The hotel industry is a tapestry woven from countless stories, each shaped by the unique backgrounds of the people who bring hospitality to life. During Hotel Management’s recent Executive Roundtable, sponsored by Entegra, some of the industry’s top executives gathered to share their origins and how that shaped how they operate in the industry today. The discussion, taking place during the Lodging Conference in Phoenix, allowed these industry veterans to share their personal journeys, discuss the current challenges and innovations shaping the hospitality field, and offer advice for the next generation of hoteliers.
Mixing Passion with Profitability
The hotel industry is one of the most globally diverse sectors, drawing its leadership and talent from a range of cultural, educational and professional backgrounds. People enter hospitality through many paths—some grow up in family-run inns while others transition from careers in finance, culinary arts or even technology. This diversity isn’t just geographic; it spans languages, traditions and life experiences, creating a workforce that mirrors the guests they serve.
David Duncan, president and CEO of First Hospitality, spent the first half of his career in the financial sector before finding out he had fallen in love with the hotel business. “I love the long-term investment process, and what markets look like, what towns look like,” he said. “But what I really enjoy is the spirit of hospitality—I love employing folks and seeing them grow their own careers and what that can do for them and their families.
“I realized I got to see people meet their spouse, have some children and grow up in our business,” Duncan continued. “They moved around the country and [were] successful. That really did it for me—I realized [that] the first half of my life was very antiseptic. With respect to involvement with people, it's all capital markets and transactions and deals. I just love the full living-color services side of hotel business”
Linda Emmenegger, chief operating officer of Midas Hospitality, grew up in the business. Her father was a hotel developer and she went to work for him—against what his plans may have been for his daughter. “I love seeing people happy and motivating team members, and when I went back to be a general manager, I remembered everything I loved in the first place,” she reminisced. “I like the asset-management and the business aspect of the business and obviously my job now is very strategic [and] financially focused. But the part I really love is the associates.”
John Keeling, executive vice president at the Valencia Hotel Group, made the move to Marriott after college, back when the company had only 15 hotels or so—a far cry from the powerhouse it is today. Keeling then transitioned into hotel consulting for the majority of his career before he had thoughts of retiring. Then a client, Valencia Hotel Group, made him “an offer he couldn’t refuse” so for the past 17 years he’s been doing hotel development for the company.
Mary Beth Cutshall, chief growth officer for Vision Hospitality Group, attributed her entry into hospitality to her father, a commercial airline pilot, and her early experiences traveling. “I just remember that feeling of walking into a hotel as a child and … the mystery of the design and the architecture and all these people coming in and playing in the pool. … I just got hooked at a very young age, and still to this day, [I] love to travel the world and be part of that. Unfortunately, now I’m in an office a lot but I still get out to see the world.”
Joseph Bojanowski, president of PM Hotel Group, reflected on his industry beginnings. “I started my hospitality career not very far from here at the University of Arizona and worked for DoubleTree Hotels and Resorts as a marketing intern.” He then traveled to a variety of locations for DoubleTree all over the U.S. before starting a hotel-development business in the Washington, D.C. area with some friends since he knew the operations side of the business.
“It was so much fun putting together deals for the hotels and working with designers and constructing something and hiring people—watching all the success that came,” he said. “I think one of the most rewarding things for me is seeing the career growth and success that our team members have had over a very long period of time. The company is 25 years old now and it's been a pretty cool journey.”
Originally from Spain, Alvaro Fraile, CEO of Azul Hospitality, began his career as a junior revenue manager at AC Hotels after studying business in college. Immersed in a fast-growing environment where AC Hotels was opening 12-15 properties annually, he quickly advanced through roles in management and sales. He was a general manager by age 25 and a regional leader by 27. His experience highlights the industry’s unique ability to offer rapid growth regardless of academic or socioeconomic background.
Following Marriott’s acquisition of AC Hotels, Fraile moved to the U.S., continuing his career with Marriott and remaining passionate about preserving the industry’s experiential essence amid increasing institutional investment pressures.
Strategies for Success
The conversation shifted to how passion is transformed into a profitable business. Emmenegger stressed developing entrepreneurial leaders. “Our goal at Midas is to actually be really entrepreneurial with our general managers, so that we can have that piece of the leadership pie,” she said. “We really want to grow them and allow them to gain some wealth by looking at some partnerships and ownership in our hotels and some incentive programs that actually include ownership.”
