Innisfree Hotels Supports Youth Development at YMCA

Innisfree Hotels, YMCA NWFL

There’s no need to feel down. Pensacola, Florida is getting a new YMCA.

At Innisfree Hotels, we believe in strengthening communities. That’s why Innisfree has supported the YMCA of Northwest Florida‘s youth development programs for the past five years.

The YMCA of Northwest Florida hosts an after school program for 12 area schools, where 40 percent of the families whose children attend are unable to afford the cost of the program, according to executive director Michael Bodenhausen.

“Last year, we gave out right at half a million dollars in subsidized programming, and each business including Innisfree that has donated makes a big difference in the lives of those youngsters,” Bodenhausen says. “These kids need a place to stay after school, one that is safe and educational, with a focus on health and wellness.”

At the day camps, after school programs and in swimming lessons, the YMCA provides those opportunities so parents don’t have to worry about their children when the school day ends and can stay at work to provide for their families.

“We have physical activities, because unfortunately those are being cut from the school system, and we teach kids what is good to eat,” Bodenhausen says. “We have tutoring, as we are trying to get all kids to an appropriate reading level. And we have fun while we’re doing it.”

The new Y – a 52,000 sq. ft. facility with 4,200 sq. ft. of rehabilitation and 9,000 sq. ft. of fitness space – will celebrate its grand opening in January 2017.

It will feature a gymnasium and two pools, one therapeutic, with the only slide in the region for persons with disabilities. An elevator will lift children and adults to the top of the slide, so those who have never been able to utilize a slide can enjoy the experience.

In addition to an annual sponsorship of youth programs, Innisfree Hotels Director of Development Rich Chism gave his time and energy during the initial planning stages of the new Y, including a great deal of help with the RFP and design process.

Mike Nixon, President of Innisfree Hotels, met with Bodenhausen regarding operations and instilling a sense of guest engagement throughout the organization.

“Innisfree believes in the Y’s goal to provide opportunities to youth for growth and development regardless of their income or background,” Nixon says.

Bodenhausen says now is the time to join the YMCA of NWFL, as current members can lock in the current rate for 18 months after the new facility opens.

To learn more about the YMCA and youth programs, please visit the YMCA website or call (850) 438-4406.

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels 

Innisfree Hotels Accepts ‘Employer of the Year’ Award from The Able Trust

Innisfree Hotels, Able Trust Award

On Friday, June 17, 2016, Innisfree Hotels accepted the Employer of the Year award from The Able Trust, a public-private foundation of the Florida Legislature issuing grants for programs to help persons with disabilities prepare for successful employment.

The Able Trust endows youth programs which provide career development and transition to students with disabilities, including the Escambia High School/High Tech grant administered by Goodwill Easter Seals of the Gulf Coast.  

Ronald Rivera, who manages the local program, nominated Innisfree Hotels for the prestigious award for its successful partnership at the Holiday Inn Resort on Pensacola Beach, Fla., where youth work side-by-side for several weeks with maintenance crews learning basic hotel maintenance procedures and practices.

The partnership evolved over time, with Rivera reaching out to longtime friend Jason Nicholson, Vice-President of Innisfree Hotels, to ask him to share his story of hard work at the Escambia Boys Base. Once Nicholson met the boys, he was moved by their willingness to improve their lives. When asked to sit on the program’s Business Advisory Council, he agreed.

“It was organic … from two childhood friends to two adults that wanted to give back to youth who would benefit from our services,” Rivera says. “Growing up, Jason and I had many friends who could have benefited from a partnership like this. We saw many friends get lost to the perils of not having proper leadership.”

Nicholson, in fact, comes to this partnership from a place of experience. At one point in his own youth, he says, he was that young man.

“I clearly remember the sense of helplessness I felt … even worse was the feeling of worthlessness that I had failed myself and my family by putting myself in that position,” Nicholson says. “In my opinion, if we do nothing more than to give these young men hope and love, then we’ve done 90% of the work to help them guide themselves to future success.”

Today, Nicholson feels grateful to have found success with a company like Innisfree, whose founders Julian and Kim MacQueen have enabled team members to support a triple bottom line approach to corporate social responsibility, working for profits, the planet and – most importantly – people.

It is understood throughout the company that there is no higher honor than to give of one’s self to the service of mankind. This program fits perfectly well within that belief, according to Nicholson.

The Escambia High/High Tech program serves the youth of AMI Kids in a residential Florida Department of Juvenile Justice facility at the Escambia Boys Base onboard NAS Corry Station, where they benefit from mentorship in teamwork, problem-solving social skills and more.

