Destination Hotels and Commune Hotels & Resorts, which merged in January, announced the next step for the combined company: a new name and new roles for the two CEOs.
Jamie Sabatier will be CEO and Niki Leondakis will be CEO of hotels and resorts for Two Roads Hospitality. The Denver-based company includes Joie de Vivre Hotels, Thompson Hotels, Destination Hotels, tommie and Alila Hotels & Resorts and will continue to focus on the independent, boutique and lifestyle hotel market.
In their redefined roles, Sabatier will oversee finance, development and growth strategy; Leondakis will report to Sabatier and oversee financial performance for the hotel properties, guest experience, F&B and design.
“The nice thing about where we are is that we’ve done the heavy lifting,” Sabatier said. “Being able to announce the name puts a bow on the structural work we’ve done to integrate and really allows us to propel forward.”
“Considering my background and Jamie’s background, we really tried to structure this so that we played to our strengths,” Leondakis said. “I’m overseeing the hotel and resort portfolio, all of the property performance. And coming from an operations background, that seems like a natural.”
Two Roads counts more than 95 properties in eight countries and about US$2 billion in property revenues under management. The company’s name is a play on the Robert Frost poem about taking the road less traveled.
“We wanted to come up with a name that really reflected the new company’s commitment to freedom and discovery, away from the tradition of hotels,” Leondakis said. “It’s also aimed at owners, the individuality in way they look at each business and optimize the potential of that hotel.”
Along with Sabatier and Leondakis, the executive team includes Tom Luersen, COO; Todd Wynne-Parry, EVP of global acquisitions and development; Andre Fournier, EVP of sales and marketing; Mark Hays, CFO; and Andrew Arthurs, chief information officer. John Pritzker and Robert Lowe, Jr., serve as co-chairmen. The Denver-based company is co-owned by Lowe Enterprises and Geolo Capital.
Managing the portfolio
“We’re keeping all the brands. No blending, blurring or combining of brands,” Leondakis said.
“We have a robust pipeline although we’re not rushing to hit a target number,” she added. “Our focus is on continuing to evolve and stay ahead of the changing desires of travelers. That speaks to Jamie and I sort of sharing CEO duties, overseeing different aspects of what one CEO might oversee. He’ll oversee growth, and I’ll continue to oversee the management of the portfolio and optimizing performance for owners and ensuring we’re evolving the guest experience to stay ahead of the curve with the way people are traveling and how they want to experience hotels.”
In the past four months, the company opened Alila Anji in China, Thompson Seattle, The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel in Manhattan, and Cliff House Maine, A Destination Hotel in Cape Neddick, Maine. In the next 12 months, it will open projects including the Thompson Nashville; Joie de Vivre properties The Troubadour in New Orleans, Hotel 50 Bowery in New York City and a project in Baltimore; and Alila hotels and resorts in India, Cambodia, China, Sri Lanka and Jakarta, Indonesia. In addition, the company has new hotels and resorts under development in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Austin, San Antonio, Chicago, New Orleans and Kansas City.
“We think that each one of our brands is underpenetrated relative to where they can grow, so while our brands seem to be punching above their weight in terms of the footprint that we have, we think that we clearly have room to grow, so we’re going to continue down that path,” Sabatier said. “We’re seeing tremendous opportunities in Asia as well.”
The integration of two cultures is more complicated. “We’re working on that,” Leondakis said. “One common theme that’s coming through both companies is that people value working with people who are able to come through the heart.” That “from the heart” theme emerged at a meeting earlier this week that included GMs and other executives. “Everybody always feels the obligation to come from the head, and the ability to integrate both is something you have to foster and create an environment where people feel safe doing so. That’s what we do.”