Business View Magazine | May/June 2022

111 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 5 After earning his master’s degree in hospitality management, Gautam served as the Hotel Director with Carnival Cruise Lines (the youngest ever to do so) and Hawaii Luxury Cruise Lines. Then he moved to the U.S, where he consulted and assisted hotel owners. He explains, “I realized I had more hunger in me, so I pursued my career to do my own thing and launched my own company.” In 2004, Gautam founded GI Hotel Group, a hospitality firm that quickly grew its portfolio to more than 76 properties and was one of the fastest growing companies in Florida. In 2011, GI Hotels Group merged with Interessant, with Gautam at the helm. Today, Interessant is a global hotel management company based in Orlando, Florida – one of the world’s largest and most popular destination cities. The firm owns, operates, and develops hotels in the U.S., Latin America, India, and the Caribbean. IHRMC assists hotel owners and operators to maximize ROI, offer exceptional customer service, and attain desired economic results for their hotel and resort properties. In the last 10 years, Gautam has directed $400 million in renovations and $450 million in new development projects. He notes, “There are four different banks and I handle all of those banks under my leadership: I’m running the hotel management company, hotel development company, hotel financing company, and the hotel acquisition company.” The Interessant portfolio has 76 hotels, with 24 owned by them. The rest are managed by a third party. IHRMC’s mission is to achieve exponential growth in their properties by forming strategic partnerships that allow them to build new hotels, acquire existing properties in lucrative markets, and work with underperforming hotels toward growth advancement. Gautam admits, “It’s pretty impressive. We talk about the hospitality aspect. It’s just not managing hotels. It’s a passion. It’s technology… today’s technology has changed the industry. INTERESSANT HOTELS & RESORT MANAGEMENT Social media has changed the industry. We actually started our own revenue management system, which attracts and generates more revenue than any property does. Every day when I wake up, I say, you know what, I need to have something different than what other people are doing. And secondly, it’s not what other people are doing because I don’t compete with anybody. I just compete with myself… how I’m going to be better every day. And I see it. I see it on social media. I see it on TV. I talk with friends about what’s happening in the industry. How can we generate more revenue and bring more jobs to the economy? I’m always thinking. It’s just become the culture.”