Catching up with… Ramon Reyes
General Manager, Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park
In 1997, Ramon Reyes began his career in the hospitality industry as a hotel doorman in New Orleans. He moved to Atlanta to open the Omni Hotel at the Battery and serve as the hotel’s general manager. After four years in the role, he became GM of Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park, the largest hotel by room number in the company. These are edited highlights from an interview.
How did being a doorman prepare you for your current position?
I was a very young doorman [19 years old] working with gentlemen who had been doing the job for years. … They took me under their wings. I did not have all the soft skills. … Those things are a by-product of that time. I ended up becoming the supervisor and manager of the very people who trained me, mentored me and showed me the ropes in this industry. That time as a doorman showed me how to engage with guests on a personal level and make sure their experiences begin and end well. But it also put me in the shoes of an hourly associate who sometimes saw leadership at its best and its worst.
A recent report said high-end leisure travel in Georgia had slowed but corporate and group events were gaining momentum. Are you seeing that?
Our perspective comes from a hotel that happens to be attached to the convention center and happens to have State Farm Arena on one side and Mercedes-Benz Stadium up the street. Group sales are our bread and butter. We are heavily in the conference [booking] space, both within our walls, self-contained and [those taking place] in the convention center. Momentum will continue in 2025, in 2026 and into 2027. I’m excited about the work the Atlanta Sports Council, the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau have done in positioning our hotel for these future events: next year’s Club World Cup, then the FIFA [World Cup]. We will be on the world stage, and just like a Super Bowl, I think we will ride the wave of FIFA for many years.
The $5 per night state hotel-motel fee, on top of any local lodging tax, goes to tourism product development and convention and visitor bureaus. Is the industry getting value for the money it generates?
We are fortunate as an industry and an organization to have good legislative partners. They’re open to continuing the conversation about how and where those funds are deployed. We would like to see more money invested in marketing the city. We spend far less than our direct competitors, peer cities like Orlando. We’re happy to have what we have, but to position ourselves for further growth, further success for years to come, we need to spend more [on marketing], on par with [what] some of the other cities are doing.
What is one of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry?
I am mindful about cultivating talent for the future. Not many people seek to work in our industry, and we must change that. … We need to bring people into the industry to pay their dues, learn and fall in love with the industry and have a flourishing career. It will take an intentional effort and focus by all our industry leaders to invest in the programs that Georgia State, Kennesaw State University, the Technical College System [of Georgia] and all these great institutions have, to help cultivate talent for the future.
How do you make the hotel experience memorable?
We spend a lot of time, effort and money to recruit the right talent and equip them once we’ve hired them, such that they understand that our true objective is to make sure that everyone who walks through our doors is made to feel as though we’re welcoming them into our home. That comes from training associates to be observant and to listen, to take every moment available to create a memorable experience and have our guests leaving here saying they should have stayed longer. 
