Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

The Suite Spot takes travelers to Rhode Island in the latest Spotlight series episode - The Beatrice Hotel! As one of the most iconic and historic hotels in the nation, the general manager for the property, Jennifer Curtin, gives travelers an inside look at why this hotel should be their next destination. From the rich backstory behind the name, the local attractions in the area, and what the guest experience is all about, this episode covers it all. Tune in now! 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, as always, Ryan Embree. Thank you for joining us. We are here in the content creation studio in Maitland, Florida at our Travel Media Group headquarters, and have another fantastic edition of our Suite Spot: Spotlight series. This time with a fantastic property that we're gonna be showcasing and in with me today to talk about this beautiful property is Jennifer Curtin, the general manager of The Beatrice. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot. Jennifer Curtin : Good morning, Ryan. Thank you so much. Really happy to be here. Ryan Embree: Yeah, we're excited to have you. And you know, we're gonna get to The Beatrice and your beautiful property here in a second. But as we do with all of our new guests, this is your first time to the Suite Spot. Talk to us a little bit about your background and hospitality journey that led you to The Beatrice. Jennifer Curtin : Yes, absolutely. Happy to and actually it's, it's quite a full circle story that I have. So my career actually started right here in Providence, Rhode Island. I attended Johnson Wales University, majoring in hotel management, and that's actually located just steps from the Beatrice Hotel. And so this is where I started, I was working in multiple different operations through school. So I worked with Hilton Hotels. I worked in a luxury residential community here in Providence. And then in the summers I used to live on Cape Cod and I worked at an amazing it was a five star resort, Chatham Bars Inn down on the Cape. And so, really for me throughout school, I wanted to get exposure in multiple different operations and environments and really get a sense of what it is that I wanted to choose for a path outside of college. And so for me, it was really that luxury boutique space. That's really where my heart lies. And so upon graduation, I started with Kimpton Hotels first in Boston, Mass, which is home for me. So that was a natural starting point. And then from there I moved with them to Aspen, Colorado and then to Seattle, Washington. And it was when I was in Washington, Seattle that I got the call and moved back to open the Beatrice again, you know, back here in Providence, Rhode Island. Ryan Embree: I'm sure that was such an exciting call to be called back to your hometown where it all started and you went to school for hospitality, which I will tell you of all the hospitality industry experts that we interview on this series in others, it's rare, but I'm seeing more and more of it. I mean, you're talking to another grad of a hospitality management program down here at UCF. More and more people are going to school to get into our industry, which is amazing because most of the time you're gonna hear people say, well, I just fell into the industry, or I was doing a job in college and fell in love with the industry. So it's so great to see and hear stories like yourself, Jennifer, where you knew you had a passion for it, but also finding and having a journey within it and finding a segment and space that you really, that you really cared about. And the fact that you got to do it in your own backyard, I'm sure also benefits you because you know a lot about the local area. Jennifer Curtin : Absolutely. No, it's wonderful. And I will say,

Global Brand Head at Embassy Suites by Hilton, Bonnie Campagnuolo, is recognized as a TMG Hospitality Trailblazer as Embassy Suites celebrates its 40th anniversary! This episode gives viewers an inside look at what has made the brand successful over the last 40 years and what is on the horizon for Embassy Suites. Ryan and Bonnie go in depth to highlight key initiatives and characteristics of Embassy Suites that contribute to the brand’s hospitality dominance. 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 Embee. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Emre, here with another edition of the TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. As we get geared up for a busy travel summer, we are here with another hospitality trailblazer, another Hilton brand leader. I am very excited to introduce our guest for today, Bonnie Campagnuolo brand leader of Embassy Suites by Hilton. Bonnie, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Bonnie Campagnuolo : It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: We got several things to celebrate today. I don't wanna give too much away, but before we start talking about your incredible Embassy Suites by Hilton Brand, I wanna talk about your background and journey that led you into hospitality. As we know, it's always unique to kind of see these paths, which get us to where we are. Where did you start? Was it behind the front desk? Did you just kind of fall in it? Tell us a little bit about your journey to Embassy Suites by Hilton. Bonnie Campagnuolo : So I never worked in a hotel. I started in ad agencies in Orlando, Florida and had a number of travel and tourism clients across the years and across different agencies. I moved to the client side, marketing teams first at Walt Disney World, and then with a vacation ownership company also here in Orlando. And then moved up to DC for a job with Hilton, uh, almost 14 years ago. And I was director of Resorts marketing for the Hilton Hotels and Resorts brand, which was an amazing, amazing ride. From there, I worked on all of our full service brands in marketing and then went over to the brand side and, uh, did what we called, uh, customer experience and innovation for full service brands. And then I have been in this role since July of 2020, and it's, it's a great job. I love my job. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Well, it's interesting that, you know, we get a lot of, a lot of people that I interview on these hospitality trailblazers and they come up originally from operations. So I'm wondering kind of, you know, what do you think mindset, maybe lessons learned that were a little bit different being in hospitality a little bit later in your career? Bonnie Campagnuolo : So I think understanding how we get messages out to guests, how we establish who we are is part of what Embassy Suites needs right now. And I, I don't kid myself about knowing how every little thing happens in a hotel, and I'd surround myself with people who do, and I'm not shy about asking our hotel leaders, if we were to think about doing something like this, how does that affect you? If we were to make a change like this in a guest room, how does that affect what the housekeeper's life is like? Or did we just create something that's really cool, but a pain in the neck to clean because it, you know, creates a little ledge or something that we're not never gonna get, right? So I really, we have tons of folks who know more than me and I love all of them, and we make sure that we have those conversations. And I'd also say my experience on the customer experience and innovation team really taught me how to a...

