Summary: Roger Bloss has more than 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry, starting in the business as a teenager. After serving in executive positions with several major hotel franchise companies, Bloss and his partners started the Vantage Hospitality Group in 1996 and acquired their first hotel. Bloss' vision was to develop a national hotel chain based on an innovative membership model. His group was confident that this approach would reinvent the hospitality industry and change the way franchises were operated, and it did. The group continued to build the company's infrastructure, resources, and programs, before launching Americas Best Value Inn as a national hotel chain in 1999, earning many industry accolades over the past decade. Bloss took that vision and created Vantage's innovative Freestyle® Brand Affiliation Model, offering hoteliers A Voice and A Vote℠ in the brand's direction (including setting the fees members pay to the brand); low, flat fees; and flexible contracts. Unheard of in the industry, the successful model earned Bloss Lodging Magazine's "Innovator of the Year" award in 2006 and 2010. Today, Vantage Hospitality is the 8th largest hotel company with nearly 1300 properties worldwide. Vantage is the only hotel company to be ranked among the <a href="http://www.inc.com/inc5000/index.html" target="_blank">Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies</a> for eight consecutive years. The beginning Roger landed his first job in the hotel industry at the young age of 13 washing dishes at a Holiday Inn in South Beach, Fla. By the age of 17, Roger's "can do" attitude earned him the opportunity to become a GM for that same property. Roger continued in the industry and worked his way up through the ranks to several executive positions within major hotel franchise companies. In 1996 while on a trip to India organized by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), Roger listened carefully to successful hoteliers share their likes and dislikes about hotel franchise agreements. After the trip, he drew a line down a piece of paper noting what people disliked on the right, and what they liked on the left. Roger believed that, if he could do away with the things that hoteliers disliked, and deliver what they liked better than anyone else, with a better attitude, and at a lesser cost, he might have a shot at building a great company. The leap Shortly after that life-changing trip to India in 1996, Roger made the courageous decision NOT to renew his contract with HFS (now Wyndham) as President of Knights Inn. His wife was 9 months pregnant at the time, and less than 3 weeks before his daughter was born, Roger found a creative way to lease a property in California. Within a couple days, he had an opportunity to lease yet another property, and combined, those two properties became the beginnings of what Vantage Hospitality is today. Roger is a fearless leader that truly personifies the entrepreneurial spirit. He's not a second generation hotelier, he doesn't have a hospitality degree or an MBA - he's an "all in" business man that finds creative ways to make things happen. "Entrepreneurs are doers, not dreamers" said Roger, and his story is a clear indication that he walks the talk. The vision Going back to that piece of paper he drafted where he outlined the likes and dislikes of franchise agreements, Roger built a brand around a couple simple, yet innovative concepts. The ROI Promise - "Don't pay me unless I send you business. If I don't send you more business than you pay me in fees, don't pay me." The Freestyle® Brand Affiliation Model, offering hoteliers A Voice and A Vote in the brand's direction - Roger believes that people respond better if you educate and motivate, rather than mandate, so he set out to create a company that educates his members on how to make more money, rather than dictate how they should do business.
