Stan Brown took over last June as COO of RockResorts and Vail Resorts Hospitality, with the legacy ski resort management company in the midst of a warm-weather rebirth. Brown, previously Hong Kong-based regional vice president for Marriott International, sees the future for his company as an all-seasons resort operator and sometimes owner. In that vein, new RockResorts are in the ski town of Vail, Colorado, and the Caribbean beach resort of St. Lucia. HOTELS’ Investment Outlook talked to Brown about his goals for the brand. For the complete interview with Brown, download the podcast at hotelsmag.

HIO: RockResorts has a sudden interest in the beach—are you turning your attention away from the mountains?

BROWN: We continue to grow at the base of all the mountains that we operate, from a ski perspective. But we have a great opportunity to be counter-seasonal and develop our warm-weather properties, as well. We will continue to grow in the mountains, but with the Caribbean, with La Posada de Santa Fe and some of our other destinations such as Snake River in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we have a balance there that we can grow the different avenues.

HIO: What is the RockResorts growth strategy in the short- and long-term?

BROWN: In the mountains, we will continue to grow the RockResorts brand at the base of our mountains, in many cases owning our properties. We still have growth opportunity there.

We will continue with our warm-weather strategy, and we know we have opportunities to look at destinations in Mexico, South America, the desert in the United States, and continue to grow the brand strategically—not growth for the sake of growth. We are not looking to have 250 RockResorts. We want the environmental, iconic locations and the right ownership structure to make sure we can handle the right luxury tier.

HIO: With the industry’s enthusiasm for “green,” what is RockResorts doing to stay ahead of the eco-friendly curve?

BROWN: It is not only the right thing to do, it is what the consumer and, in many cases, our hotel guests are looking for. We are ahead of the curve. For Vail Resorts as a company, it has been a focus of ours ever since our beginning.

Specifically for RockResorts, we have green weddings and complement that with our green meetings business. We are launching sustainable cuisine throughout the company. We have an EcoRock Room environmental room program that we are working toward. We are trying to get into something that we can actually execute against—be specific and not just be esoteric. In addition, six of our golf courses are Audubon-certified, and we are going to continue in that process to get all of them certified.

HIO: What differentiates RockResorts from your competitors in the ski and beach resort sectors?

BROWN: The RockResorts brand is directed toward the luxury guest. A lot of that has to do with environment. A lot of our locations are iconic and we use a casually elegant profile—we don’t want stuffy, formal service levels. We want very personal service that is still elegant. A lot of our hotels are boutique size, and our other product enhancements are architecture—they are always unique. We are about being unique and fitting in architecture and style with a boutique feel, and something that is different at each property.

HIO: What kind of 2008 performance do you anticipate for RockResorts? Will you weather the economic storm?

BROWN: What is interesting is our pipeline is very strong right now, even in this economic environment, partially because of, at the luxury tier, the cachet of our resort brand and the equity that it brings to the table. We do straight hotels, we do condominiums in hotels—we do a whole variety of business structures. The pipeline has even grown in the past six months, which is encouraging.

Where we have seen more of an economic impact is not so much at our RockResorts brands, because that is luxury tier, but at the lower price points there has been a little bit more impact. The luxury tier product seems to be maintaining and holding strong, so we are actually going to finish the year quite well. We just came off an outstanding quarter on the mountain side of the business with the ski season, and we look at our warmer climates as we get into the summer.

We are cautiously optimistic. Thus far, we have been able to weather it, and I think as long as you have the right brand and the right product in the market and you are number one or two within the segment that you are operating in, you will continue to be successful. When you miss the guest expectations or what they are looking for as far as service goes, that is when you really start to see erosion of market share. That is not where we are right now.