A green, customer service-oriented approach to hotel development

Based out of Ocala, Florida, Hospitality Development Group has earned a strong reputation for
finding locations with high exposure, great access and long-term value, as well as developing
properties with hotels to maximize brand value.

“We really excel at developing limited service hotels without food and beverage in underserved
markets, as well as establishing optimal operations, revenue management, cost control and
leadership training for our team members,” says Navroz Saju, CEO and President.

Hospitality Management Group (HDG) has over 25 years of experience under its belt, using
that expertise to provide its clientele with a first-rate experience. The company has a hand in
nearly every aspect of the industry, including hospitality consulting, hotel yield management,
strategic business planning, financial analysis, consulting service acquisitions and dispositions
development.

“We like to look at secondary and sometimes even tertiary markets, where there is a lack of
quality product,” Saju says. “We mostly stay away from big cities or metropolitan areas because
there are demand generators within those small towns that are not being served because of
the products being very old. That is really our main criteria and how we go about acquiring our
product and our markets.”

The mission of HDG’s Hotels division is to find and develop sites that will maximize brand
value, and to follow through by operating them with highly trained and competent leaders. The
company carries out this task despite hurdles in the field.

“There are a lot of challenges involved in the work that we do,” Saju says. “In developing the
hotel, you borrow money that you are responsible to pay back for the next 25 to 30 years, so
there are big challenges to find the right architect, contractor or civil engineer, because you are
giving them your pocketbooks to spend.”

It is this level of financing that creates a challenge for HDG Hotels to not only acquire the right
contractors, but to purchase the right locations for development.

“This is not a home you buy in foreclosure at 40 cents per dollar,” Saju says. “You are borrowing
between $5 to 6 million, which means that you really have to execute everything meticulously
and without error, which can be a very difficult challenge.”

HDG currently manages seven hotels in Florida, six of which have been designated or are in
the process of being designated as green certified by the State of Florida, a practice that the
company hopes to continuously expand on in the future. Its hotels have also ranked within the
top 10 percent of its respective brands based on guest satisfaction surveys and brand standards
compliance.

“Green initiatives are very important to us,” Saju says. “They help create a consciousness of
saving, of non-wasting and a sensitivity to our environment, and ultimately it creates a great
benefit to both the environment and our bottom line.”

One such initiative is with the HDG Hotels Quality Inn in Titusville, located only a few minutes
from the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility and other Orlando, Florida attractions. The property had
been a foreclosure that the company took over only days prior to it being boarded up.

“Since acquiring the Titusville location, we have rented more then 7,000 hotel rooms, we
doubled our rev par index, have moved up in the brand ranking in quality from 1,000 to the
Top 200 and have put a team in place that really believes in the HDG culture,” Saju says. “This
project has really been a success story for us, taking a site that was days from being boarded
up and turning it into a property that is a leader within the market and within the brand.”

It is projects like these that won HDG Hotels the 2011 Minority Business of the Year Award,
which was presented by the Ocala Marion Country Chamber of Commerce and highlights the
company’s path to prominence, innovation and dedication to quality and service.

As of late, an increased demand in the hotel industry has spurred a great deal of competition
in the marketplace. However, HDG Hotels is prepared to face the challenges in front of it,
realizing that hotels need to prepare by looking forward at marketing strategies that reflect a full
understanding of market conditions. In this way, the company hopes to ensure that its hotels are
in tune with the times and meet the required level of operation and service that have become
such integral components of hotel management today.

“We continue to work on solidifying our company culture of being customer service-oriented and
to do whatever it takes to make our customers happy,” Saju says. “Maintaining our product is
very important to us and we continue to put procedures in place to ensure that our maintenance
is at the highest level.”

Since its inception, a conscious purpose to provide service through integrity has been at HDG
Hotels’ core. This is a mission that the company has stood by and continues to stand by as it
increases its presence in the Florida hospitality market.

Ocala, Fla. – Local hoteliers Jeff Bailey and Navroz Saju recently joined Marion County’s Tourist Development Council.