Brand Leader of Home2 Suites by Hilton, Talene Staab, is named a TMG Hospitality Trailblazer and joins the Suite Spot to discuss Home2 Suites and the incredible developments taking place for the brand. From designing the hotel to finding new ways to improve the guest experience, this episode covers the key aspects that make the Home2 brand special. 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 and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. So excited to bring you another episode in another part of our Hospitality Trailblazers series. If this is your first time, we've been running this Hospitality Trailblazers series for almost two years now, and we are interviewing some of the best and brightest in our hospitality industry, some of those people that are trailblazing a path forward, and we certainly have a guest today that fits the bill. Talene Staab, Brand Leader of Home2 Suites by Hilton, Talene, thank you so much for being on the podcast with me today. Talene Staab: It's great to be here with you today. Thank you so much. Ryan Embree: And we're excited to talk about the Home2 Suites brand and all the innovative and exciting developments that are happening with that brand that you were the head of. But before that, although this is not the first time I have met you, we were just talking off camera about how we met at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, had the pleasure to meet in person even though we're doing this interview virtually. With this being your first time Talene, tell us a little bit about your hospitality background, the journey that led you to Hilton and ultimately the brand leader for home two suites. Talene Staab: Sure. My family, my parents had a little diner that was like a breakfast lunch diner in the Boston area, and I worked there in high school and it was one of those places that was like, cheers, where no one ordered their food. They kind of like walked in and everybody knew, oh, Ryan's here. We might not have known your name, but we knew what you would eat for breakfast. And it was like that sense of building community around a small business really stuck with me, even though it was hard work and I just loved it. But I started working in hotels and then my family actually moved from Boston to San Diego and relocated, and they stayed at this Embassy Suites and they called and they were like, you will not believe this hotel. And this was like 30 years ago. So the brand was relatively new. They were like, you get a suite in every room, you get free breakfast and free cocktails. And I honestly didn't believe it. They're like, you gotta work here. So I did. I actually was a smart sales manager there, um, became a DOS and then eventually joined the corporate team. And then when the corporate office moved to McLean, I moved back east with my family, young family, and we kind of looked at it as like an adventure. Let's just see what happens. And it ended up being a really good move because from there I took on a ton of different jobs that kind of took me out of the brand and sales world into more operations. I got to be on the Canopy team. I joined like a week before we launched the brand. So learned about new brand development, learned about owners. Development was the big learning curve for me, which was really exciting. And then that set me up to be, the VP of owner relations owner experience. And that was really cool because I got to see what Hilton looked like from the owner's point of view, like the whole elephant, you know. Ryan Embree: Yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about that.

The Suite Spot takes a trip to Atlanta to visit the Reverb Downtown Atlanta by Hard Rock and uncovers how the unique property is one-of-a-kind and gives travelers a rocking guest experience during their hotel stays. From modern amenities like a reverberation room to a rooftop bar that sets your sights on the breathtaking ATL skyline, this episode covers all the exciting developments and why this destination should be your next booking. 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. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. If you're watching us on YouTube, as you can tell, we are not in the content creation studio. So that must mean we are here on site, part of our Suite Spot Spotlight series. I'm here with Derek at the Reverb by Hard Rock Atlanta. Derek, thank you so much for inviting us here. Derek Sumpter : It's absolutely my pleasure. Happy to have you here. Thanks for coming. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. And let me tell you, there's just an energy walking into this place. We're gonna talk a lot about this because this, this is really fits the bill with this series. And if you're listening or watching us for the first time, our Suite Spot Spotlight series is all about highlighting those unique and historic hotels in our industry across the country. This property certainly fits the bill, but this is your first time on the Suite Spot. Yes, it does. We like to talk to hospitality professionals and hear their stories. We know it's such a sometimes career paths. Take us all over the place where we start. Tell us a little bit about your journey to the Reverb. Derek Sumpter : Alright, sounds great. Well, I've been in the hospitality business since I was roughly 10 years old. Growing up my family had restaurants. So from the time I was seven, eight years old, I was washing dishes in my family's restaurants. With that being said, went to college, was not planning on being in the hotel business. I happened to get a job as a room service waiter at a hotel, and kind of fell in love with it, fell in love with the day to day, fell in love with something different. I liked the energy of it all. And no two days were ever the same. So with that being said, just really kind of worked my way up the ranks and wound up here in downtown Atlanta at the beautiful Reverb by Hard Rock. So, you know, it's been a long, it's been a long journey. You know, Florida, uh, New York City, Little Rock, Arkansas, and I worked, did 20 years with Marriott. So this is kind of my first stint with Hard Rock, and with this brand, but definitely happy that I found them. They found me, I should say. Ryan Embree: So, yeah. Well, it certainly matches the energy. Let me tell you that the property does, and, you know, a couple couple things we always hear, right. Not expecting to be in the industry. Fell in love with the industry. Those are two common threads that we hear all the time from people that we interview. That's true. Just like your yourself. And it's just all about people serving people. And we need more of these stories. I talk to industry leaders all the time. We need more of these stories so we can share what a career in hospitality looks like. Because there are a lot of people out there that might not be thinking about a hospitality. They fall into it and all of a sudden you're here at the reverb. Derek Sumpter : I would say most of the people that I know that are in the hospitality industry, were not planning to be in the hospitality industry before they started into it, you know, so it, it's amazing how everybody,

