Dream Hotel Group CEO Talks Summer Resurgence, New Dallas Property
Not once did Jay Stein’s optimism waver over the last two-plus years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tested? Yes.
But the Dream Hotel Group CEO, one of the leading authorities in his industry, always believed that lodging would survive and thrive.
TravelPulse had a chance to have an exclusive interview with Stein, who talked about his expectations for a big summer, the industry in general, and Dream’s foray with a new property in the suburban Dallas market.
TP: Jay, we’ve written a lot about the aviation industry and the airlines’ hopes for a return to pre-pandemic traffic. Do hotels have the same expectations?
JS: Yes. Look, the industry itself is healthy. Think about it – it’s been around for 5,000 years. Is it different now? Yes. But things are always evolving and COVID probably sped up some of those realities. Business travel has suffered, sure, and there have been a lot of Zoom meetings. But conferences and trade shows are never going to happen through Zoom. You can’t replace those 6,000-person attendees. It’s more of the individual business travel that is slower.
TP: So the enthusiasm for lodging is the same as airlines.
JS: I would say the only thing different is we don’t get longer-term bookings that airlines get. People wait longer to figure out where they’re going to stay. The hotel booking pace is not nearly that far out. People know they can always book a room.
TP: Have you been encouraged by the pent-up demand for leisure travel?
JS: Leisure has been phenomenal. It will temper to some degree, but the bleisure (combining business and leisure travel) people are now making up for it. For instance, Sunday nights used to be our slowest night and now it’s in good demand because people are staying an extra day or two after a business trip. So the hotel industry is actually pretty good. Even international is coming back.
TP: Without giving away the company secrets, has it been quantifiable?
JS: We had 90 percent occupancy in May. Not in every single one of our properties but we’re up a couple of hundred thousand (bookings) over 2019 already. It is sustainable? June is looking good. July and August are too far out but if airlines are good we’ll be good.
TP: Can you talk about the last two years, maybe add a human element to all this and how it affected the industry in general and Dream Hotel Group in particular?
JS: I thought 9/11 was the toughest thing I would go through and in many ways it still is. But this situation is much more damaging from the (financial standpoint). I still put them in two different classifications. No one knew what this would be and we’re still talking about it. I think science will solve or we’ll learn to live with it. But, yeah, we had properties in New York that closed for 16 months. All of a sudden, we needed to lock the front doors. We never locked the front doors. For some, we didn’t even know how to lock the front doors. It was insanity. Some of the cities even mandated closings whether we wanted to or not. We tried to be proactive. I personally tried to call every Dream employee who got COVID. It was tough; very personal.
TP: Dream properties are in many major cities. What prompted you to go to Frisco, Texas? It’s close to Dallas, but it’s also something of a new venture for you being part of a new mixed-use development instead of a stand-alone hotel. (Firefly Park will be completed by 2026.)
JS: We’ve been moving more into some middle America locations. Dallas is already a market to develop in. To move into the most important suburb, or one that’s becoming its most important suburb, is unique. You have Toyota’s U.S. headquarters in Frisco. There’s almost 300,000 people there and I think there’s going to be almost a half million by the time we open. It truly captures the ability to live and work.