As 2025 closes out, the Suite Spot wraps up with the latest inductee into the TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. CEO of Hotel Equities, Ben Rafter, joins the podcast to discuss all things hospitality and technology and how these two components come together to make the perfect guest experience for travelers.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree here with a very exciting, informative episode continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. This is our series where we are talking to those industry leaders and brands, management companies that are paving the way forward. I’ve got an absolutely amazing guest, I’m excited to speak with him today. Ben Rafter, CEO of Hotel Equities. Ben, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot.

Ben Rafter:
Thanks, Ryan. Looking forward to it.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re gonna have fun conversation, talk all about hotel equities, but on the Suite Spot we do a little tradition where instead of just doing your normal bio, I actually like handing it over to our guests to kind of talk through their hospitality journey. because sometimes you get a little bit more insights. Us hospitality people, we got mentors. We come from different brands, sometimes fall into hospitality, quite frankly. You know, talk to us, our Suite Spot hotel audience, a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you to your role as a CEO over at Hotel Equities.

Ben Rafter:
Sure, I fit into the fall into it category, without a doubt. I was a, uh, tech guy for better part of 15 years, mostly startups. Sold two of ’em and after selling, the second one was locked out of the industry for a year and got a phone call from a hotel guy. And he said, what are you doing? You want to come to Mount Everest with me? And just because nothing better to do for the next month. We packed up and headed over to Nepal and on about the third day he said to me, so what do you think of the hospitality industry and hotels? And it was dumb enough to open my mouth and give him my opinion that you needed to sort of fuse together larger than life hoteliers, which was his background and kind of quant tech data, guys like me. And over the next 20 days, we hashed out starting a hotel company literally on the side of a mountain, in this case. And after that ended, it was 2008, the market crashed. We had a new president. I flew to Hawaii and we started with four hotels in Hawaii. And it’s been nonstop ever since. So definitely not a traditional way to get into the industry.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, yeah. You give new meaning to kind of climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak, when, when talking about that. But I think that’s what honestly makes hospitality so fascinating. Because yours, honestly, a lot of the majority of the guests we talked to Ben, hospitality was not their final destination, so to speak, what you were talking to. But I think it brings new perspective and obviously insights into an industry that, quite frankly, we’re gonna talk about it in a minute, but needs some more technology integration into hospitality right now. And to fast forward to today, obviously a strategic merger in May, 2025 with Springboard Hospitality. It’s been extremely busy second half of the year for you and your team, including a couple exciting announcements we’re gonna talk about in a second, Ben. But, you know, can you share some of the biggest kind of takeaways and lessons you’ve learned for the business, over this past six months? Maybe give us a state of the Hotel Equities as you would say.

Ben Rafter:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean one thing, coming from sort of independent and generally either gateway market or leisure focused. You learn how diverse some of these markets are and how much different it is running a courtyard or a Rest Inn or a Hampton in a suburb versus running a resort in the middle of Waikiki. And it’s been great kind of seeing both sides of the spectrum there. And then trying to figure out how initiatives or which initiatives work across the entire entity. And then which of ’em should be limited to $400 a night hotel or a select service hotel. And I gotta say, coming from the independent space where we’re all about content and drone shots and Instagram and social media and things like that, obviously walking into a suburban flagged select service hotel is a whole different, a whole different ball of wax, so to speak. So that part’s been great. We have great leaders in all of those divisions and it’s been great working with them.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I mean, just adds to the exposure, again, what you were talking about. And to add to that, right. You know, in October you were back on a panel discussing outdoor centric hotels at the lodging conference in Phoenix, we talk about the spectrum of from lifestyle, and now you’ve got this experiential glamping. This was the perfect topic for you and hotel equities, obviously through your management of postcard cabins, which is with Marriott’s new outdoor collection. Talk to us, how about how you guys are really capitalizing on this trend, experiential travel, that glamping that now even the big brands are trying to get into?

Ben Rafter:
Yeah, every, everybody’s trying to get into it. So we were on all of the postcard cabins, and that was kind of the feature point of Marriott’s launch of the outdoor, their outdoor segment. It’s one, it’s been great. It’s an area that’s growing two and a half, a little more than two and a half times faster than the regular hotel on the street. Now, of course, you break that down by segments it maybe two times and maybe three times. And it’s also so new for the brands that they’re trying to sort of get their arms around it. And because you, you just have to think when you’re staying in an outdoor experience, you’re not staying in a city. And when you search on Marriott or Hilton or Hyatt or whatever, the first thing you usually do is you type in New York City, you type in Seattle, you type in whatever. Well, if you’re gonna stay in the middle of the national forest where the nearest city is 2000 people and you don’t know what it’s called, like how do you even search for this kind of stuff? And then you combine that with staffing, where, the GM better have a pickup truck and be able to go to the nearest Piggly Wiggly or whatever to go find whatever’s needed because you may be an hour away from the nearest area to get the entity. There’s no Sysco truck driving by in the middle of the afternoon. And then high seasonality. And the big question I think for the industry is going to be how do you fill some of these things on a Wednesday afternoon in off season? Obviously we’re targeting groups in corporate and to make them kind of intimate experiences where 8, 10, 15, 20 people can get together. But it’s, it’s a totally different space. But the great thing is consumers are really interested in it because they’re interested in branching out from their traditional leisure stay, and now they can find this kind of stuff.

Ryan Embree:
I mean, listen, as someone who climbed Everest, right, I mean that is all about the experience. The destination and getting to that is part of the journey and part of the experience, which I think is why people love it. And they’re gonna do a lot of your marketing for you to be honest with you, between the storytelling that they’re doing on places like social media, now all of a sudden they’re telling your story and, and people are, are, are just really seeing this in a time where we’re gonna talk about in a minute, technology’s kind of taking over, but being like, Hey, maybe this is a nice little escape for me and, and something different that is going to be an experience. You know, we talk about that all the time. And a true experience.

Ben Rafter:
Yeah. And it doesn’t have to be outdoor travel. The great thing about this industry in general, and the way it’s evolving and I’m looking forward to talking more about technology, is that people want something more and more customized and more and more localized. It could be a food vacation, it could be outdoor travel, it could be adventure travel, which to me is a different category. And the way that we’re now interacting and searching for these experiences getting much more advanced and people can now find them. Versus before it was, I know I wanna stay outside, I’m gonna research some natural national parks, and where do I go from there? Right. And now it’s a wide open space.

Ryan Embree:
You wanna see how many segments our industry has gotten chopped up into go to any hospitality conference. And you’re talking about heritage, travel, food travel, like you’re talking about travel, that’s multi-generational travel, right? It used to just be business and leisure. Which one are you on now? There are so many different ways and priorities the way that people and travelers are looking at travel through a completely different lens than they did a decade ago. And I think a lot of that, to be honest with you happened. What happened in 2020. It’s interesting to see brands, management companies adapt to those and try to be at the forefront of that because it’s these emerging markets and trends are popping up and they’re becoming widely popular.

Ben Rafter:
Yeah, it got it, it was accelerated for sure. In 2020, I, there’s a comparison I like to make. Back, back when I was a kid and was learning how to ski, we had the little skinny narrow, super long skis. It was difficult. Snowboards came around and everyone complained about snowboards ’cause they carved up the moguls or whatever. I can’t remember what it was, but ultimately the snowboards made skiing better and the ski technology advanced to what we have today. And I look at the emergence of Airbnb or things like that, they’ve really pushed the traditional sort of hotel lodging space to up its game. And I think we’re sort of seeing that with all these different concepts coming out. And I think it’s needed too. And we have one advantage over some of these, some of these transient vacation plays. And that is, at the end of the day, we still the human in most of the hotels. And I think we need to up the game in terms of the level of service that the people at the hotels provide and can provide to sort of make it so, Hey, I’m staying outdoors. I’m staying in a gateway city. I’m on a food vacation, whatever, but that person actually at the hotel is going to provide value to my vacation.

Ryan Embree:
They’re gonna supplement it, sometimes even be a part of the experience there. I think that’s the big knock on what we see on Airbnb is, you have to be the housekeeper, you have to be the concierge, everything like that. And they’re starting to adjust, obviously with what they’re doing on the tech side. So it should be interesting to see, but you’re right that that competition I do think has accelerated that and really interested. We’re at a very cool inflection point right now. And speaking of, you talked about your strong tech background, Ben, you know, when you come into hospitality, where do you think we are right now in this an overall technology cycle? And then maybe you can drill down a little bit more into, when you look at your portfolio at Hotel Equities, what’s your approach to kind of this technology?

Ben Rafter:
You may have heard the, or seen the big sigh on where we’re at in the industry. Since I got here has been behind, and there are a lot of reasons for it, but we’re gradually catching up. And AI although probably not over hyped, but over talked about AI will make a major difference in the hospitality industry because of the nature of what it is, much more so than other industries. We’re just not quite there yet. So, a long-winded way of saying we’re still behind. We have a lot of legacy backbone issues and technology in general. We have too many startups chasing too few solutions and then trying to prove that they can do other solutions. But the great tipping point coming up is how people are searching for their hotel stay, whether business or leisure is changing dramatically, how the back end of the hotel is operating is changing dramatically. And some of these solutions that are being built are now targeting these areas. So I’m not excited about the past, but I’m pretty excited about the future because everyone wants to talk about the front end and search, and that’s probably the more exciting thing. But just think about scheduling workforce in a 300% hotel and how effective and efficient that is becoming. And we need it because margins are being eroded. RevPAR is flat. Well, expenses are up 5%. And so we need to be able to squeeze out every ounce of efficiency in all of these hotels. And our owners are all demanding it.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, you’re absolutely, I mean, the conversations we’ve had at covering hospitality conferences with leaders is talking about both sides of the desk. And the opportunity at both sides, because I do think we get that shiny object of the, how can we improve the guest experience andeven the sci-fi that robot coming down with the towels to do all that stuff, but it’s really gonna be those small efficiencies that get us to a closer place to what we’ve been talking about forever in our industry, personalization and, and this seamless traveler journey, right?

Ben Rafter:
Yeah. And we can figure out what, you know, we try to define a great hotel experience historically, or luxury historically, and what’s the thread count and how many fixtures are in the bathroom and all this other stuff, which is important. But now we’re nearing a point where we can understand, okay, what really means luxury or a great hotel experience to this individual guest? And it may not be five fixtures and a 600 thread count. It may mean something else, right. And the level of personalization we have is nearing where we can define that experience when the person arrives. But yeah, so that’s, it’s, it’s all really exciting. And one of the great things we’re pretty aggressive with technology as you might guess. And so we beta a lot of different products and I want to continue doing so because although, three outta four may not work to the satisfaction that we have, or four outta five, you do find the ones that do, and we can embrace and adopt those really, really rapidly.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. I talked to a leader at the hospitality show back in October who said the modern hoteliers tech stack today is absolutely, it’s the most vast it’s been, and it’s gonna be very interesting to see, because so many people are doing what you’re doing, Ben, a lot of beta testing, a lot of trying out new technologies to try to calibrate it right to that point, to where we can be closer to personalization. And to your point about luxury, right? I mean, we’re even to a place now where if you’ve checked out White Lotus, the ultra luxury is actually removing technology altogether, right? So, but I think that’s, to your point of my luxury, could look very different from your luxury. And I think that’s what the true place of AI and technology is gonna get us to where we can personalize that perfect hotel experience no matter where we’re at.

Ben Rafter:
Yeah. And there’s a debate that you’ve had on this podcast and had with other people I’m sure is does AI help or hurt the most for flags for OTAs, for independence? Where is it gonna make the biggest impact? And I won’t say where I think it’s gonna hurt the most, but I do think it really, really helps sort of soft brands and independence, because soft brands and independence have the ability to tell a story, and they can augment that story through technology content sort of finally is king. We’ve been talking about content being king for 20 years, and now content finally will be king because people are searching and AI knows what I want or what you want almost as well as you do, right? And so just think of how you’ve changed using Google over the last 10 years, where now you’re generally asking it questions instead of typing in prompts, multiply that by 10, and suddenly we have AI that says, oh, I’m going to Honolulu. I usually stay outta Westin because that’s what I know, or a Marriott or whatever. But AI can say, oh, you’re gonna Honolulu here, stay at this place because it has a restaurant that you’re gonna love. They make a great cocktail, and they have this thing that you indicated you liked when you were in New York City. And so this is your thing. And of course, what AI really gets advanced is gonna say, and I’ve booked it for you and I requested this, and I’m gonna monitor it for the next 30 days to make sure the revenue managers will screw up and lower the price. And if it does, I’ll cancel and rebook it for you.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. I mean, all of a sudden you’re telling your story to a little bit different audience with that and trying to capture that agent’s attention, maybe that, so that they can kind of put you front and center in the eyes of the traveler and the guests. But wanna switch our converse along the same lines, but more of a cautionary tale in hospitality and technology. What’s obviously headlining the news recently, the Marriott Sonder story, and you commented on this on LinkedIn. I saw Ben, you know, you said, and I quote Saunders shut down highlights just how complex our industry has become, where tech integration, long-term lease structures and multi-state partnership must align to create a sustainable operating model. So in a time when technology, right now, a lot of people would argue is, I mean, every day is at its peak, right? We’re peaking every single day in technology. Why is still having the right partnerships in alignment still so important? And, and we still see a Marriott Sonder story happen today?

Ben Rafter:
Taking a step away from technology, I think the real lesson learned from Sonder, and it’s unfortunate because we learned it with WeWork too, is if you’re going to lease a bunch of properties, you better make sure, you can fill those properties through thick or thin because that lease payments come in due no matter what, right? Suddenly you’re representing yourself basically, and you’re trying to fill the owner’s shoes. And WeWork failed, and Sonder I think ultimately failed because of that. But underneath it, you have to make Sonder never carved itself out as, Hey, it’s seamless technology that gets me into my room with no interaction. And what is the additional value of that, and what will somebody pay for it? And then I think they plug into Marriott, I don’t know, obviously, but they plug into Marriott for broader reach and distribution. But now you’re searching New York City, you’ve got 30 other Marriotts who all have a well-defined brand, or probably a hundred other Marriotts in New York, you’re searching somewhere, right? And the seamless technology story just got lost in the whole thing. And then it’s like, okay, why am I gonna stay at this place over these other 20 choices I see on Mary’s site? And then ultimately the whole thing collapses. But it’s a classic case, a very long-winded way of saying it’s a classic case of technology for technology state sometime just doesn’t work.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And well, and it goes back to the storytelling part, right? Without a defined value to your brand. And if that’s not being translated to your guests, you know, it’s ultimately we saw what happens when that goes on.

Ben Rafter:
Yeah. And I’m going to put myself into the position of saying, I wanna be the last person on earth who gives up on human interaction as part of the hotel experience. And, you know, we could put in kiosks and everything like that, or robots or whatever. I think we’re better off investing in training our front of house people or all of our people, team members to interact better. And let’s use all these new technologies so that we can truly interact and provide a better experience. And yeah, maybe 25% of the audience, or 30% or 50, or whatever the number is, doesn’t wanna interact. But I think most people want the hotel experience to include people.

Ryan Embree:
We got to a place, I would argue where it was in 2020, it was almost, there was a risk to going to the front desk sometimes. So, you know, quote unquote, and people still did it, right? We still needed that human interaction, the brands made it easier than ever to get to your rooms without needing people. And we still wanted it. The, the travelers still demanded it in some way, whether it was house-keeping, whether it was interaction. So I think if there’s ever a use case, you’re absolutely right. And I’m there, I’m right there with you. I’ll be the second to last person there with you saying I don’t want that in my hospitality experience either. But we’ll switch gears here, Ben. Second, I had in late October, I told you I was out out at the Hospitality Show, caught up with Rob Robinson, a little bit colder than where he is in Hawaii, but president of the lifestyle division at Hotel Equities, we talked about lifestyle and independent hotels, we’ve talked about on this, on this episode continues to grow popularity just ever increasing. Why do you think these have remained so attractive to travelers? And how has, I mean, obviously Hotel Equities with that strategic partnership has really positioned itself as a leader in this segment.

Ben Rafter:
It’s growing because people want an experience, right? And there’s obviously a market for checking into a select service that’s the same no matter whether you’re in Dallas or you’re in Seattle or you’re in Vancouver BC right? But there’s also an equally large segment of people who are saying, whether it’s business or leisure or any of the hundred other derivations of travel, when I go somewhere, I wanna stay at a property that tells a story. And usually that story is going to be around the place. If you stay with our properties in West Hollywood or you stay where Rob is at in Hawaii, you should know you’re in Hawaii and you’re going to, you’re going to get that sense of place that you’re there. And lifestyle and independent properties just naturally can sort of expose that story a little bit better if they’re run well. And then we can market to that story. And independents have to, because the distribution capabilities of the flags are amazing, right? And so the independence, their only counter balance to that is, I’m going to market via the story that I tell and the content that I produce. And then of course, the middle ground and Marriott, and Hilton and Hyatt have done so well with it is the soft brands. And what I would like to see, or what I hope I don’t see is they start to harden those soft brands because an autograph with the flexibility to tell a story that’s still plugged into the Marriott distribution system in this case is, is a powerful thing.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. So immersive these lifestyle hotels can be offering amenities and experiences that the brand hotels are great. And I just think people, when you want consistency, consistency’s there, but everyone doesn’t want to tell a consistent story. Sometimes they want a unique story. They wanna be immersed in their in the local culture that we don’t get the opportunity to see every day. That’s why we love travel.

Ben Rafter:
But we have to embrace it too and make the investment to do it. And I think there’s some ground, there’s, there’s some work wood to chop, so to speak, in terms of, you can’t just say your hotel’s independent or a boutique or a lifestyle hotel and then not invest in content and the activities that make it there. No, I think that’s where we need to grow a little bit. And as noted earlier when we were talking, I think we’ll be forced to, because the way that people are searching for these hotels, if we don’t, then the hotel’s gonna fail.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. Listen, more seasonal, F&B options the better from local source places at these lifestyle and independent hotels, I will take that all day to make those memorable experiences.

Ben Rafter:
Well, and F&B is a good example because all of the major operators now have these relationships with the giant F&B providers, or for that matter, the giant F&E providers, and sort of turned F&B into a similar commodity. I could tell you the Sysco fries at 50 different hotels, it’s this, you know, it’s, it’s, oh, this came from Sysco or this came from over here, right? And so localized F&B and in Hotel Equities’ case, the ability to have a national relationship, but the ability to also give the independent restaurants and outlets the flexibility to do what they want with local vendors is critical. Because we’re sort of homogenizing F&B in the same way that we’ve homogenized a lot of hotels.

Ryan Embree:
I mean, that’s a microcosm of what’s going on in our industry as a whole right now, the return of the hotel restaurant, right? Which used to be, I think, a decade ago, well, decades ago, that used to be the place to be. And then all of a sudden it kind of got to that place, what you were just talking about, and now it’s reemerging. And I think a lot of brands, management companies, the smart ones are seeing that and seeing an opportunity to not just welcome, obviously outside travelers, but locals are embracing it too, about saying, Hey, you know, when you come into town, you might be staying with me, but I’m taking you to the local hotel restaurant for that experience.

Ben Rafter:
I mean, I guess it, it goes back 500 years to hotels are the gathering place. I was on a call yesterday. We have a cocktail bar named the Green Lady at one of the Hawaii hotels. And the person who runs F&B said, Hey, do I have to buy this and this and this? A memo must have come out, right? And I said, well, obviously no, like, who’s your audience? And he said, well, it’s 50. This is Hawaii, which is full of 10 million tourists and 1 million residents, right? And he said, well, it’s about 60% locals and 40% tourists. And obviously he’s buying highly, highly customized products for, in this case, for that, for that audience. And hotels have to be, it’s really easy to understand a restaurant that orders local and everything. The broader thing is the hotel needs to be the same way.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. Like I said, microcosm of what’s going on, you know, throughout the operations and brand to be quite frank, gonna switch topics again, we’re covering everything today, Ben. Hotel Equities, in February, 2026, you guys are headed out for your annual leadership conference in Las Vegas, Travel Media Group, our parent company have the privilege of attending. We’ve spoke the last couple years in sponsoring the event. This will be your first time, I would imagine. And what are you most looking forward to, and can you share the impact of events like this have on a culture right now, where staffing, over the last couple years has still been a struggle for our industry?

Ben Rafter:
So events like this are critical. And its easy to say that, but at the highest level, and what I’m looking forward to most is you don’t see everybody very often anymore. Remote work has its place. Bigger company people are going to be, I used to try to get to every single property that we had at least once or twice a year, right? And as you keep growing, that becomes a little more difficult.

Ryan Embree:
And it might be tough now.

Ben Rafter:
Exactly. And so this is my chance to see everybody. It’s everybody’s chance to see me and to see other leaders of the team. It’s a chance for people from New York City and Atlanta to meet people from Honolulu and most importantly, trade ideas and figure out what’s working and what’s not. And I think a good management company or a good operator should be doing it not just once a year, but all the marketing people should be getting together. All the finance people should be getting together. And yes, there’s a cost to that, but the amount of creativity that’s unleashed from doing it is amazing. And we have, so that’s what I’m looking forward to.

Ryan Embree:
It would be a fascinating study to see how some of these major ideas and concepts, initiatives and hospitality as a whole, the groundwork is laid at these in-person events. And I think it can be traced back to and just to speak to the importance of getting together in a time where we thought, do we really need to get together as anymore, can we just say virtual? Obviously that that has a place for it. But I think the groundswell of support when you get a number of people together in one area having the same challenges. And I think that’s a powerful sentiment when you hear someone in Honolulu and New York City having the same exact challenges and trying to get through that is ground zero for trying to create creativity and solutions, which hospitality people, I mean, you think maybe I’m biased, but we’ve got the problem solving critical thinking skills. Because you need it. It’s a skill that you need every single day. You’re practicing every single day when floor floods or, or some, yeah. So you need that.

Ben Rafter:
People still put hangers on the little fire things and then the floor floods. You wouldn’t imagine, 40 years later, but here we are. No, you’re exactly right. No good idea. Oh, I’m sure there have been a few over the course of history, but we like to say no good idea comes from one individual sitting in their home office. Tapping away all the best ideas come from people interacting.

Ryan Embree:
Totally agree. Well, obviously this is also award season and a lot of those great ideas translating to the operations. I want to congratulate your portfolio hotel equities on a few of those. Notable recognition saw Marriott’s international top performing number one, top performing management company in the US and Canada for Q3, and some individual awards, the 2025 International Association and Full Service Awards, F&B Excellence, we just talked about F&B, and then opening of the year, the Vanguard Autograph collection, Ann Arbor Autograph collection. What do these recognitions mean to you, Ben, and and how does it reflect on kind of the reputation overall in the industry for hotel equities?

Ben Rafter:
Well, I mean, anytime you get an award, it should mean a lot to, to people. And it validates what we’re doing. And it validates that we’re doing it right to win awards from all the way to partnering with Marriott, who’s been a great partner throughout the years to winning. We got a Michelin key at an independent hotel, right? And then the Vanguard launch, it’s validation, and it’s not validation of what I’m doing, it’s validation that the team members who are actually executing on this stuff are doing a great job of it. So internally, what I’d like to expand is kind of rewarding people for that, that we started giving away money for people who created ideas. We’re starting to give away awards for people who, you know, there’s always the guest service component. We got a letter from Marriott just yesterday, two days ago, some guy had taken the time to write to somebody pretty high up and Marriott and saying, look, I had the best customer serviceI’ve ever had from this individual. It was actually was at the Vanguard, oddly enough. And it’s a necessity for me and team members to recognize that, because we talked a lot about it is human aspect of this industry is the most important. And a little side story when we were on the side of the mountain creating this, creating our hotel company 15, 20 years ago, the larger than life hotel guy who was not me, he said like, one thing you can never forget. Well, you’re looking at all these spreadsheets and data and all that other stuff is there’s a real guest in the room and in Hawaii that real guest may have saved a year for their one leisure vacation, that they’ve dreamed about possibly their whole life, right? And he said, never forget that there’s a guest in the room. And then he convinced me to put my cell phone in all the rooms. And we did that for the first 11,000, hotel rooms that we had. So, and it was worth it because it, every once in a while is a reminder that, hey, we are in the service business and people are, we are people first business.

Ryan Embree:
Listen, probably some pretty interesting conversations you had with guests having a direct line to you. But I think, very sobering to hear, again, that I think that’s great advice for anyone that is struggling right now talking, thinking about are we doing enough on the technology side to keep that north star there of, there is a guest in the room. This is what people are looking for. We’re hosting people in our home. So yeah, great advice there. I’m gonna quiz you on one more piece of advice, Ben. Because I think, I started this podcast, we’re almost 200 episodes deep. I always feel like it’s my kind of mission, especially for younger hospitality professionals that just coming into the workforce now, listen, when I when I came in to to hospitality, I didn’t have the looming clouds of, you know, AI might be be taking these jobs. So what advice would you give maybe a message of hope or even advice, tips that you would give to a young hospitality professional entering their career right now?

Ben Rafter:
For sure. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people like you, people like me, CEOs. I don’t know. I mean, obviously we have a lot of competitors and we compete with them for obvious reasons, but I don’t know a single one of them that would not respond to someone who reaches out and says, Hey, how did you get where you are? What do you like doing? I think I just use a double negative in the sentence there. But, I would, I don’t know, a single one who is not willing to help expand people’s careers. And then the second thing is complacency just kills. And if you have ideas, push ’em. And I was 19 or 20 when we did our first startup, it would’ve been really real easy to not do it. And then five years later, 10 years later, life changes. And if you have the idea, push it and do it, and you’ll be rewarded for it later. And you’ll never look back and say, oh, hey, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.

Ryan Embree:
Very good. And like what would it you have said if I told you 19-year-old, Ben, that you’d be given hospitality advice to young hospitality professionals.

Ben Rafter:
When I was 19, I was terrified to reach out to people, like, why would anybody talk to me? But, you know, we’re all out there. And so I think that’s two pieces of advice. One, reach out to anybody that they’ll respond. And then two, if you have an idea, push it. People, people are, there’s a lot of self-doubt out there. You have it, I have it. You think, oh, that’s not a good idea. Well, it’s not, you prove that it’s not a good idea. There’s just as good a chance. It’s gonna be a great idea. And if you’re implementing technology, get the implementation part done because, it’s great seeing a thousand different technologies, but 9 times outta 10, they don’t talk to all the other ones we’re using.

Ryan Embree:
There’s some tech advice at the very end. I love that. Right on brand. And so wrap it up into 2025, 2026. Can you share any notable developments right now in the hotel, equities, pipelines, or even projects that within the portfolio you’re excited about right now?

Ben Rafter:
Really excited about the Caribbean and Latin America and particular Mexico. I think in some of these regions, third party operators are just emerging. I mean, obviously pretty common in the US and in Canada. We have an awesome team down there and we’ve, we’ve kind of got it in our little laboratory so they’re protected. And I just think the impact they’re gonna make next year across the Caribbean and Latin America is gonna be fantastic.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Tons of market opportunity there. Keep hearing a lot of harder earned dollars spend down in that region for sure.

Ben Rafter:
Yeah. And fun stuff, great hotels and you know, obviously we know Hawaii pretty well. We know Florida really well. We know the traditional US vacation destinations. If I were the governor of Hawaii, I would grab about 10 members of the ledge, or 20, or as many as we could fit on a plane from Hawaiian Airlines or Alaska and fly somebody down. You probably can’t do it, but fly somebody down to Mexico, down to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, because if they could really see the quality of the product down there, they would be investing in more tourism marketing in Hawaii. So governor, uh, Josh Greenham, Hawaii pay attention.

Ryan Embree:
Well listen, we have a Suite Spot spotlight series that actually profiles some properties. You gimme a call, Ben, whenever you’re ready to spotlight one of those properties in the Caribbean, I’m happy to make the trip down there and help you out with that. So yeah.

Ben Rafter:
Awesome. I’ll look forward to it. I’m gonna hold you to that.

Ryan Embree:
All right. Well, as we wrap up the year and as we wrap up the episode, I think this is obviously a great time for a lot of reflection. Thanksgiving just happened. Looking back on 2025, what are you most proud of in 2025, and what are you most looking forward to in 2026?

Ben Rafter:
It’s, I mean, look, we got the Springboard/Hotel Equities combination done. And I’m really excited. So, we’ll call that the most proud. And I’m really excited for seeing where this combination goes in 26. But as the tech guy who seems to be more people focused than most, I mean, you look at this industry and we’ve got several thousand team members and I’m proud that they can deliver every single day. And I think everybody should say that is like, if you don’t have your team members, and if you don’t have your GMs on the front lines fighting, there’s nothing. And so I’m most proud of what they’re delivering.

Ryan Embree:
There we go. Awesome. Well, Ben, we’re excited to watch, continue to see Hotel Equities grow, wish you nothing but success, covered it all today. Got the large spectrum from your journey to tech and even Marriott, Sonder and, and covered some awards and developments. Any other final thoughts you got before we sign off?

Ben Rafter:
We’re all over the place. That’s fun. Makes it great. No, looking forward to seeing you in February. And I think you covered the most important thing. If you are young and new to this space, and Ryan, you teach and speak at I think UCF, but probably everywhere, do not hesitate to reach out. Just track somebody down and they will remember you five years later or 10 years later. And when I’ve long gone, you know, their careers will be going crazy. And that’s, you know, that’s good. We need more innovation. We need more young people.

Ryan Embree:
100% agree. Hopefully there’s another podcast sitting on here and maybe they’ll be mentioning our names as someone they reached out to back in the day that we can only hope, right?

Ben Rafter:
We’ll go to Nepal or China climb an 8,000 foot meter mountain and, on the side of the mountain we can all, we can all share stories and create the next hotel company.

Ryan Embree:
That’s all you need to do. That’s it. So, all right. Well thank you so much, Ben, for taking the time. It’s been a pleasure speaking to you and like I mentioned, wish you nothing but success. And yes, we will see you in February at the Hotel Equities Leadership Conference.

Ben Rafter:
Great. Thanks Ryan. Looking forward to it.

Ryan Embree:
Thanks Ben. And thank you for listening to Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Newport Hospitality Group, Whitney Altizer, joins the Suite Spot in the latest episode of TMG Hospitality Trailblazers to give audiences a close look at what makes the Newport portfolio and brand unique in the hospitality industry and why social media is critical to a hotel’s success in the digital age.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Welcome to another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. I got a fantastic guest. We actually had an opportunity to meet with someone from the, the Newport Hospitality Group just a couple weeks ago at the Hospitality Show, but we got a brand new guest here with us today, senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, Whitney Altizer. Whitney, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot today with me.

Whitney Altizer:
Hey, Ryan, thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Ryan Embree:
We’re gonna have a fun conversation today. A lot of exciting stuff and news about Newport Hospitality, but as tradition here on the Suite Spot, hospitality, as we know, is one of those things where people can come from all different places, brands, management companies, and unique journeys that led you to where you are. So let’s hear about yours, Whitney. Talk to us a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you to Chief Commercial Officer at Newport Hospitality Group.

