This week, Kris Klinger, Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services, announced that Kevin Connolly has been named the new general manager of the Syracuse University Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center, effective immediately. Connolly has acted as the interim general manager of the hotel since June 2020.
For Klinger, the decision to take away the interim label was simple. “The leadership and initiative Kevin has displayed as the interim general manager made promoting him to the permanent position an easy decision for the Board of Directors to approve,” said Klinger.
Upon assuming the interim general manager role last summer, Kevin faced two immediate challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic: declining hotel bookings and event cancellations and the new task of housing and feeding hundreds of Syracuse University students entering quarantine at the hotel. He and his staff had to adapt on the fly to implement strict health and safety protocols and offer an enhanced level of customer service to students who took up residence in the hotel for 14 days at a time.
Connolly has also taken the lead of the ongoing food and beverage transition at Drumlins Country Club. After its previous café and catering operator left at the end of 2020, the club turned to an insourced solution – merging its food and beverage operations with those of the Sheraton. Kevin leads a group of University employees in legal, real estate, purchasing, trademark licensing, marketing and communications, and food and beverage operations in a charge to install the new café and catering team before the club opens for golf in Spring 2021.
In the months ahead, looking beyond the immediate COVID-19 crisis, Connolly will lead the Syracuse University Sheraton through a renovation to its lobby, restaurant, bar, and conference spaces in an effort to tie the hotel more closely to new University design and branding elements. Visitors will also notice changes to the exterior of the hotel, including in the parking circle, where updates to landscaping and signage will reinforce the hotel’s ties to the University.
“I’m looking forward to leading the hotel into an exciting era of greater cooperation with Syracuse University, and working with my team to create the best hospitality experience in the region,” said Connolly.
Connolly has worked at the Syracuse University Sheraton for two years. Prior to his time as the interim general manager, he worked at the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. Previously, Connolly worked as the director of sales and marketing at other Central New York hotels, including the Ithaca Marriott Downtown and the DoubleTree by Hilton Syracuse. He is a 2017 graduate of the Leadership Greater Syracuse Program.