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The Regular Guy

During the 2011 AAHOA An-nual Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas, Vantage

Hospitality Group announced the opening of property number 1,000, cementing the company’s position as one of the largest hotel brands in the world.

When Vantage launched over a decade ago, no one, not even Founder, President and CEO Roger Bloss, could have imagined the suc-cess the company would have.

“In the old days, when you had an idea, you put a line down the

middle of a piece of paper. Every-thing on the left, you want it to be the best. Everything on the right, you want to get rid of it,” Bloss said during an interview in December during the Vantage Conference in Las Vegas.

“When the Internet became a re-ality, that’s when a light bulb went off and I realized you didn’t need 250 properties to be a brand,” he

said. “I took that piece of paper and I got rid of everything everybody dislikes. Then I put what every-body needs on the left but whatever I put, I wanted to make sure it was the very best [and] wanted to do it with a superior attitude.”

Bloss figured he could call his friends, each of whom would contribute one property to the new brand. But he soon found out that things don’t always go as planned.

“Guess how many people gave me properties? Zero. I found out in a hurry that friendship has no cor-

By Jonathan Springston, AAHOA Lodging Business

Vantage Founder Roger Bloss shares his experiences during his long journey in hospitality, what he learned and how he and a group of visionaries created an innovative franchising model

From L to R: Lexington Collection Brand President Bill Hanley, Vantage COO & CFO Bernie Moyle, Vantage Founder Roger Bloss, and Vantage Marketing Director Peter Frantz

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relation to money,” he said. “That was a real eye-opener. I had to put my money and my vision to work and I had to go out and sell it.”

A Hard WorkerBloss is no stranger to hard work, landing his first job at age 13. One of 10 children, Bloss described his father as possessing an “old school, German, hard-working ethic.”

“My Dad believed that at the age of 13, you became a man and that you had responsibilities,” Bloss said. “You want school clothes? Go buy them.”

Luckily, Bloss had a friend whose father owned an independ-ent hotel called the Marlin Beach Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Every-day after school, Bloss would board a small Boston Whaler boat and travel to the hotel via the Inter-coastal Waterway.

“Whatever they needed that day – clean the pool, fill the Coke machine, do the dishes - I was a hard worker and I was anxious and eager,” he said.

During his junior year of high school, Bloss attended a new hotel vocational school. After graduating at 17, Bloss helped open the 200 room Executive House in Ft. Lauderdale, the first all-suites property in the United States.

Built by the Team-sters Union and run by “New York union mafia-type guys,” Bloss went

to work as the night auditor, where he soon discovered some serious discrepancies in the finances.

When Bloss first approached the owners about missing money, they blew him off. When the discrepan-cies grew larger, Bloss offered the owners his resignation, explaining he wasn’t comfortable with the situ-ation.

“One says fine, the other asks to me to prove it. I showed them and they said ‘wow,’” Bloss recalled. ”The next day, [the owners] said the [manager] is gone and asked if I can run the hotel until they could find someone to run it. I said I can do that and they never replaced me.”

After several years with the Executive House, Bloss was offered the chance to manage a 300 room ocean-front property in Ft. Lauder-dale that had never seen a profit. Promised 5 percent of whatever profit the hotel managed to make, Bloss rose to the challenge, earning $8 million in profit the first year.

Bloss received a bump in salary but the owners

wouldn’t honor the 5

percent agreement. “We had a deal but that would

mean you make more than the president of this company,” Bloss recalled his boss telling him. “He tosses me keys to a Jaguar but that wasn’t enough. He said ‘if you can improve on $8 million, I’ll go dou-ble or nothing.’”

The next year, the property raked in $10 million and again, the bosses didn’t honor the agreement. Instead, they offered Bloss the chance to own a rundown property in Hollywood, Fla. next to The Dip-lomat Hotel.

Bloss took over, renovated the property, branded it as a Ramada, and eventually sold his stake in the hotel, walking away at age 23 with $500,000 in cash. He decided not to go back to work “until all the mon-ey was gone,” buying a Corvette for himself, a house for his mother and traveled the world.

