Skift Take
Hyatt and other hotels are increasingly in the business of opening their doors to all who need a place to sleep, as long as they pack a peaceful and inclusive attitude with them.
Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian said Thursday that there's no place for hate groups at any Hyatt properties.
"If a group is primarily focused on disparaging a group by virtue of their identity...that's really where we need to draw the line. We're going to apply our values to making these decisions along the way," Hoplamazian said during Skift Global Forum in New York City.
The move follows similar stances by other hospitality groups. Hyatt's decision to ban hate groups follows criticism the company received over the summer for agreeing to host an anti-Muslim hate group at one of its properties in suburban, Washington, D.C.
Hoplamazian sent a memo to Hyatt employees on Thursday morning explaining the policy change, emphasizing that values such as inclusiveness and empathy "are deeply personal to me." Still, Hoplamazian said these groups don't represent a significant amount of total business. "It's actually quite infrequent," he said.
Along those lines, Hoplamazian and other hotel and travel CEOs met with President Donald Trump and his staff earlier this month to convey the importance of portraying a welcoming message to international travelers visiting the United States.
"The purpose of the visit was to focus on things that we're trying to promote as an industry," said Hoplamazian. "We talked about extending a message of warm welcome to the rest of the world which we feel is critical. Our pitch is that that's actually most effective when it comes from the top. We didn't get any commitments on that but we think we made our case."
Hoplamazian also said the visa waiver program was discussed during the White House meeting. "We were able to get a commitment to go back and look at policies in place that could expand the freedom to travel."
NH Hotels Upset
Hyatt tried to buy Spain-based NH Hotels earlier this year but the bid failed. "NH also had a number of hotels that operated at the higher end as well," said Hoplamazian. "The core of their business is what we'd describe as upscale and select service."
Hoplamazian isn't letting the failed bid distract him and his team from potential future acquisition and expansion. "Organizationally, there are so many intersections of loyalty, distribution, revenue management, and sales," he said. "In our case, we also have a significant effort around wellbeing. Having all of those functions under one leadership team was a critical step forward to increase our agility. We launched a new credit card. We