Managing Director at the Caribe Royale Orlando, Amaury Piedra, checks in to the Suite Spot in our latest Spotlight series episodes to give viewers the 4-1-1 on the $140+ million dollar re-imagination of the resort and what guests can expect from the remarkable expansion and transformation. This episode covers some key digital marketing topics like social media for hoteliers and gives insight into the traveler's journey through the Caribe Royale Orlando property experience. 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. Thank you for joining us wherever you're listening or watching us on your YouTube. Hopefully you are watching this episode because we are live on site for our Suite Spot: Spotlight series at another amazing, incredible hotel. But before that, I'm gonna bring in our guest Amuary Piedra, Managing Director of the Caribe Royale Orlando. Amaury, thank you so much for being on the Suite Spot. Amaury Piedra: No, thanks for taking the time to be here. Happy to have you here. Ryan Embree: You know, I had the pleasure of walking the grounds and having a tour of this amazing resort. I feel like hopefully in that app that you provide, you got a map in there because there is so much to do. But before we get talking about this hotel, which, which we're certainly gonna do today, tell us a little bit about your hospitality background. One of my favorite questions to ask because in this hospitality world we're in, you can start any which way as a bellman you can be born into the industry. Tell us a little bit about your background. Amaury Piedra: Sure. I grew up in south Florida and I actually got my first hotel job at the age of 15. So I'm not gonna give my age away, but let's just say it was over 40 years ago. And, uh, it was valet parking, and that's where I started in the industry parking cars and I've done a multitude of positions and up to, and I wanted to get to my goal of being a general manager, managing director. And that happened around the time I was 30, but it was fantastic. It's, it's what I've done my whole life. Ryan Embree: You know it's funny, I started as a bellman valet over here on the other, the side of me. I feel like if we wanna get a good gauge of maybe the hoteliers of the future, go to our front desk or go to maybe those frontline and there's gonna be a story there. But I think it's so important and critical that you have that background too, because when you do get in this, this managing, you know, GM, you know, we have front desk managers, now you've got an idea of what the job is and the day ins and day outs and, and that really is gonna serve you in your hospitality career. Amaury Piedra: Well, you know, I always tell our associates when we're doing new hire orientation that you can go as far as you want to go. And I use myself as an example. So it doesn't matter what position you're in now, if you apply yourself, you can go to whatever you wanna get to. You can achieve whatever you want. And, I enjoy speaking with our hourly associates because they're really the ones on the ground, you know, taking care of our guests and whatnot. So yeah, it's a great industry that's provided, you know, great opportunities for myself, my family, and many others. Ryan Embree: Those frontline employees definitely have their ears to the floor. We'll talk about the guest experience here and how you prioritize that at the Caribe Royale, let's get into this property, right? So the reason we're here, this is the Suite Spot: Spotlight series.

Check out the top 5 takeaways from the 2024 Hunter Hotel Investment Conference and what they mean for hoteliers. Host Ryan Embree gives insight into key topics and conversations from the event for listeners so don't worry if you weren't able to attend or mis. All the must-know details are right at your fingertips. Tune in! 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. We are back here in our content creation studio in our Travel Media headquarters in Maitland, Florida after a busy week at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in Atlanta. If you're watching us on our YouTube page, you could see I don't have my normal attire because that is how quickly I wasn't even able to do laundry before I got back to the office to record this episode as this was just such an insightful, jam packed event. I wanted to make sure to get these key takeaways to you as quickly as possible. What such a great event. We're gonna talk about that later in this episode, but wanted to spend some time just giving some key takeaways from the event, what we were hearing from our panelists, some of the interviews that we're gonna be putting out there on our social content over the next couple weeks. So make sure if you're not following Travel Media Group to do so, to get some exclusive insights and interviews and everyone we talk to at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference. But let's jump right into it because we've got five key takeaways to review. The first one is obviously the name of this is the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, right? So everyone wants to kind of know what is the state of investment right now. There was a lot of cautious optimism, I would say, from this event and some of the panelists that were speaking so much so that, you know, when asked straight out, you know, whether they would invest right now, a lot of the panelists, majority of them would say yes and answer different types of markets. But it is interesting to see with all these kind of looming factors, whether it's geopolitical inflation, interest rates, this is an election year, still this type of optimism. And I think what this comes from and stems from is right now to invest in hotels or in properties. If you wait until interest rates are going to fall, everyone's gonna kind of jump into the ring. So people are trying to be the first one to jump into the pool, get an advantage right now, because again, if interest rates do fall in the second half of 2024, like their expected do, and our panelists are expert panelists had said, you might be late to the party or in a very crowded party and might not have the leverage right now. So I was really surprised with all the optimism, but great to see in a conference like that, the energy strategic partnerships announced, Hotel Equities with trust hospitality have made a big announcement. We actually have an interview with a key stakeholder from Hotel Equities kind of talking about that strategic partnership. So keep an eye out on that. But it was fascinating to hear the opinions on which markets to get into. And I do think that is an interesting trend that we're seeing right now because some markets, like, Miami and Nashville, we actually spoke to an asset management company that has a couple assets in Nashville saying that they were running so hot that the growth is just not there like it used to be. And it's interesting because everyone at you know, since the pandemic has been on this steady rate of recovery, but markets like Miami, Nashville,

