CoralTree Hospitality Celebrates 5 Years!

00:01.790 --> 00:05.432 2023 is almost over, Anthony, and this is our final show of the year. 00:05.512 --> 00:07.334 What's the first thought that comes to your mind? 00:08.114 --> 00:08.935 I'm going to miss you. 00:09.796 --> 00:10.316 I'm Anthony. 00:10.496 --> 00:11.797 Welcome to No Vacancy Lives. 00:12.137 --> 00:12.998 That's my friend, Glenn. 00:13.178 --> 00:15.340 You're watching the number one show in hospitality. 00:29.104 --> 00:34.625 Hey, everybody, and welcome to the final live show of No Vacancy Live for 2023. 00:34.686 --> 00:38.086 We look forward to welcoming you all back for more live shows at the top of the year. 00:38.507 --> 00:39.647 That's Anthony Melchiorri. 00:39.907 --> 00:40.907 I'm Glenn Hausman. 00:41.267 --> 00:42.628 Anthony, it's so great to see you today. 00:42.728 --> 00:43.228 Welcome back. 00:43.248 --> 00:49.950 2024, our lineup is so stocked with super, super, super people that we can't even tell you who they are. 00:50.210 --> 00:52.470 Well, neither can you because you never look at the schedule. 00:52.510 --> 00:55.671 But that's the mystery of it, doesn't it? 00:56.011 --> 00:56.351 You know? 00:56.992 --> 00:58.352 No, I resemble that remark. 00:58.712 --> 01:07.620 Yeah, well, honestly, because our producers are so good, like I know that they're taking care of people, but I don't necessarily know who's on which day of the week. 01:07.660 --> 01:10.063 So, Anthony, what was that? 01:10.463 --> 01:11.063 Who's on first? 01:11.644 --> 01:12.625 Yeah, exactly. 01:12.665 --> 01:16.629 Before we get into it, any big holiday plans that you want to alert us to here? 01:17.009 --> 01:23.495 No, just we're at home and I go to my sister-in-law's on Christmas Day, my house Christmas Eve. 01:24.392 --> 01:28.633 And all the children are home, and the kids are home from college. 01:28.974 --> 01:29.914 Excellent. 01:30.014 --> 01:36.276 Well, actually, my last one, who's a senior, is home, and my other two will be home. 01:36.316 --> 01:37.936 So just chilling, man. 01:38.276 --> 01:38.957 Yep, yep. 01:39.057 --> 01:39.617 How are you? 01:40.197 --> 01:40.617 Good. 01:40.757 --> 01:41.518 My boys are home. 01:41.558 --> 01:45.139 We went out and did an activity this morning, and then we got a little breakfast together. 01:45.339 --> 01:47.659 So that was really nice. 01:47.680 --> 01:49.400 Can you tell us what the activity was? 01:50.921 --> 01:51.881 Doctor's appointment. 01:51.901 --> 01:52.041 Yeah. 01:53.315 --> 01:56.117 Oh, when you said activity, I thought it was like you went bowling. 01:56.517 --> 01:57.517 No, no. 01:57.818 --> 02:04.941 I was just trying to be vague about it purposely, particularly since you knew that I went to the – Well, you did tell me that. 02:06.362 --> 02:07.883 Believe it or not, it slipped my mind. 02:08.186 --> 02:12.769 Yeah, just everybody knows it's not an issue of anything like that. 02:13.109 --> 02:17.852 Now, for me, I'm excited because tomorrow night here on the Internet at 5 p.m. 02:17.872 --> 02:24.476 for Friday Night Audit, I'm doing my newest Christmas tradition, Anthony, and that will be singing Christmas songs written by Jews. 02:24.757 --> 02:25.497 So I'm excited. 02:25.937 --> 02:28.119 I'm excited to celebrate my people. 02:28.539 --> 02:31.101 Are there any Jewish people on the show? 02:32.342 --> 02:35.667 No, I don't believe our next guest is a member of the tribe. 02:35.767 --> 02:38.852 I suspect he'll be celebrating Christmas with you. 02:38.872 --> 02:43.418 Let's bring him on right now, celebrating five years of Coral Tree Hospitality. 02:43.438 --> 02:45.061 Tom Lursen, president. 02:45.081 --> 02:45.802 How are you, sir? 02:45.882 --> 02:47.064 Merry, merry, happy holidays. 02:47.444 --> 02:48.324 Awesome, you guys. 02:48.425 --> 02:51.426 Happy holidays and happy Hanukkah to all of our friends. 02:51.446 --> 02:51.986 There you go. 02:52.306 --> 02:53.106 I'll tell you what, Tom. 02:53.167 --> 02:59.529 I feel a little ripped off this year because Hanukkah was way too early, and I'm not ready to celebrate the holiday season so early. 02:59.609 --> 03:05.612 I love it when Christmas and Hanukkah overlap, and it's just a big, fun celebration, you know? 03:06.572 --> 03:09.815 You're empowered to extend the season as you wish, sir. 03:09.955 --> 03:15.781 As a matter of fact, being that I'm a non-religious person, culturally speaking, we have done that. 03:15.821 --> 03:17.102 We waited till my kids came home. 03:17.302 --> 03:22.747 And everyone's welcome over here at the Hausman Resort, Pool Club, and Smokehouse for latke night on December 26th. 03:22.867 --> 03:27.271 I will speak to God, and he will give you permission, I'm sure. 03:27.751 --> 03:28.372 All right. 03:28.612 --> 03:38.461 So to get everybody up to street speed, Coral Tree Hospitality is a five-year-old management ownership company out of there based out of Colorado. 03:38.481 --> 03:46.969 And what's really exciting is that you folks have such an incredible pedigree before you started this organization there, right? 03:47.310 --> 03:52.915 Coming from destination hotels, from two-road hospitality, and now you've 03:53.095 --> 03:58.059 all those years of experience, and you got to create a company the way you wanted to do it. 03:58.359 --> 04:02.322 Since you're celebrating five years, the best place to start was your origin story. 04:02.362 --> 04:03.323 Tell us a little bit about that. 04:03.983 --> 04:04.744 Oh, gosh, Glenn. 04:04.764 --> 04:06.865 It's a great setup for the conversation. 04:06.905 --> 04:07.866 You're right. 04:08.386 --> 04:12.469 We're owned by a family office out of Los Angeles, the Lowe family. 04:13.230 --> 04:20.335 And it's not to be confused with Lowe Hotels or Lowe Hardware, but it's a fully integrated real estate company and led by Bob 04:21.139 --> 04:23.601 Bob Lowe, who's the patriarch, and his two boys. 04:24.342 --> 04:27.545 And they started in hospitality 51 years ago. 04:27.565 --> 04:31.368 Last year, we celebrated 50 years for a great celebration. 04:31.468 --> 04:43.239 So while Coral Tree literally just celebrated five years on December 1st, there's this sense of kind of chemistry and history that we have together. 04:43.619 --> 05:10.694 we've had three names in the 51 years uh destination hotels and then back in 2016 we acquired uh john pritzker's company called community hotels and resorts and that was formed a joint venture so we had to rename it we renamed two roads hospitality and then um you know from that time we had about 100 hotels five different brands yep the aleela brands and thompson brands and 05:11.329 --> 05:28.015 joie de vivre and then we created our independent brand into a collection called destination well a couple years later we were approached and ended up selling two roads hospitality to hyatt hotels and that was really just the preponderance of the management contracts about 80 85 contracts 05:29.744 --> 05:31.685 And now let me just put a pause on that for one second. 05:31.725 --> 05:42.048 And by pure coincidence, we had the incredible Katie Johnson on, VP and global brand leader of the independent collection of Hyatt, who is now the steward of those brands on last week. 05:42.068 --> 05:43.269 So check our database. 05:43.369 --> 05:44.109 Tom, please continue. 05:44.589 --> 05:45.889 Katie's awesome, by the way. 05:46.150 --> 05:51.631 She worked for us and she's just a world-class marketeer and she's doing wonderful things. 05:51.731 --> 05:53.132 And I think highly of her. 05:54.733 --> 05:59.636 In short, we just ended up selling the company to Hyatt, effectively 2018. 05:59.836 --> 06:06.280 We sold it to Hyatt because we thought they'd be great stewards of the business. 06:06.980 --> 06:11.403 There's a chemistry from a value standpoint about the way we run our businesses. 06:11.843 --> 06:19.188 They're obviously a much more global hotel and we are smaller in scale for sure and lean more toward the independent structure. 06:20.289 --> 06:26.453 So we started Coral Tree the day that we closed on Hyatt, which was the first 2018 and here we are. 06:26.594 --> 06:33.739 And man, it's been a whirlwind, but gosh, I'm really proud of what's been accomplished and the way in which we've done our business. 06:34.260 --> 06:37.562 I still think we lead with our values first as a company. 06:38.283 --> 06:42.386 We can talk about metrics and how many rooms and how many keys and revenues, but 06:42.847 --> 06:45.989 it all starts to sound very transactional and institutional. 06:46.350 --> 06:51.673 So I'm more toward the conversation about culture and values and how we differentiate. 06:51.693 --> 06:54.856 Yeah, Tom, and you know us well enough, that's the kind of stuff that we really like to talk about. 06:54.896 --> 06:56.177 I know Anthony's itching to talk. 06:56.237 --> 06:57.117 Let's let him ask. 06:57.197 --> 06:59.039 I'm not itching to talk. 06:59.119 --> 07:09.847 Yeah, in the video here, I'm like... You know what I like to do the most is I like to realize that I'm connected to everybody in this industry somehow. 