One word continually crops up in conversation with seasoned hotel and resort entrepreneur Ed Romanowski: Service.

Early in his life, Romanowski learned just how important quality service was to running a business.

By age 10, Romanowski was pumping gas at his father’s Gulf service station in Winnipeg. He was managing the station by the time he became a teenager.

Today, after more than 25 years in the tourism and hospitality industry, the chief executive of Bellstar Hotels & Resorts hasn’t forgotten his humble roots in business and pays tribute to his father’s lessons on customer service.

Dave Olecko, Business Edge
Bellstar CEO Ed Romanowski learned his business lessons at young age.

1. What were the most valuable lessons you learned from working for your father (George Romanowski) as a youngster? “I learned a lot from my father about how to run a business, what takes money away and what makes money. I learned about dealing with bad cheques, dealing with customers who were very pleased with service and the thrill of delivering great service. The words that come to my head as I think about my dad and business are honesty, integrity, genuine care, fairness, great value and customer service. He taught me that the customer is always No. 1.”

2. What was your first business venture? “It was Royal Tours, an Edmonton tour company I started in 1984. It became Edmonton’s main in-bound operator in handling people coming into the city. We ran a spectacular city tour, providing a great service, and when West Edmonton Mall opened, we were the first company to offer in-bound tours to West Edmonton Mall in conjunction with Air Canada. We sold it eventually. It was a phenomenal success. At times, we handled 30,000 to 35,000 people a year. During the papal visit, we had a special tour to a papal mass. After a while with that business, I was recruited by a larger firm to open an office for an international consulting firm in Edmonton called Pannell Kerr Forster.”

3. How did Bellstar get started? “In 1999, we started Tourism Capital Corp. with the intention of going public on the Bermuda stock exchange. But literally almost to the day when there was a stock market correction our IPO (initial public offering) went to market. So, when we couldn’t close on our initial public offering, I took the remnants of that business and the management team and started Bellstar Hotels & Resorts. We started with some management contracts and eventually worked our way through to working with a few developers. We started with the developers of Mystic Springs and Hot Pools (at Canmore), a luxurious townhome resort hotel. We opened it with the developers last year and it has been wildly successful – achieving the highest rate of occupancy in the Canmore market. From there, we proceeded to work on a number of other projects.”

4. On which market is Bellstar focusing? “Our vision is to be the pre- eminent operator of small, unique resorts and hotels known for excellence in delivering a great guest experience. The market for those types of properties is exploding around the world, largely driven by the Baby Boomers who are looking for something unique – the environment, the architecture, the cultural experience, spa experience or anything that would make the property out of the ordinary and yet intimate in terms of service. I’ve always found that it’s easier to differentiate yourself from the market by offering superior service. I’ve often been in highly competitive businesses, including the tourism and hospitality business, where there isn’t necessarily a growth in the market to spur your business on. It’s often the battle for market share that determines success.”

5. So how is your business doing? “Since Bellstar started, we’ve certainly been profitable or near the line (of profitability), especially in years where we wanted to invest in further growth. Total revenue last year, including capital that we manage, would have been north of $30 million.”

6. How difficult was it operating through the downturn in the market, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks? “The downturn in the (tourism and hotel) market didn’t affect people as much as the media made out. Generally, business in the hospitality sector was down about 10 to 15 per cent. For the most part, I think the hospitality sector was quite resilient. Most of the hospitality business, including our own business, was very effective, had great positioning and was focusing more on the domestic market immediately.”

7. Where do you hope to see your company positioned 10 years from today? “Our base will probably be primarily in Western Canada and the northwestern United States. We’re also already looking at locations in the Bahamas, in California and in Florida.”

8. What’s your outlook for the hospitality industry in Alberta and B.C. over the next few years? “The outlook for the industry is very, very positive, largely driven by the strength of the Western Canadian economy. Certainly, the Alberta economy is driving most of that, but B.C. is quite healthy as well. Due to the attractiveness of Western Canada because of security, providing we’re not subject to any major terrorism event, the strength of the hospitality industry will continue to improve. The whole buildup to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver will be helpful to the Western Canadian market as well.”

9. Why has Bellstar gone into the southern Okanagan market with a new resort at Osoyoos (Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa)? “We see a big opportunity in the southern Okanagan Valley and that’s largely driven by security concerns, the challenges of border crossing and the cost of health-care travel insurance. That’s increasing the number of people north of (age) 55 wanting to take vacations in Canada or for snowbirds to take vacations in Canada as well. A big reason why we came to Osoyoos was because we were looking for the hottest place in Canada. As Canadians look more at the cost of vacations elsewhere, I see the domestic market for Canada improving dramatically as Canadians are prepared to spend more and more on resort real estate.”

10. What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned in the hospitality business? “It’s to find and maintain the best people that money can buy and to keep them happy and motivated and have them commit and buy into the vision.”

11. What leadership style has worked for you? “I give a lot of authority to my people, but provide a strong vision and direction for the way we want to grow and the types of development and operations that we want to have.”