Whitney Altizer:
Yeah. Well, I always joke that Newport raised me. You know, I went to Virginia Tech for business and hospitality, and then I moved to Atlanta and worked with Darden restaurants for a stint. You know, and I love the experience, but I just decided I needed a new perspective on food and beverage and the industry in general. So I ended up back in Blacksburg at a full service Holiday Inn that Newport actually owned and managed at the time. So 22 years ago, I walked into that Holiday Inn as a director of catering and sales, worked there on property, and then, moved up to the corporate director of sales, a corporate revenue manager. Then I was the director of Revenue and Digital. Then came along the Vice President of Comms Stratt, which catapulted me to where I am today which is the Chief Commercial Officer.

Ryan Embree:
Your story is a genuine reflection of our industry, of how many facets there are to hospitality, from everything from food and beverage to sales, to all the positions that you, that you held in, in between. You know, it’s one of the reasons a lot of people love hospitality is because you can really do anything within it, right? It’s almost its own ecosystem within our industry, and it’s really cool to see, and I’m sure that was, you had some incredible experience, which lends you to where you are right now and knowing different people’s positions. That’s what we hear is sometimes the most successful hospitality people are the ones that got exposure to those different aspects of hospitality and kind of use that in their experience today. Some of those, hospitality professionals maybe even had to, you know, during that, that 2020 era had to get into some of those departments that they hadn’t done in a minute, and certainly shared some experience there. But, we won’t talk about that time, but doing some research for this episode, I wanna talk about Newport Hospitality and their story. Right? I always find it so fascinating when we talk about to these management companies and brands about how they first got into hospitality and fun little facts. That the origin story really dates back all the way to the 1850s. It goes back way, way far. Could you give a little background on the early days, maybe not take us that far, but a little bit early days of Newport Hospitality and how it’s led to the amazing growth that you guys are experiencing right now in 2025?

Whitney Altizer:
Yeah. Newport, in my opinion, was built on hard work, dedication, and two families. So in 1990, we were officially founded by Bill Carey and Mike Pinger, and but as you noted, the story dates back much further than that. Bill came from a ranching and entrepreneurial background and was the great grandson of a man that had built a large land in cattle business in West Texas in the 1850s. And that cattle business is what went on to help fund the start of Newport, and then as well purchase a lot of the hotels that we currently own.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely incredible. Just such a unique story. So happy that it’s on the website where I’m sure employees and and guests can even check that out and share that. And led to where you are today. And I want to talk about fast forwarding today, ’cause you got some exciting news, a new website on the horizon. Talk to us a little bit about this project and this new chapter, for Newport Hospitality Group.

Whitney Altizer:
Website debut coming soon. We are beyond excited. This has been a labor of love. There’s been joy, there’s been passion, there’s been divine intervention. We are just so happy to see it come full circle. Really the design intention was to speak to our partners, our clients, our team members, but do it all at the same time in the same platform, right? So we’ve tailored this website so that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re looking for, you will find the ability to get the information that you are looking for and the correct person to interact with you know, in this current climate of digital changes. Its been very interesting to walk through this process. It’s a lot different than, you know, 10 years ago when, when we started on WordPress, right? <laugh> Now it’s the AI integration, it’s large language models, it’s SEO. We’re taking into account all of those things, but trying to still keep the website intuitive and engaging for anyone that would visit it and be looking for information.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s, it’s kind of, it’s exactly what you said, Whitney. It’s very fortuitous timing as far as, you know, ’cause I’m sure even the way that websites are being designed and kind of strategically, you know, built today, it, you said 10 years ago, I would even argue just a couple years ago, is very different in the landscape, even with the way that people are trying to look for information, whether that is, young hospitality professionals trying to find out some background, about the hotel or the culture that, which we’re gonna touch on here in a minute, to ownership groups and developers that are, you know, trying to look for information. So, great timing, can’t wait to see it. But on that, that new website is, is gonna be that diverse, incredible portfolio that Newport holds right now. And as marketing people, we always love to talk about what’s next, right? What’s in the pipeline, what exciting project, what are you, what’s getting you excited right now about either projects or, or stuff in the pipeline right now at Newport Hospitality?

Whitney Altizer:
Yeah, so the biggest thing right now is that we’re gonna be opening a new Hotel in Q1 2026. So it’s currently under build right now. It’s with a partner that we already work with, Andre Hickman and Sanford, Florida. And this is his second hotel with us. We built his first hotel. Now we’re getting to build his second hotel with him. And we’re just beyond excited to see that all come to fruition and have two hotels in the same market with the same great partner, you know. And then of course, our Chief Development Officer, Sean, is always moving and shaking. He’s always got something on the horizon. And right now we’re looking at three potential acquisitions in Virginia, two in Ohio, and then a large expansion into the Northern Territory. We’re mainly east coast right now. Those are not over the finish line yet, so I can’t quite say much more than that. But we’ve been very thoughtful about who we wanna grow with, how we wanna grow, and making sure that we’re aligned with those partners so that we’re all walking together on the same path.

Ryan Embree:
Thats fantastic. And, you know, Sanford, right here in our backyard Travel Media Group’s backyard, right down the road, right down I-4 which, which could take a little little time depending on, on when you’re going. But, uh, but, you know, so exciting to see. It looks like you’ve already might already need some new changes for that, updated website here soon with some new properties. So we’ll continue to keep an eye on that. Another aspect that really stood out to me, you know, doing some research for, for this episode, as well as talking to Brendan at the Hospitality show was the commitment to employee culture. And I saw right now on social media, which you got a huge presence on. You’re running this voice of 35 campaign. I wanna talk a little bit about that campaign, but you were actually featured on there, Whitney, and you shared, we not only invest in our people, but the relationships with our owner as well as the community. So again, maybe talk about that, that voice of 35 campaign, what you’re trying to accomplish there, and then expand a little bit more on that, investing in people, relationships, and community.

Whitney Altizer:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, voices of 35 is something that we feel like captures the heart of Newport. It puts into words why I’ve been here for 22 years. So the intention was to celebrate the whole 35 year journey, the people that made it possible internally, externally, and then to reflect on those team members and their growth. So we’re really lucky that at the corporate level, we’ve got over 10 employees that have been with us for 20 to 30 years, so do the math on that. They pretty much been around since the, the inception. And then just even within my department, you know, a lot of the commercial strategy people have the same story that I do. One of my revenue managers, him and I started on property together 20 years ago doing banquets and catering, and I’ve gotten to watch his journey beside my journey. And that’s just really what Newport is, right? We invest in the person and then we help them figure out what will fill their tank what’s their next big step? What do they wanna learn? And then offer the learning, the support, and ultimately the positions to help them have a path that is what they’re interested in.

Ryan Embree:
Love to hear it. I think it’s a true testament to what you said, Whitney. I mean, having those stories within your organization of people there that have been there a decade, you know, two decades plus is something that, you know, we had a separate series ’cause the hospitality campus crawl, where we would speak to hospitality schools and educators and talking about this next generation of young professionals. And one of the challenges was just showing that this doesn’t have to be something that you fall into. It doesn’t need to be a career that you have a summer job and now next thing you know, you look up and you’re 30 years into it, you can actually pursue this as a 30 year, 40 year career. And having those stories within your organization, again, just huge testament and testimonials to the employee kind of culture and development that you’re doing over there at Newport. And it’s, it’s certainly paid some dividends. ’cause obviously you hear that, that term all the time of happy employees equal happy guests. You have an entire page dedicated right now to some of the accolades and achievements. I wanna make sure I get all these cover all these Marriott Partnership Circle Awards, Hilton Awards of Excellence. When you see that list, Whitney, in your position, what does that mean to you and how are you using it over at Newport to kind of earn more business, both on the traveler side, demand side, as well as ownerships and partnerships?

Whitney Altizer:
Well, obviously we’re incredibly proud of those awards. It gives our owners the recognition that they deserve. They’ve trusted us with their investment and it affirms that trust. It keeps our name active and respected in the marketplace. You know, it, it gives us something to put on the new website. Well, ultimately it’s just as important to our team members. It shows them that their hard work really does pay off. These aren’t corporate level trophies. These trophies were won in the lobby at the front desk, in the laundry room on the construct call. And they represent the regal people that are doing that exceptional work. You know, from a business standpoint, it demonstrates to our perspective owners and partners that we don’t just manage the property, we invest in it and we invest in the success. You know, as a revenue person, obviously strong performance translates into even stronger revenue, which allows us to reward our employees and then also provide owners with bigger returns. When I see that list, I think pride, validation and proof that what our we’re doing for our approach actually works.

Ryan Embree:
Incredible and hope to hope to see more of those come through and hope for more updates on that websites moving forward as you open these new properties and have them in the pipeline. But speaking of along the lines of online reputation, especially we kind of talked, touched on a little bit about the digital landscape of today where, online reputation a few years ago, maybe a decade ago, used to just be, here are the comment cards and reviews that I’m getting on my TripAdvisor now. It encapsulates so much more than that when it comes to reputation and one of those being social media. And I’ve seen you guys have a really, really prioritize a strong social media presence across your portfolio. What role, Whitney, do you feel that social media is playing right now in that traveler’s booking journey?

Whitney Altizer:
Yeah, well, I’ll start with a huge shout out to Travel media group. We partnered back in the summer, and, you know, you’ve just allowed us to take what we wanted to see and translate it. And that has been just phenomenal for us. You know, to us, social media is a huge role in a traveler’s journey, right? It’s the first way that they interact with your property. So we kind of think about it in three buckets. So strategies to sell, stories to share, and then stars to celebrate. So strategies to sell. It lets the guests see the value in choosing us. You know, it highlights the offers or the packages or something unique about that hotel. Stories to share lets us bring that experience to life. So they get a taste of what it feels like to actually be on property to the point where they already have a connection before they step foot inside of that building. And then, of course, none of this is possible without stars to celebrate, right? So that is the ability to spotlight our team and our, um, our special guests and show that engagement and responsiveness in real time. So to us, social media is, it’s the tangible, interactive way that we allow a guest to experience us and want to come and be part of us.

Ryan Embree:
Well, thank you. And you know, it’s a privilege to work with partners like Newport Hospitality Group Whitney, that really get it. And you encapsulated it, and articulated it perfectly with right now what’s happening with social media, especially with the younger generation that might even use it as the first place that they do search for a hotel or a property. And it’s much more now than does something look pretty on social media. It’s that feeling that you get, right? And we’re craving that feeling, especially in a time which we’re gonna touch on in a minute, where the one thing that AI is still will struggle with hopefully is feelings, right? And sentiment. And you know, what it’s like to walk in through a lobby on a busy, after a business trip where you’ve had maybe a delay because the airlines and you’re greeted just so warmly at the front desk and everything is seamless and nice. So, you know, these are the type of feelings that we, and sentiments that we try to capture in social media, because it can create that trust and authenticity, which, which we create. We’re craving so much right now. But speaking of AI, don’t think it’d be a podcast in 2025 if we don’t touch on some sort of AI and technology. So how are you and your team at Newport Hospitality viewing AI and and are you using it to more to empower your employees, which is one way that I’m hearing a lot of people are doing that, or is it to improve the guest experience?

Whitney Altizer:
Yeah. Can I say all of the above?

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely can.

Whitney Altizer:
AI is not a buzzword to us, and we have woven it into every day. So it feels like it’s normal, like it’s part of what we do and how we execute things. We use it in all facets. So we work with Lighthouse Analytics and that helps us with all of our revenue management stuff. And where there are big changes, I come in every morning and I’ve got a bullet point for each hotel from an AI tool saying, this happened, you should do this. And then of course, we allow the revenue managers then to make decisions based on all the information. But we use Collibra’s Hummingbird for all of our sales data mining. We use Core to communicate within the hotel to all the different departments. We use guest facing apps to welcome them and solve problems while they’re there on property. So we’ve just tried to make it something that is part of daily life so that it feels more personal and is still something that is just an extension of the people not machine led.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and that’s what I was talking about empowering, employees and giving them the right data. I think that is, there tends to be this trend right now in hospitality where people are just like having this FOMO effect of like, I’m not utilizing technology and AI to the degree that I should, and my competitors are doing this, or they’re seeing these robots at these, at these shows that are doing this and that, and they have an expectation of where they should be. But really all of those use cases you gave me right there, Whitney, that’s creating an ecosystem and embracing technology and AI, and I think I feel like is probably the most far forward. You know, you can be right now because we’re seeing sometimes that those robots might fall flat at a hotel. It, it’s a big splash, but it’s not helping the daily efficiencies of everything we talked about how intricate hospitality is, how many elements there are to it. So there’s a lot of use cases in there. And finding those little ways I think is gonna be more impactful than going after the shiny big AI and technology that that, that seems so futuristic out there. And maybe your guests don’t respond to that as well as likely. So I talked about at the top of the episode, meeting up with SVP and COO, Brenda McCoy at the 2025 Hospitality Show in Denver, Whitney, a lot of panels centered around challenges to profitability right now, margins are tighter than ever, especially in today’s climate. The travelers feeling it in their pocketbooks or wallets. Where do you think there’s opportunity right now, Whitney, when you see our industry, especially for hoteliers and owners who are starting to really feel the weight of that economic uncertainty right now?

Whitney Altizer:
Brendan and I talk about this with our teams every day. Obviously operations and commercial strategy are walking together, intertwined, the days of set it and forget it, they don’t exist anymore. Every hotel, we have a very targeted plan right now to go after their business and their specific markets, because every market is different right now. The Strat calls some markets, the philosophy is, okay, we’re gonna use really competitive rates. We’re gonna drive occupancy, and then when a DR starts to recover, we’re gonna push up. We’ve got some hotels where it’s all about that base business and we’re having a hard time finding it right now. And so it’s, what are those new creative non-typical pieces of business that we should go after? Are we okay with the different stay pattern? Maybe we need to consider that L&R down the street that only has 50 rooms to give us right now and, and grow with them. So we work from a revenue management standpoint, but then of course, also on Brendan’s side, it’s about payroll and expenses and just managing all of that stuff. Clearly you can’t manage a hotel and a profitability, but you can certainly influence it. And so we’re just proactive and strategic, and honestly, we have to adapt on a daily basis. You know, the plan at nine o’clock on Monday morning may not be the same plan at three o’clock on Tuesday. And we’ve got a great team that helps us just do what we need to do at the right time.

Ryan Embree:
I would argue, and we might be a little biased here, Whitney, but hospitality people are, we love, we love a good challenge and ingenuity and creativity comes out in those times of challenge. And I think that’s what’s happening right now. Do we like to obviously like stress about all of this stuff and maybe not see the greatest news coming out? Absolutely not. But I do think it’s during these times where hoteliers start to get really, really creative. We raise the bar on our service because we almost have to at that point, and we kind of take it up a notch to say, okay, we’re gonna have to really fight for that occupancy right now. We’re gonna have to show that a DR has value and is worth it to our guests. And we’re we’re gonna get loyalty and get those guests to maybe spend a little bit more because of the service that we provide. So, you know, again, in a challenging time like this, I’ve been to enough of the hospitality conferences to hear the issues and, but I do think that there’s going to be some good that comes out of this time, and it’s going to be the management companies and brands that come together, like you were talking about Whitney, and come up with a well designed plan and strategic kind of cerebral plans to that that really thrive. And I think there’s still opportunity out there. It’s not, we’re not done growing as an industry. We’ve been down and out before. This isn’t there, but just to stay focused. So, one thing we switch topics a little bit to what we talked about. On this podcast, I have the privilege of an honor of having a lot of tenured hospitality professionals with ton of great experience. I’m sure you have the opportunity to interact with a lot of younger professionals. First getting into their, you know, career. I’d love to try to get just some nuggets of wisdom from leaders like you, Whitney, of what you would share. What advice would you share to the younger hospitality professional, maybe listening to this podcast early on, just trying to learn about the industry. What would you share with them today?

Whitney Altizer:
It’s really simple, Ryan. It’s live hospitality, be what our industry is, create a memorable experience with every person you interact with, whether it’s a guest, a partner, a vendor, your own team, someone in your parking lot. I think for me, a lot of my success has come from being able to be part of all those different teams. And so everyone sees I’m willing to do the hard things. I’ll roll up my sleeves, I’ll pour the water in the banquet room. I’ll do anything that we need to do to work together as a team and accomplish that goal. And to me, that’s how the trust is built. Leaders all the way down to the bottom right. And one of my most favorite quotes from Simon Sinek is that leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge. That’s the essence of hospitality. Take care of people, they’ll take care of the guests, the owner, the business, and if you take care of each other, you will be successful.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I love it. I mean, hospitality along with, again, being creative and, and in our problem solving, it’s also the ultimate team sport. Everyone has to kinda work together within that organization, within that hotel and ecosystem to make the best day. Your a tribute to that, to that story of be open to any opportunities too. Learn everything, you can be a sponge in hospitality because you never know what your next position is and the skills are so transferrable, right? Hospitality, it might be a different market like you mentioned in Sanford than up north right now, but the hospitality is the same, it’s still hosting guests, serving people, exactly what you were talking about, taking care of people. So, love that. Thank you for that, Whitney, if you can believe it, we are coming up on the end of 2025 and we’re headed straight to 2026. I mean, this feels like one of the, one of the fastest years as we reflect. This is always, I love this time of year, Whitney, ’cause it’s a great time to reflect on, on this past year and we love to look forward in hospitality, but also reflecting back, what would you say your biggest takeaway for 2025 is, and then looking ahead, you know, what are you most excited about for Newport Hospitality Group as we go into 2026?

Whitney Altizer:
So for 2025, I’d say engagement, right? Engagement, meaning understanding how travel’s evolved and continues to evolve. You know, we’re sitting in the middle of a government shutdown and a lot of travel delay right now. So it’s understanding what guests need, booking behaviors, their use of technology, and again, being able to shift, to help those people in that moment. But it’s also engagement in platforms. Newport’s been lucky enough to put a lot of new technology and platforms in the last 18 months. So a lot of 2025 was built on great. We got the platform. Now that we understand how to use it the best we possibly can, are we getting everything out of it? And, we’ve brought, brought in a lot of speakers about each one of those pieces of technology to help us do trainings to make sure that the general manager gets out of it what they need. And the director of sales gets what they need and housekeeping gets what they need to ensure that those were dollars well spent and they’re gonna catapult us forward.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we had a hospitality professional on the podcast a couple episodes ago that just said there’s no way that you can mentally be an expert in every aspect of hospitality, right? Like from the pH levels to your pool, to how you’re sourcing your food. We have a lot of unbelievable people and smart people in hospitality, but for you to be a savant with all of that stuff, it’s so challenging right now and it continues to get more challenging, especially with AI and technology that feels like it’s changing every single day. So to have those speakers have those professionals to lean on in our industry, so important. Love to hear that, that you guys are doing that. Wish you nothing but success for 2026. We’ll continue to watch that with all the new openings and, and pipeline development that you have going on. As we wrap up today, we covered a lot, advice for the young generation, AI and technology, social media, reputation, all the above. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?

Whitney Altizer:
No, I just really appreciate the time to be able to chat with you and we expect to see you with that Comfort Inn Sanford Grand opening.

Ryan Embree:
Let’s do it. Let’s, yeah, I would love to be there. Can’t wait to see it. And like I said, Whitney, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot, sharing some of your insights and expertise, with myself and our Suite Spot, hotelier audience out there. Excited to continue to watch Newport Hospitality Group grow and such privilege to be partnered with you as well. So thank you Whitney. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Celebrations are underway at TMG headquarters, and we gather round to recognize the milestone of reaching 1 million social media ad spend across all of our hotel partners!

This achievement would not have been possible without the continued support and trust of our partners, and their unwavering commitment to creating compelling stories and digital content for travelers, as well as fostering genuine connections with hotel guests.

In this special celebratory Suite Spot episode, Travel Media Group’s Chief Technology Officer, Jason Lee, and Product Manager – Social Media, Brian Ross, both join the podcast to discuss the incredible accomplishment and what it means for TMG and our wonderful hotel partners.

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Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are here back, we’ve been on the road, we’ve been visiting and hosting people on the Suite Spot virtually, but we are back here at the Suite Spot Podcast studio with a very familiar guest, Jason Lee, Chief Technology Officer, who we’re gonna have on in a second. Then we’re gonna be visiting with Brian Ross, our product manager, social media, to celebrate this incredible milestone. Jason, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Thanks. Yeah, glad to finally be back. Yeah, we’re excited to have you, celebrating a milestone today. A million dollars in ad spend for our hotel partners. Again, you know, with Travel Media Group, we work exclusively with hotels. Let’s first, you know, off the bat, huge accomplishment milestone. What does this mean to hear you kind of hearing this being there since the very beginning of this solution all those years back?

Jason Lee:
Yeah. It’s exciting. Obviously it is when you think about it in the increments that we boost posts at, it’s a lot of posts. Yeah. It’s a lot of posts for a lot of hotels. A lot of weeks of content. So just extremely proud of what it has produced for our hotels. But also for our amazing social media team that creates such engaging content and makes boost able and ad worthy content.

Ryan Embree:
Well, and that’s the important part because, you know, obviously a million dollars is a big number. But you don’t need necessarily a million dollars to run an effective ad campaign, and that’s what you were kind of talking about. With the small increments. Talk to us a little bit about that, because I do feel like sometimes hoteliers, rightly so, are intimidated with something like social media ad spend. They don’t really know where, you know, ’cause you can boost a post for as low as $5 all the way up to, thousands of dollars. And they’re still going to spend your money in one way or another. So kind of talk through that process because effectiveness is really the key to the game there.

Jason Lee:
No, absolutely. And I think it gets into how you create content. What is the cadence of that content? How often do I do it? But then it also gets into what am I trying to do? So you can create content and not boost it or put ads any kinda ad spend behind it at all. And you’re going to have that content on your page. You’re gonna reach out, your community is gonna see it if if they have that, you know, alerts or whatever set up for you. But what boosting does is it allows you to reach this audience that is not inside of your sphere. So it allows them to be able to see these posts, but even more importantly, it allows them to engage with these posts. So if they engage with them, now you kind of have them in the algorithm. Now, now you’ve got ’em a little bit. Right. There’s future state with these, uh, guests. But, but we’re talking about $5 increments. So for this very small amount of money, you’re talking about 10 to 30 x on reach and engagement. And, and that is incredible. Uh, and especially because it’s sort of like builds on itself because the more that a post is interacted with, the more feeds it’s inside of, you know, somebody shares this post. So now you’re like, obviously any content that is engagement worthy, the algorithm is gonna put out in front of people.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. It’s that social media ripple effect. And, you know, we say it all the time for hotels. I mean, who’s not thinking or typing in their social media search bar, uh, about travel Yeah. Or thinking about travel or, or, and, and we’re at a really, really cool spot in our industry where we could be that social media post could be the thing that inspires someone to take action to say, I want to take this trip, or I’ve been thinking about this, and now all of a sudden you’re all in that all important algorithm that you’re talking about. And that’s really where social media ad spend comes into play. Because before it used to have to be either someone shares this information with you or a follower of yours interacts with that social media ad spend, um, really targets an audience that might not be following your account.

Jason Lee:
Absolutely. But is looking for travel in your area. Right. So, or is following content like your content. Right. And I think that’s what’s so cool, but you add to this, right? And so we, we’ve talked about short form video, uh, on this podcast before, but you add boost to short form video and now you’re in this whole other thing where it’s not about engagement as much as it is about time viewed. So if I watch an entire video of yours about your property or an about an event coming up or about your restaurant, right now I’m in this algorithm. Yeah. So now the next time I put content out, it’s pretty good bet it’s gonna be in my reels feed. So that’s, and that’s, and that’s very powerful, especially for a $5 boost. You could get out to three, 400 people. Right. And you get from that three or 400 people, let’s say you get 15, 20 people that fully engage with it. but you do that three, three or four times a week. Yeah. This is this, these are compounded numbers that really make a difference.

Ryan Embree:
Well, we always say it and have said it is had a parallel to the online billboard, right? Yeah. About seeing that sign on the, uh, the side of the highway. But you don’t know the intent of every single one of those people every single time someone drives by that billboard. Uh, whether you’re targeting the right person or not. Uh, when, when you’re doing social media ad spend, you have a, you can be a little bit more prescriptive there. Yep. And I think the conversations that I’ve been hearing, you know, at the hospitality show and, and these other events and talking to industry leaders even through the podcast is everyone has this interest right now in how hotels are being found.

Ryan Embree:
Right. Obviously the LLMs is what our, everyone is talking. Right. Right. But there’s a natural transition, especially in the younger generation of them going directly to Instagram and TikTok to figure out where to travel Yeah. And that to, you know, talk about that and what you’ve kind of seen or even heard from hoteliers and, and where that’s sitting in the booking journey right now.

Jason Lee:
Yeah. You know, I think social media, social media is really amazing. And I, and I do feel like where social media content sits in the minds of a lot of marketers is inspiration to travel. Like, it’s sort of like that’s where I draw to Yeah. You go, well, let’s say inspiration to travel. That’s the thing that gets me to want to travel. But we’re seeing more and more and more where inspiration travel is absolutely there. But pre-booking research is there. Post-booking is also there. So now I’ve booked my room and now I’m going to your Facebook page or your Instagram page to see what’s going on at your property. So, so now I’m in this kind of secondary thing, or I’m sharing that, I’m sharing that information, but then in post stay, so in stay, I, I shouldn’t, I I I got ahead of my skis there in stay. I think it’s also important because this is more information about what’s going on at your property, if there’s a valuable enough information that’s happening, and I’m not talking about every, every, uh, post is a pitch mm-hmm <affirmative>. Right. It’s every post is something that’s valuable to a traveler in a various state of their journey to you. And that is, I think that’s a really important distinction. There’s a time and place for pitch. And, and, but in, in, in the content that we create, we’re trying to engage travelers, but we’re also, we’re trying to engage them in those, in all of those phases. But in stay I think is also important. But if I engage with you in Stay it’s pretty good chance I’m going to start getting your content in post stay so I start to remember you. Yeah. So this is like, you can really hit every phase of the traveler’s journey. And I know that acquisition is on everybody’s mind, but this is more than that. This is, this is where you can develop a relationship and that, and I definitely feel like with Gen Z and the generations after that, this is where relationships are gonna be.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And where loyalty is built. Absolutely. Which is brand loyalty is built, which is what we’re looking for. You know, as marketers, obviously we want to inspire, but you know, we don’t want this to be transactional between guests and hotel. We hopefully this is the beginning of a relationship. And one of the places we’re trying to connect with a traveler in a world where we’ve removed a lot of friction in the guest experience where they don’t even need to speak to an employee anymore at your hotel. So this could be your mainstream of connection between you and the traveler could be social media. Yeah. Um, and, you know, it could be a social media ad that they first interact with that could get you there. And I think that transitions to my next question, which is sometimes the most effective social media isn’t a call to action of what you said. So, you know, how do you kind of talk to your team, the product, the social media product team about that and, and saying that, you know, we don’t need to put a book now, uh, and big lettering on every single one of our social media ads.

Jason Lee:
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It, because I think it gets to that thing where it’s like, I don’t, so go to the boost post, right? So now I’m a traveler. I don’t know your hotel. I now see your post in my feet. And what is going to get me to engage there? It’s gonna be engaging content. Yeah. It’s gonna be an event that I might wanna visit or I might wanna see. It’s going to be a cool picture of your room or a cool picture of an aspect to your property that I didn’t know about. Or maybe a drink that your bartender makes that only your hotel has. Yeah. Um, or it’s gonna be maybe a point of interest in, in your town and your proximity to that. So it’s those things I think that are, that are sort of like, draw people in and once they know who you are, once they understand, oh, this is, this is a hotel <laugh> that’s given me this information. If they’re, if they’re viewing that in a boost, uh, environment, it means that at some point they’ve searched for a hotel in your area. Yeah. So I think it really gets into, like, going back to how we create content, it’s really looking at what are the things that are gonna engage travelers in these various stages. And so things like events and things like attractions, things like property features, really important pieces to this in, in their various states. And attraction, having an event added. Right. But also how your property is, you know, what your property is doing that week. Uh, and I think even things like what’s open and what, what’s closed or traveler, a, a positive traveler review, uh, reposting, something like that. These are all kind of cool pieces of information that make it so that you’re definitely showing the value of your property, amplifying the value of your property, but you’re not necessarily like, yet book now to save 30%.

Ryan Embree:
Well, you, and you think about that, if that message all of a sudden showed up in your scroll, right. How quickly we are you, you know, kind of swiping that thumb up and down through our post, and you see that kind of giant ad you actually even might have a negative connotation associated with your hotel. Because they’re gonna recognize that as an ad in within their feed inauthentic content that they never really asked to follow versus something like what you said something about the hotel experience or something engaging, something that actually is interesting to them who have this preconceived notion of already wanting to travel. Now all of a sudden there’s that interest you get into their feed. But it comes back to having that cadence of a posting. Because that’s the other thing. If they get to your homepage, they start scrolling through your feed and don’t see consistent content there, there’s going to be that mixed match of expectation.

Jason Lee:
Absolutely. But it also lays the groundwork for any kind of future promotion you want to do. So you gotta have this like, great ground game of like the block and tackle posts of the, the features and benefits of staying at your property. And then once you have that and you’ve got this nice feed of content that’s continually pushing out passively out to this audience, then there is ample opportunity to then amplify that with promotions and other kinds of things that have a CTA on it.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. No, absolutely. I wanna switch the conversation to your role as CTO and you spearhead a lot of the development for our TMG OneView platform. And within that, we have a very, very robust social media suite that you’ve worked on, uh, with, with your team. One of the things, obviously with social media ad spend is a lot of people ask, you know, where, what type of analytics should I be looking for? We always hear the return on social, right? The ROI of social media. Completely different conversation there. But what have you built or developed into the platform to help show transparency and what should you be looking for?

Jason Lee:
Yeah, so in our platform, we sort of have like kind of two levels. So, as you go into our analytic suite on the top level, you’re gonna see total impressions, total reach, total engagement, and then you can break that down by site and look at all of the various analytics that that, that make up those, those bigger numbers. Right underneath it right, is our ad spend line. So each so each post that has a little boost, on it, so you can see how much of that content or how much of that audience came from the boost. So I click on the boost, and now I can see all of the boost information, and that’s the same kind of basic information, reach, impressions, engagements.

Speaker 2:
But what’s interesting about how that works is right, is that, is that you can see, hey, high engagement of a boosted post. And by the way, not every boosted post has the same number, uh, in terms of total engagement, right? Sure. Some of them have very similar, uh, a lot of them have very similar reach and impressions, but engagement is this really important number and engagement when we’re talking about that, we’re talking about likes, we’re talking about comments, and we’re talking about shares. Those are the real, those are the keys to this. Sure. Um, and then in video, we’re talking about total time watch and total and total times that a video is watched start to to, to finish. And those are really important metrics that to have in there. So our analytics suite has all of that sort of built on top of each other so that our hotels really understand the relationship between a boost and an ad and just a straight organic post. And, but then like basically what is the total number? Yeah. What did, what did this, what did this post completely produce? So we have a real, we have a lot of transparency in that. And, and now new to our platform we’ll be having that really broken out between, uh, Instagram and Facebook. So one of the things that we have, so every property that is connected to both Facebook and Instagram, when we boost, we are boosting that content that’s going out into both platforms simultaneously. The boost money is then divided out into that audience. So, so now the Instagram audience and the Facebook audience sort of are seeing this content simultaneously in their feeds. And so you’re, you can see where all that’s coming from. So it’s very cool, very transparent.