07:10.468 --> 07:13.680 So I'm going to say a name and you're going to see him smile. 07:14.845 --> 07:15.387 Mark Hickey. 07:16.324 --> 07:18.245 Actually, you're right, I'm smiling. 07:18.546 --> 07:27.571 I just talked, Anthony, I talked to Mark last night, and I was texting with him this morning, and Mark and I go back 25 years. 07:28.272 --> 07:41.020 He was a real reason why I joined Lowe, because he was working in Dallas at the DFW Hilton, you know, decades ago, and I was running the Woodlands Resort hospitality platform in Texas, and we were colleagues, and 07:41.981 --> 07:45.123 We ended up selling that company and Mark was recruiting. 07:45.203 --> 07:46.745 So Mark's a great man. 07:46.805 --> 07:48.707 He's doing good work for Hyatt now. 07:48.807 --> 07:50.889 And he and I talk to each other regularly. 07:51.309 --> 07:55.733 He was my boss when I worked for Miller Global, who I'm sure you know. 07:56.113 --> 07:56.514 Of course. 07:57.795 --> 08:00.377 Miller Global, the nicest people I've ever worked with. 08:01.058 --> 08:05.061 And then so that's where I met Mark. 08:06.062 --> 08:07.043 And he was my boss. 08:07.223 --> 08:08.184 I think he was the regional. 08:08.944 --> 08:16.289 And one day I was having a disagreement with someone that worked within the company, his company, Destinations. 08:16.629 --> 08:21.492 And he had to kind of get in the middle of it, like through a conference call. 08:21.973 --> 08:22.873 I'll never forget the words. 08:22.913 --> 08:24.374 I said it last week, actually, to Katie. 08:24.714 --> 08:25.475 I'll never forget the words. 08:25.515 --> 08:28.617 He said, Anthony, get off the train track. 08:32.541 --> 08:41.725 Well, when you speak about values, by the way, Mark's one of those guys, as you know, Anthony, he leads a business with values. 08:41.805 --> 08:46.747 And he certainly had a good career before he joined us, but he was with us for 25 years. 08:46.827 --> 08:48.568 Amazing guy. 08:48.608 --> 08:51.129 And when he said that to me, I knew exactly what he meant. 08:51.149 --> 08:52.190 So he called me later. 08:52.270 --> 08:53.991 By the way, I won the argument. 08:54.411 --> 08:55.131 They listened to me. 08:55.191 --> 08:58.112 We went with my budgets to the ownership. 08:59.193 --> 09:01.674 But I like the fact that he said, listen, 09:02.034 --> 09:22.138 your points are good now get off the train track because you're about to get run over so i never forgot that i i really respect him uh tremendously he was always very kind to me and he's one of the good guys in this well there's a lot of good guys but he's one of the really good people in this industry and uh you know and uh it was it was a great experience 09:22.796 --> 09:24.377 Well, you're a pro at doing this. 09:24.437 --> 09:28.238 I listen to your show all the time and the way that you connect dots in the network. 09:28.298 --> 09:29.839 And it's the best thing about our business. 09:29.919 --> 09:35.901 And, you know, I've been doing this 40 years and I started long ago in my dad's company. 09:35.961 --> 09:50.747 And I think about these friendships like Mark, and I've got a great friend down the road that you guys probably know, Steve Bartlin, who runs the Broadmoor and see, Steve and I worked together, gosh, 40 something years ago in Nashville at Opera Land. 09:50.827 --> 09:50.887 And, 09:51.682 --> 09:53.324 Um, we've just stayed good friends. 09:53.344 --> 09:54.925 You know, I just love that about our business. 09:55.025 --> 09:55.265 Right. 09:56.626 --> 09:57.927 And you know what? 09:58.148 --> 09:58.988 Um, congratulations. 09:59.008 --> 09:59.449 You beat me. 09:59.509 --> 10:00.570 I only have 38 years. 10:00.610 --> 10:04.953 So it's very more time than I do. 10:04.973 --> 10:05.694 You know what? 10:05.714 --> 10:07.615 We still look young and we still are vibrant. 10:07.655 --> 10:08.196 That's amazing. 10:08.636 --> 10:10.638 Well, I like the way that you see ourselves. 10:10.698 --> 10:12.680 Thank you for saying that. 10:13.180 --> 10:13.740 You know what it is? 10:13.800 --> 10:16.543 I do a lot of talking, um, to young people and, um, 10:17.263 --> 10:42.317 and i'm i'm consulting and you know what i say to people is the the problem with what everybody's telling me today is nobody wants to work and all this stuff and they don't like working christmas and holidays and i think the problem is is with the younger supervisors who don't have the right mindset that either accept mediocrity or they're part of the issue because they don't know they don't know how to deal with those challenges when we were coming up with this business 10:42.617 --> 10:49.399 We didn't realize there were challenges because we just wanted a job and a paycheck and we just wanted to contribute and show our value. 10:50.099 --> 10:56.341 So the mindset of if you do those extra hours and you do those holidays, guess what? 10:57.021 --> 11:03.603 You'll be a general manager 20 years faster than most people because today we're desperate for leadership. 11:03.623 --> 11:08.885 So if you show that leadership early on, you will be promoted quicker than most people. 11:09.901 --> 11:14.805 Yeah, gosh, I mean, you and I are aligned on that, but I take a little different angle. 11:14.825 --> 11:25.254 You know, I've been on, gosh, like you guys, a lot of panels and conversations and someone's always talking about the millennial and they speak to us because we're far from millennials. 11:25.294 --> 11:28.016 My kids are even almost past that now. 11:28.556 --> 11:36.603 And there's the expectation that I'm going to say is, man, they don't work hard like we did and they don't do this and don't do that. 11:36.703 --> 11:39.185 And I actually just think that's all crazy talk. 11:40.130 --> 11:41.471 I just think they're working smarter. 11:41.491 --> 11:49.396 And I think my father, when I was coming up in the business, said, man, you're doing it so different than the way I used to do it. 11:49.756 --> 11:53.498 We didn't need an education to be in the hotel space. 11:53.538 --> 11:57.541 We went to the school of experience and we came up that way. 11:57.621 --> 12:02.283 And what do you mean you've got to go get a degree and an MBA and you've got to learn about investments? 12:02.684 --> 12:04.124 Can't you just take care of the guests? 12:04.625 --> 12:05.525 And here we are now. 12:06.286 --> 12:07.126 Father's passed. 12:07.206 --> 12:08.347 I'm 30 years later and I'm 12:08.707 --> 12:31.481 hanging around these millennials and i think they're so smart um they're exposed to so much data and so much things and my thought is nothing's ever changed we got to find people in our business that have a big heart and they love to serve but if they can do it with technology and innovation and smart thinking more power that's what's going to change our world so i agree 12:32.081 --> 12:33.022 I say it all the time. 12:33.863 --> 12:42.829 They're smarter than us, and I wish that I was in a position back then to be able to say, hey, I don't want to do this because we can do it this way and it's easier. 12:43.310 --> 12:44.511 I wish I had an opinion. 12:44.791 --> 12:49.154 When I was coming up early, early, early on, there wasn't too many opinions, at least in my career. 12:49.875 --> 12:51.596 They just would kind of tell you how it's done. 12:51.976 --> 12:56.080 So today I think we have some of the smartest people in the business, even the young people. 12:56.420 --> 12:59.862 They've just got to get past the – 13:00.903 --> 13:04.506 um, some negative thoughts of, of this industry. 13:05.006 --> 13:18.736 And, you know, one of the things, if you go into the hospitality industry in Europe, it's seen as a profession, you come into America and it's not seen so much at the lower, at the lower level, at the lower level, everybody, you start wherever you start, but this is a real profession. 13:18.796 --> 13:20.737 You can make real money and do really, really well. 13:21.117 --> 13:23.319 And we just need people to stay in long enough to do that. 13:23.499 --> 13:28.122 You know, I've seen I'm mentoring kids today and I'm just like, just give me another six months. 13:28.482 --> 13:29.683 Just give me another six months. 13:29.963 --> 13:31.924 And as soon as they do that, you know, I just got promoted. 13:32.044 --> 13:33.245 I'm making this much money. 13:33.665 --> 13:35.947 Oh, and they said next year I'll be probably in this position. 13:35.967 --> 13:37.268 I say, just hold on. 13:37.468 --> 13:40.370 You know, it's like like that's that that's my right. 13:40.710 --> 13:42.531 The only thing I want to do is like just hold on. 13:43.011 --> 13:47.434 And you your intelligence and the way you work will get you to where you want to go. 13:48.291 --> 13:49.652 Yeah, no, I think that's right. 