Salt Lake City, Utah – September 04, 2026 – PRESSADVANTAGE –
DeAnna Lee, a hospitality founder and ecosystem builder, has opened applications for the Experiential Hospitality Accelerator™, a twelve-week implementation program for established short-term rental founders ready to rebuild the operating ecosystem beneath their portfolios and reduce the founder dependence that keeps too much of the business running through them.
The program addresses a common challenge among growth-focused hospitality operators: portfolios that look successful from the outside but still depend heavily on the founder for day-to-day decisions, team direction, guest escalations, and operational clarity.
Rather than focusing on rapid expansion, the Accelerator helps founders strengthen the structure beneath the business they have already built. Participants work through operational systems, team ownership, decision flow, visibility, and the leadership shift required to stop being the default answer to every question.
“If you have ever wondered why the business you worked so hard to build still cannot move without you, you are not alone,” said DeAnna Lee. “Most founders are not struggling because they are incapable. They are struggling because the business was built around them, instead of being built to support them. The goal was never to become the bottleneck. The goal was to build something strong enough to keep moving with you, and because of you.”
The Experiential Hospitality Accelerator™ is built around two connected frameworks: the Holistic Hospitality Ecosystem™, DeAnna’s operational framework for strengthening the six core functions of a hospitality business, and Founder Evolution™, the leadership and energetic framework that helps founders shift from daily operator to strategic hospitality leader.
Together, the frameworks address both sides of founder dependence: the business structure that needs to mature, and the founder patterns that often keep too much responsibility, oversight, and decision-making in one person’s hands.
The Accelerator draws from Lee’s own experience operating a hospitality portfolio across multiple markets. Her bookable travel brands include Araya Resort, a boutique property above Samaná Bay in Las Galeras, Dominican Republic, and Destination Dream Homes, a collection of short-term rentals across Utah, Mexico, Oklahoma, and Hawaii. Together, these holdings comprise eleven properties across seven destinations and are supported by more than one thousand guest reviews.
“I own eleven destination properties across seven different destinations, and one of them is a boutique resort in the Caribbean,” said Lee. “From the outside, that can look beautiful and expansive. But behind the scenes, more properties can also mean more decisions, more responsibility, and more moving pieces. That is why I stopped thinking only in terms of growing a portfolio. Everybody talks about scaling, adding more, and getting bigger. I became much more interested in building a hospitality ecosystem. Success is not only measured by how many properties you own. It is measured by how much freedom, stability, and possibility the business creates.”
Through the program, participants map where their business still depends on them, rebuild the six operating pillars of their hospitality ecosystem, install clearer team ownership and visibility, and examine the leadership patterns that can keep founders overly involved long after support is in place.
The twelve-week experience culminates with an in-person retreat at Araya Resort, where participants step away from the day-to-day, review their portfolio from a higher level, and create a twelve-month roadmap for the next stage of growth.
The Accelerator is part of Lee’s broader hospitality ecosystem, which includes Destination Dream Homes, Araya Resort, and a forthcoming hospitality concept currently in development. Across her work, Lee’s philosophy is centered on one core belief: freedom is not the automatic reward for growth. It is a structural outcome of building the business differently.
Applications for the current cohort are being accepted through the program website, where prospective participants can review eligibility details and submit inquiries.
About DeAnna Lee
DeAnna Lee is a hospitality founder, ecosystem builder, and guide for established short-term rental founders. Her work helps operators build businesses that create more freedom, stability, team ownership, and capacity for what comes next. Her portfolio includes Araya Resort in the Dominican Republic and Destination Dream Homes across multiple regions, alongside the Experiential Hospitality Accelerator™ and additional hospitality concepts in development.
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For more information about DeAnna Lee, contact the company here:
DeAnna Lee
DeAnna Lee
deannalee@collectivedestinations.com
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