Ryan Embree:
No, I was gonna say it’s so cool because those are two completely different audiences. Sometimes with Facebook and Instagram. And again, this is where a lot of the younger generation, especially on Instagram is where they’re starting their searching. so to be on there definitely will give you an advantage over some hotels that, you know, believe it or not, as we enter 2026, some hotels still not prioritizing Instagram right now in their marketing strategies. Congratulations, Jason, again, on, on hitting this, this mark. super incredible, all the work that you’ve been doing, all that you’ve produced for our hotel partners, you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna end our conversation on a lot of hotels out there, don’t have maybe a million dollars to spend on right on ads. But what would be one tip that you would share for social media ads for hotels?

Jason Lee:
I think the important thing, if you’re gonna do that and I’m actually gonna give the tip on boosts because I think Boost is, I think boost is really a very important thing. And I think ads and Boost is where you don’t have to be as sparing in terms of quantity. Where you don’t wanna put an ad out every day, but you could boost a post every day. You could boost a post or five days a week. We look at it, you know, at four, you know, four to five is probably perfect for a week and add a video to that, but it’s about cadence and consistency and inside of that cadence and consistency, diversity and content that is all appealing to a traveler. So as long as you have those things, a $5 ad spend, a $5 boost, right. Consistently delivered across four or five posts a week is gonna be fantastic. You’re gonna get a great audience. You’re gonna have a lot of like that audience that comes back, the audience that’s re-seeing all of your content and all of that is gonna create trust. All of it’s going to reinforce value. All of that is gonna amplify the, the awesome features and, and attractions in your area. And so it doesn’t have to be crazy, but it does have to be consistent, and it does have to be engaging.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. It follows that, you know, formula that we hear all the time, the know, like, trust. They have to know who you are. They have to like what you do or what you’re providing them. And then they have to trust you to give it, social media in a very, you know, like you said, $5 increments could be a just a trust builder. That’s a great way to think about social media spend. So again, Jason, thank you for joining me here on the Suite Spot. Next we’re gonna be visiting with Brian Ross, our product manager, social media. All right. We are back here with Brian Ross, our product manager, social media. Brian, congratulations on this incredible milestone. You and your team must be very excited to hit this achievement.

Brian Ross:
We are.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. You know, Brian, you have a little bit, obviously different role than Jason who we just had on. You are talking a lot more to hoteliers talking to your team about the content your game planning. You’re talking about these booths talking about these ads. So I really wanna pick your brain as someone that’s run all these campaigns to give some practical advice for some of the hotel listeners that we have here. I think we start with the question that we hear a lot sometimes, or maybe hoteliers have on their mind right now. You know, why should a hotel or a portfolio of hotels if you manage that even invest in ad spend in the first place?

Brian Ross:
Yea, even a low level boost on your posts. I mean, really low level, it’ll increase your, your three metrics that you’re looking at, your reach, your impressions, and your engagement. And your engagement is really what you wanna be focusing on. How many likes, how many comments, and how many shares are you’re getting on the posts, because that’s where you get beyond your ad spend reach and that’s where you start to get into organic growth. And that is, that’s where the meat is. And those engagements, as you know, as a guest or prospective guests are looking at your feed when they see those engagement numbers, that’s really what resonates. And that’s how, that’s how you can tell that you’re creating content that’s relevant and engaging.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it has a snowball effect. And ripple effect of what social media. So, you know, you get someone to share a post, now all of a sudden it goes into their feed and then you talk about it just keeps on gaining on one another. And that’s what we love to see that organic growth, because at the end of the day, these ads this boost everything that you’re putting in, the money that you’re putting into, hopefully that pays off on the organic side of things. And that’s what makes for an effective social campaign. And I wanna go through some of the tips that you would maybe share with hoteliers about the best way to approach social media ad spend.

Brian Ross:
It’s always gonna come back to creating engaging and relevant content. Like any marketing, you wanna be telling a story and you wanna be creating value, you wanna offer value with your posts. So, and that’s, that’s why I say a low level boost will do it. It’s not about throwing a whole lot of money at it. It’s about creating content that’s gonna be engaging and then take on a life of its own once it gets that little bit of a lift.

Ryan Embree:
That’s such an effective tip because, you know, it is intimidating out there if you’ve never done social media ad spend before because you don’t know whether you should be spending a lot or a little, we talked about it off camera, about saying at an effective $5 campaign could yield better results than maybe a hundred dollars campaign. And the way that we kind of likened it, or had a parallel would be saying, if you had an online billboard that was states away from your hotel versus an online billboard that was just a couple exits down, what do you think is gonna perform better? The same comparison can be made here with social media ad spend. We also talked about how you can use some of your reputation data to kind of maybe, maybe plan out your content.

Brian Ross:
What to post about. And especially if you need to be selective about your spend and you can’t boost every single post, but you wanted to kind of pick and choose your sentiment data is a really good place to start. Or you can, you know, you can lean into the things that are really strong about your hotel. You can also, you can also address things that come up a lot. It can almost be like, you know, there are a couple of ways you could think, like, what are the things, we get a bunch of phone calls about a day. We could make a post out of that. And sure. That is something that people are engaging you about already. So that’s kind of like knowledge. So the other thing that’s a really fun thought exercise that we like to go through with hotels sometimes is if you could say something to your guests at your hotel right now, what would you wanna tell them? What would you wanna tell a perspective guest? If you could say one thing, what would it be? And then that’s another way to kind of get into what might make a good, good post, a good communication.

Ryan Embree:
I absolutely love that because I talk to a lot of hoteliers about that sort of thing, and the answer I get when I ask, what type of social content, you know, would you like to share? And sometimes they’re, they’re kind of stuck. They don’t know what they’re like, we could talk about this, we could talk about that. But then you pose the question like that and you flip it and you say, what are the things that you love about your hotel and what are, what do you think makes your hotel better or more special than the hotel next door? And it’s a completely different conversation. It sparks something in them that they’ve, that they know, that they intrinsically know. But when it’s weird. ’cause when you try to put that on a post, it just, it doesn’t come out organically when you’re asked about that social content. So I love what you said there about maybe just flipping the script a little bit when thinking about that because your guests are telling you what they love every single day, whether it’s on reviews or face-to-face, it’s about sharing that and amplifying that using social media ad spend, which is what this whole episode is about. So, but, you know, what type of posts would you, in your opinion, should you consider boosting? And you know, obviously your team’s creating thousands of posts each day. You know what, do you have some examples for us?

Brian Ross:
Highlighting your team members. You just talked about what differentiates your hotel from the hotel across the street. It’s your people. Any kind of, if you wanna post about the fitness center, maybe there’s somebody on staff who is into working out and, and you could have them in the fitness center and you could have, you know, Jesse’s workout tip of the week or workout tip of the month, and you can highlight your fitness center through the eyes of a, of an employee. Same thing with, you know, a bartender pouring their favorite drink or mm-hmm <affirmative>. That, that kind of thing. And then, and then people will come to the co to come to the, um, property with a connection already. Yeah. You know, you know, that’s, that’s Marie. She’s doing the mai tai this this month. Yeah. Um, so it, it’s a really fun, and your employees will, will feel part of your campaign.

Ryan Embree:
And story.

Brian Ross:
In, in story. And, and they’ll share it and their friends will see it and they’ll share it. And it’s a really good way to create some organic boost. Another thing is to talk about what sets your area apart, what’s cool about what’s cool about your area, what are some of the attractions? What are some events that are going on? What’s the vibe of the place? You know, those kind of posts, that kind of content is less salesy. And that’s really kind of the key here. You, you know, if you’re gonna select what you’re gonna boost, you don’t want to, you don’t wanna boost things that are overtly like salesy about the, the hotel. Yeah. You wanna boost things that are, like we were talking about earlier, that tell a story, that add value and, and intrigue people about either the area or your location specifically.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. It’s so interesting now in this digital age that, you know, we used to walk into a hotel and not know anything about it. Mom or dad would, would go and run out of the car and go see if they have any rooms available. And now we almost want zero surprises. We want to know everything. We want to know, this is what the lobby looks like when we walk in and when we check in. And not only do I wanna know what the lobby looks like, I wanna know who’s in that lobby. I want to know that Brian’s checking me in behind the front desk. I wanna know that Marie’s at the bar making drinks and gonna serve me my breakfast in the morning. Social media is a great way to give a POV of what that experience is going to look like when walking into a hotel. But there’s also some, obviously cautions that, things to watch out for, because again, social media ad spend, you can spend as little or as much as as you want. They’re not gonna stop you from spending. So what are some things to watch out for in your social media ads? You, you mentioned one of them already about being too overtly salesy. Any other tips that, that, uh, hoteliers should avoid?

Brian Ross:
You’re building a presence that people will look at and they’ll see a hotel that’s engaged with its guests and meeting them where they are. And not pushing your message, but meeting them where their interests lie. The other other thing you’re building is trust with the algorithm. As when you create consistent, engaging content like that, the algorithm is gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. Now you’ve got, you’ve kind of got it trained so that it sees your activity, it sees your creating engaging posts, so it kind of trusts you now. So when you, when you wanna put out that post about the promotion you’re running or the special, now it’s gonna trust you and it’s gonna kind of give you the benefit of the doubt, and it will push things out for you that if you just tried to spend money cold like that on something, it would kind of fall flat. So it’s important to create stuff that’s just not salesy and just engaging on a regular basis. That’s really the meat of your social media.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And I think that it’s cautious to also pick the right partner, you know, that kind of knows, because again, you can, you can spend, there’s unlimited spending in social media ad spend, right. That $1 million mark that we hit as an organization came through, you know, hundreds of thousands of campaigns with thousands of hotels across the board. So you, you have to pick the right partner. You have to pick the right industry partner that also knows what moves and people will engage with and build that trust. Right. Because it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. We talk about that. And for those hoteliers that are looking for a quick win and lots of bookings that might not be the right objective of what you’re talking about. You have to know why you’re, why you’re doing this. And social media is always a long-term play there, so how can we reassure hoteliers that we are moving in the right direction? There is positive momentum. What are the results that you look for to an effective social media ad spend strategy and campaign?

Brian Ross:
Sure. Well, the real eye test is always gonna come back to engagement. When you scroll your feed and you see, you know, the posts that aren’t boosted, maybe they get a handful of likes, maybe a comment or two. Then if your, if your boosted post is getting dozens or hundreds of comments or likes, now this is money well spent, you know, sometimes with our, with our hoteliers, what will happen is we’ll post about an event and that will become a hub of conversation through of users about the event. And even more so than the actual event on Facebook. People will be talking about, you know, ticket swapping and, um…

Ryan Embree:
Set list.

Brian Ross:
What song, what song are you excited? You know, asking guests a question like that in your post is a great, you know, is it, what song are you looking forward to hearing most at this concert? Or, you know, who’s what player in this game, if it’s a sporting event excites you the most, who are you excited to see? Yeah. That kind of thing. And, and it might be a little counterintuitive to think that that kind of discussion on your posts is value, but it really is like that is social media gold right there.

Ryan Embree:
It’s building conversation and community, which is what an objective could be for your social media campaigns, is to extend reach and build trust. So, Brian, as we wrap up, I think it would be really insightful for our hotel listeners to kind of hear your process, your team’s process with content creation and where social media ad strategy and campaigns fall into that process.

Brian Ross:
That’s great. Obviously every, every hotel is different. We really try to capture ev each unique hotel voice. We wanna speak to, um, a hotel’s guests, just like a hotel. Sure. Speak to the guests. And, and that’s, that’s always our goal. Um, as far as how we use the ad spend. This is another thing that you’re kind of almost purchasing when you invest in a little bit of boost on your post is you get to understand what’s working for your hotel and what’s working for your social media in those analytics. Mm-hmm. So as you’re getting the results, you know, some hotels are gonna find that talking about certain amenities are really gonna resonate with people. Or maybe they have a great onsite bar that people like and, and that will get a lot of engagement. But then other places, maybe they’re in just a cool area, or there’s something about the area where talking about attractions that are there or events that are happening are gonna create more engagement. So it’s about watching those analytics and then leaning into what’s working. And that is invaluable because that just snowballs. The more information, the more knowledge you have like that, the better informed you are as to what you’re gonna post about next. And the more successful your social strategy becomes over time.

Ryan Embree:
And the momentum just continues to build. And absolutely, before you know it, you’re just as successful as, uh, Brian and his social media team at a million dollars ad spend.

Brian Ross:
So good luck.

Ryan Embree:
To bring it all back. Well, thank you so much, Brian. Congratulations to you and your team. Thank you for all the practical tips for our hotel listeners out there. I hope to, to continue to follow you and the work that you and your team are doing out there. Last year it was, uh, you know, gaining a million followers this year. It’s the social media ad spend. We can’t wait to see what’s next, what you and your team have for us.

Brian Ross:
Thanks so much. You know where to find me.

Ryan Embree:
Awesome. Thank you so much. And thank you for listening to The Suite Spot. We’ll talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Host of the Suite Spot podcast and Vice President of Marketing at Travel Media Group, Ryan Embree, breaks down the key takeaways from the 2025 Hospitality Show that took place in Denver, Colorado, last month. 

Ryan shares not only his opinion on some of the most prevalent topics from the renowned industry event, but he also shares what panelists, attendees, hoteliers, and others had to say about the conference and the state of hospitality. 

Tune in now to listen to the full episode.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot Podcast, and we are fresh off of our 2025 Hospitality Show coverage in Denver, Colorado. We are back here in our Travel Media Group headquarters, a little bit closer to C-level in our Suite Spot podcast studio. Absolutely incredible event. Wanna first think Questex and AHLA as well as the city of Denver for hosting from end to end. So amazing from the programming to the networking to the industry professionals that we had the privilege of interviewing. You can find all of those exclusive interviews on our TMG YouTube page, make sure to follow along. But in today’s episode, we are gonna go with our top takeaways from the Hospitality Show in Denver. And it really started right off the bat. I mean, this was an end to end, just jam packed insights, trends, everything a hotelier could want. You know, this was billed as one of the most comprehensive shows in hospitality. And from all of the education sessions that we saw, the panelists, the conversations that we had, the networking that went on again, hats off to the teams over at AHLA and Questex, where I’ll start my key takeaways is really one of the first quotes that really resonated with me as an attendee on the first day. And this was I forget who I can attribute this quote to, but was talking about how we ended the 2024 Hospitality Show in San Antonio. And everything that has happened between then and the start of the 2025 Hospitality show, an election, you know, a tumultuous start to the year, with tariffs, international travel, almost seeing double-digit drops in some places between some countries. And then now we have a government shutdown here. So, so many things that the hospitality industry had to deal with. And, you know, I have the privilege of attending multiple events throughout the year, and never have I ever been on such a rollercoaster ride. It started at the beginning of the year in March where we met a lot of hoteliers that were kind of bracing for impact. They were coming down this hill. Projections didn’t look great. A lot of sentiment out there was not was not awesome. Deals were not getting done. It just feel very like a crawl. And then all of a sudden summer came and as we were kind of bracing ourselves for this just dip or this terrible kind of cliff that we were about to, to fall off, we kind of opened our eyes as an industry and said, it’s really not as bad as it’s being made out to be. And a lot of hoteliers, as we saw and we interviewed, talked to, had some really good summers, had some really good numbers, occupancy, looking across different markets, some of the markets that weren’t doing as well rebounded. And they were starting to see a little bit of glimmer of hope. And now here we are at the end of the year and it feels like those storm clouds are brewing again. And we’re bracing ourselves for a new year in 2026. And maybe it’s because we’re just looking at the numbers. It’s budget season. We’re starting to try to forecast like we love to do and have to do frankly in hospitality, but it just feels like that worry is coming over us again. But to that, I feel like it’s in these times where there’s a lot of creativity and ingenuity that starts to really spur and, and it’s these events that could be a catalyst for real change in our industry. There were a lot of industry leaders up on stage over these last few days at the hospitality show in Denver that presented some pretty interesting ideas when it came to housekeeping, staffing, the booking experience and really challenging the status quo. And it’s these types of events that can really start a conversation and build a foundation and momentum for true change within our industry. We saw that change happen very, very quickly during COVID because it needed to, it was a necessity. But now here we are and we can all feel it. We can feel the belts tightening from the hotel all the way to our guests and consumers. And this is when we need to start looking around and trying to come up some fresh ideas. And, you know, some of those might not even be within hospitality. I mean, one of the keynote speakers was Chris Barton from Shazam, and, you know, trying to get these fresh voices maybe outside of hospitality. Blue Origin was another speaker talking about space tourism, maybe looking for some new channels. You know, space tourism might not be a couple years down the line in your portfolio if you’re a management company right now. But is it a trend that you can capitalize on, right? Are there areas where this could be happening within the next decade? You’re positioning yourself in markets that are going to cater to that demand, which could exponentially increase. It was truly amazing to hear some of the stories that we heard at the hospitality show when it came to space tourism. But all that to say doesn’t necessarily need to be hospitality led for these hospitality innovation to come from. And I feel like it’s during these times, during these events where you’re going to see that we had several different conversations. One with a leader of landing place hotels, the brand leader of landing place hotels who saw an opportunity, to do things a little differently with a brand. And they’re seeing double digit. They already accumulated a double digit pipeline right now in development. It’s very, very interesting. We’re at, we’re at a, a kind of an inflection point in hospitality right now as we enter 2026 and we in into this kind of unknown. But it will be really, really exciting to see what type of innovation comes from this. Because I do think this is when people are gonna start getting creative. ’cause those margins are just too tight right now, right? Between staffing, construction costs. The demand is still there, but the profits are not being seen. And that was, there was no, it was not an error that the Hospitality Show started its programming with multiple sessions on profits and how these management companies, brands can work together and these owners assets can work together in order to see profit margin increase. Because right now it’s just slimmed over these last couple years. And it’s being felt, it’s being felt throughout the industry. You know, it was interesting to see some of the leaders that I spoke to and interview, got the opportunity to interview, talk about capitalizing on some of these trends that we’re seeing right now in hospitality, you know, personalization, multi-generational travel, experiential travel, right? Marriott announced recently it’s outdoor collection and, you know, lifestyle brands, all of this mixed in. And I think what’s happening right now is the traveler, the consumer is feeling that tightening in their belt, but they still want to travel. It was, it has not been taken away from them like it was in 2020, but they certainly have to do some more due diligence. And when they do travel, which they’re going to prioritize, they wanna make sure they make the biggest bang for their buck. So they’re gonna start prioritizing and maybe looking for those hotels that they feel can give them the widest and breadth of experience, right? Rather than just be loyalty to those brands. So those brands are seeing that they’re trying to capitalize on these trends and they’re exploring more into the soft brand lifestyle division. We had heads of man of a couple different management companies talk about, you know, the patterns that they’re seeing in consumer sentiment and what they want out of their experience. They want to feel like they’re having a localized experience. We’ve always talked about that on this podcast about how to try to tell your story, how to make your guest part of the story, part of your local community, how to give them that community first experience. But now guests are clamoring for it. They’re looking for it, they’re doing research, they’re doing research in different places. That was another big trend and takeaway that I heard a lot is hotels management companies. They’re starting to look at how guests are using the booking journey right now. And l and where does LLMs fit into that? They feel like they don’t want to be get left behind in a search, just like I’m sure when Google started to aggregate all these hotels online, they didn’t want to be on page two or page three, right? So how can, when a traveler searches best hotels in this market, or maybe a little bit more specific of a search your hotel be retrieved in those how can your hotel be a part of those results, right? And I think more and more hotels are asking that question. It’ll be really interesting to see where that goes. AI and technology, it feels like it has to be a part of every programming agenda and conversation that we talked about now. But it is starting, I feel like, to settle into two separate camps. One that really wanna prioritize the employee empowerment, right? How can I use AI and technology to empower my employees to do their job efficiently? Something that we’ve preached at Travel Media Group where we have several AI innovations that help the employee get some really deeper insights into its online reputation. But also, you know, there’s that second camp of, well, we’re gonna try to go guest experience first. What can I do with AI and technology in order to make a big difference on the guest experience? And I think those two camps actually go hand in hand, to be honest with you. If you empower your employees to improve the guest experience, one is gonna happen towards the other. It’s kind of a symbiotic relationship. But it is interesting to see, because you talk about AI and technology, I think the one thing that everyone can agree on hospitality is you don’t want to be left behind, right? And there was an interesting keynote that was at the hospitality show, futurist that was talking about hospitality and how you have to, you don’t wanna be the first one into the bear cave of technology. You’d rather be the second person exploring the bear cave. And while I do agree with that, I do think it is gonna be those innovators that jump into kind of the deep end and try to integrate this stuff. I think guests right now, and consumers are out out of place where they’re still willing to accept a little bit of a learning curve when it comes to AI and technology, then they will be in, let’s say six months to a year. So it might be that first brand that goes all in that might be known as a trendsetter rather than saying, well, this was, this was rolled out prematurely. So we’ll be interesting to see more and more brands obviously rolling different things out. But I think, you know, they’re trying to go about this really systematically in hospitality as we know, a little bit late to the game with adopting some of this technology. I mean, you get to some of the hotels and some of the some of the technologies still very outdated. So you talk about rolling that up across a brand or a portfolio of hotels could take some time. So we’ll see how that plays out. You know, a couple great conversations. This is always a great show to look at the relationship between brands, management companies and owners, especially at a time, like I said, where profits are so tight, margins are so thin, who can bend a little bit more and what goodwill is that going to potentially serve in the long run here? I think there’s a jockeying for position between the brands right now. We’ve seen management companies, you know, sprout overnight and some really, really successful management companies start to make some strategic partnerships and start to get into areas that are trendsetting. You know, I think about hotel equities in the postcard, cabins, portfolio and play. I think it’s very interesting to see, and we’ll continue to see that because right now we’re at a place that just feels we’re getting a little stuck in our industry and we gotta figure out a way to kinda wiggle through it. And that’s where that creativity and ingenuity that I was talking about comes into play. And then finally, you know, my last takeaway from the incredible couple days that we had out in Denver was, first of all, what an amazing city. Denver, Colorado. And I love the fact that they actually, they had the mayor of Denver at the show was a part of the ribbon cutting ceremony. Rosanna Maieta from AHLA did a great interview with, the mayor of Denver and talking about how the city had teamed up with hospitality. And it was really inspiring and it was really cool to see Denver, you know, they talked about the importance of sports tourism. We were there during a Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys game. You could see that sports tourism dollar being spent all over the restaurants, hotels. So it is interesting in markets that might be a little bit more challenged right now, you know, we saw this last year with San Francisco, this year, Las Vegas. Can some of these city stakeholders come together with hospitality management companies, associations, professionals, and do some things to again, kind of get us unstuck in some of these markets that have been struggling? There’s other markets right now that are doing a fantastic job and we spoke to you know, some of the portfolio leaders that have assets in those, in those markets. And it was extremely compelling. Definitely suggests, if you haven’t already subscribe to our YouTube page, you can see all the exclusive content. We had eight incredible interviews with professionals, hospitality professionals, like I said, heads of associations, brand leaders and c-suite executives from multiple management companies. And it was just such a privilege and an honor to be able to, to kind of talk hospitality with them. So, you know, again, Denver was incredible, very excited about Miami next year. And if he didn’t get the opportunity, go check out my interview with Alexi Khajavi at Questex who did. I think one of the best ways we always have our, our hospitality show preview with Alexi, I think in the interview we had out in Denver was probably the best way to really hype up what Miami 2026 is gonna be about in a event that is so comprehensive. The independent hotel space is really bubbling up right now. Brands want to be independents, independents wanna act more like brands. There’s this, there’s this inflection point that we’re headed towards this fork in the road that we’re headed towards. And it’s all gonna culminate next year in Miami, an independent hotel capital of the world. We are very familiar, as you know, we head down there on an annual basis. I’m so excited that it’s right here in our backyard. We’re gonna take the bright line down. We’re gonna be bringing you so much coverage, exclusive interviews, and we’re gonna get, we’re gonna get a little bit more exclusive coverage and we’re gonna be doing a lot of stuff leading up to the show to prepare you for it. So I hope you’ll stay with me. Subscribe, follow, but to put a final bow on 2025 hospitality show. Incredible. Thank you again to AHLA and Questex for making this possible. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us in Miami 2026. Thank you for listening to the Suite Spot, and we will talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Tune in to the most recent AHLA Check-In episode with President & CEO of the AHLA Foundation, Kevin Carey! As a familiar face on the Suite Spot, Kevin stops in to give us the latest and greatest developments and advocacy work taking place at the American Hotel & Lodging Association. 

Be sure to watch now to know what current events are impacting the hospitality industry.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embee. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree for another AHLA industry check-in this time with a familiar guest, Kevin Carey. Familiar guest, but a little bit different position. We’re gonna talk about that in a second. But he is the Chief Operating Officer at AHLA and President and CEO of the AHLA Foundation. Kevin, welcome back to the Suite Spot,

Kevin Carey:
Ryan, terrific to be with you again. It’s

Ryan Embree:
Great to have you. Like I said, you know, you’ve been on a couple times we’ve talked about that, but this time in a new role with AHLA, congratulations, by the way, on that. Can you share with our audience a little bit about the new role, maybe a day to day and what you get the pleasure of doing every single day, as President and CEO of the AHLA foundation?

Kevin Carey:
Well, I’d be happy to. It’s definitely keeping me busy, but it’s a good busy, and very much a rewarding, busy as well. And in my new capacity, where I get to lead the foundation, I get to work alongside a dedicated group of colleagues, Jen, Eliza, Kara, and Lindsay, to also a committed group of industry leaders, who were on our board of trustees, and the organization that we help to advance is one that’s focused just on that front on advancing the people of the industry, our workforce, so day in, day out, having that teamwork and collaboration, but also working with our industry leaders to put the people forward on the industry front, and to work to support not only our current employees, but also to identify the future workforce is a vital role and very engaging.

Ryan Embree:
So critical. Right now, you’re right, we’ve had conversations about it. We’re gonna touch a little bit on this episode, but, you know, I’d see AHLA foundation all the time, the work, the stories that you guys are putting out there, you travel the country just got back from the lodging conference a couple days ago. But, you know, for those hoteliers who, you know, see the brand, they see some of the stories, you know, can you share maybe some of the origin story of the AHLA foundation and really at the foundation, so to speak of its mission over there?

Kevin Carey:
I’d be happy to. The foundation has been around for 72 years. It was founded in 1953, as a scholarship fund. And over that tenure year and arc and of its existence has done terrific work. What I’ve also shared recently as we’ve been working through a process with our board of trustees as looking at our future direction is that in many respects, this is a young 72-year-old organization. And by that I mean a number of the most prominent and highly visible initiatives that the foundation is involved in right now, whether it’s our forward initiative or No Room for Trafficking. These are programs and initiatives that have really been created, launched and grown over about the last three to five years timeframe. So, while we’ve got a proud, uh, tradition and history, we also have a number of, of very important new initiatives. And the work we’re doing to advance the industry’s workforce and to ensure the people are front and center is really vital in the current environment. As we think about the industry’s future growth prospects.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s an incredible legacy. And to be able to, that’s what you want out of advocacy and foundational work is you wanna be able to say, we’re introducing new initiative strategies, the AHLA tackles so many important issues, but perhaps none more important than human trafficking prevention. Something that a lot of the brands have, have taken major steps to get behind. You recently held your No Room for Trafficking Summit, an event dedicated to that. Tell us about that event and some of the feedback that you were hearing from hoteliers on this really critical issue.

Kevin Carey:
Let me put that initiative in the context of our role and mission overall. So, as I talked about with being that young, 72-year-old organization, we really view our mission in advancing the workforce as being centered around how do we develop and support the current workforce today, the 2.1 million people who serve guests, and work together to create that experience as future workforce is being so important to ensure that over time we’re attracting people to the industry and they know the career pathways that are available, but a third area and this aligns with the No Room for Trafficking Initiative. How can we leverage our role as a convening entity for the industry, bringing together all segments of the industry, including the service provider and supplier segment, to focus on initiatives industry-wide, where we can make a difference. And in that respect, that’s where No Room for Trafficking fits in and really underscores the industry’s longstanding commitment to working to eradicate human trafficking. We created the No Room for Trafficking Initiative in 2019 with a focus on bringing training to the industry, so our employees on the front lines, vendors and suppliers as well, could see the signs and help provide that frontline and bring awareness to this issue. We also in 2022, created the Survivor Fund, so we could help provide funding meaningful contributions to local community-based organizations to help assist survivor of survivors of human trafficking get back on their feet and ideally create an opportunity for employment in the industry as well. So this is an issue that our work is not done. We’re reaffirming our commitment to this. We’re aligning, the work the brands do around this area with owners and management companies, as well. And you’re gonna continue to see us in this area leaning in on this important issue.

Ryan Embree:
So powerful. And, you know, I’ve had the, the privilege of attending the hospitality show, which we’re gonna touch on here for the last couple of years, and to hear some of the inspiring and, and moving stories from that initiative. And it’s, again, so powerful to see common cause like this, where all the brands are really trying to get involved vendors and the, like, you know, we really need the entire industry, to really team up against an issue like this. Good. Couldn’t agree more, not be siloed.

Kevin Carey:
Its obviously a global issue. It’s not unique to the lodging industry, but the lodging industry’s leadership in this area the industry-wide commitment to playing a meaningful role in this respect. And to your point, Ryan, the individual stories, just about a week ago, Eli and I attended an event at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Safe Center, which is an organization that’s providing critical services to survivors of human trafficking. And to hear, one of the program participants, a survivor herself, to help tell her individual story and how she’s now thriving, and shows the strength to share our own experience, but also serves, as someone who is such a role model for, others who are impacted by this area. So, through the Survivor Fund, we’ve now contributed close to $2.4 million, in grants, to community-based organizations to help them provide these surround, surround support services, to survivors. And we’re very proud of this work and the impact it’s having and our continued commitment to it.

Ryan Embree:
That’s an incredible figure, congratulations to you and your team, and, you know, so happy to hear that so many people are contributing to this. Now, another key initiative you touched on was the foundation really leading in its advancement of women in hospitality through its forward program. I’ve had the honor of having several hospitality, female leaders and influencers in the hotel industry incredible, who have mentioned this program. Can you share some of the details, of this initiative and the impacts that you’re seeing?

Kevin Carey:
I’d be happy to forward really is a movement, we’re so proud of the growth, that we’ve seen and the engagement since its launched as a conference alone in 2018. But now, the initiative has expanded from an event and a conference that we convene annually to leadership development through our Build and Elevate program, and as well, through the community building aspects through a network we’ve established, that has close to 5,000 participants, mostly women but also men who are engaged in this initiative and wanna play a role in helping to women to advance in the industry. So across each of those three categories, the conference and event, the leadership development, and the community building aspect of this forward, continues to grow, through awareness engagement. We’re excited, as we look ahead to 2026, to host our event again in Atlanta, Georgia, April 16 and 17. So, please mark your calendars.