“Both men bring extensive travel and tourism experience to the TDC,” said Ann Sternal, Executive Director of the Ocala/Marion County Visitors & Convention Bureau. “The VCB team and everyone on the Tourist Development Council looks forward to serving our community with them.”

Jeff Bailey is the new General Manager of the Hilton Ocala. With more than 25 years in the hospitality industry, he has held the position of General Manager at hotels in Texas, Nebraska and Missouri. He also served on the Visitor Improvement Council of Douglas County (Omaha), where he helped pass legislation providing a general fund allocation to tourism for the first time in more than 20 years in Nebraska.

Navroz Saju is President and CEO of HDG Hotels, which manages seven properties in North Central Florida. HDG Hotels in Marion County include the Howard Johnson Inn, Sleep Inn and Suites, and Holiday Inn Express Silver Springs. He is Co-Chair of the Wyndham Worldwide Green Committee, a Certified Hotel Administrator of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and active in other industry associations and committees.

The TDC was created in 2004, when a county ordinance established a two percent “bed tax” on transient accommodations to support and grow the local tourism industry. The Marion County Board of County Commissioners formed the nine-member volunteer TDC to oversee the application of these funds to attract leisure, group and business travel to the community.

The Ocala/Marion County Visitors & Convention Bureau functions as the TDC’s operational arm. Attending trade shows and sales conferences, working with community groups, responding to visitor and group-travel inquiries are some of the VCB’s key day-to-day functions.

By: Navroz F. Saju
Special to the Star Banner

The following is a letter sent by the author to the Marion County Board of County Commissioners. It has been edited for length.

The first time I experienced the World Famous Silver Springs Attraction was in 1977. My parents had brought us during our February winter vacation to visit Disney World. In 1977, a vacation trip to Florida would not be complete without a visit to the world’s largest artesian fresh water springs — Silver Springs. Despite my brother and me being 5 and 8, respectively, we fondly recall the area filled with economic vitality.

The many small, successful businesses in the area coupled with the Florida sunshine made us feel that we were in a special area. As we entered the park, I remember my parents having to park in the back lot because the front lots were full, unlike today. The park inside was full of people and energy. I clearly remember everyone on our glass-bottom boat being in awe at witnessing 550,000 gallons of 99.8 percent pure fresh water being discharged daily from the Floridan aquifer.

Fast forwarding to the present, the area surrounding the “World Famous” Silver Springs Attraction is completely different. Ironically, the center of economic activity in this very unique eco-area revolves around the big box stores. The area’s state of disrepair coupled with the many struggling small businesses has resulted in many classifying this once robust area as “blighted.”

Many of the out-of-town guests staying at our Holiday Inn Express and Suites frequently comment on the park’s state of disrepair. As these unhappy visitors to Marion County leave our hotel, they bid farewell by a storefront of boarded stores.
One of our hotel guests even once commented as to “why would Holiday Inn put a new hotel out here?”

The reason Holiday Inn would build a new hotel “out here” is because our Silver Springs Attraction has been classified by ecotourism experts as being a national eco-treasure of the same magnitude as Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. Furthermore, our Silver Springs Attraction borders the largest national forest East of the Mississippi. Within this area there are picturesque walking trails, freshwater springs, lakes, campgrounds, hunting areas and bird watching venues.

We all agree that the status quo is unacceptable. We all also agree that the park is both a tremendous natural resource and can be a source of economic growth. The issue is how we can expeditiously transition from the status quo in a manner that both protects this natural resource while reviving the economic engine that is Silver Springs.

I have attended the most recent Board of County Commissioners meeting discussing the park’s future as well as reached out to those within our community to discuss the park’s future. Based on these conversations, Marion County’s Eco-Tourism Entrepreneurial Initiative, partnered with the Silver Springs CRA Development Initiative, could be a very positive economic game changer for the area. The reasons follow:

It would address the significant disrepair and deterioration at the Silver Springs Attraction and put a plan in place for much-needed repairs and corrections of building code violations. Currently, no such plan exists.

The longer the county waits to assume the park, the further the park deteriorates, thus, increasing the costs to the taxpayers in rehabilitating the park. In other words, time is of the essence.

