Boutique Design - Fall 2020 - 18

T H E L O B B Y AT T H E R O C K W E L L G R O U P D E S I G N E D D R E A M H O L LY W O O D

CEO
D R E A M H OTE L G R O U P

PAN E L :

VIEW FROM THE TOP: WHERE DO WE
GO FROM HERE?
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How do you keep your brand as strong as
possible during these difﬁ cult times? We
didn't lay off one corporate person. We
certainly have laid off people on property, and
on supervisory, and online staff, of course.
We didn't keep corporate just because we
have a ton of money and wanted to keep us
traveling or anything, but we have a relatively
small team. And a big part of our business
are hotels that are not open, meaning
the development team trying to ﬁnd new
business opportunities, the pre-opening
team that's working with the designers and
the architects, all the pre-opening stuff that
goes in for three to ﬁve years, and building
and construction. Those things are moving
along kind of normally, like other businesses
that are moving along normally. Probably twothirds of my corporate team works in those
areas of our business-growing it, selling
new deals, and nurturing those deals before
they're open.
What's most important to keep in mind for
your hotels that are currently open?
The question was: 'Can we lose less money
being open than being closed?' Not, 'Can we
make money?' We've been able to ﬁgure that
out in every hotel that we have except for
three. We have to convince those owners that
it makes sense to open-that we can lose less
money for them being open than closed. Once
we get to that point, how do we deliver a safe
version, a fun version of what these hotels
were, and still not just be a place to hide out
and sleep or hide from the virus? How do

J AY S T E I N

With people traveling less, how do you make
sure your hotels are for the local community
as well? That's always our philosophy. When
we come up with nightlife and daylife venues,
they're really aimed at the community we're
in. I'm not going to get someone that lives
two blocks away to come and sleep in my
rooms, generally, but I am going to get what
everybody's talking about-the staycation
market and the drive market. That's been the
vast majority of the business in those areas.
We've been very successful in Hollywood,
in Dream Downtown, in Dream Nashville, in
Dream South Beach, at [Unscripted] Durham,
at Time Nyack [in New York]. All these hotels
are engaging not only for the few guests that
are staying, but also for the community.

P H OTO S : D R E A M H OT E L G R O U P

J AY S T E I N

we deliver an experience that was similar
to Dream in this environment? We've been
very successful at having F&B that is fun and
having some nightlife elements that are still
safe and distanced, fun, and keeping within
the guidelines. It's keeping our brand's true
tenets alive as best we can.

S TAT E S I D E K I T C H E N AT D R E A M N A S H V I L L E ,
D E S I G N E D BY M E Y E R D AV I S
Boutique Design - Fall 2020

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