Author: innfreehotels

Innisfree Poised for Growth in 2017

As we enter a brand new year, Innisfree is growing – and so are our opportunities.

In 2017, our company has the opportunity to open new hotels in such desirable destinations as South Beach, Atlanta, San Antonio, Amelia Island and New Orleans.

It’s no secret that all of these locations fit our niche of resort markets. As major franchise companies reach out to Innisfree, entrusting us with new properties under their hotel flags, it also speaks highly to the quality of our operations.

Innisfree will open six new hotels in 2017, while adding at least four new managements contracts to our portfolio in the early months of the year.

“These opportunities are coming at us a million miles an hour,” says Vice-President of Operations Jason Nicholson. “It just goes to show that opportunities are available to those who have the passion, and have done their homework to be ready.”

To prepare for these new opportunities and the accompanying challenges, Innisfree has spent the past two years modeling how to scale our operational, marketing and development processes in order to take over new properties, particularly during a very intense 2016, when we assumed operations of five hotels.

We have refined both our hotel takeover and new hotel opening checklists, so we are now equipped to take on at least ten new properties in 2017.

Nine of those ten hotels need to be fully staffed, with an average of 40 teammates per hotel.

We have to build teams, build business bases, build websites – all at locations that are currently just brick and mortar. It is our job and our distinct privilege to bring these hotels to life, so our guests may have the opportunity to create fun, memorable experiences with us.

What makes this most exciting is we’ll need new GMs, new management teams, new maintenance crews, new housekeepers, new accounting managers – everything. This is an excellent opportunity both for internal and external candidates. (To those already working for Innisfree with the passion, now is the time to express interest to your Regional Director.)

Here’s a breakdown by numbers. In 2017, we’re adding 1,200 hotel rooms. That means:

• Purchasing 80 new housekeeping carts
• 1,300 new uniforms
• 320 nametags
• Filling 8 swimming pools
• Buying 700 new pool lounge chairs
• Programming 32 new computers

In addition to the new properties, we’ll also undergo a full renovation of our Hilton and Hampton Pensacola Beach, Hilton Garden Inn and Holiday Inn Express Orange Beach.

“As we mature as a company, we realize the importance of capital expenditures at all properties, keeping them fresh for our guests and our franchises,” Nicholson says.

To achieve this, the operations team will shift the responsibility of renovations to Innisfree’s Development Department, helmed by Director of Development Rich Chism. These are our builders, our designers, our contractors – this is what they do and they do it better than anyone in the industry.

As we grow bigger, so do our resources. To that end, we have worked hard to create new support systems for our managers.

While our development team seeks out new opportunities, our in-house marketing team determines how best to promote and maintain strong relationships with every property, Finance ensures our growth is responsible and sustainable, Human Resources works to seek out new candidates while supporting current employees, and our corporate culture becomes stronger.

In 2017, Innisfree welcomes the Intranet, allowing us to connect, collaborate and easily access resources such as SOPs and partners at other properties.

“In the formative years of Innisfree, oftentimes available cash flow was allocated strictly to the operation and growth of the business, with not a lot left over to improve the physical product from year to year,” says President Mike Nixon.

Between the oil spill and subsequent recession, we were in crisis mode.

“Now that those are behind us,” Nixon says, “we’re redirecting those resources back into our hotels, while investing in new properties to grow the future of Innisfree.”

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

New hotel will transform hotel offerings in popular tourist destination

On Friday, Jan. 13, 2017, Innisfree Hotels celebrated the topping out of its newest coastal property, the Hampton Inn & Suites located at 15505 Front Beach Road on Panama City Beach, Florida.

Facing the Gulf of Mexico, the hotel will contain 182 rooms within walking distance of the premier shopping and retail complex Pier Park. Hotel amenities include a beachfront pool and hot tub, fitness center, bar and hospitality room, dune walkover to the beach, Gulf-front boardroom and breakfast seating, a three-level parking garage and elevated pedestrian connector bridge.

The project is slated to open in Summer 2017.

A ‘topping out’ is a traditional ceremony marking the completion of a structure to its highest point, when the top steel beam is placed upon the roof. During the celebration, guests were treated to musical entertainment and lunch.

