Interview with Holly Landry, Director of Finance

Holly is our Director of Finance, but she’s so much more than that. She’s a boy mom, she’s a bookworm, and she’s a trailblazer of streamlined processes and accurate results. Her work each day combines the things she loves—the analytical, data-driven work of finance and accounting, with the interpersonal, soft skills—people and places. Hard numbers, soft pillows, and all the warm and fuzzies? Count her in.

We had the chance to sit down with Holly to talk about mentorship and building a team culture. As Simon Sinek aptly suggests, “Take care of those in your charge, and they will in turn, take care of the guests and frankly – everything else.” Holly Landry takes a page out of Simon’s book with her whole human approach to motivating, managing, and celebrating her team.

Mentorship has become increasingly critical to the overall success of our teams. In the wake of the pandemic, we have two things happening simultaneously: the increased isolation of the workforce with remote offices and social distancing, and the re-evaluation of career goals and priorities: Is the job meaningful? Is it a good use of my time?

Mentors connect the dots between the current workflow, potential opportunities down the road, and a bigger purpose. It’s the human condition: we want to feel valued and rewarded for our time and effort. Mentorship provides both the perspective of the journey ahead and the knowledge of how to get there.

In the wake of the Great Resignation, and in a millennial majority workforce, how do you foster team culture?

Another way to view the Great Resignation is as a great re-evaluation of priorities and purpose. This is where the advantage of diversity comes into play, including generational diversity. Exposure to different ways of thinking about work and how we communicate helps us build a more sustainable path forward. We foster team culture by embracing the changing landscape while maintaining core principals that stand the test of time. The ways in which we work and communicate may look very different today, but at our core—the human need to be seen, develop skills, and to be confident in our ability to impact the direction of our team—remain important pillars to foster a team, perhaps more so today than ever.

How do these efforts behind the scenes impact the guest experience?

The impact of team culture on the guest experience cannot be overstated. When individuals feel empowered, recognized, and impactful, their interactions with guests become much more authentic. In other words, you can't separate the guest experience from the employee experience, they’re inextricably linked. Over time, authentic guest services and interactions provide a sustainable advantage, where both guests and employees will continue to return to, or recommend the places where they have felt the most seen, valued, and welcomed.

When a team culture is built around people, instead of a department, there’s a tangible difference. There’s room for creative thinking, there’s room for growth, and there’s even room for failure (how can we expect people to grow if they’re too afraid to fail?). With millennial managers looking to get more out of the place they work, empowering the people behind the process has never been more important.

People In (Our) Charge, with Holly Landry

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The success of a hotel is dependent upon many factors. Not the least of which is the humans who day-in and day-out oversee the hotel and hospitality management service that puts heads in beds, welcomes people with care, and gives guests respite from the everyday. Practice Hospitality delivers exceptional service and satisfaction to both guests and owners through industry-leading hospitality management, offering hotel management, technical services, feasibility and conceptual planning, and retail and food and beverage curation.

Expertise

We aren’t for everyone (and we like it that way).

Our anything-but-cookie-cutter approach to the execution of hotel and hospitality management services unlocks the maximum value of your hotel—and ensures everyone’s tucked in.

Hotel & Hospitality Management Service

Hospitality is drowning in a sea of

sameness... and we’re over it.

Our approach is rooted in tradition, ritual and the instinct we are all born with: to connect with others, embrace them with kindness and offer shelter.

WE PRACTICE:

Hotel & Hospitality Management Service | Practice Hospitality

Hospitality is drowning in a sea of sameness... and we’re over it.

Anyone can manage a hotel. But we aren’t
your typical hotel managers. 

A century plus of experience. A singular vision for what could be.

It’s not rocket science. It just takes Practice.

Planning underway for renovation and reimagining of Coachella Valley hotel.

May 9, 2022 – PALM DESERT, CA – The 24-room Mojave Resort in the exclusive Coachella Valley enclave of Palm Desert has engaged Dallas-based Practice Hospitality to oversee hotel operations and spearhead upcoming renovation. 

“We could not be more delighted to take stewardship of this desert gem, lead it through much-needed improvements and guide the hotel into a brilliant new chapter,” said Bashar Wali, Founder and CEO of Practice Hospitality. “Infusing properties like the Mojave Resort with new life, handcrafting truly unique destination experiences and creating value in the real estate is a great example of the way we offer the hotels in our portfolio so much more than management.”

Tucked away just one block off the town’s dynamic main thoroughfare, El Paseo, the Mojave Resort was built in the 1940’s and most recently updated at the turn of the last century. Now, it is being readied for a new renovation to begin in summer 2022. When completed this winter, updates will breathe new life into the hotel’s guestrooms and dreamy private courtyard with improvements to the pool, spa, and seating areas as well as the addition of food and beverage offerings and amenities. 