On October 27, 2015, Escambia High School/High Tech signed a memorandum of agreement with Innisfree Hotels to provide job shadowing opportunities for youths with disabilities, leading to a certification in Hotel Maintenance accepted throughout the industry.

As a result of this partnership, one program participant has been hired as an Innisfree employee.

Innisfree Hotels brings years of hospitality experience to program training at the Holiday Inn Resort, striving to help youth become employable by teaching skills they can use for years to come.

“Not only do we offer an opportunity to teach employable skills, we offer an environment abundant in trust, respect and support,” says Nicholson. “We deeply care for these youths and work hard to make them to feel valued and worthy. We want them to know that they have a place in our world.”

Rivera says the world of service industry can help shape the future of young lives by giving them the opportunity to see first-hand how a great company operates and treats its employees.

“Innisfree is saying to our youth, ‘We believe in you,’ when very few have,” he says. “Our youth have made mistakes in their pasts and often this starts them down the road of further failure, but when someone steps up and says, ‘We care about your future,’ this can have a positive impact. When a company does this, it can change a community.”

Of the nomination, the program manager says, it was a simple choice.

“We could not have asked for a better partner,” Rivera says. “When we thought there was no more to gain from this partnership, we were given new ideas about how to service our youth. When we thought our youth were alone in the world, we found out others cared.”

On behalf of everyone at Innisfree Hotels, Nicholson says:

“Our greatest reward, above all others, is to see the smiles on the faces of those young men … to see their heads pridefully lifted high knowing that someone took the time to teach them. We admire the sacrifice of time and energy these young men make to achieve this big step toward a more positive future and hope this will be the catalyst for many, many more of those brave steps.”

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

Innisfree Builds Hotels – and Houses

Innisfree Hotels, Habitat for Humanity

Innisfree Hotels may best be known for building hotels on beautiful beaches. Yet the hotel company is also building community – through donations to nonprofit organizations near its headquarters in Northwest Florida.

Since 2012, Innisfree has helped Pensacola Habitat for Humanity build more than 36 houses for families in need through a Florida tax credit program by which local sales tax stays local.

The program has been around since the 1980s, according to Habitat’s Director of Corporate and Community Relations Sue Evans. Habitat for Humanity began using it in the late 90s, and the local office in 2002. Since then, the organization has benefited from over $11 million in donated sales tax receipts from companies like Innisfree, whose $1.6 million contribution amounts to 13.8% of the money available in Escambia County through the program.

In the 2014 program year, Evans says $3.2 million came to Habitat in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, for a total of 17 percent of the monies available statewide.

“People talk about our tax money going to Tallahassee, but this is a way for us to see it again,” Evans says. “Our legislators have to fight to pass it each year.”

Innisfree Hotels is among the top tax credit sponsors of Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, building 32 houses in the last four years, with another four on the horizon.

By law, the tax credit program requires a commitment of 200 volunteer hours. If a company is unable to pledge its employees to fulfill them, Habitat can find other companies, or retired and military volunteers to complete the work days on its behalf.

Yet even before construction begins, there’s a lot of time that goes into completing applications, cutting checks and making occasional calls to the Department of Revenue. That’s what makes sponsors like Innisfree so special, according to Evans.

“Julian MacQueen and Brooks Moore have the ‘busy-ness’ of running their business, and yet they do this so the community can benefit,” she says. “It means a lot. I love the tax credit program, I love the companies that participate … and I love Innisfree.”

Moore is thrilled for Innisfree Hotels to be a part of this life-changing program.

“I can think of very few things that are more rewarding than helping local citizens and neighbors realize the dream of home ownership,” he says.

In June 2016, Innisfree’s Chief Marketing Officer Jill Thomas sat on the panel of Habitat for Humanity’s Community Summit to share a presentation about Corporate Social Responsibility.

Innisfree Hotels formally established a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in 2015 called The Hive, a busy place for the Innisfree family to connect with each other while doing good for others.

“At Innisfree Hotels, we are committed to bettering the communities where we live and work, leading by example to inspire other companies to do the same,” Thomas says. “The tax credit program benefiting Habitat for Humanity is a wonderful opportunity for local businesses to enhance quality of life right here at home.”

After all, what is more important than home?

To learn more about the program, please visit the local Habitat for Humanity website.

To learn more about the CSR program of Innisfree Hotels, please visit our Hive webpage.

– By Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

Back in Topeka: The Rent Every Room Story

The Rent Every Room Story, Innisfree Hotels

Here at Innisfree Hotels, it’s really a big deal to rent 100 percent of your rooms.

