1023: How Conrad Orlando at Evermore Keeps Guests On Property Not in the Parks

Glenn: [00:00:00] Everybody. It’s your hospitality. Friend Glenn here in Orlando. I finally made it to the Evermore Resort. I got a great property video that’s out there, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t not say hello to this guy. Sean McCarron, general manager here at the Conrad Orlando. But first, I want to thank our friends over at Actabl Actabl. They give you the power to profit. Check them out@actable.com. Sean great meeting you man. Great to be.

Sean: [00:00:24] With you and have you here at this amazing resort.

Glenn: [00:00:27] Yeah. So I don’t know if you’re putting something in the air or something like that, but I am so in love with this entire resort, and I’m having a great time over there. And now getting to focus on Conrad for a little bit, it’s awesome. And I learned, Holy cow, five five diamonds from triple A, the first Conrad to hit that. That’s not that. It’s not surprising that you would hit it. It surprises me that you’re the first one to hit it, and it’s Orlando, and you’re going off to Monaco to celebrate with Forbes because he got four stars.

Sean: [00:00:55] Four stars too.

Glenn: [00:00:56] Yeah, congratulations on that.

Sean: [00:00:57] It’s been an incredible year. Absolutely incredible.

Glenn: [00:01:00] And tell when you see Stuart over there tell him he should have He invited me to Monaco.

Sean: [00:01:05] It’s a pretty nice destination to celebrate this, I will say.

Glenn: [00:01:08] It sure is. I’ve been there. But listen, they don’t have the wraps on nice destinations because this place is awesome. And it got me thinking. Getting this five diamond status. If you’re getting the four with Forbes, you’re out there somehow wowing people that have had a lot of wow in their lives. So how do you keep the Wows moving forward when we’ve all had a lot of wows? If you can stay in a place like this?

Sean: [00:01:32] Well, I think a lot of it is the resort in itself. I mean, part of it is the wow, the amount of our guests that walk right into that lobby. Here at the hotel and look out over that gorgeous 17 million gallon lagoon. They come out of that and say, wow. Yeah. And that’s really the starting point for it. And then you get into the beautiful architecture of the, the rooms and, and the restaurants. We have five incredible dining outlets here Sofia’s, which is a southern coastal Italian. We have Saba that’s up on the roof of the hotel. That is authentic Mexican. We’ve got Polynesian at Papaya Club and Tiki bars, and so there’s a lot of things to really wow a guest when it comes to the physical product that we have.

Glenn: [00:02:17] Well, as I was walking over here, I was walking by papaya and I saw some of the tiki mugs and stuff like that. And I really like the the vibe over there and creating a different sense of place throughout. And I think that that’s what this resort is so good at is having the, the lagoon that I’m looking at it that you guys can’t see right now. And then creating a lot of different experiences around it, such as here at the Conrad.

Sean: [00:02:40] Right. And I think the experience is the is the whole piece. I mean, if you look at the, the resort as a whole and all that we have to offer, I mean, we have lawns, we have 25,000 square foot of outdoor spaces and lawns where, you know, kids can go out and play. We have activations that we do throughout the resort for not only our group guests to have kind of a camaraderie, team building exercises, but also along that we have for our leisure guests. We do everything from live music. We do different kinds of arts and crafts for kids. We do gatorland comes where they can play with reptiles. So it’s all of that experience that that they have when they come to the resort, coupled with all of the outlets that we have and the lagoon access and our own private Conrad Beach and our pool and our beautiful 11 room spa that is unique with a water garden that has hot and cold plunge pools and vitality pools and all of those different pieces that come along with it.

Glenn: [00:03:38] I feel like this time of the year, the the eight acre lagoon over, there’s a little bit of a cold plunge, at least colder. Colder for me. I’m delicate.

Sean: [00:03:45] Yeah. You’d be surprised. It’s going to heat up probably in the next couple of weeks.