The California property joins the much-anticipated Drifthaven at Gearhart, a bespoke beach getaway opening on the Oregon Coast this month; Hilton Dallas Park Cities; and Conde Nast Traveler “Best in the South” award-winning Hotel Colee, an Autograph Collection hotel in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, in the Practice Hospitality portfolio. 

Media Contact:
Kate Buska, 619-665-5283
kate.buska@practicehospitality.com

Mojave Resort in Palm Desert Joins Practice Hospitality Portfolio

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Practice Hospitality Takes Reins at Mojave Resort in Palm Desert

Our actions are unbound by convention, informed by intuition and attuned to individuality to deliver originality and authenticity. Focusing on emotional intelligence allows us to favor problem solving and innovation over rigid adherence to policy and procedure.

Integrity

Creativity

Tenacity

Responsibility

Humanity

2022 Management Company Spotlight

As a hard brand, the asset was one of three in the market operating under the same flag and under delivering despite a recent renovation. Our task was to transition the hotel from brand to franchise managed, transition the hotel from hard to soft brand, develop and launch a brand in line with soft brand standards, implement brand change PIP, develop, and roll out new hotel programming, and launch new brand in the height of the pandemic. 

Hotel Colee

As a brand managed property, the hotel was lacking dedicated focus and attention, especially when it came to cost control and revenue generating opportunities. By reducing the number of outside services and replacing those with the dedicated team on property, we delivered an immediate increase in visibility and production from channels not previously utilized by the brand (i.e., qualified discounts, promotions, and OTA) while decreasing expenses. 

Hilton Dallas Park Cities

Mojave Resort

It’s a long road to opening day. When you need to figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be, we can guide the way. We bring hard-won expertise and experience to bear on every project to ensure owners have proper plans in place, can identify and avoid potential pitfalls, and can pivot when necessary.

Planning and construction of hotels and resorts is a complex and complicated process. It helps to have an experienced operator on your side. Practice Hospitality offers comprehensive hotel technical services across North America and US territories to plan, execute, and complete projects that are essential to the hotel’s success. 

We work tirelessly to help our clients achieve their goals, whether that’s building a new hotel from the ground up or renovating an outdated asset to meet modern standards and capture more revenue and market share. With our creative strategies and best practices, we can position and launch hotels to become rate leaders that outperform their competitors. 

From spearheading new building projects to rebranding and revitalizing existing hotels, owners leverage our industry expertise —and our hotel technical services—to create value for independent hotels, brand-affiliated properties, and hotel operations, making their projects and goals a complete success.  

With our ownership perspective, we have unique insight into the hard work that our clients put in and the commitment they make to the success of the hotel properties in their portfolios. At Practice Hospitality, we take our role and the technical services we provide very seriously and apply our expertise and knowledge to meet your specifications while upholding our high standards of quality. The result is the best, most efficient, and most profitable version of your hotel.  

Our team is driven and has proven experience in hospitality management, sales, marketing, technical services, operations, revenue management, and more. We look forward to helping you develop your hotel.  

Contact us for more information about our hotel technical services.

Hotel Technical Services

Hotel Technical Services | Practice Hospitality

There is so much more to what we do than just putting heads in beds. When you engage our professional hotel management services, we operate your hotel from an ownership mindset based on tried-and-true protocols and processes. It’s all about the marriage between optimization and inspiration. Building the right team and equipping them with the tools they need to deliver results.

Hotels and resorts are complex organizations. Both people and processes require expert guidance, which can become complicated to manage on your own. At Practice Hospitality, we offer effective solutions for hotels across North America and US territories to improve guest relations and optimize profitability. 

We help hotel owners and asset managers identify and achieve the ideal balance between rate and occupancy by maximizing hotel sales and marketing results, while maintaining the property to the highest standards and increasing profitability and value in the asset. With our creative strategies and proven best practices, we can turn hotels around and reposition them to outperform their competitors and become market leaders. 

From the earliest stages of ground-up projects to brand-to-franchise transitions to rebranding and revitalizing existing assets, our hotel management services create value for owners of independent and franchise hotels and  for the guests who visit them and enjoy the experiences they have to offer.   

We know that our clients invest meaningful resources—both financially and in terms of hard work, passion, and commitment—in their portfolios of hotel properties. That’s why we take our responsibilities seriously and go all-in to manage and maximize the assets entrusted to our care.  Owners who put their trust in us can rest assured that we have the expertise and knowledge to take what you have built and make it better, more efficient, and more profitable. 

Our team consists of talented, driven individuals with proven experience in hospitality and extensive knowledge in operations, sales, marketing, and more. We are developers, dreamers, analysts, marketers, innovators, and dedicated managers of hotel and resort operations who apply a personalized, custom approach to every asset in our diverse portfolio.  

