Expertise – Springboard Hospitality

Expertise

A New Wave of Hospitality

For more than 30 years, Springboard Hospitality has transformed people, properties, and communities as a leader in the hospitality industry managing and developing innovative boutique and branded properties throughout the U.S. With dual offices in Honolulu and Los Angeles, Springboard operates 41 properties across 11 states. We are committed to going above and beyond with high-touch, personalized service in every aspect of our operations, from our interactions with guests to our relationships with owners.

Operations

Our operations leadership spans decades of experience managing hotels through complex transitions, large-scale renovations, repositionings, and rebranding projects. Every hotel we operate is uniquely independent and thus, we offer a personalized approach for each hotel that we operate.

Hospitality Intelligence

At Springboard Hospitality, this is our edge. For us, data is indispensable. It’s what fuels our innovation and decision-making, and ultimately, returns.

Masters of both the ‘art’ and ‘science’ of hospitality, our team’s technological prowess and analytical mindset is matched with creative management, powerful marketing, a personalized sales approach, custom revenue management, cutting-edge food and beverage offerings, and much more.

Revenue Management

Our ability to manage revenues and maximize profitability is built upon leveraging technology and automation, which provide the revenue team with actionable market insights and an understanding of reservation costs by channel. This foundation shifts the focus to strategy and net RevPAR profit optimization across the corporate, regional, and property levels, led by a team of quantitative, whip-smart revenue managers with fluency in data analytics.

Sales

Our deliberate and proactive corporate sales leadership team works directly with property sales teams to ideate robust strategies targeting applicable segments based on a comprehensive knowledge of market position, pricing and booking trends. From on-site sales training rooted in technology to representation at major trade shows, our strong relationships across the travel industry empower your revenue goals.

Marketing

With a multi-pronged fleet of award-winning hospitality marketing leaders, in-house content creators and agency partners, our team guides property marketing, working hand-in-hand with revenue management to target the right customer channels at the right time to drive demand at the lowest cost possible.

We work with the best-in-class internal and external teams to create awareness, inspire purchase decisions and create guest loyalty, offering a competitive advantage with an integrated marketing team specialized in digital marketing, social media, brand management, creative programming ideation, and public relations.

People & Culture

We pride ourselves on delivering flow through optimal staffing of both strategic and tactical human resources. Optimal recruitment, training, and retainment are achieved amidst the broader seasonal and market cycles through demand forecasting, benchmarking and employee satisfaction best practices refined over a 30+ year history. From employee benefits to ongoing development, our team empowers all team members to embrace Springboard’s core hospitality principles, including an above and beyond service philosophy.

Capital Planning

Our corporate and property capital planning resources employ a robust strategic planning process covering all aspects of investment and budgeting. Capital plans are created on an annual basis, covering everything from pro formas to revenues segmented by the department.

Food & Beverage

From ideating locally-inspired concepts to managing day-to-day operations, Springboard’s F&B leadership teams oversee and deliver 20+ unique concepts designed to delight guests and drive profitability. Our portfolio plays host to some of the best-in-class full-service restaurants, speakeasies, and bars in the country, while also offering expansive banquets and catering programs. Whether guests are sitting on a biophilic bar seat that doubles as a swing while enjoying a menu created by a James Beard Award winner, cozying up in an igloo after the latest snowfall with a hot toddy in hand, or enjoying a catered event on one of West Hollywood’s hottest rooftops, our team aims to deliver Above & Beyond.

Development

Springboard has the expertise and depth to provide a range of pre-opening services to execute ownership's vision and launch an optimized lifestyle property. Whether in a leadership or advisory role, Springboard is adept at contributing within a team to guide a new project’s positioning, drawing upon competitive advantages, market dynamics, current trends, target guests, and project economics. Currently, Springboard is overseeing 10 development projects from ground-up in California and Texas to major repositions and renovations in Alaska and Hawaii.

Our Leadership —

Welcome to the next level. Meet the people that will help take you there.

Benjamin Rafter
President & CEO
Ben Rafter leads growth, strategy and hotel revenue generation for Springboard Hospitality. Before joining, he was president and CEO of Aqua Hospitality and president of Aston Hotels & Resorts — the largest hotel operator in the Waikiki market. Previously, Ben grew Aqua Hospitality fivefold in less than four years, from a small Waikiki operator to the only hotel company on all six Hawaii tourism islands. Also while at Aqua, Ben completed more than 20 renovations as well as new, ground-up developments.
He was so confident of the Aqua team’s operational capabilities he placed his personal cell phone number in all of Aqua’s hotel rooms. When the company was sold to Interval Leisure Group (IILG, Aston’s parent), Ben estimated his number was accessible to more than 2 million visitors to Hawaii a year.
Prior to Aqua, he spent more than 15 years guiding successful tech companies. In various roles he created global innovation centers, acted as a principal strategist for G2000 and startup companies, and founded companies of his own. In 1996, he co-founded Innerlinx (LiveBid), which was acquired by Amazon.com. Ben began his career in the distribution department of Westin Hotels & Resorts.
Benjamin Rafter
President & CEO
Sean Williams
Chief Development Officer
Sean Williams oversees new business development and investing for Springboard Hospitality and affiliates. His professional and academic career in hospitality investment management, investment banking, and real estate private equity spans three decades across three continents.
At GreenOak he led the negotiation, structuring, acquisition and asset management for over $750 million in hotels based in the United States, including the Thompson Miami Beach, the Hotel Figueroa in Los Angeles, and the award-winning Surfjack Hotel in Hawaii. As a registered Investment Advisor and Finra member, he also advised multiple public firms on M&A and special situations.
During his tenure as Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and Vice President at Merrill Lynch, he executed over $8 billion of acquisitions of non-performing loans, commercial real estate, public equities, and strategic investments as well as multiple joint ventures and partnerships in Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Sean is an active member of both the Urban Land Institute as well as the AHLA Hospitality Round Table. He graduated from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and holds a Masters of Engineering from the University of Tokyo.
Sean Williams
Chief Development Officer
Martti Mannoja
Chief Operating Officer
Martti Mannoja’s 40-plus years of hospitality experience drives operational efficiencies across all Springboard Hospitality properties. Before joining the Springboard Hospitality team in 1991, he served as corporate director of reporting/assistant corporate controller for Colony Hotels & Resorts. Martti also spent 13 years with the Radisson Hotel Corporation in various senior-level financial management positions.
Martti Mannoja
Chief Operating Officer
Rob Robinson
Executive Vice President
Rob joined OLS Hotels & Resorts in 2018 as part of the new ownership group and helped lead the company through a rebranding to Springboard Hospitality. In his role as Executive Vice President, Rob is responsible for company-wide operations, and is based in Hawaii where he directly oversees the Honolulu office and Springboard’s portfolio of hotels in the islands. Rob is also actively involved in business development and in the community where he serves on several boards.
Currently Rob sits on the Executive Board of Directors of the Waikiki Improvement Association, holds a board position with the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, and is a founding board member of the Waikiki Beach Special Improvement District Association where he currently serves as Chairman. Previously Rob was on the board of the Waikiki Business Improvement District Association, executive board of the Union Square Business Improvement District Association in SF where he served as Chairman of its marketing committee, along with a board position with the San Mateo Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Before entering the hotel business, Rob was a successful restaurateur owning and operating restaurants and bars in the San Francisco Bay Area. From there he spent 5 years with Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, and then 10 years in multiple leadership roles with Highgate, a premier real estate investment and hospitality management company.
Rob Robinson
Executive Vice President