28 ONE-ON-ONE August 2021 | HOTELMANAGEMENT.NET GF Hotels & Resorts’ JOHN RUBINO The COO of the company’s managed hotel division carries on a family tradition in the industry started by his great-grandfather FAMILY CONNECTIONS BY ELAINE YETZER SIMON ESIMON@QUESTEX.COM f there was a contest in the hospitality industry to de-termine the nicest person, John Rubino would have to be a frontrunner. But that’s not the only quality he brings to GF Hotels & Resorts as COO of the managed hotel division. “One of the things that I bring is a love for hospitality, and I think I bring the intersection of what hospitality truly means in creating travel experiences and servicing guests merged with a sense of business to drive profi t and return on investment for ownership groups,” he said. “Sometimes that’s missing; you don’t always get a leader in the hospitality industry that truly has that hospitality spirit in the business sense. We have to be able to know how to take care of our guests, but also have that business savvy to be able to drive a profi t. Both are so necessary.” ➔ GF ■ I Rubino grew up in Scranton, Pa., with two brothers and two sisters. “We grew up in a loving family with two great par-ents that all loved each other and were raised in a great environment,” he said. “We also grew up around other PROFESSIONAL LIFE family members, aunts and uncles that were next door It’s been 35 years since Rubino left Penn State with his and a few houses away in the same neighborhood within bachelor’s degree in hotel, restaurant and institutional a block. It was a really fun upbringing to be able to go in management, and two years since he joined GF Hotels & Resorts. In between he spent 23 years at In-and out of their houses and have family right terstate Hotels & Resorts, starting as the general there near you.” manager of a Hampton Inn and rising to execu-When it was time for college, Rubino stayed ONE tive VP of Interstate’s Crossroads Hospitality close to home, attending a branch of Penn State – ON – division, with a short stint as SVP of operations University. ONE at Island Hospitality Management. “Like most kids, I didn’t really know what I Rubino said he’s happy he started in on-wanted to do or what I wanted to go to college for when I was in high school,” he said. “I started off in property roles because they prepared him to be a better accounting, went through the fi rst few semesters, and I corporate leader. “I think you have to have that on-property experience was like, ‘I’m not sure if accounting is for me.’ Or maybe to be able to function in the corporate world because of it was more like accounting said, ‘You’re not for us.’” Rubino took a hard look at what he wanted to do what we do at a corporate offi ce,” he said. “We support instead, coming across hotel management in the school’s our team members that are out in the fi eld and if you haven’t done their jobs or you don’t know what their course off erings. “I thought, ‘Th at’s crossed my mind in the past; that day-to-day work entails, it’s harder to lead them and to might be something I’d be interested in doing,’” he said. measure them and encourage them and help them do At the time, Penn State had one of the top hospitality their jobs better.” Rubino said he still remembers the struggles he had, schools in the country, so Rubino decided he was in the right place to move forward in this new direction. Th is what was hard and what was easy. “A lot has changed now and the struggles have is where his strong family background came into play: “I went home from school and I told my parents what changed, but if you stay close to your people and you I was thinking. And my mother said to me, “You know, communicate with them and you put yourself in their your cousin teaches that at Penn State. You should talk to shoes and you try to understand what challenges they him.’ So I reached out to him, I went to visit him and got have, you can be a better leader and you can help them a tour of the school. We talked, then I changed my major overcome their challenges and help them get to the next to hotel and restaurant management and I graduated level in their career,” he said. “Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than to see team members under me be able from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in that.” Rubino and his cousin started what seems to be a to move on to bigger roles or to their dream jobs.” HM family tradition—by his count, he is one of eight family members that has either pursued a career in hotel man-agement or has a degree in hotel management, including Rubino’s 28-year-old son. Here’s the really interesting angle to the family hos-pitality story: “My siblings and I were going through our parents’ things and I found a newspaper article about my great-grandfather, my mother’s mother’s father,” Rubino said. “He actually was a bellman at a hotel in Scranton, and that hotel has since closed. Maybe it was in our blood. I didn’t know my great-great-grandfather worked at a hotel and here I am doing what I’m doing.” HOTELS & RESORTS The Courtyard by Marriott Orlando Lake Buena Vista at Vista Centre is one of 144 properties in GF Hotels & Resorts portfolio. The hotel has 222 guestrooms and 86 suites. Headquarters: Philadelphia Structure: Ownership and management Portfolio: 21,825 guestrooms, 144 properties Website: www.gfhotels.com
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