Long in the making as he worked side by side with John Belden, Thom Geshay, who has spent 33 years with the firm, has been promoted to CEO of leading third-party manager Davidson Hospitality Group, effective January 1, 2022. Belden, Davidson’s longest-serving CEO, will remain actively engaged as executive chairman, as well as a member of Davidson’s board of directors.
Since joining the company in 1988, Geshay has ascended through the ranks, becoming chief operating officer in 2016 and president in 2019.
Davidson projects to end the year with approximately 70 hotels, representing over US$1.8 billion in normalized portfolio revenue. Currently, Davidson has 66 existing hotels and resorts; more than 165 restaurants, bars and lounges; and nearly 1.5 million square feet of meeting space across the United States. It works with brands ranging from Hilton, Hyatt and Kimpton, to Marriott and Margaritaville.
HOTELS talked to Geshay exclusively last week to find out about his new brief and what he sees as most important for Davidson moving forward.
HOTELS: How will you lead differently than John Belden?
Thom Geshay: I’ve been at Davidson over 30 years now and president for a little over two years. So, I’ve been very involved in both the strategy and the direction of the company for quite some time. I don’t anticipate any major shifts in the direction with this promotion. In fact, we’re in the second year of what is a five-year strategic plan that we put together, and we intend to stay the course with that… That said, I do have my own style, which is different than John’s, and I’m going to be my own leader. I’ll follow my heart and stay true to my values and the company values.
John is a very careful planner and I tend to operate a little more on feel. But, that said, in 30-plus years of working together we can finish each other’s sentences. So, there’s probably more similarities than there are differences.
H: What’s at the top of your to-do list?
TG: My to-do list is heavier at the top right now than it is at the bottom. We need to be focused on two main areas – employee retention, satisfaction and company culture, and property performance. We’ve grown our HR team and have an entire training, development, recruiting team that didn’t exist a year ago. We’ve gone all in on making sure that we’re providing opportunities for employees so we can we can maintain them.
Although things have improved with performance, we’re far from being out of the woods here on COVID. So, we’re making sure that we’re learning from some of the efficiencies and things that we’ve done over the past year, and seeing how many of those we can pull forward as business improves because we must find a way to cover for the rising labor costs and rising cost of goods, and making sure we’re still providing a good bottom line.
H: Let’s go a little deeper on performance. What are you doing to grow GOP for your owners?
TG: On the revenue side, COVID has been a good laboratory because we’ve been able to take some chances and see where the sensitivities lie. Are there opportunities to charge for some additional amenities or opportunities to really push rate and maximize that? One of our core values is greatness requires risk. We’re taking some risk on the revenue side to see if our customers have an appetite to pay a little extra for some things, not just in the room, but ancillary revenues around the properties.
H: What has worked as you try to grow ancillary revenue?
TG: We have a renovated resort with a brand new, incredible pool experience… If you just want to grab a chaise lounge or a chair it can be challenging. At peak times we’re adding a fee if someone wants to reserve a chaise lounge. It creates a little bit more revenue and there is a value for the guest. But we also have to be careful not to charge for things that don’t create value.
H: Talk about the state of your pipeline.
TG: Our pipeline has been really strong. We’ve seen good growth even while the markets are in turmoil. In fact, some of our best years of growth have been during major market disruptions… We’re fortunate to be in a position that we can play long ball as we are a financially solid companies and well capitalized and able to add the resources to make sure we can service the properties until such time as the revenue comes back. But with nearly 50 years, Davidson has reputation of strong performance. Many groups are coming to Davidson because they know they’re getting a best-in-class operator.
H: Where are you finding deals and what types of deals are showing up the most?
TG: That’s been the part that’s probably been the most challenging now. However, we don’t set a target for growth. We try to stay more focus on making smart deal. So, we’re picking our spots carefully. Pivot, which is our independent and soft branded operating vertical, and Davidson Resorts, which we launched earlier this year given the current economic environment, are seeing the greatest deal volume… I also think we need to watch the large, full-service branded assets that tend to be more dependent on corporate travel and have felt a lot more pain. The valuation on those assets is a little more difficult to figure out, but we believe there’s going be some good value in that segment, at a certain point in time. It isn’t here today because people aren’t certain how to value them, but as business starts to improve a little bit, some transactions will happen in that space. So, we’re keeping our eye on those.
H: What are owners asking for right now?
TG: As business levels ramped back to normal, there’s going to be an expectation for some margin expansion. Frankly, there needs to be, because we’ve got to combat rising labor costs, which is a runaway train that we’re all trying to contain right now. But we can’t stop it now, and the cost of goods is also going up. So, we’re going to have to continue to work and be creative on doing more with less, and maybe that where some of the technology and training comes in… We’ve launched Davidson University to help teach our all our team members in every discipline how to be more efficient at what they do.
H: Where do you look for inspiration?
TG: I’ve been at Davidson for 33 years now, and the last 18 months has probably been the most challenging of my career. I’ve learned a lot of things I hope I never have to use again… But the truth is, I’m kind of a hotel junkie – I just love hotels. Even when I’m not working, I tour hotels and look for ideas. It probably drives my family crazy because we’ll take a vacation and I’ll be walking hotels half the time, dragging them through. I have thousands and thousands of pictures in my phone – things that I see that are inspiring me. I just have real passion for it.
H: What is the best piece of advice you’ve received to prepare you for this role?
TG: There are two people that give me the best advice and, frankly, they’ve given me great advice their entire careers – John Belden and Steve Margol, our chief investment officer. The three of us have worked together for over 30 years and they’ve been great partners, friends and mentors throughout my entire career. Steve always tells me just like it is – he’s a real strategic thinker, very perceptive on business trends and really watches market influences… John’s been the CEO for the past 16 years. So, he’s the only one that really knows the job I’m about to step into. John and I have been planning for this transition for quite some time and have had a lot of one-on-one time over the past several months to share thoughts and ideas. He’s been very open, and I’ve been extremely open with him.