It would restore the Silver Springs Attraction park to its true intent of being a world-class ecotourism venue where out-of-town visitors can ride the world-famous glass-bottom boats, swim, canoe, kayak, scuba and snorkel in the springs.

This would potentially create a niche entertainment market for Silver Springs so that it would not be directly competing with major attractions such as Disney World and Busch Gardens.

It could provide public partnership with institutions of higher learning where the springs can be studied and provide entrepreneurial opportunities for food vendors and ecotourism activity vendors.

Based on Marion County studies, transforming Silver Springs to anchor a unique “outdoor adventure” venue would create 500 jobs in a county that has an unemployment rate of more than 14 percent.

The current operator of Silver Springs Attraction does not want to be the caretaker of our county’s most valuable asset. Consequently, our community doing nothing is not an option because all sides on this issue agree that the current model is in rapid decline and not sustainable.

Hence, the County Commission’s Eco-Tourism Entrepreneurial Initiative, partnered with the Silver Springs CRA Development Initiative, would be the economic game changer that the Silver Springs area desperately needs. The only businesses in the Silver Springs area with the full parking lots are the big box stores. Most of the small businesses struggle, while Marion County’s most valuable asset, Silver Springs, continues to deteriorate.

In the hotel industry, it is stated that 80 percent of your future business can be found from your hotel’s own backyard within your existing customers. Similarly, Silver Springs Attraction can be the major job creator that many of our local leaders continue to look outside Marion County for. A strong argument can be made that a significant ingredient in Marion County’s future revitalization can be found in its own backyard — Silver Springs.

Navroz F. Saju is CEO of HDG Hotels, an Ocala-based hotel chain. The Hotel Development and Management Group this week was honored as the Ocala/Marion Chamber of Commerce’s minority business of the year.

By: Carlos E. Medina
Correspondent

The Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce held its annual dinner and awards ceremony Tuesday night at the Ocala Civic Theatre with a pep rally theme hearkening back to the 1950s.

The pep rally theme was both a celebration of the continued perseverance of the business community during economic tough times, as well as motivation to keep working toward success.

The ceremony included the official installation of the chamber’s new board chairman, Dave Fechtman, who takes over from John Hunt.

The evening also featured the Stars Over Ocala Business Awards, which recognized local business and community leaders.

The new business of the year award went to Telecom Services Bureau, which has seen a furious expansion since it was founded with five employees in 2009.

Founded by Joseph Fernandez, the company now employs more than 250 people. The company offers a number of services to other business, including accounting, taxes and marketing on a outsourced basis.

“All of the credit goes to the employees and management staff. Its been a great year,” Fernandez said. “We have 250 associates now and in the next year or two we hope to grow to 500 associates. Our main objective in Ocala and Belleview is to provide as many jobs as we can to help with our economy.”

The Hotel Development and Management Group was named minority business of the year; Hospice of Marion County was the non-profit business of the year; Lockeed Martin won the Walt Driggers Environmentalist of the year award; Jennifer Harmon of Hospice was named the business advocate of the year; John Sotomayor was named journalist of the year; Nancy Porter, Ocala’s Lady Jeweler, was cited as humanitarian of the year; and Rolando Sosa of Architecture Studio was named small business person of the year.

Business of the year honors went to Home Instead Senior Care and the Nebula Award was presented to the Ocala City Council.

By: Fred Hiers
Staff Writer

James Logue watched as interest rates fell to record lows and wanted to hop on the bandwagon to see if he could refinance his home. Doing some quick math, the On Top of the World retired engineer was hoping to knock off a few hundred dollars from his monthly house payments. The interest rate on his $190,000 home that he bought a few years ago was 6.75 percent.

But when the Federal Reserve announced two weeks ago it was buying up to $600 billion of debt issued or backed by the four lenders – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and Federal Home Loan – mortgage rates fell like a rock. Additional Fed cuts now have interest rates at about 5.25 percent or less.

Logue wanted a piece of that financial action. “So I called the bank and told them I wanted to refinance,” Logue said. “But then they told me what it would cost.” What Logue’s bank wanted in fees and administrative costs was about $7,000. Logue did the math again and decided against the change. Instead, the 76-year-old Logue complained that the only thing his bank was interested in offering him when it came to his mortgage was that he double up his payments, making two each month instead of one.