Most brands consider occupancy full at 95 percent. But the way we see it, there’s very little effort involved in renting one more room.

Back in 2002, we had a Best Western in Perdido Key with a lobby and two blocks of guest rooms, 50 rooms each.

One had a roof that leaked badly – right over the top of Room 225.

The cost to fix it was $50,000. The hotel room in question only made $12,000 a year.

Simple economics were not in favor of the roof repair.

Still, it rained inside the room every time it rained outside the room.

I wanted to hit 100 percent occupancy, so I cut a piece of painter’s plastic to lay over the top of the television and credenza when it rained.

And you know what? That room sold every single night for two years.

There was a group of locals who knew they could have the room for cheap. If it started raining, all they had to do was cover the TV and credenza. I essentially made a poncho for the furniture, and it worked.

From the day I made that decision until 2004, Room 225 was rented every night. For $25.

At Innisfree, full is full.

We always have the theory that every room is worth something.

One problem we encounter is when desk clerks or GMs say they don’t want to rent it.

But it’s not up to us to determine whether room is rentable. It’s up to the guest.

Most of the time, you’ll find you can get rooms rented.

Even if it’s raining inside.

Bottom line: Rent every room. I challenge people to give me a reason they can’t.

The only acceptable excuse? The guest doesn’t want it.

(Or we’ve run out of painter’s plastic.)

– By Jason Nicholson
Vice President, Innisfree Hotels

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ABOUT ‘BACK IN TOPEKA’
In order to have a great future, we must celebrate and learn from our incredible past. The Innisfree Hotels story began in Topeka, Kansas. So when the folks who were around back then start a story with ‘Back in Topeka,’ we know it’s time to listen. These are tales of the challenges, of the laughter and tears that come with building a company like ours. That’s the sentiment behind this blog series, a chronicle of days gone by at Innisfree Hotels – and a map to get us where we’re going.

Innisfree Hotels to Build Hampton Inn & Suites in Panama City Beach

Innisfree Hotels is proud to announce a new beachfront hotel development coming to Panama City Beach, Fla., one of the state’s most popular vacation destinations. Innisfree has broken ground on a brand new Gulf Front Hampton Inn & Suites, transforming the quality of local hotel offerings. The property will open in the Spring of 2017.

The beautiful 182-room Gulf front hotel will be located within walking distance of Pier Park, a 900,000 sq. ft. shopping, dining and entertainment complex that is home to major retailers such as Dillard’s, Sunglass Hut and Ron Jon Surf Shop, as well as favorite restaurants and bars including Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville.

The Hampton Inn & Suites, Panama City Beach will feature:

  •       Beachfront Pool and Hot Tub
  •       Fitness Center
  •       Bar and Hospitality Room
  •       Dune Walkover to Beach
  •       Gulf-Front Breakfast Seating and Boardroom

The hotel site was selected due to its walking proximity to Pier Park. The Hampton Inn & Suites flag was selected because it is a guest favorite – providing great quality and value, exactly what most guests are looking for in a vacation hotel.

Innisfree Hotels owns two other Gulf-front hotels carrying a Hampton brand flag  – one in Pensacola Beach, Fla. and the other in Orange Beach, Ala.

“Innisfree has longed for an opportunity to bring a fine product like the Hampton Inn & Suites to the Panama City Beach market,” says Julian MacQueen, founder and CEO of Innisfree Hotels. “We are thrilled the day has arrived, allowing us to spread our culture and guest services even further along Gulf Coast beaches.”  

Innisfree currently owns and manages the Beachside Resort in Panama City Beach, a newly renovated beachfront hotel.

The latest Hampton Inn & Suites project is a joint venture between Innisfree Hotels and Stonehill Capital, two companies with substantial hospitality experience.

Stonehill Strategic Capital (“SSC”), a direct hospitality lender, is actively providing permanent loans, bridge loans, mezzanine loans and preferred equity investments secured by hotel assets. Founded in 2013, SSC provides creative finance solutions for acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancings and renovations. The principals of SSC have combined to originate and structure over $2.5 billion of hospitality debt, and since closing their fund in Q3 2014, SSC has completed an excess of 30 transactions totaling over $325 million.

“We are extremely excited to be working with Stonehill Strategic Capital on this project and thrilled to bring another Gulf-front Hampton Inn & Suites to the Gulf Coast,” says Innisfree Director of Development Rich Chism. “We are able to bring a custom design to the exterior and interior of the hotel – this will not be a typical Hampton Inn. Adults and kids alike will love the hotel.”

