Meet Epicurean Hotel’s new widespread supervisor

Kevin Scott moved his young family from Seattle to Tampa past due closing year so his five-12 months-vintage son and 3-year-antique daughter could be towards his dad and mom, who live in St. Petersburg.

But, subsequent Wednesday, Scott will step into his new function as fashionable manager of the Epicurean Hotel. Over the remaining seven months, he and his spouse, Jillian, an indoor fashion designer, started out settling into the place after 13 years on the West Coast. Then, “lo and behold, I turned into extraordinarily fortunate and grateful that the Epicurean became to be had,” Scott said.

Luck can be one reason behind Scott being named trendy supervisor of the 137-room boutique motel, taking on from Tom Haines. However, Scott additionally brings an extensive heritage inside the hospitality industry with him. He spent seven years with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, in which he worked in San Francisco for the W and the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

“Most lately, my experience has been with the unbiased way of life” motel, stated Scott, who will be directing the hiring of the recent workforce and everyday operations of the resort.

Scott spent the ultimate three years as well known manager of the Hotel Max, which payments itself as “the pleasant Seattle boutique motel for art lovers, musicians and the creatively-inclined” and boasts an art series in its foyer as well as the works of well-known local photographers on its guest room floors.

That precise experience dovetails well with the venture of Epicurean and its discern organization, Mainsail Lodging & Development. Mainsail’s lodges fall under Marriott International Inc.’s Autograph Collection emblem, which allows every property to create a tale that emphasizes its own man or woman personality. “I move all-in on the tale,” Scott stated. “What is first-rate about the Marriott’s Autograph emblem? You get to create your own tale. You get to do what you need to do as an operator and as a proprietor.”

To create a story that draws clients and keeps them coming back, hoteliers are concentrating on using generation to customize every character’s revel in, Scott stated. The fine inns are the use of information and tech to take a look at a customer’s email and discover his or her likes and dislikes. “Say you’ve got a visitor who’s a dog lover,” Scott stated. The inn can discover a photograph of that guest’s canine from their social media account, print it out, frame it, and positioned it inside the room as that person arrives. The picture may want to have a observation on it that says: “Mom, I leave out you,” Scott said.

Scott additionally spent seven years with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, wherein he labored in San Francisco for the W and the Westin St. Francis Hotel, where he changed into named Manager of the Year.

What will be distinctive at the Epicurean for Scott is the hotel’s connection to the legacy of Bern’s Steak House, located just throughout from the assets. In truth, the lodge has constructed its recognition round its Epicurean Theater, which former inn supervisor Tom Haines has defined as a stay Food Network-type revel in.

“The hotel that I managed in Seattle had a fantastic restaurant; however, nowhere near the legacy of Berns,” Scott stated. He also perspectives the connection to Marriott’s logo, it’s marketing, loyalty program, and reservations gadget as a massive advantage.

As a self-described Army brat who moved to a new city every two and one-1/2 years and graduated from the excessive school in Singapore, Scott is not any stranger to exchange and evolving landscapes. He moved to San Francisco in 2004 and witnessed the second tech boom and later moved to Seattle in 2013 and has watched that city grow.

Now in Tampa, Scott sees the same phenomenon. He pointed to Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik’s $3 billion Water Street Tampa development inside the town’s urban core. He could encompass nine million square feet of industrial, residential, hospitality, academic, leisure, cultural, and retail space. “You can see the future,” Scott stated.