The Hampton Inn and Suites will be the newest hotel in the market, unlike any other offering on Panama City Beach, a popular Florida tourist destination.

“With two other Hampton hotels along the Gulf Coast, we are delighted to bring the flag to a beachfront site on Panama City Beach,” says Julian MacQueen, founder and CEO of Innisfree Hotels. “We hope the hotel’s beautiful custom design and amenities will attract families and business travelers alike to Northwest Florida.”

The new Hampton Inn & Suites is a joint venture between Innisfree Hotels and Stonehill Strategic Capital, two companies with substantial hospitality experience. Robins & Morton serves as General Contractor, with Design Architect Philip Partington of SMP Architecture, Architect of Record Larry Adams of BTA Architects, Interior Designer Adrian Caradine Contract Design, Landscape and Pool Architect WAS Design and Civil Engineer Choctaw Engineering rounding out the team.

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

Dixon Holiday Luncheon

On Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, Innisfree Hotels treated scholars and staff of Dixon School of the Arts to a holiday luncheon at the company’s Hilton hotel on Pensacola Beach.

Watch a video of the event here.

The arts-based school located in West Pensacola has long been a project of significance to Innisfree Hotels – even before the company formally established a corporate social responsibility program called The Hive in 2015.

During the festive luncheon, children from Kindergarten through middle school performed a medley of holiday songs for the packed ballroom, before enjoying a gourmet lunch and a visit from Santa. The scholars were each presented with a wrapped toy – in addition to another very special gift, made possible by countless community donors.

This winter, Innisfree Hotels initiated a Winter Coat Drive for Dixon.

Through a series of community events and fundraisers that included partnerships with Pensacola’s Kil’n Time pottery studio, The Wine Bar on Palafox and Newk’s Eatery, the company raised more than $7,300 – enabling them to present toys and warm coats emblazoned with the Dixon logo to all 131 scholars, who otherwise may not have had the proper outerwear to get through the winter.

In addition to the toys and coats, Innisfree was able to purchase every item on the school’s Amazon Wish List, like supplies necessary to help the children succeed. Dixon teachers were presented with gift certificates from Innisfree’s Fusion Spa Salon on Pensacola Beach.

“It means so much to everyone at Innisfree to be able to make this kind of impact on these young scholars, throughout the school year but especially at Christmas,” says Innisfree founder and CEO Julian MacQueen, who was in attendance, along with his wife Kim, a founding member of the Dixon Board. “Watching their faces light up reminds us all of the magic and wonder of childhood – and the privilege of letting children be children as long as they can.”

For more on Innisfree’s involvement with Dixon, please visit The Hive.

Honey in the Garden, Innisfree Hotels

There is now a real hive in The Hive of Innisfree Hotels.

On Thursday, November 17, 2016, Innisfree welcomed students and community members to celebrate its first honey harvest at Pensacola’s ‘From the Ground Up’ Community Garden, a project of the hotel company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program, The Hive.

Buzz on over to this sweet video for the full experience.

Students from Dixon School of the Arts, Episcopal Day School, University of West Florida and Pensacola State College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society were on hand for the celebration, featuring a honey spinning demonstration by garden beekeeper, Dan Killingsworth. Lead Gardener Elizabeth Eubanks led the students through garden chores and responsibilities throughout the event.

Beekeeper Dan explained the process of making honey through a series of demonstrations using both a natural hive and a Flow Hive, which was purchased by Innisfree’s founder and CEO Julian MacQueen and placed in the garden in the spring.

The Flow Hive was invented to make the honey harvest easier on both beekeeper and bees. Frames are inserted vertically, allowing the bees to produce honeycomb on both sides. When it is time for the harvest, the beekeeper ‘breaks’ the honeycomb, allowing the honey to flow out of the hive, straight into jars.

There were lots of lessons to be learned. For instance, the third graders from Dixon were curious about the smoker that sat next to the hive.

Dan asked, “How do you think bees talk to each other?”

One scholar answered: “Bzzzzzzzzz.”

With a laugh, Dan explained that bees communicate through touch and smell. When alarmed, they produce a pheromone inducing a riot in defense of the hive. The smoke covers up this pheromone, and helps to calm the bees.

