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When it comes to running a hotel, Leigh Hitz (BSBA 1984) has seen and done it all. The Daniels alumna was one of the first female executives in the hospitality industry, rising to the role of chief executive officer of Stout Street Hospitality before her retirement in 2016. Now, she’s taken an advisory role in the industry with NuovoRE, sharing her expertise with the next generation of hospitality leaders at Daniels and beyond. Hitz joined the Voices of Experience podcast to talk about her rise through the executive ranks, the changing tides in the hospitality industry stemming from the pandemic and what true leadership looks like in a hotel.
Show Notes
Leigh Hitz
Leigh Hitz is a strategic advisor in the hospitality industry who retired as CEO of Stout Street Hospitality in 2016. Hitz worked at Stout Street for nearly three decades, learning to manage all aspects of the hotel space, from the front of the house to the penthouse. In 2008, Hitz and her husband, James, established a scholarship fund for female students pursuing a hospitality degree at the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management at the Daniels College of Business.
Table of Contents
1:04 How growing up in Aspen led to a hotel career2:25 The changing tides of the hospitality industry
4:45 Building relationships first
8:48 Learning to become a leader
9:44 Differentiation in a competitive market
11:48 Rebranding a historic hotel
13:43 “If I had a crystal ball”
16:15 Scholarship for female students in the hospitality industry
18:21 Becoming one of the first female GMs
24:39 Show notes and credits
In this episode:
- Leigh’s Executive-in-Residence Profile
- Hotel Online: Leigh Hitz Promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Stout Street Hospitality
- Hotel Online: Former Historic Mayfair Hotel Debuts as Magnolia Hotel St. Louis, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel
- Dallas Business Journal: 3 questions with Leigh Hitz, CEO of Stout Street Hospitality
- Deloitte: 2023 Travel industry outlook
Related articles and information:
- Forbes: The State Of The Hospitality Industry In 2032 According To The Class Of 2023
- Wake Up Call! Podcast – Episode 2 – Leigh Hitz
- Leigh Hitz on LinkedIn
Online extra: What are the most important skills for students entering the hotel industry?
Transcript
Nick Greenhalgh:
This month on the Voices of Experience podcast. How much do hotels really know about their guests before they arrive? And what can they do with that information?
Leigh Hitz:
We can surprise and delight a guest with something, knowing where they’re from or what their favorite wine is. You never know what’s going to come out of that.
Nick Greenhalgh:
That’s Leigh Hitz, a Daniels alumna and highly regarded hotel leader for nearly three decades at Stout Street Hospitality. As one of the first women executives in the industry, Hitz has seen and managed it all, from the heart of the house to the penthouse. And she’s now passing on the lessons from that extensive experience to the next generation of hospitality leaders at Daniels, and beyond.
Leigh Hitz:
If you have a good culture within your building and it is led and taught and mentored, your rate of success for low turnover is much better.
Nick Greenhalgh:
She joined the show to talk about her ample executive experience, the changing tides in the hospitality industry stemming from the pandemic, and what true leadership looks like in a hotel. Leigh, welcome to the show.
Leigh Hitz:
Welcome. Thank you.
Nick Greenhalgh:
You are a Colorado native. I grew up in Aspen, which we all know is a tourist hub with numerous world-class hotels. How do you think that influenced your career path?
Leigh Hitz:
Well, it was a great place to grow up, so we moved up there in 1967, and as most resorts, all the kids really participated in a lot of sports. And so my basketball coach, who is also my business teacher, he says, “What do you want to do?” And I said, “Well, we can work in restaurants, hotels, or be a ski instructor.” And so I chose hotels and he got me connected into the community for the first time. So we started a program way back in the… Gosh. So I graduated in 1980, so in the early seventies, where we were able to work and do internships and things at hotels. And so that program still exists up there. So that’s how I got into it. So I was a great coach and a mentor and loved every facet of it.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. No regrets on passing on being a ski instructor?
Leigh Hitz:
I was a ski racer and had to give that up when you got into high school so you could do sports. It was one or the other. But my knees show for it, so I think I made the right choice.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. As we mentioned in the intro, you spent more than 25 years at Stout Street Hospitality stepping down as president and CEO in 2016. How did you see the hospitality industry change over that time?
