Pinnacle Hotel Management was founded in 1997 by Ron Franklin and Dick Vilardo to develop and manage Marriott and Hilton branded hotels. Their first project, the 123-room Courtyard Orlando East/UCF in Orlando, Florida, opened in June of 1997. Since that time, they have developed or purchased 29 additional hotels including their most recent acquisition, the Courtyard by Marriott in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Their largest project to date is the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary, a 304-room, full service hotel in the booming suburban Lake Mary market of Orlando. The company manages its own hotels, as well as, those owned by other companies. Although primarily a company focused on new build projects, Pinnacle Hotel Management has successfully completed conversion projects such as the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Palm Beach, Florida and the Courtyard in Key West, Florida. The Pinnacle Hotel Management portfolio includes a total of thirty hotels with 3,732 rooms.  Annual sales in 2007 exceeded $115 million.
 

   In 2002, Franklin and Vilardo were joined by Steve Fairbanks.  Fairbanks has been instrumental in Leading an aggressive acquisition strategy for the company.  Most recently, the company acquired a portfolio of eight Residence Inn hotels geographically dispersed throughout the United States.

    Franklin, Vilardo and Fairbanks have extensive backgrounds in hotel operations, development and finance. Prior to the formation of Pinnacle Hotel Management, Franklin spent 26 years with Marriott in senior positions in operations and sales and marketing. Vilardo has over 25 years experience in hotel finance and development having worked for Marriott and having served as a principal with merchant banking and development companies. Fairbanks has over twenty years of hotel finance, asset management and acquisition experience having held positions with Marriott, Host Marriott and Crestline.
 

    Although initially focused on development and management of hotels in Florida, the company now has diverse geographic projects including the Residence Inn in Anaheim Hills, California, the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Columbia, Maryland, and the Residence Inn in Hartford/Avon, Connecticut. Vilardo and Franklin are also founders and principals of RDA Investments, a sister company of Pinnacle Hotel Management