The accomplished design and construction team includes:

  •       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
  •       Civil Engineer Choctaw Engineering
  •       General Contractor Robins & Morton

“This project, in many ways, represents a homecoming of sorts for me,” says Mike Nixon, President of Innisfree Hotels. “I’m happy to bring new construction to my hometown.” Mr. Nixon began his career in the hospitality business by working in and later managing Panama City Beach hotels in the early 1990s.  

Back in Topeka: The Family Inns Story

The Family Inns Story, Innisfree Hotels

The entrepreneurial road is always filled with great stories. This is one of them.

The tale of the Family Inns begins with a young guy trying to figure out how to become independent and do something beyond collecting a paycheck.

This is Julian MacQueen, going on 30 years old.

In his own words:

At 27, I was working as a sales manager at the 400-room Hyatt Regency in Knoxville, Tennessee, with 30,000 square feet of meeting space – a premier hotel in the Southeast. I was there three years when I got the blessing of ‘Mother Hyatt,’ meaning they were ready to put me in a Director of Sales position anywhere in the country.

I’ve kind of ‘made it’ … I’m Hyatt material.

At the same time, I had started a hot air balloon company called Aerose. I got a commercial license, and my brother was the Chief Aeronaut. You see, the hot air balloon attracts all kinds of people. And so we meet this guy called Ricardo Lopez.

He’s impeccably dressed all the time, has this amazing Nikon camera equipment and a beautiful wife. She has a good last name in the Knoxville community. You know she’s someone. He tells me he is an international photographer with a Learjet, a house in Anchorage and one in Buenos Aires – and he travels all over the world producing the photography for annual reports for major international corporations.

I’m completely captivated by him, because during college I was the photographer for the Public Relations Department at the University of South Alabama. I loved the dark room. I processed all my own images. And this guy has a business where I can be a photographer. I can have my art and my business, and he asks if I’d like to come to work for him.

What do I do? I resign at the Hyatt. I tell them this is an opportunity I can’t pass up. They say, “Go for it, you can always come back.”

Ricardo Lopez would take phone calls from Nicaragua. I would only hear his side of the conversation: “Send them in. Make the strike. Extract these guys.” He was deeply involved in some kind of military exercise and had a leadership role.

(For some reason, his Learjet was always somewhere else.)  

So, I’m ready to work, eager for our first assignment. He says it’s not that time of year. But in the meantime, he says, I’ve got this side business called FCTS – Federal Communication Training School.

He had set one up in Texas and he wanted to set one up in Knoxville. It was simple – a series of weekly tests that allowed you to train for the civil service exam and apply for work in any department of government. The job entailed taking this course door-to-door in poor neighborhoods. He had a set speech.

Do you want to advance your life? I have an opportunity for you.

So I went from being an international photographer to being a door-to-door salesman of this completely illegitimate thing. You can go to any library and get the same study guide.

Next, he needs me to say I was somewhere at a certain time to the FBI.

He tells me I need an alias. How about Kalabash? It was a tiny shrimp sold by Fisherman’s Wharf, a restaurant chain by Shoney’s.

So I go to the FBI and I testify that I was with him at a certain place at a certain time. And he listens to my story. And it’s all for a good cause because I’m going to be an international photographer, and you have to make these small sacrifices to get where you want to go.

He had totally fabricated this image of himself. (In truth, I found out much later, he was wanted for running guns.) Several important people in Knoxville came together against him.

We go down to Fort Lauderdale to race hot air balloons to Bimini. He’s parading around. He is fascinating. He’s a magnet. People start gravitating toward him. We’re invited to this private resort on Cat Island and flown in a private airplane – little known fact, this is where Sidney Poitier is from, it turns out. We’re staying with the guy who owns half the island, where his family used to grow sugar cane before the Civil War in the States.

Things are starting to happen around me. People are doing drugs. There’s lots of partying, wild and crazy stuff. I’m not participating … I am just trying to figure it all out.

Now we’re at the Castaway Bar in Bimini. Hemingway’s place.

I’m sitting out on the dock when I realize I’m an idiot.

I’m a complete fool, and I’ve got to go home and tell Kim, “This is all over, I’m so sorry.”

I remember getting on a boat. I have no money. I make it to Knoxville. I hitchhike home. Kim embraces me with her usual grace.

After being married for a year, we lost our house and my job, and I started looking for other opportunities while Kim waited tables and taught at the Montessori School.

I’m looking for somewhere else to land. I’ve still got my hot air balloon business (another story for another time) to bridge the gap until I find a real job.

I meet Mike Strickland, a kitchen equipment salesman who has been making a $100,000 a year for several years. In the 1970s, and to a 30-year-old, that sounds like a lot of money.