Other questions revolved mainly around bee stings, and whether Dan has become accustomed to the bites. (He hasn’t.)

They talked about what defines an insect, where bees come from, how you become the Queen, and if in fact, there is a King Bee. (There is not.)

Of the opportunity to connect with students from elementary to college, Dan says, “This kind of thing sticks with you more than a lecture. You can smell it, feel it, participate in it … after all, isn’t that what real learning is?”

Becca Carlson was on hand from Pensacola State College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, who recently donated a hive to ‘From the Ground Up’ garden.

Part of their Honors in Action project, she explains, is to explore engineered versus natural products. Bee Conservation in Northwest Florida was this year’s theme, and having worked with the garden, they chose to donate the hive after using it for display purposes.

“We’ve seen the garden grow from its summer refreshment to the honey harvest this fall,” Carlson says. “It’s an incredible place for students to learn and grow.”

Following the Flow Hive, students were invited to watch the harvest of naturally produced honeycomb, many participating in removing the waxy parts with a knife and placing the frames in the chamber, which spins to yield its sweet elixir.

Naturally, the celebration culminated with a taste of fresh fall honey and chewy honeycomb.

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

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‘From the Ground Up’ Community Garden is a project of Innisfree Hotels’ The Hive. To learn more or get involved, click here or e-mail Jill Thomas at jill@innisfreehotels.com.

Innisfree and Native American Tribes

In 1991, Founder and CEO of Innisfree Hotels Julian MacQueen got a phone call from a fellow member of the Baha’i Faith in Hollywood, Florida.

Her name was Cindy Holmes. The wife of the man who created the boogie board, she was a “surfer chick and a real big-hearted kinda gal,” according to MacQueen.

Holmes had a landscaping business. Her greenhouses sat on Seminole tribal land, and she was in talks with Chief James Billie. He told her about a piece of property that he and 12 other federally recognized tribes under an organization called the United South and Eastern Tribes, or USET, held in Nashville.

USET wanted to build a hotel on the land, along with an office building and a cultural center where visitors could experience the native peoples’ culture and habitat.

Holmes told MacQueen the tribes had been ripped off by several white developers, and they wanted to know where they could find an honest one.

MacQueen, who had relocated from Tennessee to Alabama, initially thought the project wasn’t central to what he was trying to do with his newly established company. He didn’t know the Nashville market well, but the land turned out to be directly across the street from the only hotel he had built there.

It seemed like a sign, so he looked into it further.

“This was not a good time to try to build hotels,” MacQueen says. “It was very early in my career. It only had two or three hotels. I was not a good risk for a bank to take on as a hotel developer.”

Baha’is have a belief that America will not reach its full potential until Native Americans are equally recognized economically and socially. So the first thing MacQueen did was meet with Holmes and Jack Guillebeaux, who would later become Director of Culture for Innisfree Hotels.

“I thought it would be cool to promote the tribes,” MacQueen recalls. “None of them had money at the time, since it was before legalized gambling began on tribal land. And I didn’t have any money either, really. I just had some experience building hotels … and I was honest.”

Before forming a formal partnership, MacQueen wanted to make sure he wasn’t falling into the same stereotypical relationship of a minority and a dominant white male, where he would drive the relationship while they would be subservient.

So he met with the head of the USET organization and the executive committee, made up of the Chiefs of all 13 tribes.

What they did next was quite remarkable.

The group set about drawing up a treaty, stating they were all equals and ensuring the dignity of the Native American people would be recognized and honored as a guiding principle of the partnership.

Guillebeaux worked on the treaty with the Chief of the Iroquois tribe, a fact of interest to MacQueen, who notes the Iroquois influenced the Declaration of Independence.

To this day, the treaty hangs at the Innisfree office:

Next, they set about finding the money to build the hotel and cultural center. After visiting more than 20 lenders and receiving more than 20 rejections, MacQueen finally secured funding from a Savings & Loan in small-town Indiana.

The hotel was a Best Western with 80 rooms. Next to it, they built a 40,000 sq. ft. Class A office building, the Calumet Center. It was all glass, so the surrounding forest was reflected in the building itself.

