EOS Hospitality Taps Ellen Kaplan as SVP of Marketing to Elevate Its Guest-First Brand

Here's a signal worth watching: one of the fastest-growing hotel companies in the country just handed its marketing keys to an executive whose deepest chops are in food and beverage. That's not an accident. It's a bet on where hospitality is actually won today—at the table, in the story, and in the local experience that gets travelers to book.

EOS Hospitality has appointed Ellen Kaplan as Senior Vice President of Marketing. In the role, Kaplan will lead the company's marketing strategy and team while supporting brand growth, portfolio positioning, and corporate communications across both EOS Hospitality and EOS Investors. The full-service management company currently operates more than 60 hotels and resorts totaling over 10,500 keys across the United States.

A Marketing Leader Forged in F&B

Kaplan arrives with more than a decade of experience building brands and driving consumer engagement across the restaurant, hospitality, media, and lifestyle sectors. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Marketing for José Andrés Group, where she oversaw brand, digital, content strategy, public relations, creative, and partnership efforts across the organization's portfolio of award-winning restaurants, media ventures, and consumer products.

Reporting directly to the CEO, she guided strategic growth initiatives and led marketing across major markets including Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, South Florida, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

Before that, Kaplan held several senior leadership posts within José Andrés Media, running content, editorial, video, and social media strategy across restaurants, media ventures, consumer products, and personal brand platforms. She played a key role launching and promoting major television, streaming, publishing, and live-event initiatives, with audience development and content production reaching millions of consumers globally. Earlier in her career, she held content strategy positions at Under Armour, leading global content and social media strategy and developing original campaigns that drove measurable growth in brand engagement and consumer acquisition.

Why EOS Is Doubling Down on Experience

Kaplan's appointment reflects EOS Hospitality's continued focus on creating guest-first experiences that extend beyond the stay—recognizing the growing influence of food and beverage, local culture, and experiential programming in how travelers choose destinations and hotels.

"Ellen brings a unique combination of brand strategy, storytelling, and experience-led marketing that aligns perfectly with our collection of hotels, resorts, and restaurants," said Ernest Lee, Chief Commercial Officer of EOS Hospitality. "Creating a compelling narrative across digital channels, earned media, and on property is essential to standing out today. Ellen's track record of building brands, especially in F&B, that connect with travelers and locals will continue to elevate EOS' portfolio."

In her new role, Kaplan will oversee EOS Hospitality's marketing organization and work to elevate brand visibility across the company's growing collection of hotels, resorts, and hospitality experiences. She will also serve as executive sponsor for EOS Hospitality's community impact program and support corporate marketing and communications efforts for both Hospitality and Investors.

Kaplan currently resides in Washington, D.C., with plans to relocate to New York City, where she will be based in the company's home office. A New Jersey native, she spent summers on Cape Cod with her family and remains an avid whale-watching enthusiast. She and her husband, a chef, enjoy travel, hiking, and trying local restaurants wherever they go.

Inside the EOS Hospitality Portfolio

Founded in 2017, EOS is a versatile manager with expertise in branded, independent, and outdoor hospitality properties. Starting with the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., the company has grown to approximately 64 properties with 10,500 keys over the last eight years—making it one of the fastest-growing hotel companies in the United States. Its portfolio includes iconic resorts and destinations such as the Kennebunkport Resort Collection, L'Ermitage Beverly Hills, Kingston Resorts, Lake Austin Spa Resort, Isla Bella Beach Resort, and Big Sur Campground & Cabins.

Why It Matters

For hospitality operators and F&B directors, this hire is a case study in where the industry is headed. When a 60-plus-property management company recruits a marketing leader out of a celebrity-chef restaurant group—rather than a traditional hotel-brand background—it's telegraphing that dining and experiential programming are now front-line demand drivers, not amenities buried on a rate sheet.

The practical takeaways for operators and buyers:

• F&B is a booking engine. Travelers increasingly choose properties by their restaurants, bars, and local culture. If your hotel or resort treats dining as a cost center rather than a marketing asset, you're leaving both revenue and share of voice on the table.
• Storytelling scales. Kaplan's content, media, and social pedigree signals that owned narrative across digital, earned media, and on-property touchpoints is now core infrastructure—worth budgeting for the way you budget for revenue management.
• Cross-portfolio consistency wins. With independent, branded, and outdoor assets under one roof, EOS is betting on a unified marketing organization. Multi-unit operators can learn from centralizing brand strategy while preserving local flavor.

For procurement directors and hospitality executives tracking talent moves, senior appointments like this often precede sharper brand positioning, new partnership activity, and elevated on-property experiences—all worth monitoring across the EOS portfolio.

The Bottom Line

Kaplan's move underscores a durable trend: the line between restaurant marketing and hotel marketing is disappearing, and the operators who blur it deliberately are the ones commanding attention. Expect EOS to lean harder into F&B-forward storytelling as it scales.

Following leadership shifts and F&B strategy across the industry? Explore our coverage of strategic growth under new hospitality leadership and how operators are reengineering beverage programs for scale. Then weigh in below: is F&B now the single biggest lever in hotel marketing? Tell us what's working in your properties.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” for founding American Wholesale Floral. Politz is also the founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.