PERSONALITIES
Daniel Hostettler became president and CEO of The Boca Raton in 2021 .
The original 261-room hotel , opened in 1926 as The Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn , adjoins a 400,000-square-foot conference center .
borders .) But , said Hostettler , his lieutenants ’ decision to move was “ motivated by what motivated my own move : to replicate and expand on our Ocean House success on a much larger scale with more resources and visionary ownership .”
The transformation has been dramatic — what was in ways a standard convention hotel , albeit one with an amazing pedigree and stunning original Addison Mizner architecture , was turned into five distinct properties that are now open for business after a firstround renovation of more than $ 225 million that began in the first quarter of 2021 and culminated in the reopening of the iconic Tower in November 2022 .
But a hotel is far from just brick and mortar . And the question became , how do you unify and elevate guest service standards across five distinct properties ? To answer , Hostettler takes a cue from a hospitality luminary . “ I ’ m an adherent of the Danny Meyer principle that you can have styles of service that vary across an organization , but you never want to have different levels of service ,” he said .
STAR TREATMENT In service of this , Hostettler chose , as he ’ s done in the past , to use the Forbes Five Star standards as his north star —“ a very rigorous and unblinking north star ,” he said . ( Hostettler dolefully recalls a time earlier in his career
50 hotelsmag . com June 2023