Glenn: [00:03:48] Honestly, there’s a lot of people in there right now surprised by how many people are in there. Having a great time for sure. So I can’t help but think about how you’re a component of this and what your role is strategically thinking as a crucial element to the overall ever more complex. So how do you see your role fitting into the bigger picture. And then how do you look at those different business drivers in order to fill with, I’m going to guess is some convention space over there and all of your rooms.

Sean: [00:04:16] Right. Well, we have 65,000ft² of space for convention. So we do we do have a lot of group business that comes in. There’s a, you know, in this market in Orlando, you know, January through April and May is very heavy in group. And then, you know, we start into the leisure. It speckles in in January. And then really between spring break and going off into Memorial Day weekend and into summer is heavy, heavy leisure with guests are coming to go to the parks or they’re coming to just have their own, you know, vacation destination that they relax in. Where we fit into all of this is we are the luxury hotel part of the resort. You know, the rest of the resort is vacation rentals, where you have, you know, flats and you have homes. This is a full service, bespoke service, kind of a of a service feel for our guests and our team is really good, engaging with our guests one on one and really creating these lasting, memorable moments when they’re here. Even though you know it could be a week, it could be three days, it could be five days. We are here to make sure that they are having the time of their lives and really wowing them in every corner of their stay, for sure.

Glenn: [00:05:33] And that’s so important to do because, you know, this was just an empty plot of land, probably had some swamp element to it instead of just building a building in a parking lot. The master developers here created a whole cohesive environment from which you could create unique experiences that you couldn’t do anywhere else. So it’s important that you have the big picture, and then you could leverage leverage that to make your picture shine brighter.

Sean: [00:05:57] Absolutely. And the the whole idea of this resort as a whole is that we are synergized. And so the guests that are throughout the resort can go wherever they want to go. We have guests that come and dine in our restaurants. They visit our spa, they’re out in the lagoon. They’ll be on the beaches. We do concert series where everybody in the resort gets to go. We have, you know, all of our big holidays. We do holiday bashes, whether it’s, you know, Valentine’s Day weekend, which we just had, we have Easter coming up, we have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and all these special things that we do for the entire resort. And it’s really about activating every part of this resort to make it one destination where people really just come and enjoy.

Glenn: [00:06:39] I want to talk to you about the balance of leisure versus the group convention business for a second, because again, you all can’t see it, but I can. From my room I could see Spaceship Earth, I could, I could, you know, I could see Tower of Terror. And I think I see Black Spire Outpost over there. So we are very close to the theme park destination capital of the world, of course. So when you got, like, now between President’s Week, we’re here now, all of northeast is on vacation, and then you have all of spring break. How do you balance wanting to keep that space active and your people working versus the rest of the property and driving rate, because you probably charge more than you would for a group rate. So all of that is kind of like, how do you make it work? Exactly.

Sean: [00:07:19] Well, you know, it’s there is no real secret sauce for it. It’s really just trying to make sure that we’re doing both. Yeah. You know, the way this this hotel was designed is, you know, we have a group side where all of our group guests feel like they’re on their own. So our convention space is completely separate from the rest of the resort.

Glenn: [00:07:39] Like, completely separate. You have to actively look for it.

Sean: [00:07:42] You have to.

Glenn: [00:07:42] Actually.

Sean: [00:07:43] Travel across the the hotel to get there. So we have one part of the resort that is really just for leisure. That’s where a swimming pool is, where our spa, our restaurants are. And then on the other side of the resort, the group guests that are there have that privacy to have.

Glenn: [00:08:00] The I love that.

Sean: [00:08:00] So you can do a little bit of both.

Glenn: [00:08:02] Yeah. Very clever. Well thought out. Plus it it helps that this gentleman here is an Orlando expert. And you really understand the ups and downs of the market. Before we went on air, we were talking about the other places. You’ve been in this town. How long have you been in Orlando?

Sean: [00:08:16] Total ten years. Orlando’s six years at the Waldorf Astoria and four years here.

Glenn: [00:08:22] Yeah. That’s pretty. That’s pretty awesome. What’s your what’s your favorite job component?

