George Karavias, Founder of Dream Hospitality Group, Talks Working with Your Favorite Celebs and Cultivating NYC Nightlife

One name stands out as a true powerhouse in the realm of nightlife and hospitality: George Karavias. With an impressive 18 years of experience under his belt, Karavias has solidified his status as one of NYC’s top nightlife moguls.

As the founder of Dream Hospitality, he has taken the nightclub industry by storm, establishing his group as a dominant force. Hosting over 20 weekly events, Dream Hospitality Group has attracted top talents and witnessed unforgettable performances, including Meek Mill’s birthday extravaganza and French Montana’s official album release party for Montega.

Always ahead of the curve, Karavias and his team have expanded internationally, organizing pop-up events in Mykonos, Greece, alongside none other than 50 Cent and embarking on week-long ventures to St. Marteen. Karavias owns some of NYC’s hottest nightlife destinations, such as Harbor, Stafford Room, Whisper, and Musica, all of which have played host to esteemed artists and musicians from around the globe. Karavias has also played a pivotal role in the operations of renowned venues like 10ak, Up&Down, Lavo, Vandal, and VIP Room. Beyond the nightlife world, he has co-founded popular restaurants Sei Less and Panda.

In an interview with The Source, George Karavias details how he cultivates these events and what’s next for his ventures.

The SOURCE: You are currently producing over 20 events a week. How do you manage both the volume of those and ensure the quality of each one?

George Karavias: It all starts and ends with a solid team who works super hard. We throw weekly parties and always want to produce the best events and stay relevant, so we have a lot of promoters that work with us and make sure we book a lot of great DJs. We don’t really sleep. Our team overlooks everything to make sure that it’s not becoming redundant. When you’re running a venue for seven or eight years and throwing weekly parties, you have to get creative and figure out how to keep it fresh. You have to ensure that the clientele enjoys your event and keeps coming back because, in our business, it’s all about return business.

What drives the type of events you produce to be available in NYC nightlife?

Mostly, it’s just always ensuring we have talent at some venues every six to eight weeks. We don’t like to enlist talent every week because then we’re depending on the talent to bring the people. But we bring the talent to the venue to always have content. Like I said, to keep the party fresh and make people keep coming back.

We also cater to different kinds of genres and different age groups. From high school parties (Usa Teens) and college parties (Off Campus Presents), to the mature 21 and over parties (Dream hospitality). Dream Hospitality always tries to be one step ahead of everybody else to ensure we have the best events. We’re also excited for this new journey of becoming a global pioneer in the events space with hip-hop. 

Your hospitality group works alongside some elite celebrities. What did you do to start and cultivate those relationships?

At the end of the day, you always have to treat celebrities or artists with the same respect you would treat a regular client. We go above and beyond for them and always ensure they feel comfortable. We ensure the talent and their guests have a good experience coming into and leaving the venue. As long as you treat them well, they’ll always keep coming back.

You’ve recently expanded internationally – what did you do to prepare for that move and how did you learn what suits that market?

We had a couple of parties and events over the summer in St Maarten & Mykonos. Mykonos is one of the go-to destinations internationally for everybody. We saw a big void in hip-hop within that market. So, we booked French Montana, DaBaby, and 50 Cent, and the events were a huge success. Dream Hospitality plans to do more events again this summer in Mykonos, and we are expanding to other countries. We observed that everyone was catering to house music fans on pretty much the whole island of Mykonos. Everybody loves hip-hop, and we recognized the big void in the international market, especially in Mykonos. 

For citizens and visitors – what are your choices for go-to nightlife places in NYC?

We own four venues that we push on a weekly basis: Harbor Nightclub, the Stafford Room, Musica Nightclub and Whisper Room. 

Harbor Night club caters to a wide range of musical tastes. We have nights when we’re open format, other nights we play Latin music, hip-hop, EDM, dance music and Afro Beats. 

Musica focuses solely on dance music, booking top DJs.

Whisper Room focuses solely on open format top 40 music  

Stafford Room focuses solely on hip-hop.