by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
There’s a new king of the Hyatt castle – Daniel King, that is.
King has taken over as General Manager of the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel after former GM Phil Tufano left in April to join Kokua Hospitality, the new property management division of Oxford Lodging. King’s first day on the job was Monday – a day that kicked of a self-imposed, month-long hotel orientation he will undergo until he knows the place like the back of his hand.
“The first thing I want to do is get to know the hotel from top to bottom,” he said from his office Tuesday.
“This being day two, the first month or so, I’m really going to spend a lot of time walking the entirety of the hotel and getting to know the employees of all the various departments and really getting a good focus on all the service areas provided to our guests.”
King may be new to his current location, but he’s no neophyte Hyatt employee. With a 26-year long career with the company where he began as a front desk clerk right out of college, King understands the hospitality industry – and Hyatt’s mission – well.
He most recently served in his fourth position as general manager at the Hyatt Regency at Dearborn, Mich. which, he said, was a 772-room convention hotel.
“This is a nice next step in my career, now moving to a 966-room convention hotel,” he said.
“When you have a bigger hotel, it comes with more responsibility – more employees, more revenue, more to manage, more cost-control. So it’s an outstanding career move for me.”
Although he had previously vacationed in Northeast Florida many times, King said he had never visited the Riverfront Hyatt and was approached only a little over a month ago to take over as the hotel’s GM.
“It all happened pretty quickly. My first impression of the hotel was that it was extremely welcoming. We have a very warm and friendly staff that’s committed to providing an excellent hospitality experience to any visitor to the Jacksonville area. So I’m thrilled to be here,” he said. “My wife and two daughters are still in Michigan while we try to sell our house, but they will eventually be here, too, and this will be our home.”
A few of the welcomed differences Jacksonville has to offer the Kings are the warm weather and the St. Johns River.
“Besides being a beautiful area,” King said, “Jacksonville seems to be a city that’s really trying to grow and has been extremely successful over the last couple of years in growing the occupancy and the average rates and getting the annual conventions booked. I look forward to playing a part in bringing that success along even further.”
King said he also wants to be very involved in the future sales bookings for the hotel.
“With such a large hotel like this, we really need to focus not only on this year, but on the big conventions that we can book for future years,” he said.
Throughout his career in 10 different cities and 11 different Hyatts, King was heavily involved in city and industry organizations such as the Deerfield Chamber of Commerce, the Greg Landry Pro Foundation, Michigan’s Motel & Resort Association and the Detroit Convention & Visitors Bureau.
He says he hopes to continue community involvement here in the city, the Jacksonville Hotel & Motel Association, the Jacksonville and the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Northeast Florida Regional Chamber of Commerce, among others.
“These are all things I look forward to playing a role in as I get acclimated to the hotel and to the city,” said King. “But most importantly, I’m really excited about this opportunity to help this hotel move to the next level.”