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'You have to get it'
New Homestead chief settles into 241-year-old Virginia tradition
BY ANNE ADAMS STAFF WRITER
 | | A golfer makes his way down the entranceway to The Homestead Monday morning, clubs firmly in hand. New Homestead vice president Sean Maddock says 99 percent of resorts would kill to have the repeat clientele this hotel gets year after year. (Recorder photo by Anne Adams) |
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HOT SPRINGS - The Homestead was bustling Monday morning. Families checked in while children played on the grass under the hotel's landmark tower. Porters shuffled golf bags and luggage with purpose in and out of the lobby, while vans chauffeured visitors to activities for the day. Some guests rested easy with a good book or newspaper in rocking chairs along the front porch as the bright sun began to take the morning's chill out of the air.
In peak season this summer, America's oldest resort was nearly full to occupancy as new vice president and general manager Sean Maddock began the first day of his fourth week in the job.
He arrived from the dry climate of Scottsdale, Ariz., to replace former Homestead president Brett Schoenfield, who left the resort this April, four months after it was purchased by KSL Capital Partners.  | | Sean Maddock |
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Maddock has spent the last month getting to know the staff and community.
The self-described camera-shy "nomad" of the hospitality industry has worked in Southeast Asia, California, Washington state, Hawaii, and most recently in Phoenix, where he served the last three years as vice president and general manager of the Arizona Biltmore.
As he adjusts to the more humid summer air of Virginia, Maddock has been touring Homestead facilities nearly daily since KSL Resorts brought him to the East Coast.
Asked whether he was staying put this time, Maddock said, "I hope so. I thought we were going to be five years in Phoenix. And here I'm taking the place of someone I've known for 16-17 years."
Maddock and Schoenfield worked together for Hyatt in Hawaii. "I've been hearing from him over the last 12 years how great this place was, but I never made it to visit," Maddock said. "Brett and I have always stayed in touch, so when it was announced KSL was buying Club Corp, Brett and I stayed in pretty close communication. He wanted to know what KSL was all about and I like to think I helped him a little bit in the transition."
 | | When one calls the resort, the greeting is almost always, "It's a beautiful day at The Homestead." Monday exemplified that description, and several guests took the opportunity to rock quietly and read on the hotel's front porch. (Recorder photo by Anne Adams) |
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Maddock works for KSL Resorts, and the corporate structure is somewhat complicated, as he's quick to admit.
KSL Resorts is a management company affiliated with KSL Capital Partners, the investment group that purchased former Homestead owner Club Corp at the end of last year. KSL Capital Partners' $1.8 billion acquisition included nearly all Club Corp's assets, and The Homestead was considered the crown jewel in the package.
The change in ownership has excited those who look forward to an influx of investment capital, and has created a natural skepticism and concern among those who worry the new owners will apply a corporate attitude to a place that has been mostly in independent hands since its founding in 1766.
But Maddock said KSL Resorts is sensitive to the historic role The Homestead has played in Bath County, and in Virginia. "This place is unique with its heritage ... People here are just incredibly nice. In Hawaii we called in the Aloha spirit. I don't know what you call it here, maybe it's that southern hospitality, but I think it's incredible. But there's something special, absolutely special, about being Virginian. For all the people I've met here, there's a strong attachment, and eventually they look at me and say, 'So what part of Virginia are you from?' There's a really unique sense of place here, and The Homestead is a Virginia icon," he said.
"Repeat guests, families that have been coming here are multigenerational, three or four plus generations have stayed here, and frequently, together. And they speak about The Homestead as a part of Virginia. There's a tie, an emotional tie. I think this is one of the last bastions of true Virginia southern hospitality," he added. "I can't put my finger on it exactly, but everybody in the community - and our stakeholders - everybody understands (The Homestead) is truly a special place, and it needs to be handled as such."
Maddock said he fully understands The Homestead's role in the region and KSL intends to maintain that integrity while simultaneously overseeing some modernization at the nearly 500-room resort.
"My philosophy boils down to three simple rules," he said. "Outstanding guest experience, outstanding employee partner experience, and an outstanding return on stakeholders' equity. I used to say owners' equity, but I've learned over the years that, especially in a place like this, there are many important parties that 'own' the resort, not just from a dollar standpoint, but from an emotional standpoint.
"I look at the people of the community as stakeholders. Our members are stakeholders. This place holds such a pride of place ... the community has people here who all have an emotional or psychological attachment to what happens (at The Homestead), and it being one of the major economic engines of the area is something that I take very, very seriously ... I understand very clearly that what we do here is like a drop in a pond. There are a lot of ripples that go out."
