OPERATIONS
The Alchemy Suite at The Chemists’ Club Hotel in New York, which Crestline began managing this year.
Aaron Olson, EVP of operations, has been with Crestline since 2017. make it more difficult to eke out profit.“ The brands have been more flexible. They understand the profitability pressures. If an owner can’ t make a branded hotel profitable, they’ re not going to brand it,” Carroll said.
Carroll tries to sidestep the notion that his naval background doesn’ t inform his leadership style and maneuvering of the company. But it’ s inescapable.“ There are no points for second place,” he said, literally
invoking a famous line from arguably the greatest fighter-pilot movie ever,“ Top Gun.”
“ My edge is always: We have to win; whatever it takes. If you’ re second, you’ re losing,” he said.“ A culture of mediocrity isn’ t good enough; maintaining market share isn’ t good enough; you need to be growing market share, be number one in your market and hold that position.”
How it accomplishes that coveted position is a function of on-site operations and
The Westin Washington National Harbor, just a short way from downtown Washington, D. C.
corporate strategy. Drawing from his fighterpilot past, Carroll employs debriefings to assess both successes and hiccups.“ You have very thorough briefs where you go into a mission and when you’ re done, no matter how well or poorly it went, everybody gets in a room to debrief,” he said.
Rank is insignificant in these sessions.“ If you messed up, you should expect to hear from everybody else in the room,” Carroll said. One of Carroll’ s reports, whose mistakes are few, is EVP of Operations Aaron Olson, now eight years with Crestline. One of the things he is most proud of at Crestline is its low rate of churn, a continuity that is sometimes lacking in the traditionally peripatetic hospitality industry. In the years Olson has been with Crestline, he hasn’ t lost one regional VP. One of his main focuses is food and beverage, so much so that Crestline is in the process of hiring a VP of F & B, explicitly with a lifestyle background, a segment where Olson believes hotels can truly be inventive.“ F & B is moving away from traditional banquets and catering being the largest component,” Olson said.“ We’ re seeing restaurants and bars becoming much more important, driven by the rise of lifestyle and soft-brand hotels,”
46 hotelsmag. com Sept / Oct 2025