“They weren’t interested in lowering my interest rates .●.●. and then they wanted $7,000 to do it,” he said. Logue is just one among thousands of property owners looking to take advantage of lowering interest rates, but often finding it is more costly and complicated than expected.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, an industry trade organization, reported this month that its index of refinance applications tripled. It’s the largest hike since 1990, when the association began tracking the numbers. But how many of those applying to refinance will be approved is unknown.

JP Morgan Chase spokesman Tom Kelly said refinancing is like starting from scratch for getting a new loan. JP Morgan Chase holds or manages 10 million loans for Washington Mutual Bank, EMC and Chase. Kelly said people owing a bank money fall into two categories: those able to pay their debt and those facing foreclosure.

For those able to make their payments, banks have the choice of trying to get the property owner to stick with their higher interest rate or working with them to lower it. If the bank convinces the home or business owner to stay with their interest rates, that means more money for the bank. But the bank also wants to keep its customers, so it’s also in the best interest of the bank to accommodate its clients and see if lowering interest rates is feasible, Kelly said.

And the requirements for a lower interest rate will likely be more stringent than when the property owner got their original loan, he said. To be refinanced, Kelly said the property in question will have to be appraised again, the bank will likely want bank statements, tax returns and pay stubs to help it consider whether it will renegotiate the loan.

“And your home may not be what it used to be (in value),” Kelly said. “We’re making our decision on today’s facts, not what the facts used to be.” The cost to refinance, depending on the circumstances of the loan, “could easily be a few thousand dollars.”

Navroz Saju, and his brother Azim, learned recently not all banks are interested in refinancing a loan. The Ocala brothers, their family and business partners, own six hotels in North Central Florida, including three in Ocala. The hotel company is trying to reduce its interest rate with its Ocala bank for its Holiday Inn Express and Suites next to the Silver Springs theme park.

Navroz Saju said he and his brother cut the hotel’s expenses as much as they could but, “We do have a little bit of a negative cash-flow because of the economy.” The pair contacted their other banks and refinanced their loans, but were ignored when it came to their financial institution in Ocala.

“I thought they would be cooperative. I was current in my payments,” Navroz Saju told the Star-Banner. “I was shocked. It didn’t make sense to me. So I went back to making cuts,” he said about his bank’s unwillingness to work out a new payment plan. “I told them they could analyze our financials with a microscope. But it didn’t matter.”

“Our objective wasn’t to make a profit (with the lower interest rates), just get through this period,” Navroz Saju said.
Navroz Saju and his brother wrote the bank saying the economy was taking its toll on their business and they needed the bank’s help.

“As you are aware, a lot has changed in our economy since we closed on this loan,” they wrote. “The unanimous consensus is that this is the worst economy since the Great Depression. “The hospitality industry in the Marion County area is down over 25% across the board,” they said.

The brothers later told the Star-Banner that their bank finally agreed to meet with them about refinancing, but the experience was an eye-opener. So was the amount of paperwork required to refinance, Navroz Saju said.

“The paperwork is overwhelming,” Navroz Saju said. “If you’re a smaller business or a homeowner or a mom-and-pop, it’s very tough. Luckily we have an in-house CPA (certified public accountant),” he said. “It’s a lot of work.”

But Kelly said people thinking about refinancing should do some basic math before taking the plunge, namely calculating the cost associated with refinancing and compare it to how much they would save in their payments. Kelly’s bank has seen a doubling of mortgage application requests, many of which were to refinance. That doubling was before the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate to zero. After the rate cut, applications jumped another 25 percent for the bank and is expected to continue climbing.

The average rates for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is about 5.2 percent now, giving growing numbers of borrowers incentive to refinance to bring down their mortgage costs. But it’s not an open door for everyone to refinance, Kelly said.

Falling interest rates aren’t going to necessarily allow people facing bankruptcy or people unable to afford their homes to refinance their debts. Getting or refinancing a mortgage will likely be harder now than it used to be, he said. And there is no one answer as to who can get the bank to refinance their loan.