Keeling emphasized the strategy of local adaptation and delivering luxury service, even in upper-upscale hotels. “We build an upscale or upper-upscale hotel and deliver luxury service,” he said. “Valencia Santana Road, Valencia Riverwalk in San Antonio—people think they're luxury hotels but in fact they aren’t. We’ve empowered the staff to deliver luxury service. That’s our formula for success.”
Duncan highlighted technology’s role in enhancing the guest experience and operational efficiency, particularly at this new hotel in Nashville. It has a “really cool concert venue and a great restaurant,” but the hotel needed to operationalize the booking experience. “Consolidating the guest experience at the front end through software [drove] an uptake in concert attendance and increased restaurant bookings—meaning capturing that wallet share through ease of technology.”
Phil Hummel, vice president of hospitality and lodging at Entegra, stressed that hotels’ advantage could be technology. “Everyone’s done the research on Gen Z—they want technology,” he said. “They want to make their experience better and easier when they visit a town. I think hoteliers could use that to their advantage more when they cater to that guest.”
Multiple participants recognized technology as a double-edged sword, offering both gains in efficiency and potential challenges for the core human touch. “I think it’s a balance,” Fraile said. “You want to welcome technology to make things more efficient … but there’s always going to be guests that want the experience and the service level.”
“Where can we just use AI or the technology to take some of that very repetitive analytical work out and do most of the work for them … freeing up their time to spend it with our associates or our guests?” Duncan asked.
Hummel noted the cost efficiency of technology. “We have a digital platform that, at the point of purchase, allows them to see how much they can save by choosing a contracted item,” he said. “Our clients save 10 to 15 percent that way.”
Bojanowski summarized the purpose: “For us, a success factor has been the ability to attract, engage and retain associates … When you create value through that [human element], you can charge for it and then people keep coming back.”
Food & Beverage: Innovation at the Core
With shrinking margins, the panelists shared both creative and practical approaches to food and beverage. Cutshall recounted a recent experiment. “We opened up a brand-new Embassy Suites about a month and a half ago,” she said. “We actually brought a strategic partner and third-party food-and-beverage operator to come in and manage the food and beverage because of the complexity with it and their ability to position beverage like a freestanding restaurant versus just doing the same old, same old.”
Fraile observed trend shifts. “The brands have been becoming more and more flexible in allowing hotels to be creative,” he said. “You have to create a destination-restaurant feel. You do have to have that credibility and that record with [the brands], but they’ve been a lot more lenient recently.”
Keeling highlighted the power of local relevance. “We spend a lot of time understanding the market and really building each hotel to the marketplace,” he said. “Every one of our hotels embraces the market in a visceral [way].”
Looking ahead, Fraile cautioned about profitability. “When you have banquets and you have bars, it hides a little bit of how unprofitable a restaurant can be. Maybe it is going to be at a 25 to 30 percent profit. Maybe it’s going to be in the teens. You have to be comfortable with that for the restaurant itself.”
Career Advice for the Next Generation
The session concluded with seasoned advice for young professionals. Fraile urged patience and breadth. “Get a lot of horizontal steps to get the full experience at a hotel before you try to grow in title. You’re a better candidate if you have a well-rounded experience.”
Duncan encouraged appreciation of the human side. “Appreciate the humanity that we have in our business, and how that can really be a gift in our day. It’s a fun business. We should enjoy it more.”
Emmenegger distilled a lesson in balance, particularly between work and home life. “I think I missed a lot of things, and I think I would have done just as good of a job if I had worked [fewer] hours and not kept trying to prove myself.”
Bojanowski summed up wisdom that resonated across the group. “Have more fun and take a moment to enjoy some of the successes that we experience and the people along the way. … Perfection is a great aspiration and a bit of a journey, [but] don’t be so hard on yourself when you don’t achieve it every time.”
Hospitality is, at its core, a business built on people—guests and staff alike. As the discussion made abundantly clear, the industry’s future will be shaped by a blend of innovation and tradition, data and heart, technology and human connection. For those aspiring to thrive in hospitality, the lessons from these leaders are clear: Cultivate your passion, embrace change, invest in people and don’t forget to enjoy the journey.
This article was originally published in the January edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.