Sean: [00:08:29] It’s probably the the team members and the guests. I mean, I’m a people guy. I love to interact with people. And you know, I think that that where for our team members, it’s where the rubber meets the road, right? They’re the ones that are in front of all of our guests every single day and making sure that they have a great work environment and feel part of the team and feel part of of something that’s bigger than themselves. All of us as team members that were over 500 of us, all feel like we are part of something bigger than just ourselves, because no one person can do it alone. No. And then from there, we get to engage with these guests and find ways to wow them. I mean, we really are spending our time trying to say, okay, how do I take a guess that has everything traveled everywhere and really create an environment that they’re going to love?

Glenn: [00:09:16] Let me tell you what a pro this guy is over here, because I’m just going to bring it back to that particular topic and ask you and give me an example of how you’ve, you know, collected intelligence knowledge and then turn that into something unique that people are going to take home and go, wow.

Sean: [00:09:32] It’s really just trying to anticipate what it is. I mean, we’ve all been in this business. We have a great team with a lot of experience through this industry. And we know, you know, this destination is pretty easy, right? It’s Orlando. You have either someone that’s here from a group perspective that wants to not feel like they’re part of the parks and part of Orlando, and you have that leisure guess where we focus a lot on that leisure guest and making sure that we are looking and anticipating what they’re going to have. We reach out to them prior to them coming to the resort to say, hey, you’re here. What can we help you build? Can we do an itinerary for you? Are you going to the parks? Can we help you with tickets? If you’re not, what can we help you do when you’re here? And it’s really creating an environment where people will enjoy not only here, but getting out and going and see the rest of Orlando.

Glenn: [00:10:20] Or as a lot of us like to say, removing friction from the process, which helps bring you closer to the customer, and that at the end of the day is what you want. Because when you when you have that emotional connection with them, then you could, you know, have them come back time and time again and get them to.

Sean: [00:10:35] And we have a regular base. I mean, even in the short two years we’ve been open, the amount of regulars that we get that come holiday after holiday after holiday or weekend after weekend or are leaving us, we have a guest that just left after Presidents Day weekend and said, we’ll see you this summer. Wow. Because they know what it is that we do and how we activate the resort and create those memorable experiences for their families.

Glenn: [00:10:57] I’m having a great time here. It’s very special place. I’m just happy I finally got to to have an opportunity. Yeah. We’re thrilled you’re here. I’m thrilled to be here, too. And listen, I was going to, like, go do other stuff. And I said forget about it. I’m just going to. I’m just going to hang out over here for a little bit, maybe take a paddle board out there. But it looked like I have to sign a lot of paperwork. Not anyone else, just me. So I don’t know if I’m going to.

Sean: [00:11:20] Well, Glenn, I’ll tell you. You are actually a great representation of a lot of our guests, because when we opened this resort is that. No, no, no, we were open. We were like, well, everyone wants to go to the park. And what we found is that instead of they go to the parks every day and spend some time with us, they spend more time with us on the resort because there’s so much more to do and spend less time at the parks. And that’s really what we want to do, is create this environment. There’s a balance for each.

Glenn: [00:11:46] Well, I will tell you, you’re doing a great job here. But also, I’m at that point in my life, I don’t want to deal with those crowds, and I’m not willing to spend the money to skip the lines and do all of that on this particular trip. It’s not about that. So you know what? I got this beautiful view over here. I got some new friends right over here. I don’t have to go anywhere.

Sean: [00:12:03] You got a tiki bar right over there. All right.

Glenn: [00:12:06] Speaking of tiki bars, I’ll see you guys over at papaya. Whenever you’re watching this, chances are I’ll still be there. So whatever. Sean, anything else you want to say before we wrap up?

Sean: [00:12:14] This is great.

Glenn: [00:12:15] Thank you.

Sean: [00:12:15] Thanks very.

Glenn: [00:12:16] Much. Hey, thanks for watching all the way to the end, I appreciate it. Like, share, subscribe, all that kind of good stuff. And come stay over here. I’m having a great time. See you. Bye, everybody. Bye.

Sean: [00:12:24] Bye now.