12. What’s your best piece of advice for a young entrepreneur in the hospitality business? “The main thing is to get an education. I’m heavily involved with the University of Calgary (he chairs the advisory committee for tourism and hospitality programs in the faculty of management) because I believe that’s where the future resource of our business will come from. Management skills and training are so critical for people in understanding the hospitality business and in making a good living. We have some great programs here in Alberta. Young people should keep their eyes open to opportunity because we certainly have one of the most dynamic and changing industries.”

13. What are some of the biggest changes in the industry? “Technology has had a tremendous impact on our business. The way we run our business has changed so dramatically, because of the Internet, because of property management systems and because of the ability to look into an operation on a day-to-day basis from remote locations using the Internet. That allows us to better manage our resources and focus more of our resources on what the needs are of people (staff). We’re able to keep our people focused on serving the guests rather than on reports and systems. That’s really critical, and education is really critical in helping people to understand what that’s all about.”

14. What’s the most daunting challenge the hospitality industry faces in the next five to 10 years? “Access to capital, largely because the capital markets in Canada have been quite challenging for this industry.

We have other industries that have outperformed the hospitality industry quite dramatically, so of course they continue to attract more and more of the capital, and so they should. Because of the lack of capital in Canada, there’s less of it to go around – versus our neighbours to the south, where we’re able to far more readily finance a deal. On the other hand, we live here and this is the market that we know best. I’d say that our biggest challenge is accessing capital and not people (staffing). If you treat your people very, very well, you’ll always attract great people.”

15. So how are you able to finance your company’s aggressive growth? “We’re quite creative in terms of our financing strategies for each individual project. I think we’re always in the leading edge of the hospitality industry in terms of coming up with financing strategies. We do it through limited partnership vehicles. When we do each project, we’re not fixated on having controlling interests. We’re quite open to selling off the controlling interest in order to develop the property and then continue on with its management. I think that as long as we keep that open-mindedness, we’ll be able to attract the capital. If we were to be fixated always on having controlling interests, I think it would limit our growth dramatically.”

16. Would you ever consider taking Bellstar public? “I think we would, and part of our strategy in the future of our growth will also include buying up other smaller resort companies. With that strategy, at some point there may be an opportunity or a need for us to go public. But it’s certainly not one of our key strategies at this time.”

17. When you reflect on your life and work, what’s one thing you’d like to do over again? “I’d probably focus on raising capital for our new projects much earlier. I didn’t learn a lot about doing that until probably eight or nine years ago.”

18. Is it possible for you to take a vacation without working? “I always joke with my wife (Alice) because it seems the best vacation is when we go to one resort and stay there for a week or more. It seems that we’re doing a lot of market research if we’re travelling and staying at a number of places.”

19. How do you see your career evolving from here? “I think I’ll continue to lead the company. My focus will be on recruiting two or three other senior people in our executive suite, so to speak, and grooming somebody from that group as my successor.”

20. What’s your most important goal beyond business? “A happy family and home life and great health.”

IN PROFILE: Ed Romanowski
* Title: President/CEO, Bellstar Hotels & Resorts.
* Born/raised/age: Winnipeg/48.
* Residence: Calgary.
* Education: University of Manitoba, master of city planning; University of Winnipeg, bachelor of arts (honours), majors in urban and environmental studies and geography.
* Family: Wife Alice, one son.
* Career: Romanowski has spent more than 25 years in the tourism and hospitality industry. Since 1996, he has been involved with Bellstar. He was also developer and founder of Waterton Lakes Lodge in Waterton Lakes National Park (sold in 2000), founder of Royal Tours in Edmonton (sold in 1991) and was a founding principal of the Edmonton office of Pannell Kerr Forster Management Consultants (left in 1992).
* Moonlighting: He is the chairman of the advisory committee for tourism and hospitality programs in the faculty of management at the University of Calgary and a full member and past director of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Alberta.
* Passions: Running, movies.

THE COMPANY: BELLSTAR HOTELS & RESORTS

* Brass: Ed Romanowski, president/CEO; Leon Algadzis, executive vice-president; Dale Hodgson, chairman.
* Profile: Bellstar is a resort development and management company involved in more than $70 million in resort developments in Alberta and B.C.
* Current Key Projects: Mystic Springs Chalets & Hot Pools in Canmore (www.mysticsprings.ca), Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa at Osoyoos, B.C. (www.spiritridge.ca), Bellasera-Tuscan Villas & Piazza (www.bellasera.ca), Canadian Mountain Cabins in Kimberley, B.C. (www.canadiancabins.ca) and Bear Mountain Golf & Country Club in Victoria (www.bearmountain.com).
* Website/E-mail: www.bellstar.ca, info@bellstar.ca.
* Head Office: No. 5, 6020 1A St. S.W., Calgary, Alta., T2H OG3.
* Phone/Fax: 403-313-6375, toll free 877-737-6782./255-1181

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)