Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In this special episode of the Social Success Series Podcast, host and Travel Media Group Brand Ambassador, Cassady Quintana, sits down with the Brand Social Media Manager at Arlo Hotels, Dino Jevric, so discuss the ever shifting landscape of social media and how hoteliers can optimize their digital presence on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and booking sites. Cassady Quintana: Welcome to the Social Success Podcast, where we have conversations with top hospitality professionals about successful digital marketing strategies, emerging trends, and how to connect with today’s travelers. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Social Success Podcast, a Suite Spot Podcast powered by Travel Media Group. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana, and today we’re gonna be talking about the importance of having an authentic social media strategy. Joining me today is Dino Jevric, Social Media Manager at Arlo Hotels. Dino, thank you for joining me. Dino Jevric: Thank you for having me. So excited. Cassady Quintana: Yeah, me too. So, to start, tell us a little bit about your role, maybe some of your history and how you got involved at Arlo Hotels. Dino Jevric: Yeah, so, I’m the social media manager at Arlo, so I lead social media brand wide, across multiple properties and outlets. And basically my role sits at the intersection of brand content and performance. So, from day to day, as you probably know in social, it’s a different challenge every day. There are some days where I’m working on the production side of things. Some days I’m working on planning performance on other days. So it’s a constant mix of creative and analytical work. And I think ultimately in my role, I’m not just focused on making things look good, I’m focused on how our content actually influences our guests journey. And that’s all the way from discovery to conversion. And kind of how social plays a role in every step of that process. So that’s basically my role at large. And yeah, that kind of sums it all up. Cassady Quintana: Yeah, no, totally. That’s awesome. And kind of, we’re seeing this evolution of social media. So in your experience, how are you seeing how people are discovering hotels through social media now versus maybe how we used to through Google or OTAs? Dino Jevric: I think that there’s definitely a very, very big shift of how people have been discovering hotels, especially in recent times. You know, historically people have always gone to, you know, straight to Google and asked, you know, best hotels in X area, right? Or they go straight to the OTAs, like TripAdvisor and stuff to find out what people are saying and, you know, different reviewers and stuff. But I think that now what we’re really seeing is that people are using social media in its place, and they’re using social media as a search engine, and people are turning to platforms like TikTok or Instagram to, you know, examine their options and see what hotels look like in real life and hear experiences of what it’s like to stay there. And not only are we like, and that’s only from, you know, the top of the funnel, what we’re really used to seeing, but we’re now actually seeing it move down further into the funnel into actual booking behavior. So with platforms like TikTok where they recently integrated booking.com and Expedia directly into the app, it’s allowing viewers to book without ever having to leave the platform. So they’re discovering hotels there, they’re seeing what the hotel stay is like, but then they’re also now a lot of the opportunity to book through these apps. And on top of that like we’re seeing this gap between OTAs and social media really closing, Expedia did a report recently where they found that 80% of travelers still use OTAs,at some point in the booking journey. However, social media isn’t falling far behind with nearly 60% of travelers also using social media in their path. So I think that we’re really starting to see that gap shorten, and yeah, that’s kind of what the future of social media with the travel industry is where it’s going. Cassady Quintana: And it’s kind of crazy to see because those integrations, like you mentioned with Expedia on Instagram, booking.com, on TikTok, like how quickly that happened and how quickly it’s gonna continue to happen. So I always think about hotels that aren’t on social media all, or still haven’t bought into how important social media is, and like how far they’re falling behind, and it’s just gonna continue to get worse. So as we see that kind of shift happening, what do you think hotels should be thinking about the most when they’re starting to plan their social media content for the upcoming month? Like, what’s really important and what should they keep in the front of their minds? Dino Jevric: I think ultimately hotels need to realize that social media is more than just a marketing channel. I think, you know, historically social media has just been a place for hotels to kind of post pretty photos and, you know, showcase the spaces in their hotels. But I think that content is now moving away from being aspirational. And it needs to, now, because of this introduction of being able to book on these platforms, it needs to now be way more informative and decision driving. So, you know, instead of those static, you know, luxe polish content and photos, hotels need to invest in reality. And that’s a really big thing that we’ve been doing at Arlo, is really showcasing the hotel from a real standpoint and really showcasing the experience that you get before you even step onto property. So yeah, in the end, the hotels that are really gonna win are the ones that are treating social as a bridge between inspiration and conversion, rather than just a place to post content. Cassady Quintana: Absolutely. I agree. And I kind of like this shift in Instagram, right? When Instagram first came out, it was super, you gotta add a filter, it’s gotta be the perfect shot. Like it needs to look its best. And now it’s the total opposite because of AI and because of all this fake things we’re being fed, Instagram’s kind of reverting back to, well, no, we wanna see real people. We wanna see real events, we wanna be able to see ourselves in those experiences. So kind of what type of content do you think is performing best when people are in that discovery phase or when they’re actively looking for somewhere to stay? Dino Jevric: I mean, the answer is very, very obvious. I think it needs to feel real. The type of content that you need to be showcasing is stuff that feels real. You know, no one really wants to see another photo of, you know, a perfectly made bed. No one wants to see, you know, those still life images of, you know, your lobby. People really want to know what the experience actually looks like rather than just a polished version of it. And I think targeting concepts like a day in the life, or even like taking people around the neighborhood are different ways that people can showcase that and that brands can really capitalize on these things. We’ve implemented this a lot at Arlo and we’ve seen like very sizable results from it. So yeah, I think that that’s really the key is kind of just showcasing the real side of hotel content. Cassady Quintana: Yeah, it’s interesting ’cause some of the properties we work with here at TMG, it’s like they have these wonderful photos that are, you can definitely tell they had a photographer come and take these photos, right? And we’re like, that is so great for your website, but this is not gonna move the needle on social media, right? This, there’s nobody in this photo that’s, it’s empty, it’s an empty room, it’s an empty lobby. Like that’s not how your hotel feels on a regular basis. So how can we make that feel better? And, you know, sometimes we’re implementing AI, Hey, can you add a person at the front desk? Or we’re finding ways to make it feel a little bit more real. So I wanna shift gears a little bit, and you know, another part of your role is you’re managing multiple properties within one brand. So what do you think is like the biggest challenge for people that are in that kind of position? Dino Jevric: I think personally the biggest challenge for me, I mean, managing the social for all these different properties is a challenge within itself. But I think that personally the biggest challenge for me has always been balancing those different voices and personalities. For those who are not familiar with the Arlo brand, we are lifestyle hotel brand with seven properties in the United States. We have four in New York, we have a Chicago location, Miami and DC which is newly opened. And all these properties really shine in their own way. Williamsburg is known for its nightlife, Miami, it’s known for its leisure and laid back vibe. DC is known for his its historical perspective. So we really wanted to find a way to make all of these brands unify under this umbrella social media account, but then also just showcasing what makes each property unique. And that was a really big focus for me when I joined Arlo was kind of trying to build that consistent brand voice. And I think that’s where a lot of hotels, especially hotels that are managing more than one property, tend to struggle a lot, is kind of protecting the individuality of each location and really making location shine. And there are some brands that, you know, venture in the way in the path of creating different accounts for different locations. And I think that for us, the number one thing was, you know, Arlo is a brand, Arlo is a community at its highest point Arlo is, it’s more than just separating properties. It’s all about Arlo as a brand. And I think that’s something that each property does withhold, but they each showcase it in their own way. So yeah, I just, I wanted everything to feel cohesive and not copy and pasted. So yeah that would be the biggest challenge. And I think that we’ve

The 2026 Hunter Conference in Atlanta Georgia was a major success! So many hospitality professionals and industry leaders converged to share insights, best practices, challenges, and strategies for the future.  The Suite Spot had the opportunity to attend the industry event and interview some of the best and brightest that hospitality has to offer. Tune in to this special episode to hear from executives, brand leaders, presidents, and more from some of the biggest brands in the hospitality industry.  Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot. Fresh Off the highly anticipated 2026 Hunter Conference, which certainly didn’t just fit the bill. Exceeded expectations. What an incredible event, what an amazing couple days in Atlanta, Georgia at the New and iconic Signia Hilton, Atlanta. There were powerhouse panels and education, incredible networking, truly defined. Their theme was The Home of Hospitality. Certainly hit that over that next those couple days there in Atlanta, Georgia, we had the privilege of covering the event. We have some exclusive interviews to bring you, which I’m so excited to share with you on this very episode today. We visited with our friends over at Newport Hospitality. We celebrated a milestone with Hospitality America. We checked in on the development side at PM Hotel Group and sat down with the brain leader of Graduate by Hilton to talk about that exciting brand and everything that they have cooking over there. Who also knows how to throw an incredible party, which they did in tandem with the Hunter Conference, with a ludicrous concert that capped off. And just, again, an amazing couple days in Atlanta, Georgia. We’re so excited to bring you these interviews, and we’re gonna be bringing it all to you here on the sweet spot. Thanks for tuning in. Speaker 2: Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot Live on location 2026 Hunter Conference. Excited to welcome in, Wayne West, the third president of Newport Hospitality Group. Wayne, thank you so much for taking some time. Wayne West III: It is a pleasure to be with you. It’s a pleasure to be here. Ryan Embree: Yeah, excited to be here. It’s a sleepy cold morning right now, but we’re warming things up here in Atlanta at the Hunter Conference. Tell us a little bit about your experience and, what do you think about the new location, the new digs? Wayne West III: The new location is great. We’ve been downtown at the Marriott for so many years. I think this is new. It’s fresh, it’s invigorating. It truly is. One of my favorite conferences. I mentioned to you, the Hunter Conference is a relationship kind of conference where you get to sit down and spend time with people one-on-one, whether it’s your brand, whether it’s other owners, whether it’s my peer group. So I enjoy this one a lot. Ryan Embree: I mean, it’s great because I think one of the things, you get a bunch of hospitality people in the same, in the same room. You start talking about some of the challenges that are starting to arise. And right now we got some headwinds, profit profitability, hotel margins, very slim, rising construction costs, operational costs. But you have a philosophy, control what you can control. How do you bring that philosophy to Newport Hospitality Group as we usher in 2026? Wayne West III: Number one, I have really good people. My colleagues are strong at my, my, my corporate level as well as the property level. You know, for many, many years the industry was, had a vibrant ability to drive RevPAR, and it seemed like it was increasing three to 5% every year that slowed down. We continue to push that where there’s opportunities, but what I think we do best and my operational team does best is control the big things. Control, cost, control your labor. We spend a great deal of time working on that every single day. We work with the leaders at the properties to make sure that we’ve got the appropriate, uh, levels of payroll and the appropriate levels of resources to the levels of business at the time. So I, I, I think a great deal. We’ve always spent time on that. But it’s even more and more important as your RevPAR may not be increasing as quickly as payrolls are. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. Operational efficiency, really, really key. Try to look for every inch that you can get right now. We had the opportunity to meet up with your COO Brendan McCoy at the Hospitality Show out there in Denver. He was talking about the growth of, of Newport Hospitality Group and was really focused in on talking about strategic growth with the right partners. What does the right partner mean to you? And you see opportunity out there. Wayne West III: I do see opportunity. We’ve recently taken over a hotel with the perfect partner, has a few hotels, but her focus wants to be on development. She is aligned with us culturally. She has the right kind of hotel. She maintains it well, but she thinks she can make more money developing the next hotel and is leaving operations to us. So the first thing we wanna do, we wanna make sure that we align philosophically with her vision, anyone’s vision of the hotel and how it’s gonna be operated, how we’re gonna treat the guest, the employees, and how we protect her asset and grow it and make it more profitable. But I think that’s the key thing, is aligning with a partner that aligns with your vision. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And that alignment is really can be found in rooms like this, right. At a Hunter Conference, when you’re networking, you’re having conversations over that because it is key, that alignment, making sure that you and the owner are kind of hand in hand, especially in a time where it’s a little bit challenging, looking for operational efficiency. A lot of people, subject matter topics talk about AI and technology, right. Trying to fill those gaps. Talk to me a little bit about the philosophy and how you approach AI and technology. Is it more about the guest experience or employee empowerment? Wayne West III: Let’s be honest, AI has been around a long time. If you go back to revenue management 25 years ago, instead of, you know, we started leaning into computers to do some of the analysis for us. So I think this matured over the year and it continues to evolve. And I think it’s evolved expeditiously over the last few years, right? We first used ChatGTP to help us write sentences, and now we’re analyzing data. I think we’ll continue to evaluate how to make us more efficient, but really more effective with the data. I think we need to make sure we’re not consumed by the data and ask AI to help us with the right questions and get the right data to make quicker decisions and better decisions. So I think we’re testing it today, all the different kinds of AI out there. We’re testing it in all the disciplines. We’re testing it in HR, we’re testing it in operations. We’re testing it in sales and marketing. We’re testing it in HR. So I think when you apply it to those and then see what bubbles up and see how, how, what best results you get. But let’s not be consumed by it. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. Wayne West III: Because you gotta take care of the guests first. Ryan Embree: 100%. And I think, you add those things up, you add those little gains up, that’s, and, and kind of take a step back and look. Now you become more operationally efficient. You control what you can control what you said, and hopefully improved your business there. But that’s great perspective to look back. ’cause you’re right, technology is no stranger to our industry. It’s been there just been maybe in a little bit different path. Wayne West III: We called it it something different. Truly it is intelligence that helps make us better. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Use it correctly. Love it. So, another thing we like to try to do at these conferences is look into a crystal ball. Try to predict the future, right? Everybody’s telling you what’s next, three, six months and down the line. What’s your vision? Maybe let’s start wide at the hospitality industry and then maybe you can dial it down from Newport Hospitality. Wayne West III: Again, I think I said it early, you know, we’ve been spoiled by the ability to grow our rates every year substantially. That’s slowing down. So we’ve gotta be smarter. I think a big opportunity is food and beverage globally from the, in, from an industry standpoint, I think doing food and beverage right drives preference to your hotel. I came up in the food and beverage world, and I think when select service hotels came along, we, we weren’t as good at food and beverage as we were 20 years ago. And we’ve let outside restaurants and bars wildly successful take a piece of our, our business. So I think we can do better if we would concentrate a little more on food and beverage, finding out what the guest really wants, needs and desires are when he checks into your hotel, and that that guest will come back. It will drive preference and it’ll drive RevPAR. So I wanna concentrate on that a bit. Ryan Embree: Great differentiator there for guests. Also attracting locals. If it’s a nice restaurant, you know, it’s your hotel restaurant isn’t of that of the same 40 years ago. Right? So, um, what about Newport Hospitality Group? Will you see the vision there? Wayne West III: We’ve got a couple letters of intent out today. Great brands, great owners. Two, were buying into one or actually purchasing a hotel. It’s the right hotel in the right location at the right time. We think we add some value by some additional sales and marketing that Whitney will do with her team. Whitney and Kirsten will do, whether it’s digitally or whether it’s just a different way of looking at our guests and attracting the guests. So we’re trying to find the major brands in our niche markets. Maybe we’re not in Washington DC but w

