Joshua Morris, Area General Manager, Hyatt Centric Las Olas

May 2026 — Invest: spoke with Joshua Morris, area general manager of Hyatt Centric Las Olas, about hospitality dynamics in Fort Lauderdale, pricing strategy, workforce challenges, and the role of technology. “If we are not understanding consumer spending patterns, we are going to be at a disadvantage,” Morris said.

What changes over the past year have most impacted your property and the hospitality landscape in Fort Lauderdale?

One of the biggest changes was the opening of the Omni and the expansion of the convention center. The convention center, combined with the addition of 801 new rooms, is already affecting our Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach hotels in the short term. We are navigating how best to position ourselves in this new landscape and reviewing how this will affect our long-term success and commercial strategies.

What strategies are you using to continue driving traffic toward your property?

We focus on our online presence through SEO and AI, but we are closely tracking citywide events marketed by the CVB, such as FIFA and F1, to determine which events compress the city and impact occupancy at our hotels. For those based at the Omni, we aim to drive overflow bookings at our properties. For those not based at the Omni, we look at where we position ourselves to have an opportunity to place a bid.

What new trends are you seeing in terms of guest expectations?

The Hyatt Centric brand is about having access to centralized experiences. We do our best to provide recommendations for our guests to enjoy at the hotel, such as our speakeasy Room Nine01, or other exciting experiences outside the hotel. With that said, our guests’ expectations have not shifted much, aside from some price sensitivity. Guests still want what they have always wanted, a clean, safe, well-maintained place to stay, with friendly, knowledgeable, problem-solving associates.

How are rising costs, including labor and operations, affecting hotel performance and strategy?

Those costs do not necessarily affect my pricing strategies. Demand affects my pricing strategies, combined with competitive pricing in the marketplace. If my costs doubled, I cannot just double the rate.

You would hope there is some type of effect where, if things are getting more expensive, we are able to charge more to initially offset those expenses and then maybe gain beyond that with average daily rate growth. It is a fine balance.

Pricing is updated four times daily through a system that we use with the brand. We review it tirelessly to make sure we are positioned right. If you are not, you will cost yourself a lot of money, and then what is exposed is the cost. If you did not manage the top line right, then your bottom line just does not get there.

How are you approaching marketing as Fort Lauderdale returns to more traditional seasonal patterns?

With Florida, and especially the Fort Lauderdale market, it is reverting back to some of the traditional summer patterns. We are not going to be at 90% all summer like we were in 2022 or 2023. We are being cautious in how we price ourselves, but also aggressive in where we market ourselves, using campaigns in areas we have not used here before.

We opened in 2020, so we only know COVID and post-COVID. We are still learning our way around Florida’s seasonal patterns.

I consider everything at this point. We recently launched a package called Romance for No Reason. We had never done a romance package here, but I thought, let’s try it. We sold two in the first 24 hours. If it is selling, keep it active.

We will also partner with the CVB. If they are doing a drive campaign through AAA or something similar, we will jump on and partner with them. We may also do something with the brand or independently. It depends on where we think we might see the most return.

How do partnerships with local businesses, events, and the broader community support the property’s success?

I am involved, at least in the information exchange, with people in similar positions. We are pretty open about describing what is going on in our businesses.

From a sales standpoint, my director of sales is more involved in business-to-business sales-related work. She is embedded in the city’s CVB meetings and sits on the board for HSMAI or similar organizations to get one step further into understanding what we can do with each other. Those partnerships come from the city, the state, or the brand.

What are your top priorities for the property over the next three to five years?

It is critical that we maintain the ability to pivot in an instant. Pricing and demand change from when we go to sleep to when we wake up, and there is a reason we update pricing four times a day.

If we are not understanding consumer spending patterns, we are going to be at a disadvantage. It is absolutely critical that we understand booking windows, what people are interested in, length of stay, seasonality, and these kinds of things. That is of utmost importance.

Is there anything else you are watching closely as you think about the future of hospitality?

The only thing I would say that I am still seeking to understand is the real impact of AI. We think we know what it is going to do, or have seen what it has done, but there is still a lot of mystery around it.

We are maintaining a high level of engagement in getting educated on what that is going to do to our industry and what we can do with that to take advantage of its power.

There is some risk-reward there, so I am being a little conservative for now. Eventually, we are going to have to spend heavily on time and resources to really keep competitive and then just to keep current.