In each issue, we try to feature interesting jobs. When a Managing Director position for Makeready crossed my desk recently, my first reaction wasn’t “what a great job.” It was “wait… who’s Makeready?”
After doing a little digging, I learned that Makeready took over management of The Laylow in May 2025, replacing Pyramid Global Hospitality. Man, I am late to the game. Based on Pyramid’s website, Wayfinder Waikīkī appears to be its only remaining managed property in Hawaiʻi. I think I need to create a management company scorecard! Who’s on first?
Makeready and The Laylow share the same parent company, Rockbridge, a Columbus-based hospitality investment firm that owns the hotel. Makeready is Rockbridge’s in-house lifestyle brand and management company, a collection of independent hotels that deliberately stays in the background. According to an industry source, the decision was largely about keeping operations streamlined and under one roof. In other words, why hire an outside manager when you have one of your own?
What’s even more notable is that The Laylow is Makeready’s first managed property in Hawaiʻi. Whether it’s the beginning of a broader expansion into the Islands or simply an internal ownership decision remains to be seen.
Either way, it serves as a reminder that management contracts change hands all the time, often with little fanfare. Sometimes the biggest hospitality news isn’t the deal that gets announced. It’s the one you realize happened a year ago.
Which is my long way of saying: we hear a lot at HHH, but clearly not everything. If you’ve got some tea for us, loop us in.