Tune in to the latest TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl episode featuring University of Nevada, Las Vegas!  Special guest and Dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at UNLV, David  Cardenas, who joins the Suite Spot to discuss the exciting curriculum and academic program of the college and how it is preparing the next generation of hospitality professionals. Ryan Embree:Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Ryan Embree:Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. We are here for another edition of TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl. Yes, we are bringing it back. And we are live on campus at UNLV’s Harrah College of Hospitality here, with the Dean of the Harrah College of Hospitality, David. David, thank you so much for inviting us and, and, you know, bringing us here to your beautiful campus. David Cárdenas:My pleasure. Thanks for allowing me to share a little bit about this amazing program and share a little bit about the wonderful things that we do here. Ryan Embree:We’re so excited, like you said, the inspiration behind this series was just to showcase some of the amazing colleges and schools of hospitality around the nation. UNLV certainly fits the bill. We’re gonna talk about that and some of the amazing things you and your faculty and students are doing here. But before we do that, we always like a little bit of tradition. One of the things unique to hospitality is learning about people’s background because you come from different brands, sometimes different segments, sometimes you fall into the industry. Tell us a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you here. David Cárdenas:Yeah. So, a little bit about myself and how I got to where I am. So, I was born in Ecuador, lived there for most of my childhood. I came to the United States to go to school in the Carolinas. And, my start in the hospitality industry is a little bit untraditional, but maybe a lot more people actually go through it the way that I did. So I was in college, and like most poor college students, I had to, to find a job. And so, hospitality was where I found it. You know, bussing tables, washing dishes, cooking, and I loved it. And that’s what paid my way through school. At the time, I was a pre-med major. I wanted to be a real doctor, what my daughter says is a real doctor <laugh>. David Cárdenas:And so didn’t think anything about being in the hospitality industry while I was doing it. And, but, little by little, even in school went from, you know, a server to a supervisor to, you know, assistant manager to, by the time I graduated, I was running food and beverage operations. And my boss at the time was like, hey, you should really think about going into the hospitality industry. And said, no, I’m gonna be a doctor. And she’s like, just do it for a year. So one year turned into two, two into three, year four, my mom’s like, you’re going to medical school? And I’m like, no, I don’t wanna go to medical school. But I realized that I didn’t know what I was doing, and I hadn’t taken an accounting class. I’d taken physics and taken biochem, but I’ve never taken, you know, an HR class, and I had to go back to school. David Cárdenas:So, you know, after working in the industry for four or five years, you know, I was like, I needed to go back and get an education. And so I went back and got my master’s degree, and knowing that my path was gonna be in the hospitality industry, I thought I was gonna be a corporate trainer. I loved working with people, loved getting them you know, trained to do what, if it was serving or, you know, being a cashier, being a manager. That was what I loved to do. And so that was what I was hoping to do. And when I was in my master’s program, realized that I love to teach and I loved to do research, got the opportunity to get my PhD, one thing led to another and got into academia. But didn’t ever think about the hospitality industry when I was in school. But that’s kind of how I fell into it. And I don’t regret any of it. Ryan Embree:Well, I love what you said there. It’s the untraditional traditional route of hospitality, and that’s actually one of the reasons we started this series, is to showcase that you can have a career here. There’s so many elements to it, as you said, and you know, in some ways you are kind of training, you know, the next generation of hospitality. So it goes full circle. So, share with us a little bit about the rich history of this school and the college here. David Cárdenas:Yeah. So the, the university or the college was established in 1967. So over 50 plus years of being part of the hospitality education industry. And you know, I think that there were no better place to have hospitality education than to be in Las Vegas. And the growth of Vegas as the entertainment and hospitality capital of the world was lockstep with the College of Hospitality. And as the city grew, the college grew, and, a lot of people were attracted to come to Vegas and work to thinking about it from an entertainment standpoint, from the hospitality standpoint. And then they would come and get a degree here. And then they’d start in the industry, and they’d become the giants in the industry. David Cárdenas:So, you know, it’s pretty amazing, you know, talking to a lot of the alumni, you know, they came here, didn’t know much about it, weren’t quite sure. Many of them came here because of the basketball team. You know the rich history of what happened with basketball, and then just kind of got their foot in the hospitality industry or the gaming industry. And then our alumni start, you know, moving up in the industry, and we have the Bill Hornbuckles of the World, which are, you know, the president of MGM or, you know, Carlos Castro, the President of Resorts World. All of them, you know, kind of started here and grew up to be stars in the industry. Ryan Embree:Yeah, it’s incredible. And, you know, it’s interesting you bring up sports because, you know, obviously, sports have now also transformed Las Vegas. The city’s going through this transformation with sports. But, you know, talking about, for those who aren’t familiar, you know, I had the opportunity to walk around campus a little bit before this interview and could literally see the top of the Paris Eiffel Tower from campus. For those who aren’t familiar, you know, you are just blocks away from the Strip. Talk to us about that location and what it means for some of the students, and really just kind of propelling themselves right into the hospitality industry, you know, steps away from this place. David Cárdenas:Yeah. So if you’ve never been to our campus and never been to Hospitality Hall, it’s the Taj Mahal of hospitality education, and we are a mile and a half away from the center of it all. You see, most people have seen it on television or in movies, the Strip, right? We see that every day from our campus, which is pretty amazing. And what that gives us is access to people that most other universities don’t have access to. You know, at any point in time that executive can come and walk here and give a guest lecture. Or more importantly, at any day, our students can do a behind-the-scenes tour of the Bellagio Fountain Club or Tour Allegiant Field or, you know, go up the Eiffel Tower at Paris. David Cárdenas:So you know, there are many universities that come here for a week to experience it. Our students have it full-time. The other thing about that is that those executives teach classes for us. So currently we’re teaching an entertainment class. The Vice President of Entertainment for MGM, Paul Davis, is teaching that class. And so the people who are actually doing it out there are here. And that’s just an amazing experience. The students, when they go to do their internship, they go a mile and a half away. They don’t have to travel for hours or go during the summer. They’re right here. So, I think proximity is one of the main reasons we are ranked number one in hospitality. Ryan Embree:Yeah, it’s incredible. It’s so unique. I mean, I remember being in hospitality school myself as a UCF Rosen grad and seeing the Las Vegas strip on a PowerPoint, you know, that a professor puts up and you just, students here just look out a window and it’s right there. Very cool. So, more recently, the school just announced a new strategic framework for the college. That’s not something that’s done overnight; that obviously takes a lot of work and effort. Tell us a little bit about that process and what that framework looks like. David Cárdenas:Yeah, so it was very much a collaborative effort. So I became Dean a little bit less than two years ago. So March 1st will be my two-year anniversary here. And when I came here, I was in awe. We have amazing faculty, great support, our alumni were doing wonderful things, but I also saw that if we stood still, others were gonna pass us by. And I often say, you know, I didn’t wanna be the, the Sears of Hospitality Education where we could kept doing the same thing over and over again and we didn’t innovate. And so we went through a year and a half process of looking inward of who we are, what do we do well, what are our values, and what do we need to do to continue being a leader in hospitality education. So we did hundreds of listening sessions, focus groups, surveys, lots of meetings, lots of emails to try to figure out where we’re gonna be going to create what we have as our new vision. David Cárdenas:So our new vision is creating global leaders who inspire unforgettable experiences. So we wanted to make sure that we portrayed that we are developing leaders. So we’re developing those people who are going to be developing that next sphere or the next amazing event, or, you know, the next mega event. And having that amazing experiences of what we do. And the pillars that we have that are under that foundation are s

The 2026 Hotel Equities Leadership Conference in Las Vegas was a tremendous success! The annual event was filled with thought leadership, networking, and insights with the best and the brightest in the industry.  The Suite Spot and Hotel Equities have partnered together to bring you Hotel Equities Part 2, in the latest Suite Spot episode, which contains three exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names at Hotel Equities. Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot. We hope you enjoyed episode one of our special edition Hotel Equities Leadership Conference 2026. This is episode two where we’re gonna sit down with Karen Mendez and David Rosenberg, who’s gonna talk to us about the exciting updates from the postcard, cabins and outdoor collection brand from Marriott. We talked to Bill Stachler about revenue optimization. And lastly, we sit down with Albert Smith, Chief Operating Officer at Hotel Equities. We hope you enjoy these interviews, out in Las Vegas. Ryan Embree: Hello Everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot. We are at the 2026 Hotel Equities Leadership Conference. I’m here with Karen Mendez, VP of Operations, and David Rosenberg, President of the Focus Services Division and Outdoor Collection. Karen, David, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot. Karen & David: Thank you for having us. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about this conference. First of all, nearly a thousand people are gonna be here on site. This is very, very exciting. Um, talk to us a little bit about what you’re kind of expecting for these next couple days, and then we can get into your role a little bit. Karen, we’ll start with you. Karen Mendez: Oh, great. Thank you. Um, this is really exciting for me. Uh, as I mentioned earlier, this is, I’ve been in the hotel industry 26, 27 years. I’ve been to a ton of conferences, and what I’m most excited about this one is bringing the postcard general managers. They have never had an opportunity to get together like this and really talk about their business. So I’m just excited for them to build off the energy and to meet everybody within hotel equities face to face, and really just know that what they do matter. Ryan Embree: David, what are you excited about for the next couple days here at that leadership conference? David Rosenberg: I appreciate that. So our theme this year is Transforming Together and 2025 was an incredible year with the additional postcard, cabins, springboard, hospitality, our continued organic growth, not only in the US Canada, but as now we have presences in the Caribbean and Latin America. And to come together the one time a year where we get to bring an entire leadership team. It’s just inspiring to connect, learn from each other and share this time together. Ryan Embree: So cool. And so it’s just a testament to the comprehensive nature of hotel equities portfolio. I think, you know, one of those spaces, obviously postcard cabins and the, the, um, outdoor collection that we’re gonna talk about. Karen, you want to talk to us a little bit about your role and, um, what it, you know, how it kind of correlates with the outdoor collection? Karen Mendez: Sure, my pleasure. Um, we started working with postcard cabins last year, um, in January with a specific goal of bringing that brand and launching it into the Marriott ethos. So the past year, my job has been molding the two cultures, all the systems, the general managers onboarding, and getting this team ready for Marriott and getting Marriot ready for outdoors. Um, it’s been a really exciting journey, a lot of learnings and yeah, now we’re, we’re a year, a little bit over a year full into it, about six months, uh, launched on outdoor collection and really just excited to continue to see this brand grow and scale and, and see what we can do. Ryan Embree: What an accomplishment. And congratulations seeing your team. David, what about you? David Rosenberg: From my perspective, this is new territory, right? Um, it’s a segment of the business that really, uh, was born through COVID as people looked for different types of, uh, experiences. And what we found is it’s sustainable and, uh, it allows a segment of the traveler to enjoy something different than a brick and mortar hotel experience. Uh, what we’ve also found is this is a great opportunity for a drive-in market. So most postcard cabins are within an hour and a half, two hour drive of major cities, major destinations, and it, and it’s experiential and it allows people to enjoy nature in a way of what’s important to them. So it’s a drive in trip, it’s flexible, and it’s not camping, it’s not glamping. It’s a little bit of a combination of both. And we have found that customers really enjoy this experience. Ryan Embree: I wanna drill into that because I wanna get your opinion on why you think, David, that has such staying power as a model and how it’s not just one of those, uh, you know, fads that kind of pass by hospitality. This has some real staying power here. So much so that Marriott has, you know, has going all in, so to speak, with the outdoor collection. David Rosenberg: So with Marriot’s launch of outdoor collection, they also see this opportunity to scale this business, and specifically for 25 to the 45, uh, demographic, um, that really, that have really morphed into this hybrid work environment and allowing them the flexibility to, uh, extend weekends. So these cabins have wifi and they have things that, uh, they’re not typically for a business traveler, but it allows, uh, the flexibility for someone they want to be online or if the opportunity to completely unplugged Yeah. Uh, and get away from their day-to-day life. And we’re also finding that it’s a short-term booking, that it’s, it’s, it’s just so instinctual that it’s not a trip that’s planned months out. In fact, we find that most customers of booking these cabins, uh, three to seven days out, and, uh, and again, the feedback we have received from customers through Marriott surveys, through online, uh, reputation management, um, is just outstanding. Ryan Embree: No, I love, I love to hear that. And Karen, you know, on the operations side, I mean, as David mentioned, it’s very different type of experience out there. How do you kind of ensure, uh, guest satisfaction and make sure that, you know, the travelers that are are getting there, obviously getting the experience they want, um, but also with the level of service that they expect? Karen Mendez: Yeah, you know, it brought a unique challenge. Um, postcard cabin is a hundred percent contactless. So our entire guest journey, we do not have a front desk. There’s not a main lobby. Everything. The tone has to be set through a text message, um, from the day that you arrive. And how do you do that with a Bonvoy member? And how do you make that BONVOY member feel appreciated? And how do they find their cabin? It’s been an adventure, and what we’ve learned is that guests like the adventure. They like that little satisfaction that they get. Like, I kind of found this place on my own, and I had all the directions that I had, all the tools, and it really sets the tone correctly at the very beginning of the state to have that disconnection that David talked about. Um, and then it’s just making sure it’s really hotel basics, clean rooms and everything in working order, because there isn’t a front desk to go and talk to. And so having those hotel basics in there, it’s really molding the two of the outdoor and what, you know, what you expect a hotel. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. Fascinating to hear. And, uh, you’re right. I mean, it’s, it’s an experience unlike any other, but at the same time, that foundational piece still has to be intact there, uh, with the lo the unwavering loyalty that Marriott, uh, Bonvoy members obviously have for, for the brand. David, walk us through the postcard cabins model, you know, for maybe, uh, uh, someone that’s not too familiar and, and why it works operationally. David Rosenberg: Yeah. So there are 29 postcard cabins everywhere from the East coast, uh, up in the Catskills to the West coast in Big Bear in in California, and good, as Karen mentioned, the contactless journey. Um, when we first got involved, very different than a hotel playbook, and we were very, uh, focused, we were very specific on how do we make this work for this customer where not only they have a great experience, but being a new segment of the business. We need the customers to be the marketing engine to grow this business through their feedback and what they like. And what we have found really through Karen’s operational expertise and the platform she created and has now executed with the team that less is more and focusing on, uh, execution, reservation check in, checkout and services in between. The guest just wants to know they have what they need. Everything is prepared in advance for them and allow them to journey how they choose. Sure. And, uh, every story is different, but the common thread we hear is people love this journey. Um, these cabins are well appointed. Uh, the bedding is fantastic, the little kitchenette, there’s showers, all of ’em have fire pits and, and picnic tables. So the opportunity to really cook outside, over open wood campfire, but sleep under the stars with massive bay windows where you do not see another cabin from your cabin, but could just enjoy the sounds and sight of nature, allows people to relax and refresh and recharge. And again, the feedback has just been overwhelmingly positive. Ryan Embree: Well, to reiterate your point, I mea

Last week’s 2026 Hotel Equities Leadership Conference in Las Vegas was a tremendous success! The annual event was filled with thought leadership, networking, and insights with the best and the brightest in the industry.  Did you miss any of the panels, sessions, or key moments? Don’t worry!  The Suite Spot and Hotel Equities partnered together to bring you Hotel Equities Part 1, in the latest Suite Spot episode, which contains three exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names at Hotel Equities. Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here from the Sweet Spot for a very special episode where we head out to Las Vegas, Nevada for the 2026 Hotel Equities Leadership Conference. There we had the opportunity to sit down with several key team members from the hotel equities team. In this episode, we talk to Greg Osteen, chief Development Officer, who talks about the strategic growth of hotel equities and where they see opportunity. Becky Ley with commercial and strategy tips and trends that she’s seeing right now within the portfolio. And Maria Parla, who is focused on that Kala region, the Caribbean and Latin America, uh, region, which hotel equity has been growing is so excited about Can’t Wait to Bring It all to you in these next three episodes in our special Hotel equity episodes, part One. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Sweet Spot. This is the host Ryan Embry here at the RA Resort and Casino Las Vegas at the 2026 Hotel Equities Leadership Conference. I’m here with Greg Osteen, chief Development Officer. Greg, thank you so much for joining me here at the conference. Greg O’Stean: Thank you for having me. Ryan Embree: We just talked about it, almost 800 or almost a thousand attendees about to file through here. We’re right next to registration. Uh, this is your first Hotel Equities Leadership. Greg O’Stean: It is. Ryan Embree: What are you excited about? What do you hope to take away from these next couple days? Greg O’Stean: So, as you said, my first, I joined April of last year, so I just missed last year’s conference. Very excited about this one. Very excited to talk about all the things that have happened in the last year. More importantly, talk about where we’re going Sure. As we are transforming together and as we’re changing, you know, what is a great company today and making it even better. So I’m excited about that. I’m excited about meeting all the folks who make it happen every day. Yeah. Because most of the people coming here today are the leaders from our hotels, from the properties. It shouldn’t be a surprise to you there. At the headquarters where I work, there are no cash registers. Right. <laugh>, we, we, we don’t make any money at the headquarters. We spend money. Yeah. But, but the company lives and dies by what happens in the field. Yeah. And those people are here, and I’m excited about that. Ryan Embree: It’s so cool. And there’s something magical when you get those onsite property Yeah. People all together, because we’re gonna talk about it here in a second, but, uh, you start to hear patterns, trends Yeah. Things bubbling up that, you know, you have properties all over the country. We do. But it could be a property, you know, that shares that struggle across the country. That’s right. And then be able to discuss those issues and, and challenges that, uh, hospitality right now, you know, continues to phase, but also all the, all the great trends that are on the horizon. Greg O’Stean: A hundred percent. And we’re growing across Canada and Latin America as well, but just in the US. Each state is a little different. You talked about being from Texas, very different from Georgia, very different from California. But there are patterns across, yeah. Right. And so when someone from Oregon says to someone from Florida, uh, here’s what I’m experiencing. And they go, oh yeah. Have you considered this? Or, here’s what we’re doing. Or, here’s a new tool, or, here’s what I tried. Sure. Right. And you take the best of the best and share those best practices. That’s, that’s what makes a company great. That’s what makes a team great. Otherwise, we’re just a collection of individuals sitting out at properties with no real vision and no real teamwork. Yeah. Ryan Embree: Well, absolutely. And again, it’s, it’s, it’s times like this, places like this that, that make that special happen. Now, Greg, you said you’ve been here, uh, you know, just less than a year coming up on a year. Um, tell us about, you know, obviously, uh, chief Development Officer always looking for new opportunities for the business. But tell, talk to us a little bit about your role, um, with, within Ho Hotel equities. Greg O’Stean: So, so my role is really the, it’s the intersection of the type of owners that we want to have, but people that actually own the hotels that we manage. Uh, because today we have largely one type of owner profile, and there’s really five or six out there, more institutional owners, more private equity groups, more family offices. Each owner profile has a different, you know, different, uh, goals, different hold periods, different things that they’re looking for. And so we wanna diversify our owner base. We also want to diversify our geographic base. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Grow into markets where we’re not. Um, we want to expand in the markets where we are. ’cause there’s synergies with that. But we also want to change. Really, if you look at where we are today, there’s a, we’re a company that consists largely of smaller hotels. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. A lot of select service hotels. Sure. Lot of independent hotels today. Now, because of the Springboard acquisition, um, and some larger, you know, 200, 250 keys, we’re gonna move that average up. We’re gonna give more full service hotels. We’re gonna give more luxury, more resorts. Not to abandon what built us, but to just diversify and have more to, to grow, not just for the sake of growth Yeah. But to grow strategically. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I was really looking for this conversation because I think you have some really unique insights we talked about, about the insights that you can glean from when you get a bunch of hotels together, but also when you’re talking to owners and investors constantly, I think some common trends and themes also start to percolate a little bit. They do. And you get to have to, you have the, the firsthand experience of being able to see those and hear those stories and insights from multiple people. What are you hearing right now when it comes to owners, investors, and, and a climate right now that it, again, it’s a little challenging right now. Greg O’Stean: It’s a challenging environment, no doubt. And that’s what we hear from the owners, right? It’s, you know, with labor costs going up, materials costs going up, inflation, but your top line is really not growing. Top line is flat at best, right? Yeah. So your margins are shrinking. Sure. So, and, and a lot of investment is reconsidering whether or not they still wanna be invested in hotels. Right. Because your typical institutional investor or real estate investor doesn’t have to invest in hotels that can choose, you know, to invest in a data center or multifamily or whatever. Yeah. So a lot of them were questioning like, well, what do I do now? Like in the past I could buy or sell or refi. It’s hard to do all of those right now. So the next best thing you can do, or the best thing you can do in a challenging environment is revisit your relationship with your manager. Right. If, if you can’t sell it for the price that you want and you can’t refinance it for the, for the proceeds that you need, and you can’t change the flag, because most of the time it’s a long-term agreement. Right. Then what can you do to make a difference? Reconsider your relationship with your manager. Yeah. And that’s the opportunity for us. Ryan Embree: No, absolutely. And, and especially with a portfolio, the size of yours, the sheer experience Yeah. That the organization has and the history that it hangs its hat on. Um, you know, what, what have any of these conversations kind of influenced the opportunities that you’re choosing to pursue? And I think all as equally important not to pursue right now. Greg O’Stean: Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t do. Ryan Embree: I’ve heard that before. Greg O’Stean: Yeah. And I learned something at my last, well, two companies ago, um, and this was actually a client who told us this bigger is not better, better is better. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Right? And there’s a lesson in there just growing for the sake of growth, just to be bigger, just to be the fastest growing. We don’t want that. That’s, that’s not what we’re about. We’re talking about strategically growing, which means the right owners, the right markets, the right types of hotels, uh, and, and really aligning our vision with the owner’s vision. Right. Why, why are they hiring us and making sure we’ve got the right relationship. It’s hard to turn deals down, but sometimes again, the best deals are the ones you don’t do sometimes. Ryan Embree: Yeah. I, I, I love that. And, and strategic growth, what you’re talking about. How do you, uh, you know, without giving any maybe secrets away of, of the trade, like what, what do those conversations sound like to differentiate hotel equities? Um, because it feels like, along with, uh, obviously a new brand popping up, there’s also another ho hotel management company around the corner. Greg O’Stean: Yeah. Everybody, when we talk to them, everybody wants to know wha

