By Robert A. Nozar H&MM Editor-in-chief
It was opening day at the Holiday Inn in East Lansing, Mich., in 1987,
but the person who developed-and was going to operate-the hotel, was not
even on the premises. At a time when most other hotel operators might be
in a panic mode, trying to see to it that everything was done before the
first guests arrived, Bill Gudenau was out making friends for his new property.
Were these friends that were being made the leaders of local companies
and organizations who would soon be pouring huge amounts of money into
the city's newest hotel? After all, who could blame Gudenau for courting-even
on an incredibly busy and important day-people who were vital to the success
of this new property? Nope, not even close.
The people Gudenau was spending time with were not only decidedly not
members of the city's governing or business elite, or the type of person
who would direct the infusion of big bucks into his hotel's coffers; these
were people who barely had two nickels to rub together-who, in fact, might
have been seen as some of the city's least desirable denizens-college students.
Was Gudenau at Spartan Stadium along with 80,000 other people attending
an important Michigan State football game? No again. He was in a rather
small classroom with about 30 students talking about a topic dear to his
heart-the hotel industry.
You see, there was no real danger in not being present at his just-opened
hotel. Gudenau was well experienced in hotel operations by this particular
day in the late 1980s, and if anyone could put together a staff that would
not miss a beat in the absence of the boss, it was Gudenau. Furthermore,
it was not just that Gudenau had no particular affinity for spectator sports
that kept him away from
Spartan Stadium that day. No. 1: There was no game on that particular
afternoon. No. 2: To Gudenau's mind, there was more excitement to be had
in a classroom with 30 people considering a career in hospitality than
there was in the grandstand at a football game.
"I was glad to be in that classroom, working with those students," Gudenau
said.
"They wanted to know everything there was to know about developing a
hotel, and what it took to be ready for opening day."
The students learned quite a bit, but he wasn't done. This was a case
of tell and show.
Just to keep his hotel staff on its toes, Gudenau invited the entire
class back to his new hotel for lunch-a perfect break for a perfect day.
One might have interpreted Gudenau's absence on opening day as indicative
of things to come in a long-running hotel career for the Detroit native.
Was he getting bored with being a hotelier?
"I still enjoyed the development side, but no longer did I enjoy operations,"
Gudenau said. "It was time to try something else."
In slightly more than 20 years, Gudenau had gone from being a hotel's
credit analyst to being the founder of Select Hotel Management, a company
with a 12- property portfolio, to his current position as one of the senior
partners of
Insignia/ESG Hotel Partners. Gudenau had been chairman of Hotel Partners
International, which is one of the world's leading brokers of hotel properties.
In April, Gudenau and his partners agreed to merge Hotel Partners with
Insignia/ ESG, a subsidiary of Insignia Financial Group in order to increase
the company's scope.
"We are an expanding worldwide service company that is now able to penetrate
capital markets in a way that we could not do before," Gudenau said. "We
could not do [this penetration] without a strong infusion of capital. Now
we are on a fast-track growth mode for all corners of the world."
Maintaining a highly visible presence in the hotel industry for about
three decades, Gudenau has gained a broad knowledge of hotel and resort
operations and real-estate, both domestically and internationally. It all
started rather inauspiciously.
He attended the University of Detroit as a liberal arts major with no
particular interest in the hotel industry.
"My goal at the time was to get out of college as quickly as possible,"
Gudenau said. "I was a party person who enjoyed the excitement of being
with people and having a good time. Getting a job as a bartender to help
pay tuition, I started to realize that I enjoyed the hospitality business."
Upon graduation he went to Chicago, because "that was where the jobs
were," and he answered a help wanted ad in the Chicago Tribune. The Conrad
Hilton was in need of a credit analyst.
"I didn't have a clue what that was, but I applied, was interviewed
and started to work the next day," Gudenau said. "At that time, this 3,000-room
hotel was the largest in the world. I was making $75 a week and thought
that was all right."
Part of his job was to approve credit and to take deadbeats to hotel
court. That wasn't much fun and so he stayed for a year, then headed back
to Detroit where he was hired by a downtown Holiday Inn as a manager trainee.