“Our goal is to keep you as a customer in the long run,” Kelly said, “if you qualify.”

Navroz Saju is the CEO/President of HDG Hotels. Navroz obtained his undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Florida and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Navroz’s hotel career started in January 1994 when he assumed control of the then independent Traveler’s Choice, which had been ravaged by a tornado in March 1993. He rebranded the hotel, renovated the hotel through the hotel’s cash flow and increased the hotel’s revenues by 4 times within 7 years while also reducing the hotel’s long term debt. Navroz is a CHA and currently sits on the Wyndham Worldwide operations committee and is a co-chair of the Wyndham Worldwide green committee. HDG hotels is presently the largest hotel development and management group in North Central Florida.

Azim Saju is the Vice President and General Counsel for HDG Hotels. HDG Hotels is a hotel management and development company which owns and operates seven hotels, including 3 Choice brands, 1 Hampton brand, 2 Holiday Inn brands and 1 Wyndham brand, throughout Central and North Central Florida. HDG has a strong culture which focuses on hotel operations and on consistent brilliance in executing on the basics. This culture places strong emphasis on team building, coaching, motivating, leadership, training and retraining.

Prior to joining HDG Hotels, Azim Saju practiced law as a trial lawyer for over 9 years. He is a member of the Florida Bar and Federal Bar. As part of his practice, Azim primarily practiced in the areas of employment law and civil rights cases. Academically, Azim holds an economics degree from Davidson College and a law degree from the University of Florida. While at the University of Florida College of Law, Azim’s notable achievement was serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Journal of International Law.

Azim has been a member of the Choice Hotels Owners’ Council (CHOC) for over two years. In this capacity, he is the Director of the Florida Region and also Chairs the Fair Franchising Committee. Azim also serves as a member in CHOC’s By-laws and Sleep Inn Committees. Currently, Azim additionally serves as the CHOC treasurer and member of the CHOC executive committee.

Jerry Lewicki, CPA joined Hotel Development and Management Group, LLC in July of 2007 and serves as the company’s financial controller. Jerry is responsible for overseeing the overall financial administration and accounting operations of the company. As financial controller he establishes, implements, and evaluates accounting principles as they relate to the company. He is also responsible for tax planning and compliance with state and federal tax laws, including maintaining and establishing relationships with lending institutions.

Jerry brings over 10 years of public accounting experience in various industries including hospitality, real estate development, and construction. Prior to joining the HDG Hotels team Jerry worked for one of Central Florida’s largest local CPA firms servicing clients throughout Florida in various industries. In addition, he has been self-employed and has owned and operated various other business.

Jerry holds Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Central Connecticut State University. Jerry is a Certified Public Accountant and is a member of the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) and FICPA (Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants).

Raymond Manaois, Chief Strategy Officer, joined HDG Hotels, LLC in May 2007. Mr. Manaois is mainly responsible for the company’s Information Technology needs, Marketing, Sales and Operational strategies. When not pre-occupied with analyzing data and transforming them into useful statistical information, Mr. Manaois spends most of his time developing strategies based on these analyses to drive organizational and operational changes. Mr. Manaois is also responsible for opening new properties – from procuring materials and supplies, developing business and marketing plans, staff and admin training, and quality and standards compliance.

Prior to joining HDG Hotels, Mr. Manaois worked as an Instructor at the University of the Philippines, Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management and at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde where he handled courses in Information Technology, Cost Control and Analysis, and Rooms Division Management. Mr. Manaois attributes his extensive knowledge and skills in hospitality management from his first job at the prestigious Mandarin Oriental Hotel Manila where he worked as an Assistant IT Manager directly right after college.

Mr. Raymond Manaois holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration major in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the University of the Philippines.

Nurjehan Saju made her debut in the hospitality industry in July of 1981 when she took over the general management of the then dilapidated Econo Lodge of Ocala (the present Howard Johnson Inn at the Intersection of I 75 and State Road 27). This project is her first success story as she turned around the motel’s occupancy within four years from being in the thirties to being in the seventies to eighties percentile. After that she worked at a couple of other motels (Red Carpet Inn in Wildwood and Howard Johnson Inn in Cocoa). Each of these two motels improved significantly under her management.