13:49.692 --> 13:53.216 I would say, though, also, I'm out to just to banter with you a little bit. 13:53.556 --> 13:54.397 Think about this. 13:54.517 --> 13:58.621 When I was picking to go to a hotel school, I think the year was 1981. 13:59.341 --> 14:07.068 I went to Michigan State, went to Cornell, went to FIU, went to just the beginning of what was the UNLV. 14:07.088 --> 14:11.973 You know, toward all was fortunate to be invited to all four of them. 14:13.349 --> 14:14.570 ended up going to Florida. 14:16.612 --> 14:17.934 We had limited choices. 14:18.334 --> 14:27.805 Now fast forward, you know, another 40 years, every university of significance or specialized has a great program. 14:27.845 --> 14:29.747 And it's not just in hotel management. 14:30.316 --> 14:31.997 Now it's in spa and wellness. 14:32.678 --> 14:34.139 It's in specialty marketing. 14:34.659 --> 14:37.281 It's in culinary and not just in CIA. 14:38.361 --> 14:39.662 It's in specialized. 14:40.323 --> 14:57.274 So to me, while we look at the European hospitality world and some of their experiences go back to 100 years ago where we just got started literally in the last 30, 40 years, we're making good advancements. 14:57.334 --> 14:59.015 And we're finally, to your point, 14:59.475 --> 15:00.757 We're paying people good. 15:01.138 --> 15:05.163 You can make a real living now being a leader in our business. 15:05.424 --> 15:10.991 And that doesn't mean just necessarily being a general manager or a corporate executive. 15:11.292 --> 15:13.335 There's a variety of good ways to 15:14.190 --> 15:14.931 real money. 15:15.391 --> 15:19.776 And that wasn't an option that we knew about back in the day. 15:19.816 --> 15:21.217 Those were such an exception. 15:21.277 --> 15:23.880 So I'm bullish on the long haul of this. 15:23.980 --> 15:31.167 And I just think, you know, we the millennials will be serving our guest of the future. 15:31.807 --> 15:35.951 You know, it won't be the three of us that it's a guest anymore. 15:36.591 --> 15:41.435 My 35 year old who becomes 45 year old and we're going to continue to adapt. 15:41.495 --> 15:54.386 And the smartest part or the smartest minds in our business is staying ahead of that and not trying to hold on to the past and say, well, we still have to have, you know, sophisticated, elegant service. 15:54.426 --> 15:58.690 You can still have luxury, but the elegance is now far and few between. 15:58.710 --> 15:58.790 Yeah. 15:59.465 --> 16:00.505 You know, somebody called me. 16:00.685 --> 16:01.745 I was making a reservation. 16:02.205 --> 16:04.886 And they said, Anthony, this is your confirmation. 16:05.266 --> 16:06.246 Didn't ask permission. 16:07.006 --> 16:07.686 Just called me Anthony. 16:07.766 --> 16:09.867 I liked it because she had a sweetheart. 16:10.227 --> 16:12.707 She was very kind the whole reservation. 16:13.087 --> 16:15.708 And when she called me Anthony, I don't need to be asked to be called Mr. Valkyrie. 16:15.748 --> 16:17.368 I don't need you to use my name three times. 16:17.828 --> 16:18.728 You called me Anthony. 16:18.928 --> 16:19.548 I enjoyed it. 16:19.568 --> 16:21.529 We had this little connection. 16:22.009 --> 16:23.309 And that's authentic service. 16:23.529 --> 16:25.229 You know, that was authentic service to me. 16:25.249 --> 16:28.990 You know, Chip and I from AHLA were working on a new show called Hotel All Star. 16:29.383 --> 16:30.963 We were just on the phone the other day with his team. 16:31.343 --> 16:35.884 And how are we going to get people excited to come back into this industry or come into this industry? 16:36.544 --> 16:39.065 And we did two shows, one at The Breakers, one at Margaritaville. 16:39.625 --> 16:41.145 And that's my only passion. 16:41.165 --> 16:46.666 My only passion is to get people into the hospitality schools and to get people into this industry and then hold on. 16:47.126 --> 16:51.787 Because it is a tough business early on maybe for you because you're entry level. 16:52.147 --> 16:58.348 But there's no place, I don't think, anybody I know that's been doing this a long time is so happy. 16:59.108 --> 17:09.257 I mean, I've never met anybody that's been in the business 25 years that hasn't said, like, I couldn't believe I would do anything that I could do anything else. 17:09.357 --> 17:10.158 I love this business. 17:10.498 --> 17:12.900 I don't know anybody that's been 25, 30 years ago. 17:12.980 --> 17:14.141 Oh, I made a mistake. 17:14.201 --> 17:17.043 And I just, I can't wait to audition out. 17:17.324 --> 17:18.625 I've never heard anyone say that. 17:19.085 --> 17:19.966 That's so well said. 17:20.006 --> 17:22.309 I mean, I think about the three names we just talked about. 17:22.329 --> 17:32.481 You know, we have commonality, the Mark Hickey's of the world that, you know, are approaching, you know, the older ages of late 60s and Steve Barlin in his 70s. 17:33.988 --> 17:37.190 Bob Lowe, 86 years old, still loves. 17:37.270 --> 17:39.831 And when someone says, are you going to retire? 17:39.871 --> 17:42.493 He's like, why would I do that? 17:42.553 --> 17:43.734 I love what I do. 17:43.754 --> 17:44.694 I have a good life. 17:45.315 --> 17:46.435 I've got a good balance. 17:46.575 --> 17:49.137 I love being around people I can learn for. 17:49.737 --> 17:52.378 I think that's a little bit rare in our business. 17:52.398 --> 18:04.583 You know, when you get into more of the corporate-minded industries, you know, there's a race that last decade from 50 to 60 is how can I get an early package out? 18:04.643 --> 18:06.504 And by the way, I'll hang on. 18:06.524 --> 18:09.705 I don't really like it, but I'll hang on and get paid. 18:09.945 --> 18:12.987 And then maybe when I'm done, I'll get a job I really like. 18:13.007 --> 18:15.568 Yeah, I'm laughing because I have a friend that's doing that right now. 18:15.648 --> 18:18.209 He's just like, I'm just going to coast to the finish line because... 18:19.144 --> 18:19.484 I'm here. 18:20.645 --> 18:24.087 And then you leave at 63, 64, and then you're dead. 18:24.968 --> 18:27.350 And you're wondering what to do. 18:27.650 --> 18:33.294 Or if you're blessed and you find something you love, then you think, what the heck did I do? 18:33.374 --> 18:34.855 Why did I wait so long? 18:35.255 --> 18:40.579 And did I really need to hang on for that last X amount of dollars and just like it so much? 18:41.236 --> 18:43.858 Last year, me and Glenn were in these cabins up at State. 18:44.498 --> 18:46.459 It was a year ago. 18:46.579 --> 18:48.220 Literally, today, we did that show. 18:48.260 --> 18:50.381 I remember we're sitting at the bar. 18:50.401 --> 18:52.662 We're talking to this bartender. 18:53.483 --> 18:55.904 I'll tell you the story, and I'll tell you how me and him felt. 18:55.944 --> 18:57.525 We felt so blessed. 18:58.125 --> 19:01.267 The bartender said, what would you like to drink? 19:01.747 --> 19:02.828 The mixologist, I should say. 19:03.388 --> 19:04.229 We're in this cabin. 19:04.269 --> 19:05.009 It's only her. 19:05.149 --> 19:06.270 They're all there because of us. 19:06.851 --> 19:08.095 And they're taking great care of us. 19:08.536 --> 19:09.940 And he said, anything but gin. 19:10.060 --> 19:12.808 And she looked at him, she goes, why would you give me 19:13.479 --> 19:15.240 that challenge, I'll be right back. 19:15.600 --> 19:17.260 And then made him a gin drink that he loved. 19:17.900 --> 19:27.043 And like, I remember that moment because we were both feeling blessed that here we are, it was snowy out, we're in this beautiful cabin, people are taking good care of us. 19:27.563 --> 19:40.987 And this young lady, without ever being trained to say that, without ever having going to hospitality school, she made a moment for me, at least for me, I don't know about Glenn, but her saying that, I was like, that's this business. 19:41.837 --> 19:43.058 You know, that's it. 19:43.118 --> 19:46.040 And she was all tatted up and she was all kind of like her own self. 19:46.501 --> 19:48.823 And she had like she was an entrepreneur behind the bar. 19:48.883 --> 19:49.423 And I loved it. 19:50.224 --> 19:53.687 Yeah, I get you know, it just inspires me when you say that kind of stuff. 19:53.987 --> 19:54.728 Look, here you are. 19:54.828 --> 19:55.028 Right. 19:55.088 --> 19:58.070 A media specialist, a hospitality industry expert. 19:58.451 --> 20:02.494 A year later on a broadcast, you're telling the story. 20:03.257 --> 20:13.692 mean come on that's what we talk about right every day is the ability to create a cool moment you know the you know the moments of delightfulness that right makes someone talk about and it's not this 20:15.289 --> 20:16.330 Go back to the old school. 20:16.390 --> 20:18.592 It's not this refined experience. 20:19.073 --> 20:22.456 It's more about engagement and connection points. 20:22.496 --> 20:23.957 So I just love that. 20:24.017 --> 20:34.326 And every time I hear those little stories, I get motivated and you get reminded, man, let's not get too caught up on strategic growth and these other things. 