M&R Hotel Management of Great Neck, N.Y., today announced the appointment of Louis Gonzalez as general manager of the 201-room, full-service Holiday Inn New York ? JFK Airport, which opens this week at the intersection of Brookville and Rockaway boulevards in Jamaica, N.Y., just east of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Gonzalez, a 27-year hospitality industry veteran who has managed and opened hotels at the airport and in Manhattan, will oversee all on-site activities including operations, maintenance, housekeeping, security, accounting, sales and marketing. He also will serve as liaison with the operator of the hotel?s restaurant, The Landing.
Prior to joining M&R Hotel Management, Gonzalez was general manager of the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott hotel at Queensboro Plaza in Long Island City, N.Y., which he opened. From 2010 to 2012, he was area general manager for Magna Hospitality, a Rhode Island management company, responsible for multiple hotels in Brooklyn.
In 2008 he was appointed general manager to open the new Holiday Inn New York City ? Wall Street and the Sheraton JFK Airport Hotel, both owned and operated by Hersha Hospitality Trust, a Philadelphia-based real estate investment trust. Earlier in his career he served Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Hotel & Leisure Advisors and the former Holiday Inn JFK in management roles.
Gonzalez earned a hospitality certificate at New York University in 1992 and a fire safety director certificate of fitness from the New York Fire Department in 2006.
The Holiday Inn New York ? JFK Airport conforms to the latest design and amenity standards of the Holiday Inn brand, franchised by InterContinental Hotels Group. The hotel features a flexible meeting and event space that can host groups of up to 70 classroom-style, a fitness center, grab-and-go lobby market, guest laundry, complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the building and complimentary shuttle service to the airport.
Guest rooms ? a mix of king and double-double rooms ? are designed in a contemporary style that is consistent with the latest Holiday Inn design prototype. Guest Link centers in each room provide access to the Internet, a port for connecting personal computers to the television and outlets for charging computers, phones and tablet devices. Internet download speeds are expected to exceed 35 megabytes per second, and upload speeds will exceed 6 megabytes per second.
The new structure has been engineered to minimize energy use through the use of low-wattage fluorescent lighting and high-efficiency heating, cooling and ventilation units in each room.
The Holiday Inn New York ? JFK Airport will become M&R?s fourth hotel at the airport, the nation?s sixth busiest in terms of total passenger traffic. M&R currently owns and operates the 129-room Holiday Inn Express JFK Airport, 75-room Days Inn Jamaica – JFK Airport and 88-room Best Western JFK Airport.
M&R also owns and operates a hotel near LaGuardia Airport, three in Manhattan and two on Staten Island.
The M&R Hotel Management portfolio includes brands of InterContinental Hotels Group, Choice Hotels International, Wyndham Hotel Group and Best Western International. Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide both recently certified M&R to manage hotels under their respective brands.
M&R?s services also include hotel development consulting, including site selection, feasibility analysis, design, planning and assistance selecting contractors and obtaining permits, financing and franchise brand licenses.