Leigh Hitz:
Oh my gosh. So it changed substantially. So I would say the biggest thing that changed over time has been the world of IT, and the world of sales marketing. So a lot of our day-to-day business hasn’t changed, but the way that you sell digitally to customers, how guests see you, how they find you, how they book a room is so different than it was back even 25, 35 years ago.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Sure.
Leigh Hitz:
And then the world of it is changing still daily. So you have so many systems in a hotel or a restaurant, they all have to connect. Well, there’s a new platform, so that’s the greatest newest platform. Well, that’s great, but it doesn’t work with our operating system. And so the world of IT has really complicated, I would say, the operations, and you really have to be pretty experienced or surround yourself with that experience.
Nick Greenhalgh:
The flip side of that, I have to imagine is there’s more data available than ever before. I have to imagine there are some positive impacts of that.
Leigh Hitz:
Absolutely. I mean, you want to know anything and everything about your guests and where they’re coming, what their preferences are, and that is to our advantage. So we can surprise and delight a guest with something, knowing where they’re from or what their favorite wine is. You never know what’s going to come out of that.
Nick Greenhalgh:
In the past, was it just a shot in the dark, you had to aim in the-
Leigh Hitz:
It was. We had the name and we said, “Welcome Nick. Where are you from? What do you like to do?” And it was all at the front desk. And so now a lot is behind the scenes and then depending on how good of an operator are, you know who’s coming to your hotel, where they’re coming from, and what their preferences are.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Really interesting.
Leigh Hitz:
So it’s night and day.
Nick Greenhalgh:
And I have to imagine if they’ve been there before-
Leigh Hitz:
Correct. And you can… Hopefully, your front desk understands that and looks, and your sales team is highlighted, “Hey, Nick’s been here 14 times, and he eats at six o’clock every night, and he has a hamburger.” And so we know that stuff.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. We touched on it a bit earlier, but sort of the current state of the business, the future state of the business, and I want to call attention to something you said in a 2015 interview with the Dallas Business Journal.
Leigh Hitz:
That’s a long time ago.
Nick Greenhalgh:
We’ll link to that in our show notes if anyone wants to reference it as well. But you mentioned that you built relationships with local businesses as a way of attracting guests to your hotels, and that you also offered all-inclusive amenities. Is that still a winning strategy almost a decade later for the hospitality industry?
Leigh Hitz:
Well, twofold. Yes. I’m building relationships because the folks that refer you to their clients to stay with you are local people. So it’s whatever accounting firms in town, law firms in town, Dallas had a huge AT&T presence.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Sure.
Leigh Hitz:
So yes, I even went down and got to know the 25 secretaries that book rooms with you.
Nick Greenhalgh:
There you go.
Leigh Hitz:
What do they need? What do their guests need? So that will never change. We’re a relationship-based business. The all-inclusive side of things, that was way back when I started with DoubleTree back in the mid-eighties. So that evolved. And I would say today you don’t see much of that anymore in the urban settings, probably down in Cancun you do, but not in our urban settings. So, we’re really focused now more on what we talked about earlier, Nick, what are the guest preferences? What do you want? How can we surprise and delight you with the special treat when you come to hotel or during your stay? I think that’s more where we are from a service level. And it’s really getting to know your customer more than saying, “Hey, we have free happy hour for you tonight.”
Nick Greenhalgh:
Sure. Right. Does that get down to knowing if they’re there for business or personal? I have to imagine that’s all baked in, right?
Leigh Hitz:
All baked in. And I’d love to say today, even to our operators, we have a seven-day business. We’re open 24, 7 days, but it’s a different clientele. Monday through Thursday and Thursday to Sunday. So you have a two-headed unicorn, if you will. And so you have to change, adapt. You might have different employees on the weekend that you don’t have during the week. And so there’s a lot that goes into building the culture of that hotel. So you relate to those customers.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Oh, interesting. Interesting. The other part of spending 25 years at Stout Street is I’m sure you grew personally. How did you grow as a business executive in your two and a half decades there?
Leigh Hitz:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing I learned… So I was a general manager first, and then that became development. And it was a small family owned business, so I worked very closely with our owner who had a construction background. And the day I retired, we still shared an office, and he retired with me. So wonderful family. And I think the biggest thing I learned over time as I became the CEO and the president of the company is how to really mentor and coach the executives on your team. So one, you surround yourself with people better than you and they have better skillset, but they still need to be mentored, they need to be coached. And I think over time, that was the biggest thing I learned. And the majority of my 15, 20 executives were there for 20 plus years, and we still see each other.
