By Sarah Trefethen
Stephen Brandman is tight-lipped on his next move, but if he takes his own advice, the former Thompson Hotels CEO has some surprises in store for the New York hotel market.
“Find the thing that makes you special,” he told attendees at the New York City Hotel Development Forum yesterday (Tuesday).
According to Brandman, 60 Thompson in SoHo was the first hotel in the city to offer a rooftop bar. These days, in contrast, it’s hard to find a hotel that doesn’t offer some sort of rooftop experience.
“It’s about being different,” he said. “And what was once different today is the same.”
Brandman and his partners, Jason, Michael and Lawrence Pomeranc, sold Thompson Hotels to John Pritzker’s Geolo Capital two months ago. But they retained ownership of three New York hotels, 60 Thompson, 6 Columbus and Thompson LES, as well as Thompson Beverly Hills in California.
The partners will announce the new name for their remaining hotels in November, Brandman said, along with their plans in New York and around the world.
“We’re still in negotiations with a whole lot of groups as to which properties we’re going to be managing in our next life,” he said.
Brandman, who is originally from Brooklyn, said that New York is an “incredible marketplace,” and that the demand for hotel space in the city still presents plenty of opportunity.
“There is an incredible demand for this brand called New York City,” he said.
But he did have some words of caution.
“Forget about 2007,” he said, warning against expectations that the market will return to pre-boom levels. “I wouldn’t put that in my business model.”
In addition to finding a way to be different, he said, hotelliers also have to remember the importance of service and consistency, in order to build reputations that will combat the trend of travelers looking for the least expensive bed on a third-party website.
“There’s always something special you can do with your building, whether you’re in the 2-star market or the 5-star market,” he said.
Finally, he encouraged hotel developers and managers to plan for the long-term.
“Everyone is going to try the new hotel …. I like to think we were able to create assets that were not just bright burning, but long burning,” he said, adding later, “these buildings are almost forever.”
