Maine company wants to create a new American hotel chain

Decades after they met while baking Twinkies at a Massachusetts factory, Peter Anastos and Paul Lohnes have built something of a hospitality empire in New England.

Their company, Maine Course Hospitality Group, owns and manages nearly two dozen hotels in the region (plus a couple in Florida and North Carolina). Most are Hilton and Marriott franchises, including Courtyards near the Portland International Jetport and in the Old Port, as well as Hampton Inns in Waterville, Augusta, Bath, Freeport and Thomaston.

Now, Anastos and Lohnes are launching their own hotel brand in the hope that it will spread across the country.

Called HomeAwhile, the concept is to provide apartment-style rooms that combine the best features of Airbnbs – welcoming spaces with kitchens and sometimes laundry machines – and hotels that offer housekeeping, on-site staff and a more predictable overall experience.

“We’re trying to build something that’s a little better, a little nicer, at an affordable price,” said Anastos, 76, who lives in Yarmouth.

The first HomeAwhile is under construction on Payne Road in Scarborough and is set to open in 2026, with 109 rooms. Though it is billed as an extended-stay hotel for long vacations or business trips, the minimum stay is one night.

“It will be more like an apartment than a hotel, with services available à la carte,” said Jonathan Bogatay, company president. “If you want housekeeping services, we can provide them. If you don’t, you can be on your own.”

The so-called aparthotel model has been trending in overseas cities like London and is gaining traction in the U.S. During the last year, Marriott International opened an aparthotel in Puerto Rico and announced plans to develop several similar properties in the Midwest.

Maine Course hopes HomeAwhile can seize on the interest by targeting travelers with low- to mid-range budgets. That’s also why the company’s leaders believe the Scarborough location can succeed at a time when hotels are multiplying in Greater Portland.

“People are looking for comfort and affordability,” said Bogatay, 60, who recently joined the company after leading a Wisconsin-based chain. “We want to get both of those right.”

HOW IT STARTED

Son of a baker, Anastos has lived in Maine since the 1980s. He left the Hostess factory to paint and renovate houses in Massachusetts, then moved north to invest in and eventually acquire the Muddy Rudder Restaurant and the Freeport Inn, both Route 1 tourist landmarks.

By the 1990s, he owned seven Ground Rounds, including restaurants in Portland, Auburn and Bangor, and he had formed the Maine Course partnership with Lohnes, who had become a rising real estate developer in the Boston area.

Anastos and Lohnes sold their restaurants and initial hotel properties in the early 2000s – including the Muddy Rudder and Freeport Inn – to build franchises under the banners of major chains. Anastos was later appointed to the Maine Housing Authority board in 2011 by former Gov. Paul LePage. He ruffled feathers by criticizing the agency’s spending decisions and pushing it to consider the per-unit cost when funding affordable housing projects.

In launching its latest HomeAwhile venture, the group said it will save money upfront by using its regular general contractor and project partner, Mark Woglom of Opechee Construction Corp., in Belmont, New Hampshire, who has built several chain hotels and knows where improvements can be made.

Maine Course also will save money because it won’t have to pay a franchise fee to Marriott or Hilton, which adds as much as 12% to monthly costs. The overall savings will allow the company to charge $115 to $125 per night instead of $160 or more.

Lee Speronis, professor and director of the School of Hospitality, Sport and Tourism Management at Husson University, said he believes it will succeed as a practical and affordable answer to Airbnb and other online rental options.

“Maine Course has a proven track record,” said Speronis, who is also chair of the Maine Tourism Association and a Hospitality Maine board member. “They give their employees opportunities to succeed and they’ve had great success as a company that way. If you work hard, you can move up.”

The company also tries to give young people a reason to stay in Maine, he said. It provides internship opportunities for hospitality students at Husson and other schools and often hires them after graduation for management positions. CEO Sean Riley produces a podcast with Southern Maine Community College students to highlight how industry leaders built their careers.

‘BE THE BEST PART OF SOMEONE’S DAY’

The company’s executives say prioritizing employee satisfaction alongside guests’ needs is one of the key reasons the company has grown slowly and steadily since its founding nearly 40 years ago.

Riley, a former teacher who joined the company in 1992 as general manager of the Freeport Inn, still makes a point of connecting with staff members at all levels, even now that the company has 800 associates, including 70 salaried managers. He writes 50 to 70 birthday cards each month that are sent to employees and he calls each hotel every Thanksgiving and Christmas to thank the managers for working on the holiday.

“It’s a simple thing, but it shows we care,” said Riley, 68. “We believe if we take care of our people, then they will take care of our guests.”

On a more concrete level, Maine Course pays competitive wages in a tight labor market and provides health benefits, paid time off, a company-matched retirement savings program and a pathway for advancement, he said.

Kevin Pagnano experienced the Maine Course approach when he was hired in 2008 to run the Courtyard Marriott in Bangor. He had worked for Marriott International for 17 years, including at hotels in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida.

Pagnano grew up in Maine and wanted to move back here to raise his family. He had heard about Maine Course and thought he could help the company expand. Meeting Riley was memorable.

“Our interview was about 10 minutes of work talk and the rest was about who we were as people,” Pagnano recalled. “He wanted to know who I was.”

Since 2010, Pagnano has been a corporate director of operations, overseeing direct sales and revenue management strategies for growth. But his work remains grounded in his customer service experience, starting in 1988 as a bellman at what is today the Portland Sheraton at Sable Oaks near The Maine Mall.

That’s where he got his first hands-on lessons in how to lead a hospitality team. Fresh out of SMCC’s hospitality program, he remembers watching the general manager clearing snow from guests’ cars early one morning.

“I watched him for a while, then I thought, maybe I should be out there doing that,” Pagnano said. “He never asked me. He just set the example.”

Now, Pagnano, 57, is a leader in a work culture that recognizes its employees have challenging lives. It means accommodating reasonable flex time for family needs and personal crises, he said, and holding baby showers and graduation parties to celebrate individual accomplishments.

“It’s how we build teams, but it’s also the right way to treat people,” Pagnano said. “I had a boss once who told me, ‘Never forget you could be the best part of someone’s day.’ That includes our employees.”

At the same time, he said, Maine Course has high-performance standards, especially when it comes to addressing guests’ concerns.

“We tell our teams that every problem has a solution,” Pagnano said. “If you don’t know how to solve it, find someone who does.”

Kelley Bouchard