It turns out he has a relationship with Ken Seton, the owner of Family Inns of America. They have 22 hotels.

He’s worked a deal with Seton to sell Family Inns franchises. He has no hotel experience, but I do. So we partner up to develop hotels and sell franchises. I don’t know how to own real estate. I don’t know how to put deals together. But he does.

We buy our first building. 4,000 square feet. Two stories. Owner financing. I bring in the tenants. Our offices are on the top floor, and the bottom is rented. I own a fourth of a building and the tenant is paying the mortage with his lease payment. What a concept!

So we start our business, Strickland Development. We tie up a piece of land at the airport. We find a lender, but we don’t have the equity. Mike asks me if I know anyone with money.

At the time, there was a huge flux of Iranians coming in, escaping persecution. Baha’i Iranians, political fugitives from the Ayatollah regime. A gentleman who owned Pepsi-Cola for the entire country was looking for a place to put his money. I had the reputation for being an honest businessman in the Baha’i community.

Hotels are good investments. So we meet, and he ends up giving us $250,000 as a deposit toward a future investment of a couple million.

We’ve made our first hotel deal. We’re building a hotel, and I own part of it!

The problem is my partner doesn’t come to work until noon. When he does come to work, he goes to lunch, then he drinks, and then he’s worthless, and then I don’t see him. Nothing is getting done except what I do. I’m doing 100 percent of the work, and he’s guiding me along, but he’s not doing a damn thing.

His best drinking buddy is Ken Seton.

So we go down to Mobile, and I get a location next to the Holiday Inn that I know is doing really well, because I was the night auditor there right after I graduated from USA. I reach out and contact the landowners and they are willing to do a long-term 30-year lease, 100 percent financed. I just need a financial statement to back the deal.

Meanwhile, we take my Iranian friend’s money, stick it in an escrow account, and start working through the development process.

I check the account one day and money has been taken out.

Mike goes on an around-the-world trip with Ken Seton, and now I’m just figuring it out on my own. Ken is his best friend. Mike steals from the escrow account, and I’m responsible.

I ask Mike, “What the hell?” ……… He’s taken the money out to buy cocaine.

I go to Ken and say something terrible has happened.

He says: “You make a very clean break from Michael Strickland, negotiate whatever it is you have to. Make a clean break, and I’ll make up the difference. Then I’ll give you a job. And you can be the Executive Vice President of Family Inns. I have 17 hotels. I want you to fill up all my hotels for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville.”

I tell him: “I don’t want a job. I want to own a hotel.”

He says he will teach me, but I have to fill his 17 hotels first.

I get Mike out and settle up my affairs. I have the development rights to Mobile.

Kim and I move to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and live in a horrible place, a cinder block efficiency. Ken is giving me housing. Kim is making her clothes out of the curtains. We pawn the silver wedding gifts people had given us to buy Christmas presents for the family.

We’re building the Family Inns of Mobile. It’s 100 percent financed by the guy who owns the entire Intersection at I-65 and Airport Boulevard, Mr. Delaney, who is notorious for being cheap and for being a hardcore businessman.

I remember him telling me, “Julian, I like you a lot. I’m going to teach you some lessons. They’re going to be hard lessons.”

He always came with his two sons. We called them the Trinity. His chief accountant had a calculator you punched in and pulled the handle to register the numbers on the tape. She told him there were these electric adding machines that would make her job go much faster. He said, “Honey, if you want to buy that machine and work faster, you go right ahead.” She had to buy it herself on her dime.

So, I’m putting this whole 84-room development together. It’s my first one.

I’ve got butcher paper going around the walls of my office to show a timeline for everything needed in the hotel and when it needed to be ordered and when it was going to arrive. It was about 10 feet long. I put my first Gantt Chart together on butcher paper. Day by day, all the way around so it all lined up. All by hand.

I found a development template somewhere. It outlined every ashtray, every bed sheet.

At the end, I would have a hotel.

We’re in this farmhouse in Pigeon Forge, and there are pigs running around under the floor boards and I’m making phone calls and the pigs would get in a fight and make a bunch of noise.

Still, I put all the numbers down. I gave Mr. Delaney the number.

The number was $1,817,316.00.

He said, “That number is not going to change. I want you to tell me when you’re going to be open.”

Then, he told me when my rent started.

I thought it would be fine because the contractor told me the work would be done. I never knew about the concept of a change order. It never occurred to me the contractor wouldn’t finish.

And Delaney’s watching me set myself up. He lets me do it. Never offered any advice.

I give him the number, and I’m driving home to Tennessee. I have so much anxiety.

