On A High Note

Hoteliers are usually what you would call “people persons,” but it’s far more personal than that for Kelly Sanders, group president of Highgate Hawaii, who rose from humble Idaho farming origins to lead one of Hawai‘i’s most aggressively growing hotel companies.

At 59, Sanders has learned to measure success in terms of people rather than balance sheets. That mantra applies to guests, who Sanders has made sure are experiencing bespoke service even at smaller boutique properties. It applies to residents, as demonstrated in Maui where Sanders volunteered to shelter Lahaina fire survivors in Highgate hotels even before FEMA signed a reimbursement contract.

“I have a saying, it’s ‘always get to yes,’” Sanders says. “When there’s that great of a need even though they weren’t (all) our employees, we needed to figure out how to help the community.”

Corey Campbell, CEO of Akamai Training & Consulting, says Sanders’ coworkers also know that he will take care of them — that’s why many of them have left other hotel companies to join him.

Campbell says with Sanders, what you see is what you get — whether he’s in the boardroom or singing John Denver’s West Virginia during karaoke at the opening party for the AC Hotel by Marriott Honolulu, one of Highgate’s newest hotel management contracts. Under Sanders, the company has grown from four Hawai‘i hotels in 2018 to 16 under management or ownership and 10 more in the pipeline slated to open between 2024 and 2028.

Campbell says, “He doesn’t change who he is for anyone. I don’t know many people who can say that. His passion is pure. He never manipulates. His fun factor also allows and helps people to work at their best.”

All of that can be explained by the fact that Sanders hasn’t forgotten his roots. He grew up poor — so poor that when his mom Cheryl Dickerson discovered he was allergic to milk, she fed him the leftover water from boiled potatoes. Dickerson now lives in Honolulu with Sanders and his husband Shawn Pelley, whom he married in June 2023 on what he describes as the best day of his life.

Sanders’ first job was working in the potato fields on his grandparents’ farm. He says his hotel career began as a bus boy at a restaurant at the nicest hotel in Pocatello, Idaho, the Quality Inn. He paid for college by working the graveyard shift at hotels.

Sanders exudes success as he sits in the carefully curated lobby of the newly renovated Romer Waikiki at The Ambassador. But he tears up as he recalls his dismal failure as a young restauranter that turned him into the leader that he is today.

Sanders says after graduating from the University of Utah, he and a partner with $10,000 to their names took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal seeking to buy a restaurant. Sanders says they acquired one in California, and then they picked up another three in Texas.

Sanders says by 25, the pair had $150,000 invested into five restaurants, though he continued to keep his job working the graveyard shift at the Doubletree Salt Lake City.

But then, Hefty’s the restaurant that they opened in Salt Lake City turned into “a total failure and we lost it all. We couldn’t make payroll. We went bankrupt.”

“We flew to every restaurant. We met with the employees (about 80), and we allowed them to take food off the shelves and anything that had any value as a form of compensation,” he says.

Sanders says it was in that moment that hotels became his career focus and his leadership style emerged. The takeaway he says was to “never again take for granted the fact that people are counting on you, and you must be able to support people and drive your vision as well as their success. Otherwise, there’s no success to be had.”

Sanders maintains that level of accountability even off the job, says John Magauran, one of Sanders’ best friends for over 20 years. Magauran recalls Sanders, sharply dressed in a Prada suit, stopping to direct traffic when he saw it was backed up for the Heart Ball at the Waikiki Sheraton.

At another black-tie event, Magauran says Sanders stepped in to assist the front desk a long check-in line. “That’s Kelly — he just jumps right into it, no questions asked,” he says.

Sanders’ longtime friend Paul McElroy, executive vice president at Highgate, says Sanders shows up, and in turn people show up for him and are in awe of his positivity and his enthusiasm for everything.

“When Kelly turned 50, he planned a week-long party celebration in Thailand. He invited 40 people and 40 people showed up from all around the world,” McElroy says. “Just that right there says something about Kelly. It was just incredible and beautiful and everything about it was just Kelly.”