20:34.366 --> 20:39.831 Let's remember while we're here, while we're here, excuse me, and do good things with it. 20:40.305 --> 20:54.711 Yeah, Tom, this is a great bridge into one of the things that I say often when I'm doing keynote speeches on stage is nobody comes back from a vacation and says you have to go to XYZ place because you're not going to believe that lamp that was in the room. 20:54.791 --> 20:55.451 That's important. 20:56.091 --> 21:01.254 It adds to the overall vibe, but they always say, so-and-so did this for me. 21:01.454 --> 21:03.876 So-and-so made this special for me. 21:03.936 --> 21:06.697 So it always comes back to the people. 21:06.758 --> 21:17.204 You have to have all the other stuff, but if you don't have those right people there, they're not going to be able to make those important connections with the guests that you know are critical for overall success. 21:17.244 --> 21:24.188 So how do you start to think about the guest experience through your amenity services and most importantly, the people? 21:25.014 --> 21:30.319 Yeah, I mean, to me, it's a little bit of our own philosophy, but it's exactly what we're talking about. 21:30.919 --> 21:33.421 It's the unscripted moments, right? 21:33.441 --> 21:37.865 That bartender that Anthony was speaking about, no one trained them for that moment. 21:38.686 --> 21:38.866 Right. 21:38.906 --> 21:42.109 You know, you hired for a personality, you created a culture. 21:42.859 --> 21:54.632 at that business model that said, look, if you hear something, you have a conversation with somebody, you're empowered to go make a good decision and to do something special for them. 21:55.112 --> 21:59.917 Those are words, but you put words to action in a business model like we do. 22:00.538 --> 22:04.142 We try to deliver with culture is every guest 22:04.964 --> 22:06.265 is themselves, right? 22:06.685 --> 22:08.186 Every guest is an individual. 22:08.226 --> 22:10.268 We can't treat them all the same. 22:10.948 --> 22:12.509 So how do we have those moments? 22:12.549 --> 22:32.983 How do we create an autonomous environment where the housekeeper, the maintenance executives, the front desk clerks, not just the GMs and that executive level of the hotel or the resort, we need everybody to be able to engage and do something special. 22:33.783 --> 22:44.046 I think we spend, you know, in our company, we spend 10 times more time trying to create those moments by sharing best practices, celebrating those moments. 22:44.126 --> 22:51.007 If that was my hotel and I knew that bartender did that, you know, I'd get a little note from Anthony or that bartender would tell me. 22:51.167 --> 23:01.550 And man, I'd be talking about it in staff meetings and celebrating and hoping that by demonstrating what somebody did to make a special memory, the next person wants to stand in line and do that. 23:01.670 --> 23:11.784 So not only that, but it gives them some practical information that they could file away and realize, oh, these are the types of things I can do if they're a young person and didn't realize that at that point. 23:11.904 --> 23:18.213 What I loved about that moment was that Glenn appreciated it as a customer. 23:18.826 --> 23:27.652 But as a hotel guy that's been operating and trying to get people to do things like that, I think it meant almost more to me than it meant to you because – It did. 23:27.672 --> 23:28.553 Right? 23:28.733 --> 23:28.953 It did. 23:29.213 --> 23:39.360 It meant a lot to me, and it was really that and some other things like that during that particular experience are going to stay with me forever. 23:39.420 --> 23:43.563 But I haven't talked about it as much as you have and brought it into our everyday conversations. 23:44.124 --> 23:44.664 A hundred times. 23:45.314 --> 23:48.416 And because it's, there's a couple of things going on there. 23:48.456 --> 23:56.241 When they feel free to do that, they trust their confidence that they're going to, that Glenn's not going to say, no, no, I do not want Jim. 23:56.762 --> 23:57.682 Like, don't do that. 23:58.102 --> 24:00.744 Like they were confident enough because there are people that would be like that. 24:02.625 --> 24:06.168 With her people skills, she read that we were those types of people. 24:06.528 --> 24:08.749 Right, right, right, right. 24:09.690 --> 24:10.570 And that's what we get up. 24:10.631 --> 24:12.292 And I think in our industry, 24:13.312 --> 24:16.915 And I think I've always been early on the word renegade. 24:17.216 --> 24:17.416 Right. 24:17.796 --> 24:25.343 Because I am good at board meetings and I'm really good at asset management and financials and development. 24:25.623 --> 24:27.244 I have those skill sets. 24:27.485 --> 24:30.928 But I get bored real quick when people forget that the housekeeper 24:32.239 --> 24:33.599 is the most important person in the building. 24:34.059 --> 24:36.600 That really, really gets me irritated quickly. 24:37.140 --> 24:44.402 And as people get more promoted, get to the next level, to the next level, to the next level, they kind of forget that pain. 24:44.422 --> 24:48.462 You know, remember the first time you walked into a hotel for your first job, how nervous you were? 24:49.063 --> 24:52.063 Like every day, I still feel that I want to feel those nerves. 24:52.223 --> 24:54.584 I want to feel like, am I contributing? 24:54.744 --> 24:56.024 Am I doing the right thing? 24:56.404 --> 25:00.505 And I think sometimes our confidence gets the best of us where we forget that 25:01.265 --> 25:04.226 like I'm doing some classes for a consulting gig I'm doing. 25:04.847 --> 25:11.390 And these people in the class are very, very insecure about, you know, speaking up sometimes. 25:11.930 --> 25:17.692 But I love that because I'm giving them the opportunity to grow their confidence in these classes. 25:18.393 --> 25:23.375 And, you know, like listening to you, I mean, it sounds like you just came into this business yesterday. 25:23.435 --> 25:25.216 You still have such a passion for it. 25:26.076 --> 25:28.097 Yeah, gosh, there's so much on that topic. 25:28.117 --> 25:28.397 You know, I, 25:29.842 --> 25:38.205 there's an academic term that I've challenged a lot of our executives and team leaders to read and it's all perceptive acuity. 25:38.225 --> 25:44.126 I don't know if you guys are familiar with that term, but I've never, I've never heard that, but I, through context clues, I think I understand. 25:44.166 --> 25:44.887 It sounds interesting. 25:45.147 --> 25:45.267 Yeah. 25:45.287 --> 25:47.027 I mean, it's, it's what we do, right? 25:47.067 --> 25:53.389 I mean, you two are just, you know, world-class examples of it where your industry is, 25:54.219 --> 26:15.436 um teaches you how to read your customer right you might get someone on the on a broadcast you might be a little shyer a little harder to engage and you read that and you start facilitating you might get someone who might speak too much and you learn how to soften that and play it out and that's all perceptive acuity and if you could somehow 26:16.056 --> 26:27.879 You know, the bartender and the housekeepers, if we can teach them how to read and how to anticipate, right, how to engage in a conversation that can happen within 15 seconds. 26:27.999 --> 26:29.359 Oh, gosh, why are you here, Anthony? 26:29.719 --> 26:32.280 Oh, you're here with Glenn celebrating and going to do a show here? 26:32.720 --> 26:33.680 Oh, what's the show on? 26:34.161 --> 26:37.921 In five seconds, they can figure out a way to serve you. 26:38.021 --> 26:40.002 But that doesn't just happen innately. 26:40.842 --> 26:48.552 The leadership and the organization has to create an environment that invites that, that invites you to have a conversation. 26:48.932 --> 26:50.874 I like the individuality, right? 26:51.956 --> 26:56.762 Every bartender serves the same drink and has the same proportions. 26:57.441 --> 26:59.762 But the style of conversation is customized. 27:00.203 --> 27:00.923 It's for each of them. 27:00.983 --> 27:06.186 It's whatever they're comfortable with, as long as it's in the parameters of fair and good conversation. 27:06.587 --> 27:10.449 But that's what you're trying to build, I think, a hospitality platform on. 27:10.489 --> 27:14.031 It can be a hotel, a resort, a restaurant, a bar, whatever it is. 27:14.452 --> 27:21.056 But when you get that, that's what people remember is the customization and the real recognition of individuality. 27:21.856 --> 27:24.618 People say to me, well, what's the secret of creating that? 27:24.658 --> 27:26.019 I say, well, let's start with the word safe. 27:26.886 --> 27:27.727 People have to feel safe. 27:28.487 --> 27:30.269 And once they feel safe, you can build upon that. 27:30.649 --> 27:37.714 But you can't build upon that with with with salary and titles unless they feel safe. 27:37.794 --> 27:38.455 And what does that mean? 27:38.475 --> 27:46.541 You know, and I think like that's why I remember Mark, you know, because that moment I was pretty like, no, this is I know the owners. 