Daniel Hostettler loves a tough challenge. That’s why he took the job as president and CEO of The Boca Raton, a 200-acre waterfront resort that is undergoing a $200 million transformation, its biggest since it opened in 1926 as The Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn.
“I felt like it was going to be the capstone of my career,” says Swiss-born Hostettler, 52, a married father of two with 25-plus years in luxury hospitality. “What a great opportunity to take this wonderful, storied brand of a property and return it to iconic status.”
Hostettler is working from daylight to dark to convert what was one big hotel and conference center into five boutique hotels with top-tier service and to maximize the views and experience along the water.
“Being this close to the water, it wasn’t really a great waterside experience,” Hostettler says of the resort’s previous incarnation.
Bought by MSD Partners, computer mogul Michael Dell’s company and Northview Hotel Group in 2019, the resort’s renovated Cloister and Yacht Club hotels open to hotel guests on Dec. 17.
The 350-room Cloister, connected to the conference center and the spa, is being repainted its original cream color. The Yacht Club is 110 rooms, with butlers on every floor and patios facing the Intracoastal Waterway. The Bungalows is 60 two-bedroom suites for extended visits. Then there’s the 212-room Beach Club, which Hostettler compares to the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, and the Tower, which will reopen in early 2022 and include 200 rooms.
Hostettler, who has degrees from the University of Denver, Cornell University, The Wharton School and the Culinary Institute of America, is big on delivering a high level of service. “I’m a firm believer that we hire for personality and we train for skill,” he says. “This is not brain surgery. We can train you how to park a car or check a guest into a room. We can’t teach you how to care, smile and enjoy hospitality and meeting people.”
Hostettler has very little time for leisure himself. His job is his hobby. “Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life. I live by that and preach that to our associates, as well,” he says. “In the hospitality business, you really have to love what you do.”