In 1996, Nurjehan entered the academic world to broaden her knowledge base and refine her language and communication skills. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and her Masters Degree from the Harvard University in Boston. She obtained each of these degrees with honors. After that, she did five years of post-graduate studies at the Emory University in Atlanta.

This year, Nurjehan made a comeback in the Hospitality Industry as she joined the HDG Hotels Group. She supervises overall performance of all the seven motels by monitoring their everyday performance and revenue reports; she monitors financial activities of all seven motels based on their daily transactional activities at the banks and periodically she conducts motivation and leadership training classes with the hotels’ administrative and management team. Nurjehan’s hands-on experience, her formal education and her wisdom gleaned over the years are useful tools that make her effective in her leadership role with the HDG hotels.

Hotel construction projects can be complicated and can easily run over budget if not managed properly. A customized program can be developed for any hotel project under consideration, from construction management, pre-opening marketing to purchasing FF&E.

While the design and development of your project is continuing, our Construction Management team begins preparations. Whether it is a property renovation or a complete new development, our recipe is one which focuses on value engineering, green friendly and management efficiency while minimizing cost over-runs.

We monitor all phases of the construction process, ensuring that schedules are maintained and coordinated, product and materials are brand approved, ordered and received in a timely fashion, and that all principles are updated constantly on the project status.

Our Services

Hotel Development	Hotel Management	Hotel Training	Hotel Legal Services	Hotel Accounting	Hotel Receivership

]]> http://hdghotels.com/128/hotel-development/feed/ 0 http://hdghotels.com/324/hotel-management/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hotel-management http://hdghotels.com/324/hotel-management/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:51:24 +0000 Editor http://hdghotels.com/?p=324

Using a horizontal or flat organizational structure, our leaders and managers handle the day-to-day tasks and personally interact with the two most important groups of people in our organization – our customers and our front-line team members.

We understand that the ultimate success of any organization depends on the team that is responsible for operating the organization. Our management approach strongly emphasizes leaders developing leaders, aggressive sales, constant training, check lists, standardization of our operational policies and procedures and an openness to new approaches and ideas regardless of their source. This approach has allowed us to grow our own team of skilled and qualified employees by 6 fold in the last six years. In addition, we have significantly minimized employee turn-over and in so doing, have a positive and efficient work environment with skilled employees that are empowered to make decisions.
 

Our Services

Hotel Development	Hotel Management	Hotel Training	Hotel Legal Services	Hotel Accounting	Hotel Receivership

]]> http://hdghotels.com/324/hotel-management/feed/ 0 http://hdghotels.com/331/staff-training-and-development/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=staff-training-and-development http://hdghotels.com/331/staff-training-and-development/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:03:27 +0000 Editor http://hdghotels.com/?p=331

Constant training and retraining are at the core of our HDG management philosophy. The training and retraining are beneficial because they allow our more experienced team members to share their knowledge with our new team members.

In so doing, our experienced team members get to re-train while showing our new team members our policies and procedures. It also allows our new team members to understand the hotel at which they work so that they are able to handle issues, such as reprograming door locks handling tax exempt to managing the hotel during power outages.

We also focus on training through the resources available from our respective brands, such as ChoiceUniversity, Hilton OnQ Insider, IHG’s MyLearning and brand communications . By leveraging off of these free resources, we make sure that we have a team of individuals that are fully trained in all aspects of our hotels’ efficient management. These resources also allow us to fully leverage off of the resources that our brand provides.

In addition, HDG hotels has periodic team leader huddles via webinar to discuss training issues such as booking groups, property walks, room inspections and third party website content review and optimization. All HDG hotels have morning team huddles with their housekeeping department which focuses in on such areas as cleaning your bathrooms, treating stained linens, lost-n-found, organizing and stocking your housekeeping cart. HDG hotels also conducts similar types of training team huddles with their front desk and maintenance departments.

Lastly, as part of our training and coaching programs, each of the hotels within the HDG group keeps a scoreboard so that all of its team members are aware of their hotels’ performance.