27:46.841 --> 27:49.243 This is the way I think that we should do this. 27:49.724 --> 27:53.226 And I remember Mark made me feel safe that I can speak pretty directly. 27:53.727 --> 27:56.669 But he also reminded me like, OK, you win. 27:57.702 --> 27:58.022 Next. 27:58.723 --> 27:59.883 And like, I felt safe. 28:00.123 --> 28:01.364 I wouldn't have felt safe. 28:02.385 --> 28:06.467 I wouldn't have been as direct if I didn't feel safe with Mark. 28:06.847 --> 28:11.269 Mark, through his actions, told me, hey, man, you do a good job. 28:11.289 --> 28:12.110 I have your back. 28:12.910 --> 28:13.851 And I appreciate that. 28:13.911 --> 28:23.136 So I think a lot of us or a lot of ownership management companies forget that you can't drive the ship. 28:23.176 --> 28:27.138 You can't get that feeling unless people are feeling secure. 28:28.260 --> 28:33.183 Yeah, I think there's another component of that too, and that's to embrace failure, right? 28:33.243 --> 28:46.150 And failure doesn't have to be – I'm not talking about catastrophic failure, but I'm talking about the front desk clerk who says, you know, somebody complained, so I gave them four nights at $2,000 a night. 28:46.630 --> 28:48.932 They go, okay, that's a little overdone, right? 28:49.312 --> 28:50.973 But love your intention. 28:51.713 --> 28:52.554 What hotel was this? 28:52.614 --> 28:52.914 Who was it? 28:55.401 --> 28:58.865 But I must have used that example 1 billion times in my career. 28:58.925 --> 28:59.506 Oh, really? 29:00.147 --> 29:01.188 I've used it on this show. 29:01.769 --> 29:02.830 I don't remember, but that's funny. 29:02.910 --> 29:04.312 I'll let you go. 29:04.753 --> 29:12.783 Yeah, I mean, so the key there is that we could go easily, go knock that employee down and say, my goodness, you gave away too much and you overdid it. 29:13.303 --> 29:24.534 But if you can tolerate that says, I can recognize your intention of how could we have done this different, not have to put out so much concession money and still recover a guest moment. 29:25.035 --> 29:34.444 And let's try something next time around versus I'm going to write you up because you made a decision that somewhere in a handbook somewhere says you shouldn't make. 29:34.964 --> 29:42.589 And once we do that, the person's never going to have a guest recovery moment again, because they're afraid they're going to have something go wrong. 29:42.629 --> 29:53.236 And if you, you know, you can accelerate that any level, it could be an asset manager running a fiduciary role, or it could be a bartender trying to make a, you know, an interesting cocktail, but overpours. 29:53.676 --> 29:57.659 But to me, that environment that says, look, we're not, you know, here to find faults. 29:57.719 --> 30:02.462 What we're here is to try business decisions that make it different for the guest experience. 30:02.482 --> 30:02.722 Yeah. 30:03.633 --> 30:07.716 I was doing a shopping report for a client and the rate was $369. 30:08.196 --> 30:12.039 And I said, I saw the line for $329, which was kind of a fib. 30:13.160 --> 30:15.181 And within a second, you could tell she was a front desk agent. 30:15.221 --> 30:17.763 Within a second, she said, okay, we'll match that rate. 30:18.223 --> 30:25.028 She only had a second to match the rate because if I was a real client looking for a lower rate, I'd have been gone. 30:25.048 --> 30:27.750 And she only had a second to make that decision. 30:27.770 --> 30:28.650 It was a Sunday night. 30:29.331 --> 30:30.492 So I know they're empty. 30:31.373 --> 30:35.602 Um, because I know that I know that area and she immediately made the decision. 30:35.682 --> 30:37.626 She didn't hunt him in the heart or make it. 30:37.846 --> 30:38.327 She was okay. 30:38.347 --> 30:39.009 We'll match that. 30:39.109 --> 30:40.372 Thank you very much for telling me that. 30:41.564 --> 30:57.675 I was like, you know, and again, if you're not feeling safe or backed up and, you know, I've used that example so many times because at the Plaza Hotel, I implemented that, you know, just do what you, you know, on behalf of the guest, the owner and your fellow employees. 30:57.715 --> 31:00.017 If you do it in the right spirit, you'll be protected. 31:00.057 --> 31:01.758 And somebody actually did something like that. 31:01.798 --> 31:02.919 It was a couple thousand dollars. 31:03.259 --> 31:04.380 I said exactly the same words. 31:04.520 --> 31:08.323 Not as, you know, elegant as you did, but I basically said the same thing. 31:08.343 --> 31:09.964 It's like, hey, good job. 31:11.176 --> 31:12.997 What were you thinking when you were doing that? 31:13.618 --> 31:13.958 Okay. 31:14.018 --> 31:14.318 All right. 31:14.598 --> 31:20.942 Do you think maybe if we just bought them, you know, Sunday brunch, you know, they had a daughter, you know, and Sunday brunch would that have worked? 31:21.382 --> 31:21.582 Oh yeah. 31:21.602 --> 31:22.363 I didn't think about that. 31:22.683 --> 31:22.963 Okay. 31:22.983 --> 31:23.464 No problem. 31:24.184 --> 31:25.385 Now you, now you'll think about it. 31:26.686 --> 31:28.567 No, I agree a hundred percent. 31:28.867 --> 31:35.631 And I, what's interesting is that while the three of us can sit here and talk about it and nod our heads and agree that, 31:36.414 --> 31:40.036 By and large, most businesses don't do this, right? 31:40.157 --> 31:43.439 They've got leadership that says this is what we should do. 31:44.199 --> 31:51.884 But when you have that moment that doesn't go perfect and you need some guest recovery, you see where the culture doesn't work. 31:51.904 --> 31:53.565 And I talk about this all the time. 31:53.605 --> 31:59.269 When you think about the tens of thousands of hotels in our country, and they're all different asset classes, right? 31:59.289 --> 32:02.191 Select service, limited service, luxury, and all those things in between. 32:02.211 --> 32:04.052 There's still only... 32:04.990 --> 32:12.232 less than 50 hotels, literally, in the country that do this consistently every day. 32:12.892 --> 32:19.214 And it doesn't mean you have to have a five-star, five-diamond, Michelin-credible source. 32:19.354 --> 32:22.835 It can be done at any asset class because it doesn't cost anything. 32:23.649 --> 32:27.873 But what it costs is the culture and people supporting that. 32:27.933 --> 32:37.682 But when you think about those odds, then you think, I want to be in this business because if I really believe in that, man, I can knock it out of the park because we've got a lot of mediocrity somewhere else. 32:38.062 --> 32:42.467 And if we really do this the way we want to do it, we can do something special and really make some money. 32:43.107 --> 33:08.589 and do something special in our business you know Glenn I'm sorry that we've kind of taken this no no it's just that you know that uh I this is the type of show I love sitting back and listening to what you guys have to say tell one more story yeah I write about I write about it in my book show up you can get it for the holidays and um the uh you just said again a lot of things that I I've said in the book and just on stage and everywhere I go 33:09.597 --> 33:13.105 is I've run three-star hotels, four-star hotels, five-star hotels. 33:14.187 --> 33:18.597 It starts with, you know, and Glenn's heard me say this, it starts with the five-star baby theories. 33:19.229 --> 33:23.891 Whether you're born perfect, whether you're born with some challenges, God doesn't make mistakes. 33:23.911 --> 33:25.132 You're born as a five-star baby. 33:25.212 --> 33:29.995 And then you allow your environment to reduce that star. 33:30.135 --> 33:43.722 So if you go to a hotel or you work at McDonald's or you work at wherever you work and someone's wearing their uniform incorrectly and the supervisor hasn't corrected them, then you're going to start walking around with your uniform not maybe perfect. 33:44.062 --> 33:44.423 perfect. 33:44.804 --> 33:45.646 I don't have that gene. 33:46.328 --> 33:47.510 You can all look like slobs. 33:47.611 --> 33:53.224 I'm always going to look, you know, like I'm supposed to look and I'm going to act like I was a direct attack at me, by the way, Tom. 33:55.774 --> 33:58.496 Because they didn't make a mistake when I was born, right? 33:58.576 --> 33:59.676 And they didn't make a mistake when you were born. 33:59.977 --> 34:06.521 So I'm going to show up the way I've always shown up, and I'm not going to let my circumstances surrounding me lower my standard. 34:06.981 --> 34:08.142 And that's what you're talking about. 34:08.242 --> 34:09.983 And I'm so glad you said that. 34:10.063 --> 34:15.567 Somebody with your experience at your level said something that I've never said, but I probably thought a million times. 