Ryan Embree:
Yes, we will. It’s so awesome to see, you know, movements like that, like you mentioned, Kevin, because it’s something that organically starts to, you know, through the community and networks starts to build. And then you put an event like that forward conference that happens in the spring, and you can just see the energy and, you know, something that hospitality is, you know, really needed for us. We talked about the staffing shortage, you know, through these times a couple years ago and really inspiring all walks of life, even especially young people to see hospitality as more than maybe just a summer job at college, but a career path that they can go down. And I saw recently, I wanna make sure I get this figure right, the AHLA foundation awarded more than $700,000 in academic scholarships to 246 students nationwide. The Suite Spot has a soft spot for those college graduate, I’m a UCF Rosen graduate, you know, we did our hospitality campus crawl series where we visited different hospitality schools in the state of Florida. What is this accomplishment? When you hear that figure 700,000, almost 250 students mean to you and your team?

Kevin Carey:
First, a major thank you to our generous contributors over time who’ve provided funds who really see this as an investment in the future of the industry. So, we wouldn’t be able to distribute the scholarship dollars and see that the impact that they’re having without our generous sponsors and contributors over time. An interestingly right now is a unique period where we’re starting to get notes and emails back from some of the recipients of these scholarship funds and just the deep impact and the personal impact that it has so many of the students for sharing what this means for them and their ability to advance their studies and advance their careers, in this industry. But this is an important, aspect of our focus around ensuring we have the future workforce, to help enable and support the industry to thrive. So, whether it’s a focus on our affiliated schools and the two in the four year community, also looking to expand, our focus, you referenced the career pathways, Ryan, it’s, it’s vital that not only students, but prospective future employees just understand the breadth of roles, opportunities, and access that this industry provides. And what an attractive opportunity for career advancement and growth that the hospitality and the lodging industry represent. So we’re thrilled with the scholarship, aspect. Such a rewarding time of year to see some of those individual impacts it’s having. But know that we’ve got a big responsibility as we look to the next five and 10 years to be working on initiatives that can ensure that the industry has the people in place to deliver that hospitality and to help be an enabler of future growth.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. As me and you know, Kevin, it’s an amazing industry. The more we can be transparent, show these success stories, and more hospitality leaders I can host on the podcast that said, Hey, you know what, I got a scholarship from the AHLA foundation and went through a hospitality specific course of education. I think we’re doing our job there. Because, right now, staffing continues to be a challenge. But I think more than ever, there’s so many incredible inspiring, stories out there that have made have such a love for hospitality, and it’s such a unique industry.

Kevin Carey:
We had the opportunity, Ryan just, you referenced, lodging conference, to host some students, while in Phoenix. We had students from Howard University and Bethune Cookman. Many were pure play hospitality students. Others were in the business school, but were looking at and considering the hospitality industry. But the diversity of fields of study that they were coming from, from legal to finance to sales and marketing. But their eyes were opened about the unique qualities and attributes of lodging in the hospitality industry. And it was terrific, to see their eyes opened and the enthusiasm, that they were gonna carry back to them. And I said, you know, you can grow your career here in a meaningful way and from the entry level to the senior most levels, but tell your peers and friends as well. Beause we wanna ensure that people understand the opportunity that this industry represents.

Ryan Embree:
Great point, Kevin. I mean, hospitality conferences, there’s so many events that happen locally and nationwide. You know, the hospitality show that AHLA does in their regional events, great exposure. If you’re a young professional, highly, highly encourage you to go visit those network talk to industry professionals who’ve made a career out of it, because this can just only develop you professionally throughout your career. And mentorship, you know, we’ve talked about that. That’s one of my favorite questions to ask. And sometimes it comes up organically when I ask about people’s backgrounds and hospitalities, they’ll mention one or two names that were really strong mentors to them in their hospitality journey, which led them to where they were. And, you know, the AHLA runs a leadership mentoring program. I think sometimes people are intimidated sometimes when they hear that word mentor, right? And so, I would almost ask you, you know, what would be your pitch to any hotel leader or hospitality professional to be really embrace mentorship, whether that’s formal program like the one that you offer at the AHLA foundation or simply just by guiding the next generation.

Kevin Carey:
You mentioned, I think both of us used the word access, whether that’s the opportunity that the industry presents, but also how so many hospitality leaders, in our industry make themselves accessible. Just back to the reference I made to the students we hosted in Phoenix, I saw our chair, Mitch Patel, and a chair of our foundation, a new Senna with Hilton Supply Management, spending time with the students and having conversations, providing their LinkedIn credentials, probably their cell phone numbers as well. So mentorship can take a quick, it could be an individual interaction or it can be a more formal process over time. But it’s so essential, a plug maybe an industry friend and someone who just authored a book on this called, who Believed in you by Dean of Powell McCormick, and her husband, David McCormick, who’s the US Senator from Pennsylvania. Just an outstanding book that talks about power of mentorship and the role it’s played in so many individuals, careers and lives. And this industry really responds to that call as well. Our own mentorship program we’ve got 30% more in participants than we set as a target. And that’s linking together industry leaders with emerging professionals in the industry who are available to share their lessons learned and provide guidance, so people can have that access to industry leaders. So, we’re thrilled with the role we can be, we play as a facilitator and an enabler in that regard.

Ryan Embree:
And mentorship can come in all different types of forms. I mean, you mentioned it, you know, even responding to a simple LinkedIn message, telling your story, sharing that story. A lot of the times, that’s what I find so inspiring in hospitality is, you know, talking to a professional that’s been doing it for a decade, two decades, maybe you’ve even made a 30 year career out of hospitality. And how transferable their skills is where they’ve been able to go all over the world, travel and have that career that they’re so proud of. So mentorship can really come all shapes and forms. I think some of the, those most powerful ones are just sharing your story sometimes. And, you know, one of the places we get the opportunity to hear those stories is the GM of the Year Awards at the Hospitality Show. We’ll both be headed out to Denver. We ran into each other and at the opening ceremony in San Antonio at the party. You know, what’s, what’s your favorite part of the hospitality show, and what are you most looking forward to this year?

Kevin Carey:
What’s always best about that and that really aligns with the role, AHLA plays of bringing the entire industry together. There are a number of conferences, we attend them, they’re terrific, but that they may be focused on a particular function in the industry or objective, bringing the entire industry together from the brand companies to independent hotels, to management companies, owners, all forms and industry verticals of suppliers, as well students, GMs having the entire cross section of the industry ecosystem together in one place with a common focus on the purpose of the show, which is how do you leverage technology and operations to drive profitability? So it’s just great to have everyone together. We’re always gonna be strongest as an industry when we’re working together and being able to, through our roles at the AHLA and the AHLA foundation play, that convening entity role with our partners at Questex, is really just a terrific opportunity. And we’re looking forward in two weeks, to being out in Denver.

Ryan Embree:
It’s a must attend event. We’re so excited to be headed there. Once again, you know, we both love our industry, but it certainly it’s one of the most complex as well. There’s so many elements to it, which also make it so beautiful. And what we talked about, about how people can find different careers in any shape, size, or form in hospitality, because there are so many different elements that you’re exposed to, which makes for a great show, like the Hospitality Show, which hosts so many aspects and insights from that show. So we’re excited to be there. Hopefully we’ll get to run into you, Kevin, and get some what far go. Get some onsite thoughts there. But for hotels, listening, you know, always like to provide resources, education for the listeners, if they’re looking to get more information about, or even get involved with the AHLA foundation in some capacity, what’s the best way to do that you can share today?

Kevin Carey:
There’s so many avenues, of engagement, for AHLA as a whole, but the foundation in particular, we’ve referenced a number of them through our events, like Forward and the No Room for Trafficking Summit, through the work that we do to support current workforce through apprentice programs, and, and to engage with prospective future employers. So we welcome, that participation and engagement, in so many forums, beyond the Hospitality Show in Denver. We’ll be turning our attention to our annual night of a thousand Stars event, which we’ll recognize, the top employees, across a number of areas in the industry. So please, certainly visit our website, reach out to me directly and or our team, everyone who’s got an interest in helping to advance our people and cast that spotlight on the industry and help play a meaningful role in attracting the future workforce for the industry. We’ve got an interest in working with you and a place for you and one of our programs or initiatives.

Ryan Embree:
Awesome. Well, again, incredible gratitude and thanks for everything you know, that you and AHLA and the foundation does for our industry. So important. We’ll wrap up the same way we like to kind of to wrap up every episode, kind of looking into the future. What are you look most looking forward to for the rest of this year? And before we know it’s already gonna be 2026, so what are you excited for next year going into for the AHLA foundation?

Kevin Carey:
I’m really excited for the future direction as I referenced, we’ve spent a lot of time this year looking meaningfully at our portfolio of initiatives, working closely with our leadership in our board to ensure that we’ve got the right portfolio of initiatives and how can we expand those to have that right impact on supporting the current employees in attracting the future workforce. And again, where we can play that convening entity role and make a meaningfully difference in human trafficking prevention and advancing women in hospitality. So you’re gonna hear more from us on all those fronts and with our terrific team and my colleagues, look forward to having more discussion with you over time.

Ryan Embree:
We’re ready for it. Ears and eyes are ready to go. And like you said, you know, it’s got a legacy of a foundation, but still young in its roots and some of the, the major initiatives you’re doing. So thank you again. Any final thoughts as we wrap up today? We covered a lot.

Kevin Carey:
Sure. We certainly did. Thank you for the opportunity. I know I send greetings from my colleague, Rosanna, who leads, AHLA overall, and we’re working closely together on through both entities to really advance the industry, and also to support and advance, the people in the workforce of the industry. So we like to say that we’re, two, enter two entities, but one enterprise, working together to really make this industry a special place. Appreciate your efforts. Another, who give us a platform to share that.

Ryan Embree:
Thank you, Kevin. You know, we know your time is very precious with all the initiatives and, you know, traveling you’re doing. So appreciate you taking time outta your day to talk to us here on the Suite Spot. Thank you again for all the work you’re doing over there.

Kevin Carey:
Thank you so much. Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
All right. Thank you. And we’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Tune in to this special episode of the Suite Spot to hear from two very special guests of the International Luxury Hotel Association. First off, President of the ILHA, Barak Hirschowitz, and Co-Founder of the association, Jonathan Edelheit, join the podcast to preview the upcoming INSPIRE USA conference taking place on December 10-11, in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

These two luxury hospitality experts discuss several important topics in this episode, including the humble origin of the ILHA, how the luxury hotel market is leading the industry in innovation, what attendees can look forward to from INSPIRE USA 2025, and much more.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot, episode 185, and from the title we are previewing another hospitality event. One of my favorite things to do look at, and this one, it’s a first timer for me, not certainly for our guests. I’m gonna bring them and we’re gonna talk all about it. The Inspire USA event hosted by ILHA, the International Luxury Hotel Association. My two guests with me today, Barak Hirschowitz, President of the ILHA, and Jonathan Edelheit, co-founder of the ILHA, Barak, Jon, thank you so much for taking the time and checking into the Suite Spot with me.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Well, thank you. It’s wonderful to be here and great to meet you.

Ryan Embree:
And we’re excited about it, excited about the event, but before we get into that, I wanna just start with a little bit of hospitality background. We always love to kind of start there. Hospitality’s such a funky industry. People come from different brands, they come from different backgrounds. Sometimes they fall into it, sometimes they fall into the industry with a summer job, sometimes they’re born into the industry. So I figured let’s go ahead and give our Suite Spot audience a little bit of background into your hospitality journey and what led you to the ILHA Barak. We’ll start with you and then go to Jon.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Yeah, thanks. So I started in the industry in the late, late eighties, early nineties. I went to Johnson Wales. I started as a, I started in culinary, as many people do in the hotel industry. And those were interesting times because back then there were really only a couple of places you get a degree in culinary arts. So it led me to, you know, travel abroad, which was great. I started, just before I went overseas, I did an internship at the Grand Floridian, which believe it or not, was still a fairly new hotel back then. And then started working abroad internationally, moved eventually to more the hotel side of the business. I worked in South Africa for some very well-known hotel brands. Sun International. Sun International is Saul K’s original brand that he had when he was still based in South Africa. So that, you know, today we know him for Atlantis and we know him for one, um, one and only hotels. But, um, back then he had Sun International, so I worked with him. I worked for a company called Halian Hotels, which had, uh, luxury hotels in, in South Africa, and actually a few up Africa as well. And, um, I had an opportunity, I guess my sort of real push, first push into luxury was in the late nineties. I got to help open a hotel called Bushman’s Klu in South Africa, which is a luxury safari lodge. The year, within a year of opening, we, um, we became a member of Relay and Chateau, which was a pretty prestigious, uh, pretty prestigious organization. And after I left a couple of years later, the hotel went on to win Best Hotel in the world, um, travel and Leisure. So, you know, that was a, it was really a, a great opportunity to see the best of the best in the world. I still to this day think it’s probably the most luxurious property I’ve ever stayed in, and still the best service, uh, that I’ve ever seen in any hotel. So it was great to be able to work in a place that had that level of, of, um, of luxury and, and, and guest experience. And so I think everything that I see compares to that time back then. So that’s really how I fell into the luxury hotel industry or came into luxury hotel industry.

Ryan Embree:
What an incredible story and journey, one of the questions I pose all the time on this to my podcast guest is, your favorite hotel that you’ve ever stayed in and to be able to work for the number one hotel or have at one point, probably an easy answer to that question. Then, Jon, let’s, let’s move over to you. Where is your kind of background, and hospitality and brought you to ILHA?

Jonathan Edelheit:
I think it was definitely an interesting path over to the ILHA, originally, out of law school, I actually went into the health insurance industry, and then I was the first one to implement corporate wellness programs, employee health and wellness before was employee health and wellness. I, eventually, um, got very passionate about options for healthcare and founded the Medical Tourism Association, which operates all over the world as the Global Trade Association. And, and interestingly that’s, there’s a big segment of luxury, uh, travelers in that who are traveling, who have a lot of money to travel for the best healthcare in the world, stay at luxury, uh, hotels, and also engage in luxury kind of wellness activities. And so, uh, from that space, we, we dealt with a lot of governments, tourism boards, luxury hotels around the world. And that was a little bit of my segue, um, not not sharing the full story of like how Barack and I met and, and the founding of the ILHA, but came in from kind of a, a different side of it and, um, you know, but very passionate about it. And you mentioned about, um, you, the comment about your favorite luxury hotel. When you say that, I feel like it always evokes in all of our minds, you know, we get this visual of a specific hotel or specific experiences that really make us love certain properties. And I feel like that’s something that the luxury side has, that the other side doesn’t have, where, you know, there’s that the, they’re so focused on these special moments in every single detail that it really, I feel like almost seers into your brains and emotions, like some of those special things. And you notice it when it’s not there at properties.

Ryan Embree:
Well, 100%. And that’s why you hear with, uh, especially the luxury sector. I mean, you have generations sometimes going to the same property or hotel that say, you know, my grandparents, I grew up here going to this luxury resort, you know, my parents then brought me, now I’m taking my kids here. You know, really in depth, uh, connections to our guests and travelers that you’re absolutely right, Jon, I think the luxury sector has, and, and it’s such a privilege to be in that space because you really get to emotionally connect with your traveler there. But I love hearing both your stories because it’s a, a, it’s a parallel of what we hear all the time in, in hospitality. One, uh, person that went to school for hospitality and culinary, and then the other one that went to school for something completely different and found themselves. And it’s the perfect mix and match, and that’s what makes our industry hospitality. So great. We’ve had the pleasure on this podcast. We’ve spoken to founders of management companies, you know, even a couple new brands, which seem to be popping up every single day, but I believe this is the first time that we’ve had founders of a hospitality association. So I wanna know what kind of goes through, you know, your mind, what’s the inspiration behind saying, Hey, let’s start this and, and give us kind of that, that background story about the ILHA. Jon, we’ll start with you.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Sure. I think what’s interesting about it is, is probably not many people that are like, let’s go start a, you know, let’s go start a nonprofit trade association, right? But I think you have to be passionate about wanting to bring change and wanting to bring innovation. You know, so you know, how ILHA was, was born, and I’ll tell my side of the story, and then Barak could share his is, you know, we saw this, this very specific fit within medical tourism with the medical tourism association within the luxury hotel segment. And that there needed to be deeper ties and connections to the space because everything needs to be integrative. Someone’s traveling for healthcare with their family, and they’re staying at a luxury property. Like it needs to be interconnected, it can’t be fragmented. And so we decided this was an area that we really needed to have deeper involvement from the luxury hotel side. And so I had reached out to Barak to speak at one of our conferences. And then I’ll let Barak maybe segue in from, from there as we, uh, you know, continue the line of the story.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Yeah. So I think, yeah, definitely I’ll bring you up to how Jon and I met because we started as luxury hotelers for those of that have known us since the beginning. I think what happened when I went to hotel school was we were taught that this is how luxury looks, this is how it smells, this is how it operates, this is how it feels. This is a, we all know that vision. If we’re, if you were in hotel school, uh, you know, even I think of like Alex Soar, president for Europe and Middle East, he went to Lassan, same thing, right? So when he, when we were talking about this, when he was in hotel school, it was, you know, it was marble, it was white table cloth, it was French chef, and pretty much that was luxury, right? So luxury was a very easy to understand, very easy to build or, or vision of what luxury is. And the guest expected, right? Then the internet came along and changed everything, right? So it changed our industry and continues to change it ever since. So let’s say for 300 years, luxury hospitality or luxury hotel industry looked one way, and then all of a sudden it went in a million different directions. And so, and with that, so did the growth of the industry. So at that time, those of us who had started to reach a point in our career where we were making bigger and bigger decisions, often those becoming quite expensive decisions. We couldn’t rely on the information that we learned from, let’s say, the traditional associations in our country that were, you know, the kind of associations that have been going back forever. Or the schools, they were what they had taught us was starting to change. Those rules didn’t work anymore. And so we started to but the internet was, was coming around forums. I dunno if you’re, I’m sure you remember forums were kind of a new thing back then. And so in the early two thousands, we created a forum called Luxury Hotels. And the idea was we invited 50, approximately about 50 hotels that I knew through the industry that were all kind of working internationally for brands, operators, asset management. Some of them were getting to asset management then. And the idea was just to kind of crowdsource or brainstorm some best practices to take on some of these new challenges. And so luxury tellers became this forum. It was around the time LinkedIn was starting as well. So, we moved on, we decided, oh, this looks like a cool tool. I’m not kidding you. And we started our group on LinkedIn, we had to tell people what it was, right? So they were like, well, what’s that? I’m like, it’s just a platform, but it’s kind of cool for this purpose, right? So we started the group and uh, we started just crowdsourcing, asking questions, and it was like a, for the forum just took off. And we were the first hospitality or travel group to ever had a hundred thousand people on LinkedIn. This was quite a long time ago. And at the time, we were a top 100, uh, group. Actually, LinkedIn asked us this. They used us at, they, they used our group as their example at their annual conference. And so of what groups can do, and so to, I mean, there’s so many things, but just to give you like some simple ones from the early days, right? Back then, Chinese travelers were first starting to travel and stay in luxury hotels around the world. And many of the hoteliers didn’t know how to cater for that, right? So we created one of our forum topics was we invited a couple of the hoteliers, uh, Peter Gaston was one of our co-founders, was the time he was he just retired, but he was one of the senior people for Ritz Carlton and Asia based in Hong Kong and a couple of others. And we said like, what can we do for guests that are traveling? And I remember one of the first things that came outta that was, you should put disposable slippers in the room, right? And here today, every time I open like a cupboard in any luxury hotel around the world, and I see the, so this disposable slippers, that was like one of the first things that really, like, it’s a great reminder of like the early days of the organization, but it was, it was, it was things like wifi, should we charge for wifi, you know, all these kind of discussions. We even had, I remember there was a Swiss hotelier that had like four or five ski lodges and was looking, was starting a loyalty program. And he asked for a name, and I think he got like 120 names or something in 24 hours. And he said he was able to pick like two or three names better than any agency could give him, you know? And that’s when we realized, wow, we’ve got some power. So at that point, a lot of the people who were quite actively involved in the forum suggest that we start an association, and we were told, I started to contact some of the existing associations and other people out there that, you know, kind of were involved with associations. And they’re like, why do you wanna do that? You know, the associations are like trying to be what you are today, right? Because back before then, associations, you, you couldn’t only get business information from school and then later on through your company, or if you wanted to know what other people were doing, you had to go to an association, an association event, get the association magazine. But now we had these new online forums where you could share information and it was a little bit more opaque. I mean, it was a little bit more transparent, sorry, and easy to get. And so, but at the same time, I think you need that connection and just structure, because we were all just volunteering our time. And that’s, as Jon said, he invited me to speak at an event. He had a very successful travel association. I the event that I attended, I think he had about four or 5,000 people at. And we were chatting afterwards, and that’s when he, you know, he suggested to us that we start the association, or at least to give us the structure of an association. As Jon mentioned, he went to law school, and so he really knew the ins and outs of that. So we were able to kind of combine the best of both worlds, which is this very large audience that we have, but then take in some of the structure of an association so that we could really employ some people to help this thing continue to grow.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s incredible foresight to see, I mean, LinkedIn in the early days, I remember that was just a big job board for a lot of people for you. So for you to see the foresight to say, Hey, let’s use this as open forum. Let’s stop. You know, Jon, you mentioned fragmentation of the industry sometimes and silos that what that we sometimes find ourselves in, but to exchange those ideas because the luxury traveler today is truly international, and the luxury segment. So to make sure that you’re sharing those ideas, seeing those trends, and I’m sure a lot of those get brought up at the, what we’re previewing today, the inspire USA, event that we’re gonna turn our attention to December 10th and 11th, 2025 marks the 16th edition. It’s gonna mark the first edition that I will be going there. Almost positive you guys have been at every single one. Maybe talk us through the evolution of what year one looks like in comparison to year 16 and what the, and what we have in store for in Vegas this year.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Cool. Well, Jon, you were pretty heavily involved in year one, so let’s give you, uh, let’s give you the, the start on that one.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Yeah, no, I mean, I think year one was interesting. I forget what city that took place in Barak, but,

Barak Hirschowitz:
DC.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Okay. Because I remember Orlando, we had the elephant. We had a 10,000 pound elephant to come in the room. Her name was Roxy. And that was a theme around the elephant in the room. The industry was this topic. But, you know, when we started, it was, you know, ILHA, you know, was built out at the same time as we were holding our medical tourism conference, because part of the purpose of that was to lend the expertise of, you know, running a trade show is not easy. You know, the executive producers, the management, the space, there’s a huge investment in, in organizing it to launch it. And so, you know, I, you know, it, it’s always exciting and stressful when you’re in events because it’s not just, you know, from the first events, I feel like is the hardest. But at the same time, as you grow, I almost feel like there’s more pressure in year 16 than than previous years, because you always have to be better, right? You’ve gotta bring in, you know, better speakers. You have to have growth. You have to really dive into innovation and what people want. So the first year, it was a smaller event, but great in the fact that it’s new, right? So people come, everyone’s passionate, and every year we’ve really, um, striven to, you know, grow and make the, the, the attendees more diverse, bring in always better speakers, you know, and, and stay on top of what’s going on in luxury hotels and travel all around the world so people can get everything. ’cause like you said, is back in the day, I feel like luxury travel was almost like very siloed in the type of people that would travel. And now it’s a very diverse industry. I’m sure there’s people who still potentially don’t under, uh, understand it because you also have segments of luxury that like, where wealthy people can’t afford those luxury hotels because there’s all these different segments going. What I’m excited about is just, you know, some of the niche in our events going forward, focusing on all these areas of personal experience and the breadth of where we’re seeing luxury, luxury go. But I’ll, I’ll turn it over to Barak.

Barak Hirschowitz:
So, and although our event was quite small, as Jon said, you know, at the first event, it was actually a large event. So what happened was, and this is the benefit of partnerships, right? So by meeting Jon, they already had four and a half thousand people coming to their travel conference. So he gave us space and the expertise and the lift to be able to build a co-located show within his show. So the amazing thing was that even though our show was a segment of his, you know, a smaller part of his show, and we did that for about three years before we were able to kind of really have the size to go out on our own. But those first couple of years were great because people who attended the event for them, I mean, they were able to attend basically two events in one. We had some really high powered, high level speakers because of the size of Jon’s event, and that really gave us a lot of cloud in the early days. So, you know, I can’t thank Jon enough for taking us and helping us have kind of those training wheels in the early days and make us, we were able to bat a lot bigger than we you know, than we were at that time. So that was great. I think it really helped us.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Barak, I just had the flashback to, I think it was after the three years, Barak said, Hey, listen, we, we need to be in a luxury hotel now, because we were doing it in convention centers, right? A luxury hotel conference can’t really be in a convention center.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Although I say I say that. And now it’s interesting because, and, and I know we’re the topic of this, this, this, uh, podcast is on the INSPIRE USA, but I’d like to mention that we inspire, Europe is returning for its third year, and it’s actually next month, uh, in November. So it’s, it’ll be the 12th and the 13th in Prague. And Prague is, we’re very excited because Prague doesn’t normally get larger conference. They’re obviously, it’s a very, very busy tourism city, probably one of the best, and busiest tourist cities in Europe. But they don’t get a lot of meetings there because large meetings there because of the hotels that are quite small. And so for us, even just to find a hotel that could hold more than a couple of hundred people was difficult. So we partnered with the grand with the Park Hyatt there. However, the event is actually taking place in the Czech National Bank headquarters Congress Center. So it’s their former, their former, stock exchange commodities exchange, which is the most beautiful you can imagine. The bank uses it, and Moody’s just had their European conference there. So it’s this very beautiful royal building, and it’s right across the street from the hotel. So we’re very excited to be having that there. But yeah, and that’s only because we’ve, there just wasn’t the capacity for us there, um, in luxury hotel, but fortunately in, uh, in the us there is, and so we’re, we’re back in Vegas again this year, um, at Resorts World, and we’re really looking forward to, to that.

Ryan Embree:
Well, that’s what I was gonna say, and Jon, to your comment, you know, you say bigger and better. So I’m expecting two elephants this year, uh, in Vegas, but you know, I don’t know.

Jonathan Edelheit:
I dunno if they’ll let us in the convention center. Where we either Orlando, our executive producer thought we were crazy, and it took about a couple calls over a month, and she was like, oh, you’re serious. And then two weeks later, she called back and said, you won’t believe it, Jonathan, but there’s an elephant sanctuary outside of Orlando, and we can get the elephant in the convention center. Said, we’ve never had a request like this before, but then they approved it.

Ryan Embree:
Hey, there you go. You know, and anything can, especially in Vegas too, anything can happen. So let, let’s try to make it happen. But I do wanna talk to you about that location is everything in hospitality when you’re talking hotels, but it, the same can be true with a successful hospitality event returning to Vegas this year. Barak, why, and maybe you can speak specifically to Resorts World, why was just this makes the perfect venue, for Inspire USA this year?

Barak Hirschowitz:
Yeah, so we had a wonderful event last year in Las Vegas. We’ve been we were a few years ago, we were at the Four Seasons Las Vegas, which we loved. It was a great event. They just, we just outgrew the space that they have there. Vegas is a, you know, Vegas is one of those places where you’re when you grow, if you get too big, I mean, if you get too big for the regular hotels, you still have to get a little bit larger to get into the very big spaces. So it’s kind of awkward and it can be tricky to find the right space. And last year we did with the Fountain Blue, we were very excited to be one of their first events from their opening, and we really enjoyed it. We try to change it up every year just to have something a little bit different. But Las Vegas was so successful for us that people just felt we should, we’ve never kept it in the same place two years in a row. We’ve always moved it kind of East Coast, west Coast, and, um, I chatted and so we, you know, we, we decided to, let’s, hey, let’s, we loved it. It was just so great being in Vegas, and it was easy for people to get to and there. And so we decided to look around, see what was there, and the weeks that we normally would do it at the Fountain Blue was, had already been booked from a year earlier. So we knew we were gonna have to be in a different location. Went over to Resorts World, checked it out, and while we were there, carnival uh, cruise Line was actually having a conference there. Arnold Donald, who used to the previous CEO had actually, um, been a speaker at one of our conferences previously. Uh, uh, and so I, I met a couple of his people there, uh, and they said, oh, come in and have a look around. And the space was perfect for us. So we, you know, we approached them and we’re very excited. It’s kind of a, it’s kind of a fun space because the area that we’re in is, it’s there, you know, the, the, there’s the normal convention side, and then there’s the part we, where we are is, is kind of like where the, a lot of the restaurants and things are. So it’s got a very engaged feel. Often I think you feel in meeting spaces, like you could be anywhere in the world. You know, meeting spaces tend to look a lot similar. What I’m very proud of this year is that both of our events are one in Prague and the one in Las Vegas, they don’t feel like they’re in convention space. So the space, for instance, that we’re in is multi, it’s kind of multi-floor, very unique space, but it’s also got views full floor to ceiling, you know, instead of looking at banqueting walls, we’re looking at floor to ceiling views of the strip. So, very excited about that.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, you can’t get much better than that. And that’s the beauty of having those connections made. You know, you might have a connection having a conference or convention in the Hotel next door, and you can go ahead and poke your head in and maybe see if it’s right for, for your association. So, uh, very cool. Jon, any thoughts on, on returning back to Vegas this year?