Former CEO and President of the AHLA, Chip Rogers, joins the Suite Spot to discuss the state of the industry and how hoteliers can make 2024 a successful year. This episode is filled with expert advice, industry insights, and trending topics so tune in to get the 411 on what developments are going to impact your hotel business! 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 everybody and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree, welcome and we've got a great guest, a guest that needs little to no introduction. He's checked in with us several times on the Suite Spot. Chip Rogers, President & CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Chip, thank you so much for being on Suite Spot. Chip Rogers: Yeah, always glad to be with you, Ryan. Thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and last time we were together Chip, was before the new year, so Happy New Year by the way. Very, very busy time for hoteliers. They're getting their budgets together, they're looking at data projections, all that good stuff. I wanna give a little bit of insight to our audience on maybe the planning process from the AHLA team. You guys have, have started off just really, really quickly. Lots of events. Obviously, every issue is important, but how do you kind of prioritize that, put your calendar in place, you know, around this time of year? Chip Rogers: Yeah, the biggest priority for us is always advocacy. I mean that's the core of what we do at AHLA is we're the voice of the hotel industry to make sure that policymakers are doing things that help the hotel industry not hurt the industry. And so this is a critical time of year for us because while we do a lot in Washington D.C., that just kind of keeps churning at a, at a steady pace again and again and again. It's the state and local level that is hyperactive at this very moment because most state legislatures go into session at the beginning of the year, and then most of them are done with session by early spring. And so this is really prime time for us when working on state and local legislation. And again, this year we've got a whole host of issues that we're dealing with at the state level. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia right now, probably two blocks from the capitol. We had a really big event here yesterday, about 300 hotels for our Georgia Hotel conference that we share with the Georgia Hotel Lodging Association. We had the Attorney General, we had one of the key members of the Georgia Senate join us. And we talked a lot about the policies that are impacting people. And we do these type of events really all around the country. We have 20 of these on the road events this year. And so yesterday was the second one we had. The first one was in Honolulu last week, which was wonderful, but we've got 18 more to go. And then of course we have our really big show, the Hospitality Show, which will be happening October 28th through the 30th in San Antonio, Texas. Ryan Embree: I'm sure it's so important, Chip to kind of hear, you know, get feet on the ground and talk to hoteliers face-to-face about some of these pressing issues in our industry. You get a unique perspective there. One of the things that AHLA just released recently, which should be good and and exciting news for everyone, is 72% of American travelers are likely to increase or at least maintain their level of hotel stays in 2024. So excellent news there, right? But there's always those looming, some inflation, economic uncertainty, obviously we got an election year. What can hoteliers do to make sure when they look back at the end of this yea...

The 35th Hunter Hotel Investment Conference is only weeks away, taking place on March 19-21 in Atlanta, Georgia! Join Suite Spot host and TMG Director of Marketing Ryan Embree as he sits down with the Chief of Staff at Hunter Hotel Advisors, Sarah Moss, to discuss the upcoming event and what attendees can look forward to from one of the biggest conferences in the hotel industry. This episode has something for every hotelier, from best digital marketing practices to everything related to the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference. 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 and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. Thank you for joining us, wherever you are listening or watching us on our YouTube channel from. I've got a great guest with me today that I'm gonna introduce in just a second, but this is a part of our Hospitality Trailblazers series. If this is your first one, or your fifth one or your 12th one. This series is all about highlighting and showcasing some of the individuals or companies that are pushing our industry forward into the future. So without further ado, it's my pleasure to bring in Sarah Moss, Chief of Staff at the Hunter Hotel Advisors. Sarah, thank you so much for being with me today. Sarah Moss: Thank you so much, Ryan, for having us. We're so excited to chat about the conference today. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes being a Hospitality Trailblazer means that you're actually putting a lot of the people in the same room together to help move our industry forward and Hunter Hotel Conference does such a fabulous job of doing that. But before we jump into all the exciting things about the conference, since this is your first time on the Suite Spot, it is always a little ritual to ask, you know, kind of about your background in the hospitality journey that led you to Hunter Hotel Advisors. Sarah Moss: Sure. So my journey in hospitality started when I was really young. My first job was in a restaurant in my hometown. Then going into college, I worked at a hotel property, really fell in love with hotels and the operations of them and was so fortunate that Georgia State is a partner of Hunter Hotel Advisors in the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference or our co-founder of the conference. And we place an intern every year with the company to give the students a really immersive experience to teach them what goes on through a conference and here at the advisory firm as well. And I was lucky enough to be one of the students that they placed here at Hunter. And so that's really how I got my journey here to Hunter today. But it's really unique and I love it. But I've been here for almost five years now and did my internship for two years before that, so seven total. Ryan Embree: That's such a cool story to hear that background that you were just an intern starting at the Hunter Hotel Conference and now you're already Chief of Staff here just several years later. It's super exciting and you know, your start is very much like a lot of these Hospitality Trailblazers that I interview, you know, started somewhere line level with myself. I started as a bellman at a hotel. But I think that's one of the unique things about our industry is that we just, we start in these places, all of us are travelers at heart, right? I haven't run into one person in hospitality that doesn't like to travel. So we're travelers at heart. But when we start our journey in hospitality, typically it starts, you know, just serving people and you know, you get to see that evolution, which is so cool.

