Soak Up the Hotel Profits: Why Desert Hot Springs Is the Next Big Hospitality Opportunity

Glenn: Hey, everybody. It's your hospitality. Friend Glenn here at Meet the Money in Los Angeles right out by the airport. But we can’t hear them. But I want to fly away to Desert Hot Springs, because I found Doria Wilms. She’s with the city over there, and they are looking to bring more tourism to their area. I love that I get to talk to you about this because usually I’m talking about the developers, right? And usually the city is like, hey, we don’t want to do business, but you’re like the opposite. You’re open, welcoming, and, you know, you’ve got great resources to boost tourism.

Doria: That’s absolutely right. So the city of Desert Hot Springs, we’re in the Palm Springs market. It's a $7 billion tourism industry. And the city of Desert Hot Springs is unique because we sit on top of a naturally occurring hot mineral aquifer. And so folks can come sit in 105-degree hot mineral waters and soak in the healing properties of that. After hiking in Joshua Tree National Park, there is a real opportunity for hotel developers to come and work with the city. And you said it one that gets rid of the bureaucracy and wants to have a streamlined development process to generate revenue for for our community and create these experiences that travelers are looking for these.

Glenn: Days, for sure. And it plays into absolutely everything. And I don’t want to sound like I’m too much of a suck up to these guys, but the fact of the matter is that they’ve got an area that has something unique that’s different from other people. And in a hospitality universe where you need to tell the story in order to get people to pay premium pricing. Well, you’ve got it built in. And the fact that you’re willing to open up those hot springs to developers is something super rare.

Doria: Right. And so in Desert Hot Springs, you can come you can purchase a property, you can drill your own well, you own the water rights. Awesome. And so and there’s a lot of folks that have come before you. And so we have a hospitality industry that really believes that rising tides rise all ships. I agree. And so they will connect and share kind of the their their war stories on how they kind of navigated through the systems to really create these amazing properties that provide something for everybody. You know, each property has their own unique flair to it. So if you look at Two Bunch Palms Resort, they cater to this. You know, the Hollywood industry, you know, that are looking to kind of get away as your palms. You can kind of see this back here. Those are going to be your folks that come out to the valley. They’re hiking up in Joshua Tree. They’re they’re kind of going to Coachella or Stagecoach and then looking for a place to relax afterwards. And Desert Hot Springs has something for everybody. And again, that opportunity for that entrepreneur that’s looking to come out and say, how am I going to stake my claim in Desert Hot Springs and create something that could be a multi-million dollar, you know, return on.

Glenn: Investment. I’m thinking I may have to delete this video because I want to take advantage of this opportunity right now, and I want the world to know about it. But now that we’ve screwed it up and they do know about it, how could they learn more? How could they understand what you’re really looking for and how you could help developers find success in Desert Hot Springs?

Doria: Well, I want them to reach out to me. So I’m Doria Wells. I’m the city manager for the city of Desert Hot Springs. If you look up the city, you can find me there. My email is Dee Williams at City of D.H.S. Org. Come and talk to me. We will connect you up with available properties and find a path for you to do development in our city.

Glenn: And let me just throw in. Palm Springs Airport is expanding. They’re adding more flights and they’re making it easier than ever for people to enjoy that area. And quite frankly, I think it might be my favorite airport in America outside of Hawaii.

Doria: You could not travel any better than Palm Springs Airport. And then the last little plug I want to mention is the city actually has development incentives for folks coming in. So we’re willing to talk about some waivers or rebates for folks that want to come in and develop in Desert Hot Springs.

Glenn: I love it. Make sure you check it out. Glen, that’s Doria you’ve been watching. Please like, share, subscribe and comment on this video and we’ll see you next time. Thanks very much, everyone.

Doria: Thank you.