1024: Hilton + Graduate: How the Brand Scales Without Losing Personality

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, my hospitality friends over there. I’m excited today because I get to talk to Parker Henderson, the brand head over at graduate. Maybe it’s Global head, maybe it’s head of brand, I don’t know. They keep changing them on me. I don’t know. He he sent me straight beforehand. Oh, also, before we start, talk to Parker about awesome graduate hotels. I want to thank our friends over at Actable Actabl, they give you the power to profit. Do me a favor, check them out at actabl.com. All right, so you reminded me it was a year and a half already. It’s been a year and a half, dad. It’s crazy. It really just feels like yesterday.

Parker: [00:00:29] It does. It really does. And over the last year and a half, the hotels have really thrived within the Hilton ecosystem while still protecting what makes them so unique and and fun.

Glenn: [00:00:38] So let’s break that down. I mean, obviously there’s the immediate benefit of getting plugged into the reservation system. You’re probably I’m just making this number up, probably bringing in half or more reservations to the table. Absolutely. That’s a huge, huge boost right out of the gate for these folks.

Parker: [00:00:51] Hilton Honors members. Obviously they start at 0% occupancy. That’s moved up greatly. Hilton honors members are really loving it, especially on those redemption stays on those busy football game weekends, graduation move ins, all of that.

Glenn: [00:01:04] And before we get into the specifics of what they’re doing, one of the things that I love about the focus on university related properties is just a general sense of business and a flow that you’re going to understand every single year. That takes a lot of the complexities originally out of the operator’s brains, because they know that football games happening, they know graduations happening, they know all these things are happening. And now you’re able to take that and put in all of your systems and processes is my guess, and be able to really make it roll for those potential franchisees.

Parker: [00:01:35] Correct. They’ve got different ways that they can manage those weekends. Now. They’ve got different tools within our distribution network to maximize revenue, maximize occupancy during those times.

Glenn: [00:01:45] All right. So you’re 35 right now.

Parker: [00:01:46] 35.

Glenn: [00:01:46] What’s the development pipeline looking like? And what are some of the enhancements you’re making to graduate to attract those people?

Parker: [00:01:53] Sure. In the last year and a half, really meaningful development opportunities, we’ve got a number of signed deals and about 60 different opportunities in different stages of negotiation and development right now. Some tools that we’ve made to make development even easier being an upper upscale lifestyle, full service brand, we do have food and beverage requirements. So we brought in Poindexter, which was part of graduates ecosystem when they came over to Hilton.

Glenn: [00:02:19] I thought we were talking about revenge of the nerds for a second. Exactly.

Parker: [00:02:21] Favorite character? That’s exactly. That’s exactly what it’s a little tongue in cheek talking about that. But Poindexter is our barista led cafe concept. It’s live at about half of our properties currently, but it’s a concept that any owner that wants to build a new graduate that’s going to be available to them. And we’re talking recipe cards, menus, sweet bar program, all of those different items. And Poindexter can be breakfast can be breakfast, lunch, it can be breakfast, lunch and dinner. So it’s got a lot of flexibility. But to add to that, for the dinner and the bar concepts, we’ve got two new concepts Double major and debate club. Double major. We like to say, is the party that you never left, kind of that social bar led dining experience. And then debate club’s a little bit more refined. We like to say, you know, you’re already a member there, right? So a little bit more polished sit down experience. And both of these are free concepts for any owner to use.

Glenn: [00:03:12] Back in college, I was neither of those things. I was more like fraternity party. That would be.

Parker: [00:03:17] That would be double major, right? It’s where the giant Jenga is going to be. It’s where the beer pong is going to be.

Glenn: [00:03:21] That’s cool. Right? Because I could barely handle one major in college. It took me five years to get out of school. I say that for you younger folks out there.

Parker: [00:03:27] I was on the four and a half, four and a half year program. Yeah, it was good.

Glenn: [00:03:30] I did, I didn’t take five classes semester sometimes and I worked, you know. Someone someone had to welcome people coming into the gap.

Parker: [00:03:36] Exactly.

Glenn: [00:03:37] You know.

Parker: [00:03:38] That’s awesome.

Glenn: [00:03:39] That was me. I also worked in the back storeroom and Wendy’s. I was really good at the drive through, but I don’t think my hamburger history is relevant to graduate.

Parker: [00:03:48] It’s okay.

Glenn: [00:03:48] Over here. So what are you most excited about being the brand leader of? Of the brand that has so much potential to like really pop going forward?

Parker: [00:03:56] Really? I mean, I’ve been able to visit all 35 locations and I have to say the teams that we have on property at these 35 locations, they are living all of our values of graduate and graduate. We like to say we are all students. That brings down our brings up our fearless hospitality. We’re curious. We’re unapologetically unique and we’re storytellers, right? And so all the different nods and tributes within our hotels to the local community and to the university. Our team members are phenomenal at being storytellers and really bringing the guests who may have never been to that location, really let them in on the story.

Glenn: [00:04:32] Yeah. You know, I’m very excited that you guys took stewardship of this particular brand because it really, really meets what customers are looking for today. First of all, more upscale nature and that boutique kind of vibe. I think if you’re really looking at the the split in the market, that whole top half is going towards those types of products.

Parker: [00:04:48] Absolutely. And it’s a unique product. Upper upscale. But I liked what you said with stewardship because that’s kind of how we look at how we protect this brand. How do we keep the authenticity while still growing it within Hilton?

Glenn: [00:04:59] Yeah, I’m introducing that word and innkeeper as well because I like the the connotation of that. All right. Anything you say before I completely go off the rails.

Parker: [00:05:08] Oh my goodness. We look forward to more opportunities. And if there’s a university or college near you, we are happy to talk. We would love to be there. All of our locations are in just these great walkable markets near the campus, near the most popular shopping, dining and restaurants within the city.

Glenn: [00:05:26] Yeah, I will say one of my sons goes to Stony Brook on Long Island. There’s another Hilton branded property on that university and it is crushing it like university properties are killer, so they’re fun. Think about it. Go out there, get yourself one. Talk to Parker over here. I’m Glenn, he’s Parker. Check out Actable. We’re at the Hunter hotel conference. Totally forgot to mention that. These guys are great. See you later. Bye. Thank you.