In this episode, Suite Spot host Ryan Embree sits down with TMG Director of Product - Respond & Resolve™, Jackie Avery, to discuss the top 5 guest sentiment trends of 2023. It has become an annual tradition to take a look back each year and analyze which guest sentiment tags were mentioned the most and what aspects of the hotel guest experience resonated with travelers. 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for the first episode of 2024 and one of my favorite annual traditions. We've got the same episode, but a new face and voice that's gonna be joining me today. Jackie Avery, Director of Product for our Respond and Resolve™, which is our review response solution for hotels. Jackie, not the first time on The Suite Spot, but this is the first time we're going through this list together. Jackie Avery: Yeah, I'm so excited. I can't wait to kind of talk through everything with you. We had a really busy year, so in slower seasons last year, I'd say our team was responding to and analyzing anywhere between 18,000 and 20,000 reviews a month. And then, yeah, once we got into the busy season, we were hitting, you know, over 26,000 reviews. So it was a great year, and I can't wait to share some of the exciting things that we saw. I think everyone's gonna be happy to hear that. Last year after looking at the sentiment, not only were more people traveling, but they were happy. They left positive sentiments. You know, everyone just kind of takes a sigh of relief when they hear that, and it's really fun to think about. They were making informed decisions and then they were pleased with those. So I think we all just kinda take a second to celebrate that there was lower dissatisfaction and an increase in satisfaction among travelers all over. Ryan Embree: That's amazing. And it's a lot more fun, I would imagine, to respond to someone that's had a really great experience at your hotel. It's at your hotel than someone that may have not had that great experience. So we respond to both either way, but I'm always amazed, Jackie, by the sheer numbers when we talk through this episode, because it's really incredible. You know, we talk to hoteliers that ask us, you know, are reviews becoming less relevant? Our sites like TripAdvisor, you know, really fading from the public eye and really the opposite's true. You think about how reviews have really incorporated into our life from movies to Amazon products everywhere is a review or a rating, right? And hotels have been one of the longest industries where reviews have been relevant and people are making informed decisions, as you mentioned, based on that feedback. And that's what this episode's about. So if this is your first time listening to this annual episode, like I said, it's, it's a tradition. Now, our first time with you here, Jackie, but we review the top five sentiments in 2024. So what do I mean by that? Each review is compiled. Each review includes subjects and topics that the guest leaves either positive, neutral, or negative sentiment. So we go into those reviews and we actually tag that, that type of sentiment and organize that information and data. We share a lot of that through our industry reporting that we, that you can find on LinkedIn or our website, travelmediagroup.com. But this is just really an all, all-encompassing episode that counts down the top five. I can't wait to hear it and I'm sure you're ready as well, Jackie. Jackie Avery: Yeah, I can't wait to share what we uncovered. So in 2023,

The next episode of TMG Hospitality Trailblazers sees Charles Oswald, President and CEO of Aperture Hotels, taking center stage on the Suite Spot podcast. In this installment, viewers will get a clear breakdown of what makes Aperture Hotels so unique and a one-of-a-kind hotel brand, along with a plethora of information covering some of the most pressing topics in hospitality and hotel digital marketing. Tune in now! 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. This is our first episode in 2024, recording in 2023, but really excited nonetheless. Got a great guest with me. I'm gonna introduce in a second, but this is a part of our Hospitality Trailblazers series. And if this is the first time you're doing this, we've done this over a year now we are talking about the future of our industry and those individuals, hotel management companies that are really driving our industry forward. And, no better guest than I have. Charles Oswald, president, CEO of Aperture Hotels. Charles, this is your first time to the Suite Spot. Welcome in. Charles Oswald: Hi, it's good to see you. Thank you. Ryan Embree: We're excited to be here, Charles, we're gonna cover a lot past, present, and future today, but let's start in the past. You know, this is a new guest. You're the first of the year. We work in this industry where this is, people come from all walks of life and how, and how we get into hospitality. We're gonna talk about one of those tracks with hospitality schools a little bit later. But tell us a little bit about your background, Charles, and the journey that led you to Aperture Hotels. Charles Oswald: It's been a long, it's been a long story for sure, but, you know, I began in hospitality when I was in high school. I was a cook in freestanding restaurants, and I did that on through, uh, through college. Then moved into, uh, you know, in convention services at Hyatt. And that began my food and beverage career at some award-winning Hyatt Hotels. You know, they transferred me from, from Tampa then to Dallas, where we grew with a lot of responsibilities. And, uh, that was in the early nineties to mid nineties. Uh, and then I went on to become an, an a, uh, assistant general manager and general manager of some award-winning full service Holiday Inns, Marriots some Hilton Properties through the late nineties and early s before ultimately becoming a vice president of operations, uh, with an up and coming sophisticated private equity firm, noble Investment Group. And I would say really learned a lot there about the PE side, the investment side, uh, proper asset management and so on. And that's really what groomed me for, uh, for my next role when, um, when Noble Investment Group sold their management company into interstate hotels and resorts. Uh, at that time, you know, the predecessor to Abridge that we know today was the largest, uh, hotel management company. That was an opportunity through that transition to step out and become a partner and CEO in my own company, uh, with HP Hotels. So I ran, uh, HP Hotels for eight years through 2019. Grew that portfolio to just shy of 50 properties. Then I transitioned into an investor role through the pandemic period planned to invest in hotels, but we know how hotels were through the Pandemic. So I had to pivot, stepped into some other industries, including managing investments for, uh, you know, some retail office development, had a charter yacht business, and several other interesting deals associated with commercial real estate. Uh,