Jonathan Edelheit:
I’m excited to return back to Vegas, and I’m also excited, while the Fountain View Blue is a beautiful property just opened, I think a lot of our attendees also, they wanna experience other luxury hotels. They want to see everything that they have from the rooms to like, you know, just all the different aspects of it. So I think it’s just cool to be able to move around and showcase that. And I think the thing that excites me the most is we’ve really created this special place where the VIPs in the industry, you know, the owners, the asset managers, the hospitality management companies, the GMs can come together in like kind of an intimate group and share innovation and connect. And I think we’ve fostered a really great environment where it’s not in any way clique-ish. It’s like you can, you know, you, you could be standing there and meet the CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines or, or Virgin Hotels or the owners, uh, you know, someone who owns a hundred hotels and, and just like a normal person, and you can have a conversation. And that’s one thing I really love about our show is, you know, we’ll participate in shows in the hotel space, but I feel like there, there’s these big exhibitions where just you’re just meeting exhibitors. It’s mid-level people and you know, you’re just, you’re learning of our products, but there aren’t decision makers. And I just love the fact that we bring those decision makers that kind of share what they’re doing that’s special and that we can kind of impact the industry, but bring it together in more of an intimate setting. And we’ve also always tried to really control, um, that while we have sponsors, you know, that it’s, that it’s a limited number of sponsors, that it’s the right sponsors and that, you know, there’s that those right connections take place.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Sorry, John, I was gonna jump in. Um, I’d also just feel like this is a good time to, just a big shout out to, um, Encore and Cvent our event partners. They, um, well, obviously Cvent has, they, they do all of our, you know, our ticketing and registration, and they’ve made that really easy. But Encore, they have been supporting us over the years with, with just amazing innovative, uh, event tech. But I try to push the boundaries a little bit every year and try to think outside the box on how we can do this. Last year we wanted all stages in one. I think for us, when we can speak to this, I think, you know, it really lends to networking when you can keep people in the same area. And I think one of the problems with events and event spaces is often you’re spread out all over different places. So we pushed them last year, um, or not pushed them, we challenged them last year to come up with ways to keep everybody in the same space. And so they created these stages within spaces, um, so that you never had to leave the main space to go to any meeting space. And it meant doing something that was very unusual and it was very successful. And so when we met this year, they were like, what are you gonna do for us this year? What are you gonna, what’s, what’s the challenge for this year? So I said, well, this year we are going to, I said, you know, to be honest, conferences are great and they’re really important. Um, and it does, we, we do try to keep ours limited. We’re not trying to be an expo, but at the same time, most people can’t go to them, right? And we have to be respectful that our audience and our community, most of them are not gonna be able to attend this event, right? If you have 500,000 people that are in one way or another, connecting with you and your content and what you guys do in participating, there’s no way. So what we do is we give away everything, all of our content’s given away. It’s all recorded, and it’s all shared for free to everyone that’s out there that wants it. We’ve always done that. And so this year, to make that easier, we, our challenge to encore and, um, Helen and Brad from Encore, who have really, and their teams, was to create stages that were actually recording studios. So this year, all the stages are actually recording studios, and they’ve, they’ve built them to look like TV studios. So when our, and also I said, we don’t want anyone to feel like when you have multiple stages, there’s always like, oh, we wanna be on that stage or the stage. I said, each stage has to stand on its own at its own level so that when somebody speaks, whether they’re in, you know, the bigger room, I guess you could say, or the smaller. So we took these unique spaces that they created and we really built, like for instance, to me, the one that’s standout is a full on, it’s a full recording studio in an all in kind of a converted, um, they use it as meeting space, but it’s a converted, uh, retail luxury retail space that’s right next to us. And, but it’s all glass. So people from the whole, so while there were gonna be, you know, it has seating as a stage would normally have, but it’s built like a TV studio and it’s all glass, and you can see it from across the Mall of Resorts world. So as people are at restaurants and shops, they’re gonna kind of that times square effect where you, you’re in Times Square and you watch them shooting TV shows, it’s gonna look like that. So we’re really excited about that part of it this year.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s so cool. Another example of you guys breaking down barriers and silos, again, to give that content out and share that with everyone. Especially, I mean, right now we are at a really unique time in our industry where, I’ve talked about it on the podcast before about, I think hoteliers are, yeah, I’ll create a new term here, like FOMOT, which is like the fear of missing out on technology. And they are really, really nervous about, am I implementing technology enough or are my competitors ahead of me? So it these intimate settings that you’re talking about, you know, like Inspire, USA, these are great forums and opportunities for hoteliers to talk about that challenges that they’re having, the wins that they’re having, you know, and, and actually get a better sense and calibrate where they sit in trends, issues, and challenges that they’re having in the hospitality space. And that’s what we’ve craved and missed so much when events kind of disappeared, uh, on us, uh, a couple years ago. So, really excited to do that. And, you know, looking at the speaker list for the event, it’s really a who’s who in luxury hospitality. We could almost have an entire episode based on this agenda that I’ve seen so far. But Barak, Jon, what, what sessions are you most excited about, uh, seeing in this year’s educational programming? Barak will start with you.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Well, I’m not gonna fall into that trap of answering that question, <laugh>. But I wanna, I think it’s important to kind of set for those people we’re, you know, I think for people who haven’t been to inspire, let me tell you what I think sets us apart, that’s different, right? So there are a lot of events out there, and we partner with many of them, right? And they’re all, you know, most of them are longer established than us, I would say some of them are newer. But what sets us apart is firstly that we have this advantage of, because we have this huge, our online audience, we don’t need our events to be. So for us, we always host the event at the end. Our event is always this inspire in Las Vegas, this event is always held at the end of the year. It’s held right at, you know, anything about hotel lifecycle. It’s held right after Thanksgiving, but right before the Christmas holiday start, right after, um, uh, ILTM. And so what happens is, there’s this weird thing, like the year is done, it’s finished. Everything you’ve done for the year is behind you. If you work for any company of any kind, you’re done. I mean, obviously if you’re in operations, you’re about to get hit with Christmas, but generally it’s that quiet period where you can say, the books are closed, everything’s done, and we’re about to go on vacation. So we catch everyone at like, I feel like I attend a lot of conferences, and I feel like they’re always, you’re rushing from one to the next. We have got this energy usually like, I mean, I was thinking like over the years, like the Eden Rock and the Biltmore and all the Christmas decorations already up, and there’s just this, you know, and the Hanukah just all the, like seasonal holiday decorations are up and the vibe is in. And so what happens is people come there and they’re, they’re in this mood already. Like, okay, I can breathe and I can actually focus and have a good time. The second thing that sets us apart is that we started this organization. Everyone told us in the beginning that you need to like, be specific. Like what’s your focus? I think our, our hardest thing that we had in the beginning was trying to get people to understand that we’re not, we’re a little bit of everything and not one thing. And there’s a reason for that. So this is the one event that you can come in and you can meet and sit in front of people who are very, very high level asset managers. People who are involved, who typically only go to real estate conferences or investment conferences. They don’t go to operational conferences, they don’t go to tech conferences, they don’t go to food and beverage conferences, they don’t go to wellness conferences. They don’t go to sales and marketing events like ILTM, right? Then you have the same people, heads of brands who only go to those kind of, you know, W-T-M-I-I-T-B type events. Then you have people who are very senior, but only go to technology events, right? And then, and so we can go down the line, but the thing is that our industry’s really split into, I would say design, investment and operations. I mean, sorry, the design investment and, and, and sort of asset side, real estate side of the business. Then there’s the ops side of the business, and then there’s the marketing side of the business. If I had to generalize, right? So I think most events fall into one of those three categories. And depending on what their level is, even if they’re very senior, they tend to go to those events in their category. So it was very hard to convince them to come to something that maybe only had a little bit in their category, but when they came, they got to meet people that they don’t normally meet, but at very high levels. But they also got to learn stuff. You know, there was a time you could, you could be in the real estate side of the business and not need to know what’s going on in marketing or investment. I mean in ops and vice versa. You could be in marketing and not really have to know what goes on in real estate, but the industry has been changing so fast and continues to just accelerate that. If you don’t have your finger on the pulse of everything, then you are not gonna be able to make those big financial decisions in your category. And so this event is the only event that I know of that brings together very high level people across each category. So you may come here and go, oh, there’s not enough for me. There’s only a few things on investment here, and I only go to investment conferences. You better come to this one because it’s for those that do come here and they come every year, they say, okay, now I understand it’s like a finishing school. It’s just you’re gonna start that new year in a few weeks with kind of a better, more well-rounded vision of what’s going on in the industry than just what they tell you at the, you know, in your siloed part of the industry. So that’s really cool. The other thing is, it’s really, it’s not, we, we, we kind of limit how big it gets because it’s the level of people we have don’t tend to come to expo type events and they love to network with each other and just hang out with each other. And so we keep it very small by that standard of events, um, just so that they can, they can network and they love it, and they come back and they see each other once a year and stuff like that. So that’s really cool and that’s different. And then the last thing I’d say is, Jon kind of touched on it, our partners are supporters. Our entire organization is, is supported by sponsors and partners. But we’ve realized that it’s not just money that they give us. They actually give us like the expertise to run. We’re expected today as hoteliers to be, to know everything about everything and every, that changes every month what the guests want, right? It goes from, this is innovative to like, you better have it, right? So they, they don’t, they don’t compare you to the other hotels anymore. They compare you to their homes. So if they use Netflix at home and they love to watch the show and they come stay in your Italian, they can’t easily put Netflix on the tv. Now think about this. That was something that was not important maybe two years ago. Okay? And so what we talked to them about is you need to know what is, um, I’m actually giving a talk about this next week, but in Texas, but you need to, you need to, well, we help them identify, I think we’ve learned over the years is what’s innovative versus what is now sort of expected to what’s mandatory. And that changes. So like, I mean, think of coffee, you know, like you, you, you could give, no one cared what coffee you gave in a luxury hotel room, let’s say six years ago, right? Maybe earlier then some hotels started giving great coffee. Today, if you don’t have an espresso machine in your room, they’re not happy, right? So think about that, like how quickly that goes from, and that’s because they have them at home. So they’re like, well, if we have this at home, why can’t you have this in a luxury hotel room? So beyond the fact that hotel rooms are showrooms, they’re also being compared to people’s homes. So that’s where our organization really helps. But I think also just the partners, the support sponsors, we stopped looking at the them as vendors and we started looking at them as experts at what they do, right? Who better to tell you what’s going on in the coffee industry and what the consumer demands than the top coffee companies in the world? We’ve also, you’ll probably noticed something a little bit different for us, we don’t really have an expo. We could have very easily with a ma you know, with an audience decides we have, we could easily have an expo, but we chose not to do it because it’s one of the reasons when you grow a large audience, you have, you really have to be, you need to respect their time. And we can’t over advertise to them. That’s how we grew. And so what we did instead was we found partners that we thought were the best, the business and our event is like a celebration for them. So they all come and you won’t see competing partners there, you see our partners. So we try to have one partner in each space. I gave some examples earlier. So you’re, you know, I think that some of the big expos are great ’cause they can show you everything that’s out there. But when you come to our event, you’re just gonna see the preferred partners of our organization. And, um, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s interesting I think, ’cause we, we’ve spent time curating them and it’s, they’re great companies. Um, and at the same time, like I said, it’s, it’s a very, um, it’s just a, it’s, it’s a, a very, if you’re in the luxury hotel industry, it’s a great event to come and sit in front of some people that are very, very high level that you wouldn’t normally get to meet. They’re not in and out is what I mean. They’re not just popping in doing this session and going, they’re hanging out. So it’s, we create the space for that.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Ryan, you know, you’d mentioned something before about tech and I, I think it’s important because one thing I love about the luxury segment is that they invest, right? And they’re looking at the most advanced tech and the most, you know, the best experience they can give. And I notice it ’cause I always stay at different luxury hotels. I don’t stick to one brand ’cause I wanna see what’s going on no matter where I travel, Latin America, Asia, you know, uh, middle East, and you know, and then you, you see stuff you love and then you go to another hotel and you’re like, oh, this is so frustrating, right? Like, uh, uh, especially stuff you can do with your phone. But also, I was recently at a show, um, I won’t say what show it is, but like, big, big, big hotel, hospitality tech show and you know, and there was all different tech there, you know, like from the robot making coffee and espressos and cappuccino to other things. And, and I was talking and I was like, you know, going through and saying like, oh, this would be amazing. Like if this was at a hotel, like it wouldn’t be just cool for me. But like my kids, anyone with family members would love a robot making their cappuccinos. And I’ll sometimes talk to like, go around to look what’s innovative, what would be good for the luxury space, and talk to them. And it’s funny ’cause it’s like, how’s your adoption going? And they’ll be like, well it’s, it’s, it’s not, you know, we’re having a hard time penetrating the hotel space. And it’s like, who are you selling to? And they’ll be like, well, we’re selling to, you know, the, they’ll throw out the normal brands like mid-market, right? Or, or lower market. And I’ll be like, well, have you talked to the luxury side? And and they’ll be like, no. And I’ll be like, but you realize like they’re the ones investing in all this new cool stuff where mid-market and the lower market. Like, they’re not making investments in that stuff. And I think it’s important if you’re doing something innovative in technology or just innovative in the hotel space, the luxury hotels are very successful. Post pandemic revenue’s gone up, everybody’s spending money. There’s different segments. These are the groups that are willing to push the edge on innovation. And then the mid-market and the others are looking at one luxury. Every fo everyone follows luxury to see what they’re doing. For me, an exciting thing for the upcoming conferences, uh, one of the sessions on longevity, everybody says they do wellness. And I think, um, you know, like every hotel and then you don’t know what, what true is wellness or wellbeing, uh, ’cause right? ’cause every hotel is doing something very specific and sometimes it’s not defined. And I think we have some really great brands and some innovators coming to speak. And I think there’s gonna be this big change in the industry about, it’s gonna go from maybe general wellbeing to like very, there’s gonna be a niche of very, very serious where it’s like people looking at, you know, how do I live longer? How do I, um, my, my maybe my quality of life. So maybe I’m 70, but I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m 50 a 50-year-old. Like, you know, you know, in the 70-year-old body reverse aging, reverse disease, we’re starting to see a lot of luxury properties around the world roll out stem cells to reverse disease and reverse aging. I went through stem cells about a year ago, um, in my biological age reduced by seven years. And, uh, and we’re seeing this huge investment in properties now, bringing clinics in and looking at, you know, mixing, um, not, I wouldn’t say healthcare, right? You’re not coming and, you know, and, and, and, uh, and getting something where all my knee hurts or I’m sick. It’s more of I wanna know what’s going on in my entire body and I want all the most cutting edge like, um, supplements or tests or things where I can learn like how to reverse aging, reverse diseases, live a better life for me or my family members. And, you know, being at the front of it, and in a lot of these conversations as these projects are being developed are in the conceptual phase. I’m super excited because I think we’re gonna see this wave of a lot of longevity, serious longevity pop up in luxury hotels around the world. It’s already starting, but the wave’s coming and then projects get launched around true serious intense wellbeing. And it could be a mix of western medicine and eastern medicine. And I think that also what we’re seeing is people realize they’re not getting this from their doctor. They’re not getting it from, if they have insurance, insurance isn’t really covering anything. And so what they’re looking at is, where can I go take a vacation, but at the same time get this like complete check-in. And then there’s another segment of it that I think that depending on the segment of the guest and the, the, the wealth, right? There’s this signal, um, a virtue signaling was like, you know what? I just spent 25 grand for this, right? I just went to this luxury hotel and I spent 50 grand for this experience and now I’m gonna live longer and my family’s gonna live longer and we’re gonna live healthier. But I’m excited to it because I wanna go stay at these properties. I want to go through these experiences.

Barak Hirschowitz:
I was just gonna say, it’s, it’s very exciting. So we have, and Jon’s I think introduced us to some amazing, um, so, you know, if you, if you’re not able to come to the event, certainly keep following us. Um, you know, we’ve, we’ve we’ve learned a lot about longevity and how it’s moving. Some real examples like Clinique la Prairie from, um, Switzerland, for instance, one of the original Longevity institutes. Not many people know this. It’s, uh, what’s the cost to stay there, Jon, for a week?

Jonathan Edelheit:
Yeah, I I feel like it’s, I could be wrong. Like it could be like 40, 50,000. It’s not, yeah,

Barak Hirschowitz:
It’s really, it’s in the tens of thousands to stay there for a week, I believe. And they’ve just opened, um, they’ve opened in, um, in Dubai, um, in a hotel in Dubai. They’ve opened, um, their opening in Saudi, in China, in Thailand, um, all in partnerships with luxury hotels. And these are, people will pay to travel to these, um, to these longevity institutes that are now being built into luxury hotels. So that’s a really exciting part of it. And then just to, to kind of pivot back to the question that you were asking about, you know, some of the sessions coming up and who the speakers we have, I’m really, I mean, every year our team really knock it out the park with speakers, but the lineup this year is like, is the who’s who of everyone. So whether it’s on the investment side, on the finance side, I mean, we’ve got John Tore, uh, Dan Peak, we’ve got um, uh, Glenda Powell, we’ve got Jonathan Fick, all these people that are, I dunno if you, you know, check out our agenda. But they’re all like the heads of, you know, leading companies on the capital, on the real estate side of the industry. And then of course, big management companies, Walter Eisenberg’s back again this year with us for our CEO of Sage and a lot of the big management companies with president of Abridge for Europe, speaking in Europe. And so we have really the who’s who on, on not just the, the brand side, of course, you know, hor Hor Schultz is gonna be with us this year, one of the co-founders of Ritz Carlton, an iconic hotelier if there’s ever one. And so we have, it’s, it’s hard to pinpoint specific sessions, but if you wanted to kind of like see some of the diversity of sessions we have and how wide ranging it is, we’ll be talking about like investment. Obviously we, we know there’s headwinds right in, in, in the real estate side of the industry right now with capital markets being what they are. And we’re at the top of a long time growth in hospitality. So we’re starting to deal with some of those headwinds. So how we could turn those headwinds into opportunity. But we have literally like the biggest people in industry speaking about, right? So the, the, the who, who then you kind of flip to like sports tourism is a really big thing. Um, I’ve traveled for sport. I’m, I’m a marathon runner, so I, I do a lot of that kind of thing. So we have like, uh, it’s just really interesting ’cause we have like a session on, on, on how hotels are starting and obviously Vegas is a perfect example of Formula One. So, um, one of our partners, a DA cosmetics, I don’t know if you know this, but a DA cosmetics is part of BWT, which is the owners of the, of the, um, Alpine, uh, formula One team. So, um, they are, you know, gonna be talking to us. We have a confirmed 360 who, they’re providers, I don’t know if many people know this, but they, they’re behind some of the biggest concierge companies around there. Like when you go to one of those concierge companies and you say, Hey, I need tickets for Taylor Swift Front Row, can you get ’em? They’re the ones that actually get those tickets. And so confirm 360 are actually partnering with us, with us this year because they, they used to really just do this for elite concierge services, but now they’ve started to extend it to the hotel industry and, um, especially now that guests are relying more and more on the hotels for coming up with this kind of stuff. And so they’re doing an activation for us where, um, they’re gonna give our, our attendees an opportunity to go to the stadium, um, the Raider Stadium and take a tour, go back, back tour of it and things like that. So, um, that’s very, very cool. We have, uh, as Jonathan mentioned, we talk about things like wellness. Technology’s obviously huge, so we have a lot of sessions on, on that side, F and BI mean, for most of these investment people who attend, they rarely have F and b um, sessions, you know, so for them, they’re, they’re picking up on stuff that’s like sustainability and f and b and things that they maybe wouldn’t connect with at other conferences. So we’ll be talking about, um, obviously like the big labor challenges and some of the trends, brand and luxury, we try to look at the advantage of being at the end of the year is we kind of, we look at what people have spoken about already and then we kind of look at what’s really coming in. And I’m gonna tell you like my, my, I I, I have something personal every year that I kind of take on that. I think just from our big picture perspective as the president, like what is something that’s like right now, like this year that people haven’t quite clicked with yet. And for me, odd message, and like I said, I’m speaking about it next year, at our next week we’re at a vendor conference in Texas is, and I spoke recently at a conference for the, I was invited to speak at the, at the fitness industry, CEO summit, which is really unusual for me to be there. And they wanted hospitality in there. And it’s along the same lines, which is really, you know, guests are now expecting this kind of stuff, right? Like, I think fitness and wellness, this is the year that that changes, right? I think most guests are not happy anymore with your crappy gym. They’re not happy with crappy gym equipment. They want classes in the hotels. They want things like this. And so we’re actually partnering with some of the biggest fitnesses organizations. Not just the equipment makers, but actually gym companies too. There’s always gonna be the innovators, like, you know, Equinox and these guys who, who, who partner with these gyms, the Epic and Miami, who has, you know, a gym with glasses and one hotels and those brands that were, they’ve, they’ve been in it already, but for everybody else out there, you know, this is the thing where the guests are now starting, it’s the wifi of today. Like, what is your fitness offering at your hotel? And I think that that’s like, I think part of the driving, like I would leave with people today to start p their eye on that. And then also, but then how do we know we as hoteliers, how do we know when we need to do this? And this, my thing this year is your suppliers or yours service providers or vendors or whatever you wanna call ’em, they are often the brightest minds in your hotel when it comes to answering these questions. Right? We had, at our event last year, Serta, one of our longtime partner Serta Simmons, brought in sleep scientists. ’cause we’re in the business of sleep, right? And the funny thing is, we are terrible at it. Like we think we’re good at it, but we’re putting in LED lights, we have curtains that don’t close. We put super high thread count sheets onto mattresses that basically we didn’t know this. And their sleep scientists came in and said, listen, you realize if you go super high thread count, you’re saran wrapping a mattress and a mattress designed to take heat away from your body. So what’s the guest gonna do? They’re gonna crank up the ac. So not only are you paying for fancy sheets, the guest is unhappy and your your energy bill goes up. So by realizing that some of our ven our vendors are, you know, they’re not just selling to us, they’re selling in retail and they know what is, they know how to use their products, but they also know what the consumer market wants today, what, what’s important for them today and what’s coming. And so, you know, I think that that’s something that I, I I, our this year’s leave is don’t just look at your suppliers and your vendors as like somebody who brings you something or you purchase something from, think of them as actually the solution or the expertise that you need to make some of these decisions around. Like, don’t just go and go, Hey, I need 3000 mattresses. Go to them and say, how can you like, help our guests sleep better or help us understand how to do this better. You know, same thing, but we used coffee as an example earlier, like, how am I supposed to know about my guest today wants to know where this coffee was sourced, what kind of bean it is? You know, how am I supposed to know all this stuff? Right? Well, if you have a good coffee supplier, they can tell you and they can also tell you what the guests are expecting and what’s important to ’em today. And so, um, you know, that’s I think something that I just, I feel for us is really important this year is just really teaching the hoteliers how to look at their partners, just not as suppliers, but also as like as, as a wealth of knowledge to help them keep up with these guests that are, you know, constantly demanding something new because that’s what they have at home now.

Jonathan Edelheit:
And you can’t get, you can’t get away with you what you could in the past. I feel like, you know, if I’m at a luxury hotel and the coffee in the room is not good, it’s poor. Like that’s a reason for me not to come back to that luxury hotel as a little ’cause you just don’t expect it. Or you’re talking about the gym is, you know, when I go to Abu Dhabi, I love staying at the Grand Hyatt. It’s one half of the four is the gym facing the sea. Right. It’s gorgeous. You get like, they get it. I love working out. It’s a place. And then I, you know, and then you go to like, I think it was the St. Regis in Doha. And I go and it’s kind of like in the basement, it’s small, everything is packed in. It’s older. You’re looking at walls everywhere and you’re like, you know, like this is not the experience that your guests who are coming for, who this is important for them. It’s like you have to, you know, every guest has their own passion and you know, within that space, like, and you have to be able to accommodate them. And I think it’s so much more in the details of what matters to each of ’em that’s important.

Barak Hirschowitz:
We don’t, yeah. And we don’t, as hoteliers we don’t, what do we know about gyms? Right? So, you know, I I try, I also say to, you know, our industry has an incredibly high turnover. We always have. We always will, right? And as much as we try to improve that, it’s the nature of our business that whatever you bring in, it’s, you need to make it something that is, we’re not act, we, we have a high turnover. And that does tend to hurt sometimes us being able to kind of keep up as well with this demand. So not only are we like battling to kind of keep our staff and keep our turnovers low, but we’re trying to understand what these guests want all the time. And I think that’s where like, you don’t need to be an expert, but you can partner with a gym company who can tell you how to run a gym. I mean, as simple as take the equipment you have in it, let’s say you bought really nice equipment, but is it placed correctly in the gym? Do you have, you know, if I walk into one more gym and I look at a bowl of apples and some towels and a pa plastic water dispenser with paper cups, then I know you’re doing the absolute bare minimum congratulations. Right? But those guests don’t want that. They want, they go to the gym five times a week and they’re traveling and they want to have a similar experience. So you better partner with a gym or get a gym company to help sort that out. And I think that that’s where I think we don’t need to be overwhelmed, right? We just have to look at our partners and find the right partners who are experts at it and say, Hey, listen, we don’t know anything about gyms but our guests, it’s really important to them. How can we get classes in here? How can we make our gyms better, um, help us understand how to do that.

Jonathan Edelheit:
That’s, we’re, we’re harping on gyms, but I’ll go when I was, I was just in Malaysia at the, uh, was it the four c St. Regis. And I walk in and they have, like, I travel a lot and I get back pain from long flights and they have the, the one piece of the back equipment that I, that just solves all my back pay. And, you know, you see it and you’re like, you’re just so excited. And every day I go to work out, but to use that piece of equipment, I’m not a runner like Barack, but it’s like those things matter. And I think hotels need to ask the experts in the industry versus just saying, we just, you know, we’re gonna do the bare minimum, we’ll have the equipment and that’s it. I don’t think they understand the importance.

Barak Hirschowitz:
So, and they, but their guests understand the importance and, you know, again, they don’t need to know. They, they, you know, today’s GI guess the, the, the takeaway is that, you know, today’s innovation is tomorrow’s baseline and you need to kind of keep up with that. And that’s, I think what our association has really been trying to help a lot of, uh, hoteliers understand is, okay, where are we in the cycle from innovative? Like, cool, you can have it and you can really impress guests. Um, to, you know, the first time I ever saw classes in a, in a gym was when we held an event at the Epic in Miami, I mean in a hotel. And today it’s like, it’s gonna be normal. I would say within two years. Most luxury hotels will have some sort of classes, whether they’re virtual or not. So in, across whatever it is that we, whatever our is that our guests want, you know, we, we need to know where they’re at in that cycle.

Jonathan Edelheit:
The other thing is how do you measure and track stuff? So my wife’s traveling to a luxury hotel in like two weeks, right? And I’ve texted, I WhatsApp the hotel several times ’cause they have a WhatsApp number. They don’t answer, they don’t answer their phone for some reason a couple times. And they don’t respond to WhatsApps. It’s been three WhatsApps in 48 hours. So someone at that hotel has decided, right, I’m gonna implement this technology so guests can communicate with us easier. But what happens when that doesn’t happen? And I’ve had that happen on other trips where they have WhatsApp, they have what texting and it takes hours for people to respond. Then you go to a property where you do it and there’s an instant response, right? So it’s, you know, you can go adopt the most cutting edge tech, but are your people trained? Are you measuring it? Are you doing it right? And getting that, you know, that the benefit out of adopting it.

Barak Hirschowitz:
We’ll cover a lot of that stuff at the event of course. Um, and, you know, we’ll this is kind of what we talk about. So you’re, I guess we should, we should we, we could probably talk for days and hours, very passionate as you can see about this kind of stuff. But I think to kind of bring it back to the event a little bit and, and look at what we have, uh, coming up. I mean, it’s, I think you’re gonna have, we try to balance a little bit in each category. So one thing you can expect is that there’s going to be something at least two or three sessions very specific to your niche. And then we highly suggest you go to other topics that maybe you wouldn’t normally attend because you’re still gonna go to those other shows in your niche, right? This is the one chance you get to go listen to some of the speakers about some things that are very relevant to you, but maybe not something you deal in your day to day, especially at events. And then we have some fun stuff around the event as well. Um, we’re doing, like a vendor is one of our biggest partners that I, I mentioned, I’m speaking at their conference next week. Um, they’re doing a, like a whole networking thing for us on the, on the first evening we have a president’s dinner. I, it’s a invitation only event that we do. It’s, um, it’s, we don’t reveal it until we have a really cool, um, activations company that helps us put it together and we don’t reveal much about it until the time. Come to the event and find out. Um, there you go. Yeah. So there’s gonna be a lot going on. It’s, it’s really, I I think it’s, it’s big, but it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a small event in that intimate, like if you come there for two days, you’re gonna pretty much get to meet most of the people that are there. And not that many events I would say can say that about, about networking.

Ryan Embree:
Well, that’s why I love these preview episodes because the intentionality behind these conferences. ’cause as attendees sometimes we just, you know, we show up, we see the agenda, we see all the programming and the intentionality behind your education, your programming, the activations and the hard work behind that and the, and the reason why, you know, even from the location to the time of year that you, uh, you know, you, uh, host this show. It’s so, it, it, it’s so methodical. It’s, it’s so cerebral and what you guys are doing. I’m, I’m so excited. I mean, you guys have got me pumped up and energized to go, uh, in, in December. Um, and one thing on wellness and longevity, I mean, we, we talked at the top of this episode about how, you know, luxury travel has a special connection to people, you know, through tradition, you know, and, and connection and, and that longevity, that wellness, you know, it, you can call the trend, you can, it’s, it’s here to stay. I think we’ve all identified that that’s just the natural next step with luxury because, you know, it’s obviously has a strong connection to our soul. The next part of that is your body, right? So that’s what the luxury travel is going to anticipate. Like you were saying, Barack anticipating the needs before you know it, you’re not waiting for those o other sectors, like John was saying, for the brand to mandate it. You wanna be in front of this, you wanna be the trendsetter. And that’s, that’s what luxury hospitality has always been. It’s been the trendsetter for hospitality. So as we wrap up, you know, I want to ask, it’s my first time going maybe with our audience, uh, considering, uh, attending, uh, for the first time. What would be one tip from each of you, uh, for a first time attendee of this conference? Jon, we’ll start with you.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Uh, I think it would be that that common phrase, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Uh, just, just kidding. I would say, you know, be, be confident and, and you know, everyone is very open, right? So don’t be intimidated of, oh, I’m going and I, there’s a CEO or an owner or hospitality management company. You know, walk up, be friendly, engage people, talk to people. You, I mean, you could pretty much meet almost everybody at our conference, right? I think for everyone is very open to networking and connecting, um, and learning. And so come with that open mind. Don’t, don’t worry about, oh, is this gonna be a clique-ish event? So can I just go walk up and talk to this CEO of a hotel or the CEO of a hospitality management company? I, I think that’s one of the best things about, about our event is you can meet anybody, you can talk to anybody, learn anything. Um, so, so, so come with that and come with that mindset of you’re gonna be social.

Barak Hirschowitz:
For me, um, what I would say is, and I’ll, I’ll back this up. Um, I think that this event, what surprises a lot of people, I think a lot of shows, especially expos, they have sessions. I’ve spoken at those sessions and I think that they’re, they’re not the main purpose of those events. And so when people come, they miss out maybe on a lot of expertise that’s given. I think at our event, it’s really focused around sessions. Take the time. If you get a, if you get invited or you buy a ticket or whatever, and you come to this event, take the time to go to as many sessions as you can. I’ve had some of the most experienced hoteliers in the world attend sessions at our event, come out with like notebooks full of stuff because this event was actually built for the highest level of, of decision making in the industry. So we, we really have incredible content try to go to that. Everything is recorded and it’s gonna be given away for free. But I feel like, and at, at the end of this, uh, over the year, so you’ll get access to it. But I feel like if you come in person, it’s different. And I would say bring somebody, so the people who come to me, like the ones that really wow me every year are, I get, we get like general, we’ll get like a GM or an MD of a the luxury hotel and they’ll bring like a couple of their staff members with them, their team, and the next year they bring like two more and it’s like a reward for them because they just said it’s, they learn so much at that event and it just motivates them going into the new year. So I said I would back it up. I’ve, what I am prepared to do is I, ’cause I feel it’s really important, I’ve seen it over the years. If there is any manager, general manager, hotel owner, anybody who would like to bring somebody from their team, we’ll give them a pass. So if they buy a pass, we’ll give them a pass so that they can bring one of the, because I know it’s not always, you know, it’s expensive. The good news is this year, one thing about resorts world is that they have two, we have two hotels. So we have the Conrad and we have the Hilton. So you can pretty much find anything for your budget. I think the range is pretty wide with that. But at the same time, like I said, I, I think it’s super, it’s not just for you. I think we talked about our t um, industry having, we are in the business of people, we’re a people business. And if I learned anything about being in the best hotel in the world, it’s that where most other hotels fall short on the service side is that they don’t delegate enough expertise to, or, or even bandwidth to solve guest problems to their, to their, to the people below them, their line team and stuff like that. So I think that to empower them, not just being able to take care of their guests, but also giving really big picture understanding of what’s going on in the industry is very powerful and motivating for them. So again, I I advise that anybody that’s coming here for the first time, um, bring somebody from your team and reach out to us and say, Hey, Barack said that we get free passes, he’ll match whatever we buy. So my two passes, I’ll give you two passes because the more of your team you bring, I think the more benefit you’re gonna have and it’s gonna see right? It’s gonna go right through. It’s a great way to start your new year.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. And, and those topics and sessions that you were talking about Barack have heard, you know, are great conversation starters. They’re great icebreakers for, you know, what John, you know, advice was, uh, to to talk about, you know, how people are implementing longevity into their hotel brand or, or into their luxury property. So, you know, there’s a lot of continuity there. Uh, really excited for that. Uh, hopefully there will be a lot of sweet spot listeners and, and luxury hoteliers that we meet out in Vegas. Appreciate both of you coming on. You know, as we wrap up today, would love to hear as co-founders, you know, here we are, 16th edition of the Inspire USA event. You said third edition of the, uh, inspire Europe. You know, what’s your, what’s your vision for the future of ILHA as we move into, you know, the, the back half of the, the 2020s? Uh, Jon, we’ll start with you.