The inaugural episode of the Suite Spot: Social Success Series is here!  Join first time host and Brand Ambassador at Travel Media Group, Cassady Quintana as she sits down with special guest, Aislynn Roberts, the TMG Enterprise Client Success Manager, as they discuss the latest and greatest social media trends and landscape for hotels.  This first installment of the series is the beginning of a new age for the podcast and we hope you enjoy the discussion between two social media gurus on how hotels and property management groups can not only optimize their social media presence but also how they can see the greatest return on their social media investment. Cassady Quintana: Hello everyone and welcome to our very first episode of the Social Success Podcast, A Suite Spot podcast powered by Travel Media Group. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana, Brand Ambassador here at Travel Media Group. Super excited to finally kick off this podcast. You know, the reason we decided to start this was because of the success of our social success webinar series that we did last year and we’re still doing to this day. But I was hearing a lot of feedback from people that were watching and there’s a lot of opinions and hot takes about hotel, social media, but not nearly enough conversations with people that are actually in the thick of it working in hotel social media. So I thought, what better way to have Aislynn Roberts, our Enterprise Client Success Manager here at Travel Media Group as our first guest, she is working with partners and talking about these topics every day. So Aislynn thank you for joining me. Aislynn Roberts: Thank you for having me. Cassady Quintana: So kind of before we get into social media, I want people to know what your role is like. So just walk us through kind of what your day-to-day looks like. Aislynn Roberts: Yeah, of course. So as the enterprise Client Success Manager, I have a unique opportunity to work not only with individual property owners, but I also work with brand team execs and the C-Suite for hotel management groups as well. So it’s a very interesting role in which you are talking to these executive teams a lot around overall portfolio trends. What you’re seeing across the board industry, news updates, especially if you consider meta, how many times they’re updating. Making sure that they’re in the know of what’s happening, but also giving them trend analysis for their portfolio. What’s working well, the performance, what we’re seeing across the board versus when you’re talking to individual properties, it’s very much focused, right? What their individual goals are, what they’re trying to achieve, and, and really honing in on what works well for them. And social media content wise. The conversation becomes very much focused into their amenities, what their guests are, what type of audience they’re looking for, versus what the C-suite and brand. It’s overarching, right? Like how can you continue to capitalize this across the board? Cassady Quintana: Yeah, I totally agree. And so when you’re having these conversations, what are some of the biggest concerns or reservations that you’re hearing the most from these people you’re speaking with? Aislynn Roberts: Yeah, it can differ across the board. Most of the time it really depends on each individual’s comfort level, which surprisingly matches throughout the executive team. So whether you’re individual property level as you go up, dependent on your personal use, your personal comfort with social media, your conversations could be the same or it could be vastly different. If you’re talking to a director of marketing or VP of marketing who’s eats lives and breathes social media. So, those conversations shape a little bit different, but there is a lot of fear of not knowing what to do, right? Not understanding how it works, fear of doing something wrong, or needing to be a hundred percent professional and completely photogenic and photographed and all this stuff. And like, and that’s not necessarily what social media is about. So, and then for the individual property level too, you go into time consuming, right? So they’re already in their day-to-day dealing with guest requests, having to follow up with groups that are coming through, dealing with fires that they have to put out sometimes literally that are going on at the property level. So to them, like giving them an extra task of having to think about how to create content can be very much like, whoa, like I don’t want anything to do with it. Or hard for them to wrap around their head and they just get added stress to their normal day. Cassady Quintana: And I feel like once you have, all that stress of social media, it’s easier to just put it on the back burner. Because like you said, their day-to-day is dealing with actual guests, you know, they were hired to deal with guests and do things at the property and social media is usually put to the back because it’s like, I can’t even think about that right now. So obviously you’re having these conversations, you’re educating them of the importance. Have you seen that shift with leadership and and how seriously are they taking social media now? Aislynn Roberts: Absolutely. So definitely among the brand teams and the C-Suite, when you, when you talk to them, the seriousness of social media’s definitely shifted. They understand it’s important. They know the role it’s playing in the traveler’s journey and how people are using it to make a booking decision. Especially when you’re considering the younger generation who grew up on social media. So it’s a definitely different market at the individual property level. You do still have some, but some are still a little bit slow to the take in understanding it because they themselves don’t use it or they’re only using it to communicate with their friends and family. So they’re not using it as a way to plan their trips, but when you get down to it and show them how it’s using, or you talk about booking dot com’s update where that’s now through Instagram, it opens up the eyes a little bit more, but the C-suite and brand teams definitely understand it. And that’s why you’re seeing more and more brand initiatives come out regarding social media. And it’s the hotels and themselves are almost like at a scrambling trying to figure out how are we gonna meet these brand standards, make sure we’re reaching to it because they’re still a little bit scared of how to move forward. Cassady Quintana: Well, it’s a lot. And I don’t blame them for being scared because you know, me and you look at these social media trends all the time and every week there’s something new coming out. So I can’t imagine working in a hotel and then having to stay up to date with all this. And then on top of that, your brand is sending you these requirements. It can be a lot. So kind of when they get past that hesitation and maybe they understand it a little bit more, what’s really exciting to them on social media? Aislynn Roberts: Yeah, so sometimes it takes several conversations. It’s not like an overnight switch of the mind where they start to see this. So I think what I’ve learned working, especially with brand teams and C-Suite, is that they generally have two departments for everything, or not several departments for everything. They have an operations team, they have a revenue team, they have sales and marketing. So sometimes those teams don’t necessarily communicate with all the trends that they’re seeing across the board. So if your operations team handles your reputation and your online reviews, they’re not necessarily communicating the feedback and trends that they’re seeing that way into like the sales team, right? Sales teams know what they’re targeting, they know what their budget is, they know what type of groups they’re trying to reach to bring in business into the hotels. But necessarily that’s not portrayed across the board. And what I’ve learned is that when you relate the guest feedback into turning it into an easy social media content strategy, they start to see that connection. So oftentimes, especially at the property level, when I’m talking to individual GMs and they’re weary and they don’t know how to get started, I leverage their guest reviews. So, you know, your really positive feedback that highlights everything great about your hotel, the amenities your guest really love, that’s an easy property feature post for sure. You know, write something about your shuttle or your complimentary breakfast or whatever the great thing that keeps being highlighted. If you are seeing some gaps, service gaps, whether it’s concerns about a specific policy or you had a shuttle but you don’t know where to find it in those reviews, that’s a great opportunity to do an info share an update on social media where you’re sharing, Hey, this is your pickup location for your shuttle, or these are the times. I’d say a really great example is parking. We get a lot of reviews that mention parking. Sometimes it’s about, oh, the garage is confusing. I don’t know where to find the garage. Especially if you’re in a downtown market. A simple video of just driving down the street, showing where the entrance to your parking garage is, could do a lot as far as like educating and having that transparency to perspective guests. Cassady Quintana: I think it’s interesting ’cause you mentioned earlier about these hoteliers wanting to be perfect on social media, feeling like they have to have the right shot. They, they don’t have a professional camera, but like you said, social media, it can be super easy. Take the, take the video of driving to the garage or take a video of your breakfast spread or show a sunset outside your pool with your iPhone. We have some of the most amazing cameras on our iPhone, and it doesn’t have to be rocket science. Social media is all about authenticity, which we’ll, we’ll touch on a little bit. So kind of where are you seeing from your p

The 2026 Hunter Conference takes place on March 16-28, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Signia by Hilton. Tune in to the preview episode as hoteliers and hospitality professionals prepare for the cornerstone industry event.  Special Guest, Madison Thibodeaux, Senior Manager, Events & Partnerships at Hunter Advisors, joins the Suite Spot to share insights and behind-the-scenes details about what conference attendees can look forward to from speakers, panels, themes, F&B, and much more. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree here, a familiar episode, if you can believe it. I’ve got a jacket on because it is absolutely frigid outside, but we’re thawing out. We’re getting ready for conference season and covering some of the biggest hospitality events of the season with the first one being the Hunter Conference. And I am here with, even though this is the Suite Spot’s, third time attending the conference, we have a first time guest, which I’m really, really happy to bring in. Maddie Thibodeaux Senior Manager, Events and Partnerships at Hunter Advisors and Conference. Maddie, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot. Madison Thibodeaux: Thank you for having me, Ryan. I’m really excited to be here. Ryan Embree: We are going to have a constant theme throughout this episode of a lot of the things you love about Hunter, but a lot of new things on the horizon as well, which I’m sure you and your team have been extremely busy. We can’t wait. Hoteliers can’t wait. Sponsors can’t wait. This is gonna be one for the books, but before we get into all that, Maddie, we have kind of a tradition here on the Suite Spot, especially for our first time Suite Spot guest. Tell us a little bit about your background in the industry and the journey that led you to Hunter Advisors and Conference. Madison Thibodeaux: Yeah, I would love to talk about that. So my journey almost pretty much started at Hunter, which I know you’ve had Sarah as a guest on your podcast as well, and I’m sure she has a little bit of a similar story. But I was a student at Georgia State University, the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality. I am one of the odd people that when I got to college, I already knew that I wanted to be in the hospitality industry, which I think is a rare story that you hear. Most people typically fall into it. But I went into school knowing that I wanted to be in event management. I wanted to plan events. And so throughout college I had a few different internships in hospitality. So I got some experience in the different sectors of hospitality. I worked with a catering company. I worked at a hotel in Cape Cod one summer, which was a lot of fun. Got some operational experience in hotels with the front desk and housekeeping. And then my junior year of college, Dr. Debbie Cannon at the School of Hospitality made me aware of the internship that was open at Hunter for their conference intern. And so I applied for the role, got it, accepted it. I worked for Hunter my junior and senior year. Got a lot of hands-on experience planning the event as the intern. And something that Hunter does really amazingly is they really give anyone on their team, even if you’re an intern, a platform and a seat at the table to where you can really innovate with them and present your ideas. And some of them you can see like actually come to life. And so I had a lot of great mentors at Hunter who really, you know, prepared me as a student with my professional development. And so had a great time with Hunter once I graduated from Atlanta, moved out to Chicago and started working in the trade show side of things for an exhibitor services company called GES and got a little bit more trade show experience so that I could come back to Hunter and, you know, give a little bit of insight into other events going on in the world, even outside of the hospitality industry, and kind of bring that knowledge back to the team. And so just recently this past summer, I joined the Hunter team in this new role and it’s been really exciting and really happy to be here. And I got a taste of the corporate world, but really ultimately I was missing the family feeling of Hunter. And so they welcomed me back with open arms and now I’m back with the Hunter family. Ryan Embree: It’s such a cool boomerang story to hear. And you know, something we hear a lot about in hospitality, unlikely path, like you said, a lot of people don’t go get into hospitality and that’s something we’re trying to change here on the Suite Spot. We obviously have our hospitality campus call, which teaser we’re gonna talk about here in a little bit. But to get more people to think about career or careers in hospitality as more than just maybe a summer job and what exposure that must have been for you as a student. And I ran into actually the dean at FIU’s Chaplain School of Hospitality, Dr. Chang at Hunter last year. And he was telling me about all the students and the involvement as a hospitality student myself, back when I graduated all those years ago. This is the type of exposure that can really open your eyes to show the hospitality is more than operations. It can be anything, events, F&B, there’s so many different sides and unique spaces in hospitality. And getting that exposure I’m sure was, was really cool. And now you get to be the person to expose other students to that. So that’s really cool. So give us kind of our Suite Spot audience, a little bit of a behind the scenes look at your role over there at Hunter Advisors and the role that it plays in the Hunter Conference. Madison Thibodeaux: Yeah, so I love my role. I feel like I’m really lucky to be in this position because my job is really just talking to people, building relationships, working with our partners and really being that advocate for them. They tell us what they need, like why they’re attending Hunter, what their goals are in attending Hunter. And it’s my job for us to really give them that platform and that space to do business and have a positive experience at Hunter. So I’m really lucky to be in this role on a personal-professional development aspect level of everything. I get to meet so many people in the industry, hear about their roles and what they do, and really use that to shape who I am. You know, like how can I be doing a better job in my role? And so I feel like I’m in a really lucky space where my job is really just talking to people and making friends. Who doesn’t who doesn’t love that, right? Ryan Embree: But you be, you bring up an important point because you know, at the top of the episode I mentioned it, I mean this for a lot of people. I tell people all the time, you know exactly when the Hunter Conference is happening because it literally feels like it shuts down LinkedIn in the hotel space and everyone is there, Who’s anyone, and what you said, Maddie, everyone comes for different reasons. We’ve seen brand launches, we’ve seen acquisitions in mergers that happen between management companies. We say it all the time, but as much as a few years ago we had to go virtual, the event space now is more important than ever. And that’s why, deals get done in these places. Owners, brands, management companies, general managers, even all the way down to hospitality students can glean and learn so much from this event. And that’s why we are so proud to be headed there back again for the third consecutive time. But as we mentioned, a lot of new things including its location now, funny enough, last year, quick story, we were at the Hunter Conference covering it as we do, and the morning of the second day we were actually at the Signia by Hilton Atlanta doing our spotlight series. So we were actually spotlighting the property, talking to some management over there, while it was at the same time being announced that Hunter would be moving locations to that. So just some, some really cool, kind of like fortune there. But what are you most excited about of this new location and what can attendees expect from being hosted here? Madison Thibodeaux: So as you know, from your Spotlight series, yeah, it’s a brand new development. I think it’s been open, gorgeous for three years or so, and there’s so, it’s so modern. It’s very refreshing. There’s so much natural sunlight, which when you’re attending these conferences and with my trade show background being in convention centers and you’re in there all day, you’re like, what, what time is it? Is it still light outside? Is it dark? You don’t really get that feeling here. It’s very airy and refreshing. And I think the layout of it for our event too, it’s really, it’s an easy flow. Things are just kind of stacked on top of each other and it’s really easy to get from point A to point B. So there’s been a lot of opportunity over there for us. And then where Signia is located in downtown Atlanta, it’s right next to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the State Farm arena. And being close to those places really opens up a lot of doors for us as well. And we’re excited for our attendees to, explore that side of Atlanta a little more too. The Monday night of our event, there is a Hawks game, and the Hawks have already partnered with us and they’re offering discounted tickets for attendees. And so there’s a lot of new and exciting things attendees can explore within the Signia and also around the Signia in Atlanta while they’re there for Hunter. Ryan Embree: It’s so cool, Maddie, because you’re absolutely right with it being a new build Signia property, they built that for event space. They knew exactly what they were doing the natural lighting, even the stories behind, you know, if you’re an attendee or hotelier that plans to attend Hunter. And please do find out all you can about some of the names and the stories behind some of