I get about an hour out of Mobile and I realize I didn’t carry a one. But it was in the sixth column! I missed it by $100,000.  I immediate find a pay phone and call Delaney.

He says, “I don’t understand what you’re saying. Didn’t you tell me that was going to be the number?”

Now I have to find a hundred thousand dollars.

The finish date of June 1 is closing in and the lease begins on the land and hotel. I’m in Alabama. Kim’s pregnant in Tennessee. Our daughter, Skye, is born May 26. She’s done it all by herself.

Skye is born. I go home for 48 hours. (I remember going to sleep after her birth and waking up 24 hours later. The nurses at the hospital thought Kim was abandoned.) Kim’s parents fill in. I go back to Mobile.

I’ve got to open the hotel, or I am done. All of this would have been for nothing.

I didn’t have my C.O. – Certificate of Occupancy. Who knew there were things like rain days?

I was so naïve. I didn’t know anything.

It’s June 12, and I finally get a C.O. for the bottom floor on the North side.

I go down and flip the sign on after I get the hot water and air conditioners to work. I’m at the front desk. People start walking in because it is the week of the Junior Miss Pageant and downtown hotels are full, pushing folks out to our part of Mobile.

I didn’t have any money to pay desk clerks, so I work the front desk by myself.

The pitch was basically this:

“The beds are in, and we have hot water and AC. If you want a room, here’s your broom and your sheets.”

I fill up the hotel, and our guests do all the clean-up.

I make some money so I could pay my housekeepers, and I rent every room.

We make our first payroll.

We make enough money that I do not have to go to Ken Seton to tell him I can’t pay my half of the rent. This is June 1981, and I’m 30 years old.

I own 49 percent of a hotel!

Later, 1984, I bought Ken out. I kept the hotel for 30 years. It was as old as Skye.

The Family Inns was my first hotel that led to the founding of Innisfree Hotels.

I guess the moral of the story is:

You don’t know what you don’t know … but if you don’t open yourself up to the possibilities, you may not have the opportunity to succeed.

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

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ABOUT ‘BACK IN TOPEKA’
In order to have a great future, we must celebrate and learn from our incredible past. The Innisfree Hotels story began in Topeka, Kansas. So when the folks who were around back then start a story with ‘Back in Topeka,’ we know it’s time to listen. These are tales of the challenges, of the laughter and tears that come with building a company like ours. That’s the sentiment behind this blog series, a chronicle of days gone by at Innisfree Hotels – and a map to get us where we’re going.

What’s Trending in Design at Innisfree Hotels

Interior Design, Innisfree Hotels

Innisfree Hotels is gaining momentum, expanding and growing into new markets and opening additional properties in destinations where we’ve made a home.

These are exciting times, as we look forward to the opening of the Best Western Premier Tides Hotel in Summer 2016 and break ground on the Hilton Garden Inn in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. as well as the Springhill Suites and Hampton Inn & Suites in Panama City Beach, Fla.

As we develop and build new hotels, we’re staying ahead of design trends – to determine what makes our hotels special and how we differentiate properties in the same market.

We sat in on a design meeting led by Debbie Adrian of Adrian Caradine Contract Design, who lends her talents to enhance the guest experience in our hotels.

As the second phase of the Emerald Breeze Resorts project that brought a successful Holiday Inn Resort to Fort Walton Beach, the Hilton Garden Inn is a major design coup for Innisfree Hotels and ACC Design.

Due to strict brand standards that incorporate elements of the outdoors into the interior of Hilton Garden Inns, Adrian and her team worked ardently with brand managers to reach a design that reflects our beachfront destination.

Natural textures, sandy driftwood and pops of color are cornerstones of the new hotel’s design. There will be more accent walls and a very open feel – without the columns of a traditional floorplan. A dramatic ceiling at the entrance and cascading lanterns are two replacement features Adrian negotiated to meet brand requirements.

She met with the brand architect before Innisfree applied for the Hilton Garden Inn franchise to ensure front-end approval for an atypical design. After all, the Fort Walton Beach property will be one of very few beachfront HGIs worldwide.

“It’s almost like creating a painting on the interior of a hotel – layer upon layer of color and texture,” Adrian says.

Because of the beach location, even the center fireplace is in talks to be replaced by an aquarium, and the traditional garden leaf theme potentially could be vetoed in favor of sea oats.

Hotel lobbies are becoming increasingly social, no longer just a place to check-in, but a rather a place to check out all the destination has to offer. New features include outlet pop-ups for wireless devices and lots of varied options for seating, to create a natural gathering point.

