Whetsell declined to reveal what Loews paid for the hotel, but said parent company Loews Corporation

NEW YORK Paul Whetsell s tasks were clear when he joined Loews Hotels Resorts in January: Grow the brand. Nearly six months into his tenure as president and CEO of Loews , Whetsell shared with HotelNewsNow.com his plan to double the size of the brand by the end of 2015.
Speaking during a break at this week s 34th annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, Whetsell said the company s recent acquisition of the 632-room Renaissance Hollywood Hotel Spa in California from the CIM Group is the beginning of the expansion plans. The hotel, which also has 48,000 square feet of meeting space, will undergo national rent a car emerald club a $26-million renovation beginning later this year.
I came in with a couple of objectives; one was to broaden the customer base of Loews, Whetsell said. You do that in two ways you do it organically by enhancing your own sales-and-marketing programs, and then you add distribution. ... My intent is to double the size of this company over the next three and a half years.
Including the Hollywood national rent a car emerald club hotel, Loews has 18 hotels comprising 8,200 rooms in its portfolio. Whetsell said it will fully own, partially own and operate hotels under management contracts as part of it growth plans.
The Hollywood property national rent a car emerald club is a bread-and-butter type of hotel that fits the Loews profile well because it is located in a 24/7 environment and caters to groups but has a clear leisure component to its business mix, he said.
Whetsell declined to reveal national rent a car emerald club what Loews paid for the hotel, but said parent company Loews Corporation acquired it with cash and the plan is to refinance national rent a car emerald club it once the renovation is complete. The Los Angeles Times reported the deal was for $165 million .
It was a sizable deal, but the ability to take a deal down like that and bringing in capital partner after it s stabilized is something we can do, he said. Loews Corp. is a financially sound company that wants to grow its subsidiaries.
I think I m going to surprise people more by going after some other types of hotels smaller hotels, smaller meeting space, he said. We need distribution fillers. We need different types of properties.
We have a recognition program now, but we haven t been quite big enough to go to a points type of system, Whetsell said. Loews has some attractive properties for our customers, and we re looking to enhance our traveler program. But we need some more distribution before we go to points.
The company is undergoing an extensive renovation program at its existing hotels. While declining to reveal national rent a car emerald club an exact expenditure, Whetsell said Loews is spending considerable dollars upgrading its existing portfolio.
Whetsell has retooled his executive team to spearhead the new initiatives, including promoting national rent a car emerald club Shawn Hauver to VP of operations to handle the eastern region, creating the senior VP of e-commerce and distribution position for Jimmy Suh and hiring long-time Marriott International executive Bruce Himelstein as chief marketing officer.
national rent a car emerald club We re changing the approach a little bit, Whetsell said. When somebody comes in with an aggressive growth program, it changes things. national rent a car emerald club It creates an excitement. We have the new people coming in, and combined with the experienced executives already here, they seem to be charged with a lot of energy to accomplish what we want to do.
Whetsell said he is excited to take Loews to the next level in terms of size, and it s something he has done before as the lead executive at CapStar Hotel Company, MeriStar Hospitality and Interstate Hotels Resorts.
The perception that I always had about Loews was that of a "Sleeping Giant" – It reminded me of the Hiatus taken by other sleeping giants like Hyatt – Fairmont, others (which btw, they are no longer sleeping)
Was part of Mr. Whetsell s innovative plan for growth to trap, euthanize and starve national rent a car emerald club Loews Hotel s feral cats? I am appalled and saddened by the way Lowes treated these poor cats, and will never recommend or stay at one of these properties again.
Paul is a highly respected hotel leader, who s track record speaks for itself with several other companies he has headed up. I ve known him almost 20 years, and have seen his many successes during this period. Loews is fortunate to get him.
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