turning offices into co-working spaces . In addition , a discovery center will give guests opportunities to book both on-property and area activities . In fact , a team member calls all guests 10 days in advance of arrival to put together itineraries . “ Those are things we did at the Ocean House where you have 100 rooms and not what you traditionally see in larger hotels like this ,” Hostettler adds . “ Delivering this level of service is going to be important for us . It ’ s part of that curated feel of who ’ s your guest , why are they coming . Let ’ s find out whatever we can about them and pass it along so we can fulfill that experience while they are here .”
While early days for the revived Boca Raton , if recent results are any indication , Hostettler is off to a good start . He says the hotel had its best January , revenue wise , in its history , and February , once the Omnicron virus slowed , was showing good results , including a sellout for President ’ s Day weekend . Rates were averaging in the high-US $ 800s ( the Yacht Club was at more than US $ 1,000 a night ) and group bookings that postponed due to the pandemic were not cancelling – they were moving , as luck would have it , to May and June shoulder months .
“ If we ’ re going to be really successful , we have to start taking all of those groups that were used to coming in the highest season and move them to lower seasons and the shoulder seasons ,” Hostettler adds .
In addition to supply chain issues causing FF & E delays that are being addressed with workarounds , the other big challenge , Hostettler says , to no one ’ s surprise , has been staffing . It delayed some F & B openings and the hotel is paying
Beach Club is the getaway for stylish and laidback crowd , set on half a mile of private beach
The 27-story Tower was scheduled to reopen in May following a US $ 45 million transformation
what he calls historic hourly rates with a bulk of the new team coming from outside the hotel industry . Marketing has even launched a TikTok channel to help with recruiting . “ It ’ s not just a human resource exercise ; it has become a marketing exercise to attract the next generation to the hospitality business ,” Hostettler says .
Looking ahead , Hostettler says stabilization for this enormous project is expected in about three years , and that starts with aggressive budgeting for 2022 at 110 % of 2019 revenues .
More personally , Hostettler says the experience has been a bit
overwhelming as it is very different being a CEO for 1,800 staff spread over 300 acres . “ It ’ s a whole lot less hands on . While I still try to lead from the front , because I think that ’ s important for anyone leading a group of people , you don ’ t necessarily have that luxury of time ,” he says . “ So , I am growing into my CEO shoes . It ’ s a very different experience from anything that I did before , and yet it is so incredibly rewarding … To see how much the team has responded and how quickly they have all embraced this new culture of leisure traveler versus convention traveler – it ’ s been very heartwarming .”
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