Tune in to the very first Suite Spot episode of 2026 as special guest and Director of Product – Respond & Resolve™, Jackie Avery, features the Top 5 Guest Sentiment Tags of 2025 and what the key findings of these tags mean not only to hoteliers but the industry as a whole as we kick off travel in the new year. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. Happy New Year as your host. As always, Ryan Embree here with another one of our favorite annual traditions. A great way to start off and kick off the year here with Jackie Avery, Director of Product for our Respond and Resolve™ review response solution for hotels. Jackie, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Jackie Avery: Thanks. It’s so great to be here. I look forward to doing this every year, so I’m happy we’re back at it. Ryan Embree: Yes, again, it’s an annual tradition. It’s a benchmark for the beginning of the year. It’s actually one of our most viewed and listened to episodes of the year, and I think it’s because hoteliers really want to get a sense of what’s going on over the course of the calendar year when it comes to reviews. To set this up off the top, we are looking at reputation, sentiment, data, the data within online guest reviews, that Travel Media Group actually pulls, and a lot of these reviews you and your team are responding to. Jackie Avery: Yeah. It’s exciting. So if it’s your first time here, welcome. And if you have been watching us the past few years, welcome back. We’re excited to kind of talk through, some of the data that we kind of went through. So to put it under perspective, we’re looking at information analyzed from over 45 million sentiment mentions. Ryan Embree: That’s an incredible number. The popularity and importance of guest feedback and reputation right. Now, I know we talk a lot on this podcast about AI technology. We’re always trying to see what’s next, but there’s no replacement for word of mouth. Right? And whether that’s physically telling someone about your experience or sharing that, what we’re talking about today, sharing that online with guest feedback and reviews, you can take away so much from that. And hoteliers, travelers obviously are looking at sentiment data, trying to figure out whether they should choose the one hotel versus another hotel. Hoteliers are looking at this data, digesting it, and trying to figure out how to improve on the guest experience. But what we’re doing today is trying to find the top five sentiments. Talk about some themes. What does this mean when these types of sentiments are found in your guest feedback? Are there things you can make operationally changes? Is it training at the hotel? Is it capital investment? Sometime some of it, like location, which we’re gonna talk about unavoidable, right? You can’t just pick up your hotel and move it. So really interested to see the list. We always start from the bottom of the list and work our way up. So kick us off with number five. Jackie Avery: Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, it’s so powerful to spend that moment reflecting. Yeah. Sometimes it’s just taking the information and putting it into this bite sized way for you to process it. So hopefully everyone finds it pretty easy to kinda, you know, come along this journey with us. So, number five, it had over 3 million sentiment mentions, right? So that’s a lot of people talking about it. And we’re talking about facility amenities. Now, some people are listening and they’re going, well, I don’t have a pool, so of course I, that didn’t get a mention for me, or, I do have a pool. Of course they mentioned that, but stay with me on that. That’s actually its own category. So here we are talking about the lobby, the hallways, seating areas, elevators, luggage carts, right? So now think about, put that into perspective. More people can really relate. So I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m come, coming to a hotel, right, I’ve had a long travel day. I’m a little tired. I am, you know, feeling antsy. I just wanna get there. But when I get outta my car or I get to walk in, I’m feeling that excitement. I’m ready for my trip to start no matter what I’m doing. I’m like, here we go. So then you’re taking that all in. Of course, travelers are mention mentioning this, right? You have those first impressions of a hotel, it gives you pause. So sometimes things that you feel as a hotelier or as someone who works at, at a property, maybe you just brush past ’em. It doesn’t mean a lot to you. It’s no big deal. Sure. You’re maybe not sure why somebody positively mentioned it or negatively mentioned it, but I wanna put you into the shoes of a traveler who’s just arrived. They’re finally at their destination and they’re ready to start their stay. Look at your hotel through a fresh lens. Was the hallway welcoming? Was it kind of dark? Did the elevator come right away? Were there any luggage carts available? Right? Did it excite you to see somewhere that maybe you might meet your friends down in the lobby and you guys might hang out there before you headed out later. So all of those things I challenge you to now kind of view your facility amenities from that first time arrival guest perspective. Ryan Embree: Yeah, that’s a great point Jackie. And, you know, I started my career in hospitality as a Bellman, so, it was very easy to kind of take all of that for granted seeing that lobby. But you’re right, these travelers are more than likely seeing it for the first time. You know, one thing I’ll also say is the way that we use the facility amenities has really evolved the way that we’re building new hotels right now. Especially the work from home or work from anywhere type of traveler, that could be their office space for the entirety of their trip. So they’re looking at your lobby, they’re looking at your public space and amenities a little bit different than historically they might have done. And again, the brands, development companies, they are building for this type of traveler. So not surprising to see that category tag fall into the top five. Let’s move on to number four. Jackie Avery: Yeah, absolutely. So, kind of shifting down this year, number four is gonna be location. So, as you mentioned, I think a lot of people feel trapped when they hear this sentiment being mentioned. Like, well, I can’t move my hotel, but actually you have a lot of power here. You can control what you’re saying about your property. And guests are mentioning your location in reviews positively, negatively, but it’s being brought up, right? Uh, so when I think about that, I think about when I’m traveling with my kids, I’ve got two young kiddos. Location is so important for me, not necessarily is it just right near the main attraction I wanna attend, or, you know, is it close to the place I’m going? But I’m looking at, are people mentioning it’s near a grocery store? Is it near a pharmacy? Is it near everything that I need or that I may need when I’m traveling with young kids? If it’s not, that’s fine, as long as I knew that. Because then I’m gonna pack, right? I’m gonna prepare for everything I might need. There’s a big mental load with that. So you can ease traveler stress and turn even just maybe what isn’t this amazing location into a positive tag if people felt like they knew what to expect with it. Ryan Embree: Yeah. I think that’s a huge part of it, is setting expectations for location. If you claim on social media or your website, that you’re close to the airport and you’re 40 minutes away from the airport, that might not be close proximity to some travelers versus another. So you’re right, the location is really based on the expectation of the traveler and what’s convenient to them. You really want to put in perspective to that traveler. If you look at, everybody has Google Maps, right? And, and has used that app for if you have your hotel and nothing else around you in the traveler’s eyes, you really have kind of failed them as far as showing them or giving them an expectation of what that location looks like. You want that thing to be filled with dots. You want them to know exactly where your restaurants are in comparison to your hotel. If there’s an airport, attractions, as you mentioned, even things like grocery store, pharmacies, minute clinics. I mean, you know, you never know, especially with, with people with families or children or pets that they might be traveling with. These are very, very important places to your traveler that that could make the difference between a good experience and a bad location. Jackie Avery: And I think sometimes we come in with our own feelings about, well, we have a good location, or we don’t, but think of all the people traveling. All the people staying at your hotel, you don’t necessarily know exactly what they’re looking for. You might think that your location is are just fine, but actually it’s exactly what they want. Ryan Embree: And a great place, again, as respond and resolve™, a great place to really put that location in perspective is your review responses, right? Jackie Avery: Absolutely. Someone praises your location or they express dissatisfaction. That is exactly where you get to share the details. And people reading those review responses feel informed and they trust you. And now they are excited for their trip. They feel even more prepared, they don’t feel stressed, and they’re ready to get going. And, you know, those positive sentiment tags are gonna come your way. Ryan Embree: Yeah. So important. You know, whether it’s travel media group responding your reviews, or even a team member the property. Have them really paint a clear picture for your traveler of where they’re at location wise. ’cause obviously this being the number four tag, it’s very, very important to travelers. Moving on to number three

Tune in to the final Suite Spot episode of 2025 with our annual Year in Review retrospective episode with Travel Media Group President, Dana Singer. Learn about the highlights that took place this year for the organization and what our hotel partners and Suite Spot audience can look forward to as we prepare for 2026. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot for an annual tradition. One of my favorite episodes. We were talking about this off camera, about how many years in a row it’s been that we’ve done this, but it’s such a cool time, obviously, end of the year, beginning of a new year, such a time for reflection. And, you know, looking into the future and with me today is a very familiar guest president at Travel Media Group, Dana Singer. Dana, thank you so much for joining me back on the Suite Spot. Dana Singer: Absolutely. Good morning, Ryan. Ryan Embree: From the comfy confines of our TMG headquarters and Maitland. So grateful for you having the opportunity to join me on the sweet spot too. You know, look at TMG year in review. We do this every single year. Dana 2025 has been an exciting year. It’s been a year of innovation, productivity success, obviously on the Travel Media Group side, but more importantly for our hospitality partners. And I’d like to start by just kind of reflecting on this past year and sharing how TMG has grown as a company, but also how those efforts have made meaningful contributions to our hotel partners. Dana Singer: Yeah, sure. 2025 has definitely been a successful year for Travel Media Group. We celebrated a number of milestones, but most importantly, as you just said, you know, for our hotel partners that we collaborate with and support every single day, it’s been really exciting to see their growth. One of the most significant markers of our progress this year has been the expansion of our teams. Increasing the depth of new talent across multiple departments has strengthened our ability to deliver the level of service our partners rely on. And it’s been inspiring to see fresh perspectives join our longstanding expertise. Everyone’s working together towards the same mission. It’s all about delivering industry leading solutions and an outstanding client experience every step of the way. Internally, our goal is to anticipate the industry’s needs, and based on that, we’ve developed new solutions. We refined our existing services, and we’ve continued to advance our technology. Every innovation has centered on the question, how can we empower our partners to achieve their goals? And our commitment has always been to help hoteliers succeed. And we achieve this by innovating without compromise. And in 2025, I believe we’ve done so in more meaningful ways than ever. Dana Singer: It’s so cool to see and to, quite frankly, to be a part of, to see the success of our hotel partners, new partners coming on board, um, along with new team members here at TMG, helping our partners, succeed and achieve those milestones and goals. Because I’ve had several guests on this podcast talk about the guest expectations and how not only are they rising, but they’re becoming more complex, especially with the integration of technology, it’s becoming faster than ever. The pace and acceleration of these guest expectations. And the same applies to, you know, our hotel partners. How has TMG kind of maintained to stay one step ahead and really positioned itself as the leader as we try to enhance the guest experience in our services at TMG? Dana Singer: Yeah, I mean, exceeding guest expectations is the foundation of success in hospitality. So it’s vital that we not only adapt, but we anticipate what hoteliers will need next. And this year, innovation has once again been at the center of our business strategies. You’re gonna hear me talk about that a lot, probably this morning. One of the most exciting recent advancements has been the launch of Smart Response. And this is our hybrid human AI review response solution, which has been added to our existing suite of response services. And what makes it unique is its incredibly advanced AI training that’s built on more than 2 million reviews that our in-house professional writers have personally crafted. And so that depth of expertise provides an unparalleled technology with nuance authenticity and hospitality care that hotels expect. Every response generated is overseen by our team of professional writers to ensure accuracy, empathy, and alignment in each property’s unique voice. You know, across the board, every team at TMG has been laser focused on elevating our services, refining workflows, and galvanizing our partnerships. We’re so committed to understanding our management company partners needs to ensure a positive guest experience while improving operational efficiency without compromising authenticity. So, you know, just seeing the real impact of these efforts is, is rewarding. I mean, I love hearing about the wins and watching our partners grow, and that’s what makes the work that we do so meaningful. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it really is, again, so cool to be, to be a part of those wins with our hotel partners. And I think at the foundation of a lot of the innovation and advancements to our solutions, Dana, have been conversations, meaningful conversations that we’ve had with our hotel partners, not just this year, but over the years. You know, whether that’s talking to, you know, we’ve covered a ton of hospitality events, from the Suite Spot standpoint and hosted some really industry leaders and professionals, thought leaders in hospitality. And from our educational webinars that what we host our brand, ambassador Cassidy hosts every single month. Where do you think that, or why do you think it’s important rather to kind of grow in these areas and how has it helped improve the business? Dana Singer: You know, as you mentioned, the best way to understand what hoteliers are facing day to day is to be in a position to really listen and understand their strategies. And it just doesn’t matter, you know, if that’s in person at an event or virtually, you know, these touch points allow us to deepen our understanding of how to develop our innovation roadmap to better serve their needs. And throughout 2025, if we look back, we’ve really doubled down on our commitment by attending major industry events as a press resource. This includes the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, NYU IHIF, the Independent Hotel Show, and the Hospitality Show. And next year, we’ll be adding even more. These interviews that we conduct at these events are an important facet in keeping the industry in tune with trends and leadership strategy. It’s just one small yet crucial part of what’s shaping the hospitality industry today. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it’s been, again, such a privilege to be able to talk to industry leaders, thought leaders, you know, across the country. You know, some of the team members at TMG have been able to speak on panels at some of these events and share their insights and what we’re learning from our hotel partners. That is the catalyst for meaningful change in hospitality because 2025, it’s been a challenging year for hotels. The industry is becoming more complex and a time, there’s almost, there’s only a finite time that a hotelier has to meanwhile their daily duties and responsibilities continue to grow. So being a resource for them, as you mentioned, Dana, on the education side, has been huge. And we’ve heard, and the feedback and engagement that we’re getting, people are craving that connection right now, especially in hospitality. It’s really, really inspiring to see and hear from, from our hoteliers. And again, 2025 big year for hospitality, big year for Travel Media Group. From your standpoint, Dana, how do you make sure as a leader, we’re continuing to make that impact that TMG’s known for? Dana Singer: Yeah, you know, 2025 has been very validating in terms of strengthening TMG’s position as a trusted leader and partner in the hospitality industry. And there are a number of notable highlights. We’ve worked diligently behind the scenes to develop robust partnerships with important industry platforms. This year we finalized our direct integrations with Booking.com and Expedia, and this enables us to build review response workflow efficiencies that are unparalleled in the hospitality industry. We’re also honored to lead the industry with a unique, scalable social media content creation solution that’s developed specifically for hospitality clients. We achieved several milestones with that solution, including surpassing 1 million custom-crafted social posts. And that’s especially important as today’s travelers increasingly rely on social media to make their booking decisions. We celebrated the eighth year of our Suite Spot podcast. We’ve now surpassed 190 episodes, and clearly we’re, we’re just getting started. The podcast features guests from a wide range of hotel brands and management companies, and this platform allows them to share their diverse perspectives with a global audience, with messages that resonate, across the industry. I could go on and on, but ultimately, the true measure of our impact comes from the feedback that we receive, whether it’s from our partners, listeners, or other industry professionals. It’s clear that our initiatives are making a difference, and that motivates us to keep innovating and raising the bar. Ryan Embree: Again, I’ll circle back to just being such a privilege to work in hospitality. You can feel the passion of the hoteliers that we work with, that I speak to on the podcast and conversations that we have across the country. It’s such a special industry that we work in that we get the privilege to work in every single day. And at the top of the episode, I mentioned this

As 2025 closes out, the Suite Spot wraps up with the latest inductee into the TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. CEO of Hotel Equities, Ben Rafter, joins the podcast to discuss all things hospitality and technology and how these two components come together to make the perfect guest experience for travelers. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree here with a very exciting, informative episode continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. This is our series where we are talking to those industry leaders and brands, management companies that are paving the way forward. I’ve got an absolutely amazing guest, I’m excited to speak with him today. Ben Rafter, CEO of Hotel Equities. Ben, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot. Ben Rafter: Thanks, Ryan. Looking forward to it. Ryan Embree: Yeah, we’re gonna have fun conversation, talk all about hotel equities, but on the Suite Spot we do a little tradition where instead of just doing your normal bio, I actually like handing it over to our guests to kind of talk through their hospitality journey. because sometimes you get a little bit more insights. Us hospitality people, we got mentors. We come from different brands, sometimes fall into hospitality, quite frankly. You know, talk to us, our Suite Spot hotel audience, a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you to your role as a CEO over at Hotel Equities. Ben Rafter: Sure, I fit into the fall into it category, without a doubt. I was a, uh, tech guy for better part of 15 years, mostly startups. Sold two of ’em and after selling, the second one was locked out of the industry for a year and got a phone call from a hotel guy. And he said, what are you doing? You want to come to Mount Everest with me? And just because nothing better to do for the next month. We packed up and headed over to Nepal and on about the third day he said to me, so what do you think of the hospitality industry and hotels? And it was dumb enough to open my mouth and give him my opinion that you needed to sort of fuse together larger than life hoteliers, which was his background and kind of quant tech data, guys like me. And over the next 20 days, we hashed out starting a hotel company literally on the side of a mountain, in this case. And after that ended, it was 2008, the market crashed. We had a new president. I flew to Hawaii and we started with four hotels in Hawaii. And it’s been nonstop ever since. So definitely not a traditional way to get into the industry. Ryan Embree: Yeah, yeah. You give new meaning to kind of climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak, when, when talking about that. But I think that’s what honestly makes hospitality so fascinating. Because yours, honestly, a lot of the majority of the guests we talked to Ben, hospitality was not their final destination, so to speak, what you were talking to. But I think it brings new perspective and obviously insights into an industry that, quite frankly, we’re gonna talk about it in a minute, but needs some more technology integration into hospitality right now. And to fast forward to today, obviously a strategic merger in May, 2025 with Springboard Hospitality. It’s been extremely busy second half of the year for you and your team, including a couple exciting announcements we’re gonna talk about in a second, Ben. But, you know, can you share some of the biggest kind of takeaways and lessons you’ve learned for the business, over this past six months? Maybe give us a state of the Hotel Equities as you would say. Ben Rafter: Yeah, absolutely. I mean one thing, coming from sort of independent and generally either gateway market or leisure focused. You learn how diverse some of these markets are and how much different it is running a courtyard or a Rest Inn or a Hampton in a suburb versus running a resort in the middle of Waikiki. And it’s been great kind of seeing both sides of the spectrum there. And then trying to figure out how initiatives or which initiatives work across the entire entity. And then which of ’em should be limited to $400 a night hotel or a select service hotel. And I gotta say, coming from the independent space where we’re all about content and drone shots and Instagram and social media and things like that, obviously walking into a suburban flagged select service hotel is a whole different, a whole different ball of wax, so to speak. So that part’s been great. We have great leaders in all of those divisions and it’s been great working with them. Ryan Embree: Yeah, I mean, just adds to the exposure, again, what you were talking about. And to add to that, right. You know, in October you were back on a panel discussing outdoor centric hotels at the lodging conference in Phoenix, we talk about the spectrum of from lifestyle, and now you’ve got this experiential glamping. This was the perfect topic for you and hotel equities, obviously through your management of postcard cabins, which is with Marriott’s new outdoor collection. Talk to us, how about how you guys are really capitalizing on this trend, experiential travel, that glamping that now even the big brands are trying to get into? Ben Rafter: Yeah, every, everybody’s trying to get into it. So we were on all of the postcard cabins, and that was kind of the feature point of Marriott’s launch of the outdoor, their outdoor segment. It’s one, it’s been great. It’s an area that’s growing two and a half, a little more than two and a half times faster than the regular hotel on the street. Now, of course, you break that down by segments it maybe two times and maybe three times. And it’s also so new for the brands that they’re trying to sort of get their arms around it. And because you, you just have to think when you’re staying in an outdoor experience, you’re not staying in a city. And when you search on Marriott or Hilton or Hyatt or whatever, the first thing you usually do is you type in New York City, you type in Seattle, you type in whatever. Well, if you’re gonna stay in the middle of the national forest where the nearest city is 2000 people and you don’t know what it’s called, like how do you even search for this kind of stuff? And then you combine that with staffing, where, the GM better have a pickup truck and be able to go to the nearest Piggly Wiggly or whatever to go find whatever’s needed because you may be an hour away from the nearest area to get the entity. There’s no Sysco truck driving by in the middle of the afternoon. And then high seasonality. And the big question I think for the industry is going to be how do you fill some of these things on a Wednesday afternoon in off season? Obviously we’re targeting groups in corporate and to make them kind of intimate experiences where 8, 10, 15, 20 people can get together. But it’s, it’s a totally different space. But the great thing is consumers are really interested in it because they’re interested in branching out from their traditional leisure stay, and now they can find this kind of stuff. Ryan Embree: I mean, listen, as someone who climbed Everest, right, I mean that is all about the experience. The destination and getting to that is part of the journey and part of the experience, which I think is why people love it. And they’re gonna do a lot of your marketing for you to be honest with you, between the storytelling that they’re doing on places like social media, now all of a sudden they’re telling your story and, and people are, are, are just really seeing this in a time where we’re gonna talk about in a minute, technology’s kind of taking over, but being like, Hey, maybe this is a nice little escape for me and, and something different that is going to be an experience. You know, we talk about that all the time. And a true experience. Ben Rafter: Yeah. And it doesn’t have to be outdoor travel. The great thing about this industry in general, and the way it’s evolving and I’m looking forward to talking more about technology, is that people want something more and more customized and more and more localized. It could be a food vacation, it could be outdoor travel, it could be adventure travel, which to me is a different category. And the way that we’re now interacting and searching for these experiences getting much more advanced and people can now find them. Versus before it was, I know I wanna stay outside, I’m gonna research some natural national parks, and where do I go from there? Right. And now it’s a wide open space. Ryan Embree: You wanna see how many segments our industry has gotten chopped up into go to any hospitality conference. And you’re talking about heritage, travel, food travel, like you’re talking about travel, that’s multi-generational travel, right? It used to just be business and leisure. Which one are you on now? There are so many different ways and priorities the way that people and travelers are looking at travel through a completely different lens than they did a decade ago. And I think a lot of that, to be honest with you happened. What happened in 2020. It’s interesting to see brands, management companies adapt to those and try to be at the forefront of that because it’s these emerging markets and trends are popping up and they’re becoming widely popular. Ben Rafter: Yeah, it got it, it was accelerated for sure. In 2020, I, there’s a comparison I like to make. Back, back when I was a kid and was learning how to ski, we had the little skinny narrow, super long skis. It was difficult. Snowboards came around and everyone complained about snowboards ’cause they carved up the moguls or whatever. I can’t remember what it was, but ultimately the snowboards made skiing better and the ski technology advanced to what we have today. And I look at the emergence of Airbnb or things like that, they’ve really pushed the traditional sort of

Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Newport Hospitality Group, Whitney Altizer, joins the Suite Spot in the latest episode of TMG Hospitality Trailblazers to give audiences a close look at what makes the Newport portfolio and brand unique in the hospitality industry and why social media is critical to a hotel’s success in the digital age. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Welcome to another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. I got a fantastic guest. We actually had an opportunity to meet with someone from the, the Newport Hospitality Group just a couple weeks ago at the Hospitality Show, but we got a brand new guest here with us today, senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, Whitney Altizer. Whitney, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot today with me. Whitney Altizer: Hey, Ryan, thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it. Ryan Embree: We’re gonna have a fun conversation today. A lot of exciting stuff and news about Newport Hospitality, but as tradition here on the Suite Spot, hospitality, as we know, is one of those things where people can come from all different places, brands, management companies, and unique journeys that led you to where you are. So let’s hear about yours, Whitney. Talk to us a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you to Chief Commercial Officer at Newport Hospitality Group. Whitney Altizer: Yeah. Well, I always joke that Newport raised me. You know, I went to Virginia Tech for business and hospitality, and then I moved to Atlanta and worked with Darden restaurants for a stint. You know, and I love the experience, but I just decided I needed a new perspective on food and beverage and the industry in general. So I ended up back in Blacksburg at a full service Holiday Inn that Newport actually owned and managed at the time. So 22 years ago, I walked into that Holiday Inn as a director of catering and sales, worked there on property, and then, moved up to the corporate director of sales, a corporate revenue manager. Then I was the director of Revenue and Digital. Then came along the Vice President of Comms Stratt, which catapulted me to where I am today which is the Chief Commercial Officer. Ryan Embree: Your story is a genuine reflection of our industry, of how many facets there are to hospitality, from everything from food and beverage to sales, to all the positions that you, that you held in, in between. You know, it’s one of the reasons a lot of people love hospitality is because you can really do anything within it, right? It’s almost its own ecosystem within our industry, and it’s really cool to see, and I’m sure that was, you had some incredible experience, which lends you to where you are right now and knowing different people’s positions. That’s what we hear is sometimes the most successful hospitality people are the ones that got exposure to those different aspects of hospitality and kind of use that in their experience today. Some of those, hospitality professionals maybe even had to, you know, during that, that 2020 era had to get into some of those departments that they hadn’t done in a minute, and certainly shared some experience there. But, we won’t talk about that time, but doing some research for this episode, I wanna talk about Newport Hospitality and their story. Right? I always find it so fascinating when we talk about to these management companies and brands about how they first got into hospitality and fun little facts. That the origin story really dates back all the way to the 1850s. It goes back way, way far. Could you give a little background on the early days, maybe not take us that far, but a little bit early days of Newport Hospitality and how it’s led to the amazing growth that you guys are experiencing right now in 2025? Whitney Altizer: Yeah. Newport, in my opinion, was built on hard work, dedication, and two families. So in 1990, we were officially founded by Bill Carey and Mike Pinger, and but as you noted, the story dates back much further than that. Bill came from a ranching and entrepreneurial background and was the great grandson of a man that had built a large land in cattle business in West Texas in the 1850s. And that cattle business is what went on to help fund the start of Newport, and then as well purchase a lot of the hotels that we currently own. Ryan Embree: Absolutely incredible. Just such a unique story. So happy that it’s on the website where I’m sure employees and and guests can even check that out and share that. And led to where you are today. And I want to talk about fast forwarding today, ’cause you got some exciting news, a new website on the horizon. Talk to us a little bit about this project and this new chapter, for Newport Hospitality Group. Whitney Altizer: Website debut coming soon. We are beyond excited. This has been a labor of love. There’s been joy, there’s been passion, there’s been divine intervention. We are just so happy to see it come full circle. Really the design intention was to speak to our partners, our clients, our team members, but do it all at the same time in the same platform, right? So we’ve tailored this website so that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re looking for, you will find the ability to get the information that you are looking for and the correct person to interact with you know, in this current climate of digital changes. Its been very interesting to walk through this process. It’s a lot different than, you know, 10 years ago when, when we started on WordPress, right? <laugh> Now it’s the AI integration, it’s large language models, it’s SEO. We’re taking into account all of those things, but trying to still keep the website intuitive and engaging for anyone that would visit it and be looking for information. Ryan Embree: Well, it’s, it’s kind of, it’s exactly what you said, Whitney. It’s very fortuitous timing as far as, you know, ’cause I’m sure even the way that websites are being designed and kind of strategically, you know, built today, it, you said 10 years ago, I would even argue just a couple years ago, is very different in the landscape, even with the way that people are trying to look for information, whether that is, young hospitality professionals trying to find out some background, about the hotel or the culture that, which we’re gonna touch on here in a minute, to ownership groups and developers that are, you know, trying to look for information. So, great timing, can’t wait to see it. But on that, that new website is, is gonna be that diverse, incredible portfolio that Newport holds right now. And as marketing people, we always love to talk about what’s next, right? What’s in the pipeline, what exciting project, what are you, what’s getting you excited right now about either projects or, or stuff in the pipeline right now at Newport Hospitality? Whitney Altizer: Yeah, so the biggest thing right now is that we’re gonna be opening a new Hotel in Q1 2026. So it’s currently under build right now. It’s with a partner that we already work with, Andre Hickman and Sanford, Florida. And this is his second hotel with us. We built his first hotel. Now we’re getting to build his second hotel with him. And we’re just beyond excited to see that all come to fruition and have two hotels in the same market with the same great partner, you know. And then of course, our Chief Development Officer, Sean, is always moving and shaking. He’s always got something on the horizon. And right now we’re looking at three potential acquisitions in Virginia, two in Ohio, and then a large expansion into the Northern Territory. We’re mainly east coast right now. Those are not over the finish line yet, so I can’t quite say much more than that. But we’ve been very thoughtful about who we wanna grow with, how we wanna grow, and making sure that we’re aligned with those partners so that we’re all walking together on the same path. Ryan Embree: Thats fantastic. And, you know, Sanford, right here in our backyard Travel Media Group’s backyard, right down the road, right down I-4 which, which could take a little little time depending on, on when you’re going. But, uh, but, you know, so exciting to see. It looks like you’ve already might already need some new changes for that, updated website here soon with some new properties. So we’ll continue to keep an eye on that. Another aspect that really stood out to me, you know, doing some research for, for this episode, as well as talking to Brendan at the Hospitality show was the commitment to employee culture. And I saw right now on social media, which you got a huge presence on. You’re running this voice of 35 campaign. I wanna talk a little bit about that campaign, but you were actually featured on there, Whitney, and you shared, we not only invest in our people, but the relationships with our owner as well as the community. So again, maybe talk about that, that voice of 35 campaign, what you’re trying to accomplish there, and then expand a little bit more on that, investing in people, relationships, and community. Whitney Altizer: Yeah, absolutely. Well, voices of 35 is something that we feel like captures the heart of Newport. It puts into words why I’ve been here for 22 years. So the intention was to celebrate the whole 35 year journey, the people that made it possible internally, externally, and then to reflect on those team members and their growth. So we’re really lucky that at the corporate level, we’ve got over 10 employees that have been with us for 20 to 30 years, so do the math on that. They pretty much been around since the, the inception. And then just even within my department, you know, a lot of the commercial strategy people have the same story that I do. One of my revenue managers, him

Celebrations are underway at TMG headquarters, and we gather round to recognize the milestone of reaching 1 million social media ad spend across all of our hotel partners! This achievement would not have been possible without the continued support and trust of our partners, and their unwavering commitment to creating compelling stories and digital content for travelers, as well as fostering genuine connections with hotel guests. In this special celebratory Suite Spot episode, Travel Media Group’s Chief Technology Officer, Jason Lee, and Product Manager – Social Media, Brian Ross, both join the podcast to discuss the incredible accomplishment and what it means for TMG and our wonderful hotel partners. nbsp; Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are here back, we’ve been on the road, we’ve been visiting and hosting people on the Suite Spot virtually, but we are back here at the Suite Spot Podcast studio with a very familiar guest, Jason Lee, Chief Technology Officer, who we’re gonna have on in a second. Then we’re gonna be visiting with Brian Ross, our product manager, social media, to celebrate this incredible milestone. Jason, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Thanks. Yeah, glad to finally be back. Yeah, we’re excited to have you, celebrating a milestone today. A million dollars in ad spend for our hotel partners. Again, you know, with Travel Media Group, we work exclusively with hotels. Let’s first, you know, off the bat, huge accomplishment milestone. What does this mean to hear you kind of hearing this being there since the very beginning of this solution all those years back? Jason Lee: Yeah. It’s exciting. Obviously it is when you think about it in the increments that we boost posts at, it’s a lot of posts. Yeah. It’s a lot of posts for a lot of hotels. A lot of weeks of content. So just extremely proud of what it has produced for our hotels. But also for our amazing social media team that creates such engaging content and makes boost able and ad worthy content. Ryan Embree: Well, and that’s the important part because, you know, obviously a million dollars is a big number. But you don’t need necessarily a million dollars to run an effective ad campaign, and that’s what you were kind of talking about. With the small increments. Talk to us a little bit about that, because I do feel like sometimes hoteliers, rightly so, are intimidated with something like social media ad spend. They don’t really know where, you know, ’cause you can boost a post for as low as $5 all the way up to, thousands of dollars. And they’re still going to spend your money in one way or another. So kind of talk through that process because effectiveness is really the key to the game there. Jason Lee: No, absolutely. And I think it gets into how you create content. What is the cadence of that content? How often do I do it? But then it also gets into what am I trying to do? So you can create content and not boost it or put ads any kinda ad spend behind it at all. And you’re going to have that content on your page. You’re gonna reach out, your community is gonna see it if if they have that, you know, alerts or whatever set up for you. But what boosting does is it allows you to reach this audience that is not inside of your sphere. So it allows them to be able to see these posts, but even more importantly, it allows them to engage with these posts. So if they engage with them, now you kind of have them in the algorithm. Now, now you’ve got ’em a little bit. Right. There’s future state with these, uh, guests. But, but we’re talking about $5 increments. So for this very small amount of money, you’re talking about 10 to 30 x on reach and engagement. And, and that is incredible. Uh, and especially because it’s sort of like builds on itself because the more that a post is interacted with, the more feeds it’s inside of, you know, somebody shares this post. So now you’re like, obviously any content that is engagement worthy, the algorithm is gonna put out in front of people. Ryan Embree: Yeah. It’s that social media ripple effect. And, you know, we say it all the time for hotels. I mean, who’s not thinking or typing in their social media search bar, uh, about travel Yeah. Or thinking about travel or, or, and, and we’re at a really, really cool spot in our industry where we could be that social media post could be the thing that inspires someone to take action to say, I want to take this trip, or I’ve been thinking about this, and now all of a sudden you’re all in that all important algorithm that you’re talking about. And that’s really where social media ad spend comes into play. Because before it used to have to be either someone shares this information with you or a follower of yours interacts with that social media ad spend, um, really targets an audience that might not be following your account. Jason Lee: Absolutely. But is looking for travel in your area. Right. So, or is following content like your content. Right. And I think that’s what’s so cool, but you add to this, right? And so we, we’ve talked about short form video, uh, on this podcast before, but you add boost to short form video and now you’re in this whole other thing where it’s not about engagement as much as it is about time viewed. So if I watch an entire video of yours about your property or an about an event coming up or about your restaurant, right now I’m in this algorithm. Yeah. So now the next time I put content out, it’s pretty good bet it’s gonna be in my reels feed. So that’s, and that’s, and that’s very powerful, especially for a $5 boost. You could get out to three, 400 people. Right. And you get from that three or 400 people, let’s say you get 15, 20 people that fully engage with it. but you do that three, three or four times a week. Yeah. This is this, these are compounded numbers that really make a difference. Ryan Embree: Well, we always say it and have said it is had a parallel to the online billboard, right? Yeah. About seeing that sign on the, uh, the side of the highway. But you don’t know the intent of every single one of those people every single time someone drives by that billboard. Uh, whether you’re targeting the right person or not. Uh, when, when you’re doing social media ad spend, you have a, you can be a little bit more prescriptive there. Yep. And I think the conversations that I’ve been hearing, you know, at the hospitality show and, and these other events and talking to industry leaders even through the podcast is everyone has this interest right now in how hotels are being found. Ryan Embree: Right. Obviously the LLMs is what our, everyone is talking. Right. Right. But there’s a natural transition, especially in the younger generation of them going directly to Instagram and TikTok to figure out where to travel Yeah. And that to, you know, talk about that and what you’ve kind of seen or even heard from hoteliers and, and where that’s sitting in the booking journey right now. Jason Lee: Yeah. You know, I think social media, social media is really amazing. And I, and I do feel like where social media content sits in the minds of a lot of marketers is inspiration to travel. Like, it’s sort of like that’s where I draw to Yeah. You go, well, let’s say inspiration to travel. That’s the thing that gets me to want to travel. But we’re seeing more and more and more where inspiration travel is absolutely there. But pre-booking research is there. Post-booking is also there. So now I’ve booked my room and now I’m going to your Facebook page or your Instagram page to see what’s going on at your property. So, so now I’m in this kind of secondary thing, or I’m sharing that, I’m sharing that information, but then in post stay, so in stay, I, I shouldn’t, I I I got ahead of my skis there in stay. I think it’s also important because this is more information about what’s going on at your property, if there’s a valuable enough information that’s happening, and I’m not talking about every, every, uh, post is a pitch mm-hmm <affirmative>. Right. It’s every post is something that’s valuable to a traveler in a various state of their journey to you. And that is, I think that’s a really important distinction. There’s a time and place for pitch. And, and, but in, in, in the content that we create, we’re trying to engage travelers, but we’re also, we’re trying to engage them in those, in all of those phases. But in stay I think is also important. But if I engage with you in Stay it’s pretty good chance I’m going to start getting your content in post stay so I start to remember you. Yeah. So this is like, you can really hit every phase of the traveler’s journey. And I know that acquisition is on everybody’s mind, but this is more than that. This is, this is where you can develop a relationship and that, and I definitely feel like with Gen Z and the generations after that, this is where relationships are gonna be. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And where loyalty is built. Absolutely. Which is brand loyalty is built, which is what we’re looking for. You know, as marketers, obviously we want to inspire, but you know, we don’t want this to be transactional between guests and hotel. We hopefully this is the beginning of a relationship. And one of the places we’re trying to connect with a traveler in a world where we’ve removed a lot of friction in the guest experience where they don’t even need to speak to an employee anymore at your hotel. So this could be your mainstream of connection between you and the traveler could be social media. Yeah. Um, and, you know, it could be a social media ad that they first interact with that could get you there. And I think that transitions to my next question, which is sometimes the most effective social media isn’t a call to action of what you said. So, you

Host of the Suite Spot podcast and Vice President of Marketing at Travel Media Group, Ryan Embree, breaks down the key takeaways from the 2025 Hospitality Show that took place in Denver, Colorado, last month.  Ryan shares not only his opinion on some of the most prevalent topics from the renowned industry event, but he also shares what panelists, attendees, hoteliers, and others had to say about the conference and the state of hospitality.  Tune in now to listen to the full episode. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot Podcast, and we are fresh off of our 2025 Hospitality Show coverage in Denver, Colorado. We are back here in our Travel Media Group headquarters, a little bit closer to C-level in our Suite Spot podcast studio. Absolutely incredible event. Wanna first think Questex and AHLA as well as the city of Denver for hosting from end to end. So amazing from the programming to the networking to the industry professionals that we had the privilege of interviewing. You can find all of those exclusive interviews on our TMG YouTube page, make sure to follow along. But in today’s episode, we are gonna go with our top takeaways from the Hospitality Show in Denver. And it really started right off the bat. I mean, this was an end to end, just jam packed insights, trends, everything a hotelier could want. You know, this was billed as one of the most comprehensive shows in hospitality. And from all of the education sessions that we saw, the panelists, the conversations that we had, the networking that went on again, hats off to the teams over at AHLA and Questex, where I’ll start my key takeaways is really one of the first quotes that really resonated with me as an attendee on the first day. And this was I forget who I can attribute this quote to, but was talking about how we ended the 2024 Hospitality Show in San Antonio. And everything that has happened between then and the start of the 2025 Hospitality show, an election, you know, a tumultuous start to the year, with tariffs, international travel, almost seeing double-digit drops in some places between some countries. And then now we have a government shutdown here. So, so many things that the hospitality industry had to deal with. And, you know, I have the privilege of attending multiple events throughout the year, and never have I ever been on such a rollercoaster ride. It started at the beginning of the year in March where we met a lot of hoteliers that were kind of bracing for impact. They were coming down this hill. Projections didn’t look great. A lot of sentiment out there was not was not awesome. Deals were not getting done. It just feel very like a crawl. And then all of a sudden summer came and as we were kind of bracing ourselves for this just dip or this terrible kind of cliff that we were about to, to fall off, we kind of opened our eyes as an industry and said, it’s really not as bad as it’s being made out to be. And a lot of hoteliers, as we saw and we interviewed, talked to, had some really good summers, had some really good numbers, occupancy, looking across different markets, some of the markets that weren’t doing as well rebounded. And they were starting to see a little bit of glimmer of hope. And now here we are at the end of the year and it feels like those storm clouds are brewing again. And we’re bracing ourselves for a new year in 2026. And maybe it’s because we’re just looking at the numbers. It’s budget season. We’re starting to try to forecast like we love to do and have to do frankly in hospitality, but it just feels like that worry is coming over us again. But to that, I feel like it’s in these times where there’s a lot of creativity and ingenuity that starts to really spur and, and it’s these events that could be a catalyst for real change in our industry. There were a lot of industry leaders up on stage over these last few days at the hospitality show in Denver that presented some pretty interesting ideas when it came to housekeeping, staffing, the booking experience and really challenging the status quo. And it’s these types of events that can really start a conversation and build a foundation and momentum for true change within our industry. We saw that change happen very, very quickly during COVID because it needed to, it was a necessity. But now here we are and we can all feel it. We can feel the belts tightening from the hotel all the way to our guests and consumers. And this is when we need to start looking around and trying to come up some fresh ideas. And, you know, some of those might not even be within hospitality. I mean, one of the keynote speakers was Chris Barton from Shazam, and, you know, trying to get these fresh voices maybe outside of hospitality. Blue Origin was another speaker talking about space tourism, maybe looking for some new channels. You know, space tourism might not be a couple years down the line in your portfolio if you’re a management company right now. But is it a trend that you can capitalize on, right? Are there areas where this could be happening within the next decade? You’re positioning yourself in markets that are going to cater to that demand, which could exponentially increase. It was truly amazing to hear some of the stories that we heard at the hospitality show when it came to space tourism. But all that to say doesn’t necessarily need to be hospitality led for these hospitality innovation to come from. And I feel like it’s during these times, during these events where you’re going to see that we had several different conversations. One with a leader of landing place hotels, the brand leader of landing place hotels who saw an opportunity, to do things a little differently with a brand. And they’re seeing double digit. They already accumulated a double digit pipeline right now in development. It’s very, very interesting. We’re at, we’re at a, a kind of an inflection point in hospitality right now as we enter 2026 and we in into this kind of unknown. But it will be really, really exciting to see what type of innovation comes from this. Because I do think this is when people are gonna start getting creative. ’cause those margins are just too tight right now, right? Between staffing, construction costs. The demand is still there, but the profits are not being seen. And that was, there was no, it was not an error that the Hospitality Show started its programming with multiple sessions on profits and how these management companies, brands can work together and these owners assets can work together in order to see profit margin increase. Because right now it’s just slimmed over these last couple years. And it’s being felt, it’s being felt throughout the industry. You know, it was interesting to see some of the leaders that I spoke to and interview, got the opportunity to interview, talk about capitalizing on some of these trends that we’re seeing right now in hospitality, you know, personalization, multi-generational travel, experiential travel, right? Marriott announced recently it’s outdoor collection and, you know, lifestyle brands, all of this mixed in. And I think what’s happening right now is the traveler, the consumer is feeling that tightening in their belt, but they still want to travel. It was, it has not been taken away from them like it was in 2020, but they certainly have to do some more due diligence. And when they do travel, which they’re going to prioritize, they wanna make sure they make the biggest bang for their buck. So they’re gonna start prioritizing and maybe looking for those hotels that they feel can give them the widest and breadth of experience, right? Rather than just be loyalty to those brands. So those brands are seeing that they’re trying to capitalize on these trends and they’re exploring more into the soft brand lifestyle division. We had heads of man of a couple different management companies talk about, you know, the patterns that they’re seeing in consumer sentiment and what they want out of their experience. They want to feel like they’re having a localized experience. We’ve always talked about that on this podcast about how to try to tell your story, how to make your guest part of the story, part of your local community, how to give them that community first experience. But now guests are clamoring for it. They’re looking for it, they’re doing research, they’re doing research in different places. That was another big trend and takeaway that I heard a lot is hotels management companies. They’re starting to look at how guests are using the booking journey right now. And l and where does LLMs fit into that? They feel like they don’t want to be get left behind in a search, just like I’m sure when Google started to aggregate all these hotels online, they didn’t want to be on page two or page three, right? So how can, when a traveler searches best hotels in this market, or maybe a little bit more specific of a search your hotel be retrieved in those how can your hotel be a part of those results, right? And I think more and more hotels are asking that question. It’ll be really interesting to see where that goes. AI and technology, it feels like it has to be a part of every programming agenda and conversation that we talked about now. But it is starting, I feel like, to settle into two separate camps. One that really wanna prioritize the employee empowerment, right? How can I use AI and technology to empower my employees to do their job efficiently? Something that we’ve preached at Travel Media Group where we have several AI innovations that help the employee get some really deeper insights into its online reputation. But also, you know, there’s that second camp of, well, we’re gonna try to go guest experience first. What can I do with AI and technology in order to make a big difference on the guest experienc