34:16.027 --> 34:20.210 There's maybe, and we're being generous, 50 hotels in our country that 34:20.350 --> 34:21.531 that do that consistently. 34:21.771 --> 34:27.234 And I was just at the Breakers in Palm Springs where we did a show there and they do it consistently. 34:27.915 --> 34:30.896 And it's because it comes from people like you. 34:30.916 --> 34:40.222 If you're sitting in a hotel as the general manager, the vice president, that hotel is going to run the way we were just speaking because it comes out of you. 34:40.622 --> 34:43.764 What I find, I've always worked for independent. 34:43.804 --> 34:45.405 I've always worked for the world. 34:45.445 --> 34:47.046 I always worked for private owners. 34:47.086 --> 34:48.887 That's been my thing and I've loved it. 34:49.867 --> 34:51.548 I didn't have a lot of people above me. 34:51.828 --> 34:55.769 And what people happen in corporations and a lot of these hotels are run by corporations. 34:56.250 --> 34:59.251 They're afraid of what their boss is going to say. 34:59.711 --> 35:03.793 If you put in a culture of you'll have to be afraid. 35:04.353 --> 35:05.614 Again, back to Mark Hickey. 35:05.694 --> 35:09.995 The first time I've actually worked in that environment where I actually had a regional and a vice president. 35:10.316 --> 35:12.997 I've never I've always been a general manager working for the owner. 35:13.717 --> 35:15.578 And but he made me feel like I can say it. 35:16.378 --> 35:22.343 And so that's where I think we've fallen off a little bit, that everybody's got a boss. 35:22.363 --> 35:23.404 You've got a vice president. 35:23.424 --> 35:24.104 You've got an asset manager. 35:24.124 --> 35:25.205 You've got senior vice president. 35:25.225 --> 35:25.846 You've got this person. 35:26.146 --> 35:33.032 So if that person at the top doesn't really kind of see that and understand that and filter that through, it gets stuck somewhere in the pipe. 35:34.012 --> 35:39.557 Well, it's interesting on the analogy there because there's two distinctive words that you use. 35:39.717 --> 35:40.678 One was independent. 35:41.365 --> 35:42.546 and the other one was corporate. 35:43.226 --> 35:49.270 And, you know, it's, what's interesting is in the independent model, there usually isn't a hierarchy, right? 35:49.310 --> 36:07.061 It's a much more flat line structure of ownership to management yet in, and this is no knock on large, you know, hospitality industry companies, they've all had great success, but there is a lot of hierarchy and you, I always think it's interesting. 36:07.081 --> 36:10.824 Uh, uh, the, the hotel executives that have the largest portfolios, 36:11.519 --> 36:13.900 They're the furthest removed from the physical hotel. 36:14.440 --> 36:14.740 Right. 36:14.920 --> 36:22.961 So they live in a headquarters office somewhere that no longer has hotels and they get into an office dynamic. 36:23.322 --> 36:34.684 And that's how they survive is take care of the boss above them or below them or side you, as opposed to take care of the business and then the independent space, which is why we lead in this space. 36:38.021 --> 36:47.625 And you make the decisions with the people on hand and you don't have this hierarchical leadership that one's trying to impress the other for survival. 36:48.006 --> 36:49.746 You can stay focused in on the business. 36:49.786 --> 36:58.090 So it's interesting that analogy and even in your description of using the word corporate versus independent and that you also like that space the most. 36:59.262 --> 37:02.044 Listen, at the end of the day, I always say I'm a busboy. 37:02.064 --> 37:03.525 I'll be a busboy the day I die. 37:04.145 --> 37:09.228 And people, when they meet me and when I work with clients, they don't understand. 37:09.248 --> 37:10.669 I just had this conversation. 37:10.689 --> 37:11.630 I have it almost every week. 37:12.429 --> 37:14.630 It's like, they're like, what are you going to do? 37:14.650 --> 37:16.390 I was like, yeah, I want to do that. 37:16.430 --> 37:17.210 They're like, really? 37:17.470 --> 37:18.831 You, you want to do a shopping report? 37:18.871 --> 37:19.691 You want to talk to her? 37:20.011 --> 37:21.211 You know, you want to teach classes? 37:21.231 --> 37:22.632 Like, yeah, that's what I want to do. 37:23.192 --> 37:25.613 You know, listen, I've been, I've been very fortunate in my life. 37:25.693 --> 37:33.255 You know, I've proven some things to myself and I'm like, but the only, I like, I, you'll catch me in a hallway talking to a housekeeper. 37:33.275 --> 37:37.476 If I'm in a hotel, I'll spend 45 minutes talking to a housekeeper and I'll probably miss a meeting. 37:37.956 --> 37:47.841 Because I want to know how that person feels because that person is working and cleaning 12 rooms, 14 rooms, 15 rooms, going home, taking care of their family. 37:48.507 --> 38:00.350 you know, doing what they need to do, taking the bus or, or, or driving to work, getting there at six o'clock in the morning, working physically all day and doing it over and over and over again. 38:00.770 --> 38:04.291 And typically with a smile on their face and they're just glad to have the job. 38:04.771 --> 38:10.513 And so to me, the second I removed myself from that feeling, I should, I should never do this again. 38:11.933 --> 38:12.593 Amen to that. 38:12.633 --> 38:15.474 I mean, I, and when we started Coral Tree, Anthony, you know, my, 38:16.332 --> 38:22.916 I talked to the Lowe's about it, whether I was going to do something different or start a company. 38:23.016 --> 38:26.859 And I've just got the ultimate respect for them. 38:26.939 --> 38:28.420 And they said, Tom, what do you want to do? 38:28.480 --> 38:32.862 And I said, look, what I want to do is get away from a corporate environment. 38:32.882 --> 38:37.825 And I want to get back to running hotels and resorts and collaborating. 38:37.845 --> 38:40.907 You know, when we were two roads, we were a good midsize company, right? 38:40.947 --> 38:41.448 We had 23,000 employees. 38:41.468 --> 38:41.948 You know, I had 38:44.147 --> 38:53.036 a GM reporting to an area, reporting to a regional, a regional reporting to a senior, a senior reporting to an EVP, and four EVPs reporting to me. 38:53.336 --> 38:58.261 And I got so far removed from talking on a day-to-day basis 38:59.190 --> 39:08.033 to the people that had the greatest instincts, the housekeeper, the concierge, the bellman, the bartender, the people that are interfacing with our guests. 39:08.733 --> 39:11.054 And so I said, look, we're going to we're going to flatline this. 39:11.394 --> 39:15.936 So even today, if you look online, I don't have any C-suite executives. 39:16.216 --> 39:17.076 That's intentional. 39:17.496 --> 39:22.638 I've got the functions and the competency that could be C-suite executives anywhere in our industry. 39:23.098 --> 39:47.400 but i chose not those titles um i don't have an executive committee uh you know why because everybody has an executive committee and it starts to sound hierarchical and every company starts to sound like the other company and the whole notion is that our organization needs to be principle forward meaning that we're not going to be so removed that we don't know um you know that it's ashton 39:47.850 --> 39:53.997 the Director of Revenue Management at Terranea, where maybe before I might not have met Ashton. 39:54.838 --> 39:55.378 Thank you, Glenn. 39:55.398 --> 39:57.761 I saw that Terranea reference behind. 39:59.411 --> 40:00.612 But we need to know each other. 40:00.632 --> 40:06.973 The simple philosophy, the teacher in MBA schools, you take care of the guest. 40:07.093 --> 40:12.715 Sorry, you take care of the team, take care of the guest, guest takes care of the owner, and then you repeat and rinse all over again. 40:13.195 --> 40:20.177 It's a simple formula, but schools like Wharton and Cornell and Harvard and MIT, 40:20.897 --> 40:29.683 You spend two years getting an MBA trying to understand what that really means and how it gets monetized and how you deliver it. 40:30.024 --> 40:38.950 And if you can live in a business here where you really get to know people and then you can be agile enough to listen and make changes, you know, what's the worst thing? 40:38.970 --> 40:40.231 The housekeeper says, you know what? 40:40.751 --> 40:46.936 I love our beds and they're awesome, but I can't clean them because I can't get around them and I can't lift the mattress to make a corner fold. 40:47.736 --> 40:48.697 What can we do about that? 40:50.069 --> 40:52.653 If I don't do anything, now I've created a bad environment. 40:52.673 --> 40:58.643 So I'm really, I mean, if there's something I'm proud about with Coral Tree is that we're highly engaged 41:00.151 --> 41:01.412 that touches the guest. 41:01.872 --> 41:07.155 And we're willing to customize every property to do what we need to do to make a great experience. 41:07.295 --> 41:07.715 I love it. 41:07.855 --> 41:09.276 Every new favorite guest, Glenn. 