The master plan incorporated 10 acres of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land next to the Percy Priest Lake and Dam, where visitors could experience each tribe’s habitat in the form of a walking museum. From the hotel, guests could stroll from village to village through representations of each tribe.

The location was one exit down from Opryland theme park, a great driver of tourists. Eventually, when Opryland closed, Innisfree sold the hotel but retained the office building – where USET is still housed, along with Indian Health Services (IHS).

That was 22 years ago.

Now, two decades later, many of the tribes have casinos – like the Poarch Creek of Atmore, Alabama, who paid off the $200 million Wind Creek Casino and Hotel in just three years.

In 2009, when Innisfree was under contract to build the Hyatt Place Pensacola and the Holiday Inn Resort Fort Walton Beach, MacQueen reached out The Poarch Band of Creek Indians, original members of USET.

“They were trying to diversify their investments beyond gaming,” he says. “They were looking for somewhere to put their money, and because of our history in Nashville, we were the first they went to.”

Since that time, Innisfree and Poarch Creek have built two hotels, as well as the upcoming Hilton Garden Inn Fort Walton Beach – partnering on nearly $100 million in new projects over five years.

“What’s important is how we started the relationship,” MacQueen notes. “It was very one-sided and we were very aware we had the opportunity to take advantage and be unjust in how we did it … we chose not to, and 20 years later it came around.”

Here at Innisfree, we believe if you earn a person’s trust, they will return it. This is especially true with Native Americans, in light of their history with the white man, yet it resonates with all people.

If someone believes in you, they will want to do business with you.

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

Management Training Program, Innisfree Hotels

The training platform at Innisfree Hotels has been in development for years. When Andrea Case joined Innisfree as Director of Human Resources in 2015, she immediately identified the company was growing and needed leaders.

Together with senior leadership, Case worked to create the Management Development Program. Ultimately, the program will have three tiers:

Managers in Training – line-level employees who show potential

Managers in Motion – managers who need to refine certain skill sets

Executive Training – leadership training in fostering a team, coaching and mentoring

A huge proponent of internal promotions and succession planning, Innisfree wanted to create a platform that would prepare top-performing employees who had the potential and dedication and drive – but not necessarily the experience – for a leadership role.

“There’s an intrinsic, intangible value to having individuals grow up with Innisfree,” Case says.

Ironically, the first two individuals to come through the program came to Innisfree from outside the company. Nicole Klimkowski, a graduate of hospitality management, and John Rockett, who earned his degree in business – both impressed senior leaders, who invited them on board.

Klimkowski was attracted to Innisfree’s focus on hospitality and giving back to the community, and the fact that it is a growing company with vast opportunity for personal and professional development.

“Being in the first ‘class’ of Managers in Training was, and is, still nerve-wracking at times. More often than not it was due to me expanding beyond my comfort zone,” she says. “I could not be more thankful for the guidance and extra push from my peers, because without them I wouldn’t have learned nearly as much as I have for the duration of this program.”

During their year as Managers in Training, Klimkowski and Rockett have helped write the curriculum for the new program.

The pair have gone through six- to eight-week rotations through each department, beginning in housekeeping because it is the most difficult position in a hotel, according to Case.

In each rotation, they have learned technical, management and systems skills, spending the first two weeks performing the job, two more with the assistant and the final two weeks with the executive leader.

Managers in Training rotate through Housekeeping, Front Desk, Maintenance, Food & Beverage, and Sales. The capstone rotation is three months with an Assistant General Manager.

“The biggest thing I want them to gain from each rotation is to understand how their decisions in that department impact the property as a whole,” Case says. “They learn the mechanics, so when they are in a management position they will have a knowledge and appreciation for what their employees are doing on a daily basis.”

At Innisfree, you never ask someone to do something you’re not willing to do yourself.

Klimkowski and Rockett have performed interviews, disciplinary actions and even terminations. As new projects arise, they may be assigned to a property that provides the greatest learning experience. They have spent time with local hosts, with regional managers, on revenue calls and in culture sessions.

“Because of this program, I’ve been able to combine the best attributes I’ve seen across the different properties to create my own style of management,” Rockett says. “I don’t think people realize how critical learning from the ground up can be.”

