by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Downtown hotels in most cities have a few things in common, including that they cater primarily to business travelers and people who are in town for a convention. That’s particularly true in Jacksonville where vacationers — also known as “leisure travelers” — are more likely to book rooms near the beach, golf courses or other recreational attractions.
Specializing in meeting the needs of the business traveler usually means a lot of repeat guests for the Downtown hotels. Businesspeople often travel to the same cities on a regular schedule so when they find a hotel they like that’s convenient to their appointments, they’ll book accommodations there whenever they’re in town. Groups are likely to hold their regional and national get-togethers at the same place each year when they find a location the members enjoy.
One of the things that regularly occurs at hotels is a change in look. Every couple of years it’s time for new carpet, new drapes, new linens and a new menu in the restaurant. There might even be a new name on the flag out front and a new logo on the cocktail napkins in the bar.
One area of change that’s not as obvious to the guest is the nameplates on the doors in the executive suite. At many hotels, department managers can change more often than the carpet and wallpaper.
That’s not always the case though and Downtown Jacksonville is home to at least three hospitality executives who aren’t following the usual career pattern when it comes to relocation.
Janice Dailey is the director of sales at the Crowne Plaza. She has been in the hospitality industry for more than 20 years, most of that time in Jacksonville.
Dailey went to work at the hotel when it was a Hilton hotel. She began her career in the industry in the food and beverage end of the business then later discovered a flair for sales. She hadn’t been in the business long before she realized her career wasn’t going to follow the usual path.
“I was working for another hotel chain at the time and they wanted to transfer me to Denver,” she recalled. “But my husband didn’t want to leave the East Coast.
“In our industry it can be scary to not be transferrable. I know if I no longer perform (at this property) I won’t have a job and I understand that.”
By the time she was ready to make a move both in terms of department and location, Dailey had made a lot of contacts and they followed her when she changed jobs and hotels.
Dailey went to work at what is now the Crowne Plaza in 2001 as the assistant director of sales and a year-and-a-half later took over the top spot in the department. Being at the same property for several years has offered some advantages for her career, she said.
“I have been very fortunate to have worked for some very strong leaders and I have had some wonderful mentors in my career,” she said.
Being at the same property under different owners and brands has also given Dailey a unique perspective, especially in view of the current travel market conditions.
“We’ve been through this before. We’re hunkering down to weather the hard times right now,” she said. “We anticipated what’s happening and the timing of the Crowne Plaza re-brand was perfect for us. We geared up for a new market and new clients. While travel is currently down for financial companies it’s up for insurance and medical markets.”
When you’ve been working at a hotel since the days when a riverfront room cost less than $50 a night, you’ve collected a lot of good stories. Dailey said the best legends about the Crowne Plaza have been passed down through the years from previous employees.
When the property was Jacksonville’s only Downtown hotel, it was where just about every entertainer who came to town spent the night. The most famous, maybe even notorious, was “The King” of rock and roll.
“There was a special private entrance to get up to his room. There were blackout drapes all around the bed because Elvis slept a lot during the day,” she said. “I’ve also heard the stories about the gold fixtures in the bathroom and how much food room service delivered.”
Another veteran of the hospitality industry who comes to work Downtown each day is Ray Phillips, senior sales manager at the Wyndham. He has worked at the property since leaving the Adam’s Mark (now the Hyatt) about three years ago. Phillips has worked in Jacksonville hotels for more than eight years and said his almost 40-year career began in an unexpected way.
“When I graduated from college at the University of Florida I had no idea what I wanted to do – except play football,” said Phillips. “I tried out for the (Pittsburgh) Steelers. Back in those days, teams played six preseason games and I made it through five of them before I blew out my knee and my shoulder at the same time.
“Then I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I got a job with the Omni system and spent three months training in Boston followed by three months working in New York City. That convinced me to come back south.”
When the newly-minted hotel junior executive came back to Florida, his first job was at the Omni Hotel at the Port of Miami. Then Phillips got a job at the Sheraton Yankee Clipper in Ft. Lauderdale where he stayed for more than seven years. Next up was a job at a property on the Gulf Coast on Longboat Key. Phillips stayed there for 15 years.
“I’m not one who moves too much,” said Phillips.
After a stint in the casino business in Mississippi, Phillips decided his heart was still in Florida, so he returned to Jacksonville in 2000 and took a job at the Holiday Inn Airport. Since then Jacksonville as been his home and Phillips said it has been an advantage when it comes to marketing the Wyndham.
“Some people go from market to market or property to property, but that’s not for me,” he said.
When Phillips went to work at the hotel on the Southbank in April 2005, it wasn’t operating as part of the Wyndham chain, but the owners knew that was going to change.
“This hotel has had the same ownership for quite a while,” said Phillips. “We knew we were going to change the flag and that was going to be a big help due to Wyndham’s terrific reservations operation.”
Phillips’ experience in the industry has taught him every property has its own edge in the market. At the Adam’s Mark, Phillips said, it was the number of rooms (966) and the huge amount of meeting space.
“Here at the Wyndham, we have 322 rooms and 35,000 square feet of meeting space, but we have 1,700 parking spaces on the property. That’s a big advantage,” he added.
While Dailey and Phillips have certainly each logged an unusual amount of time in the local market, neither comes close to Bryan Ayer at the Omni.
He went to work at the hotel as a banquet server a month after it first opened its doors more than 20 years ago. Ayer worked his way up through the ranks to banquet captain and then banquet manager. Today, he’s the Conference Services manager.
Ayer said one of the most unique things about a hospitality career that spans 20 years at the same property is that it’s given him the chance to watch groups evolve.
“We have several groups who have stayed with us for 10 years or more and that really allows a relationship to develop between the group and the hotel,” he said. “We’ve also watched groups over a period of years and some of them frankly have outgrown the space here and have had to move to other properties. It’s exciting to know were were able to help the groups nurture their events to that point.”
Ayer also said while working with groups that come and go — and in many cases come again a year later — one of the things he likes most about his years of service at one hotel is, “It’s nice to know so many people for so long. Sometimes we work with a client for two or three years planning their event and the variety makes the job interesting.”
He credits his longevity partly to the hotel’s stable ownership over the past two decades and partly to the corporate philosophy that he has known for his entire career in the hospitality industry.
“When you are part of the Omni, family is first and work is second and I like that philosophy,” said Ayer, who said he doesn’t have any plans to relocate either job-wise or geographically.
“Each year, I have an interview (with the hotel’s general manager and staff) and that’s when I have the opportunity to ask for a transfer if I’d like to go to another property or another city.
“They know my interview will always be a very short one,” said Ayer.
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