Podcast
Episode 6: Owned and Operated Hospitality with Peregrine
Using a holistic and “people-forward” approach, Greg Kennealey, CEO of Peregrine Hospitality, speaks about why the travel industry always bounces back.
Believe it or not, Greg and I did not coordinate our outfits for the inaugural video recorded episode of Luxury Travel Innovators, but I loved the synchronicity of it all, and I was thrilled to welcome him to the AZDS office in Denver to the newly completed LTI Podcast studio. Greg Kennealey is the CEO of Peregrine Hospitality, which is made up of KSL Resorts and Mission Hill Hospitality. Our conversation was a fascinating outlook on the resiliency of the travel industry, which felt especially relevant during the current economic climate, owner/operator hospitality, as well as his “crawl, walk, run” approach when it comes to AI innovation.
Peregrine Hospitality is the result of two power-house hotel and resort management companies – KSL Resorts and Mission Hill Hospitality. The new company name was inspired by the peregrine falcon, the fastest animal in the world – a quality that, alongside agility, is what Peregrine Hospitality strives towards. Not to mention that it feels very “Colorado”, an ideal quality for a fellow Denver-based company.
Greg’s background in hospitality is fairly serendipitous. Through a chance encounter with the founder and CEO of Strategic Hotels and Resorts, Laurence Geller, Greg fell in love with the industry and worked his way to a leadership role. We talk about how it’s rare to find someone who regrets getting into the hospitality industry–once you’re in it, you’re hooked. At the end of the day, it boils down to service towards others, and that ultimately makes you yourself feel good too.
“Hospitality is a global language”
Something that differentiates Peregrine is the ownership mindset prevalent from the bottom up. They are structured in a way that has an ownership stake in the hotels in which they operate with an emphasis on how hotel real estate performs as the bottom line. This makes for better, faster decision-making and a greater alignment between investors and the people on the ground who are operating the hotel. Using the playbook developed by KSL of maximizing the value of every square foot of real estate, Peregrine repositions all properties to drill down each revenue and cost opportunity in all aspects of the business – from F&B to spa treatments to accommodations.
An acquisition that Greg is especially proud of during his tenure is the Waldorf Astoria in Laguna Niguel, California (formally the Monarch Beach Resort). After purchasing the property in 2015 and undergoing a full rebranding process, alongside a $70 million dollar renovation, they were able to really change the focus of the asset to bring it more towards leisure and less focussed on group or corporate. And Greg credits the team on the ground for the continued success of the property.
With the current economic turbulence, I was curious about Greg’s thoughts on how it could affect travel. He was quick to point out that, historically speaking, the industry tends to bounce back sooner than you’d think. In the short term, sure, there may be some modest declines YOY but the numbers come back relatively quickly. The top 15% of households contribute to over 70% of leisure travel, and analytics show that they continue to prioritize travel and experiences from a value perspective.
“Travel and leisure continues to outpace GDP growth, not only in the U.S., but globally.”
The inevitability of AI came up as we wrapped up our conversation, and Greg is adopting a “crawl, walk, run” approach, meaning he hopes to be a fast follower as opposed to a true innovator. Ideally, AI integration into hospitality will deliver a more personal curated experience to guests, keeping the “human-focused” approach at the forefront, especially at the luxury level.
As always I finished with LTI’s signature rapid fire questions. For personal travel, Greg is heading to Italy this fall with his wife and three teenage daughters, followed by dropping off his oldest at Boston College for her freshman year. When thinking about the glamorous days of travel, Greg hopes the industry can pull inspiration from the past and cultivate true visionaries and leaders to really put an individual signature on assets, rather than continue down a more homogenized path. For future innovation in travel,Greg thinks we should include finding a way to extend the luxury experience to pre- and post-arrival – truly an embodiment of the full guest lifecycle in a digital format being exclusively built by AZDS.
Thank you Greg for such an engaging conversation, now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube.
