Burt Cabanas Sets a Benchmark for Conference Centers

Small shards of colored glass sparkle in a mosaic prominently featured in the lobby of Benchmark Hospitality International’s headquarters in Woodlands, TX. This decorative art installation, the brainchild of Chairman and CEO Burt Cabanas, is impressive, but even more so is the motivation behind it. 

“Just as each colorful piece of glass in a mosaic contributes to a whole, I attribute the success of Benchmark to the contribution of each employee. I explain to them that each is a piece of that mosaic,” says Cabanas, who heads up this dynamic independent hospitality management and marketing company. 

Many of Benchmark’s 5,500 employees worldwide have spent their entire careers working for the company, 63-year-old Cabanas proudly says.

“Thirty-three percent of our 700 managers started as hourly employees. I don’t think you’ll find that at any other company,” he says. “We have created an environment where they are as excited to come to work today as they were when they first joined the company.”

Cabanas, who came to the United States as an exile from Cuba with his mother and sister when he was 10 years old, is no stranger to earning an hourly wage. “My father had died of cancer and Castro was just coming into power,” he says. 

He got his first job at the age of 14 at the Shelborne Beach Resort in Miami. “I cleaned the swimming pool and decks after school.” He had that job all through high school, and upon graduation joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serving six years.

“The Marine Corps came at a very good time in my life. It tested me physically as well as mentally and helped me figure out how I wanted to live my life. I trained for every war scenario imaginable, although I was never part of a war,” he says. “My military experience was instrumental in forming my character and how I motivate people.” 

During his time in the Marine Corps reserves, Cabanas continued to work in the hotel industry. “I love the interaction with people and the fact that no two days are the same.” He also pursued his education, getting a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University, where he studied hotel and restaurant management. After stints as a lifeguard and a room clerk, he became the assistant manager in the rooms department of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Miami—his first taste of management. He was offered the opportunity to enter Sheraton’s training program, which would mean relocation. He turned it down because he was about to marry. He and his wife, Hermys, have been married for 40 years.

Instead, he joined the Doral Hotel and Country Club, a five-star resort in Miami, as conference services manager. He rose through the ranks quickly, becoming the night manager in charge of food and beverage and then director of operations and assistant to the vice president and general manager. After three years as director of operations, he was offered the job of resident manager at the Stouffer Hotels Pine Isle near Atlanta. He accepted, and after one year was promoted to the director of rooms for the chain, based in the home office in Cleveland, and was then promoted again to regional vice president of operations, responsible for running half of its properties. After four years, he was recruited by The Woodlands Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., to run the resort, golf club, and conference center in the master-planned community north of Houston.

“Part of my agreement was that I would have an opportunity to set up a company within a company; that I could provide the same management services I did for The Woodlands for other companies,” explains Cabanas. “In 1980, I established the company, in ’82 it was incorporated, and in ’86 I purchased the company from them.” He was only 39 years old.

The Woodlands was the start of Benchmark Hospitality, today a leading hospitality management company with a portfolio of 35 properties, evenly divided among resorts, conference centers, and hotels. “My goal was to create a company with a unique service delivery to the customer and a unique way to create opportunities for employees,” he explains.

Happy employees mean happy customers. “If customers are treated in the manner they expect to be treated, they will not see frayed carpet or chipped paint. For instance, if I’m on an airplane and the seat isn’t comfortable or the AC isn’t working, these negatives will go away if the employees I deal with are customer-driven. The economy dictates the condition of the hard goods; people dictate the soft goods. 

All the marble, silver, and gold in a hotel are never more important to a guest’s experience than friendly service and a smile.”

Looking back at over 30 years in the meetings and convention industry, Cabanas says he is most proud of being part of the development of the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC). “Helping to differentiate between conference centers and hotels and resorts 30 years ago and watching how conference centers have evolved is an extremely satisfying part of my life.” 

Cabanas is a founding board member and a past president of IACC. While serving as president, he co-authored The Uniform System of Accounts for Conference Centers. In 1988, IACC presented Cabanas the Mel Hosansky Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the association and to the conference center industry.

“We talk frequently about the best learning environments for meetings. However, over 90 percent of all corporate meetings are still held at hotels and resorts that are not designed with the meeting planner or meeting guest as their primary client. Increased demand in a recovering economy will change this, and it bodes well for IACC-member properties, which I believe will increase their percentage of the multibillion dollar U.S. corporate meetings market well beyond 15 percent over the next few years,” he predicts.

“Growth in meetings as a percentage of industry business volume has slowed due to alternative ways to communicate. But the need for pressing the flesh will never leave our society in good times or in recessionary periods. It’s a motivator and a bonder,” he adds.

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