Academy Design Co. CEO Nicholas Delgado is set to attend the 20th Hotec Design, an annual conference presented by Questex Hospitality, the parent company of Hotel Management. At the conference, buyers meet one on one with hospitality-focused suppliers like Academy Design to learn about new products and services and to keep up to date on emerging trends.
The company started in 1991 as Academy Awning. Over the following 30 years, it evolved with market demands to supply cabanas and other kinds of shade structures, operating for some years as Cabanas by Academy. In 2021, Delgado acquired the business and became its new CEO. Today, the Montebello, Calif.-based company has approximately 40 employees and handles a wider range of design aspects, including fabric, welding fabrication and wood applications. “We do technically still do awnings, but we are trying to steer away from that and mainly focus on cabanas and daybeds,” marketing coordinator Vanessa Lopez said. “We wanted to mainly focus on partnering with architects, builders and contractors.”
Delgado was interested in acquiring the business, he said, because he saw an opportunity to “enhance the human experience” through cabanas and daybeds. A cabana, he explained, balances being outdoors in public with a “deep sense” of privacy: “I get to be outside, I get to be around other people, but I'm also having a private experience.”
The Academy team also learned from its hotel customers that guest spend in a cabana is often greater than in a poolside lounger or a poolside chair. “People spend the entire day in a cabana, and when folks in a cabana are having a good time … and hanging out with friends and family, they're consuming more services of the property,” Delgado said. A good cabana, he explained, both elevates guests' perception of the hotel or the resort and encourages them to take advantage of food-and-beverage options and other amenities.
With a new name, a new logo and new leadership in place, Delgado said the Academy team is looking to be “very, very intentional” about its design relationships with customers and helping those customers clarify their design intent—“and helping them think about how their design intent can be manifested in the structures that we build.” Delgado believes the core value that Academy provides to the customer is thought partnership around creating the experience inside the structure. “A lot of what we've done in the last 18 months is spending a lot of time thinking and studying the user experience inside. … Thinking about the materials that we're using, and the sustainability of those materials, and how it all kind of comes together so we can make a compelling experience for the end user at the property,” he said.
Ultimately, Delgado said, the owner of a hotel or resort can take 100 square feet—a 10-foot-by-10-foot structure—and transform how people feel about the entire property.
The Academy Design team has participated in previous Hotec Design events. “It's always been a great opportunity for us to connect with our existing customers and to develop new relationships in a way that we can't in other venues and other forums,” Delgado said. “Hotec is very unique in its ability to have conversations that don't only cover essential parts of business. What's really powerful about Hotec is it allows us to unlock other parts of the relationship that, at surface level, may be indirect but then ultimately can heavily influence the direct business relationship.” Delgado plans to bring an Oculus VR headset to Hotec to showcase the company’s latest models in virtual reality.
The 2023 Hotec Design conference will take place June 19-22 at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz. Registration is open for both buyers and suppliers.