Case Studies
See What Makes Our Horizon Hospitality Company a Success
Horizon hospitality management is committed to fulfilling our clients’ needs and to maintaining a standard of excellence in every aspect of our management offerings. Below are some examples of our successful management experiences. Contact us to see how Horizon hospitality management can help you achieve the same level of success for your property.
Hotel Development/Openings
Horizon was engaged by Citibank to plan, design, pre-open and manage an Executive Conference Center in Westchester that included 274 guest rooms, 25,000 square feet of executive meeting rooms, a 300-seat amphitheater, a 500-seat ballroom, two restaurants, two bars, a state of the art fitness center with squash and racquetball courts, indoor/outdoor swimming pool, and a nine-hole golf course.
Horizon hospitality management handled all phases of planning and pre-opening, including marketing, accounting systems, design, staffing and training. Working closely with Citibank, the property was designed to deliver the full service resort experience, bringing it up to a 4-diamond resort level, and positioned as a high-end resort that offered the conference center concept to groups. The property became the most successful hospitality entity in the region and the most profitable resort and conference center in the country. It sold out with individual guests on the weekends, filled Sunday through Thursday nights with highly profitable conference business, operated the largest Sunday brunch in the area, and attracted local clientele to its restaurants and bars. The property generated over $100,000 per room in Revenue and over $30,000 per room in Gross Operating Profit.
Troubled Assets
Horizon was hired by Prudential Insurance to take over a failing property in Atlanta. We worked closely with our client to create a new identity for the hotel. The focus was to create Atlanta’s own 4-star luxury hotel. A timeline was established to renovate all of the public area and the 500 hotel rooms, as well as to re-concept the food and beverage outlets. The project was scheduled to be completed over the course of 16 months, so as not to interrupt the cash flow of the hotel.
We began the renovation with a campaign, aimed at the in-house guest, to create a fun atmosphere during the renovations. We created a comic character, Elroy, who wore a tool belt and a hardhat and was in charge of all renovations. If a restaurant was closed or a corridor blocked, the accompanying poster read “Don’t blame us, blame Elroy.” If a guest experienced problems, we had tickets printed including a picture of Elroy, offering a free drink, dessert, a meal or even a free night at the hotel to keep the guest happy. It was a successful campaign, and we were able to increase the hotel’s revenue during the 16-month renovation. By the end of the second operating year, the hotel improved house profit by $860,000.
Brand Conversion
Horizon first became involved with an independent 500-room property featuring 50,000 square feet of meeting space when an investment group purchased the property from the original owners. We completed a rebranding and renovation of the property to a Four Points by Sheraton.
We began building the business plans by laying out the hotel’s occupancy day by day, dividing the marketing strategy into segments, targeting airline crew contracts to build "base" business, and aggressively reaching out to both corporate group business during the week and SMERF group business on weekends.The hotel was successfully marketed throughout the two-year renovation, improving revenue and profits by working with the brand. Through active revenue management in partnership with the brand, we also successfully targeted top-tier transient businesses. After the renovations were completed, in the stabilized year, the hotel achieved a 51% increase in total revenue.
Portfolio Experience
Horizon was hired to manage a portfolio of 26 select service hotels. The task was to keep all of the properties performing, while simultaneously analyzing and prioritizing the properties in order to advise the owners on the best use of capital for each hotel. The mission was to turn the properties around and prepare them for sale.
Horizon worked closely with the Asset Manager to establish the priorities for capital expenditures and renovations to maximize limited capital dollars. All properties had to maintain the minimum brand standards. Properties with the most potential were identified; where appropriate, major renovations were made, which Horizon supervised in-house. Properties with the least potential had Repair and Maintenance budgets enhanced to ensure they maintained brand standards. During this period, all 26 hotels received consistently high QA scores, improving the value of the asset and the return to the owners by 28%.