In this year-in-review episode, podcast host Ryan Embree has a meaningful conversation with Travel Media Group President, Dana Singer, to go over some of the most significant innovations and milestones that took place in 2023 for TMG and what exciting developments hoteliers can look forward to from TMG in the new year. With hotels and hotel management companies trying to grow their digital marketing efforts and reach more travelers, you will find out how Travel Media Group plans to help them achieve their hotel digital marketing strategy resolutions. 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, as always, one of my favorite episodes of the year. It's an annual tradition. Dana Singer, President of Travel Media Group joins me today. Morning, good morning Dana. And, we're wrapping up another year and I love this episode 'cause it takes the time to reflect on everything that we've accomplished as a company, Travel Media Group, but also the industry. You know, as we get into another year, we've sat here in years past before and, you know, maybe that that outlook hasn't been as bright as it looks in 2024. And maybe finding those bright spots have been a little bit harder to do. But before we get into talking about Travel Media Group, which we're certainly gonna talk a lot about today, this is the year in review episode. I wanna talk a little bit more about the hotel industry as a whole and how it compares to those last couple years that I just talked about. Dana Singer: Sure, yeah. You know, the industry continues to demonstrate resilience, travel demand remains strong. however, it's not without its headwinds and, and challenges. And this year at Travel Media Group, we conducted several industry surveys of our database, over 40,000 hotels. And we found that staffing is still a significant challenge. It's important to mention that the industry forecasts are positive and it's exciting to see the number of new entrants into the market, and that really speaks to the evolving needs and expectations of travelers. Ryan Embree: Yeah, so certainly a brighter outlook than, like I said, maybe years past that we've seen. But, you know, some of the challenges that we've seen in this industry, we talked about it on this podcast just a few episodes ago with Chip Rogers when he came on, you know, still seeing those challenges when it comes to staffing and for hotel owners and management companies to find that time. But they're getting it much more effective and efficient at combating these staffing challenges. This hasn't been something that's happened in the last six months, is actually something that's happened over the last couple years. So that's why actually we're at Travel Media Group seeing a lot more demand for things like crafting social media for a hotel or management portfolio, responding to reviews, giving back time to their employees, taking task off their plate so that they can be more efficient. So there's also this kind of evolution and trend towards outsourcing some of that stuff that's a lot more welcome. So in that same vein, I wanna talk about Travel Media Group and, you know, some of the latest innovations and developments. We've had Jason Lee on here, chief Technology Officer. I feel like he's on here almost every other episode talking about some sort of new development or launch. Let's talk about some of those developments in 2023 and the impact that it's had on our hotel partners. Dana Singer: Sure. You know, if I look back, I would say,

The Suite Spot: Spotlight series is back with another one-of-a-kind episode that welcomes special guest, Christopher Calabrese, General Manager & VP of the Marriott Cancun Collection! Podcast host and TMG Marketing Director, Ryan Embree sits down with Christopher to showcase the newly renovated Marriott: Cancun, an All-Inclusive Resort, and what exciting new amenities, views, dining options, and activities hotel guests can look forward to from the astounding 450-room property. 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 everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you so much for joining me. We are continuing our Suite Spot: Spotlight series. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite series podcast series that we've done on The Suite Spot. Because of all the places we've traveled, we've gone up to New York, down to Miami Beach, and now we are going to beautiful sunny Mexico with a great guest, Christopher Calabrese, general manager and vice president of the Marriott Cancun Collection. Christopher, welcome to the Suite Spot. Christopher Calabrese: Thank you, Ryan. Good to be with you. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and we talked off screen how very jealous of where you're at. You've got a wonderful property over there, which we're gonna talk all about. But before we do that, I always love, we live and work in such a wonderful industry, Christopher, with tons of backgrounds and stories. Tell us a little bit about your journey, your hospitality journey, and what led you to the Marriott Cancun Collection. Christopher Calabrese: Well, I've been with Marriott for 52 years now, which a lot of people don't believe, but it's actually the truth. I've had the pleasure to work with all three of the generations of the Marriott family, starting with JW Marriott Sr., Bill Marriott, of course, who was our ex-chairman of the board, and now our David Marriott, who of course is the grandson of the founder and he is now our chairman, executive chairman, as they call it these days. So it's been an honor to work with all three generations. I started with the hot shops, which was our sort of founding company of restaurants. That's how Marriott got started in the business. And most of my background, or let's say half of my background to date so far has been food and beverage. I then became a regional director of operations in Mid-Atlantic. And I wanted to explore the world. I wanted to see international, I wanted to be a general manager. And so at that time I expressed an interest in Latin America and they said, well, you don't really speak Spanish, so we don't, we can't really put you there at this time. So I said, okay, well what might you have? They said, well, we have a job for you in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia as general manager. I said, I don't speak Arabic. And they said, yeah, but you know, your type of personality will fit in nicely in in that area, in that part of the world. So if you'd like it, let's do it. We can fly you in if you want to have a look. I said, no, that's okay. Let's just go do a one-way ticket and I'll work out there for a couple of years and hopefully one day get back to this part of the world. And, and sure enough, that's what happened. And so that's kind of my journey International. And then I moved to Puerto Vallarta as general manager of the Marriott there. And then I've been in Cancun the rest of my career, but I've moved 26 times with this company. So, um, I know what it's like to see different parts of the world or at least parts of the US for the short time that I was there, half of my career.