Jonathan Edelheit:
Uh, you know, I’m excited to, uh, I would say expansion in other regions of the world. You know, we’re, we’re working on stuff where there’s tremendous innovation and investment in the luxury hotel side. Um, so we’re looking at, you know, how we could, I don’t, <inaudible> is diversify, but, you know, have more of a global presence. Like I said, we’re Brock, she we’re doing Europe, you know, we’re doing the US and the Americas. I think there’s a lot of exciting stuff going on. I think, you know, we’ve been super successful in being basically the biggest influencer and educator from a digital standpoint is really looking at how could we take that to the next level, you know? So it just, you know, very exciting times and, and just the investment we’re seeing in luxury hotel projects or in the luxury wellness and longevity, you know, looking at, you know, how do we, how do we help take that to the next level? Um, I I, you know, we’re just very excited. I think we’re, we’re very lucky ’cause we’re in this space of innovation and invest, which isn’t always happening in other industries.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Yeah, I mean, I, and also it’s interesting. We, I think we get to see like what’s going on around the world. Very, it’s, it’s kind of fun sitting in, like John’s speaking about, like we, as we know here in the US for instance, the, the, the, the investment side is slowing down, right? So in real estate, but we know that in, like John’s very big, he’s on his way to Saudi next week. Um, he’s involved in a lot of big projects that are going on in there and in Asia, some of the projects in Asia and stuff like that. So there is stuff booming around the world, and that’s what’s good as well as is that it, you know, when one area starts to dip, the other area picks up. And so we can kind of give a perspective of that. But I’ll also say that the, the future of ILHA is really not up to us. It never has been. It’s always been organic and we’ve, you, we have, we’re it’s not John or I, you the organization is, is, is, is, is hundreds of thousands of people. And what happens is that pockets of those people start to say, Hey, we want to do something, right? We have a chapter in LA that just, you know, kind of came up over the last couple of years and they’ve been incredibly active. They just went, they had an event, uh, recently at the region for the relaunch of the region, Santa Monica. Before that, they had another one for the rebranding of w at the W Hollywood. We had another group approach us from, uh, from, from London. And so now we have a chapter, uh, they’re on their like third event already. And it’s run by like the leaders of the Four Seasons, the, um, the head of the Claridges and some of the top luxury hotels, obviously, uh, global Asset Solutions, those kind of companies. So they’re, they’re coming to us and saying, Hey, we, we were involved in your systems. We wanna do more and we wanna do some local stuff. Can we take it from there? So the future of our organization has always been by the people. Like they come to us, we don’t plan, we just go with the direction it wants to go. And we’ve been like that since the beginning. And I think that that’s, that’s what’s helped us really be strong is, is, is not trying to like, try to steer it in any one direction, but let it go where it’s naturally gonna go.

Ryan Embree:
Love to hear that. And so cool to see those, those chapters and, you know, additional events popping up, but, you know, excited for the next chapter and, uh, you know, honored to be a part of it as well. You know, travel Media group, proud members, partners of the ILHA. So thank you so much, uh, John Barack, uh, for joining me here on the Sweet Spot. Uh, just really teeing off, uh, a an incredible event that I, I’m very much looking forward to. I know hoteliers are as well. Uh, and we’ll see you in Vegas in, in just a couple months now.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Yeah. And also thank big thanks to Travel and Media Group and yourself for, for your support and being innovative. You know, like podcasts are, are, are you, you’ve really been successful at getting your podcast, um, you know, to have a huge following in the hotel industry. And, and I think that we are excited to have you guys here and Travel Media Group, what you’ve done. I think there are not many, you know, as this industry constantly changes, they need, you know, the industry needs partners that are like kind of one step ahead and can guide them as I’ve taught, spoken about it. And definitely in the like hotel marketing space. You guys are sort of at the forefront of that. So we’re excited to partner with you guys as well.

Ryan Embree:
Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate that, Jon, thanks for joining me, Barack. Thank you. And like I said, we’ll see you in Vegas in just a couple months.

Barak Hirschowitz:
Yep. See you in Vegas.

Ryan Embree:
All right. Thanks for listening to the Suite Spot. We’ll talk to you next time To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Check out the latest Suite Spot episode featuring SVP and CMO at Best Western Hotels, Joelle Park! Joelle joins the Suite Spot to discuss the incredible BWH portfolio, their Life’s a Trip campaign, marketing to different traveler segments, and much more. 

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for another special edition of The Suite Spot. I am so excited to bring in our guest today. We’re gonna be talking about everything, the Best Western Hotels and Resorts brand, but also marketing that is, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Joelle Park. Thank you so much, Joelle, for being on the Suite Spot with me today.

Joelle Park:
Thank you for having me, Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
We’re gonna have a great conversation about marketing, about your wonderful brand. Some of the recognitions that the brand has seen recently. And we’re gonna talk about some industries trends as well. But as per tradition here at the Suite Spot and really hospitality, we love to hear everyone’s kind of journey story that led you in. You know, sometimes we have people just fall into the industry, but at the end of the day, a lot of people fall in love with our industry ’cause hospitality is one of the, if not best industries to work in. Talk to us a little bit about your story, Joelle, and what led you to SVP and CMO at Best Western Hotel and Resorts.

Joelle Park:
Thanks, Ryan. Well, I’m really excited to be here and it sounds like many others. I have fallen into hospitality and fallen in love. I’ve spent over two decades in marketing overall working across brand strategy, customer experience, communications, and on every project, every account, it’s about driving results through innovative marketing. Early in my career, I started agency site and I partnered up some incredible brands in retail, entertainment, technology, and my last client was hospitality. And that’s where I fell in love with the industry. And now I’ve spent really more than 16 years in hospitality telling compelling stories. I have a love of travel personally, but I also just believe in the power of travel to make the world a better place. So I’ve been fortunate to take on some leadership roles spanning across loyalty. Now product development and something I’m especially passionate about is culture and customer experience, because the most powerful form of advertising really is the customer experience here at BWH Hotels. I have the privilege of leading our marketing, communications, loyalty and partnerships teams, and that’s encompassing of Best Western rewards and Worlds Hotels rewards. So excited to share more about what we’re up to.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’s exciting to hear and it’s interesting because hospitality, you talk to a lot of hoteliers in the hospitality world, and they say, although it’s a massive industry, right, it’s a very small world. You run into people that you know all the time. Sometimes you’re working with one brand, then you go to another brand. But I always find it fascinating to find stories like yours, Joelle, where you start outside of hospitality maybe, and then find your way into it. Because I do think that really does show the passion and love that people have towards our industry because once that bug, you know, and it happens to travel too, it grabs a hold of you. It’s hard to let go. And here you are. And a lot of the hospitality professionals that I have spoken to they’ve had that exposure to other industries. And there’s just something about hospitality that is so special. And I think you nailed it on the head about talking about the power that travel has. And one of the things within travel is storytelling. And I’ve heard you in other interviews talk about your passion and storytelling, especially, particularly in marketing. How has that shaped your approach to local storytelling at the hotel level to create really what we’re all trying to crave right now, I think in this world with technology and AI, which is authentic connection between a hotel and and your guest?

Joelle Park:
Well, I’m very fortunate because the authentic connection is happening all over. And so I didn’t have to manufacture anything. I’ve marketed a lot of different things and sometimes it’s harder than others to unearth the purpose driven story behind a brand. But in hospitality it’s so clear. And at BWH hotels, a lot of people don’t realize we have 18 brands within the portfolio, 4,000 hotels around the world. So Best Western is just one of many. And so first of all, telling the story of the portfolio and that’s number one. I had no idea. And I thought, if others don’t know, I’ve gotta go and help them tell this story. But part two is shining a spotlight on the stories that are already happening at the local level. And the beauty of what we’ve been doing here the last two years with the storytelling through our campaign “Life’s a Trip” and through our overall marketing is it started with inspiration from what was happening in that guest to hotel staff interaction. Naturally, our hotel team members were sharing their favorite things about the area because they’re the soul of the destination where these travelers are. And so all I had to do, and my team and I was listen and spend a lot of time at the front lines, at the hotels, listening to our team members, listening to guests, and over and over again, we heard about the power of these small moments in a state where our staff, or even maybe it was through guest messaging, not just person to person, but they were making these local recommendations and unlocked how we enable experience. And that’s why this idea of Life’s a Trip was born. So the story sort of told itself born outta the local level.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool. And I’ll go to back to your point, Joelle, about talking about manufacturing. Because I think right now in a time we crave authentic experiences and moments in our lives, and I think as consumers we have gotten, especially the younger generation, really good at being able to see what’s real and what’s not real. And you’re absolutely right. I think for the hoteliers that listen to this podcast know, I mean, between the interactions that you’re having online through social media reviews and just everyday moments at the property, there’s just so much special that happens there, right? And if as you mentioned, just unearthing that and being able to have a place and a forum to share those stories, such powerful marketing. And if that comes off as organic, that comes off as true and real, that’s when you have something really special. And obviously being recognized, I’ve seen the brand in the news lately recognized by USA today, 2025 Readers Choice Awards, several accolades including best loyalty program, which is awesome and best extended stay hotel for sure, Stay Studio. As marketers, we love to see these type of recognitions, right? That means more getting to get the megaphone out and sharing all the great news about it. But what does this mean, these recognitions mean to you? And really how travelers feel about the loyalty program and the Sure Stay brand?

Joelle Park:
I think it’s all about value. The value that we provide that then in return makes us a brand and a loyalty program that guests value. So let’s start with the rewards program. Best Western Rewards, 64 million members. I think a testament to the power of it, but what a lot of people might not realize is we have brands spanning the category, everything from our luxury and upscale brands, worlds, hotels, all the way through economy, and sure, stay. So people see the value in the program because they’re earning these points and there is a hotel for every type of trip occasion. We also have a huge number of independent and collection hotels, and people are seeking experiences. You said it, Ryan, authentic experiences. And what better way than these collection hotels that allow the independent experience to shine and the points don’t expire? And that’s really unique in the industry. That’s our commitment to say, you earn these points with your hard earned travel, and so you deserve to spend them where and how you want. So that’s a big differentiator. I think part of what contributes to that award-winning loyalty as it relates to Surest Stay studio, this is a great brand in best extended Stay hotel brand. And it meets the needs of today’s evolving traveler with the kitchenette for short or really long term. And it’s not just for work, but for vacationers families, multi-generational family is a trend, and we see that. So some of the amenities we provided something like Short Stay Studio appeal to today’s travelers,

Ryan Embree:
It’s so great. And seeing the travel trends and we’re gonna kind of talk about that. But to have a loyalty program kind of blend with the eclectic brands that you have at BWH hotels, it really does make it kind of the perfect stay for any type of traveler out there because you see that, that travel is not just segmented into one particular area anymore, right? Or seeing more and more of a blend of people saying, Hey, I wanna extend my work vacation a little bit more. Maybe I do wanna bring my parents to look after the kids while you know me and the wife go explore the area. You know, these types of trips and travel are really starting to blend here and keeping a close ear and eye to the ground. And it’s gonna be those brands that have positioned themselves well to kind of be able to welcome any and all type of travelers that are gonna do the best. So, switching gears, Joelle, Larry Kulick, President and CEO of BWH Hotels recently shared on LinkedIn that at Best Western Hotels, we view technology as a strategic enabler for providing a great guest experience. Today we’re using technology and AI to continue to reshape the guest journey. And I think, I find this quote so fascinating because maybe other industries, we’ve talked about this, you know, AI and technology could be easily implemented and there, because there’s not so much of a human touch to it, but in hospitality, you almost have to be a little cautious and going full AI and technology because at the core of this, it is a very human human connection. You know, white glove service, you’re hosting people in a home, right, at a hotel. So how do you kind of find that balance? How is Best Western kind of find that balance there between human touch and technology?

Joelle Park:
Our philosophy is you don’t focus on technology for technology’s sake. You focus on technology and innovation to power what you uniquely offer to the world. And what we uniquely offer is taking care of people. So then the question we ask is, how can technology help us take care of people? And the great thing is, when you put that power, that innovation in front of your frontline team members, you can help them be more efficient in what they have to do so that they can focus on what they love to do, which is taking care of the guest. So as an example, check-in, check-in requires a lot of different steps that happen behind the scenes. And I like to think of it like a duck on the water. The guests should just see the ducks gliding seamlessly over the water. But you know what’s happening under that. It’s a lot of piddling, and that’s what our frontline team members are doing at the front desk to check them in efficiently, get them in the right room, make sure it’s clean, make sure they’re recognized for loyalty. So if we can use technology to simplify that for them, make it so obvious the at their fingertips or in their visual, what they need to know about that guest, guess what? The majority of that time they’re gonna focus more on delivering great service. And that’s what we are in service of and how we’re partnering with our technology team here.

Ryan Embree:
I absolutely love that. I mean, listen, as a front desk agent, more than a decade ago, the memories that I have from that position, Joelle, is exactly what you were talking about. It wasn’t, you know, the hundreds of check-ins or checkouts that I did over the span of the week. It was actually the conversations that I had with those guests. And a lot of that conversation happened after I had to get through the, all the rigamarole of the check-in process, right? So if there’s a place where we can get to where we can make things more efficient at, check-in, even any really touch points of the guest experience and be able to get to that place of connection, being able to say what brings you into town? I’d love to do some recommendations because as a traveler, as you were speaking to with the local storytelling, what what we crave as travelers is to feel a part of a community, right? So when we come into an area, we don’t want to go to the same places that we could go right down the block of where we left. We want to see the best places in town, to see the best views, to get the best places to eat. And front desk, front desk agents are the frontline workers there? And your first kind of string into what is that community like there? So anytime that you can, I love to hear leaders in hospitality talk about, it’s not about, it’s not about using technology to necessarily replace, uh, but enhance and to make, you know, give, give, uh, more power to our employees and be able to connect better with our guests. And, and we’ve heard this, you know, in in traveler’s sentiment, we’ve, we’ve seen in guest feedback about people talking about new technology that brands are putting out there. You know, we just wrapped up the busiest, time of year for our hoteliers and travelers alike. The summer season, everyone’s outta school, everyone’s traveling. I’m sure you have a very strong pulse being in your position. You have to on what both hotelier and travelers are feeling right now. How do you feel like your hoteliers are feeling going into the fall and winter months? And are you uncovering any guest trends, maybe some interesting guest trends between your Best Western guests?

Joelle Park:
I mean, it was, like you said, you read the headlines sometimes and you wonder about economic sentiment, but there it is, travel still going strong. People are prioritizing it. And uh, what we’re seeing is they’re prioritizing experiences over things. And so even if you can’t take the week long summer trip that you would’ve abroad, what we’re seeing is a lot of domestic travel. And so people are still making time for the road trip. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are still people, they’re, they’re traveling around the world and they’re making time for that. But in this time of economic uncertainty, even a small getaway for a weekend can be powerful. And that’s what we see come through in the statistics on, on occupancy, um, and even rate. And I think a couple trends that we’ve seen multi-generational travel, and you hear about the sandwich generation, those that have the aging parents and the young kids, and they’re recognizing that bringing them together. There’s some powerful moments that can happen when you’re not in the routine, daily routine at home. And you alluded to it, Ryan, the moment when grandparents and grandchildren can have time without the parents, there’s something beautiful that can happen there. And on vacation there’s a theory about when you’re outside of your routine, moments are more memorable. And so travel naturally does that. So that multi-generational, the last minute road trip, Hey, we don’t have anything going on, let’s get away for a night and we’re seeing that, and this is where we excel because many of our hotels are off the interstate or in a secondary market. So it doesn’t take a lot to just drive an hour and go, and suddenly you feel like you’re getting away. So those are just a couple examples of some of the trends that we are seeing and how we’re capitalizing on it, taking care of our guests.

Ryan Embree:
Well, I could tell you firsthand, I’ve definitely done one of those travel trends with the multi-generational travel, you getting grandparents involved and my kids. And yeah, I can totally see the appeal to that and those last minute road trips, I think speak to what you were talking about, Joelle, of people prioritizing travel before personal items. And I know, listen, we had this podcast during the entirety of the pandemic, and some of those episodes were not fun to produce, or conversations were hard to have. But there was always, there was always this hope that after we went through that, that there would be things that we could look back and say, we’ve learned some lessons, or it’s really shifted the way that we think about travel. And I think this is one of those things I think people, even in a time of uncertainty are going, you know what, it might feel uncertain right now, but it certainly isn’t as uncertain as it was back five years ago. Let’s take that smaller, maybe it’s a little bit smaller vacation, maybe it’s a little closer to home like you were talking about. So I expect those trends to continue to grow. Hopefully there’s a little bit more certainty and people feel a little bit better about what’s in their pockets and spend a little bit more. Our hoteliers would probably love to hear that on this podcast. But in that time, I do think it is comforting to know that there is, it remains a priority for people and it will be one of the last things that people stop spending their money on. So let’s switch gears to strategic partnerships. I have seen the Best Western brand in a lot of different places. It’s been in the news celebrating some most recently with the United Soccer League. How has these strategic partnerships really help fuel growth and build guest loyalty for the Best Western brand, Joelle?

Joelle Park:
Well, I’m a big believer in data to inform where we go. So, and listening, I mean, great, if you’re a great marketer, if you deliver great hostel, you listen to your guests and customers. And by listening, the data showed us that our BWH Hotels, which is the name of the portfolio, our guests have a higher propensity to love sports, a passion for it, and they traveled for it. And it’s for the big games and the local ones. And since we are really tapping into this idea of being part of the heart of the community with local recommendations, United Soccer League was a perfect fit for us because they are providing opportunities to play and watch soccer, such a passion for this sport in communities, all over the us. So they have the professional leagues, they also have the USL Academy for youth and developing players. And so this commitment to not just watching the game and the professional aspect of it, but to cultivating it in younger generations and people love to travel to see, this great sport and others. So it’s been a really exciting partnership. We’re bringing it to life together. We have an aspect of it called Hometown Heroes, where we’re celebrating heroes in local communities that are giving back to this sport in special ways. And it’s just another way that we find that when we tap into the fandom of our guests, we can create something really, really fun and great together.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool, soccer or football fans, some of the most passionate, you would argue fans out there. So to have that, to be associated with that brand brilliant move on your part, but really cool also that you get to celebrate, those heroes that you were talking about. And really looking forward to kind of seeing that strategic partnership in the future flourish. Congratulations to you and your team on that. And speaking of congratulations, as marketers, Joelle fellow marketers, we love to celebrate things, right? What’s the next project? What’s the next new development? What’s the next thing I can get out there talking about my brand and how loud can I yell at? Right? What upcoming developments or projects at BWH hotels are you most excited about?

Joelle Park:
I think one first, is really telling the story of this portfolio that we’re tired of being the best kept secret. And we heard through research, people think they know Best Western, oh, I used to travel there with my on road trips with my grandfather, but I think they don’t know about some of the incredible new brands we have. One I am so excited about and love to highlight is Aiden. Aiden is a modern boutique style, very trendy hotel. It really embraces the local area. No two are the same great F&B options. One of my favorites to highlight is the Aiden San Antonio River Walk, a speakeasy in the basement. You push a painting and you’re in. And Ryan, guess what the speakeasy is called? No Vacancy. So tie right back to hospitality. So just really fun ways to bring aspects of a neighborhood into the hotel experience. Aiden is just one of those brands we’re expanding globally. So stay tuned. We’ve got a lot of expansion in the Middle East. We have a wellness resort, a sanctuary that just opened up and that’s part of our world’s hotels property. So we’re seeing this wellness trend and it’s bringing it into the experience. And then of course our latest extended stay brand, at home we just opened our first one, all new construction, gorgeous, all the necessities but no unnecessary frills, so really efficient. So a lot of exciting brands in the portfolio and some new hotels coming into the pipeline too.

Ryan Embree:
Well, I’d love to hear Joelle, because I think, between that time that you just spoke, you mentioned F&B, wellness, simplicity, and efficiency. I mean, these are all hospitality and traveler trends. So you and your team having brands that speak to not just, any type of traveler, but what’s the trends that are fueling travel right now is really, really critical. And for any brand out there that is going to continue in a time where we talked about it, it’s a little bit uncertain times right now to making sure that you’re putting yourself in a position for success because you know what people are looking for when they travel, what they prioritize is so important is gonna continue to be so important. And you and your team over there sound like you’ve done a fantastic job. And checking out all of those brands that BWH Hotels has to offer, I have such a privilege and I’m so fortunate I get to talk to industry professionals like you and for my audience, I feel like I owe it to try to get as many nuggets of wisdom or pieces of advice that I can from industry pros like yourself. If you’re a young hotel marketer listening to this podcast trying to get inspiration or advice, what would you share with them as maybe you’re one piece of advice moving forward?

Joelle Park:
Get back to the front lines, make time for it. Even if you go into a hotel and sit in the breakfast area and observe, I love visiting our hotels. I make time for it because the light bulb moments often happen right there in front of you, and all you have to do is listen and be humble enough to know that those frontline team members are telling their stories every day. And then it’s our job just to amplify what they’re doing. I’ll give you a great example. Sitting in the breakfast area at a hotel recently, I recognized that the breakfast attendant wasn’t just clearing dishes, they were greeting the guests. They were asking how their day was making local recommendations. And I realized when you hire for a breakfast attendant, you wanna hire as if they are the concierge at the hotel. And I realized that’s asking a lot in this day with labor shortages and whatnot, but putting a different lens on how you can hire as a hotel operator, then as a, from a marketing standpoint, when you’ve got operators bringing that lens into the everyday customer experience, and if you’re a young marketer and you’re observing that, you’re gonna find those stories and mode of connection happening, and all we have to do is shine a spotlight on it.

Ryan Embree:
I love that. I mean, listen, the age old advice, that GMs used to share with me we’re, you ever really want to know how your guests are feeling, go sit in the lobby at breakfast because they’re gonna talk about it, right? And I think it’s such brilliant advice for a young marketer because I think we have a tendency to think that a lot of the connection and maybe the biggest connections are done online, behind a screen, maybe on social media or reviews. But really it’s getting those, those stories, those moments, those experience like you were sharing out into a forum like that. And those connections are not, they happen online, but the more powerful ones are the ones that happen on property and then that turn into some amazing digital moments and stories online, down the line, right? So I think just great advice. Thank you so much for sharing. As we wrap up today, we always like to gaze into our hospitality crystal ball, as I call it. You know, get a glimpse into the future. What’s ahead? How do you see the BWH Hotel’s brand 5-10 years down the line? What do you see and what’s your vision for the future, Joelle?

Joelle Park:
I think in five years we are no longer the best kept secret. We’re the best told story and we are up there as a powerhouse that people had no idea. And I hope people say, where did this portfolio come from? Global expansion. And I think what we are uniquely positioned to do is help travelers seeking that experience that isn’t your cookie cutter, where they want that really hyper-local recommendation. And it’s not just the thing that’s the top of TripAdvisor. I mean TripAdvisor is great in the emergence of AI. You can get a lot of recommendations, but I like to think of us like the local bookstore. There’s a shelf there and it has the local staff recommendations. So it’s great books, but with the why and the insider scoop and in five years time, I think people will realize that any BWH Hotel they stay at, they’re gonna get that experience and watch out world because here we are.

Ryan Embree:
Alright, well we’re excited. We’ll keep our ears and eyes open to all those stories that, that you and your team over at BWH Hotels are sharing with us and telling us every single day. So thank you. I know we covered a lot of ground. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?

Joelle Park:
I would just thank you for the opportunity and what a joy to share someone that has the passion for connecting the world through hospitality like I do. So thanks Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. We’re excited to hear it. Thank you so much for taking the time and again, like I said, we’re gonna keep a close eye on the brand and congratulations to all the work you and your team have been doing so far and wish you a great 2025 and into the future over the next couple years. Thank you Joelle.

Joelle Park:
Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
Alright, and we’ll talk to you next time on the Suite Spot. Thank you for listening. To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

The Suite Spot takes a trip to central Florida to visit the incredible AC Hotel Orlando Downtown, part of the Kolter Hospitality portfolio. The Regional Director of Food & Beverage at Kolter, Robert Mason, joins the Suite Spot to discuss:

• Seasonal Menus
• F&B in the Guest Experience
• How Kolter Hospitality is Shaping F&B
• The Importance of a Social Presence for a Hotel Property

Be sure to tune in to catch the whole episode.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, continuing our series of the Suite Spot Road Trip into the summer a little bit coming into the fall. I’m here with right down the road from our Travel Media Group headquarters, I-4. I know you probably hear that and think might be a long way away. I-4 can be congested sometimes, but not too bad of a drive here. We’re gonna talk about that today. I’m here with Robert Mason, Regional Director of Food and Beverage at Kolter Hospitality. Robert, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot. Hey, thanks for having me. And we’re gonna talk a little bit about your property today. We’re gonna talk a lot about the portfolio and your job here as the Food and Beverage Director, but I do want to get to, as it is, tradition here on the Suite Spot, get to know a little bit about your background and what led you to Kolter Hospitality.

Robert Mason:
Wow. So I’ve been 42 years in food and beverage. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s all I know. I started in the culinary side. I worked all the way up to executive chef. I actually studied under a master chef in San Francisco Bay Area and, had a really fun journey through culinary for about two decades. And about 15 years ago, I made the transition to the dark side, as I say, got into the front of house operations. and it’s been a great journey. Work brought me to Orlando. In San Fransico, I was kind of a small fish in a big pond, but here I’m kind of, was kind of a big fish in a small pond, so to speak. Yeah, but Orlando has certainly grown and developed over the last 20 years that I’ve been here. And just having fun. And this opportunity actually came up right in the middle of COVID. I came from a much larger property down in South Orlando. And the reason I took this job was couple full first, you know, I like the company culture. I liked the fact that the Skybar had so much to offer. I saw the potential right away. And it’s a smaller, easier to manage kind of thing ’cause everything’s in one place as opposed to a big sprawling resort with 15 outlets and that kind of thing. But I have stayed with the company because I really do enjoy all the people I get to work with Sarah, I know, you know, Sarah and John from our corporate office and Scott, our president, they just do a wonderful job. And they’re really people first. We’re a really people first company. So I believe in the vision here and that’s why I stay. It’s awesome to hear. And your story resonates coast to coast, but I think it’s a true example of hospitality professionalism. ’cause it’s transferable skills, right? Yeah. You know, you can work at a hotel, whether you’re in food and beverage on one side of the country, and then move all the way to the other, side of the country, like your story. And here you are in Orlando, before we get to talk about your property and this beautiful skybar that we’re in right now,right behind us, I four can throw a rock to the Kia Center, Citrus Bowl right over there. Orlando City Stadium. For those that aren’t familiar, Robert, that might be listening to this podcast, paint a picture of why this is just the perfect intersection and location. You’ve got yourself a great location here.

Robert Mason:
We really do. We really do. So, you know, I always tell people we’re kind of three different operations within one. So during the week we get a lot of the downtown business people, a lot of the movers and shakers in downtown that come here for happy hour, A lot of celebrations. But then we transition on the weekend to really a sports venue before games, after games when the magic are playing. We’re full of magic fans. We’re kind of the go-to spot for magic fans here before and after games, especially when they win. And then of course when there’s events, you know, next week alone we have, I think six concerts in seven days. And so again, we’re kind of the spot that people wanna go to. They see the cutout of the building and they go, wow, that’s really cool up there. And so you could drive by and see that. So we’re right kind of in this intersection, where we’re close to everything. Dr. Phillips is a block away. Kia Center’s a block away. The soccer stadium’s two blocks away, so it’s just kind of right in the middle of all that excitement. And there’s more to come, I don’t know if you know, but downtown right next to the Kia Center, they’re gonna build a whole entertainment venue. A lot of things gonna be going on there. So downtown only continues to grow. It’s funny, mayor Buddy Dyer said 10 years ago that he was gonna make downtown an entertainment destination. And people thought he was crazy. But now it’s actually coming to fruition.

Ryan Embree:
It’s incredible. We see here, we got a concert in just a few hours here at the intersection of I-4 and 408, but also the intersection of so many events, different types of travelers. And here at the AC Skybar, you really get to enjoy it all. And it’s really cool because I’ve seen over the years, I’ve been in Orlando resident now for almost a decade now, you see, start to see the skyline of Orlando. And this building is part of that iconic skyline. When people do drawings or people take photos, it’s very, very cool to see. But you also got a lot of people taking pictures of this incredible view right behind us. Talk to us about this AC Skybar and what guests just absolutely love about it.

Robert Mason:
So, obviously, you can’t go wrong with the view that we have. We get great sunset views 365 days a year. And sometimes, it’s funny, we’ll be empty and then sunset’s 10 minutes away and people will just pile in and, and go along the glass to watch the sunset. And that’s a lot of times what attracts people here. But I think what has continued to elevate our business and has continued to resonate with locals and our hotel guests alike, is not just the great view. That’s great. But it’s really a bonus, right? It’s our craft cocktail program that we’re so proud of. We’re so proud to announce that we’re four years in a row. We’ve been the number one rooftop bar in Orlando. So continue to do that. Our food program and our outstanding service team that just continues to make our guests feel welcome and welcome them back.

Ryan Embree:
Well, congratulations on those accolades. That’s super exciting to hear. I was a bit of factor of being able to enjoy some of that food and beverage and the hospitality that the AC Skybar had. Thank you for that. So generous. And you know, it was absolutely amazing. Got the steak sandwich and the banana old fashioned cocktail part of a seasonal menu. We’re gonna talk about that in a minute. But Robert, we’ve had a lot of conversations with operations people, marketing people, hospitality leaders. A big trend that is sticking with hospitality, especially over the last 10 years, is the impact that food and beverage has on the guest experience. Kolter Hospitality really, really focuses in on that. And you’re a big, obviously a big part of that. Share with us how you bring creativity to that and how it plays a role into the overall guest experience.

