Matthew O'Maley, regional director of purchasing at Hong Kong-based The Peninsula Hotels, is planning to attend Hotec Design, an annual conference presented by Questex Hospitality, the parent company of Hotel Management. At the conference, buyers like O'Maley will meet one-on-one with hospitality-focused suppliers to learn about new products and services and to keep up to date on emerging trends.
O’Maley was born into hospitality, with a grandfather who built a motel and cottages for the family to run. His mother and aunts all worked there as housekeepers, and from the time he was a toddler, O’Maley helped out as well. “My grandmother would load the red Radio Flyer wagon with towels and I’d pull it around to drop it all off to my mother and her sisters,” he recalled.
He worked in the food-and-beverage side of the hospitality industry throughout high school, and then went to Colgate University to study economics. After graduation, he planned to work in finance, perhaps on Wall Street—but after three months in the field, he realized it wasn’t for him. He moved to Orlando and worked as a monorail driver at Walt Disney World Resort for six months, but still wasn’t satisfied. The now-closed Hyatt hotel in Orlando was a better fit, however. He started as a food and beverage management trainee and over the next few years rose up to the rank of executive steward. In that role, he not only maintained all of the the china, glasses and silver but also the chemicals used to clean them. “So I was in purchasing every single day,” he said. When the assistant purchasing director resigned, the hotel’s purchasing director suggested O’Maley step into the role. “And so that was it.”
From assistant purchasing director at the Hyatt Orlando, O’Maley became purchasing director for the Hyatt Regency Miami, and then moved on to Rosemont Purchasing to oversee some design projects. After a stint at Nationwide Hotel Supply, he became purchasing director for Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, sourcing everything from food to soap to towels as well as overseeing procure-to-pay software and developing purchasing systems. “And I was doing a little bit of [furniture, fixtures and equipment] as well,” he added.
Beer and Hot Dogs and Champagne and Caviar
In 2009, O’Maley came to the Peninsula Chicago as purchasing director. “In my mind, I was coming for a year, because in my mind I am a beer and hot dog guy, not a champagne and caviar guy,” he quipped about joining the luxury brand. But 13 years later, he now oversees purchasing for the company’s U.S. hotels—and handles a lot of FF&E demands, taking a cue from his time with Fairmont. “For smaller stuff, I actually end up doing a lot of design and specification myself,” he said, noting that he oversaw design and purchasing for a room refresh at Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel, Calif., owned by Peninsula’s parent company Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels. But when the Peninsula Chicago needed a room renovation that totalled $55 million, New York-based Bill Rooney Studios came onboard to oversee the project. “I kind of managed the design team—like, we're missing this or missing that—and [I] did all the purchasing as well.”
Overseeing a luxury brand presents unique challenges that hotels in other chain scales may not face, O’Maley said. “Our design specifications and brand standards are insanely detailed,” he explained. The specifications and standards could involve anything from seeking [Forest Stewardship Council] or [Sustainable Forestry Initiative] sustainability certifications on wood products to making sure that no furniture in a guestroom has sharp edges. “We build to the [Architectural Woodwork Institute] premium standards [for millwork],” he said—for example, drawers have to glide on stabilizers.
While many hotels require fabrics with stain protection that maintain color and quality through a certain number of cleanings, Peninsula hotels look for both wet and dry crocking (the transfer of dye from the material surface onto another surface due to rubbing), and seam slippage. “So depending on who you're working with for fabric, a lot of times we have to pay to have those custom [designed], but we require it before we do [a project],” O'Maley said. The standards extend into the restaurants, where highchairs have the same fabric and wood finishes as the standard chairs at the table. “When you come up to a table, it's clearly been thought about,” he said.
Beyond design, O’Maley handles food procurement for the American properties and handles group purchasing contracts as well as the procure-to-pay systems. “So I'm kind of all over the place—and I love it,” he said. “I have done each one of those roles individually and now I get to do them all a little bit, which is fun.”
Connecting with Suppliers
Attending conferences like Hotec Design has helped O’Maley build relationships with suppliers and vendors who can not only meet Peninsula’s standards but understand the nuances of what each hotel needs. Within the company, he said, he has built a reputation for being able to find anything the properties require. “That's from attending these events and maintaining those relationships,” he said. Smaller events like Hotec are especially useful for combining concepts, he added: “I'll meet with somebody who does really beautiful wall coverings and then I'll meet with somebody who does custom casegoods, and they're showing me a picture of a divider screen, and I'm like, ‘Oh, so what if we took that wallpaper and applied its design on the face of that [screen]?’ We start matching vendors together and saying, ‘I want your fabric on your highchair and I want your wall covering on this guy's room divider.’ And when I start putting stuff together like that, that's where it really starts to get fun.”
The 2022 Hotec Design conference will take place June 20-23 at the Breakers Palm Beach in Florida. Registration is open for both buyers and suppliers.