41:09.616 --> 41:10.717 I know. 41:10.757 --> 41:12.178 Don't tell all the other guests that. 41:12.578 --> 41:14.059 Tom, we got a question for you. 41:14.799 --> 41:18.421 Mr. Karch is asking, he's a GM in Pittsburgh, I believe. 41:18.482 --> 41:20.783 Weekends to this day are challenging finding employees. 41:20.863 --> 41:24.505 How do you feel about pay increases or other incentive ideas that you implement? 41:25.427 --> 41:33.114 Yeah, I feel the same way today that I did 30 years ago, which is, look, if you want top talent, you pay top wages. 41:33.874 --> 41:39.659 And wages doesn't always come across in just what's your hourly rate or what's your salary. 41:40.160 --> 41:41.261 It's a package, right? 41:41.301 --> 41:50.629 If the two of us are going to go out and do something different, the salary might be somewhat meaningful, but what's more meaningful is the other stuff. 41:50.689 --> 41:52.090 So we worked really hard. 41:52.777 --> 42:21.575 uh to try to create um compensation packages that uh has people perform at the highest level you know so we're we're performance based we i believe your compensation shouldn't be capped it should be applied into the guest experience everybody the company including me and i share it every year has similar if not exact um criteria we have guest satisfaction employee engagement 42:22.150 --> 42:25.231 They're equal to GOP, right? 42:25.311 --> 42:37.714 Where if you look at all our competitors, the most hotels will say, well, I know guests satisfaction is important and team is, but look, we should put more weight on Evita and more weight on GOP. 42:37.754 --> 42:38.575 Like, wait a minute. 42:38.595 --> 42:40.415 I thought you agreed on this philosophically. 42:40.455 --> 42:41.155 What's important. 42:41.956 --> 42:42.456 Right. 42:42.556 --> 42:46.497 But I don't think we should, you know, let's have everyone focused on on and said, I'm like, what doesn't work. 42:46.937 --> 42:50.398 So we've got a really balanced approach to compensation. 42:51.431 --> 42:56.693 Finding the talent, you know, most of our industry colleagues are talking how hard it is. 42:57.914 --> 42:59.194 I'm not going to go down that path. 42:59.494 --> 43:02.015 You know, my view is I don't know when it was easy. 43:02.436 --> 43:06.857 And if you all can remember when it was easy to find good talent, you've got better memories than I do. 43:06.877 --> 43:08.398 You know, what do we do? 43:08.838 --> 43:10.639 Every day I'm hunting, right? 43:10.979 --> 43:15.141 You know, I've got a little cafe I like to stop and have coffee and breakfast in. 43:15.601 --> 43:20.542 You know, two of the staff members now work for us, right? 43:20.942 --> 43:22.742 We got a local dry cleaner. 43:22.762 --> 43:25.903 This wonderful lady just was so awesome. 43:26.383 --> 43:28.104 She now works for one of our hotels. 43:28.524 --> 43:32.424 So we're trying to find people who have the right spirit, and then we're going to pay them fair wages. 43:32.844 --> 43:43.887 Our agenda is to try to pay at the top 75 percentile of the market, and then every position try to create a performance metric that they can exceed their wages by at least 25% to 30%. 43:45.507 --> 43:49.649 If they're performing at the highest level, it's not an entitled wage. 43:50.150 --> 43:54.232 And then we're creating for mid management and long term management. 43:54.667 --> 44:01.251 You know, we're creating longer-term incentives, which our industry stayed away for a long time. 44:01.711 --> 44:07.875 Their fear was, wait a minute, what do you mean I'm going to give someone a long-term incentive plan or an LTIP if you're a GM? 44:08.355 --> 44:09.436 Well, you know, what if they're here? 44:09.456 --> 44:10.316 I'm going to have to pay them. 44:10.616 --> 44:15.199 Like, yeah, wouldn't that be great that we could write someone a check for half a million dollars? 44:15.219 --> 44:15.699 Right. 44:15.719 --> 44:19.001 They're going to stay for five years and we didn't have to turn it over three times. 44:19.421 --> 44:22.303 And when we turned it over each time, we probably lost a million hotels. 44:22.981 --> 44:24.623 in intangible dollars. 44:24.983 --> 44:33.392 So we've created long-term incentive plans, midterm incentive plans tied into metrics that are balanced between qualitative and quantitative. 44:35.014 --> 44:41.701 What if you're at the property level and you have to convince your bosses or owners of this sort of philosophy? 44:41.721 --> 44:42.923 What's a good strategy for that? 44:44.318 --> 44:59.552 i think everything it gets measured in returns you know so sometimes when i speak about promotion so much someone might think you know oh my gosh must be a great company because nobody looks at a p l that's not true right well our portfolio is performing at 105 index 45:01.534 --> 45:07.516 Our guest satisfaction to our competitors is serving at 104% index, meaning we're punching above our weight. 45:07.616 --> 45:09.497 So everything gets measured. 45:09.577 --> 45:14.499 So at the company level, my view is that I'm sitting down with the front desk agent and I'm talking to Mary. 45:15.159 --> 45:24.302 And Mary, if you're making $22 an hour at Terranea at the front desk, and I say, Mary, every time Anthony comes in, would you let him know there's a suite available? 45:24.989 --> 45:29.691 And that if he wants to stay there, we'll give it to him at a great value because it's empty tonight for an extra $100. 45:30.672 --> 45:33.854 Anthony, if you want it, it would normally cost you another $1,000 a night. 45:34.334 --> 45:37.355 And Mary, by the way, if you do that, I'm going to share that with you. 45:37.695 --> 45:39.817 I'm going to give you 25% of that. 45:41.297 --> 45:50.482 And if you do that, Mary, and you do that one time a day, five days a week, you're going to add 55% to your $22 wage. 45:51.262 --> 45:52.043 But you know what, Mary? 45:52.103 --> 45:52.663 It's up to you. 45:53.523 --> 45:54.524 You do it if you don't want to do it. 45:55.208 --> 45:56.930 That's what we're doing on our property level. 45:57.670 --> 45:59.052 And that's so critical. 45:59.212 --> 46:05.738 And where those programs fall apart is when they do it, they're not... 46:07.441 --> 46:08.661 They're not paid immediately. 46:08.681 --> 46:13.723 And then the manager stops implementing it and everybody forgets about it. 46:14.563 --> 46:31.007 And it's when your point is when you're having that conversation with them, explaining to them and then keeping that program up and then, you know, celebrating the program, putting it in the back, putting up a sheet of paper and celebrating where everybody is and doing it every day. 46:31.787 --> 46:35.808 making sure they get paid as fast as possible, and making sure that we're celebrating it. 46:35.988 --> 46:42.310 And so people talk about it, but very few people do it like you do, where it's like, we're going to celebrate this and we're going to talk about this. 46:43.050 --> 46:44.730 And you can apply that everywhere. 46:44.970 --> 46:47.811 I mean, sometimes you think it's always just the guest facing, right? 46:48.191 --> 46:48.911 But you can do it. 46:49.371 --> 46:51.252 We manage a bunch of golf operations. 46:51.292 --> 47:01.114 So you can incent and motivate our agronomy teams by saying, look, if you can get your job done in four and a half hours, I'm going to pay you. 47:01.787 --> 47:02.548 Four and a half days. 47:02.568 --> 47:02.988 Excuse me. 47:03.008 --> 47:04.209 We're going to pay for five days. 47:04.669 --> 47:05.830 Can we do it efficiency? 47:05.890 --> 47:07.091 What's going to be the process? 47:07.471 --> 47:14.316 And by the way, if you can take off on a Friday where you normally would be here till four o'clock, five o'clock and be done at noon, here's what you'll do. 47:14.777 --> 47:19.380 But you've got to do things swiftly, safely, and you've got to do them in a qualitative way. 47:19.680 --> 47:21.161 And there has to be a process for that. 47:21.201 --> 47:24.504 So I don't think there's a one answer answer. 47:25.385 --> 47:46.350 um you know fits every function to me it's all customization uh you know what's good for the housekeeper right sometimes what's good for the housekeeper is that if they could work four days versus working five days if they could get a guaranteed weekend off you know two two times in a month as opposed to being in a random schedule right take care of people who take care of us that's what we do 47:47.520 --> 47:47.880 Beautiful. 47:49.620 --> 47:52.241 No, it's freaking amazing. 47:52.341 --> 47:54.741 I love this kind of stuff. 47:54.801 --> 47:58.982 I think this is what really adds to the depth of our show and what separates us from others out there. 48:00.002 --> 48:05.843 But I want to ask you real quick before we get going about new development next year. 48:05.883 --> 48:08.844 And unfortunately, this is the only – the best I could do. 48:08.904 --> 48:09.824 I cut off part of the picture. 