Sage Hotel Management, a Sage Hospitality Group company, has implemented a series of strategic changes within the organization aimed at repositioning the company and its properties as the hospitality industry recovers. These changes include the organization of its portfolio of hotels into three distinct operating verticals, the appointment of vice presidents for each vertical and the expansion of the company’s growth and development team, according to the company.
“Even before the pandemic, we were challenging our way of thinking and exploring opportunities to evolve our organization to not only better support our partners, but to position Sage Hotel Management to be the management company of choice,” said Daniel del Olmo, president and COO of Sage Hotel Management. “The challenges we’ve faced in the last year have only increased our commitment to think and act differently about the way we will do business going forward. For us, ‘owning the upswing’ means ensuring our organization is structured in the way that consistently exceeds our partners’ expectations, best supports the needs of our diverse portfolio of hotels and allows us to fully capitalize on new hotel management opportunities.”
Organizational Evolution
Moving forward, Sage Hotel Management properties will be organized into three distinct verticals:
- The Upscale Collection, Sage’s branded focused-service hotels
- The Premier Collection, Sage’s branded luxury, soft-branded and full-service hotels
- The Independent Collection, Sage’s portfolio of independent hotels
The company also is expanding the role of its regional operations support leaders for each portfolio. Sage Hotel Management has appointed four vice presidents:
- Jan Lucas, VP of The Upscale Collection, is an 18-year Sage veteran who started her career with Marriott’s Residence Inn division.
- Chris Lorino, VP of The Premier Collection (East), joined Sage in 2018 and has expansive experience that includes nearly two decades with Starwood and more than three years with Provenance Hotels.
- Dani Stern, VP of The Premier Collection (West), has been with Sage for nearly four years and previously worked with Two Roads Hospitality and Destination Hotels & Resorts.
- Kim Corrigan, VP of The Independent Collection, has been with Sage for 12 years as GM of Sage hotels including The Curtis, The Blackstone and Halcyon, a hotel in Cherry Creek.
Accelerated Growth
“Even with the challenges created by the pandemic, we have been fortunate enough to welcome numerous hotels into our organization last year and have a very healthy pipeline in place,” del Olmo said. “As the industry moves into recovery, we anticipate there will be a period of aggressive growth with many opportunities to capture new business.”
To ensure that Sage Hotel Management is best positioned to capitalize on this anticipated period of growth, the company has invested in a dedicated new business growth team responsible for sourcing, evaluating and pursuing all relevant new management opportunities.
In early 2020, Sage appointed Ken Widmaier as EVP of growth. Widmaier was previously COO of Sage Hotel Management for six years. In this role, Widmaier is focused on building and executing management agreements for Sage with a particular emphasis on the independent, soft-branded and lifestyle segments.
In fall 2020, John Arnett transitioned to SVP of growth for the organization after serving five years as SVP of operations, and this February Sage brought on Dexter Tom as VP of growth. Arnett has more than 20 years of experience with Marriott underwriting or negotiating more than 100 management and franchise contracts. Lastly, the company expects to announce an additional VP of growth to round out the team.
The changes happening now are part of a larger strategic evolution, according to the company. Last year, Sage and its companies made a multimillion investment in support systems, launching Sage Forward, a 360-degree approach to modifying the company’s way of doing business within its portfolio of hotels and restaurants in the face of the challenges created by the pandemic. Sage Forward will evolve to serve as the company’s innovation platform, housing initiatives aimed at differentiating Sage from the competition. Sage also implemented UltiPro as its human capital management system of record, transitioned to a new accounting and business-intelligence platform powered by M3 and implemented Mews as its independent property-management system.