Contact us for more information about how our hotel management services can benefit your property.

Hotel Management Services

Hotel Management Services | Practice Hospitality

You are the company you keep. Aligning your project with the right brands can make or break it, and restaurants and bars are the beating heart of any hotel. Leased, managed, or JV, we know how to recruit the right partners and facilitate their success. Same goes for retail and short-term F&B concepts: we balance the buzz and bottom line.

Partnering with best-in-class new talent and established companies to offer truly excellent retail and food and beverage services in your hotel can help all parties increase brand awareness, improve revenue, and achieve success. Practice Hospitality offers hotel owners retail and food and beverage hospitality curation services across North America and US territories to identify partners, bring them to the table, and set up collaborations that elevate the operations and profitability of your hotel. 

At Practice Hospitality, we help our clients successfully achieve their goals with retail and food and beverage hospitality curation services that leverage our deep relationships in the industry. We bring the chefs, bartenders, restauranteurs, makers, creators, and retailers that you want to partner with to the table and facilitate the partner relationship that works best for that asset and those partners. Lease, JV, management agreement, marketing alliances, pop-up promotions, and long-term collaborations, we have done it all. And we specialize in professionally networking with and curating leading brands for hospitality projects to drive awareness and sustainable revenue.  

At Practice Hospitality, we are well aware of all the heart, soul, and hard-earned resources our clients put into ensuring the success of their hotel properties and growing portfolios. So we make professionalism and owner satisfaction our number one priority and will work to promote your brand and partnerships with other businesses successfully. We bring the expertise and knowledge to the table to take what you have built and make it more well known, more efficient, and more profitable while upholding exceptional standards of quality. 

Our team of driven individuals and industry professionals have proven experience in project development and operations, sales, and marketing and always look forward to finding unique opportunities to elevate our clients’ and partners’ brands.  

Contact us for more information about our retail and food and beverage hospitality curation services.

Retail and Food & Beverage Hospitality

Retail, Food & Beverage Hospitality | Practice Hospitality

Sometimes, you need help bringing your vision into focus and vetting the art of the possible. We are as capable of cutting through the noise and distilling the data to inform decision making as we are of letting imagination soar and coming up with the next big thing. Because finding that balance between dream and reality is the first step.

Constructing a new hotel or renovating and repositioning hotels and resorts requires appropriate planning and execution to achieve success. Practice Hospitality offers hotel feasibility and concept development services across North America and US territories to professionally analyze, conceptualize, and plan hotel projects. 

Our hotel feasibility concept development services can be applied to designing new hotels from the ground up, renovating existing hotels, or expanding properties to increase key count and improve basis in an investment. Using our experience in underwriting, development, operations, sales, and marketing, we thoroughly analyze market opportunities and help owners set up hotel projects for success.  

From ground-up projects to rebranding and renovation projects that elevate hotels, we commit ourselves to making sure projects are right-sized and properly positioned in the market to deliver maximum profit and long-term value.  

We understand the value of the resources, in time and equity, that our hotel owner clients commit to the success of their properties and growing their portfolios. At Practice Hospitality, we take our professionalism and partner satisfaction very seriously and uphold exceptional standards of quality and thoroughness in every project we take on. As an owner, you know our hard-won expertise and knowledge will be put to work to ensure what you build is efficient, profitable, and optimized for market conditions, now and in the future.  

Our team of hard-working individuals have proven experience in project development and property operations, sales, marketing, accounting, and more. We look forward to helping you grow your portfolio.  

Contact us for more information about our hotel feasibility and concept development services; we are here to help you realize your vision.

CONTACT US

Anyone can manage a hotel. But we aren’t
your typical hotel managers.
We're here to Practice Hospitality.

Hotel & Hospitality Management Service

Our Services

Humanity
Integrity
Creativity
Tenacity
Responsibility

Expertise

Missives

People In (Our) Charge, with Holly Landry

Hype

Practice Hospitality Takes Reins at Mojave Resort in Palm Desert

Chatter

2022 Management Company Spotlight

CONTACT US

Anyone can manage a hotel. But we aren’tyour typical hotel managers. We're here to Practice Hospitality.

Hotel & Hospitality Management Service

Our Services

HumanityIntegrityCreativityTenacityResponsibility

Expertise

Missives

People In (Our) Charge, with Holly Landry

Hype

Practice Hospitality Takes Reins at Mojave Resort in Palm Desert

Chatter

2022 Management Company Spotlight

Anyone can manage a hotel. But we aren’t
your typical hotel managers.
We're here to Practice Hospitality.

Humanity
Integrity
Creativity
Tenacity
Responsibility