The Omni Bedford Springs, which originally opened in 1796, includes more than 2,200 acres of recreational facilities and rolling woodland.

They don’t build resorts like the Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa anymore, and probably with good reason. Large, sprawling properties with lots of public spaces and recreational amenities and typically a mishmash of guestroom types can be a nightmare to operate and produce profits. Omni, which last year assumed management of the 214-year-old property in south central Pennsylvania, seems up to the task.

Since taking charge of the 216-room resort, the chain and the property’s executive team led by General Manager Scott Stuckey have significantly increased business and improved guest service and amenities while meeting the challenges an historic hotel creates for management.

Some of the resort’s 216 rooms share a common porch that encourages guests to socialize with each other.

“We’ve had a very good 2010, with group business bouncing back and up more than 40 percent over last year,” says Stuckey, who came to the Bedford Springs property from the Omni Jacksonville. “Our summer was the best for leisure business since the hotel reopened and we had a strong August, September and October. In fact, October was the hotel’s best month to date.”

Stuckey credits the Omni brand and sales and marketing system for a lot of the upturn. On a typical weekend, says Stuckey, 50 or 60 guests are members of the chain’s Select Guest frequency program. A strong public relations effort helps boost business in a key drive-to feeder market—the Washington, DC area—from 10 percent of total visitors to nearly 30 percent.

Following decades of prominence as one of the premier resorts in the East, the property fell into decay in the 1970s and ‘80s and closed in 1986. Following designation as a National Historic Landmark, a group that includes a former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica bought the hotel for $8 million and spent more than $120 million to restore it. It reopened in 2007, and Omni assumed management last year.

We recently chatted with Stuckey about the opportunities and challenges in running the property:

The resort’s spring-fed pool was one of the first indoor swimming pools in a hotel.

What changes have you and Omni made to improve the hotel and its performance?
The hotel had some service issues when we took over, and it’s an area we’ve focused on a lot. And we’re happy with the results. Last year, we were number two in the Omni chain in guest satisfaction scores and this year we’re tied for number three.

What staffing challenges do you face?
A lot of our workforce comes to the hotel without working in a hotel before so we must start from scratch with them. But our turnover rate is in the 30-percent range, which is very strong for the hospitality business and has helped us be successful. A lot of our associates are cross-trained to work in multiple departments, and everyone understands they need to work a lot of hours during the busy season.

How difficult is it to attract management talent?
For one thing, we work closely with several hotel schools to hire summer interns. This past summer we had 27 interns that we pair up with members of the executive committee as mentors. We hold classes for them every Tuesday afternoon in which someone from the executive committee teaches them some aspect of the hotel business, whether it’s how to read a Star Report or how to interpret a financial statement. We end up hiring the best of these interns as managers in training when they graduate.

What are you doing to build business in the off-season and shoulder seasons?
We’ve created a lot of activities that enable us to shorten the off-season. For example, we have the largest Nutcracker collection in the Northeast. A man in the area has more than 4,000 of them that we display over the Christmas holiday. Also, over the holidays we host a cookies with Mrs. Claus event in the lobby, and in the winter months we’re running a discount promotion through Travelzoo.

What about group business?
When we took over, there wasn’t a lot of flexibility in group rates. We understand the need to be more aggressive in the shoulder periods so we’ve successfully gone after some non-traditional markets. These are groups that didn’t think they could afford to stay at a luxury resort, but we can get them here with some promotional pricing.

How about weddings business?
It’s been great. This year, we’ll host about 60 weddings compared to 22 in the year before we took over management. One weekend this summer, we had five weddings in the hotel. Our location helps. We’re four miles from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, one hour and 40 minutes from Pittsburgh, two hours and 15 minutes to D.C., three hours to Philadelphia and four and a half hours to New York City.

1796 was the hotel’s fine dining outlet that management reconceived as a steak and chop house with a lower check average.

What are the keys to the resort’s success in food and beverage?
We changed the concept of some outlets and placed a very concentrated effort on the food and beverage function. 1796, which was the fine dining outlet when we took over the hotel, had a ridiculously high check average. We reconceived it as a steak and chop house, dropped the average check by $30 and have seen volume nearly triple. The idea was not to nickel and dime guests, so we include two side dishes with every entrée.

What’s ahead for the hotel?
Since 26 percent of our guests are repeat customers, we’re always looking at adding new activities for them. This year, we introduced a garden tour. We also offer a cooking with the chef class, and we’ll soon start a wine tasting with our sommelier. We continually look at things that will keep us fresh.