The goal, but not guarantee, at the end of the 15-month program is a full-time line-level supervisor position with Innisfree Hotels, such as an Executive Housekeeper, Chief of Maintenance, Director of Sales or Food & Beverage Manager.

“They can pursue their passions,” Case says. “One thing that endears me to Innisfree is that wherever your passions are, that’s what we know you will do well in.”

The future of the program will depend on the rate of growth at Innisfree. Historically, the company has grown so quickly it has promoted standout employees who have never been managers, missing the opportunity to give them the skills they need to succeed, Case explains.

She calls to mind a line from Thomas More’s Utopia: “We create the thief, and then punish him.”

No more.

The Management Development Program of Innisfree Hotels will create a new generation of leaders.

“They will come out of this program with a network greater than most managers, who often do not have ongoing conversations with their counterparts at other properties,” Case says. “Our new leaders can take the best of the best and carry it with them.”

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

By Jason Nicholson, Vice-President of Hotel Operations

At Innisfree Hotels, our job is to create fun, memorable experiences.

Our mission in life – not just at work – is to make people happy and to serve others. It really is in everything that we do.

With that in mind, we intentionally seek out opportunities to engage our guests, while identifying opportunities to mitigate any concerns that may arise. We, as experts in the art of Excellent Guest Service, strive to remain aware of both positive and negative guest interactions before they occur.

Why do we seek out these opportunities? Well, all of us at Innisfree got into this business because we love serving people and we always prefer to help create positive experiences. However, if a guest in our hotels has a poor experience, we’d like to know about it sooner rather than later, so we can act on it quickly – creating a bond with that particular guest such that they become a lifelong advocate.

One of the tools in our guest engagement ‘toolbox’ is the Aloha Program.  

What is the Aloha Program?

The Aloha Program is an initiative specifically designed to identify and solve potential problems before they exist – and to react to existing problems to the guest’s satisfaction immediately (and extraordinarily).

We don’t want to do what everybody else is doing … we want to do a little bit more.

The program was developed originally by General Manager Gina Dudley of the Hilton Pensacola Beach. A native of Hawaii, its name is derived from the Hawaiian word Aloha, which has deep meanings – among them hello, goodbye, I love you and I want to be with you.

Our program was designed from an investigation of trends and data points specific to guest complaints. For instance, we found in our research that the No. 1 complaint guests have before they arrive at a hotel is their room type.

Oftentimes, when a guest books a room that has the word “beach” in the name, they perceive that the room is naturally going to be on the beachfront or facing the beach. We found this to be a very tricky complaint to attempt to solve at the Front Desk during check-in, at the very start of the guest experience on the property, when available inventory is at its most limited.

Three Steps of the Aloha Program

Step One: Call all reservations three days prior to arrival to confirm room type. This gives us an earlier opportunity to adjust the room type if available or to help guests find accommodations that will best fit their needs, even if it’s not in our hotels. This connection is profoundly powerful, and the properties that are committed to the calls have seen a drastic drop in guest room location complaints.

Step Two: Historically, what hotels are known for is calling the guest 30 minutes after they check in. What can you learn in 30 minutes? At Innisfree, we took that call one step further and elected to call the morning after check-in. At that point the guest has slept in the bed, connected to the Wi-Fi, interacted with staff and more. With our ‘Good Morning Call’, we strive to open the door for real connection, making the guest comfortable enough that they will tell us how we can improve their experience while they are still on property.

Step Three: If in the process of ‘Good Morning Calls’ or any other guest interactions we hear a concern or a complaint, it’s the role of the team at the hotel to note that concern in the Service Recovery Log. We collect limited information such as time of day, guest name, location and person who received the call, as well as the person to whom that individual delegated the recovery. We then identify a window of time in which they will call the guest back and ask the guest one very simple question.

“Have we solved the problem to your satisfaction?”

Let’s face it – if I ask one of my teammates to correct a problem and they report it has been corrected, that in no way suggests the guest is satisfied. Those are two different issues. We will set ourselves a notice to contact the guest and make sure they are happy with our corrective action. Follow-up of the guest’s satisfaction is the most important action of the Service Recovery Log.

