeline of future leaders and creating opportunities for those who may not have had the chance before—and teaching them certain skills that can help them in their future careers, including teaching kids to play golf. “We know that a lot of deals and opportunities are done on the golf course,” she said.
One of the things that is great about the industry, Hale said, is that when she has asked others to help, they have done so, including those who have helped themselves.
“You have to see it in order to believe that you can do that,” she added. “We need to be a living example and live the values.”
Merkel agreed with Hale, adding, “I love the idea of the intentionality of access because I am a big believer that people just getting in a room will see that what we do is taking rockets to the moon. They realize they can do it. Getting people who might not have been on that path together is huge in creating that pipeline of people who can see it as a career.”
Give Kids the World, an 89-acre nonprofit resort in Kissimmee, FL, which provides critically ill children and their families with week-long wish vacations at no cost, is one of the recipients of the industry giving back. It was founded by Henri Landwirth, a longtime Florida hotelier and Holocaust survivor. Davidson has been a partner with the organization for 30 years.
“We are slightly different, but we do run a resort,” said Pamela Landwirth. “How I like to share it is: You will try to create the perfect guest experience so your guests will continue coming back. We have to create the perfect guest experience because our guests can’t come back because they only get one wish. Everything we do has to be perfect while they are there.”
One thing that she said was important is that, as a nonprofit, her responsibility is to “help our corporate partners do well so they can continue doing good. You have to do well to do good.”
While the industry does all these great things, not everyone outside of it knows. That is one of the reasons Davidson decided to partner with Hotel Business to convene the roundtable.
“What we all do for our guests, team members and for the communities where we are seems to get lost a lot,” said Geshay. “It came to light for us after the pandemic, when we lost so many team members and we tried to get them back. It got all of us thinking about trying to raise awareness of our industry and what we do, and how we can make careers—not just a job, but a career. It made of consider how we give back—not just the tax dollars we pay to the communities we are in, but how our teams can lean into the cities and towns they are in, making lives better for everybody.
Carey said that the AHLA is working to get that story out as much as possible, adding, “AHLA has been able to marshal the programs, investments and examples of what you do at a corporate level and that your employees do at a property level.”
Capturing and amplifying what the industry does is an ongoing mission for AHLA. “The supply of these types of stories is limitless,” he added. “Just to hear these conversations and focus on the role we can play to consolidate and share these stories is inspiring.”
He pointed out that one of the things that is easy to love about the hotel industry is an event like this roundtable.
“You have longstanding business partners, industry peers and competitors around the table who come together and focus on what’s good for the industry and for guests,” Carey said.
Look for comprehensive coverage of this roundtable event in the July/August issue of Hotel Business.