Since he's been in Bath County, Maddock has been trying to get to know everybody, learn where everything is, and what the place is all about. "There are a lot of moving parts to this resort. And this is a 'you have to get it' resort. It's not your typical big flag, big chain resort, and thank God for that. It's a special place. It may sound cliché but this is really, truly a special place."
Maddock said KSL has no intention of rubber-stamping The Homestead like a chain hotel "because it's not just another resort stuck somewhere like the beach or the mountains with a big flag on it ... That's one of the great things about KSL Resorts - they don't hoist up a big flag."
To emphasize the point, Maddock turned to the KSL logo on the back of his business card. "You're rarely going to see that anywhere here," he said. "It's not like another brand ... (where) all the managers go out and they bring in their own people and everywhere you look their name is on the hotel. The only time you're going to see that logo is in marketing ... That's not what we're all about. We're a portfolio of hotels but we operate them as if they were all independent. It's got very little corporate structure, and it's got a very flat organizational chart. My managers here, if they want, can pick up the phone and call the CEO of the company and he'll take their call."
The Homestead is the third KSL Resorts property Maddock has managed. "We have a great history of taking very good care of historic properties," he said. "The Clairmont, which was built in 1914 - KSL purchased that before KSL Capital was started. There were major restorations going on, a restaurant added, a complete, historic renovation of the lobby, a free standing spa was built, and there were huge additions to membership programs."
Seeking sensitivity
Maddock says KSL Resorts will treat The Homestead with deference to its 241-year tradition while it makes subtle but important changes in accommodations.
"There's been such a churn in hospitality real estate over the last 5-6 years, not dissimilar to what's happened with a lot of residential real estate, particularly in metropolitan areas," he said. "Because there's been turnover, one of the best things that can happen to this hotel is it can be purchased by a group that's got money to put into it. So just as Club Corp took a sensitive approach to augmenting the property, there will be a similar approach with KSL."
Indeed, when Club Corp took over from the Ingalls family in 1993, the hotel was near bankruptcy. Over the course of its 13- year ownership, Club Corp invested some $90 million in renovating the Grand Ole Lady everywhere from the ballroom to the spa, adding a new swimming pool, new stables, and a full restoration of the Cascades Clubhouse.
The rumors Maddock has heard about what KSL will do with The Homestead, he said, are farfetched and mostly, just plain wrong. For the most part, he said, long-term goals KSL has for The Homestead have not been established. "We don't know. We're looking at a lot of things and we're talking about a lot of things," Maddock said. "And there have been a lot of rumors out there ... KSL is going to close this down, or close that down. I've gone to a number of different gatherings of our employee partners, managers, and every other Thursday I get up in front of everybody and I say, 'OK, what questions do you have, what are you hearing, what are the rumors, what can I answer for you, because if people don't know what's happening ... people have a tendency to make things up ... there's gossip."
Maddock said he's not surprised such misinformation exists, but he is trying to give his staff, guests, and the community the right information.
"I heard that we're closing down the ski area," he said. "I think my response when somebody brought that up was, 'Over my dead body.' The ski is part and parcel of what drives the winter business. It's not Vail, but it's not intended to be Vail. It's a great ski area. I talk to guests who say, 'This is where I learned to ski, please don't shut it down,' and I say, 'Who told you we were going to shut it down?'
"One of my groundskeepers who lives in Covington said his neighbor said KSL is going to sell the Lower Cascades. I said, 'Yeah, I wish someone would cut me in on that deal because I'd like to have a piece of it. What are you talking about?'
"So we've got a beautiful resort here, and our intention is: What can we do to update it a little bit with respect to the historic integrity? Club Corp did a lot of great things, and we're carrying on with their renovations."
Club Corps had started a major renovation of hotel rooms, which continues under KSL Resorts as a multi-year project. Maddock says the first phase will be wrapped up this month, and the next phase, a renovation of the first quarters, will follow.
As for the Virginia Building, a Homestead property on the central corner of downtown Hot Springs, Maddock says no plans have been made yet. Residents say the place is full of asbestos and would be difficult and expensive to renovate. "That's the first I've heard about it," Maddock said. "It's one of the assets of the hotel, and we're evaluating all the assets of the hotel in terms of what the best disposition on that is. If there's asbestos in there, I don't know about it, (but) I don't know where everything is at this point."
The Warm Springs Pools (Jefferson Pools) have also been a concern among Bath County residents who note the deteriorating condition of the landmark.
Maddock has been in them, and agrees they need attention, but rumors they'll be torn down are incorrect, he said. "I think the correct thinking is 'historic restoration.' They need work, absolutely, but it's a very sensitive situation. We have a lot of stakeholders in terms of the Jefferson pools. It's a significant piece of history here in the valley. If I were to start up a bulldozer and head in that direction, well, there are a lot of hunters in this area and I think they'd stop me. The pools are a very important piece of the puzzle."
