Execs Launch Coral Collection

NAPLES, FL— Industry veterans John Ayres Jr. and Joe Freni Jr. have teamed up to form the Coral Collection of Fine Hotels & Resorts (CCFHR). The company is the marketing umbrella of a portfolio currently comprised of seven unbranded four-and-a-half to five-star Florida hotels. The portfolio is positioned for further growth, said the executives in an exclusive interview with HOTEL BUSINESS®. “Our strategy is not to see how many hotels we can have,” said Ayres of the company’s future expansion plans. “It’s more about where we can have hotels that would be of interest to our guests. If our guests want to be in Palm Beach, we will be in Palm Beach.” Ayres— a veteran of Hilton Hotels, Marriott International and The Breakers— is chairman of the company; he is responsible for the growth and development of the collection. Freni— a founder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. who also opened The Ritz-Carlton, here— is president, and oversees operational standards of existing and new hotels. Joining them is Larry Blankenship as CFO. He is also a co-founder with Ayres of Coral Beach Hotels & Resorts, a portfolio of refurbished hotels in prime locations throughout Florida. It is that portfolio that serves as the foundation for CCFHR, formed earlier this year when the two approached Freni to bring his five-star approach to the company. Backing up the company is a series of investment bankers and various other financial partners, including William E. Simons, the former Secretary of the Treasury. The latest addition to the collection is the Blue Moon on Miami’s South Beach. The property accompanies a series of other four-and-a-half to five-star boutique-sized properties throughout Florida, including The WinterHaven Hotel and Essex House Hotel Suites in South Beach; Chesapeake Resort in Islamorada in the Florida Keys; Hotel Escalante in Naples; Casa Ybel in Sanibel and the Langford Hotel in Winter Park, Orlando. The Personal Touch Freni and Ayres said that they want the collection to remain unbranded because they want to offer an option to the big, branded hotels. They prefer not to call the properties “boutiques,” opting instead for “high-end, European-style” properties that offer a personal style. “These hotels have character,” said Freni. “We are not trying to be glitzy or faddish.” The customer base the Coral Collection is seeking to capture is someone who might stay at the Loews or Ritz-Carlton on Miami Beach for business, but return on his/her own to a Coral Collection property. While choosing not to hang their future on the “boutique” label, the two argue that there is a market for the smaller hotel that offers personal service. “Someone said boutique hotels are for 22- to 32-year-olds. We don’t agree,” said Ayres. “There are 30-, 40-, 50- and 60-year-olds who don’t want to stay at the Marriott.” The Coral Collection will deliver “Club-level service,” said Freni. “If a guest wants chocolate milk and a cookie, it will be there waiting for them. It’s different concept in high-end service.” Freni said that employees will be trained to deliver this type of experience, which will include the Ritz-Carlton concept of “a warm welcome and a fond farewell.” Freni and Ayres said the properties they collect will be small enough so that computers are not required to retain customer preference information. Instead, it is expected that the staff/guest experience will be intimate enough to be remembered in the future. Under consideration is a guest loyalty program that would focus on rewarding guests with attention to their preferences, rather than a point basis. And while there will be an emphasis on the leisure market, Ayres said that 12% of the collection’s business will come from the meetings market. Eye Toward The Future As for future development plans, the executives said they are looking at “older established hotels that may have been family-created 40 to 50 years ago, that we can focus on rejuvenating.” Dollars invested in