Who is HEI?

HEI Hotels & Resorts is the 7th largest hotel management company in the US. It’s also one of the fastest growing. The company, which owns more than 30 hotels, has reached this size in just 5 years.

In 2008 the company announced it had raised funds to buy another 20 hotel properties. These funds were raised exclusively from university endowments.

Its hotels are run under franchised brand names like Hilton, Sheraton, Le Meridien, and Marriott.

HEI buys hotels in order to turn them around and sell again at a profit. The company describes itself as a “long-term” investor, with an 8-12 year investment horizon.

While it owns a hotel, HEI employs a range of techniques to bring costs down. Employee experiences include:

Cutting back on staffing levels—HEI reduces the hours of some workers, lays off others, and even eliminates entire job functions.

Shortages in the basic materials workers need to do their jobs—employees report struggling to find enough towels and linens, and workers have encountered shortages of basic cleaning supplies like sponges and vacuum cleaners.

HEI’s practices can take a physical toll when they make already-heavy workloads even harder, particularly in housekeeping.