They were top execs at a wildly successful Hilton Head resort. Now they’re gone
Jay Wiendl made a name for himself on Hilton Head Island.
The general manager of the Sonesta Resort on Hilton Head was named the hotel manager of the year in 2018, coming off two years leading the island’s Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors as its chairman.
He was credited with turning around the Shipyard hotel from its Crowne Plaza days. He fashioned a top resort from a $30 million renovation project and made it the backdrop of a wildly popular reality television show that announced the Sonesta’s new luxury to the world.
Then, quietly, he was gone. And he wasn’t the only one.
This spring, the Sonesta underwent a leadership shakeup, with the departure of Wiendl and the resort’s long-time director of food and beverage within weeks of each other. Both men have moved on to other jobs in the Lowcountry, but neither the men nor the hotel’s ownership would talk about the departures.
Neither job has been filled yet.
At first, Wiendl told a reporter he had “an agreement” with Sonesta, limiting what he could say about the split. “I have to be very careful on anything I say, just so you understand,” he said.
Later in the interview, Wiendl said he was simply choosing not to discuss the circumstances of his departure in detail. He said his departure was not due to any wrongdoing by him or other employees.
The resort’s director of food and beverage, David Leffew, left shortly before the general manager. Reached by phone, he wouldn’t say whether he was let go.
A Sonesta spokesperson said in an email the company does not comment on “personnel information” and did not respond to a detailed list of questions about Wiendl and Leffew’s departures.
A quiet departure
Wiendl left the Sonesta without fanfare. The resort issued no press release and held no send-off for the departing general manager.
Within weeks of leaving, Wiendl took over as managing director of The DeSoto hotel in downtown Savannah and still lives on Hilton Head, he said. The DeSoto is a boutique hotel financed by the Sotherly Hotels investment group, which owns a handful of properties in the United States.
“This was an opportunity for me to take here in Savannah, to take a hotel, much like I did on Hilton Head, to help drive an under-performing asset into something special,” Wiendl said.
Wiendl said his departure was voluntary and that Sonesta would have provided him a reference, but he didn’t inform the company when he applied for the job at The DeSoto in late February.
“There was a need and a void to fill, so being a local candidate that knew the Lowcountry, I think that was probably an easier decision than most,” Wiendl said of the quick turnaround.
Reached by email, The DeSoto Hotel’s Director of Human Relations, Alex White, declined to comment on Wiendl’s hiring or performance at the Savannah hotel.
He was still listed on the contact page for the Sonesta’s executive team on its website at the time of this article’s publication.
In an interview, Wiendl said the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic explains his quiet departure in mid-March. Still, it was a quick transition for an executive largely credited with building the four-diamond resort that it is today.
In early January, Wiendl gave an interview to No Vacancy, a hospitality industry podcast hosted by Glenn Haussman.
Wiendl talked up his resort. “We can entertain you for days and days,” he said, nodding to the Sonesta’s position atop Tripadvisor’s list of beachfront hotels in the entire state of South Carolina.
“You basically have got this place on lockdown now,” said Haussman, referencing Wiendl’s seven-year tenure at the resort. “How do you keep things fresh?”
“I’m always thinking ahead. I’m trying to do something new,” replied Wiendl. He hinted at “game-changing” developments at his resort on the horizon. “We’re always trying to push the next envelope,” he said.
Wiendl had reason to be confident about the future.
When he joined Boston-based Sonesta in 2011, the company owned three U.S. hotels, Wiendl said in the January podcast interview. But it was set to begin acquiring properties.
The following year, Wiendl was tapped to lead the Hilton Head resort when Sonesta assumed ownership. He oversaw a five-month, $30 million renovation that added a full service spa and raised the price of rooms by $100 to $350 per room, The Island Packet reported in 2013.
The career hospitality executive was credited with bringing the 13th season of ABC’s reality series “The Bachelorette” to the Sonesta for filming in 2017, which put the Hilton Head resort on the map and broadcast its picturesque vistas across the country.
In 2018, Wiendl was named Hotel Manager of the Year by South Carolina’s hospitality trade association, and recognized for expanding Sonesta’s staff by over 100 full-time employees in five years.
Between 2015 and 2017, Wiendl was the chairman of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, and will remain on the board until the end of the year as immediate past chairman. He also sits on the board of the Technical College of the Lowcountry’s foundation.
“The success of Hilton Head is very personal to me. I’m a homeowner there, my son’s in school there, part of my life is there,” Wiendl said.
He will remain active in the community, he said. All that has changed is the commute.
Management changes accompany Wiendl’s departure
Another long-time member of the resort’s executive team quietly left the company this spring.
Leffew, the director of food and beverage, departed around the end of February, he said in an interview. Leffew had held his position since 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Leffew would not say whether he resigned or was let go and declined to answer questions about the end of his employment with Sonesta. Leffew initially transitioned to a director of food and beverage position at the Marriott Hilton Head Resort & Spa, but was laid off a week or so into the job, he said.
The Marriott’s acting general manager, Mete Baykal, said he wasn’t familiar with Leffew and the resort would not comment on “internal HR matters.”
The resort’s parent company posted an opening for the position last week on several online job boards and its website. Meanwhile, Leffew has started a sanitizing company that is servicing restaurants and homes during the pandemic.
Leffew said the coronavirus pandemic has hit the hospitality industry hard, and that many in the business don’t hold a position for long. “It’s all part of the business,” he said. “Whatever reason you leave a company, it’s about moving forward, and that’s how I look at it.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREBehind our coverage
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette’s reporters and editors are working from home to maintain social distancing while continuing to provide important and timely updates about coronavirus in Beaufort and Jasper counties. Click the drop-down icon on this card for more information about our coverage and how to reach us.
How to contact us
For general news tips, send an email to newsroom@islandpacket.com. If you’d like to reach out to us anonymously, you can use this form or look at the other options in this story.
Reporters’ email addresses are linked at the top of each story. Just click on the reporter’s name. Phone numbers are in the bio at the bottom of each story if you’d rather leave a message.
Support our work
As businesses shut down or reduce hours because of the coronavirus, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette are seeing dramatically less advertising. Subscriptions are critical to our ability to sustain local news coverage. Find out more information about subscriptions at islandpacket.com/subscribe.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