When he was down to $35,000, Bloss decided to take a job

with Forte Hotels, where he met Bill Hanley, who now serves as the group president of Vantage’s Lexington Collection. Forte set up Bloss in Dallas and charged him with fixing an ag-ing property.

Forte executives told him if the property

turned into a success, Bloss could pick

any job

Long-time friends and business partners Moyle and Bloss

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within the company he wanted. Sure enough, the property became a hit and Bloss moved to El Cajon, Calif. to become, first, the vice pres-ident of Franchise Services for Trav-elodge, and later, the vice president of Franchise Development.

When Wyndham bought the company, Bloss moved to Cleveland to become the president of Knight’s Inn.

“When Wyndham bought Knight’s Inn, I went to Wyndham and that really opened my eyes. That’s when light bulbs started go-ing off,” Bloss said. “That’s when I said ‘I can do a better job than this.’”

“A Hair-Brained Scheme”One Thanksgiving, Bloss and his wife traveled to Santa Barbara, Calif. to spend the holidays with family. It turned out to be a for-tuitous event. In attendance were a group of owners looking to take their Motel 6 properties in a differ-ent direction.

Bloss crafted a business plan for the properties and presented it to the group at Christmas, who imme-diately offered Bloss 15 properties. He jumped at the opportunity but needed money fast.

Bernie Moyle, an attorney whom Bloss had known since col-lege, was part of an investment club with Bloss.

“I called [Moyle] and asked to cash out the investment,” Bloss re-called. “I said ‘I have this idea that’s way out there. I’ve got this hair-brained scheme that has no chance of working.’ He says, ‘just take all the money and if it works, great. If not, that’s fine too.’ That’s how Bernie and I became partners.”

Bloss and his partners started the Vantage Hospitality Group (formal-ly Cal-Vegas, Limited) in 1996 and acquired their first hotel. The vision was to develop a national hotel chain based on an innovative membership model. The group continued build-ing the company’s infrastructure, resources and programs.

During the AAHOA Conven-tion in 1999, Vantage launched Best Value Inn Brand Membership, which became America’s Best Value Inn.

“I go to AAHOA for the first Trade Show and I put up this giant chalkboard,” Bloss said. “I tell at-tendees about the concept and ask people to put their names on the board. It created a little buzz. That’s how I got it kicked off.”

Bloss and Moyle, along with other founding partners Gene Kor-doban (Director of Industry Affairs, Director of Membership Develop-ment) and Peter Frantz (Marketing Director) added properties, grow-ing the company at a healthy pace.

Bloss’ bold vision became known as the Freestyle Brand Af-filiation Model, offering hoteliers a voice and a vote in the brand’s direction, including setting the fees members pay to the brand; low, flat fees; short-term contracts; and no liquidated damages.

“The Un-Franchise”The Vantage model has earned the company many industry awards.

Bloss refers to his company as “the un-franchise.”

“I’d like to say it’s everything but a franchise because to me, a franchise is mandated, restrictive, contractually obligated, and fis-cally high-priced,” he said. “It’s a contract telling you what you gotta do, how you gotta do it and when you gotta do it.”

Bloss prides himself on being available to all Vantage members, holding a live web cast every Wednesday where members can ask questions and present concerns.

“We hold the Vantage Academy around the country and I go to a lot of those,” Bloss said. “Any of our members and potential members can come on and I talk to people. They can ask anything they want.”

On certain occasions, members will bring issues to the attention of Vantage executives that had not previously been considered. For example, Bloss remembers when

Vantage executives celebrate property 1,000 during the 2011 AAHOA Annual Convention in Las Vegas

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a member floated the notion there were bad properties in the system in need of elimination. The ensu-ing discussion resulted in a policy that calls for the elimination of the bottom 10 percent of properties performing poorly in quality assur-ance.

