Pleasure to Attend: Rob Blood of Lark Hotels on Hospitality as a Daily life as Properly as a Career

Lark Hotels founder Robert Blood wears many hats now. As neatly as to serving as president of the boutique resort set apart and management company he based in 2012, he’s distinguished of the develop company Elder & Ash and accomplice at Lark Capital, which is an funding and style affiliate. In describing his no longer going trot from English distinguished to hotelier, Blood said he himself is proof of the belief that the “precise mindset” is perchance the most essential qualification for achieving success in hospitality. He said the corporate is now rising and thriving—truly, it’s almost doubled in dimension since 2020, when he was once at remaining in a direct to convince longtime buddy and colleague Peter Twachtman to take over day-to-day operations as CEO and focal level on what he does supreme and enjoys most—“inventive imaginative and prescient, strategic whisper, and set apart elevation.”

Early Days

Blood traced what he has come to clutch was once an affinity for hospitality to the days when, as a pupil at Bates College, he was once allotment of a pupil actions board that created entertainment experiences, and to his time as a ski trainer at Sugarloaf who imagined owning a most in style bar and inn. He added that his father’s premature death helped form his angle toward existence, and per chance nudged him toward hospitality. “My mom and dad had talked about retiring after they had been 55 and opening a bed-and-breakfast,” he said.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t until he and his then-female friend, Leigh, who grew to vary into his first wife, took a job on the island of Nantucket as innkeepers for Susan and Dale Hamilton that he essentially experienced what it took to scoot such an enterprise, and, more importantly, realized how grand he enjoyed it. “Even supposing we had no skills the least bit, they precise handed us the keys and left us to scoot the reputation. We realized the enterprise from the interior out, with the enhance, friendship, and mentorship of Dale and Susan,” Blood said. From that yr-prolonged skills, he decided how he wished to dwell and work. “From the 2d I stepped foot on Nantucket and grew to vary into the innkeeper of the Sherburne Inn, I sure to dwell my existence working at something I essentially procure pleasure from, something that wasn’t precise a job, but a intention of life.”

A Lodge of His Have

In taking into account alternatives for a resort of his regain, Blood was once drawn to what grew to vary into is known as the boutique sector per his skills on the Sherburne Inn: “Of us cherished being there mostly for the immersive atmosphere and the skills they had been having.” Nonetheless, as he fleet realized, investing in a boutique resort was once but any other topic fully: “Happily, I didn’t high-tail to Cornell Lodge College, so I didn’t know that it was once agreed upon that making accommodations below 100 keys successful was once very no longer going.”

Lucky for him, his mother unnoticed the recommendation of neatly-which formula chums and fronted the down price after discovering out the enterprise map he created with the help of Dale Hamilton, a Harvard Industry College graduate who, with his Sherburne Inn, proved that a neatly-positioned puny property may per chance per chance well moreover be economically viable. So, with a $350,000 loan from his mother (a 10-yr repeat at 6 percent passion), an SBA loan, and conventional financial institution financing, he was once in a direct to aquire his first property, a 9-room inn in Kennebunkport, Maine, for $1.725 million in 2004.

Blood said this first property “was once love a test lab for us. Leigh and I grew to vary into experts at price adjust and realized how to scoot a in point of fact tight enterprise.” He said they also realized the price of investing in repositioning and develop. “Of us essentially beloved the fair spirit of our property because it felt very native. We stumbled on that by making shipshape renovation and develop picks that we may per chance per chance well moreover essentially pressure top-line income.”

Thru trial and mistake and extremely labor, they developed an working theory that labored for them. “I wished to elevate the skills in these puny ancient properties for a more recent traveler—we replaced the doilies and lace with recent conveniences and comforts alongside nods to Novel England appeal and history.”

Their gamble paid off. Four years after opening the Captain Fairfield Inn, they had been in a direct to manufacture a money-out refinance, enabling him to pay his mother serve in half of the time.

Between the refinance of that property and the founding of Lark Hotels in 2012 there had been other ventures, including The Veranda Home and Chapman Home on Nantucket, purchased with the Hamiltons, and The Attwater, in Newport, Rhode Island, purchased with his mother and sister. He also equipped consulting products and services to accommodations and hotels from 2007-2012.

From Possession to Partnership

Mighty has changed within the years since Blood based Lark Hotels, which is now what Blood described as “a management company and a bunch apart” that does no longer regain the accommodations in its portfolio. Nonetheless, Blood, who’s president, does regain 22 of these accommodations with merchants through Lark Capital, the affiliated funding and style division of Lark created in 2022. There has also been a beefy-service develop studio commence to all people since he and his 2d wife, Megan Kennedy, launched Elder & Ash in 2017.

At this level, Lark’s portfolio of properties has grown to fifty three accommodations. As neatly as to Lark Hotels, it involves “sister producers” that had been created in step with predict for special producers in other segments: Bluebird by Lark, AWOL, and Blind Tiger guesthouses. As neatly as, Lark Self reliant extends to other fair properties the advantages of its expanded infrastructure, including fingers-on operational, tech, develop, HR, and income enhance.

The Honest Mindset

Talking to LODGING from one amongst the “distinctive spots” he prizes, Block Island Coastline Home in Novel Shoreham, Rhode Island, Blood described the many ways working within the boutique sector has enabled him to “dwell the dream”: “Although I wouldn’t instruct I had a natural inclination toward accommodations or restaurants from an early age, I did dangle an innate want to develop experiences. I also essentially cherished structure, and the belief of being a steward of ancient constructions that play a in point of fact crucial role in communities.” He also had what he described as “the precise mindset”: “You may per chance per chance be willing to work grand, try novel things, and embrace what you’re doing. We’re performing responsibilities that can even be completed by nearly anyone—we’re fluffing pillows, making particular the drinks are ethical and neatly being facility corners tight. What makes us ethical at what we manufacture is how we manufacture of us feel.”

What he feels most is grateful: “The fantastic thing about my existence is that I procure to work with my two supreme chums—along with a total workers of inconceivable of us—while setting up unparalleled experiences for folk.”

Mentors Topic: Giving Credit The attach Credit is Due

Unlike these born into the alternate, Lark Hotels founder Robert Blood considers himself lucky to dangle stumbled into hospitality. He made particular to level out these whose helped manufacture a distinction in his skill to clutch a dream he didn’t know he had.

Clearly, it begins at house, with his fogeys. He known as his mother, who unnoticed the recommendation of chums who murky her from investing in his first property, “my supreme advocate and supreme believer. My mom has fashioned my imaginative and prescient in existence; she is an limitless proponent of the belief of working alongside of us.” He also acknowledged the affect of his father, who died prolonged sooner than his son grew to vary into a successful hotelier: “My father supported the belief that existence was once a trot that have to be renowned.”

He stressed out that it was once Nantucket innkeepers Dale and Susan Hamilton who most straight influenced his occupation. “I essentially credit rating both Dale and Susan with giving me the chops to manufacture what I manufacture, starting with hiring me within the distinguished reputation. They also modeled what it took to be successful, helped with my enterprise map, and proved that there had been truly earnings to be had in special puny properties. They equipped the Sherburne [Inn] for $600,000, and, following sound, easy, functional enterprise tips—in inequity to the earlier house owners—sold it for $2.4. million. I realized an limitless amount from both of them.”