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September 13, 2000
By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CINCINNATI, OH — September 13, 2000 - Winegardner & Hammons Inc. has found its game plan, and don't count on any changes.
The Blue Ash hotel management company opened its sixth Marriott in West Chester on Monday. Both the hotel and the
strategy are nearly identical to those it has built before: Find hot suburban areas and put the same luxury
hotel right in the middle.
The formula has allowed Winegardner & Hammons to put new hotels in Greater Cincinnati's fastest-growing suburbs.
Four years ago, it opened the Marriott Northeast off Fields Ertel Road, and a nearly identical hotel opened earlier
this year near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airportin Hebron.
With the new unit off Union Centre Boulevard, this area has become a perfect laboratory for the company.
In the face of a glut of hotels throughout most of Greater Cincinnati, Winegardner & Hammons has managed to
short-circuit the competition.
“They have an outstanding product,” said Mike Wilson, president of the Greater Cincinnati Convention and
Visitors Bureau. “They can attract new business, they can build the hotels to be self-contained, and they can serve
as a magnet to bring new groups to the area.”
Mr. Daub said the company needs to be first in a growing area to set the standard for meeting space,
restaurants and other amenities. It then sets a standard that becomes expensive to match.
“If you're first with a full-service hotel, you're going to prevent others from coming,” he said.
“We have to be ahead of the curve because of the cost of the dirt (construction). We have to be early.”
For example, the Marriott Northeast has nearly collared the full-service hotel market in southern
Warren County, even as dozens of office buildings, stores and restaurants have sprouted in the surrounding acres.
Company officials hope for the same results at Union Centre. There are several office buildings
under construction within sight of the eight-story hotel, a couple of strip centers and large corporate
facilities operated by the likes of Procter & Gamble Co.
Winegardner & Hammons has several advantages over other hotel developers and operators. It has a
big-money partner in each of the units, Western-Southern Life Insurance Co.
The Cincinnati-based insurer does not manage any of the properties but is a full partner in each separate
joint venture, said Tom Stapleton, senior vice president of investment management.
“They've certainly been some of our more successful investments,” Mr. Stapleton said.
The hotel operator also gets automatic business from the national Marriott Rewards program and toll-free
hot line, providing up to one-quarter of its bookings.
But mostly, Winegardner & Hammons has streamlined the process of building the nearly identical Marriott hotels. They
each feature about 300 rooms, about 14,000 square feet of meet ing space, a restaurant and eight board rooms. They
each cater to corporate business, driven by emerging office and retail development.
“As we've developed these properties, we've become very efficient in the construction,” said Mike Conway, senior
vice president of marketing.
The formula applies well outside Greater Cincinnati. The latest Marriott is under construction in suburban Dallas,
near the offices of Dell Computer Corp.
And Western-Southern just approved the construction of a new Marriott in Hartford, Conn., near Bradley International
Airport, Mr. Conway said.
Winegardner & Hammons plans for the hotels to reach steady profitability in three or four years, depending on the market.
Overall, the company operates 32 hotels under the names Marriott, DoubleTree Guest Suites, Embassy Suites, Radisson,
Holiday Inn and Homewood Suites. It also operates the Ohio University Inn in Athens, and holds an ownership interest
in about half of the hotel properties.
The privately held company was founded in 1957 when Roy Winegardner bought a Holiday Inn franchise in Lexington.
The corporate headquarters moved to Greater Cincinnati in 1961.
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