Robert Cole is CEO of Hospitality Ventures Management Group, a third-party management company he founded 20 years ago. HVMG manages more than 40 hotels. Since establishing HVMG, Cole has led hotel teams through various crises, including 9/11, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of Lodging Luminaries, host Jason Freed talks with Cole about how HVMG managed to do more than merely eke out a profit from the hotels in its portfolio during the pandemic. Over the past 18 months, it exceeded the industry's average house-profit levels. Cole talks about the tough decisions that were made amid the crisis to save the hotels under HVMG's care and how HVMG has adjusted its business model to succeed in post-pandemic America.