Within a year, the general manager of that property left for a job in Washington,
D.C., and took Gudenau along to help with the new challenge. Gudenau learned
a lot, and by the age of 24 he was the g.m. of a hotel in Virginia, a property
at the end of the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel, which never brought the traffic
the hotel's owners expected. Gudenau eventually took over operations at
a Holiday Inn in Binghamton, N.Y., where he stayed until 1969. It was then
that Gudenau headed back to Michigan, where he landed a job managing two
Holiday Inns in Ann Arbor. It was a job that would last 20 years.
By 1983, Gudenau had enough equity in the properties so that he was
able to put together a group and buy the hotels outright. A dealmaker was
born. "We eventually developed Hampton Inns in Ann Arbor and Traverse City,
and then that Holiday in East Lansing," Gudenau said. "It was a property
that became almost a laboratory for the hotel school."
It was then that Gudenau finally met the person who would become his
partner- Paul Jones, who was exploring the purchase of one of Gudenau's
hotels. "He came to see me about buying one of our properties, and we kept
a dialogue going," Gudenau said. Eventually, it was Gudenau who was involved
in hotel real-estate, and coincidentally he and Jones were representing
different potential purchasers of a Marriott in Toledo, Ohio.
"It was then that we decided to become partners, so neither one of us
would lose, no matter which of our clients bought the hotel," Gudenau said.
As it turned out, neither client was the eventual buyer, but a partnership
had been formed that was to grow to international proportions in just a
few years.
"I knew only hotels and he was a real-estate expert," Gudenau said.
"We felt that we had a partnership that could be a big success because
of our diverse expertise."
The need to diversify eventually led Gudenau and Jones, and a third
partner-Russ Urban-to form a sister company, Hotel Partners Capital Group,
which was an answer to client needs for services such as mortgage brokerage,
debt and equity placement, asset management and other real-estate services.
"I would like to see us build up our management business, where there
will be a lot of opportunity in the not-too-distant future," Gudenau said.
"Many of those who are currently invested in the hotel industry have experience
only the good times, and the leaner times will mean that people such as
these will be in need of help. We are perfectly suited for that task."
As an asset manager, Insignia/ESG Hotel Partners does not handle day-to-day
operations, but acts more as an overseer of the management company-a role
that Gudenau said the management company does not resent, but, in fact,
welcomes as a type of agent that can better help owners understand the
needs of operators, and vice versa.
Gudenau's interest in building up that aspect of his company's business
does not mean he sees a decline in the side that handles real-estate transactions.
"Now is a good time to enter the industry," Gudenau said. "As long as you
do your due diligence, there are excellent opportunities in select markets."
Bill Gudenau on...
Letterman or Leno: Leno
Alan Greenspan: "A very powerful individual."
First newspaper read each day: Chicago Sun Times
Immigration laws: "I think they are basically fair in that we should
not get
hung up on the attitude that we should keep people out. That's what
America is
all about."
Favorite card game: Euchre
Hobbies: "Reading, travel, eating. I have a new home, so I may start
doing some
gardening."
People should worry less about: Other people
People should be more concerned with: Their souls
Music: "I like jazz and easy listening."
Cocktail hour: Diet Pepsi
Kenneth Starr: "He's an awful, awful man."
Television: "It has come a long way, but I still watch it very little."
Rather, Jennings or Brokaw: Brokaw
Favorite foreign city: Buenos Aires
Favorite U.S. city: Chicago
Funding for the arts: "We don't do enough."
In San Francisco, I stay at: The Monaco
The most important front-line hotel job: "The first person the guest
meets has the most important job, whether it's a doorman, a bellman, a
concierge or someone at the front desk."
Who makes my travel reservations: "My assistant, Laura."
On the whole, I would rather be: On vacation
News/issues show watched most often: "20/20"
Favorite board game: Monopoly
Favorite hotel amenity: Down comforter
Chocolate or vanilla: Vanilla
The Internet: "I've just started to use it on a regular basis."
When I was 12, I wanted to be: Successful
Astrological sign: Gemini
Favorite dinner: Fresh fish |
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