It’s time to catch up on the state of the hotel industry with special guest Chip Rogers, President and CEO of the AHLA! Ryan and Chip have important conversations around some of the most pressing and relevant current events happening in hospitality and give hoteliers key insights into how staying in touch with these developments directly affects your businesses and travelers. Tune in now to discover how staffing, work flexibility, new trends, and hotel technology keep evolving and how you can stay one step ahead of the curve. 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 everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you so much for joining, watching us. If you're watching us from our YouTube channel or joining us from any of the streaming platforms that you're listening to, if you did find us, you know, we've got a great guest today, someone that really doesn't need any introduction. Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Chip, thank you so much for, being on the Suite Spot with me today. Chip Rogers: Hey, Ryan, it's so good to be with you. Thank you for having me. Ryan Embree: Really technically not your first time on the Suite Spot. Last time we were together, Chip, we were in Las Vegas on a busy trade show floor after a very successful hospitality show. About six months removed from that now, what type of feedback are you getting about that event and maybe give us some insights into what you're looking for from the next one in October in San Antonio? Chip Rogers: Well, first feedback was the opening party, seems to have taken on historic status. As folks who have been, at that property know that the nightclub TAO and we packed it out, there was a line that lasted, some estimates over two hours long to get into it. And so you, you almost created that, fear of missing out. But people absolutely loved the opening party. And from there it went to, an incredible lineup of keynote speakers. And what we tried to do is make sure that we are entertaining you, informing you yes, hitting on those things that are unique to the hotel industry, but also remembering that everyone's a person, they have outside interests too, and, and could we get speakers that are funny, inspiring, educational. And I, and I think we hit all that. In fact, the most popular speaker that we had, Admiral McCraven, it was interesting. I was at an event literally last night and it was a political event and people were talking about, oh, you know, these two candidates that this seemed to be the two candidates running for president. And someone said, if there's a third party candidate, why don't we just get Admiral McCraven? And I'm like, that would be great, because now I know the guy and if he became president, that would be kind of cool. But it's that type of level of speaker that we had that I think really set us apart from many of the other shows that you go to. And so from the trade show floor, that was just amazing. We sold it out in year one to the speakers. And again, starting with that incredible opening party, it, it was quite an event. And, you know, Las Vegas always has something special for everybody. We're gonna try to redo that again in San Antonio. San Antonio, a very unique place. One of the most visited cities in the United States for people that are going on a leisure trip. And so we wanna make sure we're capturing that, that you're coming to the event, you're going to have fun, you're going to be entertained, you're gonna learn something,

Join Suite Spot host, Ryan Embree as he welcomes TMG Hospitality Traiblazer, Oliver Winter, to the podcast. Oliver is the founder and CEO of a&o Hostels which is the largest independent hostel chain in Europe! These two discuss the hostel experience, a&o’s commitment to green initiatives and sustainability, and the resurgence of the solo traveler. Tune in now to see how Oliver and a&o are making a big difference in hospitality across the globe. 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. All right. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, thank you so much for joining us, for listening to us, to watching us wherever you are, finding us here. We are here at the Content Creation Studio for another episode of TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. I am so excited to bring in my next guest, certainly a trailblazer, and what Oliver and his group are doing right now. Certainly, fantastic. We're gonna get a lot to it. So, let me go ahead and bring him in. Oliver Winter, founder and CEO of a&o Hostels. Oliver, thank you so much for jumping on the Suite Spot with me. Oliver Winter: Yeah, thanks Ryan, for having me here. Thank you very much. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. And we're gonna have some fun today. We're gonna talk about a&o all the initiatives that you guys are doing and this incredible growth that you're seeing. I think you bring a really unique perspective, but for those that have not listened to this series before, this is our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers, where we spotlight those individuals and management companies, uh, groups like a&o that are really trailblazing the path forward. So we have the pleasure of speaking with Oliver today, but Oliver, before we get into everything that we're doing right now, or even what's in the future, I wanna start with the past because this is one of my favorite questions we've been doing this series, which is almost a year old now, is tell us a little bit about your hospitality background, because we have such unique stories in our industry that I feel like rarely get told. We all talk about the, the exciting things that are happening right now, and maybe in the future, but a lot of us in hospitality, you had some very unique backgrounds before we got to the place that we were. So tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to ultimately founding a&o. Oliver Winter: Yeah, thanks. Yeah, happy to do this. Uh, so yeah, as a, as a young man between school and university, I, I had time to travel around the world and, um, came in touch with this hostel concept in many different countries. And what I saw, I liked really much so affordable stay, uh, you have with a warm shower, safe bed, a kitchen to share, a place to hang around and, and, uh, a place even very easy to come in touch with other travelers. So back to Berlin. Then, in these days, I started to study to become a teacher so far away from hospitality background parallel. During my studies, I investigated the Berlin Hostel market, and there've been in this time just non-commercial providers, like Y-M-C-A-Y-J, et cetera. So no private independent hostel. So with, with a lot of patients. And, and little luck of course, as well. So, 23 years ago, then I founded, um, AO in Berlin, opened a a 164 beds hostel. That was the very beginning, 164 beds. And it was, uh, it was from the first moment, it was great success. And, um, so then I stopped my studies and, and focused to grow this company and, and adding more bets first in Berlin later than in other cities in Germany, and then in other European countries.