Tune in to the most recent AHLA Check-In episode with President & CEO of the AHLA Foundation, Kevin Carey! As a familiar face on the Suite Spot, Kevin stops in to give us the latest and greatest developments and advocacy work taking place at the American Hotel & Lodging Association.  Be sure to watch now to know what current events are impacting the hospitality industry. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embee. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree for another AHLA industry check-in this time with a familiar guest, Kevin Carey. Familiar guest, but a little bit different position. We’re gonna talk about that in a second. But he is the Chief Operating Officer at AHLA and President and CEO of the AHLA Foundation. Kevin, welcome back to the Suite Spot, Kevin Carey: Ryan, terrific to be with you again. It’s Ryan Embree: Great to have you. Like I said, you know, you’ve been on a couple times we’ve talked about that, but this time in a new role with AHLA, congratulations, by the way, on that. Can you share with our audience a little bit about the new role, maybe a day to day and what you get the pleasure of doing every single day, as President and CEO of the AHLA foundation? Kevin Carey: Well, I’d be happy to. It’s definitely keeping me busy, but it’s a good busy, and very much a rewarding, busy as well. And in my new capacity, where I get to lead the foundation, I get to work alongside a dedicated group of colleagues, Jen, Eliza, Kara, and Lindsay, to also a committed group of industry leaders, who were on our board of trustees, and the organization that we help to advance is one that’s focused just on that front on advancing the people of the industry, our workforce, so day in, day out, having that teamwork and collaboration, but also working with our industry leaders to put the people forward on the industry front, and to work to support not only our current employees, but also to identify the future workforce is a vital role and very engaging. Ryan Embree: So critical. Right now, you’re right, we’ve had conversations about it. We’re gonna touch a little bit on this episode, but, you know, I’d see AHLA foundation all the time, the work, the stories that you guys are putting out there, you travel the country just got back from the lodging conference a couple days ago. But, you know, for those hoteliers who, you know, see the brand, they see some of the stories, you know, can you share maybe some of the origin story of the AHLA foundation and really at the foundation, so to speak of its mission over there? Kevin Carey: I’d be happy to. The foundation has been around for 72 years. It was founded in 1953, as a scholarship fund. And over that tenure year and arc and of its existence has done terrific work. What I’ve also shared recently as we’ve been working through a process with our board of trustees as looking at our future direction is that in many respects, this is a young 72-year-old organization. And by that I mean a number of the most prominent and highly visible initiatives that the foundation is involved in right now, whether it’s our forward initiative or No Room for Trafficking. These are programs and initiatives that have really been created, launched and grown over about the last three to five years timeframe. So, while we’ve got a proud, uh, tradition and history, we also have a number of, of very important new initiatives. And the work we’re doing to advance the industry’s workforce and to ensure the people are front and center is really vital in the current environment. As we think about the industry’s future growth prospects. Ryan Embree: Well, it’s an incredible legacy. And to be able to, that’s what you want out of advocacy and foundational work is you wanna be able to say, we’re introducing new initiative strategies, the AHLA tackles so many important issues, but perhaps none more important than human trafficking prevention. Something that a lot of the brands have, have taken major steps to get behind. You recently held your No Room for Trafficking Summit, an event dedicated to that. Tell us about that event and some of the feedback that you were hearing from hoteliers on this really critical issue. Kevin Carey: Let me put that initiative in the context of our role and mission overall. So, as I talked about with being that young, 72-year-old organization, we really view our mission in advancing the workforce as being centered around how do we develop and support the current workforce today, the 2.1 million people who serve guests, and work together to create that experience as future workforce is being so important to ensure that over time we’re attracting people to the industry and they know the career pathways that are available, but a third area and this aligns with the No Room for Trafficking Initiative. How can we leverage our role as a convening entity for the industry, bringing together all segments of the industry, including the service provider and supplier segment, to focus on initiatives industry-wide, where we can make a difference. And in that respect, that’s where No Room for Trafficking fits in and really underscores the industry’s longstanding commitment to working to eradicate human trafficking. We created the No Room for Trafficking Initiative in 2019 with a focus on bringing training to the industry, so our employees on the front lines, vendors and suppliers as well, could see the signs and help provide that frontline and bring awareness to this issue. We also in 2022, created the Survivor Fund, so we could help provide funding meaningful contributions to local community-based organizations to help assist survivor of survivors of human trafficking get back on their feet and ideally create an opportunity for employment in the industry as well. So this is an issue that our work is not done. We’re reaffirming our commitment to this. We’re aligning, the work the brands do around this area with owners and management companies, as well. And you’re gonna continue to see us in this area leaning in on this important issue. Ryan Embree: So powerful. And, you know, I’ve had the, the privilege of attending the hospitality show, which we’re gonna touch on here for the last couple of years, and to hear some of the inspiring and, and moving stories from that initiative. And it’s, again, so powerful to see common cause like this, where all the brands are really trying to get involved vendors and the, like, you know, we really need the entire industry, to really team up against an issue like this. Good. Couldn’t agree more, not be siloed. Kevin Carey: Its obviously a global issue. It’s not unique to the lodging industry, but the lodging industry’s leadership in this area the industry-wide commitment to playing a meaningful role in this respect. And to your point, Ryan, the individual stories, just about a week ago, Eli and I attended an event at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Safe Center, which is an organization that’s providing critical services to survivors of human trafficking. And to hear, one of the program participants, a survivor herself, to help tell her individual story and how she’s now thriving, and shows the strength to share our own experience, but also serves, as someone who is such a role model for, others who are impacted by this area. So, through the Survivor Fund, we’ve now contributed close to $2.4 million, in grants, to community-based organizations to help them provide these surround, surround support services, to survivors. And we’re very proud of this work and the impact it’s having and our continued commitment to it. Ryan Embree: That’s an incredible figure, congratulations to you and your team, and, you know, so happy to hear that so many people are contributing to this. Now, another key initiative you touched on was the foundation really leading in its advancement of women in hospitality through its forward program. I’ve had the honor of having several hospitality, female leaders and influencers in the hotel industry incredible, who have mentioned this program. Can you share some of the details, of this initiative and the impacts that you’re seeing? Kevin Carey: I’d be happy to forward really is a movement, we’re so proud of the growth, that we’ve seen and the engagement since its launched as a conference alone in 2018. But now, the initiative has expanded from an event and a conference that we convene annually to leadership development through our Build and Elevate program, and as well, through the community building aspects through a network we’ve established, that has close to 5,000 participants, mostly women but also men who are engaged in this initiative and wanna play a role in helping to women to advance in the industry. So across each of those three categories, the conference and event, the leadership development, and the community building aspect of this forward, continues to grow, through awareness engagement. We’re excited, as we look ahead to 2026, to host our event again in Atlanta, Georgia, April 16 and 17. So, please mark your calendars. Ryan Embree: Yes, we will. It’s so awesome to see, you know, movements like that, like you mentioned, Kevin, because it’s something that organically starts to, you know, through the community and networks starts to build. And then you put an event like that forward conference that happens in the spring, and you can just see the energy and, you know, something that hospitality is, you know, really needed for us. We talked about the staffing shortage, you know, through these times a couple years ago and really inspiring all walks of life, even especially young people to see hospitality as more than maybe just a summer job at college, but a career path that they can go down. And I saw recently, I wanna make sure I get this figure right, the AHLA foundation awarde

Tune in to this special episode of the Suite Spot to hear from two very special guests of the International Luxury Hotel Association. First off, President of the ILHA, Barak Hirschowitz, and Co-Founder of the association, Jonathan Edelheit, join the podcast to preview the upcoming INSPIRE USA conference taking place on December 10-11, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  These two luxury hospitality experts discuss several important topics in this episode, including the humble origin of the ILHA, how the luxury hotel market is leading the industry in innovation, what attendees can look forward to from INSPIRE USA 2025, and much more. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot, episode 185, and from the title we are previewing another hospitality event. One of my favorite things to do look at, and this one, it’s a first timer for me, not certainly for our guests. I’m gonna bring them and we’re gonna talk all about it. The Inspire USA event hosted by ILHA, the International Luxury Hotel Association. My two guests with me today, Barak Hirschowitz, President of the ILHA, and Jonathan Edelheit, co-founder of the ILHA, Barak, Jon, thank you so much for taking the time and checking into the Suite Spot with me. Barak Hirschowitz: Well, thank you. It’s wonderful to be here and great to meet you. Ryan Embree: And we’re excited about it, excited about the event, but before we get into that, I wanna just start with a little bit of hospitality background. We always love to kind of start there. Hospitality’s such a funky industry. People come from different brands, they come from different backgrounds. Sometimes they fall into it, sometimes they fall into the industry with a summer job, sometimes they’re born into the industry. So I figured let’s go ahead and give our Suite Spot audience a little bit of background into your hospitality journey and what led you to the ILHA Barak. We’ll start with you and then go to Jon. Barak Hirschowitz: Yeah, thanks. So I started in the industry in the late, late eighties, early nineties. I went to Johnson Wales. I started as a, I started in culinary, as many people do in the hotel industry. And those were interesting times because back then there were really only a couple of places you get a degree in culinary arts. So it led me to, you know, travel abroad, which was great. I started, just before I went overseas, I did an internship at the Grand Floridian, which believe it or not, was still a fairly new hotel back then. And then started working abroad internationally, moved eventually to more the hotel side of the business. I worked in South Africa for some very well-known hotel brands. Sun International. Sun International is Saul K’s original brand that he had when he was still based in South Africa. So that, you know, today we know him for Atlantis and we know him for one, um, one and only hotels. But, um, back then he had Sun International, so I worked with him. I worked for a company called Halian Hotels, which had, uh, luxury hotels in, in South Africa, and actually a few up Africa as well. And, um, I had an opportunity, I guess my sort of real push, first push into luxury was in the late nineties. I got to help open a hotel called Bushman’s Klu in South Africa, which is a luxury safari lodge. The year, within a year of opening, we, um, we became a member of Relay and Chateau, which was a pretty prestigious, uh, pretty prestigious organization. And after I left a couple of years later, the hotel went on to win Best Hotel in the world, um, travel and Leisure. So, you know, that was a, it was really a, a great opportunity to see the best of the best in the world. I still to this day think it’s probably the most luxurious property I’ve ever stayed in, and still the best service, uh, that I’ve ever seen in any hotel. So it was great to be able to work in a place that had that level of, of, um, of luxury and, and, and guest experience. And so I think everything that I see compares to that time back then. So that’s really how I fell into the luxury hotel industry or came into luxury hotel industry. Ryan Embree: What an incredible story and journey, one of the questions I pose all the time on this to my podcast guest is, your favorite hotel that you’ve ever stayed in and to be able to work for the number one hotel or have at one point, probably an easy answer to that question. Then, Jon, let’s, let’s move over to you. Where is your kind of background, and hospitality and brought you to ILHA? Jonathan Edelheit: I think it was definitely an interesting path over to the ILHA, originally, out of law school, I actually went into the health insurance industry, and then I was the first one to implement corporate wellness programs, employee health and wellness before was employee health and wellness. I, eventually, um, got very passionate about options for healthcare and founded the Medical Tourism Association, which operates all over the world as the Global Trade Association. And, and interestingly that’s, there’s a big segment of luxury, uh, travelers in that who are traveling, who have a lot of money to travel for the best healthcare in the world, stay at luxury, uh, hotels, and also engage in luxury kind of wellness activities. And so, uh, from that space, we, we dealt with a lot of governments, tourism boards, luxury hotels around the world. And that was a little bit of my segue, um, not not sharing the full story of like how Barack and I met and, and the founding of the ILHA, but came in from kind of a, a different side of it and, um, you know, but very passionate about it. And you mentioned about, um, you, the comment about your favorite luxury hotel. When you say that, I feel like it always evokes in all of our minds, you know, we get this visual of a specific hotel or specific experiences that really make us love certain properties. And I feel like that’s something that the luxury side has, that the other side doesn’t have, where, you know, there’s that the, they’re so focused on these special moments in every single detail that it really, I feel like almost seers into your brains and emotions, like some of those special things. And you notice it when it’s not there at properties. Ryan Embree: Well, 100%. And that’s why you hear with, uh, especially the luxury sector. I mean, you have generations sometimes going to the same property or hotel that say, you know, my grandparents, I grew up here going to this luxury resort, you know, my parents then brought me, now I’m taking my kids here. You know, really in depth, uh, connections to our guests and travelers that you’re absolutely right, Jon, I think the luxury sector has, and, and it’s such a privilege to be in that space because you really get to emotionally connect with your traveler there. But I love hearing both your stories because it’s a, a, it’s a parallel of what we hear all the time in, in hospitality. One, uh, person that went to school for hospitality and culinary, and then the other one that went to school for something completely different and found themselves. And it’s the perfect mix and match, and that’s what makes our industry hospitality. So great. We’ve had the pleasure on this podcast. We’ve spoken to founders of management companies, you know, even a couple new brands, which seem to be popping up every single day, but I believe this is the first time that we’ve had founders of a hospitality association. So I wanna know what kind of goes through, you know, your mind, what’s the inspiration behind saying, Hey, let’s start this and, and give us kind of that, that background story about the ILHA. Jon, we’ll start with you. Jonathan Edelheit: Sure. I think what’s interesting about it is, is probably not many people that are like, let’s go start a, you know, let’s go start a nonprofit trade association, right? But I think you have to be passionate about wanting to bring change and wanting to bring innovation. You know, so you know, how ILHA was, was born, and I’ll tell my side of the story, and then Barak could share his is, you know, we saw this, this very specific fit within medical tourism with the medical tourism association within the luxury hotel segment. And that there needed to be deeper ties and connections to the space because everything needs to be integrative. Someone’s traveling for healthcare with their family, and they’re staying at a luxury property. Like it needs to be interconnected, it can’t be fragmented. And so we decided this was an area that we really needed to have deeper involvement from the luxury hotel side. And so I had reached out to Barak to speak at one of our conferences. And then I’ll let Barak maybe segue in from, from there as we, uh, you know, continue the line of the story. Barak Hirschowitz: Yeah. So I think, yeah, definitely I’ll bring you up to how Jon and I met because we started as luxury hotelers for those of that have known us since the beginning. I think what happened when I went to hotel school was we were taught that this is how luxury looks, this is how it smells, this is how it operates, this is how it feels. This is a, we all know that vision. If we’re, if you were in hotel school, uh, you know, even I think of like Alex Soar, president for Europe and Middle East, he went to Lassan, same thing, right? So when he, when we were talking about this, when he was in hotel school, it was, you know, it was marble, it was white table cloth, it was French chef, and pretty much that was luxury, right? So luxury was a very easy to understand, very easy to build or, or vision of what luxury is. And the guest expected, right? Then the internet came along and changed everything, right? So it changed our industry and continues to change it ever since. So let’s say for 300 years, luxury hospitality or luxury hotel industry looked one way, and then