Capital improvements
One of the first changes made under KSL was closing Cottage Row, the line of small retail stores next to the hotel. The only cottages left open are the Kid's Club and Allegheny Outfitters.
"All others have been shut down now," Maddock said, "And I don't think that was our best foot forward. So we're talking possibilities (for the buildings), and we're still in the planning process."
One thing is true, Maddock said. Plasma televisions, 30 of them so far, are being installed in some of the rooms at the hotel. "It's the kind of thing our guests expect," he said. For business groups, access to technology is a must. A wireless Internet network is also in the plans, in addition to improvements to The Homestead's Web site so guests can easily make reservations online.
Also, there will soon be what KSL calls a "discovery" area somewhere near the front desk. Maddock says this is an idea KSL has used in other resorts, and it's meant to show guests, through interactive video or computers, all the amenities and activities available, and help them plan their stay. Beyond that, Maddock said, he's seeking ideas for improvements. Toward that end, he has spent the last month getting a hands-on, in-depth look at The Homestead facilities, everything from its stables to its golf courses, and asking long-term employees and guests what they think resort ought to change, upgrade, or leave alone.
Whatever happens, Maddock offers his assurance KSL Resorts will remain sensitive to the history of The Homestead. "This is a world class resort and we're going to keep it that way, and enhance that," he said. "Everything we do has to feel like it's always been that way. We've had several guests say you can't change a thing, but I went back and looked at old photos, a lot has changed, fortunately, like the new pool. It looks like it's been here 100 years. We bring in the architects and designers who are sensitive to what's been done before."
Maddock emphasizes that KSL Resorts does not make plans for its properties from the top down. "At KSL, the team on the ground makes the decisions. There are people here that have been here 30- 40 years and they know what our guests want. The people here aren't KSL people. There are a lot of resort companies that clean house, bring on their own players. But The Homestead has a very strong, very seasoned management team. In other KSL resorts, the company made every employee re-interview for their job, but KSL didn't do that at The Homestead; perception was that the team (in place) was solid."
"Ninety-nine percent of resorts would kill to have the loyal following The Homestead has, but it still needs modernization," he added. "Without that, The Homestead wouldn't be a resort, just a museum. It needs to be an active, dynamic place with continual refinement and improvement."
Staff changes
Some employees have complained about a few changes from KSL's corporate level, including drug testing and restructuring benefits. Maddock says that has been KSL policy, and is not surprised by the discomfort. "Yes, benefits have changed, but they are still competitive in the industry," he said, adding he's unaware of any major overhaul in department managers.
It's his hope the Homestead staff will feel more secure as he gets involved. "I have a very open door policy, I'm very accessible to staff because I believe we can work better that way. Any kind of change makes people anxious and some look at different levels for security. But as this staff gets to know me, I will be out, accessible. There are great people here on our staff ... the service culture here is outstanding."
The Homestead had historically relied on guest worker programs to staff the hotel, particularly during its peak season in the summer. "I'd love to employ more locally but the population base just isn't there," Maddock said. "I'd prefer to keep money in the local community. The visa program has its challenges - there are quotas on the number of people you can bring out of a country. But we have a phenomenal human resources department who manages that."
In addition, Maddock has experience with unions for hotel staff, but isn't concerned Homestead employees will become unionized. At least once before, unions have tried unsuccessful to become established at The Homestead.
"This is Bath's biggest economic ... We have a responsibility to build occupancy, fill in the valleys and raise the peaks. People are relying on this hotel and that's a very serious responsibility ... We're going to build up the group business. KSL has sales managers all over the country - that's one thing Club Corp didn't have. I meet weekly with our sales team here and I tell them if I need to come down to the lobby and welcome a group's decision maker, I'm available.
"When I was out of KSL, I made a deliberate decision to come back, because everything KSL does adds value," he added. "People here need gainful employment and if they're working, other businesses in the county benefit, too ... more taxes for the county, more jobs. Everyone should benefit.
"What I bring is the diversity of my experience. I have had to adapt to local cultures and clientele. I've had an enormous range of exposure. And I listen," he said.
Maddock said as the number of visitors to the county will also build as Homestead Preserve continues to sell its properties in the planned 450-house upscale development on Warm Springs Mountain. As homes there are built over the next few years, "it will all bubble over and everybody benefits," Maddock says.
"I'm here as a caretaker," he added, "and I'm looking
forward to getting to know more in the community. It's not about me, it's about
this resort."
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