Sage Hotel Management Evolves Organization to “Own the Upswing” and Prepares for Accelerated Growth

Sage Hotel Management, a Sage Hospitality Group company, announced today a series of strategic changes within the organization aimed at positioning the company and its properties to ‘own the upswing’ as the hospitality industry recovers. These changes include the organization of its diverse 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.

“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.”

EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND DEDICATED LEADERSHIP

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 Sage Independent Hotel Collection, Sage’s portfolio of independent hotels

As part of this strategic shift, the company is also expanding the role of its regional operations support leaders to reflect 360-degree business stewardship for each portfolio. Sage Hotel Management has appointed four vice presidents and aligned those leaders with the portfolio that best leverages each individual’s industry expertise:

• Jan Lucas – Vice President, The Upscale Collection

Lucas, an 18-year Sage veteran, has deep expertise in leading upscale, focused service hotels and started her career with Marriott’s Residence Inn division.

• Chris Lorino – Vice President, The Premier Collection (East)

Lorino, who joined Sage in 2018, has expansive experience that includes nearly two decades with Starwood and more than 3 years with Provenance Hotels.

• Dani Stern – Vice President, The Premier Collection (West)

Stern has extensive experience leading full-service hotels and resorts, with nearly four years’ experience at Sage and previous experience at Two Roads Hospitality and Destination Hotels & Resorts.

• Kim Corrigan – Vice President, The Sage Independent Hotel Collection

Corrigan, a 12-year Sage veteran, has a proven track record in luxury lifestyle properties serving 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 Executive Vice President of Growth. Widmaier, who served as COO of Sage Hotel Management for six years, is an accomplished industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience.  In this role, Widmaier is actively focused on building and executing a robust pipeline of management agreements for Sage with a particular emphasis on the independent, soft-branded and lifestyle segments.

In Fall 2020, John Arnett transitioned to Senior Vice President of Growth for the organization after serving five years as SVP of operations, and this February Sage welcomed Dexter Tom as Vice President of Growth. Tom has more than 20 years of experience with Marriott underwriting or negotiating more than 100 management and franchise contracts. Lastly, an additional Vice President of Growth is expected to be announced shortly to round out the team.

The changes happening now are part of a larger strategic evolution aimed at positioning Sage Hotel Management and its diverse portfolio of hotels for long-term success. Last year, Sage and its companies already made a multi-million investment in leading-edge support systems and has taken deliberate steps towards this goal, including:

• The launch of 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, with the purpose of building guest and associate trust while continuing to create places that people go to, not through. Sage Forward will evolve to serve as the company’s innovation platform, housing initiatives aimed at truly differentiating Sage from the competition.
• Implementation of UltiPro as Sage’s human capital management system of record, allowing the company to upgrade its talent management capabilities given the evolving needs of the business.
• Transitioning to a new accounting and business intelligence platform powered by M3 that will allow Sage to utilize best-in-class reporting and business analytics capabilities across every level of the organization.
• Implementation of other leading-edge technologies to support the growth of the company, including Craftable in our restaurants and bars, and MEWS as our independent property management system solution.

Sage Hotel Management is one of the four distinct companies that comprise Sage Hospitality Group, all of which work together to deliver first-in-class hotel and restaurant management, place-making and brand development as well as real estate investment services. To learn more about Sage Hospitality Group’s continued growth, please visit sagehospitalitygroup.com.