Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Preferred Hotels & Resorts
Private
Industry Hospitality
Founded 1968
Headquarters Chicago, IL, USA
Number of locations
 Nearly 40
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 John Ueberroth Chairman of the Board
Gail Ueberroth Chief Creative Officer & Vice-Chairman
Lindsey Ueberroth President & CEO
Casey Ueberroth
Chief Marketing Officer & President of Preferred Golf
Services sales, marketing, distribution, quality assurance, and technology solutions
Owner John Ueberroth, Gail Ueberroth, Lindsey Ueberroth, Casey Ueberroth
Number of employees
 240+[1]
Website preferredhotels.com


Preferred Hotels & Resorts comprises more than 650 independent hotels, resorts, residences, and hotel groups across 85 countries. With corporate headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, the company maintains nearly 40 sales offices worldwide.

History

Preferred Hotels & Resorts was founded by 12 North American hoteliers in 1968, originating as a referral organization for hotels, under the name Preferred Hotels Association.[2] By the organization’s 10th anniversary in 1979, the company had begun international expansion with 14 European hotel members as well as its first member in Asia Pacific.

In 1981, the association rebranded under the name Preferred Hotels Worldwide to recognize its status as an international organization. At this time, it also introduced new criteria for prospective hotels, ending the personal referral system used in the past. In 1990, Preferred Hotels Worldwide changed its name again, this time to Preferred Hotels & Resorts to better reflect the composition of its member hotels. With this change also came the introduction of a new Quality Assurance Program that required hotels to go through an annual inspection by an independent third party. The organization’s existing committee-run structure also transitioned at this time to a professional staff, all working towards the goal of creating new business for its hotel members.[3]

The company went through some major changes and developments from 1990 to 2000, such as converting to a for-profit stock corporation and creating a new holding company called IndeCorp (Independent Hotel Corporation),[4] a move that was designed to provide shared resources across multiple brands of independent hotels and resorts, adding company strength to sales, marketing and technology resources.

In 2004, a well-known travel industry executive, John Ueberroth, became the largest shareholder of IndeCorp and was named CEO and Chairman of the Board, along with his wife Gail Ueberroth who was named Vice Chairman/Chief Marketing Officer and his daughter Lindsey Ueberroth, who was named Executive Vice President.[5] By 2005, Casey Ueberroth had joined the family business as Area Managing Director for the western United States. Under the leadership of the Ueberroth family, the company changed its name to Preferred Hotel Group.

In 2014, Preferred Hotel Group entered its 10th year of private ownership and leadership by the Ueberroth family with Lindsey Ueberroth as President and CEO,[6] John Ueberroth as Chairman of the Board, Gail Ueberroth as Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, and Casey Ueberroth as Chief Marketing Officer. The success of Preferred Hotel Group stands as a testament to family enterprise at its best, an increasingly rare model in today’s business environment.[7]

In March 2015, the company rebranded, positioning Preferred Hotels & Resorts as the lead master brand with five distinct hotel collections: Legend, LVX, Lifestyle, Connect, and Preferred Residences.

Worldwide Portfolio

Unlike the hard-flag hotel chains, Preferred Hotels & Resorts does not own, operate, or manage any of the hotels within its portfolio. All of the hotels, resorts, and serviced residences within the Preferred Hotels & Resorts portfolio are independent entities. Preferred Hotels & Resorts offers travelers a variety of destinations and hotel styles, ranging from game reserves to city-center hotels to tree-house style jungle retreats.[8] While no two properties are identical, they all adhere to the Preferred Global Standards of Excellence — quality standards that are measured by yearly anonymous on-site inspections carried out by professional third-party experts[9] and real-time quality assessment scores pulled from dozens of social media sites worldwide.[10]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.linkedin.com/company/preferred-hotel-group
  2. ↑ http://phgcdn.com/pdfs/uploads/Preferred_Hotel_Group_Timeline.pdf
  3. ↑ http://phgcdn.com/pdfs/uploads/Preferred_Hotel_Group_Timeline.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4023147.html
  5. ↑ http://www.coastmagazine.com/articles/built-795-family-.html
  6. ↑ http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article76384.html
  7. ↑ http://www.familybusinessmagazine.com/index.php?/articles/single/the_rapid_rise_of_a_global_hotel_group/
  8. ↑ http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2012/10/9/152311/127/hotels/Four_New_Hotels_and_More%3A_Why_You_Should_Care_About_Preferred_Hotel_Group
  9. ↑ http://www.pr.com/press-release/243184
  10. ↑ https://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/5857/Preferred-Hotels-pioneers-new-QA-approach

ref>http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2012/10/9/152311/127/hotels/Four_New_Hotels_and_More%3A_Why_You_Should_Care_About_Preferred_Hotel_Group