In 1980, my father Steve Rushmore, in a 200 square foot office situated in Garden City, New York started a hotel consulting firm he named Hospitality Valuation Services. Steve wanted to stay small (perhaps 3 to 5 professionals) and focus on high-end hotel consulting.
When Steve started Hospitality Valuation Services, he saw a niche opportunity. At that time there were hotel accounting firms that knew everything about hotel operations but nothing about hotel real estate. There were also real estate firms that knew everything about real estate but nothing about hotel operations. With Steve’s hotel management degree from the Cornell Hotel School coupled with 10 years of real estate experience working in real estate brokerage, appraising and banking he was uniquely qualified to be a hotel real estate expert. Additional, during this period Steve became a member of the prestigious Appraisal Institute. In fact, at that time, he was the only designated real estate appraiser with a degree in hotel administration.
To capitalize on his hotel/real estate expertise, Steve designed a consulting report that combined a hotel market study with a hotel appraisal. This report was perfect for hotel developers who up to this point had to hire a hotel expert to perform the market study and then hire a real estate appraiser to provide the appraisal. Steve’s hotel market study and appraisal eliminated the double hiring and confusion of retaining two firms and a Hospitality Valuation Services’ report quickly became the industry standard.
Along the way, Steve started publishing textbooks, articles, newsletters, software and seminars on hotel market studies and appraisals. This form of credibility marketing soon defined Hospitality Valuation Services as the industry experts. Clients quickly determined that they rather hire the firm that “wrote the book” rather than one that merely read the book.
The major turning point in the evolution of Hospitality Valuation Services occurred in 1982 when Marriott Hotels, at the demand of their lender, hired Hospitality Valuation Services to perform a hotel market study and appraisal of their Marriott Harbor Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The assignment was a success, Marriott secured the financing and Hospitality Valuation Services became Marriott’s preferred hotel consultant. For the next 10 years, Hospitality Valuation Services performed hotel market studies and appraisals on almost every full-service Marriott Hotel, Marriott Courtyards, Marriott Fairfield Inns and Marriott Residence Inns. Hospitality Valuation Services quickly grew from a small hotel consulting firm of five professionals to a nation-wide organization with more than 50 consultants.
Building on its success, the team at Hospitality Valuation Services decided to go international by opening a London office in 1991. As the business in London was building the Brits kept asking- “What does Hospitality Valuation Services actually do?” It took a little while to understand the reason for this unlikely question, in the U.K. the term “hospitality” did not mean “hotel,” rather it referred to the beer vendors at sporting events- (ah the problems of going international). Since this interpretation of the word “hospitality” wasn’t going to work in Europe- Hospitality Valuation Services decided to change its name to simply HVS which continues to today.
Having achieved success in London, HVS moved East opening offices in Athens, Dubai, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. It also moved into Canada, Mexico and South America. With all these offices, HVS quickly became a global hotel consulting organization.
As HVS grew and expanded world-wide its clients asked for additional hotel consulting services such as operator searches and management contract negotiations, brand recommendations, operational reviews, expert testimony and litigation support. Additional staff and expertise was brought on board and separate HVS divisions created.
Today HVS is the world’s largest hotel consulting organization offering a broad range of consulting services including: Asset Management, Financing, Brokerage & Transaction Advisory, Hotel Management, Executive Search, Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities, Golf Facilities, Gaming and Casinos, Mixed Use, Spa and Wellness, Hospitality Interior Design, and Shared Ownership Services (Timeshare).
The success of a professional service organization is totally dependent on is people. The stature and growth of HVS would not have been possible without its team of dedicated professionals focused on providing unparallel hotel consulting advice that has guided hotel owners, operators, lenders and investors in making critical decisions. Many members of the HVS team have degrees in hotel administration, extensive hands-on hotel operational experience, and in-depth real estate expertise. HVS is constantly conducting research, authoring articles, developing software, creating databases, presenting conferences and seminars and leading the hotel industry in providing relevant education to improve everyone’s knowledge and understand of this important global industry.
The alumni of HVS is also an important component of its success. Over the past 40 years HVS has trained thousands of associates who have passed through HVS during their careers. Today HVS alumni hold high-level positions in most of the major hotel companies, lenders and investment groups throughout the world. They are sought after for their in-depth knowledge of hotel investing gained during their tenure with HVS.
HVS provides consulting services from more than 50 offices spread over five continents. It has performed more than 60,000 assignments situated in over 6,000 hotel markets. The data and information gathered during these assignments are housed in the worlds largest and most diverse hotel investment database containing thousands of financial statements, operating performance metrics, management and franchise agreements, local market information, mortgages, leases, and a host of other critical hotel investment information. Clients of HVS benefit from this vast database known as the HVS Hotel Investment Platform which is accessible by all HVS offices and by client subscription plans.
HVS is headed by the following executive team:
President of the Americas
President of Middle East and Africa
President of Asia Pacific