With members who feel com-fortable raising concerns and executives who facilitate honest education about important issues, Vantage has a voting process of which Bloss is proud. When asked if members get a vote wrong or don’t vote the way executives were hoping, Bloss quipped, “It’s never a wrong decision when the members vote.”

However, Bloss was disappointed over a measure that didn’t pass in 2009 on the issue of making all Vantage properties non-smoking.

“I put it on the ballot the next year and one member stands up and says, ‘didn’t you get our mes-sage last year? We don’t want to be a non-smoking hotel chain. Why is it on the ballot,’” Bloss recalled. “I’m a smoker [but] my job is to inform you about consumer habits and what the competition is doing.”

Bloss also wanted to eliminate bedspreads in 2010 but members voted it down.

“I made it clear I was disap-pointed. I wanted to get rid of bedspreads. I’m going to stand behind your vote but I gotta tell you I don’t believe it was the right decision. It’s going to be on the ballot until I get it,” he said. “It’s my job to educate [members] and motivate them.”

Any dispute between members and the company goes through the advisory board, where “we live and die by their decision.”

As a result, Bloss has never been sued. It’s a process Bloss and other executives strive to keep open and friendly.

“If I push you, you’re going to push back,” Bloss said. “But I could say, ‘lets get a beer and hang out.’ There’s a big difference in how you do things.”

Employee Satisfaction While it offers much to its members to be happy about, Vantage is also consistently rated as a top company for internal employee satisfaction. In 2011, Florida Trend named Van-tage one of “The Top 100 Compa-nies To Work For” in Florida for the second straight year.

Bloss attributes such satisfac-tion to the numerous opportunities to “rise through the ranks” and the work-life balance Vantage execu-tives strive for.

“I’m not a human re-sources guy, I’m a human

nature guy. We give the people all the latitude they need. We allow them all the creativity they have,” he said.

“As a Dad, I want to be at my

Bloss always enjoys spending time with ordinary Vantage members

Bloss during the Opening General

Session of the 2011 Vantage Conference

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kid’s soccer game or piano recital. And those things happen at three or four in the afternoon. So we said, ‘if you have the right work ethic, you should be there.’”

“I believe that if your life at home and family is good, that’s going to translate back to work and vice versa,” he added. “Let people work to live, not live to work.”

Vantage compares itself to other companies of similar size each year and pays employees based on a comparable scale.

“I never overpay or underpay,” Bloss said. “There are incentives by corporate performances and we give bonuses based on perform-ance.”

Employees each month rate Vantage executives on a scale from one to 10, with any score under eight coming to Bloss’ at-tention. With competitive salary, bonuses and time off, employees

stay loyal to Vantage.“You can call your boss and say

I’m taking my kids to Disney World today. If I call them because I need them, they’ll pick up the phone be-cause they’re not hiding from me,” Bloss said. “The next day, I’ll ask how the day was at Disney World.”

The Regular GuyBloss noted Vantage brings in 15 cents on the dollar in profit, much lower than other brands, but it doesn’t bother him. At the end of the day, Bloss isn’t in it for the money.

“I don’t want to be a guy that walks on a stage, gives a speech and walks onto a corporate jet. It’s not me, it’s not my style,” he said. “You get to a point in your life where you ask how many cars do you need in your driveway? How many bed-rooms can you go in you’ve never been in before? We’ve never been

driven financially to become [rich].”Despite the industry accolades,

Bloss insists that what he has done with the Vantage model is nothing extraordinary.

“I didn’t create penicillin or put a man on the moon. All I did was take a dirty wall and put a fresh coat of paint on it,” he said. “I’m not this genius guy. I’m just this guy with a lot of experience and an attitude that says I’m not gonna let anything get in my way.”

Bloss believes having a passion and being a good listener with no fear will take entrepreneurs any-where they want to go.

“You have to go with your gut. If I had a dollar for everybody that told me it wouldn’t work, I could retire,” he said. “I can’t wait to get downstairs [and] see everybody. You gotta love what you do. If you don’t, it shows. Nobody can tell you there’s not love in my eyes.”

The Vantage team raises a glass to a milestone achievement