How to Expand Business in Hospitality
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/01/25 (Unpublished)
Sean Taylor is an accomplished hospitality executive with over 14 years of experience as CEO, currently leading Taylor Hospitality based in Charlottesville, Virginia. He specializes in change management, project management, and business consulting, focusing on enhancing hotel and club profitability. A graduate of Elon University, Sean emphasizes the importance of ECHO Teamwork: Execution, Caring, Honesty, and Ownership. He has successfully managed high-profile properties like the Virginia International Raceway and The Franklin (formerly Capital Plaza Hotel). Sean is also a thought leader, publishing guides on operational excellence and driving revenue growth in the hospitality industry. Taylor emphasizes their values, ECHO Teamwork: Execution, Caring, Honesty, and Ownership, as central to their restoration efforts. The hotel caters to both business and leisure travellers, offering events like comedy nights and murder mysteries. Notable past guests include Jimmy Carter, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Let me ensure I have my facts correct. Taylor Hospitality has added the Capital Plaza Hotel in Frankfort, Kentucky, to its portfolio. This is part of a broader strategy to expand its regional presence. The hotel is strategically located on the Bourbon Trail, near the Kentucky Capitol, and offers spacious accommodations along with iconic attractions, such as the Buffalo Trace Distillery.
Today, we are joined by CEO Sean Taylor, who is focused on restoring the hotel’s historic charm. Let’s explore this in more detail. Additionally, the hotel has partnered with Wyndham’s Trademark Collection and has incorporated a Kentucky horse and bourbon theme. Two questions arise: What does the partnership with Wyndham Trademark entail, and how is the Kentucky horse and bourbon theme reflected in the hotel’s design? I am familiar with the Kentucky Derby, but I would love to learn more about this theme.
Sean Taylor: Our partnership involves contracting with Wyndham to soft-brand the hotel as part of their Trademark Collection. This partnership ensures the property is managed under Wyndham’s operations, sales, and marketing platforms. We formed an investment group to purchase the property, which required significant attention. Several million dollars are being invested in the property to bring it up to modern lodging and hospitality standards that today’s travellers expect.
The hotel is conveniently located next to the Buffalo Trace Distillery, a world-renowned bourbon producer. It is on the Bourbon Trail, which spans Lexington, Frankfort, and Louisville — regions known for producing some of the best bourbons globally. The location is also ideal as it is directly adjacent to and across the street from the Kentucky State Capitol. Since Frankfort is the state capital, the area attracts significant government and business activity, and we are thrilled to be a part of that.
Jacobsen: What is the significance of adding the Capital Plaza Hotel to your portfolio?
Taylor: This is a major acquisition for us. The property features 163 guest rooms and 30 luxury apartments on the top floors, in addition to 15,000 square feet of meeting and event space. This large property allows us to expand our capabilities and pursue additional large-scale hotel projects. While we remain committed to the boutique hotel market, this will be one of our largest boutique properties.
Jacobsen: What key themes are incorporated to enhance the hotel’s restoration?
Taylor: This will be a comprehensive renovation and restoration project. All guest rooms will be completely revamped, and two new restaurants will be added to the overall operations. There will also be updated meeting spaces and a new ballroom. A highlight of the project is transforming the pool area into a speakeasy venue where guests can enjoy bourbon in a unique and memorable setting.
The main lobby will be fully redesigned, creating a modern and updated look. In addition, significant structural and foundational maintenance issues that have been neglected in the past will be addressed. We are allocating substantial capital toward preventative maintenance and upgrading all facilities to ensure the property meets and exceeds today’s hospitality standards.
Jacobsen: What makes the Capital Plaza Hotel a flagship destination in the region?
Taylor: Its location in the heart of Kentucky and proximity to key attractions like the Buffalo Trace Distillery and the Kentucky State Capitol makes it a standout property in a beautiful and vibrant area.
Jacobsen: If you’ve ever been in that area of Kentucky, the Bourbon Trail is unique. The Bourbon Trail right now is where Napa Valley was 10 years ago in terms of becoming a destination for alcohol tourism. Some of the best bourbons in the world are distilled right on the Bourbon Trail. Frankfort sits at the center point, surrounded by all these fabulous distilleries. You could make the Capital Plaza, which you are renaming to The Franklin, a central hub where guests can stay and branch out to visit a variety of distilleries, all within a 30- to 40-minute drive.