Check out the latest Suite Spot episode featuring SVP and CMO at Best Western Hotels, Joelle Park! Joelle joins the Suite Spot to discuss the incredible BWH portfolio, their Life’s a Trip campaign, marketing to different traveler segments, and much more.  Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for another special edition of The Suite Spot. I am so excited to bring in our guest today. We’re gonna be talking about everything, the Best Western Hotels and Resorts brand, but also marketing that is, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Joelle Park. Thank you so much, Joelle, for being on the Suite Spot with me today. Joelle Park: Thank you for having me, Ryan. Ryan Embree: We’re gonna have a great conversation about marketing, about your wonderful brand. Some of the recognitions that the brand has seen recently. And we’re gonna talk about some industries trends as well. But as per tradition here at the Suite Spot and really hospitality, we love to hear everyone’s kind of journey story that led you in. You know, sometimes we have people just fall into the industry, but at the end of the day, a lot of people fall in love with our industry ’cause hospitality is one of the, if not best industries to work in. Talk to us a little bit about your story, Joelle, and what led you to SVP and CMO at Best Western Hotel and Resorts. Joelle Park: Thanks, Ryan. Well, I’m really excited to be here and it sounds like many others. I have fallen into hospitality and fallen in love. I’ve spent over two decades in marketing overall working across brand strategy, customer experience, communications, and on every project, every account, it’s about driving results through innovative marketing. Early in my career, I started agency site and I partnered up some incredible brands in retail, entertainment, technology, and my last client was hospitality. And that’s where I fell in love with the industry. And now I’ve spent really more than 16 years in hospitality telling compelling stories. I have a love of travel personally, but I also just believe in the power of travel to make the world a better place. So I’ve been fortunate to take on some leadership roles spanning across loyalty. Now product development and something I’m especially passionate about is culture and customer experience, because the most powerful form of advertising really is the customer experience here at BWH Hotels. I have the privilege of leading our marketing, communications, loyalty and partnerships teams, and that’s encompassing of Best Western rewards and Worlds Hotels rewards. So excited to share more about what we’re up to. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it’s exciting to hear and it’s interesting because hospitality, you talk to a lot of hoteliers in the hospitality world, and they say, although it’s a massive industry, right, it’s a very small world. You run into people that you know all the time. Sometimes you’re working with one brand, then you go to another brand. But I always find it fascinating to find stories like yours, Joelle, where you start outside of hospitality maybe, and then find your way into it. Because I do think that really does show the passion and love that people have towards our industry because once that bug, you know, and it happens to travel too, it grabs a hold of you. It’s hard to let go. And here you are. And a lot of the hospitality professionals that I have spoken to they’ve had that exposure to other industries. And there’s just something about hospitality that is so special. And I think you nailed it on the head about talking about the power that travel has. And one of the things within travel is storytelling. And I’ve heard you in other interviews talk about your passion and storytelling, especially, particularly in marketing. How has that shaped your approach to local storytelling at the hotel level to create really what we’re all trying to crave right now, I think in this world with technology and AI, which is authentic connection between a hotel and and your guest? Joelle Park: Well, I’m very fortunate because the authentic connection is happening all over. And so I didn’t have to manufacture anything. I’ve marketed a lot of different things and sometimes it’s harder than others to unearth the purpose driven story behind a brand. But in hospitality it’s so clear. And at BWH hotels, a lot of people don’t realize we have 18 brands within the portfolio, 4,000 hotels around the world. So Best Western is just one of many. And so first of all, telling the story of the portfolio and that’s number one. I had no idea. And I thought, if others don’t know, I’ve gotta go and help them tell this story. But part two is shining a spotlight on the stories that are already happening at the local level. And the beauty of what we’ve been doing here the last two years with the storytelling through our campaign “Life’s a Trip” and through our overall marketing is it started with inspiration from what was happening in that guest to hotel staff interaction. Naturally, our hotel team members were sharing their favorite things about the area because they’re the soul of the destination where these travelers are. And so all I had to do, and my team and I was listen and spend a lot of time at the front lines, at the hotels, listening to our team members, listening to guests, and over and over again, we heard about the power of these small moments in a state where our staff, or even maybe it was through guest messaging, not just person to person, but they were making these local recommendations and unlocked how we enable experience. And that’s why this idea of Life’s a Trip was born. So the story sort of told itself born outta the local level. Ryan Embree: It’s so cool. And I’ll go to back to your point, Joelle, about talking about manufacturing. Because I think right now in a time we crave authentic experiences and moments in our lives, and I think as consumers we have gotten, especially the younger generation, really good at being able to see what’s real and what’s not real. And you’re absolutely right. I think for the hoteliers that listen to this podcast know, I mean, between the interactions that you’re having online through social media reviews and just everyday moments at the property, there’s just so much special that happens there, right? And if as you mentioned, just unearthing that and being able to have a place and a forum to share those stories, such powerful marketing. And if that comes off as organic, that comes off as true and real, that’s when you have something really special. And obviously being recognized, I’ve seen the brand in the news lately recognized by USA today, 2025 Readers Choice Awards, several accolades including best loyalty program, which is awesome and best extended stay hotel for sure, Stay Studio. As marketers, we love to see these type of recognitions, right? That means more getting to get the megaphone out and sharing all the great news about it. But what does this mean, these recognitions mean to you? And really how travelers feel about the loyalty program and the Sure Stay brand? Joelle Park: I think it’s all about value. The value that we provide that then in return makes us a brand and a loyalty program that guests value. So let’s start with the rewards program. Best Western Rewards, 64 million members. I think a testament to the power of it, but what a lot of people might not realize is we have brands spanning the category, everything from our luxury and upscale brands, worlds, hotels, all the way through economy, and sure, stay. So people see the value in the program because they’re earning these points and there is a hotel for every type of trip occasion. We also have a huge number of independent and collection hotels, and people are seeking experiences. You said it, Ryan, authentic experiences. And what better way than these collection hotels that allow the independent experience to shine and the points don’t expire? And that’s really unique in the industry. That’s our commitment to say, you earn these points with your hard earned travel, and so you deserve to spend them where and how you want. So that’s a big differentiator. I think part of what contributes to that award-winning loyalty as it relates to Surest Stay studio, this is a great brand in best extended Stay hotel brand. And it meets the needs of today’s evolving traveler with the kitchenette for short or really long term. And it’s not just for work, but for vacationers families, multi-generational family is a trend, and we see that. So some of the amenities we provided something like Short Stay Studio appeal to today’s travelers, Ryan Embree: It’s so great. And seeing the travel trends and we’re gonna kind of talk about that. But to have a loyalty program kind of blend with the eclectic brands that you have at BWH hotels, it really does make it kind of the perfect stay for any type of traveler out there because you see that, that travel is not just segmented into one particular area anymore, right? Or seeing more and more of a blend of people saying, Hey, I wanna extend my work vacation a little bit more. Maybe I do wanna bring my parents to look after the kids while you know me and the wife go explore the area. You know, these types of trips and travel are really starting to blend here and keeping a close ear and eye to the ground. And it’s gonna be those brands that have positioned themselves well to kind of be able to welcome any and all type of travelers that are gonna do the best. So, switching gears, Joelle, Larry Kulick, President and CEO of BWH Hotels recently shared on LinkedIn that at Best Western Hotels, we view technology as a strategic enabler for providing a great guest experience. Today we’re using technology and AI to continue to reshape

The Suite Spot takes a trip to central Florida to visit the incredible AC Hotel Orlando Downtown, part of the Kolter Hospitality portfolio. The Regional Director of Food & Beverage at Kolter, Robert Mason, joins the Suite Spot to discuss: Seasonal Menus F&B in the Guest Experience How Kolter Hospitality is Shaping F&B The Importance of a Social Presence for a Hotel Property Be sure to tune in to catch the whole episode. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, continuing our series of the Suite Spot Road Trip into the summer a little bit coming into the fall. I’m here with right down the road from our Travel Media Group headquarters, I-4. I know you probably hear that and think might be a long way away. I-4 can be congested sometimes, but not too bad of a drive here. We’re gonna talk about that today. I’m here with Robert Mason, Regional Director of Food and Beverage at Kolter Hospitality. Robert, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot. Hey, thanks for having me. And we’re gonna talk a little bit about your property today. We’re gonna talk a lot about the portfolio and your job here as the Food and Beverage Director, but I do want to get to, as it is, tradition here on the Suite Spot, get to know a little bit about your background and what led you to Kolter Hospitality. Robert Mason: Wow. So I’ve been 42 years in food and beverage. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s all I know. I started in the culinary side. I worked all the way up to executive chef. I actually studied under a master chef in San Francisco Bay Area and, had a really fun journey through culinary for about two decades. And about 15 years ago, I made the transition to the dark side, as I say, got into the front of house operations. and it’s been a great journey. Work brought me to Orlando. In San Fransico, I was kind of a small fish in a big pond, but here I’m kind of, was kind of a big fish in a small pond, so to speak. Yeah, but Orlando has certainly grown and developed over the last 20 years that I’ve been here. And just having fun. And this opportunity actually came up right in the middle of COVID. I came from a much larger property down in South Orlando. And the reason I took this job was couple full first, you know, I like the company culture. I liked the fact that the Skybar had so much to offer. I saw the potential right away. And it’s a smaller, easier to manage kind of thing ’cause everything’s in one place as opposed to a big sprawling resort with 15 outlets and that kind of thing. But I have stayed with the company because I really do enjoy all the people I get to work with Sarah, I know, you know, Sarah and John from our corporate office and Scott, our president, they just do a wonderful job. And they’re really people first. We’re a really people first company. So I believe in the vision here and that’s why I stay. It’s awesome to hear. And your story resonates coast to coast, but I think it’s a true example of hospitality professionalism. ’cause it’s transferable skills, right? Yeah. You know, you can work at a hotel, whether you’re in food and beverage on one side of the country, and then move all the way to the other, side of the country, like your story. And here you are in Orlando, before we get to talk about your property and this beautiful skybar that we’re in right now,right behind us, I four can throw a rock to the Kia Center, Citrus Bowl right over there. Orlando City Stadium. For those that aren’t familiar, Robert, that might be listening to this podcast, paint a picture of why this is just the perfect intersection and location. You’ve got yourself a great location here. Robert Mason: We really do. We really do. So, you know, I always tell people we’re kind of three different operations within one. So during the week we get a lot of the downtown business people, a lot of the movers and shakers in downtown that come here for happy hour, A lot of celebrations. But then we transition on the weekend to really a sports venue before games, after games when the magic are playing. We’re full of magic fans. We’re kind of the go-to spot for magic fans here before and after games, especially when they win. And then of course when there’s events, you know, next week alone we have, I think six concerts in seven days. And so again, we’re kind of the spot that people wanna go to. They see the cutout of the building and they go, wow, that’s really cool up there. And so you could drive by and see that. So we’re right kind of in this intersection, where we’re close to everything. Dr. Phillips is a block away. Kia Center’s a block away. The soccer stadium’s two blocks away, so it’s just kind of right in the middle of all that excitement. And there’s more to come, I don’t know if you know, but downtown right next to the Kia Center, they’re gonna build a whole entertainment venue. A lot of things gonna be going on there. So downtown only continues to grow. It’s funny, mayor Buddy Dyer said 10 years ago that he was gonna make downtown an entertainment destination. And people thought he was crazy. But now it’s actually coming to fruition. Ryan Embree: It’s incredible. We see here, we got a concert in just a few hours here at the intersection of I-4 and 408, but also the intersection of so many events, different types of travelers. And here at the AC Skybar, you really get to enjoy it all. And it’s really cool because I’ve seen over the years, I’ve been in Orlando resident now for almost a decade now, you see, start to see the skyline of Orlando. And this building is part of that iconic skyline. When people do drawings or people take photos, it’s very, very cool to see. But you also got a lot of people taking pictures of this incredible view right behind us. Talk to us about this AC Skybar and what guests just absolutely love about it. Robert Mason: So, obviously, you can’t go wrong with the view that we have. We get great sunset views 365 days a year. And sometimes, it’s funny, we’ll be empty and then sunset’s 10 minutes away and people will just pile in and, and go along the glass to watch the sunset. And that’s a lot of times what attracts people here. But I think what has continued to elevate our business and has continued to resonate with locals and our hotel guests alike, is not just the great view. That’s great. But it’s really a bonus, right? It’s our craft cocktail program that we’re so proud of. We’re so proud to announce that we’re four years in a row. We’ve been the number one rooftop bar in Orlando. So continue to do that. Our food program and our outstanding service team that just continues to make our guests feel welcome and welcome them back. Ryan Embree: Well, congratulations on those accolades. That’s super exciting to hear. I was a bit of factor of being able to enjoy some of that food and beverage and the hospitality that the AC Skybar had. Thank you for that. So generous. And you know, it was absolutely amazing. Got the steak sandwich and the banana old fashioned cocktail part of a seasonal menu. We’re gonna talk about that in a minute. But Robert, we’ve had a lot of conversations with operations people, marketing people, hospitality leaders. A big trend that is sticking with hospitality, especially over the last 10 years, is the impact that food and beverage has on the guest experience. Kolter Hospitality really, really focuses in on that. And you’re a big, obviously a big part of that. Share with us how you bring creativity to that and how it plays a role into the overall guest experience. Robert Mason: So I think it’s really a matter of involving the people that make it happen every day. I think there’s a lot of different components to it. Just to kind of digress a little bit. But you know, here at the Sky Bar, one of the things that’s made us successful and that we’ve tried to now carry down some of our other properties is this idea that hotel, restaurants and bars often feel just like that. They feel like a hotel, restaurant and bar. And so when we put this together and we said, what’s the vision for the Skybar? We didn’t wanna be another hotel bar, another hotel restaurant. We really wanted to have our own identity. So it’s everything from how we do our social media to having our own website. And a lot of times people will show up here and they’ll say, wow, I didn’t even know this was in a hotel. A lot of times people think, well, the hotel rooms will help drive food and beverage. We look at it the opposite way. We look at food and beverage as a driver for the hotel rooms, and a lot of times that’s what we see. And so, really just taking what we know sells, right? Staying on top of those trends, reading those periodicals, staying on top of what’s new, what’s hot, what’s coming out, what’s available to us. And really capturing that and then carrying that to our other hotels and our other properties and allowing them to kind of be experienced that and be exposed to some of that. And sometimes they’re not, right. We all get busy in operations. We all get busy in day-to-day. Sometimes they’re not looking at that stuff. Whereas myself and my counterpart Greg McGowan, we’re always looking at that. We’re always talking about new angles on how we can do things and how we can continue to elevate our food and beverage experience. And we’re just at the tip of the iceberg. I’m so excited for what the next five years is gonna bring. Because really our goal is to establish Kolter not only as hotel destinations, but to really establish us as food and beverage destinations that when people think of Kolter Hospitality, they think of not only great hotels, but they think of a great food and beverage experience. Ryan Embree: Well, you’re off to a great start here. Again, recognitions awards. I would encourage all of my listeners to go check o

The busy summer travel season is just about wrapped up, which means the Suite Spot is due for another quarterly check-in with the American Hotel & Lodging Association to get the latest news and developments taking place in the hospitality industry.  AHLA President and CEO Rosanna Maietta joins the Suite Spot to discuss current hotel trends, industry challenges, the importance of mentors and mentees in hospitality, and more. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. So happy that you are listening to us here and ready to bring you another incredible episode with our quarterly check-in with AHLA in a preview of the 2025 Hospitality Show. It’s my immense privilege to welcome in our special guest for today’s episode, President and CEO, Rosanna Mietta. Rosanna, thank you so much for being with me on the back on the Suite Spot. Rosanna Maietta: Good to see you again, Ryan. Thanks for having us. Ryan Embree: Yeah, we’re excited to talk about the Hospitality Show. We’re excited to talk about AHLA. What we’ve been up to last time we were together was at NYU IHIF. Since then, the AHLA and the hospitality industry in general has been super busy, that super travel season, that hoteliers love to see travel all over the across the country. Catch us up on some of the top issues AHLA is focusing on right now and maybe some of the key wins that have happened year to date. Rosanna Maietta: Sure. It’s been an incredibly busy summer. There’s nothing like a quiet summer anymore. We’ve had a lot going on both in Washington and around the country. Obviously, the most important thing the administration has been focused on over the last six months of this year was passing the one big beautiful bill, which while it had many, many provisions tucked away in it, the ones that our industry was really focused on were those that impacted our small business community, our franchise community, and our employees. So we were focused on passing provisions like the 100% bonus depreciation and making that permanent, preserving the like kind exchange, deferring capital gains tax on real estate at point of sale. All those changes will help the industry reinvest and grow. But we also helped to promote the no tax on tips, which will support 800,000 employees in the industry who benefit from tips. And so we’re working on what that guidance actually looks like once that detail is developed and how, and educating our employers on how they can roll that out to their employees, but also provisions around overtime and child tax credit and family medical leave. So all of those things, were really important to our industry. And so we were really pleased to help get that over the finish line. Outside of Washington, there has been a lot going on, whether it is advancing legislation in markets like Boston or Philadelphia on human trafficking training and prevention, which our industry has been leading on to working in Los Angeles, where we have seen over the last two years very intense work around pushing back against onerous regulations that would essentially increase wages for the industry by 40% overnight. Simply a situation we cannot, we cannot handle because demand is so low in Los Angeles, it’s second to only San Francisco. And San Francisco in terms of occupancy, has been starting to see an uptick, whereas Los Angeles has not, it has not come back to pre-COVID levels. So we’ve been working really aggressively there with the business community to push back on that ordinance that has gone into law, but we are still working with city council to try to make some amendments that would make sure that the travel and hospitality sector is strong, especially in the lead up to some of these bigger events that we’re anticipating next year, whether it’s World Cup and, and a look ahead to the Olympics. So, a lot happening in some of those key markets. And then across the country at the state level, also working to promote a level playing field with short-term rentals and so impacting legislation in key states. Ryan Embree: Yeah, never a dull moment over there in our industry. You know, we’re in a constant state of change and disruption, a lot of these in positive ways, but it, we look to AHLA as kind of a north star for a way to roll out some of these things for both hotel employers as well as employees. So we’ll continue to look there and really appreciate all the work and advocacy AHLA continues to do on behalf of hoteliers across the country. Summer’s also a time for summer jobs and internships and I’ve had the privilege to interview on this podcast some incredible hospitality leaders. And if I had a dime every single time somebody was talking about how, I started as a summer job or a summer internship and then will look at where they are today, 30, 40 year career in hospitality. So important. I know AHLA, you guys have your interns. We host an intern here at Travel Media Group. Can you talk and speak to the importance of internships? It’s no secret that our industry obviously has been battling with staffing shortages continues to do so. How has internships and hospitality mentors, how can they play a role in helping young people see a career in hospitality? Rosanna Maietta: So, incredibly important. Who doesn’t remember their first internship? I remember mine, it was unpaid back in the day when you could do that. But it was essential to building the foundation of what it means to work in the hospitality environment. Working in an office environment or on property. You can learn so much. And that ability to shadow different people is really so meaningful. And I think that what you’re seeing, so many more sophisticated interns coming in with already depth of experience and can hit the ground running. And so I think that’s really so rewarding to see. We’ve had our own interns here at AHLA and we’re sorry to see them go. You wanna wanna hold on to all those good quality individuals? But again, couldn’t stress enough how important it is. I think you’re seeing more in more companies, properties bringing on interns or STAs or apprenticeships, those go a long way in creating that bond with the industry. And so couldn’t stress more the importance of having those. I think the other thing that we are really, that our AHLA foundation has really been focused on is building out a mentorship program and a leadership mentorship program that has been, we’ve been making the inroads for that for a couple of years. And that one-on-one connection, being able to rely on someone in the industry who maybe it has a career path that you are looking to emulate or is completely different career path that you could still learn from is really important. This year’s program exceeded our own goals. We had more than 250 participants from 80 companies, and it included all the different business sections, career levels, participants from all sorts of segments, whether independent properties or branded hotels, and even management companies. The other really important stat was that 83% of the participants on both sides, whether mentors or mentees, were from underrepresented communities. So I think that really also speaks to how diverse our industry is and how important that is to who we are and who we serve. So we do have that formal mentoring program. I would encourage anyone to reach out to the AHLA foundation if that’s something that you’re interested in. And I’m so pleased to see how many more mentors we have reaching out to say, I want to mentee someone. And I think that says a lot about who we are as an industry and that heart service mentality that we lead with. Ryan Embree: It’s so incredible. That’s an amazing stat. Thank you for sharing that with us, Rosanna. And it doesn’t, I think all of us also remember maybe our first internship, but, there’s a lot of people that I have on this podcast that also remember their first mentor, whether that was an official mentor or not, somebody that they probably looked up to followed in the footsteps, management companies, brands during this time, I will say, I know it’s been tough with staffing, but they’ve gotten really creative over the last couple years and looking for more resources. And this mentorship program, the AHLA provides, seems like a great outlet to go in there and try to find, because a lot of you have an incredible stat that you share about those frontline workers that end up being GMs can do. Do you have that at the top of your head? Rosanna Maietta: I believe it’s 53%. Ryan Embree: Yeah. It’s absolutely incredible. And there’ve been so many times where you talk about just finding a career through hospitality. We’re fast approaching National Hotel Employee day, September 1st, everyone get your social media profiles ready for that one posting on that day, over 2 million hotel workers in America. It’s absolutely incredible. You spoke about some of the mentorship ways, but what are some other ways we can kind of encourage people to share some incredible stories? I know at the hospitality show, one of my favorite places is the GM of the Year Awards and kind of recognizing those. How can we get those stories out there, get more people participating in our workforce? Rosanna Maietta: Sure. Well, and Hotel Appreciation Day or Dmployee Appreciation Day falls on Labor Day this year. So also, you know, doubly special and you’re right, I mean, our general managers are so critical to telling that story and we really view general managers as the best brand ambassadors for the industry, right? Because so many of them, half, as we noted, started in entry level positions and have risen to running, major properties, running teams moving around the country, and really have a full holistic view of what the industry has to offer. So we’re doubling down