Guest rooms, Adrian says, are ever evolving. Carpet is on its way out, replaced with wood-look porcelain tile flooring. It’s always a challenge in beachside communities with sand and wet bathing suits, so we opt for tile and faux leather seat coverings to avoid compromising fabrics.

“Fun, quirky elements evoke conversation and make it playful,” Adrian notes.

She’s quick to point out the new look is very minimalist and clean – that’s where design is heading today.

See for yourself when you book your next stay at an Innisfree property.

– Ashley Kahn Salley
Lead Storyteller, Innisfree Hotels

Innisfree Hotels to Open New Hotel on U.S. Air Force Land

Hilton Garden Inn is the second property to utilize Enhanced Use Lease.

Innisfree Hotels is making good on its agreement with the U.S. Air Force to build a second property in Fort Walton Beach via the Enhanced Use Lease Program. A Hilton Garden Inn will be built adjacent to the successful Holiday Inn Resort in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

With the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Atmore, Ala. as joint venture partners, financing is provided by Pen Air Federal Credit Union and Navy Federal Credit Union.

The new 175-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel will offer:

  • Conference Center
  • Beachfront Pool
  • Full Service Restaurant
  • Indoor and Outdoor Bars
  • Fire Pits

Innisfree’s first venture utilizing the U.S. Air Force Enhanced Use Lease, the Holiday Inn Resort Fort Walton Beach, has been a successful property both for the community and the Air Force – a percentage of hotel revenue is provided to Eglin AFB to be used to support initiatives that benefit the servicemen. Innisfree also offers a Military Appreciation Program, providing 4,000 room nights at the resort for one-half of the per-diem rate.

“When the Holiday Inn Resort opened, we knew right away that the guests really appreciated the newly constructed product in the Fort Walton Beach market,” says Rich Chism, director of development for Innisfree Hotels. “The hotel performed much better than anticipated, so design efforts began immediately for the second hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn.”

Hilton Garden Inn is a Hilton Hotel, one of the world’s leading franchisors. Innisfree has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Hilton, operating afull-service Hilton Hotel in Pensacola Beach, Fla., a Hilton Garden Inn in Orange Beach, Ala., and two Hampton Inns – in Pensacola Beach and Orange Beach, respectively.

Innisfree was glad to receive the new franchise, which will attract members of the Hilton Honors rewards program to Fort Walton Beach. While business travelers will enjoy using reward points, this Hilton Garden Inn won’t look like a typical conference hotel.

Designed by Larry Adams of Bullock Tice Associates in Pensacola, Fla. with interior design by Debbie Adrian of ACC Design in Memphis, Tenn., and pool and landscape design by Chad Watkins of WAS Design in Foley, Ala., the completely custom design will embrace the Gulf Coast, bringing the feel of the outdoors to interior spaces.

By popular demand, a large 5,500 square foot banquet room with Gulf views has been incorporated into the design.

“Our designers have worked closely with the brand to incorporate our beachfront location into all design elements, from the lobby to the courtyard and guest rooms,”says Julian MacQueen, founder and CEO of Innisfree Hotels. “As one of very few Hilton Garden Inns in a beachside community worldwide, we are very excited to bring this brand to a new market, giving our guests opportunities to create fun and memorable experiences at the beach.”

The Hilton Garden Inn is set to open in Fort Walton Beach in Spring 2017.

Case Study: Social Media & Guest Engagement

Innisfree’ properties benefit from the best hotel social media campaigns in the country. Innisfree owned, Holiday Inn Resort, Pensacola Beach Florida has over 62,000 highly engaged Facebook fans and over 2,000 Instagram fans. The Holiday Inn Resort, Fort Walton Beach, Florida has over 56,000 engaged Facebook fans just two years after opening. Even our small independents such as Beachside Resort, Panama City Beach, Florida enjoy active social media fan bases of over 50,000.

These are record-breaking numbers both for the brands and for the hotel competitive sets. None of our competitors even come close to matching our numbers. How do we get so many social media fans and followers and have such high engagement levels for our hotels?  Glad you asked!  Here is our (not so) secret sauce.

It all started five years ago when Innisfree created an in-house digital marketing agency.  At that time, hotel companies were talking about whether or not they should even do social media.  Social media has since emerged as a ubiquitous and essential hotel marketing strategy.

The marketing team produces and posts unique, engaging daily content on multiple social media platforms for all of our properties. Our in-house team includes a social media strategist, two talented photographers, a designer and a writer. We focus on how to best leverage social channels to create pre-trip anticipation, improve services and form emotional connections with our guests that last long after they go home. We also engage guests by monitoring our social channels and responding to guest comments several times a day.

