By Mike Nixon, President


In its current form, profit sharing at Innisfree Hotels is our founder and CEO Julian MacQueen’s vision for a company that supports its employees and gives back.


This is deeply rooted in his Baha’i Faith, but also in his leadership style. Giving back is fundamental to who Julian is.


Once a year, profits are shared among eligible employees. When I participate in distributing the checks, I make sure I let all of those people receiving checks know that they are responsible for the size of the check.


Anything that they do in the course of their daily work life contributes to those checks being larger or smaller.


Protecting resources is one way to increase profit sharing. It all adds up.


For example:



  • If an employee sees a leak in a storeroom and they report it before that leak ruins the room, that’s contributing to profit sharing.

  • If they make a guest’s stay better or address a problem in a positive way so the Front Desk doesn’t have to give a refund, that’s contributing.

  • If, in turn, those guests go out and speak highly of our hotels and their friends and family come stay, that also contributes to profit sharing.


When Innisfree employees are focused on completing their tasks every day, that’s contributing.


We have to police ourselves, as well as our co-workers. For instance, it’s not uncommon in larger hotels that someone could clock in and disappear for 8 hours. If you know that’s happening, and you talk to the person or report it, you’re minimizing the impact and contributing to profits.


It’s worth noting that I believe Innisfree Hotels is the only hotel management company in North America that does profit sharing.


It feels good to share with the people who make our properties shine.