So great group of people, and we knew exactly what everybody was doing when they’re doing it, what free time they needed. And I think the other thing is I knew everything personally about them. So if they’re about to have a baby or they about to get married or they lost a loved one, we knew it. And so we were a very supportive group. And I think that is so valuable today in any business you’re in, any company you’re in. So I would say coaching and mentoring that level because then it obviously gets to the properties and it gets to the general managers, it gets to everybody else because we’re interacting with them so much.
Nick Greenhalgh:
How do you learn how to become a better leader for your staff? Is it an on-the-job type of thing?
Leigh Hitz:
Well, sure, it’s on the job, but you also have to be open to criticism and you have to be open to new ways. You have to read, you have to educate yourself, you have to stay up to what’s happening, what’s relevant today. And you’re also mentoring and coaching a whole next generation, if not two more generations, and what’s important to them. And so I think it’s really challenging, but I think it’s what we all like and thrive on so much because you still ultimately want to win in the end.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Sure.
Leigh Hitz:
Whatever that looks like for your company. And for me, it was really people. It was the culture of the business, to me, that was most valuable.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Interesting. And as we look forward, how do hotels differentiate themselves?
Leigh Hitz:
That’s a good question. So I work for a great company now, a very innovative company, and it’s still renovating old historic buildings. So it’s exactly what I used to do. And we are always… I was just looking at a report, a group went and looked at a whole bunch of hotels similar to what we’re going to build. And it was like, “What are customers looking for today? Is it just design? Is it the amenities? Is it easy things in your room?” It was funny. We were looking at this great upscale hotel in New Orleans, and they had a shelf over the roll of the toilet paper in the bathroom. So I’m like, “Ah, so you don’t drop your phone or you could work on your laptop.”
And what’s the products in a mini bar? Are they local? Is that more important to a traveler than your normal brand? So I think today a lot of design elements are geared to what we anticipate what a guest wants, not just today, but in a couple years to come. I don’t think we can predict 10 years down the road, but I think we can predict within a couple years.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. You mentioned the company you work for now. Would you share a little with our listeners who that is and what your role is?
Leigh Hitz:
Sure. We’ve been at University of Denver a couple times speaking, and it’s called Nuovo. And we are a real estate focused company with an impact driven message. So we are very geared and focused on how we can create impact within the communities we go to, including all of our employees. So not just in the four walls, and it’s also in cities that are up and coming that we can make a difference in. So my role is I oversee the operations and the management companies that actually manage our hotels. And then I do just by default also assist in construction in getting the hotels open because I’ve done so much of that.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. Yeah. We’ll be sure to link to that in our show notes, anyone listening who wants to check that out, head over there after this. I want to talk about a milestone in your career. You’ve helped to rebrand the Mayfair Hotel in St. Louis in 2014 at the time to reflect the company’s expansion goals. How did you approach that process and ultimately choose the hotel’s name to reflect these goals?
Leigh Hitz:
Sure. So it was originally called the Mayfair, very old hotel, and it was very rundown. So our goal was to reposition it and make it a magnolia. So we had the Magnolia brand already going among several hotels in Texas. Denver at that time, probably Omaha. So we just added it to the brand of Magnolias, but we actually closed it during renovation because it had a really bad reputation. And so in order to reposition the hotel, we ended up closing it, rehiring staff, doing a design, changing the F and B, which is food and beverage, and then relaunching it as a new boutique hotel in downtown St. Louis.
Nick Greenhalgh:
And I have to imagine to repair the reputation, you couldn’t just change the name, it was all those other things.
Leigh Hitz:
No, it was everything else that went with it, and especially for the community. So again, back to who your clients are, the local community knew about that hotel, so we had to go in and make a difference. So we had to really do a lot of pre-sales and marketing to the community and getting them in the door, letting them know what we’re doing, who we are, what’s important to us at the time. And it’s a great hotel in downtown St. Louis today.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Yeah. Was it a success?
Leigh Hitz:
Yes. Yeah, it’s great location and still beautiful. And there’s some beautiful old stained-glass windows that we actually found the old artist who originally did them.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Very cool.