Using social media as a tool to improve the guest experience, increase brand exposure and foster loyalty is an important but common strategy in the hotel business. What is less common is using social media to attract new customers and to increase the number of bookings on our most profitable channel  – our hotel websites.

In 2015, the in-house marketing agency launched a guest engagement campaign in our beachfront hotels called Beach Love Happiness with new customers and direct bookings in mind. The campaign encourages guests to “Post. Tag & Get Swag,” or, in other words, to share their vacation experiences on social media, tag them with a designated hotel hashtag and then claim a free gift.

The campaign is promoted with via print materials on property (posters, coasters, and key card inserts) and by the hotel staff at the front desk. The hotels also employ ‘local hosts’ who engage guests in the campaign while offering destination advice, identifying opportunities for service recovery and for moments of surprise and delight.

It works.  In 2015, we enjoyed a record-breaking volume of guest engagement on all our hotel social media channels. We responded to the escalating social media user comments in an authentic, fun and engaging manner while sharing links to relevant local website content to increase referral traffic and encourage direct bookings.  We repurposed the best of our guest’s content and used it to supplement our daily campaigns to leverage ‘word of mouth’ referrals. Who are the best potential new first time guests? Friends and family of your current guests of course!

Our 2015 results were remarkable with an average of 30% increases in social media referral traffic to all of our local hotel websites.  An average goal conversion rate of 43% and bounce rate of 32% indicates this traffic was on target and valuable.

Collectively, during the four months the campaign ran, in seven beachfront hotels we gained:

  • 3,500 tagged User Generated Content submissions
  • 11,800 local website visits referred from Facebook
  • 46,500 new Facebook fans
  • 1,869 new Instagram followers

And that is how we have #funatinnisfree!

Hilton Worldwide Development Award

The property was chosen from more than 150 hotels worldwide that were opened, approved or under construction in 2011 under the Hampton flag.

In July 2012, Glenn Goerke, Senior Director of Development and Steve Crabill, Vice President and Managing Director Development at Hilton Worldwide, parent company to the Hampton Inn Hotels brand, traveled to Orange Beach, Ala. from Atlanta, Ga. to present a Deal of the Year Award to Innisfree Hotels’ CEO and Founder Julian MacQueen.

Innisfree was proud to accept this distinguished worldwide brand award for the development of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Orange Beach, Ala.  The Hampton Inn brand portfolio includes more than 1,800 hotels worldwide and was designated as the leading hotel brand in the world by Franchise Times Magazine in 2011.

The construction of this state-of-the-art 160-room hotel cost $31 million to build and the project was distinguished by its ‘fast-track construction’ schedule. Rich Chism, Innisfree’s Director of Development, says, “One of the most interesting things about this project was the speed at which we moved from conception to opening. We were laying the foundation before we had completed the design. It was an exciting, dynamic process facilitated by the cooperation of the City of Orange Beach.”

The hotel was constructed by Robins and Morton, a 65-year-old construction and engineering company that consistently ranks among the 100 largest U.S. builders in the United States. This was the second hotel Robins and Morton built for Innisfree Hotels and the two companies are currently constructing a third project; building a Hyatt Place Hotel at the Pensacola International Airport. Project architect was Istvan Peteranecz AIA of Behar Peteranecz Architecture.

The Hampton Inn & Suites in Orange Beach has several notable design features, including the bright orange exterior and visually vibrant interior design. The bright colors were chosen because they speak to the name Orange Beach but also because they promote a guest experience in keeping with Innisfree’s corporate motto of  “providing fun and memorable experiences.” Exceptional hotel amenities include a beachfront zero entry pool, 3,700 square feet of Gulf front meeting space and a fitness room that overlooks the beach.

This is the second brand level development award Innisfree Hotels has received this year. Last year, they were selected by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG owns 4,400 hotels under 7 brands) to receive a Developer of the Year award for the Holiday Inn Resort on Pensacola Beach in 2011. Julian MacQueen, CEO and founder of Innisfree, accepted the award at the IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference held on October 26, 2011, at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas.

Mr. MacQueen says, “It is an incredible honor to receive two major brand development awards in a 24-month period. The creativity to pull off this size deal during these most uncertain times came though a collective effort between Bibb Lamar, Bruce Finley, and the entire board at BankTrust of Mobile and Innisfree Hotel’s development team. I could not be any more proud to be part of this beautiful product.”

Bruce Finley Executive Vice President and Senior Load Officer at BankTrust Financial Group says, “BankTrust is very pleased with the way the project turned out. The folks at Innisfree are professional and a pleasure to work with.”