After sitting dormant for many years, RockResorts is officially awake and looking to stretch its reach. Laurance S. Rockefeller started the brand in 1956 and through the years many iconic resorts have been associated with the name, but it’s found new life under Vail Resorts. The publicly held company acquired and re-launched RockResorts in 2001, 15 years after the Rockefeller family sold it. Long-time Marriott executive Stan Brown was hired two years ago and became president of the brand and Vail Resorts Hospitality last year.

The luxury collection, which began with Rockefeller’s development of Caneel Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands more than 50 years ago, now stands at nine resorts. Two more are under construction and several more are in the development process. Brown, who spent 26 years with Marriot and most recently based in Hong Kong as a regional vice president, says the goal is to continue to grow and diversify across geographic locations.

The current portfolio includes six resorts throughout Colorado in premier ski destinations and one in Santa Fe, NM; Jackson Hole, WY; and Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. Properties in Miami and Breckenridge, CO are under construction and there are plans for more in Vermont, Turks & Caicos and The Bahamas. Brown recently took some time to talk with Lodging Hospitality on the challenges facing the luxury segment and RockResorts’ future plans.

Have you ever dealt with times and uncertainty like we’re seeing right now in both the overall global economy and this industry?

I’ve seen three or four different corrections in the economy, but those were generally 12-15 months max until turning around. This is deeper and longer and everyone is affected.

How much has your business been hurt?

It depends on where they’re at. Overall the luxury tier is down close to 30 percent, but we’re not down to that degree. We’re not immune, though. In more than 80 percent of our markets, our share is stronger than our competitive set. We’ve hung our hat on that. There’s always going to be cycles, but the key is can you continue to outperform during them.

How are you guys managing? What are you doing differently?

Everybody, whether in the luxury tier or economy, is clearly looking for value right now. The key is packaging. We’re packaging a variety of things—whether it’s ski for free or a third night free—we’re packaging where we’ve seen softer demand. Those things have allowed us to keep rate equity, because the challenge is when the market rebounds you want to be ready to take advantage. We certainly haven’t made whole-scale changes, but we’ve made some strategic reductions (in staffing). We’ve centralized some operations, whether it’s spa management or engineering; it’s seamless to the guests but allows us to keep overhead limited.

Have you seen evidence of this ‘AIG effect’ and politicians and the media’s attack on corporate meetings and events?

From a media perspective, in general they are overly positive when things are good and overly negative in negative environments. There’s a lot of value for companies in recognition events, product launches and meetings, but because there’s so much talk in the media they’re now so conservative and cutting back. It’s not advantageous for the companies, tourism or the country as a whole. The pendulum swings both ways; the media is too positive or too negative and right now it’s way too negative.

What’s your prediction on when things will turn around? What’s it going to take?

I’d be an economist if I knew that. My personal belief is as we get into fourth-quarter comps, year over year will be better and then first quarter next year and beyond there will be some pent-up demand that’s been in every past recession. Long-term I don’t have a concern; tourism and worldwide travel continues to grow. Eventually things will turn around; people like to take that time and be with families and the family vacation will come back. And where we’re located, in iconic and environmentally friendly places—places that are neat spots to visit—from that aspect, we’ll be positioned well. We have great resorts in the right destinations.

With two projects under construction and several more in development, what’s ahead for RockResorts?

For a period of time RockResorts wasn’t growing, but after (Vail Resorts) bought it, and with the cache of the brand, as a whole we’re growing fairly significantly even in these economic times. I fully expect to announce more properties in iconic and unique destinations. We’re opportunistic, but it’s got to be the right fit for us. We’re not looking to grow for the sake of growing. We want geographic diversity and to compliment our winter strength, but it’s not a strategy of one or the other.

Why are green initiatives so important to RockResorts?

It’s part of us, long before even Vail Resorts bought RockResorts. It started in 1956 with Laurance Rockefeller. He was very much an environmentalist and conservation driven. It’s also a part of Vail Resorts culture. The environment is so important, it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also so integrated into our resorts that if we don’t take care it will hurt us on the business end.

Web resources: http://rockresorts.com/