Going the Extra Step

The Aloha Program also features a recovery tool for every property. Every teammate at Innisfree is given a virtual $200 credit to use for any guest for any reason, as long as it is specific to service recovery.

If we get a call from a guest in Room 202 that the air conditioner is not working, every hotel would be expected to fix the AC and ensure the guest is happy with the repair. At Innisfree, we are obliged to dip into our $200 credit to do something extraordinary for that guest … something so remarkable that they will remember the effort to make things right more than the problem that first started the interaction.

In other words, we’re not only going to fix the air conditioner, but we are also going to make our guest feel special and appreciated. This could be as simple as a handwritten thank you card for letting us know that the problem exists to a fresh bouquet of flowers with an apology from the maintenance person or anything in between.

The underlying intent of the Aloha Program is to create opportunities for us to welcome our new and old friends into our home and eliminate any obstacles to creating and enjoying positive, memorable experiences. We know that guests we make connections with, who are willing to afford us the opportunity to fix our issues or problems, will ultimately become our best friends and advocates.

In the future, they won’t be coming to our hotels … they’ll be coming to their friends’ home to enjoy their business travel or vacation.

– As told to Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

By Mike Nixon, President

In its current form, profit sharing at Innisfree Hotels is our founder and CEO Julian MacQueen’s vision for a company that supports its employees and gives back.

This is deeply rooted in his Baha’i Faith, but also in his leadership style. Giving back is fundamental to who Julian is.

Once a year, profits are shared among eligible employees. When I participate in distributing the checks, I make sure I let all of those people receiving checks know that they are responsible for the size of the check.

Anything that they do in the course of their daily work life contributes to those checks being larger or smaller.

Protecting resources is one way to increase profit sharing. It all adds up.

For example:

• If an employee sees a leak in a storeroom and they report it before that leak ruins the room, that’s contributing to profit sharing.
• If they make a guest’s stay better or address a problem in a positive way so the Front Desk doesn’t have to give a refund, that’s contributing.
• If, in turn, those guests go out and speak highly of our hotels and their friends and family come stay, that also contributes to profit sharing.

When Innisfree employees are focused on completing their tasks every day, that’s contributing.

We have to police ourselves, as well as our co-workers. For instance, it’s not uncommon in larger hotels that someone could clock in and disappear for 8 hours. If you know that’s happening, and you talk to the person or report it, you’re minimizing the impact and contributing to profits.

It’s worth noting that I believe Innisfree Hotels is the only hotel management company in North America that does profit sharing.

It feels good to share with the people who make our properties shine.

Hotel Company Plans to Renovate and Reinvigorate Popular Battle Creek Business Hotel

Innisfree Hotels has assumed operations of the McCamly Plaza Hotel located in Battle Creek, Mich. Adjacent to a shopping and dining complex and in close proximity to major corporations and attractions, the hotel is a popular stop for business and conference travelers.

Now under Innisfree management, the hotel will undergo a $3.5 million renovation and begin conversion to a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in the first quarter of 2017. In addition to the renovation, Innisfree is planning a complete rebranding of the hotel’s on-site restaurant.

“Innisfree Hotels is proud to be part of the Battle Creek community,” says Jason Nicholson, Vice-President of Hotel Operations for Innisfree Hotels. “Our company has a history of not only improving businesses through our management practices, but also positively influencing the local economy and quality of life.”

The 239-room hotel features the following amenities:

• Indoor Swimming Pool
• Valet and Self Parking
• High-Speed Internet
• On-Site Restaurant
• 25,000 Sq. Ft. Meeting Room, Including 4,900 Sq. Ft. Penthouse Event Space

The McCamly Plaza hotel is owned by Neil Freeman, Chairman and CEO of Aries Capital. Originally built as a corporate hotel for Kellogg Corporation, the property still enjoys an intimate relationship with this and other Michigan-based industries.

“Innisfree Hotels will take intentional steps to foster these relationships to make McCamly Plaza the hotel of choice for corporate travel and meetings,” Nicholson says. “We’re very excited to see the improvements that will allow the hotel to better serve the local community and its long-standing corporate partners.”