ACCIDENTAL HOTELIER

TWO YEARS BEFORE MY FIRST INTERACTION WITH RYAN INTER-national Airlines, its owner Ron had purchased a leading avionics repair station and sales company known as Aero Systems in Miami, right next to the Miami International Airport. The purchase was done via the courts after the company had filed for insolvency under the bankruptcy rules governed by Federal statutes but as per the rules laid up by the Florida state.
During one of their meetings in Las Vegas, Ron and I agreed, spelling out that the latter would buy Aero Systems for $1.5 mil-lion. Additionally, it was also agreed that I would buy one acre of land which was then used as a parking lot for a consideration of $450,000.00 from Ryan International Airlines.
With this move, it was expected that Aero Controls would get an opportunity to extend its operations to the Miami area which was known as the aviation capital of all Americas. This property was located next to a golf course. At that point of time, this held no particular significance. But soon, all that would change.
From 1996 till 2013, Aero Controls managed and operated aero systems but the avionics business was found to be a dying industry due to most of the avionics components being replaced with computers and software. There were not many repair jobs coming their way, even as the employees were not willing to break away from their routine.
Consequently, I was left with no option but to shut down Aero Systems and merge all operations with Aero Controls. Now we had a 28,000 sq ft building in Miami Springs, exclusively catering to the requirements of the ACI Seattle facility but functioning on the East Coast.
The spacious parking lot, spread over one-and-a-half acre land, soon became a neglected aspect as the need to park cars hit a down-ward spiral, as did the business engagement at the huge building that was once Aero Systems. Once that transpired, I had no clue how to gainfully utilize the parking lot.
Over the years, this parking lot had attracted many illegal settlers and had ceased to be of any use for parking cars, further reinforcing my disenchantment with this dilapidated land holding. The fact that this parking lot was located less than a mere 50 meters from the runway of Miami International Airport was merely a reference point. That was the extended runway of the airport.

Unknown to me at that time, there was another stakeholder in the picture, one that lost out in the race with the runway extension program. It was the Best Western chain of hotels that went through the heartbreak of seeing one of its large and well-established hotels demolished to make way for the new runway.
Soon enough, Best Western started scouting around the Miami that they would approach me, who in their viewpoint, was ideally positioned to provide them with the space to build their new hotel. After all, on one side of this parking lot was a 120-year-old golf course and on the other, with only a road in between, was one end of the Miami International Airport.
To this day, I am not sure how I got convinced by the Best Western management's proposal that we enter into a joint venture arrangement. The proposition was I would build a 92-room hotel under Best Western's guidance and it would become a part of their chain.
The ownership would remain with me, while the hotel chain would take its share once the project became both financially and functionally viable. The die was cast. John Titus, the accidental hotelier was born.

Best Western, Miami was bound to succeed. Consider its location and access to major activity zones in Miami. Two miles from the airport terminal, a 15-minute drive from downtown, 20 minutes from one of the world's busiest beaches and the gateway to the best cruises, to the Caribbean Isles and beyond.
The variables are many but once the season begins, the room rates skyrocket. The cruise passengers, mostly in medium to large groups, check in right through the year, many of them twice. Once a day or two before getting on the cruise ship and then again, once they return, to get over their sailing blues.
Then there is the massive summer rush to the celebrated golden beach of Miami, the sun and sand crowd. This is the tricky part as I had to make sure that only the right kind of people were allowed to check in. I do this by keeping the room rates at a minimum threshold level.
Otherwise, the guests who check in during the spring season, from March to May, tend to stay for extended periods. With loads of college students from all over the US and many parts of Europe descending, I make sure that at Best Western there is minimal long-term room occupancy by keeping the rates in the upper levels of the $175-$375 bracket.
Sure, it means more work for the staff, more bed linen and cleaning up. But the hotel does allow itself to be buried under the beach sand. This is exactly what I do when about 750,000 bikers descend on Daytona Beach in late February, ahead of the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. Even the minutest fraction preferring to make a stop at Miami, located about four hours away, literally swamps the rooms. Naturally, Best Western gets its fair share.
I prefer to put it differently. I would say it was my wife Kusumam, in a way, who made sure that I took up the hotel project. As we began dividing time between Seattle and Florida, she made clear her writ. I was not to treat Florida as a typical holiday spot.
Kusumam wanted me to keep busy during office hours, leaving home in the morning and returning only by evening. Once the Aero Systems project folded and the 28,000 sq ft building began taking in tenants who could only occupy some portion of the facility, I had to find another engagement. It was this nagging thought of keeping myself busy that played a decisive role in considering the Best Western offer to take a deep dive into the business of the hospitality sector.
Yes, I was already spending much time in Florida and needed something that would consume my energy. Yet, look at the time-frame of my hotel foray. I was approached by Best Western in 2013 and started building the hotel under the active supervision of Best Western over the next year or so. We formally launched the hotel in 2015, the same year that I decided to step down as CEO of Aero Controls. Perhaps, my turning hotelier was not by accident, after all.

A good decade later, with ample time on his hands, I am not as busy as I would like to be when in Miami. The hotel is running under its own steam. There is only so much to do by way of main-tenance work and the occasional room refurbishing. I have a trusted manager, Jean Ajayakumar, all the way from Kerala, who knows his mind and runs the business as he wishes.
With almost all 400-odd rooms and suites around the Miami Airport working the bed and breakfast model, where the guests order online food for delivery wherever they stay, I have started wondering whether I am not missing a trick by not catering to the readymade market.
Sure, I'm still caught in two minds, but the due consideration is to convert the considerably large building that was once Aero Systems into a giant food court, catering to all the hotels and all the motorists headed in and out of the Miami International Airport.
The question is not so much the investment required but whether I still have the desire. Do I still have the drive or the inclination to start a green-field project after hitting the mid-70s? Time will tell.

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