Introduction
Hello ownership partners,
I hope you, your families, and your teams are all safe and healthy as we head into the season of Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for, particularly at HEI. Even against really challenging conditions, with your support we have been fortunate to grow our management portfolio with 17 hotels already in 2022.
We believe this growth reflects the confidence you have not only in our platform, but in our people. Their leadership and commitment throughout the most difficult of periods has been extraordinary, and I am so thankful to work alongside such a passionate and hardworking team.
Our culture of HEI Loves is what is driving our teams every day. Since my communication to you in the summer, I wanted to share an update on many new and existing initiatives driven by HEI Loves. I remain so proud of the work we’re doing to uphold an environment for our associates that they themselves have ranked among the top 3% in the nation. Much of below is directly taken from my quarterly updates to our corporate and hotel level teams.
Mental Health & Emotional Wellness
Service Culture Training
We kicked off a powerful new Service Culture Training initiative in June with trainings across the country to equip our associates to drive brand loyalty and create memorable guest experiences. Our associates now have more tools to tailor the recovery strategy to each guest and be a part of the solution at every step. I’d like to thank Brian Lodermeier, Shah Adil, David Rowland, Kathryn Johnson, Richard Uribe, and Todd Capizzo for leading the charge. I cannot wait to see the impact of this initiative on our guest satisfaction scores!
Women in Leadership
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Disability Inclusion
As I shared in our last update, we have partnered with Bender Consulting to assist with our initiative to hire more associates with disabilities. We have several candidates going through interviews at many of our hotels! In July, we launched a new Disability Fundamentals for Managers training, which provides education on disability awareness, etiquette, disclosures, accommodations, and accessible events. We also recently met with the Connecticut Department of Aging & Disability Services and forged a pioneering partnership at the state and federal levels. This partnership will allow us to make a much greater impact under HEI Loves.
Veterans Program
Our Partnership with Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) continues to grow, and I am proud to share that HEI Hotels & Resorts is in the process of becoming an official HOH Sponsor. We will be expanding our partnership nationwide, opening opportunities to our entire portfolio. We are very excited to take the next step in this initiative and look forward to welcoming even more veterans and military spouses into our HEI family. Indeed, we are close to achieving our annual goal of doubling veteran hires year over year!
Love Stories
Love Moments Award
In Closing
I could not be prouder of the work we continue to do under HEI Loves. What is most exciting for me to see is the momentum that our culture is taking on against our commitments to each other to drive personal value and meaning to our HEI Family members and financial results to you, our owners. Our culture is infectious, and we have all been inspired together by the tremendous work we are doing on so many profound levels. Without your continued support of our platform and the sacrifice and passion of our teams, we would not enjoy the strong results and growth that we have today.
I remain forever grateful to all of you.
All my love,
Anthony