Robert Mason:
So I think it’s really a matter of involving the people that make it happen every day. I think there’s a lot of different components to it. Just to kind of digress a little bit. But you know, here at the Sky Bar, one of the things that’s made us successful and that we’ve tried to now carry down some of our other properties is this idea that hotel, restaurants and bars often feel just like that. They feel like a hotel, restaurant and bar. And so when we put this together and we said, what’s the vision for the Skybar? We didn’t wanna be another hotel bar, another hotel restaurant. We really wanted to have our own identity. So it’s everything from how we do our social media to having our own website. And a lot of times people will show up here and they’ll say, wow, I didn’t even know this was in a hotel. A lot of times people think, well, the hotel rooms will help drive food and beverage. We look at it the opposite way. We look at food and beverage as a driver for the hotel rooms, and a lot of times that’s what we see. And so, really just taking what we know sells, right? Staying on top of those trends, reading those periodicals, staying on top of what’s new, what’s hot, what’s coming out, what’s available to us. And really capturing that and then carrying that to our other hotels and our other properties and allowing them to kind of be experienced that and be exposed to some of that. And sometimes they’re not, right. We all get busy in operations. We all get busy in day-to-day. Sometimes they’re not looking at that stuff. Whereas myself and my counterpart Greg McGowan, we’re always looking at that. We’re always talking about new angles on how we can do things and how we can continue to elevate our food and beverage experience. And we’re just at the tip of the iceberg. I’m so excited for what the next five years is gonna bring. Because really our goal is to establish Kolter not only as hotel destinations, but to really establish us as food and beverage destinations that when people think of Kolter Hospitality, they think of not only great hotels, but they think of a great food and beverage experience.

Ryan Embree:
Well, you’re off to a great start here. Again, recognitions awards. I would encourage all of my listeners to go check out the website and menu. Talk to us though. We always love hearing from the people that create this. We’re about to transition from summer to fall, like I mentioned before. That’s a big time for you, right? Especially with a place with the seasonal menu. Talk us through that process because it’s a little bit more interesting than just saying, Hey, let’s go back and flip a page to what we did last year.

Robert Mason:
No, certainly not the case here. And it’s something that’s been an evolving process. I’m a big believer in getting people to buy into what they’re doing, giving the people that have to do it every day, a sense of ownership over it. Right? And so this is something we started kind of almost ad hoc a few years ago where we had a bar manager and he and I would sit down and brainstorm about the menu and we would talk through what our seasonal menu was gonna look like. And then I forget who even thought of the idea, but hey, why don’t we get some of the bartenders involved in this? Right? And so we took a day and we set up a bar upstairs. That’s how we used to do it. In the old days, we’d set up a separate bar upstairs. Now we just do it at the lobby bar and it has gained momentum, right? Because what we found is that all of the team, right, all of our mixologists wanna be part of that process, right? And so we certainly give some guidelines, we don’t wanna end up with five martinis on the menu, right? But, it’s really incorporating those flavors. So when we talk about fall, we’re talking about things like maple and fresh herbs and smoked drinks and things like that. A little more bourbon forward. And really focusing on those things and getting the team thinking about those things. But also bringing in some things that are new on the market that, that maybe they haven’t been exposed to before. Bringing in a grapefruit, hibiscus tequila, bringing in some kind of kitschy items that maybe not everybody else is using. We do what we call the sky high. I’m sure you saw it last night, right? With the bubble on top of it. And when we started doing that, nobody else was doing that. Now a lot of people are doing that. So we’re always looking for that point of distinction, that signature drink, that signature dish that people come back for again and again. Now that said, right, just like every year at Starbucks. You can count on it. I wait for the day that pumpkin spice lattes come out because there are certain things that are fan favorites that people come back here. We have a great pumpkin spice espresso martini that we serve and we serve it in the fall. We may tweak it a little bit from year to year, but we also want to incorporate fresh things every single year. And so what amazes me, and I’m just so proud of our mixology team, they are so creative, so passionate, and they just come up with new ideas all the time. And I’ve learned so much from them. So it really becomes a mutually beneficial process and just working with, such an outstanding team.

Ryan Embree:
It’s such a brilliant idea, Robert, because I think you talked about ownership at the very beginning and getting people buy into what were the culture here. And if you see that your drink was chosen to be on a seasonal menu, it’s a lot of pride I’m sure in some of those mixologists because there’s a lot of effort that goes into that. And also it keeps your guests really happy. Or even your patrons that, local patrons that might come in to see, Hey, what’s the, what’s the AC Skybar got in store for us this season?

Robert Mason:
It’s funny that you should say that because I just had a couple people email me this past week, say, when is your fall menu coming out? What can we expect? And so, so it’s great. And the other thing I just wanted to mention real quick was the team gets together and they do kind of these brainstorming sessions and research and development sessions and just to watch them go through that process now, is they’re not afraid of hurting each other’s feelings. It’s very collaborative. Like, hey, you know, what would make that drink better? I know it’s your drink, but what would make it better is this. And that’s how we end up with great drinks, like the banana old fashioned, right? It’s a total team effort.

Ryan Embree:
It’s gotta be so rewarding to see as a food and beverage director, and to that point of pride when you see those emails come through talking about that. When’s that seasonal menu coming out?

Robert Mason:
Absolutely.

Ryan Embree:
But you mentioned it at the top of the episode, Robert, you could have the view, you could have the drink and the food, but a lot of it has to do with staff, right? And this is something that we’ve talked to a lot of hospitality people about over the last couple years. It’s a shortness of hospitality workers right now. It’s been tough over the last couple years. You mentioned at Kolter Hospitality your passion and for their culture and what’s kept you here. How has that bled into hiring? How have you gotten creative with staffing? I mean, some of these, those things that you just mentioned have gotta be motivators for staff and recruiting and hiring.

Robert Mason:
Well, again, I have a couple of core beliefs, right? One of them is, I wanna give people the opportunity to have a better life and make better money year over year over year, right? Every year I want them to have a better quality of life. So that’s, that’s important to me, right? But the other part of it too is I want people that wanna come to work, right? So we want to have an environment and a culture where, yes, we have to have rules and we have to have certain things in place. But we want this to be a place that people wanna come, which is why people stay here. I’m a firm believer that the only way you have great service is when you have continuity of service. Where you have the same people doing the same job day after day and year after year. And so we think we’ve really created that culture here. But I think part of it too, is hiring is the most important thing I do. I always say it. And there’s certain things I can teach. I can teach somebody how to make a drink. I can teach somebody how to serve a table or pre-bus a table, but I can’t teach somebody that desire to have that excellence. That’s something you either have it when you walk in the door or you don’t have it. I call it the spirit of hospitality. So I’m always looking for people that have that spirit of hospitality. I use myself as an example. Like, I’ll be out, somewhere and I’ll hold the door open for somebody, you know, and my wife said, what are you doing? I’m just holding the door open for someone because that comes naturally to me. Because I like making people happy. I enjoy seeing people that are happy and I wanna have team members on the team that want those same things, that share those same values. And so I think that we’ve accomplished that and we continue to reinforce that. We continue to reinforce, Hey, we want you to treat this like it’s your own business. If this is your section and these are your tables, treat it like it’s someone coming over to your house. Like, how would you want them to feel? You’d want them to feel welcome. And so those are the things that I think are so, so important. And I think over the last few years, I think certainly since COVID, it was tough on a lot of people. And I think people lost that spirit of hospitality. They lost that sense of hospitality. But here at the Skybar, we’re trying to bring it back. We want everybody to leave here feeling like they’ve got friends here at the Skybar.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s venues like this that really raised the bar to back to service of where it was before. And that connection is so important, especially in food and beverage as you’re sure we look a lot at guest reviews, guest feedback, as I’m sure you do. And there’s a reason why that drink might just taste a little bit better with a friendly bar bartender and a listening ear. Or if that meal or that dish might just be a little bit more special because of the service that was provided at that place. And that’s true hospitality and certainly embodied here. And again, recognizing the awards that you guys have that you guys have recently gotten. So you mentioned social media, and that’s something that obviously over the time that you’ve been in this industry has certainly changed.

Robert Mason:
Yes.

Ryan Embree:
How can food and beverage outlets, hospitality, you get this picture of, how do you leverage social media to really spread awareness and the word about your hotel and this AC Skybar?

Robert Mason:
It’s a great question and I think it’s something that we have only recently gotten right. Something for the first few years, was kinda like, everybody had a little piece of it. And you know, as I always say, when it’s everybody’s job, it’s nobody’s job. And things kind of fall through the cracks. But we’ve recently hired someone who’s on our food and beverage team and she’s fantastic. And she’s got a background in social media and content creation and her name is Rebecca. And so she’s managing our social media now. And I think it’s visibility number one, right? I think it’s being visible to people. That means you’ve gotta be active on social media. It can’t just be 1 post a week. It’s gotta be 2, 3, 4 posts a week. Reposting things, engaging people who are responding to you and who are showing interest. I think that’s how you gain followers. And I think really it’s all about creating special things and special events. We’re gonna be doing a thing we’re gonna call Meetup Monday, which is gonna start in October, actually I think October 6th is our first event. And it’s really all driven by social media. So we’re putting it out there on our social media pages on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. We’re gonna push it out on Eventbrite. And it’s really just getting those people who are finding us on the internet because our demographic, that’s where they’re looking. They’re not reading newspapers and things like that. They’re not looking on tv, they’re looking on social media and that’s how they’re finding us. And so it’s just continuing to be relevant and continuing to have great content. We’re gonna do a bartender focus starting in October, where once a week we’re gonna have one of the bartenders who talk about the seasonal cocktail menu. They’re gonna get to make that cocktail. We’re gonna do a short video where they’re gonna get to make it and explain it and the thought process behind it and what inspired it and really make that an interactive process. So people that are looking in from the outside into our social media, they say, wow, the Skybar, they really have something cool going on there. And I feel like I know that bartender. I wanna go see that guy. And so they come in, they say, oh, you’re that guy that was on social media. So it’s so cool to see that interaction happening.

Ryan Embree:
It is fascinating because I think there was a time where as travelers and consumers we were fueled by surprises. Like when come in and we’d be like, oh look, check this out. Look at this view. Oh my gosh, they have a skybar up here. And now all of a sudden with just this information that’s to us, especially with social media, it’s almost like we want that familiarity before we even step foot, right? We wanna know that Robert’s our bartender and he’s been mentioned on TripAdvisor, on Google for his famous martini that he makes. And it’s so fascinating that that’s happened because we want to know everything before we step foot because we want that familiarity. It’s, it’s very, very cool to see. And another great proponent of why social media is so critical for hotels and food and beverage. Right now we’re getting towards the end here. I wanna do some rapid fire. And get to know you and the Kolter Hospitality portfolio a little bit better. So listen, this one might be tough because of the view that we’re at right now, but favorite view at one of your properties.

Robert Mason:
My favorite view, honestly, in all of our properties, and we have some outstanding properties from East coast to West coast of Florida, is the view of the harbor at the Westin in Sarasota. They have just a fantastic view now, not to be outshone, but right down the street from them is the Embassy Suites. They also have a view of the harbor and a view of the Gulf of Mexico. So I have to mention them as well, but that view from their rooftop bar and eats is unbelievable.

Ryan Embree:
Unbelievable. All right. Picturesque for sure. Favorite fun fact about one of the properties.

Robert Mason:
Favorite fun fact about one of the properties. You know, that’s a tough one. I would have to say that my favorite fun fact about this property is that we’re always trying to create something new. And I’m gonna give you a little preview of something that we’re launching. In the next few months is we are actually going to, I’m sure you’ve heard of the igloo craze up in New York and the north part of the United States. We’re gonna be launching some cabanas, some private cabanas on our patio. And we are going to be using these for VIPs and they’ll be able to be rented by the hour. And it’s just a great fun point of distinction. Something different that nobody else is doing that we’re gonna have to offer here at the Skybar.

Ryan Embree:
Love that. That’s fantastic. That actually falls under my probably favorite guest amenity or experience. What about favorite signature dish at one of your properties? Robert?

Robert Mason:
My favorite, actually I was just at the Western Sarasota. And again, not anything against our chef. Our chef does an amazing job. All of his food is amazing and all of our hotels do a great job with their culinary program. But Chef Ryan has these ahi tuna nachos that he makes with like a wasabi aioli on top of ’em. And they were so good. He wanted me to try ’em ’cause he just put ’em on his new menu and they were so good that when we were done for the day, I snuck back up to the roof and had another order of them. They were so good. I was thinking about ’em all day. They’re really, really delicious and everybody should try it.

Ryan Embree:
Hey, paired with your favorite view on the portfolio. Well that sounds like a pretty good night. Well, as we wrap up, you know, one of the things we like to do, we like to start talking about our guest beginnings. We like to end looking into the future, gazing into that hospitality crystal ball. You’ve been in the industry for a while. See trends kind of come and go. What are you seeing right now in food and beverage that’s really maybe a future trend to look out for? I think people want to know the story. I mean, there trends come and trends go. There are certain things that I think, and one of the reasons and that we had the Skybar the way we did is, since I’ve been here in five years, there’ve been tons of trendy bars that have come and they’ve gone and they’ve come and they’ve gone. What makes the Skybar unique is we wanted to have a timeless experience, right? Something that would always speak and never go outta style. And there’s certain things I think in food and beverage that never go outta style. Right now, a lot of craft people wanna know the story, especially behind wines and craft beer and craft cocktails. Even it’s trickled over into the liquor side, the spirit side. People wanna know the story behind that tequila that they’re drinking. And the craft vodka has in the craft tequilas and the craft rums that is really, really hot right now. Espresso martinis continue to be hot in any form or fashion, but the twist this year has been the tequila espresso martinis. So again, wanting those craft martinis and that kind of thing. On the food side, I think farm to table continues to be red hot. People want to eat locally. I think there continues to be this drive, especially in our society for healthier options, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian. So we always wanna speak to that and stay relevant. And I think that’s a good place to leave it because I think if you’re not staying relevant, it’s easy to fall behind and it can happen very quickly. So staying on top of those trends and really watching for those trends as they occur, both on the spirit side, the beverage side, and also on the food side, is something that Greg, my counterpart and I are constantly doing to keep things fresh and new with Kolter.

Ryan Embree:
Sustainability as well is massive, especially for the younger generation there. But you’re absolutely right. I mean, this is a timeless industry and I remember being at UCF Rosen of Hospitality, professor saying, this is the oldest industry that there is. Hotels, hosting people and feeding them. So, Robert, we appreciate you hosting us and feeding us yesterday and being on the Suite Spot and sharing some insights with our audience.

Robert Mason:
Thanks for having me.

Ryan Embree:
Thank you so much. We’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

 

The busy summer travel season is just about wrapped up, which means the Suite Spot is due for another quarterly check-in with the American Hotel & Lodging Association to get the latest news and developments taking place in the hospitality industry. 

AHLA President and CEO Rosanna Maietta joins the Suite Spot to discuss current hotel trends, industry challenges, the importance of mentors and mentees in hospitality, and more.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. So happy that you are listening to us here and ready to bring you another incredible episode with our quarterly check-in with AHLA in a preview of the 2025 Hospitality Show. It’s my immense privilege to welcome in our special guest for today’s episode, President and CEO, Rosanna Mietta. Rosanna, thank you so much for being with me on the back on the Suite Spot.

Rosanna Maietta:
Good to see you again, Ryan. Thanks for having us.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited to talk about the Hospitality Show. We’re excited to talk about AHLA. What we’ve been up to last time we were together was at NYU IHIF. Since then, the AHLA and the hospitality industry in general has been super busy, that super travel season, that hoteliers love to see travel all over the across the country. Catch us up on some of the top issues AHLA is focusing on right now and maybe some of the key wins that have happened year to date.

Rosanna Maietta:
Sure. It’s been an incredibly busy summer. There’s nothing like a quiet summer anymore. We’ve had a lot going on both in Washington and around the country. Obviously, the most important thing the administration has been focused on over the last six months of this year was passing the one big beautiful bill, which while it had many, many provisions tucked away in it, the ones that our industry was really focused on were those that impacted our small business community, our franchise community, and our employees. So we were focused on passing provisions like the 100% bonus depreciation and making that permanent, preserving the like kind exchange, deferring capital gains tax on real estate at point of sale. All those changes will help the industry reinvest and grow. But we also helped to promote the no tax on tips, which will support 800,000 employees in the industry who benefit from tips. And so we’re working on what that guidance actually looks like once that detail is developed and how, and educating our employers on how they can roll that out to their employees, but also provisions around overtime and child tax credit and family medical leave. So all of those things, were really important to our industry. And so we were really pleased to help get that over the finish line. Outside of Washington, there has been a lot going on, whether it is advancing legislation in markets like Boston or Philadelphia on human trafficking training and prevention, which our industry has been leading on to working in Los Angeles, where we have seen over the last two years very intense work around pushing back against onerous regulations that would essentially increase wages for the industry by 40% overnight. Simply a situation we cannot, we cannot handle because demand is so low in Los Angeles, it’s second to only San Francisco. And San Francisco in terms of occupancy, has been starting to see an uptick, whereas Los Angeles has not, it has not come back to pre-COVID levels. So we’ve been working really aggressively there with the business community to push back on that ordinance that has gone into law, but we are still working with city council to try to make some amendments that would make sure that the travel and hospitality sector is strong, especially in the lead up to some of these bigger events that we’re anticipating next year, whether it’s World Cup and, and a look ahead to the Olympics. So, a lot happening in some of those key markets. And then across the country at the state level, also working to promote a level playing field with short-term rentals and so impacting legislation in key states.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, never a dull moment over there in our industry. You know, we’re in a constant state of change and disruption, a lot of these in positive ways, but it, we look to AHLA as kind of a north star for a way to roll out some of these things for both hotel employers as well as employees. So we’ll continue to look there and really appreciate all the work and advocacy AHLA continues to do on behalf of hoteliers across the country. Summer’s also a time for summer jobs and internships and I’ve had the privilege to interview on this podcast some incredible hospitality leaders. And if I had a dime every single time somebody was talking about how, I started as a summer job or a summer internship and then will look at where they are today, 30, 40 year career in hospitality. So important. I know AHLA, you guys have your interns. We host an intern here at Travel Media Group. Can you talk and speak to the importance of internships? It’s no secret that our industry obviously has been battling with staffing shortages continues to do so. How has internships and hospitality mentors, how can they play a role in helping young people see a career in hospitality?

Rosanna Maietta:
So, incredibly important. Who doesn’t remember their first internship? I remember mine, it was unpaid back in the day when you could do that. But it was essential to building the foundation of what it means to work in the hospitality environment. Working in an office environment or on property. You can learn so much. And that ability to shadow different people is really so meaningful. And I think that what you’re seeing, so many more sophisticated interns coming in with already depth of experience and can hit the ground running. And so I think that’s really so rewarding to see. We’ve had our own interns here at AHLA and we’re sorry to see them go. You wanna wanna hold on to all those good quality individuals? But again, couldn’t stress enough how important it is. I think you’re seeing more in more companies, properties bringing on interns or STAs or apprenticeships, those go a long way in creating that bond with the industry. And so couldn’t stress more the importance of having those. I think the other thing that we are really, that our AHLA foundation has really been focused on is building out a mentorship program and a leadership mentorship program that has been, we’ve been making the inroads for that for a couple of years. And that one-on-one connection, being able to rely on someone in the industry who maybe it has a career path that you are looking to emulate or is completely different career path that you could still learn from is really important. This year’s program exceeded our own goals. We had more than 250 participants from 80 companies, and it included all the different business sections, career levels, participants from all sorts of segments, whether independent properties or branded hotels, and even management companies. The other really important stat was that 83% of the participants on both sides, whether mentors or mentees, were from underrepresented communities. So I think that really also speaks to how diverse our industry is and how important that is to who we are and who we serve. So we do have that formal mentoring program. I would encourage anyone to reach out to the AHLA foundation if that’s something that you’re interested in. And I’m so pleased to see how many more mentors we have reaching out to say, I want to mentee someone. And I think that says a lot about who we are as an industry and that heart service mentality that we lead with.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so incredible. That’s an amazing stat. Thank you for sharing that with us, Rosanna. And it doesn’t, I think all of us also remember maybe our first internship, but, there’s a lot of people that I have on this podcast that also remember their first mentor, whether that was an official mentor or not, somebody that they probably looked up to followed in the footsteps, management companies, brands during this time, I will say, I know it’s been tough with staffing, but they’ve gotten really creative over the last couple years and looking for more resources. And this mentorship program, the AHLA provides, seems like a great outlet to go in there and try to find, because a lot of you have an incredible stat that you share about those frontline workers that end up being GMs can do. Do you have that at the top of your head?

Rosanna Maietta:
I believe it’s 53%.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. It’s absolutely incredible. And there’ve been so many times where you talk about just finding a career through hospitality. We’re fast approaching National Hotel Employee day, September 1st, everyone get your social media profiles ready for that one posting on that day, over 2 million hotel workers in America. It’s absolutely incredible. You spoke about some of the mentorship ways, but what are some other ways we can kind of encourage people to share some incredible stories? I know at the hospitality show, one of my favorite places is the GM of the Year Awards and kind of recognizing those. How can we get those stories out there, get more people participating in our workforce?

Rosanna Maietta:
Sure. Well, and Hotel Appreciation Day or Dmployee Appreciation Day falls on Labor Day this year. So also, you know, doubly special and you’re right, I mean, our general managers are so critical to telling that story and we really view general managers as the best brand ambassadors for the industry, right? Because so many of them, half, as we noted, started in entry level positions and have risen to running, major properties, running teams moving around the country, and really have a full holistic view of what the industry has to offer. So we’re doubling down on our outreach to general managers trying to grow that network, trying to get them also more involved in, in both the storytelling, but being the ambassadors, whether it’s meeting with members of Congress when they come to their properties, or engaging in in local city politics and being leaders in the business community, that is so much more relevant when they are talking about how policies at the city and state level impact their employees, their business, their ability to grow and, and expand that sort of supply chain that depends so much on the hotel industry. So really, I think that is one key way that we are really focused on that. But we’re also trying to expand our network in major markets around the country that are heavy destination and tourism cities to develop that business community where we can really be talking about and leading when it comes to hospitality and talking about the benefits that the hotel and hospitality industry brings to cities. I still think that despite how much we contribute to local city, state, national economy, there really isn’t a direct correlation in a lot of people’s minds. And so we’re gonna, we’re you’re gonna see more coming out of AHLA in terms of reaching out to media, telling that story more broadly, really talking about the importance of the hotel industry.

Ryan Embree:
It’s incredible. I mean, it’s the backbone of a lot of these, of a lot of these major markets that are hosting events. Like you said, we’ve got the World Cup coming up, we’ve got the Olympics, right on the horizon as well. A few years ago, Taylor Swift and her tour. What would those events be without hospitality workers? Right? And the role of a GM has, has certainly evolved over the last couple decades. Such a comprehensive role now and undertaking it is such a skill. I admire all the GMs out there and what they’re able to do in the role that they’re doing. And that’s why things like the Hospitality Show, I think are very impactful. And I wanna switch gears to the 2025 Hospitality Show. We’re gonna talk about that a few weeks ago on the podcast, we hosted Alex Khajavi of Questex, and he really spoke to the special partnership, AHLA and Questex, obviously the two organizations behind the Hospitality Show. How has that relationship evolved Rosanna and helped grow the Hospitality Show to it? It was just recognized again by multiple awards, by the fastest 50 grand awards by trade show executive. So already highly recognized show in just its third year. It’s, it’s really in its infancy.

Rosanna Maietta:
I mean, it’s crazy if you think about it. I mean, it typically these types of shows, they take years and years to gain that type of following. I mean, Questex has been a phenomenal partner, Alexi at the helm with Paul and the great team there. It’s truly been a real sort of melding of the mind, so to speak, coming together to really understand who our audience is. I think we are able to bring that they have depth of knowledge and running a flawless show at that scale and size. I mean, we’ve grown by leaps and bounds in just three years, so this will be my first show, so I’m really excited to be there and be on the ground. We’re expecting some 4,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, so it is become a destination, a can’t miss show, and we are so thrilled to see how quickly it has grown and really become another anchor in the hospitality calendar.

Ryan Embree:
We’re looking forward to seeing some record breaking numbers again from the Hospitality Show this year. We’ll be there, have the privilege of covering the show for the third time headed to Denver this October. If you haven’t checked it out, make sure to check out and hopefully you’ll join both I and Rosanna at the Hospitality Show. Looking at the agenda and the programming that you and your team have put together, it’s a powerhouse between the speakers, the panels, the programming, and it makes sense, right? I mean, you have your ears to the ground of what the hotel you’re in 2025 today cares about the topics, the trends, what is everyone talking about in hospitality? What its a very compelling, comprehensive show is really the term that I would use because of how that role of the GM has evolved where it’s food and beverage, it’s amenities, it’s marketing, it’s sales, it’s everything all put together. What are you most looking forward to? I know this is your first year, but what are you most looking forward to when you take a look at that powerhouse of an agenda?

Rosanna Maietta:
Well, look, I think this show has gained so much traction so quickly because we understand our audience and what they’re looking for this year. It’s all about profitability. And then it speaks to some of the challenges that especially the owner community has experienced over the last several years, right? They’ve seen rising costs, they have seen a drop in revenue and demand across the country. And so how can we create content where they can walk away and feel like they’ve learned something, they can immediately apply something that they’ve gained to bring down their costs to shave a little bit here and a little bit there and do a little bit better next year. And so that’s why I’m really excited about the content and the quality of speakers that we’ve amassed for this year’s show. I always say that if you deliver good content, people will come back again and again. So our team really does do a phenomenal job in identifying what are those topics that will resonate this year, who are the speakers that people care about, want to hear about, but also bringing a little bit of people that maybe they haven’t heard, but who will give them something new and different. So you always wanna have a little bit of that element as well. So we are gonna have numerous tactical sessions that we’ll talk about, profit per square foot with panelists who will talk about labor issues and layout and operational efficiencies, things that really speak to hitting their P&L. We’ll be talking about sustainability and some of the rules and and regulations around the country that are impacting that, but ways that they can boost their properties. Performance energy costs are so much of a P&L. And so how do you, how can you reduce those while thinking about all the regulations you have to deal with as well. Beyond that, the main stage will have a solution stage and education stage, dozens and dozens of speakers. We have about 60 industry leaders who will be on all of those stages, talking about really important topics. But then we have some other keynote speakers that I think will be really be interesting from other industries that our industry can learn from. With Chris Barton, who’s the founder of the search app, Shazam, which I know is on everybody’s phone. He’s gonna talk about the power of ideas and taking chances. We have a tech future as who’s gonna talk about separate fleeting fads from profitable long-term trends. How do you make sure that you’re just not falling for the thing of the moment, but you’re really focused on that long-term gain over time as well. And then of course, with everything that’s happening, macroeconomic environment, geopolitical landscape, we have an expert from Tanto Capital Partners who’s gonna talk about global forces, reshaping markets and what does that mean for consumer demand and travel, especially in the, as you pointed out, where we are expecting these big gains and a lot of interest coming to the us. So really encouraging folks to go to the HospitalityShow.com and where they can learn both more, but also register.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’s really comes at a perfect time, Rosanna, because I think right now, like you said, profitability margins are slim right now. It’s challenging out there and hoteliers are just hearing all this outside noise from a lot of things about maybe the macro environment that you were talking about, but it’s also a time of disruption, right? Where they’re hearing that all of this AI and technology is really gonna make them become more efficient. So I think a lot of hoteliers have this like kind of FOMO of like, am I not taking full advantage of this and or for my business? And I think places like the hospitality show, events like the hospitality show where you can talk, network with your peers, exchange ideas, hear what people are talking about, really kind of puts you at an equilibrium and really calibrates you and says, okay, this is outside of the noise. This is where I need to be focusing. This is the newest and best technology that I can be using for my business. Put you in a position for success. So along with the Hospitality Show, the major one that happens October, 2025, you actually have regional Hospitality Shows that happened throughout the, the year across the country. I rebranded a couple years ago to the Hospitality Show. I always like, I always like to ask about these because I think this really gives a solid pulse of the hotelier today without that outside noise that we were kind of talking about. What’s been your experience this year talking to hoteliers on the ground and how do you think they’re feeling sentiment wise, heading into the fall and winter, which are typically slower months?

Rosanna Maietta:
Sure. Great question and you’re right. I mean the regional shows have really allowed us to get that pulse check on our members, but also introduce them to some of the advocacy issues that we’re dealing with in their own communities. And so bringing in local leaders, members of Congress from their district that they can have that interaction engagement with, because it has to be a two-way dialogue so that our members can also share some of the concerns that they have with people who are making their rules and regulations that govern our business. They’ve been incredibly important. And I will say this has been a tough year for a lot of our owners and our franchise communities, our small business owners. Again, demand, depending on where you are, sometimes, you know, if you’re on the upper East coast, you’re seeing a drop in travel from Canadians. If you’re in the middle of the country in some of these tertiary markets, you’re doing okay. I think some cities like Nashville and Asheville are doing really well, but that’s not been the case everywhere. And so I think there has been a lot of concern about how some of these rising costs are really impacting business and that bottom line. And so that’s what we’re taking all of that information both into our advocacy efforts, but also into thinking about how can we create a show that will address some of these challenges and burdens that people are experiencing. At the same time, this is an incredibly resilient industry, and you will hear that time and time again from anyone that you talk to, and certainly brand leaders, but also also owners while they’re recognizing this has not been a terrific year, they are still expressing a lot of hope for the future.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And that’s what really where we like to wrap up and end our episodes here, Rosanna. Is kinda looking into that hospitality crystal ball and I think AHLA does a fantastic job of really bringing to the forefront those issues that are going to impact your business. And we sometimes attend these conferences and you hear, some of that outside noise and it really gets you center at what is, what are you advocating right now and what AHLA is kind of keeping an eye on. What does that look like for the rest of this year going into 2026?

Rosanna Maietta:
Well, we’re gonna come back and hit the ground running after Labor Day. I mean, Congress has a looming debt ceiling to negotiate and deal with. So we’re keeping our eyes on that. We’re expecting to hear a little more about some of the decisions around the tariffs and how many deals have been made, what are the details of those deals. So I think some of that certainty and will bring added clarity to the industry. I think you have seen sort of a stalling of some development because of that uncertainty. So hopefully you’ll see that tie turn going into next year once some of those deals have been announced and people understand what the impact will be on costs of building and new development. So we’re keeping an eye on that. Of course, H2Bs is something else we’ve been lobbying on very aggressively this year. That is always staffing challenges are always a challenge and have been an issue this year as well. So we’re working through all of that, making sure the administration understands how important that is to our industry in particular. And again, at the state and local level, continuing to fight for a level playing field. Sessions will start opening up again, so we’re gonna hit the ground running there, but as we look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, so for sure Washington and outside of Washington will really be consumed by that. But it’s a World Cup year, so I think that there’s a lot of a hope for travel coming back at higher levels than we saw this year and people are preparing for that. And there’s a lot of general excitement around the industry for those events.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’s great to see. And 2026 will certainly be the year of the international traveler coming back and hopefully seeing all the incredible hospitality that our country has to offer. So we appreciate you Rosanna, being here on the podcast and talking to our hotel, your audience about the important issues and all the advocacy work you and your team are doing at AHLA. So thank you. We appreciate that. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?

Rosanna Maietta:
Look, wanna thank you for putting a spotlight on our advocacy issues, but also the Hospitality Show. We look forward to seeing you there. We hope many of your, your listeners and viewers will join us there. It’s gonna be a great way to both wrap up this year, but with a look ahead to what’s to come.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited about that. Hopefully we can catch up there in Denver. Rosanna, thank you for joining me on the Suite Spot here today.