The 2025 Hospitality Show is fast approaching! While it is only a couple of months away, it will take place in Denver, Colorado, on October 26-28. Alexi Khajavi, President of Questex—Hospitality, Travel, & Wellness, joins the Suite spot to discuss the upcoming event and what attendees can look forward to this year.  Alexi shares insight on:  New Interactive Zones & Networking at THS 2025 Questex’s Quest Zero Sustainability Initiative The Changing Landscape of Hospitality Digital Marketing and the Importance of Social Media for Travel And much more. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. So happy to be with you today, previewing the 2025 Hospitality Show. Yes, it is that time of year, this year. We are headed out to Denver in October. We’re gonna talk all about it, with a very frequent guest, a Suite Spot veteran at this point, Alexi Khajavi, Questex President, Hospitality and Real Estate. Alexi, thank you so much for being on the Suite Spot once again with us. Alexi Khajavi: Ryan, great to be here. Ryan Embree: Yeah. We’re gonna talk about the Hospitality Show, but it is crazy to think that this, we had you back on the podcast in 2023 when this was first announced, and here we are today. You know, this is three years strong. This is the third year going into it. You know, I wanted to start with you. We’ve talked about your journey. We’ve talked about your role, some of the mentors along the way. I’d love to just hear from you, Alexi, if we could go back to that podcast in 2023. What do you think the biggest change in hospitality that you’ve seen over these last few years? Alexi Khajavi: I’d say it’s half and half. I mean, on one hand, I think we were, we were absolutely correct and spot on in that hotel profitability and the complexity in hotel operations would only increase and would be in terms of achieving profitability would become harder, and more challenging. And I think we were right in that assessment and we continue to see a lot of challenges in the space. And now we’re starting to turn into negative territory in terms of operating performance with RevPAR ADRs and occupancy, which is normal, right? I mean, this is a cyclical, industry and it’s an industry that is dependent on the macro economy. So, we’ve had an incredible run, but I think looking back in 2023, we absolutely got that right. It was only gonna become increasingly more complicated and challenging, and that therefore profits would also be challenging in turn. What I don’t think we anticipated was how massively AI would start to impact not only our industry, but our world. And it is increasingly becoming, I think it’s, it’s gonna have a much more deeper impact on, in a shorter time than what we anticipated back in 2023. And not all of that, by the way, is negative. There’s a lot of positive opportunities that come out from AI, but I think we’re all trying to figure it out right now in the hospitality industry. Could be both a beneficiary, but will certainly and undoubtedly be impacted by it. But those are two things that I think we got right, and one, I think we, we didn’t anticipate the enormity of the impact of AI. Ryan Embree: Yeah, or the acceleration. I mean, in a industry whose technology adoption is typically slower than most, we’re, we’re up there right now, I mean, or at least hoteliers. And the market feels like hospitality is trying to embrace this maybe differently than other technological fads, right. And I think it’s really, really cool to see, you ever want to explain the complexity of hospitality to someone who doesn’t know hospitality? Go to the Hospitality Show and see all the vendors that are on that showcase list, and you’re gonna see everything over there. And I think that’s why hoteliers, I know I certainly I do, but hoteliers love the hospitality show because it brings everyone to one specific place. And the challenging operations that you mentioned, Alexi, continue to kind of stack up the hats that GMs can continue to put on and wear. It’s all in one place and at one location. And with this location being in Denver. So you launched the Hospitality Show in Vegas, I don’t think probably a great place to launch any type of show. Moved to San Antonio last year, right by right beside the Riverwalk. Here we are in 2025 in Denver making its debut in Colorado. What are you most excited about for this location? What do you think it brings to the hospitality show? Alexi Khajavi: Well, Colorado has a huge and vibrant ecosystem of hospitality companies, all ranging from, obviously, Veo and, the ski resort infrastructure that’s throughout Colorado, but you’ve got some incredible management companies that are based there, developers and technology. There’s a thriving ecosystem across the hospitality space. And all of those categories and brands that are within each of those are supporting THS and getting that local support as we did in Vegas and San Antonio is critical to the success. So I mean, bringing it to Denver, which is a great downtown, a lot of new hotels have opened up just in the last two, three years. So a really vibrant hotel stock that’s gonna be, where our guests and our delegates and our sponsors and exhibitors will all be staying. And we’re bringing the city into the experience. So, we’ve got, as always, we’ve got an incredible two nights of evening receptions where we bring the industry together from senior leaders to GMs and students and everything in between. But it’s just a great town. You know, there’s great restaurants, great sports teams. We’re there, you know, while both the NBA and the NFL are in action, and there’s a lot of that, hospitality ecosystem that we’re bringing into experiences, whether that be for the entire delegation or for guests just to take out clients, meet each other and network and so forth. We’ve got the University of Denver, which has a vibrant hospitality program also that we’re supporting and is supporting the Hospitality Show as well as Visit Denver and, and the Chamber of Hotels and the CBB. So, Denver is a great place to be. It’s a good time of year to be there in October. It’s typically not too hot and before the snow starts to fall. But look, at the end of the day, I mean, the local economy and the state economy really does appreciate the impact that tourism hospitality delivers to Colorado and the businesses and the labor and employment that depend on that. So, we’ve got a lot of support from the local market that is great. And that will be there in full force and it’s just a great town, right? I mean, it’s right downtown. Like San Antonio, you can walk to bars, restaurants in your hotel, you can go catch a game with the nuggets, and if you come in early on Sunday, I even think the Broncos are playing. So it should be a good time, in addition to all the education and the networking, and the inspiration that’ll be happening at the convention center. Ryan Embree: Yeah, I’ve seen firsthand what you’re talking about, Alexi, about bringing that local flare. Some of the things you and your team did last year in San Antonio, a live mariachi band. So cool that that was day that Di de Los MUTOs was going on as well, as well as a World Series. You brought a little bit of that flare, so can’t wait to see what you got planned this year. We’re excited for it along with the obviously local community that has a big impact on this show. You have a great partnership with AHLA, and obviously we’ve had a lot of AHLA members kind of giving us some quarterly check-ins, making sure the hoteliers are up to date with the most important topics, trends, and issues out there that they advocate for. Can you talk about maybe that partnership with AHLA and how it’s kind of helped shape and grow this event? Alexi Khajavi: Yeah, I mean, look, AHLA at the American Hotel and Lodging Association is the preeminent association and membership community for the hotel and hospitality sector. And we started this in partnership with AHLA. We were both aligned around our commitment to not only the industry and the brands within the industry, but in terms of the importance of connecting the ecosystem with the products and then the solutions that go hand in hand in addressing that operational complexity that we talked about. But more importantly, in driving hotel profits. And the better off we are from an operational perspective, the better experience the guest has, the more the guest will return and continue to support the hospitality industry. And the win-win is that the rest of the value chain benefits as well. So the more profits that the fragmentation of the industry, the brands don’t own, the bricks, and there’s typically a third party or often a third party operator in the middle of that is operating that operating business on behalf of the owners under a flag for the brand. I mean, you can tell just from the business model, we’re a bit more complex, we’re a bit more nuanced, than a traditional, piece of commercial real estate. So, which makes it very fascinating, right? And then you add in this guest into the middle of that, and all of those guest, you know, expectations are changing as well. So all of that happening, you know, AHLA has a deep understanding of the industry, of the guests, of the operators, but more importantly, they’ve got a commitment to improving that ecosystem and that value chain. And so our interests are a hundred percent aligned around that. It’s why we launched the hospitality show is because the hospitality show is really the only event in the industry that brings both senior leadership as well as the decision makers in procurement, operations, general managers, food and beverage directors, revenue managers, sales and marketing, all across HR and finance. Those individuals that are all making decisions from senior level

The next stop on the Suite Spot: Road Trip takes us to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to visit the newly opened Hyatt Place with special guest and Dual Property Sales Manager – Jennifer Odom!  Jennifer sits down with host Ryan Embree to discuss how a special property, such as the Hyatt Place Cape Canaveral, leverages its space coast location, social media, and community engagement to grow business and provide an exceptional guest experience. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot, in another edition of our Suite Spot Road Trip. We are just right down the road. If you could see the view that I’m looking at right now, the cruise ships coming in the ocean right here behind us. We are here on the Space Coast. We wanna welcome in Jennifer Odom, Dual Sales Manager at the Hyatt Place, Cape Canaveral. Thank you so much for hosting us at your brand new beautiful property, Jennifer. Jennifer Odom: Yes, thank you. No, it’s a pleasure to have you here. We appreciate the opportunity and are just thrilled to share with everyone just what a fabulous property we do have here on the Space Coast in Cape Canaveral. Ryan Embree: It’s incredible. We’re gonna talk all about it, but before that, We were, we wanted to learn a little bit about you. Share with our Suite Spot audience your hospitality background and the journey that led you to opening this brand new Hyatt Place. Jennifer Odom: Absolutely love to. So I’ve actually been here in this area alone for 25 years. I was the typical story of the grandparents were the snowbirds that moved from Indiana and we followed. I came down one year and was like, why am I gonna go back to Indiana when I have all this with the beach and you know, the launches of the shuttles and so forth. And so that’s what drew me here. I ended up moving and as a young teenager, I had actually worked in a gift shop that was kind of connected between a hotel and a restaurant. And the front desk people would always come over and we would chat while they’re getting snacks and stuff, and they’re like, oh my gosh, John Glynn was just on our lobby, the famous astronaut, Buzz Aldrin’s here. And I’m like, how old do I have to be to come over and work at the desk? And so as soon as I turned 18, that’s where you would find me. So I started off my career at the front desk, was at that limited service property and then found out I had a real passion for it and ended up at a full service property right in Cocoa Beach, just six miles from us here. A different, a brand that I was with for about 20 years. So just got to experience everything from, you know, working, starting off front desk to a catering admin, to a group coordinator, to catering sales manager. I mean, I’ve worn all the hats, all of it. All the way up to a DOS. So, and then super excited, I’d taken a little break and what was phenomenal is I’d seen the article about the hotel here and at the time there was so many different properties that were being built around the area and just because of all the different markets and the growth. And what I actually found was that article and I was like, oh, I forgot, like that’s right, like this property. Like I’ve gotta go check it out. And so I came over and I did a tour right when they had the soft opening in February. And as soon as I went up to our rooftop bar, I was like, oh, wow, I could sell this like this, this is my property. So then that is how I came to the Hyatt Place here in Cape Canaveral. Ryan Embree: It’s so cool that, you know, I think hospitality is one of those industries where it’s because we’re all travelers, right? We all traveled as young children, maybe with our parents, and then we get to transition into, you know, maybe working the front desk in those entry level jobs. And then here you are and you’ve got a great career and your decades into a hospitality career that a lot of people enjoy and, and you know, get to have an opportunity like this. I mean, we open your doors February, 2025. I’m sure that was a labor of love to see that you found out about the property. Probably a lot of ways that travelers and locals are finding out about property, opening up a newspaper or seeing an article online and say, oh, this property’s opening up. This is exciting. Talk to us a little bit about the story of the opening and kind of paint a location of where we are because you have, you are right at the intersection of a lot of cool things. Jennifer Odom: Absolutely. And thank you. Yeah, we have definitely a unique destination and location is just stellar. So for the hotel, to really kind of promote it in the beginning, obviously all social media channels and so forth. One of the other little known facts for our property here too is that one of our owners is a celebrity. So there was a lot of media, you know, our surrounding that. And so, to share, you know, Howie from the Backstreet Boys, he is part owner of the hotel here. So it was great that we had that. So that was going out on like Florida today and so forth. So really just to kinda, you know, to market that in the Orlando area and then here in Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral. So yeah, so it was just kind of what kind of helped to drive things here for the grand opening as well. Ryan Embree: And one of the, I mean, breathtaking features of this property is the Altitude 360 Skybar and Observation Deck. I mean, right when I walked out, I was like, this is it. You said that this was one of the things that sold you, I can sell this probably a sales manager’s dream to see a space like this. Talk to us a little bit about the inspiration and how it’s really put you guys on the map as a differentiator in this competitive market we’ve talked about. Jennifer Odom: No, absolutely. So certainly we are known as space coast, so just with the space industry from the days of the shuttle launches to then when it was corporatized and we now have all these rocket launches that are going off. We have obviously the beautiful port with all the cruise ships and the mega cruise ships. So there was definitely an awareness and everybody kept saying like, Hey, you know, we really need a great launch viewing area that we can really take all this in. And so unfortunately with some of the older properties in the area, just with their structures, they could not support like a rooftop, so without basically bulldozing it down and starting over. And so that being known to OCI hospitality, it was like, this is what’s really gonna set us apart and this is what’s really gonna put us on the map, like you said. And it has done just that, you know, once people come up and they see just how beautiful the deck is, we’ve already had inquiries for hosting launch viewing priorities, you know, for the rockets that are going off. And then also, you know, with hosting fam and stuff with the travel agents that come in that sell the cruise lines and seeing them make cruise ships and so forth. So it was just a killer strategy. It needed to be done. And we were the first to do it right here in Cape Canaveral. And definitely we’re seeing the benefits of it. Ryan Embree: It’s incredible. And that’s the coolest thing about new builds is there’s a lot of intentionality and everything from, you know, an observation deck and Skybar being built as well as some of the things that we were talking about right behind us with. So some of the F&B experiences, including the breakfast where, you have multiple entry points and things of that nature, even down to the little details in the rooms, that we were touring earlier. Now you mentioned the space tourism, the travel for cruises. You know, you’ve been in this market for a minute. You’ve seen a lot of these travelers come in and out and check into your rooms. What would be one advice that you’d share, a piece of advice that you share with someone looking to visit the Space Coast? Jennifer Odom: Sure. No, absolutely. So what I would definitely recommend is coming over and staying more than just one night just because there’s just so much that you can see and tap into here, that a lot of people don’t realize. And even like during stays, like this morning we had a guest that was due to checkout and they wanted to extend their stay because they had found something else that they could go and explore. I definitely would recommend trying to book early just because we do tend to like, you’re already seeing that demand, even with us being open only five months now, you know, we are starting to feel like on the weekends and so forth. So, definitely kind of keeping that in the forefront. And then also, when it comes to the rocket launches, a great website to take a look at is Spaceflightnow.com. Just because we’re launching anywhere, it seems like almost two rockets a week, so you can just happen to be here and not even realize it that there’s a rocket launch. And so certainly we post that in our lobby to advise our guests and that way they can enjoy the rooftop and go up and see but with different variables, like it may be delayed and then going off the next day. So again, I would definitely recommend coming over to our area, staying more than just the one night and really kind of taking everything that we offer from the Space Center to Jetty Park for the beaches to victory casino lines that’s right here, the famous cocoa beaches, Ron Johns, I mean, that’s just to name a you. Ryan Embree: I mean, and you were talking about with the cruise travelers of, there’s so many things that can happen and that cruise ship, that massive cruise ship is not gonna wait if there’s a delay in your flight or you know, something happens on the highway on your route out here to Cape Canaveral. So getting here early I think is a great tip for those travelers to make sure you have plenty of time and then you get to stay in a beautiful place lik