SPECIAL REPORT
Staros standing on the driveway leading to The Ritz-Carlton , Naples
Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , to work for a demanding GM named Horst Schulze . “ He would tell me , ‘ Ed , I only bark at people I truly care about because I ’ m just trying to make you better ,’” Staros remembers . “ I liked that — I liked that a lot and we bonded at Hyatt .”
The next fateful assignment brought Staros to Chicago as the rooms executive under another tutor , Colgate Holmes , who was running the big Hyatt Regency Chicago convention hotel . Holmes asked Staros , then aged 28 , to create his first monthly forecast and he stood tall when he came within two points of the actual result . Holmes , however , didn ’ t quite see it that way , suggesting that coming within twotenths of a point would have been a better place to start . Needless to say , Staros dug in and improved his forecasting skills .
Staros says the exacting Holmes imparted a lot of knowledge during their years together , but one of his favorite Holmes quotes : “ When you look , son , see .” He meant observe everything within the hotel . “ I started seeing the smallest tear on the seam of a carpet and turned it into the maintenance department ,” Staros says . “ I would see one dead flower on an arrangement and called it in . I took his comment and just kept reliving it in everything I saw . I still do today . It was Colgate ’ s influence that gave me that exactness .”
In 1983 , Holmes and Schulze received
Members of the original Ritz- Carlton executive team ( l . to r .): Sigi
Brauer , Joe Freni , Ed Staros , Horst Schulze and Henry Schielein
calls from developer Bill Johnson , who was creating a luxury hotel company originally called Monarch . Both men joined Johnson and shortly thereafter called on Staros to become the first rooms director . He accepted and at the same time proposed marriage to Tricia , who he remains devoted to today .
36 hotelsmag . com November / December 2019