Diversification is good. This is true in any number of areas, from your portfolio to your skill set. It’s a goal that Rajiv Trivedi still believes in, even after 30 years spent in various roles in the hospitality industry.
The former La Quinta president and current managing principal of Tri Star Trivedi and TST Capital, who has master’s degrees in math and business, started his career in a Blockbuster video. In an unexpected twist, that job let him to hospitality.
“I had an honor and privilege of knowing some of the founders of that company and that provided me an opportunity. However, as we were growing that company, the family had owned a few hotels in Chicago metropolitan area, and I was asked to come join into operations,” he said. “My first job was to drive the hotel shuttle from O'Hare airport to the hotel and back. And then I grew from there to run one hotel, then multiple hotels.”
So in the meantime, while Trivedi was running these Howard Johnson properties in the Chicago area, executives of Hospitality Franchise Systems—which was in the process of buying the brand—came to town to meet with the owners.
“One thing led to another and the invitation came about to join the corporate side of the world,” Trivedi said. “When I joined the corporate side of the world, I had thought that I will go into it for a couple of years, learn a few things and come back and grow the family business. But that never happened.
“I continued to grow on a corporate side at HFS, which became Cendant, and after that at La Quinta I had the greatest honor of starting our franchise program from scratch, managing real estate and growing the company from nearly 200 hotels to nearly 1,000 hotels open and almost 300 additional in the pipeline.”
Trivedi served as executive vice president, chief development officer and president of La Quinta over a span of 18 years, moving on from the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts-owned brand in June of 2019.
“Over the years, the experience of hospitality has taught me so much, has given me so much,” he said. “I'm absolutely grateful and thankful to every individual that has helped me and every individual that did business with me and taught me because I learned from everyone.”
Tri Star Trivedi
After nearly 30 years of being in the corporate world, helping create successful companies for other owners, the time came for Trivedi to create something on his own, he said.
“As an executive, diversifying is good; learning to see whether you are capable of becoming successful in the other areas or not. Challenging myself was one of the most essential part of it,” he said. “I said let's do the other side of hospitality, which I originally come from. That prompted to start a venture capitalist company and see what the future opportunities present.”
Related: Industry veteran Raj Trivedi sheds Wyndham to head own company
Tri Star Trivedi and TST Capital are focusing on four main areas: hospitality, multifamily, student housing and senior living. Trivedi’s original thought was to see what opportunities distressed properties in the select-service segment presented, but he said he’s “very, very happy” to see that there is not much distress in the industry at this point. The companies now are focusing instead on extended-stay hotels.
“During the pandemic, it became very clear that extended-stay product is showing tremendous resilience, particularly extended-stay product in the lower tier, and midmarket is showing a very high level of resilience,” Trivedi said. “Extended-stay is becoming even more interesting to me because one of the biggest challenges, not just our industry, but all industries, is facing is labor and labor costs. Going forward, labor costs are going to increase and extended-stay allows you to operate your facility with limited labor and without compromising guest expectations.”
In addition to extended-stay, the company plans to “remain opportunistic into any other segment as acquisition or development opportunity emerges,” according to Trivedi.
The company also has invested outside of its main hotel areas, including in technology company Virdee, which provides virtual reception and user interaction software for the lodging, multifamily and commercial real estate industries.
Related: Tech firm Virdee closes $2M seed round, adds Trivedi to board
Red Roof
Despite the recent focus on technology and investment, Trivedi isn’t out of the hotel franchising side of the business completely. He’s helping Westmont Hospitality Group run its Red Roof brand (former president Andrew Alexander left the company in October).
“Westmont and I have had relationship for many, many years, and as they had executive changes taking place, they reached out to me and I am absolutely honored that they have allowed me an opportunity to help their executive team execute the strategy and provide my feedback to further enhance and improve strategy for ongoing success in the future,” Trivedi said. “I am at present advisor to the board and sit on the board, as well, and provide the guidance to the executive team as well as work with board in the future strategy.”
Trivedi said that he is enjoying the job and is in no hurry to move on from the opportunity.
“The team they have in place is fantastic. The future of that company is phenomenal. So as long as the opportunity is given to me to assist board and the executive team, I will continue that,” he said.
But as far as making it a permanent position?: “I have done that for 30 years and I have so much involvement in many other areas, so I'm not even thinking about it.