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Name: Dave Cleveland
Age: 45
Title: Senior vice president and partner
Company: Highpointe Hotel Corp.
Family Ties: Lives in Gulf Breeze with his
wife, Lisa, and their two daughters
Carleigh, 6, and Lauren, 9.
Education: Gulf Breeze High School; Pensacola
Junior College; Florida State University, marketing
major; University of Texas at Austin, MBA.
How did you get started? Cleveland asked
Darryl Lapointe for a job at the Holiday Inn Navarre
after the Gulf Breeze High School band completed a
project there. (Cleveland was a drummer.)
What other hospitality positions have you held?
Busboy, room service waiter, bell boy, front desk
manager.
When did you form Highpointe Hotel Corp.? June
1, 1982, with Darryl Lapointe (Cleveland's brother Bob
joined as a partner a few months later).
What is your business philosophy? “Servant
leadership — that's the way this company was built
because Bob, Darryl and I all started out working the
line-level jobs, and we feel that the people in this
office are a resource to the people out in the field.
Everyone in a corporate position needs to be supporting
someone who's directly serving the customer. If you're
not directly serving the customer, you'd better be
supporting someone who is.
“At even a more basic level, we believe that being of
service to others is a noble profession, and is not self
deprecating in any way. Anyone who confuses being ‘of
service' to being ‘subservient' will never make it in
the hotel business. Their ego simply can't take it. If
you don't see the world that way, you can graciously
help others without feeling secondary to them. That,
quite simply, is why some people fall in love with this
career.
“As cliche as it may sound, it comes down to the
Golden Rule — treat others the way you want to be
treated. That is the philosophy we always attempt to
have toward our hotel customers, our partners and
clients, our associates and our community.”
What are your business goals? “We want to
become a company of significance, not just a company of
success. There's a subtle difference there, and I think
some of the things we do in the community, some of the
things we encourage our people to do, that's going to be
another philosophy that we continue to pursue.”
What are your personal goals? “Mine are not a
lot different (from business goals). I just want to
continue to do the same thing. I want to continue to
work with the same people.” |
Dave Cleveland began his career as a busboy more than 25
years ago. Today, he is one of the most influential leaders in
Pensacola's tourism industry.
As the senior vice president of marketing and business
development and a partner at Highpointe Hotel Corp., Cleveland
is responsible for finding growth opportunities for the
company and marketing existing properties. He humbly describes
his job duties by saying,
“It's kind of my role in this company to do a lot of
community things.”
“A lot of community things” doesn't do justice to
Cleveland's commitment to the Pensacola area. In 2002, he
received the Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce PACE
(Pensacola Area Commitment to Excellence) Emerging Leader of
the Year Award, which followed his 1999 Chairman's Award from
the chamber.
It's Cleveland's day-to-day efforts that have earned him
these kudos. He serves on Imagine a Greater Pensacola, a
public and private partnership that focuses on business
retention and expansion, relocating businesses and retirees to
the area and developing tourism. “People see the vision, and
they're putting their money behind their thoughts. For the
first time, we've raised more money from the private sector
than from the public sector, which is something I'm very proud
of,” Cleveland says.
“To have economic development, tourism development, and all
these other committees — health care, education,
transportation — all under one umbrella is fairly unusual. It
makes the Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce different from
others (chambers) that I'm familiar with,” he adds. Other
chamber roles he has filled include treasurer and vice chair
of tourism.
Cleveland is an active member of Gulf Breeze United
Methodist Church and serves on the University of West Florida
Foundation Board of Trustees. Aside from the opportunity for
his two young daughters to attend a local college in the
future, he notes the university also brings cultural
activities and downtown improvement.
Cleveland, who attended Gulf Breeze High School, has seen
the Pensacola area evolve over more than 30 years and is happy
with the direction it's taking — particularly on Pensacola
Beach. “The main asset we've got is the protected beach. There
are fears of overdeveloping Santa Rosa Island, but when they
preserved the Gulf Islands National Seashore many years ago,
they did us all a favor. And, we as developers, even if we
wanted to, cannot overdevelop that island. That long-term is
going to make us different from other beaches.”
As an award-winning hotel development and full-service
management company, Highpointe Hotel Corp. operates 12 hotels
in Pensacola, Pensacola Beach, New Orleans and Lafayette, La.,
giving Cleveland a unique perspective on Pensacola's tourism
industry.
“The longer-term impact (of Sept. 11, 2001, on tourism and
travel) was drive-to markets have generally done much better
than fly-to markets. Simultaneous to that was the Pensacola
chamber's successful effort to bring AirTran,” Cleveland says
of the discount carrier at Pensacola Regional Airport.
“Pensacola is not only steady, it's been increasing every
year. The amount of military business we get at these hotels
is phenomenal. We now have two extended stay hotels (Homewood
Suites and Residence Inn), so when they have military training
exercises and bring people in for weeks at a time, these
extended stay hotels feel the direct benefit of that,” he
says.
Cleveland, like many others, believes it's the beautiful
beaches that make the Pensacola area a premier tourist
destination. “We have long known our primary feeder markets
are Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. Those people
are coming by and large from the west and, until we had
product on Pensacola Beach, they would bypass Pensacola Beach
and go on to Fort Walton or Destin.
“When we built the Hampton Inn, it was the first experiment
that if we build a good hotel out there with good corporate
meeting facilities, good product and good service it could be
successful on a year-round basis. What we found is that people
want to stay on Pensacola Beach,” Cleveland says.
He sites overcrowding and traffic problems elsewhere as
reasons tourists are turning to Pensacola Beach. “People are
seeking this type of beach experience — a little bit quieter,
a little bit slower-paced, but still the same great, beautiful
beaches.”
Cleveland says studies show that “if you build a nice
product in this location, you're not going to only take
customers from the competing hotels, you're going to bring new
people into the market,” he says.
“The main thing is to get the word out,” he says.
Advertising in key cities and participating in travel trade
shows are both examples he shares.
“I think we as properties have the responsibility to go out
and get our own business as well. We're in Tallahassee every
month talking to association and government meeting planners
over there. And, we make frequent trips to Atlanta and New
Orleans.”
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