48:10.164 --> 48:12.264 Pier 66 coming to Fort Lauderdale. 48:12.284 --> 48:14.625 The reason why I picked it out is I love – 48:15.405 --> 48:19.667 modernizing and bringing classic buildings into the present. 48:19.707 --> 48:23.448 This is such a gorgeous piece of mid-century modern architecture. 48:24.248 --> 48:34.232 How are you approaching this renovation and meeting the guest needs in 2024 as opposed to when this thing was built in, I guess, early 1960s? 48:34.592 --> 48:36.413 You respond on. 48:37.013 --> 48:42.635 First of all, I smile when you put that picture up because, like I said, I've been doing this 40 years and 48:43.375 --> 48:47.637 I've built or been a part of building and operating a lot of new hotels. 48:47.997 --> 48:49.938 We have nine of them under construction right now. 48:50.618 --> 48:54.859 This is the most complicated, most expensive project I've ever done in my career. 48:55.199 --> 48:56.260 Whoa, really? 48:56.520 --> 49:00.961 So Terranea, you had the picture of Terranea, which is a world-class resort in Palos Verdes. 49:01.602 --> 49:04.643 That was a half a billion dollar investment. 49:05.363 --> 49:08.384 That was like 15 years ago? 49:08.404 --> 49:09.585 15 years ago, yeah, great memory. 49:09.645 --> 49:10.345 Yeah. 49:11.052 --> 49:23.418 you know, so, you know, irregardless of present value, you know, calculations, this is a $2 billion project project, and that's a B and it's an independent, um, property. 49:23.458 --> 49:25.299 So it has no brand affiliation. 49:25.920 --> 49:26.560 And, um, 49:27.557 --> 49:54.048 being built and designed and intended to be awarded at all the accolades that begin with the number five five star five diamond we've got um unbelievable decor in here uh and it's you know interesting enough it's not on the beach and so you know someone would say gosh you're the marina yeah right got the marina and it's got not a marina it's got the biggest marina in you know all of florida and the gate what 49:54.868 --> 49:57.950 Gateway to the Caribbean and the Bahamas. 49:58.130 --> 50:01.252 So it's a big part of the customer base is those yacht owners. 50:01.312 --> 50:09.976 So what you're doing here, this is being developed by Tavistock, which is a very successful privately held company led by Joe Lewis. 50:10.076 --> 50:12.998 And it also has this wonderful hotel that we're operating. 50:13.058 --> 50:15.619 And we helped to open in Lake Nona called The Wave. 50:16.279 --> 50:18.361 It's an unbelievable product. 50:18.381 --> 50:20.862 So he's got impeccable taste. 50:21.202 --> 50:23.023 So the decor is world class. 50:24.183 --> 50:30.569 We've got restaurants, we have nine restaurants in Pier 66, a wellness and spa operation that 50:31.783 --> 50:35.227 You know, candidly, we'll make all the luxury brands in the market be envious. 50:35.607 --> 50:36.608 It's going to be unbelievable. 50:36.648 --> 50:38.250 So we're going to open it in October next year. 50:38.270 --> 50:39.471 We're underway. 50:39.551 --> 50:45.698 It's the only thing that really left is if you see right behind your head, there's what's called the pier. 50:46.078 --> 50:48.661 At the top of that is a restaurant on pier. 50:49.161 --> 50:51.924 That's the only building that remains from gold. 50:52.124 --> 50:54.267 Everything else has been torn down and rebuilt. 50:54.987 --> 51:03.113 And that building, we just took down to the concrete and kept some of the shell, but everything else, it's just unreal. 51:03.493 --> 51:05.755 Where is it located? 51:05.915 --> 51:06.615 Fort Lauderdale. 51:06.655 --> 51:07.676 Fort Lauderdale, Anthony. 51:08.826 --> 51:14.488 right there on the intercoastal and on the port heading out to where the cruise ships go, et cetera. 51:14.528 --> 51:15.648 So unbelievable. 51:15.668 --> 51:20.450 You know, this will be a business model that's got about a thousand team members serving it. 51:21.290 --> 51:24.731 It's got products, the guest room product, meeting space. 51:24.751 --> 51:25.932 We've got a glass ballroom. 51:25.972 --> 51:27.212 I mean, think about that. 51:27.252 --> 51:31.594 All that stuff to really take, you know, the benefit of the blue skies and the like. 51:31.634 --> 51:33.454 So it's going to be unreal. 51:33.474 --> 51:34.595 I can't wait for it to be done. 51:36.136 --> 51:46.823 It's got about 385 hotel rooms and then it's got another, I'll call it 52 more villas, which are basically the equivalent of penthouse suites. 51:47.223 --> 51:49.324 And then there's condominiums on the property. 51:49.745 --> 51:51.165 Also, that's for sale product. 51:51.185 --> 51:52.246 They're actually selling now. 51:52.266 --> 51:56.729 They've been selling condos that are going in the range between four and ten million dollars. 51:57.233 --> 51:58.974 So it's a spectacular property. 51:58.994 --> 52:00.135 You guys got to go check it out. 52:01.156 --> 52:02.657 So spring breakers won't be staying there. 52:03.637 --> 52:04.538 I don't think so. 52:05.138 --> 52:05.799 I don't think so. 52:05.839 --> 52:08.280 At least if they did what I did at that age, the answer is no. 52:09.501 --> 52:09.841 Yeah. 52:09.921 --> 52:14.744 I was sleeping on a beach somewhere, you know? 52:15.025 --> 52:18.807 So Tom, you should have us out for the opening of this thing. 52:18.827 --> 52:21.869 We can do a broadcast from there and the whole, the whole, I would love for you to do that. 52:21.889 --> 52:22.009 Yeah. 52:23.675 --> 52:31.223 So before we wrap up, any final thoughts, any observations on 2023 and how you see 2024? 52:31.884 --> 52:33.646 Just real broad, quick comment. 52:33.846 --> 52:39.091 Yeah, I mean, 23 has been a bit for the industry, a grind, right? 52:39.272 --> 52:40.853 Debt markets have been challenging. 52:40.933 --> 52:42.235 Interest rates jumped up. 52:42.855 --> 52:44.157 The loans from 52:44.833 --> 52:50.455 A lot of hotel owners, CMBS loans, in particular in the urban, all are coming to maturity dates. 52:51.376 --> 52:52.296 That's the industry. 52:53.536 --> 52:57.078 At Coral Tree, 23 is a phenomenal year. 52:57.398 --> 52:58.779 We've got a lot of new growth. 52:58.819 --> 53:06.362 We bought a new platform, a vacation rental platform with properties in all the islands of Hawaii and up in the mountains. 53:06.602 --> 53:07.422 Exciting times. 53:08.144 --> 53:09.326 24 is simple for me. 53:09.927 --> 53:18.500 Um, it's I'm bullish, you know, really, uh, the indicators obviously remove the feds, move the interest rates and telegraph that we saw the market jump. 53:19.061 --> 53:21.905 Uh, we're seeing some softening and a little bit of the debt market. 53:22.681 --> 53:27.283 And we're seeing a lot of liquidity of people who have a lot of high net worth ready to buy things. 53:27.683 --> 53:30.704 So we're back in the business and group is back. 53:31.804 --> 53:38.607 Leisure obviously slowed down and group is back and group is spending money because they haven't been together for a while. 53:39.067 --> 53:46.569 And companies say, look, I might be worried about the economy, but in order to be that, to serve the economy, I got to have my companies come together. 53:46.649 --> 53:50.811 So our group backlog for next year is really strong and robust. 53:51.331 --> 53:51.811 Wonderful. 53:52.052 --> 53:53.353 Thank you so much. 53:53.413 --> 53:56.075 Tom, how about a good shout out for Coral Tree Hospitality? 53:56.676 --> 53:57.557 Thanks so much, you guys. 53:57.597 --> 53:59.839 Great to see you and happy holidays to you all. 53:59.859 --> 54:00.900 I hope you have a great holiday. 54:01.380 --> 54:04.163 And please tell Mark I said hello. 54:04.683 --> 54:09.187 I'm going to text him in about 30 seconds, Anthony. 54:09.367 --> 54:14.392 And like I told the young lady last week, I tell him I said I got off the track and I listened to him. 54:14.732 --> 54:15.993 You've done just fine, sir. 54:16.514 --> 54:17.895 I'll see you next week. 54:18.615 --> 54:19.356 Thanks so much. 54:19.416 --> 54:25.039 I want to thank you out there so much for supporting Anthony and I and everything that we do in 2023. 54:25.939 --> 54:30.882 This has been the most incredible year, and I look forward to being here with him throughout 2024. 54:34.644 --> 54:44.129 Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, NoVacancyNews on YouTube, and all of our shows are housed at NoVacancyNews.com. 54:44.149 --> 54:46.971 And don't forget, download the audio version of our shows. 54:46.991 --> 54:48.612 I know a lot of you are listening to that right now. 54:48.652 --> 54:52.834 For those of you that are watching us, download it and get our newsletter text word HOTEL to 66866. 54:54.515 --> 54:56.616 Merry, merry, happy holidays, everybody. 54:56.636 --> 54:59.078 And remember, you've got one life, so blaze on and... 54:59.901 --> 55:00.785 Be kind to yourself. 55:01.167 --> 55:01.891 See you next year. 55:01.911 --> 55:02.795 Next week.