Rosanna Maietta:
Thank you, Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
Thank you for listening as well. We hope to see you in October at in Denver at the 2025 Hospitality Show. And we’ll talk to you next time on the Suite Spot To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

The 2025 Hospitality Show is fast approaching! While it is only a couple of months away, it will take place in Denver, Colorado, on October 26-28. Alexi Khajavi, President of Questex—Hospitality, Travel, & Wellness, joins the Suite spot to discuss the upcoming event and what attendees can look forward to this year. 

Alexi shares insight on: 

• New Interactive Zones & Networking at THS 2025
• Questex’s Quest Zero Sustainability Initiative
• The Changing Landscape of Hospitality
• Digital Marketing and the Importance of Social Media for Travel

And much more.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. So happy to be with you today, previewing the 2025 Hospitality Show. Yes, it is that time of year, this year. We are headed out to Denver in October. We’re gonna talk all about it, with a very frequent guest, a Suite Spot veteran at this point, Alexi Khajavi, Questex President, Hospitality and Real Estate. Alexi, thank you so much for being on the Suite Spot once again with us.

Alexi Khajavi:
Ryan, great to be here.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. We’re gonna talk about the Hospitality Show, but it is crazy to think that this, we had you back on the podcast in 2023 when this was first announced, and here we are today. You know, this is three years strong. This is the third year going into it. You know, I wanted to start with you. We’ve talked about your journey. We’ve talked about your role, some of the mentors along the way. I’d love to just hear from you, Alexi, if we could go back to that podcast in 2023. What do you think the biggest change in hospitality that you’ve seen over these last few years?

Alexi Khajavi:
I’d say it’s half and half. I mean, on one hand, I think we were, we were absolutely correct and spot on in that hotel profitability and the complexity in hotel operations would only increase and would be in terms of achieving profitability would become harder, and more challenging. And I think we were right in that assessment and we continue to see a lot of challenges in the space. And now we’re starting to turn into negative territory in terms of operating performance with RevPAR ADRs and occupancy, which is normal, right? I mean, this is a cyclical, industry and it’s an industry that is dependent on the macro economy. So, we’ve had an incredible run, but I think looking back in 2023, we absolutely got that right. It was only gonna become increasingly more complicated and challenging, and that therefore profits would also be challenging in turn. What I don’t think we anticipated was how massively AI would start to impact not only our industry, but our world. And it is increasingly becoming, I think it’s, it’s gonna have a much more deeper impact on, in a shorter time than what we anticipated back in 2023. And not all of that, by the way, is negative. There’s a lot of positive opportunities that come out from AI, but I think we’re all trying to figure it out right now in the hospitality industry. Could be both a beneficiary, but will certainly and undoubtedly be impacted by it. But those are two things that I think we got right, and one, I think we, we didn’t anticipate the enormity of the impact of AI.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, or the acceleration. I mean, in a industry whose technology adoption is typically slower than most, we’re, we’re up there right now, I mean, or at least hoteliers. And the market feels like hospitality is trying to embrace this maybe differently than other technological fads, right. And I think it’s really, really cool to see, you ever want to explain the complexity of hospitality to someone who doesn’t know hospitality? Go to the Hospitality Show and see all the vendors that are on that showcase list, and you’re gonna see everything over there. And I think that’s why hoteliers, I know I certainly I do, but hoteliers love the hospitality show because it brings everyone to one specific place. And the challenging operations that you mentioned, Alexi, continue to kind of stack up the hats that GMs can continue to put on and wear. It’s all in one place and at one location. And with this location being in Denver. So you launched the Hospitality Show in Vegas, I don’t think probably a great place to launch any type of show. Moved to San Antonio last year, right by right beside the Riverwalk. Here we are in 2025 in Denver making its debut in Colorado. What are you most excited about for this location? What do you think it brings to the hospitality show?

Alexi Khajavi:
Well, Colorado has a huge and vibrant ecosystem of hospitality companies, all ranging from, obviously, Veo and, the ski resort infrastructure that’s throughout Colorado, but you’ve got some incredible management companies that are based there, developers and technology. There’s a thriving ecosystem across the hospitality space. And all of those categories and brands that are within each of those are supporting THS and getting that local support as we did in Vegas and San Antonio is critical to the success. So I mean, bringing it to Denver, which is a great downtown, a lot of new hotels have opened up just in the last two, three years. So a really vibrant hotel stock that’s gonna be, where our guests and our delegates and our sponsors and exhibitors will all be staying. And we’re bringing the city into the experience. So, we’ve got, as always, we’ve got an incredible two nights of evening receptions where we bring the industry together from senior leaders to GMs and students and everything in between. But it’s just a great town. You know, there’s great restaurants, great sports teams. We’re there, you know, while both the NBA and the NFL are in action, and there’s a lot of that, hospitality ecosystem that we’re bringing into experiences, whether that be for the entire delegation or for guests just to take out clients, meet each other and network and so forth. We’ve got the University of Denver, which has a vibrant hospitality program also that we’re supporting and is supporting the Hospitality Show as well as Visit Denver and, and the Chamber of Hotels and the CBB. So, Denver is a great place to be. It’s a good time of year to be there in October. It’s typically not too hot and before the snow starts to fall. But look, at the end of the day, I mean, the local economy and the state economy really does appreciate the impact that tourism hospitality delivers to Colorado and the businesses and the labor and employment that depend on that. So, we’ve got a lot of support from the local market that is great. And that will be there in full force and it’s just a great town, right? I mean, it’s right downtown. Like San Antonio, you can walk to bars, restaurants in your hotel, you can go catch a game with the nuggets, and if you come in early on Sunday, I even think the Broncos are playing. So it should be a good time, in addition to all the education and the networking, and the inspiration that’ll be happening at the convention center.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I’ve seen firsthand what you’re talking about, Alexi, about bringing that local flare. Some of the things you and your team did last year in San Antonio, a live mariachi band. So cool that that was day that Di de Los MUTOs was going on as well, as well as a World Series. You brought a little bit of that flare, so can’t wait to see what you got planned this year. We’re excited for it along with the obviously local community that has a big impact on this show. You have a great partnership with AHLA, and obviously we’ve had a lot of AHLA members kind of giving us some quarterly check-ins, making sure the hoteliers are up to date with the most important topics, trends, and issues out there that they advocate for. Can you talk about maybe that partnership with AHLA and how it’s kind of helped shape and grow this event?

Alexi Khajavi:
Yeah, I mean, look, AHLA at the American Hotel and Lodging Association is the preeminent association and membership community for the hotel and hospitality sector. And we started this in partnership with AHLA. We were both aligned around our commitment to not only the industry and the brands within the industry, but in terms of the importance of connecting the ecosystem with the products and then the solutions that go hand in hand in addressing that operational complexity that we talked about. But more importantly, in driving hotel profits. And the better off we are from an operational perspective, the better experience the guest has, the more the guest will return and continue to support the hospitality industry. And the win-win is that the rest of the value chain benefits as well. So the more profits that the fragmentation of the industry, the brands don’t own, the bricks, and there’s typically a third party or often a third party operator in the middle of that is operating that operating business on behalf of the owners under a flag for the brand. I mean, you can tell just from the business model, we’re a bit more complex, we’re a bit more nuanced, than a traditional, piece of commercial real estate. So, which makes it very fascinating, right? And then you add in this guest into the middle of that, and all of those guest, you know, expectations are changing as well. So all of that happening, you know, AHLA has a deep understanding of the industry, of the guests, of the operators, but more importantly, they’ve got a commitment to improving that ecosystem and that value chain. And so our interests are a hundred percent aligned around that. It’s why we launched the hospitality show is because the hospitality show is really the only event in the industry that brings both senior leadership as well as the decision makers in procurement, operations, general managers, food and beverage directors, revenue managers, sales and marketing, all across HR and finance. Those individuals that are all making decisions from senior level CEOs of the brands and some of the largest investment funds and groups to everyone in between. And that’s a really unique thing for hospitality in that many other industries, whether it be construction or technology or plastics or military, all have at least one event, which is what we call a tent pole event, where the best, the brightest, the most qualified and the most active in that industry all gather once a year. And, you know, hospitality didn’t have that. And the preeminent foremost association for the US lodging industry didn’t have that. And so that really was, for us, a white space in the industry and in the landscape of all the events that are out there. So, you know, AHLA is a perfect partner. They’re the right partner, they are heavily invested in this, and, you know, we make every decision all throughout the process and the planning and the post-event, AHLA and Questex, are side by side in it. So it really does put the stamp of approval, and it’s why, frankly, we get, the largest collection of CEOs and brands and operators and advisors all there with those owner operators. So it’s a great opportunity and it’s a great partnership, and we’re delighted to have them on board, and it’s a two decades long, partnership. So it’s only just beginning.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. I mean, it’s such a truly remarkable, unique event and what better place or maybe authority to go to for key industry issues than the advocacy group that is AHLA pushing some of these, these important issues that are, are so critical to our business. But you’re absolutely right. I mean, the programming that you and your team put together for this event is so intentional that it can speak to your C-level executives all the way down to your frontline, even sometimes students, what you were, you were mentioning there, and you’ve really, you’ve kind of gone through the process, Alexi with me on past episodes about talking about how you’ve incorporated and listened and listened to guest feedback. And I think for events that are going to sustain, grow and be successful, you obviously have to get that feedback from attendees on what’s missing? What do you like, where did we miss the mark to improve? And you’ve kind of gave us the behind the scenes of that process for you and your team. We saw some new additions to this year’s show the recharge zone, interactive zone, F&B zone. Can you talk about maybe these new components of the show and how it’s addressed, maybe some of the guest feedback you were hearing?

Alexi Khajavi:
One of the biggest feedback, points and topics that we heard was personalization continues to be both an opportunity and a challenge for hoteliers. And it’s, much more demand by the guest, right? The guest is choosing hospitality in large part because they want to be treated, with a human, personalized, authentic, you know, service. But behind that, it’s technology that really drives that. And so the the reality is that of the 50 some odd thousand hotels that are in the US, the overwhelming majority of each of those hotels, tech stacks is already outdated. So a huge amount of transformation needs to take uptake place across the hospitality, sector in terms of the backend tech. And that backend tech is what’s gonna fuel that human experience, that personalized delivery of service and experience and memorable experiences, basically that fueled the industry. So that was a, that’s been a really strong driving point as to how do you use technology effectively to empower humans not to replace the human component of hospitality. And then looking at, to your point, the departments within a hotel, F&B, revenue management, wellness, as well as, looking at the startups that are coming into the space, because the tech industry in and of itself looks at hospitality to the point you made earlier, Ryan, as being a late bloomer, a late adopter of technology, whereas many other markets, healthcare and so forth, have already invested heavily and have already incorporated a lot of technology into their infrastructure. So we’ve got a long way to go, which is, you could look at as being a negative, but is it’s actually a positive. We’re also launching and or what, not launching, but continuing with the general manager summit and luncheon, that starts on Sunday. We’ve got the GM awards, so we’re actually bringing over 500 GMs there. Um, Which is really one of the most, I’d say rewarding parts of THS because GMs are the unsung hero, of unrecognized, but we’re, we’re changing that. Again, that’s an Asian initiative, which we’re bringing into to the Hospitality Show. But we’re also looking at the cities and how the hospitality industry can work more effectively with their local mayors, their local councils and their state, local legislations. We’ve got Walter Eisenberg, CEO of Sage Hospitality Group, which is a local Denver, Colorado based, business, which will be starting us off on Sunday. We also have, Mehul Patel, who’s the managing director of Newcrest, one of the most well-known, he’ll be speaking with Heather Tre, who’s the vice president of Ofra International, one of the largest procurement companies that we have. And then on Sunday as well, we’ve got Chris Barton, which for those of you that don’t know, probably use the technology like I do every day, was the founder of Shazam. And he may be wondering, you know, why, why we’re bringing in the founder of Shazam and it and it’s because Chris identified this human need, which is when we all hear that song on the radio, you’re driving in the car, you don’t know, you know what it is, but you desperately need to know, you know, what that song is because you love it or you hate it, whatever it may be. And you use technology to fulfill a very human need, and it becomes a very authentic and a very sentimental moment when you can capture what that song is or what that tune is. So, again, we’re trying to change the aperture of just looking at hospitality through the various departments or the various, you know, sort of technologies that go into a hotel tech stack. We have all that. We’ve got over 500 exhibitors, but we’re trying to give people the opportunity to really think about how other industries are using technology and are looking creatively to solve human needs and human wants, and then to create these memorable experiences. So it’s a mix of both information and inspiration. And honestly, Ryan, one of the things that’s been fueling us this year based off of your question and what the feedback has been is that, in an age of information, ignorance is a choice, and there’s no shortage of information and knowledge out there. So not being knowledgeable about what those products and solutions are to driving hotel profitability is frankly a choice. And so the folks that are making the choice to attend the hospitality show and lean in are making that choice to improve their operations, improve their businesses, and improve their own profitability, which is all, which is a win-win for the entire industry.

Ryan Embree:
There you go. You can punch your ticket right there. That is a great selling point to get people inspired to go to this Hospitality Show. But you’re right, I mean, I still remember the inspiring words of Admiral McRaven in 2023 in Vegas, Aaron Andrews and Jose Andres last year, incredible keynote speakers. And obviously Jose had some very impactful stories about hospitality. But I think all of the lessons learned, you’ve mentioned it on this podcast with me, Alexi, they make for great icebreakers and conversations and networking and things that you can apply to different pieces of your business, which is so eclectic and complex as we’ve talked about. And one of those topics that can continues to be prioritized that we hear personalization is certainly one of the sustainability always a hot topic. Questex has its own initiative, Quest Zero. Can you share a little bit about that program and how you see sustainability evolving into the hospitality show programming this year?

Alexi Khajavi:
Yeah. Our sustainability in that Quest Zero is you, uh, as you mentioned, that is our, not only our, our initiative, but it’s our promise to ourselves and our customers, both, you know, exhibitors and sponsors as well as the delegates that we will repurpose, recycle and reduce all of the products, the services that we ourselves use to put into, and to put on an event of the scale that the hospitality show, uh, does. And look, that’s, you know, that’s often harder than it should be because there, it doesn’t exist the products or the solutions to solve something to reduce or to recycle. But in terms of signage, in terms of carpet, in terms of lighting and food waste, those are all areas which we address directly at the hospitality show. And we reduce as well as reuse. So the food, for example, in conjunction with the convention center, we’re very focused, very much focused on reducing that food waste. And where we do have overages of food, and we always do, we want to have our delegates well fed and imbibed, in hospitality. We then contributed and donate it to local charities and centers to support the needy. So, all of those things, frankly, are replicating what hotels, many hotels are doing and programs that already exist in hospitality. And so at the very minimum, we are a reflection of what the hospitality industry is doing in terms of our its corp corporate social responsibility. And look, it’s a journey. I would be the first one to say that, you know, we’re not perfect, but we’re on that pathway to improving all of those areas. And we continue to work with, you know, industry associations as well as AHLA to find ways to reduce and recycle and frankly just minimize the impact and the footprint that putting on our event of this scale does. But yeah, it’s very important to us and our partners and our customers, also support it as well. And they do their own initiatives, alongside THS as well. So, yeah, it’s a very integral part of not only Questex, but of the Hospitality Show as well.

Ryan Embree:
Well, and it helps the travelers guests, they’re asking for this stuff, right? This is more than just a traveler trend right now of people asking for sustainable practices, corporate corporations looking at a eco budget, rather than how can we make our travel a little bit more eco-friendly? So it’s really, really cool to see that momentum. And I think this is a show like the Hospitality Show, when you have different brands come together, different ideas come together, this is when we can help move that industry forward, especially on important issues like that. Again, our guests are asking for their craving, and they’re certainly prioritizing in their travel when they’re searching for travel. So you mentioned it before, Alexi, GM of the Year Awards, one of my personal favorite parts of the hospitality show, incredible stories, incredible people. How do we, one of the things we probably would still tell each other in 2023 is we’re still battling the staffing shortage to a degree, right? I think we’re always gonna have that, but how do we get some more inspiring stories like these incredible ones that we hear out from the hospitality show into the ears and minds of this younger generation to think of hospitality as a career and not just a summer job that you fall into in college and then fall in love with after that.

Alexi Khajavi:
I mean, it’s a big issue and there isn’t a silver bullet solution to it. But to your point, I mean, it starts one by celebrating, those general managers that most of them, frankly, have come through the ranks of the operational side of the business, right? I mean, they, you don’t just start as a general manager. You start, doing the night audit. You start as a bell cap, you know, you start in housekeeping, you start in the kitchen and really in an industry, and frankly in an economy that does struggle to create career paths and opportunities to start here and end up there with higher earning power, higher authority, greater responsibility. I mean, that’s the American dream right then and there, right? So, not to be, you know, romantic or hyperbolic, but the hospitality industry is hook, line and sink, or directly linked to what we all sort of anecdotally refer to as that American dream. Is that you can work your way up and you can move into management and increase your income and your lifestyle.

Ryan Embree:
And that’s what we all want, right? So celebrating those GMs is paramount to one, why the hospitality show exists. But second to your point, it’s just very, very special. You know, to see those stories, to hear those stories and to engage with those general managers from across the country is a very special moment. We do many touch points and different variations of it, we’ve got the awards, we’ve got the summit, we’ve got the luncheon, and then of course, they’re walking through the expo floor, they’re at the networking reception, so they’re a core part of the audience. And the CEOs, I like to tell the story, the past two years, and I would expect it again this year, Jeff Bti, CEO of Wyndham and others for that matter. I don’t want to just say it was Jeff, but you know, he’s right at the front row. He’s clapping on GMs from other brands because he knows, and he absolutely is connected in his own career. You know, similar story, knows that it’s those individuals which really do deliver the experience, but more importantly, it’s ensuring that those individuals get recognized and that they become lessons for others, whether they’re in the industry today or are looking for a career, that you have an opportunity in hospitality to grow your career and grow your own lifestyle and your opportunities. Which again, which then goes to the other point, which is then connecting it to young people and young folks looking to enter a career at college or at a vocational school or coming out of high school. Again, we have a perception as an industry, a misconception, if you will, that we are a summer job, we’re low paying and we’re low skilled. And nothing could be further from the truth because it doesn’t tell the whole truth, right? And so I think we are like our partnership with the University of Denver, we are connecting this with the school, trying to help the school to promote the incredible program that they have at the university. And David Corson, the dean there is on our advisory board, the planning committee for THS. So we’re gonna be bringing students there from that program, but others as well. And really our job here is to encourage greater promotion and understanding that the industry is a great industry to be in, and it provides a lot of opportunities, but again, you’ve gotta show it from real life people, right? You’ve gotta show that GM started here and ended up there and has a great opportunity and a great career to go even higher. And I just don’t know many other industries that you can do that. I mean, nothing wrong with them, but typically, you need a four year degree and you then have to start at the top, and you may end up somewhere near the top or hopefully at the top, but this is really one that you can start in any department and really then move your way around and find your place. And it doesn’t mean that you always have to end up as a GM or the CEO, but there’s plenty of opportunities. And as we’ve seen, this is a human deliberate. This is a human powered industry. So even with AI coming on board, it’s just gonna open up more opportunities for people to choose a career that they love and have a great opportunity to support themselves and their families, which is, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Ryan Embree:
I think that’s a great pitch to a young professional earlier in their hospitality career. But, and maybe I’ll go on the other side and, and maybe speak to the veteran hospitality leaders out there that might be listening to this. Also be open to mentorship of these young professionals to show them, share your story, how this can turn into a career. And to speak to the technology side, Alexi, that you were talking about, this younger generation coming in, they’re gonna see some of these processes that we might still have in hospitality and say, what are we doing here? Right? They might like look at it as old technology, and it could be an opportunity to freshen up what you’re doing. Definitely keep a listening ear because they’re gonna have expectations of what they want in their career. So hopefully we see more of that.

Alexi Khajavi:
Ryan, I think I don’t think you could be more correct in that statement. I mean we tend to think of it as, as, you know, the business needs to upgrade and needs to modernize, but the reality is, is that it’s still our employees and our colleagues are gonna be using these platforms and these technologies. And if your CSR your booking engine, your global distribution system, your guest management system, your revenue management system, whatever, all of these platforms that are all within that hotel tech stack, if they still look like something from 1984 platform a user experience, it’s failed already, right? It doesn’t matter how good the system is that you can’t get the users to use them. And as we wanna attract these younger talent, our platforms and the user experience part of that platform in order to improve, reduce the data silos, and in order to improve the API connections between all these systems talking to each other, and ultimately to really truly provide a personalized experience in hospitality, which can drive revenue, drive loyalty, IE drive money and and profits. The platforms have to be modern, they have to be user friendly, and they’re not in many cases. And so, the startup zone, that we’ve launched is really in many cases, in many ways, a curation of those new technologies, which are not only improving the solving a problem in the industry, but many of ’em, to your point, are actually trying to create a better user experience within the platform themselves so that the users, the employees and the colleagues that we have in the industry enjoy using it, which becomes, again, it’s a bit of a win-win there.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. If any time, Alexi, it’s ripe for disruption right now with everything that’s going on. So, to be at that startup zone that you were talking about to learn, be open to these new technologies that maybe a decade ago, your organization wasn’t ready to make that shift, this is the time to do it. Because if you’re not here, you could be already five years behind. Speaking of kind of where we’re at right now, I want to give you a crazy hypothetical, but if you started the Hospitality Show, let’s say in the nineties, probably be very different to where starting it in 2023 and the role that digital marketing plays. We started the Suite Spot. It’s a digital marketing podcast. Can you talk to, I remember when I first saw the, the Hospitality Show, social media page come up, and now here you are, you got thousands of followers on social media. Talk to us about how digital marketing has played a role in really growing this show right now.

Alexi Khajavi:
I mean, marketing and demand generation capabilities in hospitality are woefully missing. Some of it is self-inflicted, but for others, for hotels with limited staff, a strategic marketing plan is frankly impossible or extremely challenging. There’s only so much you can do with a limited amount of staff. Talking about COVID, again, to your point earlier on, sales and marketing staffs were the first ones that were let go during the pandemic, and many of them have still not been staffed back up. So we lost this tranche of sales and marketing commercial know-how across the industry, and we’re still suffering from that today. So, you know, technology at its very core, hospitality technology exists to help hotels drive profitable demand through an omnichannel marketing plan. So, essentially how do you build a plan to target the right audiences on the right channel at the right time with the right price? Because the reality of dynamic pricing, which is in hospitality, is you and I can be staying on the same floor, on the same dates, in the same room type, and yet have paid completely different rate through different channels at different times. And that can’t be underestimated the complexity of that to get it right. And it’s not just just changing it willy-nilly, right? But it’s about optimizing the right channel to the right audience at the right time with the right price. And the right price is different for you at a different time on different channels. So it’s highly, highly, highly complex. And if you don’t get it right, you’re gonna be leaving money on the table. And if you do get it right, you’ll be outperforming your market set exponentially. So the campaigns have to be thoughtfully tracked and they have to be thoughtfully optimized, and they have to achieve a measurable return on investment, which is the other bit, right? Because how do you actually attribute what you did and what you spent or the resources you allocated to the return on that investment, again, achievable, doable with all within the technology that’s out there in the marketplace today, that didn’t exist frankly, five years ago and didn’t exist certainly 10 years ago, but exists today. But again, it’s about connecting that product or that solution to the right person, making sure that the labor and that the talent exists to use that properly. Because look, I mean take Meta Search or SEO programs, you know, those are marketing strategies that drive real results for a hotel to get seen on the most popular internet search engines influencing travelers. We’ve been talking about this for, you know, 15, 20 years, but talk about social media. My kids don’t go to the website, they don’t go to Google to influence our vacation plans. And they very much influence our vacation plans. They go to TikTok and they go to Instagram. And I can’t tell you how many hotels that are in destinations that we were going to, because we already knew we were going to Cabo San Lucas. But if they didn’t have a social media plan and execution and optimization and attribution plan, well, they’re not gonna get found. I don’t care whether you got five stars, whether you’re TripAdvisors, good, bad, sideways, those are things that I search for, but they’re not things that our kids and the younger generation search for, which frankly have either influenced my spend, our generation spend, or they themselves are getting old enough to make their own purchasing decisions. So sales and marketing’s a really critical area for the Hospitality Show, and we’ve built that up over the last three years. We have a partnership with HSMAI, so we bring their sales and marketing experts, and we’re bringing more of them this year, and we’re connecting them to more products and solutions that drive that demand generation and marketing capabilities. Because frankly, and I get no joy out of saying this, we still market hotels like it was 1994, to your point.

Ryan Embree:
The complexity spills over from the operational. I mean, you talked about how challenging it can be right now on an operational standpoint. Part of that operations is your sales and marketing and the digital landscape is changing at a very fast pace. And if you are fully not optimized on social media like you’re talking about, and those places are hard, we still think in old attribution models when it comes to social media and reviews sometimes of saying, how much is this? How many bookings is this post gonna get me? How many bookings am I gonna get from this five star review? And you can’t think like that. You have to think about your digital presence, they always call it the online billboard to try to make that translation to something physical. But if you don’t have that upkept exactly like you were saying, Alexi, with your, with your parallel there, you’re not gonna be found in, you’re certainly not gonna be chosen by the travelers once they get there.

Alexi Khajavi:
And the data is siloed still in the industry, right? Because of the fragmentation of the industry itself, because of the fragmentation of many of the technology platforms within this tech stack not communicating with each other. All of that data is siloed. And what that does is, again, we call ourselves a hospitality industry, but how many times have you showed up to a hotel, that you stay at often, I mean, this is me and I, and I will not name the hotel, but I stay there so much that I know who they are. And oftentimes they forget me because they’re seeing thousands of more people than, I’ve got an advantage in that human to human, occasionally a couple of them because we’ve made a connection, will remember me. Hello Mr. Khajavi, nice to see you again. But those that don’t, the fact that I’ve stayed there hundreds of times now will say, is this your first time staying with us? And, you know, there’s nothing that, that could have filled a moment after a plane ride and a taxi, and you’re tired to say, lovely to see you again, Mr. Khajavi. Breakfast is still serving, I know you like croissants, donut and a coffee. That creates a human connection. And that is what hospitality is. And I’m not asking, in this case, it’s the human that is actually performing better than the data, the technology, because a couple of the front desk staff remember me and I can tell you just that, hello, and that welcome back drives loyalty. It happens so intermittently and that there isn’t a data and there’s a solution for it. But the fact that in 2025, we still haven’t connected to that. And I’m a part of the loyalty plan. I stay there all the time. I know them, I know the ownership group, I know the third party management. So again, I’m not your normal John Doe coming off the street. I didn’t book through, you know, an OTA, I did everything right, quote unquote right, for the hotel to know me and not have to remember me, right? To have a popup come and say, Mr. Khajavi stayed with you last May, and he stayed with you for four nights and he got dry cleaning five times. The power of that. And those are the things that we can do. And those are the products and the solutions and the experts that are doing it, right, that owners, operators and GMs and food and beverage directors and heads of housekeeping are gonna meet and are gonna connect with in Denver at the Hospitality Show. Because until we get people together, together that are a part of that, and that know what’s working, what’s not working, how to make it work, we’ll never solve it, right? And we’ve got to solve this because if we don’t solve it, well now we’re just a commodity and we’re really losing out on the art of hospitality. And if we achieve the art of hospitality, I can promise you the profits and the loyalty and the demand will be much, much higher than what it currently is today. And there’s, that’s not a bad thing.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And loyalty will go through the roof, like you talked about, customer retention, it’s a snowball effect. And it’s events like the hospitality show that are gonna get us closer to being there. So if you’re listening to this, it’s the place to be. Let me make, make sure I get the dates right on this October 26th-28th in Denver. We will be there covering it. Again, bring you all the insights, exclusive interviews that we can. Alexi, wanna thank you for your time. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?

Alexi Khajavi:
Ryan, it was great to see you again. I looking forward to seeing you in Denver and looking forward to seeing everybody else as well.

Ryan Embree:
Well, thank you so much for your time. We look forward to seeing you in Denver. Have a great rest of your summer and into your fall, and we’ll talk to you next time on the Suite Spot To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

The next stop on the Suite Spot: Road Trip takes us to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to visit the newly opened Hyatt Place with special guest and Dual Property Sales Manager - Jennifer Odom!  Jennifer sits down with host Ryan Embree to discuss how a special property, such as the Hyatt Place Cape Canaveral, leverages its space coast location, social media, and community engagement to grow business and provide an exceptional guest experience. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot, in another edition of our Suite Spot Road Trip. We are just right down the road. If you could see the view that I'm looking at right now, the cruise ships coming in the ocean right here behind us. We are here on the Space Coast. We wanna welcome in Jennifer Odom, Dual Sales Manager at the Hyatt Place, Cape Canaveral. Thank you so much for hosting us at your brand new beautiful property, Jennifer. Jennifer Odom: Yes, thank you. No, it's a pleasure to have you here. We appreciate the opportunity and are just thrilled to share with everyone just what a fabulous property we do have here on the Space Coast in Cape Canaveral. Ryan Embree: It's incredible. We're gonna talk all about it, but before that, We were, we wanted to learn a little bit about you. Share with our Suite Spot audience your hospitality background and the journey that led you to opening this brand new Hyatt Place. Jennifer Odom: Absolutely love to. So I've actually been here in this area alone for 25 years. I was the typical story of the grandparents were the snowbirds that moved from Indiana and we followed. I came down one year and was like, why am I gonna go back to Indiana when I have all this with the beach and you know, the launches of the shuttles and so forth. And so that's what drew me here. I ended up moving and as a young teenager, I had actually worked in a gift shop that was kind of connected between a hotel and a restaurant. And the front desk people would always come over and we would chat while they're getting snacks and stuff, and they're like, oh my gosh, John Glynn was just on our lobby, the famous astronaut, Buzz Aldrin's here. And I'm like, how old do I have to be to come over and work at the desk? And so as soon as I turned 18, that's where you would find me. So I started off my career at the front desk, was at that limited service property and then found out I had a real passion for it and ended up at a full service property right in Cocoa Beach, just six miles from us here. A different, a brand that I was with for about 20 years. So just got to experience everything from, you know, working, starting off front desk to a catering admin, to a group coordinator, to catering sales manager. I mean, I've worn all the hats, all of it. All the way up to a DOS. So, and then super excited, I'd taken a little break and what was phenomenal is I'd seen the article about the hotel here and at the time there was so many different properties that were being built around the area and just because of all the different markets and the growth. And what I actually found was that article and I was like, oh, I forgot, like that's right, like this property. Like I've gotta go check it out. And so I came over and I did a tour right when they had the soft opening in February. And as soon as I went up to our rooftop bar, I was like, oh, wow, I could sell this like this, this is my property. So then that is how I came to the Hyatt Place here in Cape Canaveral. Ryan Embree: It's so cool that, you know, I think hospitality is one of those industries where it's because we're all travelers, right? We all traveled as young children, maybe with our parents, and then we get to transition into, you know, maybe working the front desk in those entry level jobs. And then here you are and you've got a great career and yo...