YOTEL, the global hospitality brand known for championing reliability, comfort, and smart design, announces the appointment of Paul Harnedy as Chief Operating Officer, alongside two senior leadership promotions. This enhanced team will drive forward YOTEL’s global expansion strategy, with plans to triple the portfolio by 2031.
Joining the business as Chief Operating Officer, Paul Harnedy will oversee global hotel operations and commercial strategy across YOTEL’s growing portfolio of city centre hotels, airport hotels (YOTELAIR) and flexible, extended stay properties (YOTELPAD). He will play a key role in driving operational and commercial excellence across the business, further strengthening owner relationships and supporting delivery of the company’s growth strategy.
A highly respected hospitality professional with more than 30 years’ experience leading and developing multi-site operations across Europe and the US, Harnedy joins YOTEL from Cedar Capital Partners, where he served as Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Management. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing the operational and commercial performance of an international hotel portfolio spanning multiple markets globally.
Prior to this, he held senior positions including Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director at Amaris Hospitality, Vice President Operations at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, and Operations Director roles with both InterContinental Hotels Group and RBH. Throughout his career, Harnedy has demonstrated a strong track record of delivering sustainable, long-term business success across a wide range of performance metrics, including exceptional profit growth, customer service levels and employee engagement.
YOTEL has also strengthened its senior leadership team with the internal promotions of Michael Whitehead to Senior Vice President, People, Talent & Learning, and Ryan Dance to Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy.
Having spent seven years with the business, Michael will now lead YOTEL’s global HR function, focusing on employee engagement, organisational development and learning and development. Ryan will oversee the company’s integrated commercial strategy across revenue management, sales, marketing, commercial operations, and digital and ecommerce to support sustainable global growth.
Phil Andreopoulos, Chief Executive Officer, YOTEL, comments: “As we scale YOTEL’s global footprint, the strength of our leadership team becomes increasingly critical. Paul brings a wealth of operational experience across international, multi-brand hospitality businesses and a clear understanding of what it takes to deliver consistency at scale. Alongside the promotions of Ryan and Michael, these appointments reflect our focus on building the operational and commercial capability needed to support disciplined, sustainable growth as we expand in both new and existing markets”.
