Hospitality with Heart

BizTUCSONApril 20, 2026

3 minutes read

Creating a Culture of Genuine Care, Service and Community

By Tara Kirkpatrick

Through its Desert Hospitality Management arm, HSL Properties is curating a premier guest experience at hotels across Arizona and beyond.

HSL owns or manages an impressive portfolio of hotel properties, including The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain; DoubleTree Suites by Hilton-Tucson Williams Center; El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort; SpringHill Suites by Marriott, Tucson at the Bridges; Embassy Suites by Hilton Oklahoma City, Downtown/Medical Center and several more.

DHM is tasked with their daily operations and success, utilizing a people-first strategy to ensure guests feel genuinely cared for.

That strategy extends to the community for the business entity. Philanthropy is top of mind within DHM, inspired by the legacy set by Humberto Lopez when he started HSL Properties 50 years ago. Every month, each of the hotels is tasked with putting together a list of local charities they want to support and then DHM adopts one of them. There’s also impromptu giving. Last fall, DHM fed the federal workers at Tucson International Airport during the government shutdown.

“Giving back to the community is what Mr. Lopez has always done in his life,” said Alexander. “And that really does resonate with everybody who works in the company. If you’re doing things in the community to make it better, to make Tucson better, we’re all richer for it.”

HSL unveiled Desert Hospitality Management in 2023, bringing in-house an exceptional group of industry professionals to enhance HSL’s hospitality mission, said DHM President Jerry Fischer. In addition to the guest experience, the company also oversees purchasing and building new hotels, as well as renovations to preserve brand standards, utilizing HSL’s own construction team.

“We handle everything,” explained Ghee Alexander, COO of DHM. “We are responsible for the day-to-day operations of hotels, staffing, the financial performance of the hotel, guest satisfaction at each of the hotels. The guest experience is really curated by us.”

Today’s hotel guests want authenticity and genuine connection in their hospitality, from aesthetic touches such as high-quality linens and locally inspired products to remembering a guest’s favorite room and preferences, or anticipating needs before they arise. Guests know when the efforts put forth are not genuine.

DHM only partners with Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt, which Fischer calls “the A-class of hotel brands.” Additional staff training is then layered on top, including the rigorous Forbes hospitality training, based on the respected Forbes Travel Guide. It aims for five-star standards across all aspects of the hotel experience and emphasizes service. To be a Forbes-certified hotel requires a valiant effort. The only five-star rated hotel in Tucson is The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain, which DHM owns in partnership with Cottonwood Properties. The resort also received its first Michelin Key in 2025.

“What we really garner from them is they have a very robust sort of SOP (standard operating procedure) and standards that you have to meet,” Fischer said of the partner brands. “We layer that on top with Forbes training and property training. We make sure that we’re adhering to all those standards every day. It allows us to really create a consistent stay for our guest, and it also creates consistency for the associate.”

All of it is underscored by engagement surveys twice a year, distributed to the entirety of DHM. “Since we started, our overall associate engagement satisfaction is over 90%,” said Alexander. “Our general managers have been with us for quite a long time. Most of them have been promoted from within the company.”

Added Fischer, “If you take great care of your associates, they are going to take great care of your guests, and as a result, they want to come back.” Take, for example, the Spring Hill Suites on Kino Parkway that HSL opened three years ago. Since the day it opened, the hotel is included in the top 10% of guest service scores within Marriott International.

“We don’t get those guest scores by chance,” he said. “It’s the hard work and the effort and the culture at that hotel.”