Leigh Hitz:
In the early 19 hundreds.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Very cool.
Leigh Hitz:
And he kind of remade them for us and fixed them up.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Fantastic. I want to look forward again here. A 2023 report from Deloitte found that the travel industry is entering a new period of what they called recalibration and repositioning. A couple of big words there. And we’ll link this report in our show notes for anyone who wants to check out the full edition. What they found is that travelers are demanding more bang for their buck on travel, but the hospitality industry on the other side is still struggling from unprecedented staffing issues. How do we grapple with this? Where does it meet a fair point?
Leigh Hitz:
Well, if I had a crystal ball, I think I could answer that question relatively smoothly, but I don’t. So yes, the industry is still faced with employment challenging, staffing challenges, and it’s interesting. So it’s really focused a lot in the back of the house, which we call the heart of the house. So that would be your housekeeping, your kitchen, culinary staff, more line cooks, dishwashers. So it’s really happened, and you’ve probably seen this in restaurants you go to, restaurants aren’t open seven days a week anymore. Some are opened five days a week or four days a week. They’re not open for all meal periods. Until we as an industry really learn how to change behavior, and what we expect from our employees, you don’t need to work them 60 hours a week anymore. So let’s find out how we can be flexible and nimble with these employees.
Notoriously, they are underpaid and create a better benefit package for them and really understand what they’re going through. So I think it’s a cultural shift for sure. Some of the people that have been in the industry a long time to come back and relate to what your true heart of the house employee needs to live and work and get to work and get home in time for their kids. Who knows what it is. But we have to get better at that.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Yeah, I think that goes with the theme of your career, people first, family, business, that sort of thing.
Leigh Hitz:
That is correct. If you have a good culture within your building and it is led and taught and mentored, your rate of success for low turnover is much better. And our industry has a high turnover rate.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Sure.
Leigh Hitz:
So you really have to work in that. To replace any position in a hotel takes weeks, if not months, depending on the position, and it’s a high dollar investment. So we as leaders do have to get better at this.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. I want to shift the focus here a little bit to your connection with Daniels. In 2008, you and your husband James established a scholarship fund for female students pursuing a hospitality degree at Daniels. What motivated you to create that fund?
Leigh Hitz:
Well, first of all, I’m so glad we did it. So at the time of our lives, our kids are actually just starting at University of Denver. And Jim’s father had created a math scholarship at the University of Nebraska for women.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Yeah.
Leigh Hitz:
And I thought, “Oh gosh, I should do this at the hotel school.” So we developed a scholarship, and I like to say since I was one of those students, I was not an A student at Daniels, I was in the middle of the road there because I like to work, I like to do other things. And I was a balanced student, I believe. So I wanted to create a scholarship that was for B students. They had a 3.0, but that wasn’t what was driving it. Where did they come from? What were their lives like? What did they strive to be? Hardworking, well-rounded, and get more women into this industry. So at the time, we still didn’t have a ton of women in executive positions. And today it’s getting better.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Yeah.
Leigh Hitz:
So that’s what we created. And we’ve met several of our scholarships. What do you call them? Recipients, throughout the years and just fabulous people. And we stayed in touch with a couple of them. Some have stayed in the industry, some have not. And again, that’s not totally the purpose of the scholarship.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Right.
Leigh Hitz:
But very rewarding to be part of that. And I will say over at the hotel school, most students there are on some form of scholarship. So there’s a lot of alumni that have really been invested in seeing that hotel school succeed.
Nick Greenhalgh:
You hit on something there that I was going to follow up with you. It sounds like you had an experience that drove that scholarship. What was it like being a woman in a leadership position in the hospitality industry at the time you were doing it? Was that rare?
Leigh Hitz:
Very. So I was one of the first general managers in the industry. And then to get beyond that, to get into an executive position was extremely rare. I could probably name the other two ladies at the time, but most women at the time were in sales or HR, and they really didn’t go above that at the time. And I think a lot of women, and even a lot of students I mentored today, they still struggle with, “How do you have a life, be a wife, have children, and be in this industry?” So how do you create a well oiled machine with your husband and your family to have a good life balance and still do what you’re passionate about? And I think that still exists a little bit today for students to understand that just because our industry is 24/7.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Sure.