What values guide your goals around restoration, partnership building, and raising the region’s profile?
Taylor: We have company goals and values called “ECHO Teamwork.” While we do a tremendous amount within the restoration space, our values are centred around people because everything revolves around them.
ECHO stands for:
- E: Execution – Do what you say you’re going to do and do it in a caring manner.
- C: Caring – Treat people with care and respect.
- H: Honesty – Operate with the highest level of integrity. This is crucial, especially when managing other people’s money, as trust is foundational with our owners, investors, and clients.
- O: Ownership – Own the business, operations, and experience.
Finally, everything revolves around teamwork. It’s about ensuring all the moving parts work in harmony, with everyone pulling their weight to deliver a high-quality experience and make the property perform at its best.
Jacobsen: How do you ensure high-quality service across your properties, especially those under new ownership or in restoration?
Taylor: Good question. We are very much a decentralized company. While we have a home office, most of our workforce operates in the field at our properties. From a service perspective, one property’s quality directly impacts our other properties’ reputation.
We focus heavily on training. We have a digital university that all team members join upon hiring. They are immediately given access to training modules so that by interacting with customers, they understand our standards and what their role requires. This ensures they have a high level of competency before engaging with guests. Our frontline team must be fully prepared, so they’re not learning on the job while interacting with customers. Training is at the heart of what we do daily to ensure our guests’ experiences are second to none.
Jacobsen: You mentioned the distillery and the Bourbon Trail, which reflects an integration with local culture. Is this integration a common practice in your business model?
Taylor: Absolutely. At all our properties, especially in hospitality and hotels, we are responsible for promoting our venues, tourism, and the local area. We actively partner with local businesses, including restaurants, service providers, ski resorts, fly-fishing guides, hiking tour operators, etc.
The goal is to build relationships that drive more people to the area. Whether they come for an activity or service, we also want them to stay in our hotels and dine in our restaurants. This collaborative approach ensures that our properties and the surrounding community benefit from increased tourism and economic activity.
Jacobsen: So, you actively promote the area to drive tourism. What about business travellers versus more regionally local people travelling for a stay? How do you cater to their needs during their time with you?
Taylor: Our sales directors at all locations have two distinct responsibilities. They manage both sides of the coin: group and business travel and the leisure market. These are two completely separate markets. For business travellers, we contract with companies and organizations to host their business events or meetings at our venues or to accommodate their general business travel needs while they’re in the area.
Our sales directors do an effective job of driving this type of business. At the same time, they are equally responsible for finding ways to attract more leisure travellers. This is where collaboration within the team is crucial. The operations team must be on board to create events and programs that entice people to visit our hotels.
For example, at our property in Elkins, West Virginia, the Tiger Hotel hosts events such as comedy nights and murder mystery dinners. They’ve even partnered with a local theatre to perform plays within the hotel. It’s a win-win for everyone. The community and the hotel benefit, as these events bring in business during slower periods. Meanwhile, our marketing and sales teams work hard to promote these events through social media, email campaigns, and other outreach.
The goal is always to raise the public’s awareness of functions and events. This way, when people think about visiting a town, they’ll think of our hotel because they’ve seen so much about it—whether through social media, emails, or recommendations from friends who have attended and enjoyed our events.
Jacobsen: Last question: Who have been some of your famous clients?
Taylor: Oh, wow, famous clients. Over the years, let me think. We’ve hosted Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Sandra Day O’Connor, The Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and David Duval, to name a few.
In basketball, we’ve had Michael Jordan and Mike Krzyzewski, and I could go on forever about college basketball and professional golf. For example, Ernie Els, Lee Trevino, Freddie Couples, Chi Chi Rodriguez, and Andy North stayed with us.
At one of our properties, 150 PGA Tour members were regulars. This was in Orlando, so it attracted many golf professionals. We’ve also hosted royalty, like the Queen of Saudi Arabia and many Saudi princes.
Other notable names include Ralph Lauren, Terry Bradshaw, and Roger Staubach. The list of interesting people who have stayed at our properties is like a who’s who of the industry.
Jacobsen: That’s impressive! Thank you for sharing. It’s noon here now, so I’ll let you go. Sean, it was a pleasure speaking with you.
Taylor: Thank you so much for your time.
Jacobsen: I’ll have a transcript ready in about four hours and send it to you.
Taylor: That sounds great.
Jacobsen: Perfect. Take care!
Taylor: You too.
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