Our Services

Hotel Development	Hotel Management	Hotel Training	Hotel Legal Services	Hotel Accounting	Hotel Receivership

]]> http://hdghotels.com/331/staff-training-and-development/feed/ 0 http://hdghotels.com/308/legal-services/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=legal-services http://hdghotels.com/308/legal-services/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:21:02 +0000 Editor http://hdghotels.com/?p=308

The hospitality industry presents a wide range of legal issues that must be considered when starting or operating a business. You need a skilled business attorneys with experience to protect your interests.

We offer comprehensive legal services for hotel owners, developers, operators and lenders. These services range from human resource management to lien releases to debt restructuring.  They further involve handling EEOC investigations and best practices for risk management and negligence claims.  In addition, the negotiation of your franchise agreement is an essential element to our hotels’ future success. HDG’s legal counsel has experience in all of these areas so that our partners and our hotels’ have access to competent legal counsel.

Our Services

Hotel Development	Hotel Management	Hotel Training	Hotel Legal Services	Hotel Accounting	Hotel Receivership

]]> http://hdghotels.com/308/legal-services/feed/ 0 http://hdghotels.com/341/hotel-accounting/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hotel-accounting http://hdghotels.com/341/hotel-accounting/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:18:23 +0000 Editor http://hdghotels.com/?p=341

The hotel industry is unique and has accounting issues specific only to the industry.  The hotel industry was one of the first industries to develop definitive standards to provide specific guidance to accountants and operators. 

Analyzing financial information based on benchmarks set by the industry is essential to the hotel success. Accounting has to work seamlessly with hotel management and operations to interpret the financial information and react accordingly. Timely reporting is a key to making quick decisions in this economy.

Furthermore, the need to constantly monitor and control costs requires individuals with knowledge and experience of industry standards to spot trends and to ensure that your hotel is performing at an optimal level.

HDG Hotels has experience with various front of house systems and can quickly be adapt to the requirements of individual or groups of hotels. In addition, our accounting team includes a CPA who can assist our clients with tax compliance and debt restructuring negotiations.

Our Services

Hotel Development	Hotel Management	Hotel Training	Hotel Legal Services	Hotel Accounting	Hotel Receivership

]]> http://hdghotels.com/341/hotel-accounting/feed/ 0 http://hdghotels.com/401/hotel-receivership/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hotel-receivership http://hdghotels.com/401/hotel-receivership/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:44:22 +0000 Editor http://hdghotels.com/?p=401

HDG Hotels can provide lenders with hotel receivership services and ensure that their troubled assets are run in a smooth cost effective manner during this critical transition phase. We have the legal expertise, accounting skills, and great operational track record with management of properties.

It is important that during this process the operations, revenue, and most importantly employee morale is improved upon. After all, the Net Operating Income is the biggest part in today’s hotel appraisals. If you allow the operation and in turn revenue to decline, then your asset value will also decline.

Appointment

Our team can assist lenders or clients during the appointment process to ensure that the Order Appointing the Receiver is adequate in the scope and the receiver is allowed the necessary authority for a smooth transition.

Property Takeover

We are able to take over the hotel operations with minimal to no disruption to the property in light of our proven operational track record. We will implement the necessary changes immediately and manage the asset as effectively as those assets currently within the HDG Hotel’s portfolio. At the time of takeover, we will also review the processes in place from accounting, to payroll, to revenue management, and brand compliance to reduce the lenders’ risk as much as possible.

Management

Our operations and accounting team will take over the hotel’s day to day operations. We will ensure that all the existing employees including general managers are given the opportunity to be part of the new team, as their experience and contribution to the property allows for low payroll transition costs. Our team will handle all the administrative duties.  These duties range from communication with franchisors, utilities, and existing vendors, to filing the necessary state and local sales taxes, to renegotiating the necessary contracts to continue operations and to making all the necessary decisions to maximize the property’s value and minimize the hotel’s disruption.

Our Services

Hotel Development	Hotel Management	Hotel Training	Hotel Legal Services	Hotel Accounting	Hotel Receivership

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