Quality hotels cost too much to build. This is why architect-turned-developer Gregory O. Hnedak decided to launch his second entrepreneurial venture more than 30 years after co-creating Memphis architecture firm HBG (Hnedak Bobo Group).
DreamCatcher Hotels was created to take all of the lessons learned and best practices from designing hotels and apply them to a new development model that would completely disrupt the traditional way of building hotels.
DreamCatcher Hotels has been a RedRover client since its early days – more than seven years now. We were first tapped to brand the company and launch an initial round of industry PR.
The partnership has evolved over the years to involve RedRover staff in nearly every aspect of DreamCatcher’s business, including new-business marketing, event support, executive thought leadership, and client relations.
RedRover developed the DreamCatcher website and its first media kit, and then got to work pitching stories to industry magazines. Our focus in this stage was on developing the umbrella corporate messaging to explain DreamCatcher’s creation and distinct offering in the hotel sector.
Our team secured a cover-story feature in one of the industry’s top magazines. The story itself was detailed and focused on the key facets of what made up the essence of a DreamCatcher property.
That cover story also became cross-purposed over the years, with the vivid imagery appearing in advertisements, trade show art, the website, and more. The DreamCatcher story and Greg’s founder’s story also graced the business front page of The Commercial Appeal in July 2013, bookending the DreamCatcher media launch with both industry and hometown features.
The initial clientele for DreamCatcher was tribal gaming, as many trusted and deep relationships had been built between Hnedak and tribal leaders over the years. This remains an important client to this day with DreamCatcher.
With a tribal hotel already launched and another in development, a turning point for DreamCatcher Hotels came when the owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) took interest in the DreamCatcher model to build what would become The Guest House at Graceland. RedRover jumped into the core DreamCatcher team that was working to make that hotel vision a reality — as a DreamCatcher property.
What attracted EPE was DreamCatcher’s core competency of delivering a luxury hotel at a more moderate and certain price than other development models would be able to achieve. DreamCatcher had, indeed, completely redefined the norm in hotel development.
Our team drafted proposal responses, brainstormed and helped position new aspects of the development model that were under consideration, and met with the EPE team to coordinate public relations. The Guest House at Graceland opened in 2016 to much fanfare – locally, nationally, and internationally. In November 2018, it was featured in the Hallmark Channel feature, Christmas at Graceland.
Delivering a Brand Promise Built on Passion and Experience
Today, the RedRover and DreamCatcher partnership remains robust. We are as committed to bringing DreamCatcher’s brand promise to life as are the leadership and internal staff at DreamCatcher.
With the goal to deliver AAA-Four Diamond-rated properties that will wow guests with each new development, our team has become incredibly well versed and grounded in what makes DreamCatcher distinct – and how to convey that to hotel owners, media, and consumers.
We continue to provide public relations, strategic messaging, business-development and sales communications, creative design/advertising, and stand-in staff for meetings and trade shows as needed.
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Gregory O. Hnedak, FAIA, Founder & CEO
DreamCatcher Hotels
