CrestHill shifts into hotel management with N.H. resort

DeWITT  —  CrestHill Suites has a plan to grow without building or buying a single new guest room.

The DeWitt–based independent hotel group reached a deal on its first management contract this summer. It then assumed responsibility for the day-to-day operations at the Woodbound Inn, a 40-room resort in Rindge, New Hampshire, on Aug. 15.

CrestHill has the authority to run the New Hampshire resort under a contract, but does not own any of it or employ any of its workers. That’s in contrast to CrestHill’s traditional business, which has it owning and operating hotels.

The company owns and operates hotels in DeWitt, Albany, and Wichita, Kan. under the CrestHill banner. It also owns a Microtel Inn & Suites location in the Watertown area.

Its work with the Woodbound Inn is the first part of a new push into hotel management, according to Michael Pemberton, CrestHill’s corporate director of operations. The move opens the door to growth without constructing new rooms in markets that are often brimming with lodging from giants like Hilton and Marriott, he says.

“It’s very difficult to get realistic loans today to grow a hotel,” Pemberton says. “To take a $10 million, $12 million hotel [company] like ours and place that in the middle of franchised hotels is quite difficult. Instead of doing that, our direction is that we’ll take our experience and put it to use to help others that are in those markets like we are.”

The Woodbound Inn, located in the Monadnock Region of Southwest New Hampshire, is a good first play in the management business because Pemberton is familiar with it, he adds. He considered buying the resort in the mid-1980s. The inn includes a main building, a facility with a 180-seat ballroom, and eight cabins. It also has a nine-hole golf course, a private beach, and access to skiing and snowmobiling trails.

CrestHill landed the management contract after talking to Woodbound Inn owner Douglas Thorn, who is also a regional president at First Niagara Risk Management in Albany, according to Pemberton. DeWitt–based CrestHill was trying to convince Thorne and First Niagara to do business at its Albany hotel, he says.

“It came up that he owned the hotel in New Hampshire,” Pemberton says. “Since I had familiarity with the hotel back in the mid-80s, I said, ‘I know your product. I see the opportunity.’ One thing led to another; then we had the contract.”

Under CrestHill’s direction, the number of workers at the Woodbound Inn has grown from eight to 25, according to Pemberton. New employees include a salesperson and a new general manager, he says.

Pemberton wants to promote the Woodbound Inn with publicity from food and beverage publications, because he contends its cuisine is a strength. He also has plans to attract snowmobilers and cross-country skiers because of its proximity to trails.

Pemberton points to a rising score on the travel website TripAdvisor as evidence that his management of the Woodbound Inn is paying dividends. The inn currently has an average score of three-and-a-half out of five.

The hotels CrestHill owns are all in TripAdvisor’s top 15 for their respective areas, Pemberton says. That’s evidence the company can help improve other hotels, he continues.

“We have the core team,” he says. “We feel we have the proven numbers for any owner to see that we know what we’re doing in an independent hotel, whether it’s rooms only or food and beverage or whatever it may be.”

After Woodbound Inn, Pemberton would like to add one or two management properties a year. He will stop when he feels he can’t put a personal touch on the hotels, although he doesn’t yet know when that will be.

CrestHill will likely add another employee in sales when it takes on two additional management contracts, Pemberton says. It currently employs 25 people at each of the four hotels it owns, giving it about 100 employees total.

Pemberton declines to share specific revenue totals, but says the company is on track to grow by 12.5 percent this year, not counting the Woodbound Inn management contract. That’s up from 3 percent to 5 percent growth in a typical year. Counting the Woodbound Inn deal, revenue will grow 16.6 percent, he says.

CrestHill’s headquarters is in its 20,000-square-foot, 83-room hotel at 6410 New Venture Gear Drive in DeWitt. Its Albany hotel holds 94 rooms and stands at 25,000 square feet, while its Wichita hotel has 62 rooms and 15,000 square feet of space. Its Microtel in Watertown is made up of 100 rooms and encompasses 25,000 square feet.

The CrestHill Suites hotel group is owned by James Breuer and Nathan Podkaminer of Hueber-Breuer Construction Co., as well as Thomas Kennedy and Gary Craig of the Edgewater Co., LLC.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com