A Look at the EOS Hospitality Portfolio, With CEO Simon Mais

Hotel management company EOS Hospitality was founded in 2017 with a single property under its umbrella: Hamilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Now, eight years later, the company’s portfolio boasts 50 hotels, with more than 7,000 keys among them.

Properties under the EOS umbrella span many accommodation categories. On the more luxurious end is L'Ermitage Beverly Hills in California and Wequassett Resort and Golf Club in Cape Cod. The team also manages numerous properties that represent the outdoor hospitality space, such as Big Sur Campground and Cabins and El Capitan Canyon, both on California’s coast.

To learn more about the portfolio and the market trends it is seeing, we spoke with Simon Mais, CEO of EOS Hospitality.

You’ve been with EOS Hospitality since the beginning. Tell us how you came to be part of the team, and what sets it apart from other management companies.

I was employee No. 3, so yes, I have been with EOS for quite a while. [EOS founder] Jonathan Wang and I had worked together at Northwood Hospitality previously; I think our overall relationship goes back about 15 years. I first met him when I was running Hotel Clift in San Francisco, back when it was party central.

With EOS, we set out to build a different management company. We wanted to create a company that thinks like owners, including how to maximize the value of your asset.

Then, a couple of years ago, we had the opportunity to move into outdoor hospitality. We jumped in, and now you really see us at the forefront of that market. I was born in Jamaica and raised in Canada, and I was often camping and backpacking. So, this is a market that's very dear to my heart.

What will travel advisors new to the portfolio notice right away?

You will see that we are heavily concentrated in East Coast and West Coast destinations. Originally, we grew the company in the Florida Keys, and we still manage many properties there.

Our forte has been [to work] in places with a big drive-market demand. Most of our portfolio is within four hours of major U.S. cities, such as Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Boston. We feel that there are high barriers to entry in those markets, and we can have great assets nearby that will have long-term value and can provide returns to our investors. We were ahead of the curve on this — we started [considering the drive-to market] before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, a lot more investors have grown into that market.

What else sets EOS apart?

We concentrate our management within a select group of owners and partners, whereas if you look at other companies, they have a very wide range of owners. We focus on select partners with multiple assets who value what we do and what we bring to the table, and who we can grow with.

Key International is an example. We started with the Perry Hotel in Key West, Florida, then we took over one of the company’s RV parks in St. Augustine, then the Marriott Pompano Beach Resort. 

We're not about growing just to grow. We are strategic in a way that benefits owners, investors, guests and more.

Growing this way allows us to do exceptional work for those owners. Then, we think strategically about location. When we're in a city where we've got a high concentration of assets, adding another management agreement in that location makes sense. So, we're not about growing just to grow. We are strategic in a way that benefits owners, investors, guests and more.

And how did EOS’ jump into the outdoor hospitality market go?

Let’s look at Sun Outdoors. We are operating approximately seven assets for them currently, and hoping to take on a few more. 

When we first went out to see one of their facilities, it was so nice, and we got really excited about the outdoor hospitality market overall. We started looking at tiny homes, outdoor hospitality sites in Oregon and more. Out of that, we courted a gentleman for almost a year to buy our first asset, which was Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins, in an iconic location right in Big Sur, California, on the edge of a river. That led to us buying Riverside Cabins and Campgrounds next door. What's interesting about Big Sur is it has both luxury cabins that range from $500 to $700 a night, then rustic campsites and a few RV sites.

What challenges exist with these outdoor hospitality offerings?

The hardest part is figuring out how to get the information out there. We have started to distribute through the GDS, and that’s been successful — we’ve seen more travel agents booking this way. We are also distributing through search engine marketing, so our avenue of communication is wider.

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We are looking at the way Europeans explore, say, California. They fly into San Francisco and drive down the coast and spend three weeks touring the state, or they fly to San Diego and go the reverse direction. This is a big market. Our glamping options, like El Capitan Canyon [outside of Santa Barbara, California] really serve those people who want more of a luxury experience as they go.

What other EOS properties should advisors keep an eye on?

We took over Hawks Cay Resort [in Marathon, Florida] in February, which is a fabulous property with a celebrity restaurant, Salt + Ash, that’s getting great reviews.

Then, north of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is an area called Pompano Beach, where Marriott Pompano Beach Resort is. It's always been a Marriott, but the ownership is doing a full gut of the property, which is slated to debut in June. It will basically be a new hotel, and it’s one of the only properties where you can walk from the pool deck directly into the sand — many hotels in Miami don’t offer that. Those are our latest assets, and they're pretty phenomenal.

Then, for any clients who love Cape Code, look at Red Jacket Resorts. American Airlines is interestingly doing direct flights from New York down to the Cape this year. Last year, we did a complete renovation there, making it a four-star property. Then Wequassett Resort and Golf Club is our luxury five-star property; we just redid all of its guestrooms and it has an incredible new pastry chef. This is another phenomenal property, oceanfront on the cape.

Up in Maine, we have The Tides Beach Club, which is a waterfront resort, as well as Goose Rocks Beach House, which is one of my personal favorites — it only has three rooms and it’s directly on the ocean, so you can leave your window open and hear the surf crashing.

The list really goes on. Advisors can find more via our online portfolio.