Hersha brings veteran Reese in for experience

PHILADELPHIA— While its portfolio of primarily Northeastern hotels has been performing well over the course of the past couple of years, Hersha Hospitality Management recognized that there is always room for improvement, not to mention growth. As such, the management company has tapped veteran hotelier Thomas Reese for its newly created president post, which charges him with further adding value to the firm’s expanding collection of approximately 50 hotels. Reese was most recently with Interstate Hotels & Resorts, where he was executive vp of operations for a portfolio of more than 80 hotels. Prior to that he spent many years with Marriott International that included a stint as the general manger at the Marriott Marquis in New York. He attributes his success with operating hotels to keeping it simple. “My philosophy is short and sweet: take care of the customers and associates and everything will follow suit,” he said, adding, “Hersha follows the same philosophy.” “I’ve known Tom for two-and-half years from Philadelphia. On various business matters we’ve been interfacing with one another. His experience was something that was very attractive to us. He’s a seasoned leader with know-how,” said Jay Shah, the executive director of Hersha Hospitality Management. Ironically, Reese— who formed his own development company in 2000 called Reese Hotels Development— said that he and Shah became familiar with each other as the result of a number of projects on which they were both bidding. “In doing my own projects I found my competitors were Marriott and Hersha. I discussed pulling together with [Hersha], and in the last 90 days we got serious about coming together,” he said. Reese said that his firm did have a couple of properties under development that will soon be part of the Hersha portfolio, namely a Homewood Suites in Newtown, PA, and an as-of-yet-unflagged hotel in Horsham, PA. Hersha, which manages a collection of Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and InterContinental Hotels Group properties for hospitality REIT Hersha Hospitality Trust, has clearly defined goals with regard to these brand families, according to both executives. “We want to be a brand leader. We’re doing some great things in a couple of areas. But we want the brand to call us when they want a partner,” Shah said. At press time, Reese had just taken over his new position and began touring many of the properties in Hersha’s portfolio to see what could be done to boost performance. “I can help with some of the guest [satisfaction]scores. We want to be a leader with our brands,” he said. Shah said that Reese and the company have a lot in common and particularly their core values, which Shah described as taking care of the guests, focusing on maintaining a quality reputation, creating a desirable place to work and delivering above-average returns for its stakeholders. In addition to the core values, another one of the primary appeals of Reese is his experience with managing New York-area hotels, which are the focal point of Hersha’s growth right now. Currently, Hersha manages a cluster of properties throughout Manhattan, Long Island and northern New Jersey as well as near New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. “There are pluses, like there’s a lot of business there so there’s an enormous labor force. [However], New York customers are difficult. You have to give them a little more on the service side,” said Reese. Hersha also has properties located in such markets as Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia, metropolitan Washington and Atlanta. The company also expects to continue to expand, although Shah said that the growth this year will likely be at the same pace or slightly slower than last year’s expansion. Nonetheless, the portfolio is getting larger and there are certain challenges associated with that. “As we continue to grow, along with that growth we need to keep track of things on an expanding scale. Quality is one area we can’t afford to s