Dan Flannery

SVP & Global Managing Director at EDITION Hotels

A little bit about Dan…

A respected leader in the hotel industry, Dan Flannery’s career has spanned all levels of the industry and he has opened and operated some of the most prestigious and recognized hotels around the world.

His experiences and skill set are a result of his unique background. He learned the hotel business from many years with Marriott International and gained experience at the highest level of luxury from The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. For over ten years, he has had the privilege of working alongside the legendary, iconic, visionary hotelier, Ian Schrager, who created the boutique hotel category in 1984. Ian’s approach to design, branding, marketing, public relations, nightlife, and operations has had a profound impact on Dan’s approach to the hotel business.

Dan’s professional career began with a management training program at Marriott, that he completed while finishing his Bachelor’s Degree at The University of Maryland Smith School of Business. He spent 15 years opening and operating some of Marriott’s highest-grossing restaurants and bars and was recognized in 1986 as the company’s Beverage Manager of the Year, in his first year in management.

During his tenure with The Ritz-Carlton, he served as General Manager of the flagship, Mobil 5 Star and AAA 5 Diamond Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park. The hotel ran the highest Average Daily Rate in the company and was the first hotel in any of Marriott’s brands to exceed $1000 per night for a month. The hotel was routinely #1 or #2 in The Ritz-Carlton system for Guest Satisfaction and was ranked #7 in the United States in the 2007 Travel and Leisure Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Top 100 List. He was also responsible for the company’s Northeast Region.

Dan spent three years as Chief Executive Officer for Morgans Hotel Group, gaining experience as an officer in a public company and growing the company’s EBITDA from $324,000 in 2010 to $31,000,000 in 2013. The company’s market share growth outpaced all of the major hotel management companies and they made consistent improvements each year in Guest Satisfaction.

In 2008, Dan was asked to assemble and lead the team that would create and launch EDITION with Schrager. He has led the opening and operations of their first 14 hotels, with another 16 signed deals under construction and 25 leads in the pipeline. His responsibilities include pro forma development and approval, programming, design coordination with the Schrager team, acceptance and signoff on construction, F&B strategy, selection and negotiation with restaurant partners, staffing guides, recruitment, training, budgets, forecasts, sales, marketing, public relations and accountability for performance across the system. This new Luxury Lifestyle brand operates many of Marriott’s highest grossing and most recognized restaurants and bars in the world. In 2021, The Bodrum EDITION was ranked #4 in all of Europe by Travel and Leisure, The Abu Dhabi EDITION was named “Favorite City Hotel in The Middle East and North Africa” by Conde Nast, who also named The Sanya EDITION “The Best Resort in China.” This same year, Forbes called EDITION “the hottest hotel brand in the world.”

Dan has been recognized as Hospitality Professional of the Year by The Food and Beverage Association of New York City, Top General Manager in the World by Luxury Travel Advisor Magazine, and in 2009 was named Operations Executive of the Year by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association of America. Ian Schrager has often been quoted as saying, “In my forty-plus years in the hotel business, Dan is the best operator I have ever known.” Dan and his wife of 34 years reside in Verona, New Jersey, and have three children and four grandchildren whom they consider their greatest accomplishment.