Leigh Hitz:
So how do we adapt to that to ensure that ladies who want to be in this industry love it like I did and several of my colleagues, but want to stay, and do what I’m doing and mentor and coach some of the other ladies to get into this industry.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. In speaking of mentorship, you’ve been a mentor to countless students at Fritz’s joining the Daniels Executives in Residence Program in 2017. For you, what are the most important qualities of a strong mentor?
Leigh Hitz:
Well, it probably goes back to my mentor. Right? I think the ability to really, one, listen. Listen to what the student is telling you, asking you, seeking advice on, and then what are their passions? What do they want to do? Because it’s not always what we think they want to do. And the other side that I really enjoy, and I have a wonderful gal right now and really networking her. How do we network you into the industry, into other folks that can mentor you? It just doesn’t have to be me, but let’s get you with some other mentors here, even in Denver, or even on the phone. We’re blessed in Denver from the hotel side. We have probably 15, 20 different management companies in Denver. And so we are able to really tap into them for expertise and other coaching and mentoring for these students.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. And on the flip side of the equation, what tips would you give to students who are looking for their own professional mentor?
Leigh Hitz:
Look for somebody who is aligned with you. What are your passions to their passions? And can they give you good advice, solid advice, not just top of the ice cream cone. Let’s get down into the cone of it and be really like, “How can I really help you, steer you? What do you need that I can be assistance for?” And it’s always been in the hotel business. I’ve had students I’ve mentored that have been out of the hotel business or employees on some of our jobs or other hotels. They’re like, “I need to get out of the industry.” Okay, well let’s figure that out. What are our next steps? And then set them up with somebody that can help them.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. Before we get out of here, I want to hop into a question from one of our students. Let’s play that now.
Ryan Foreman:
Hi, I’m Ryan Foreman. I’m a fourth year student studying hospitality management. And my question for you is, how does Nuovo utilize new technologies in their hotel developments and operational services? And then how does that technology affect NuovoRe’s impact investing efforts? Thank you.
Leigh Hitz:
Hi, Ryan. Great question. And so since we manage operations of other brands or companies, we are constantly steering them to focus on kind of back to what we talked about, guest preferences.
Ryan Foreman:
Sure.
Leigh Hitz:
That’s one technology. Number two is, how deep from an analytical standpoint, can we dive into what’s happening on that development to ensure we have the right systems in place? From an impact standpoint, we’ve worked on a ton of initiatives right now to prove out the ROI on Impact Hospitality. And so we’re working on that. We’re working on a whiteboard presentation. So what does it really mean? What does the ROI on that? What does low turnover mean? What is fair wages above market mean? Can you really prove this out? The message of impact within a community, do your clients pick up on it? Are we getting business from that message within the community? And we have proven that we are. So we will get companies, clients, groups to stay with us at our hotels because of our impact work.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Very interesting. Yeah, I wasn’t familiar with Impact Hospitality.
Leigh Hitz:
Yep.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Great. As a guest on the Voices of Experience Podcast, we obviously consider you a Voice of Experience. So what is one thing that you’d like to share with our listeners that we haven’t talked about already?
Leigh Hitz:
Oh my gosh. Experience. I think you never really can predict the future. So I think you have to remain nimble, flexible, and I always like to say to anybody, even my old colleagues and managers and executives, “What does every decade look like?” So when you’re 20, that decade, to when you hit 30, 40, 50. What decade are you going to give back? What decade do you want to grow in? What decade are you going to buy a house, get married and have kids? So I always talk to people about what decade are you in currently in your life and your career, and what’s the next 10 years look like? So that’s probably my biggest advice is think about where you are and where you want to go, and who can influence those decisions for you and help you.
Nick Greenhalgh:
Awesome. Well, thank you, Leigh. We really appreciate you appearing on the show.
Leigh Hitz:
Thank you very much.
Nick Greenhalgh:
For more on this episode, including a bonus question on Leigh’s top tips for students to have success in the hotel industry, be sure to check out our show notes. You can find those and more at daniels dot du dot edu slash voe dash podcast. The VOE Podcast is an extension of Voices of Experience, the signature speaker series at the Daniels College of Business, sponsored by US Bank. Patrick Orr and Chloe Smith are our sound engineers, alumnus Joshua Muetzel wrote our theme and I’m Nick Greenhalgh. Until next time, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating and review.