The Suite Spot visits Miami Beach in this episode to talk with Simon Sorpresi of the SLS South Beach Hotel to discuss its addition to the Suite Spot: Spotlight series and how the iconic property stands out from the competition with a unique guest experience, art style, and digital marketing strategy. Tune in to discover why the SLS South Beach is a one-of-a-kind hospitality experience that every type of traveler should mark as their next destination. 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. I am so excited for this episode. If you are watching us on Travel Media Group's, YouTube channel, you know that we are here live on location. This is the first time ever we've been live on location. We're very excited. We've got this brand new Suite Spot: Spotlight series. We just had our first episode, but the first time that we're doing it live on location, and we have such a great guest and property that we're gonna be showcasing on this Spotlight series. Without further ado, let me bring him in. Simon Sopresi of the SLS South Beach, Vice President of Ennismore - Miami, Mexico, and South America. Simon, welcome to the Suite Spot for the first time. Simon Sorpresi : Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure and it's great to host you and your team here at SLS South Beach. Ryan Embree: My breath was taken away when we came in through these doors. You have a beautiful property here at the SLS South Beach. It really truly embodies the spirit of this series. We are going around the country trying to find and showcase the hotel's most unique and historic in the nation. Yeah, and I think that SLS certainly fits the bill, but before we start talking about the property, it's always interesting to talk to another person in hospitality because, we know everyone's story's different, right? You could start as a Bellman at a hotel like myself. Some people are literally born into the industry. Some people just fall into it just by choice. So tell us a little bit about your story, and what led you to Ennismore? Simon Sorpresi : Whoa. Okay. Uh, let me try to keep it short. So first of all, it's a pleasure to have you here. As you can hear, I'm not originally from the States. I still have a very thick accent. I tried to get rid of it, which I'm clearly not mastering it, but was very interesting. I studied national construction architecture back in Europe and fell through an excursion from that architectural school in hotels, fell kind of in love with hotels. And I was like, oh my God, that's really kind of unique. There was a gentleman called Uli Prager. He was the founder of Mervin Pick, the brand. And he did the tour and he was very charismatic. He could speak about the thread counts of the linen to how to wash pots and pans. I mean, he knew it all. And as a young person, young professional, I was really, really, I think wowed by him. And said, I wanna become him. And so that's where, how it came about. Did the hotel management school in Switzerland, worked all different disciplines of the hotel. Worked very heavy in food and beverage, specialized myself in food and beverage, had my own company in Europe and said, I wanna learn English and ultimately move to New York City after a saltic business. Moved to New York City, had my own business in New York, mostly in nightlife and art galleries. And then did that for seven years and went back to the roots of hospitality in luxury segmentation in Los Angeles. And I came here at SLS South Beach is the reason why it was such a tempting thing for me,

Travel Media Group just launched its latest product innovation to its social media digital solution, Social Video for Hotels: TikTok & Instagram Reels! Tune in to this Suite Spot podcast episode to join TMG Marketing Director & Suite Spot host, Ryan Embree, and Social Media Product Manager, Brian Ross as these two digital marketing specialists share the capabilities of this exciting addition to the social media solution and the best video-making insights that will optimize your hotel’s unique social media strategy. 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you for joining, thank you for listening. If you're hearing us on any of the podcast streaming platforms that you can find the Suite Spot on, or thank you for seeing us on Travel Media Group's YouTube page where you can find all of our Suite Spot episodes, and we have a fantastic episode today. A first timer, a newbie to the podcast of the Suite Spot, Brian Ross, our Social Media Product Manager at Travel Media Group. Brian, welcome to the Suite Spot. Brian Ross: Thank you so much for having me. Ryan Embree: Yes, and we're, super excited today. We've got a great episode and we're here for another launch. I feel like we do these episodes, every other episode, Travel Media Group, continuing to innovate. We have launched an exciting social media innovation and addition to our already incredible solution, due in part to you and what your team has been doing over there on the social media side. But we are launching social video for hotels, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. I'm excited. How are you feeling? Brian Ross: It's been fantastic. It really is the next natural step to what we've been doing with custom posts for hoteliers. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And I wanna talk about that because I feel like I know, I joked about it, you know, this being, an episode we do all the time with the, all these innovations. But we were a couple months ago, a couple episodes ago, talking about video content creation, TMG giving you the ability to build social videos via OneView®. So, what's the difference between that announcement and what we're talking about today? Brian Ross: So internally, what we refer to the other launch as is our DIY product. And that is essentially a product where you can go in and use our system to create content that goes out across all of your platforms, and you can track your insights and the performance of all those posts. But what this is, is this is a product that we offer where we create the custom posts for you. When we onboard somebody, we get some property notes and even in the individual posts, they can give us some notes on what they like and, you know, they know their occupancy drivers and things like that. So if they just give us a little note, then we go in and we actually create the content. Ryan Embree: So this is now us doing that with the video which is just so powerful and it's the natural evolution. We were talking off screen, off mic about this, but you know, one of the things that I'm gonna continue to reference during this episode is the social hotel social media survey that we just conducted, went out to our entire database of over 40,000 hoteliers. And one of the questions we asked them, what was your biggest challenge? And we saw 62% of the time, not enough time. That is a hotelier's life, 365, 24/7. We wish there were more hours in the day, but even if there were, we'd be open for them, right? Because we're hoteliers, not enough time, unsure of what to post 60% and staffing someon...

Join Suite Spot host and TMG Director of Marketing, Ryan Embree as he talks with the Senior Vice President, Luxury Division, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Ashish Verma in our new TMG Spotlight series to give listeners a lavish perspective on hospitality and how the rich history of The Chatwal, New York sets the gold standard for luxury in the hospitality industry. 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, my name is Ryan Embree, host of The Suite Spot. Thank you so much for joining us. We are having a brand new series here. I am so excited about this. So if you've been following the Suite Spot before, we've been doing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series, that's all about the people and hospitality management companies that are pushing our industry forward into the future, 2024 and beyond. But I am very excited about our new series that we just launched, and I think we have just the perfect guest and hotel part of this Suite Spot: Spotlight series. So to give you a little bit of background, this Suite Spot: Spotlight series are showcasing and highlight some of our industry's most unique and iconic hotels across the nation, across the globe. And I think we have such a fitting guest for our first ever edition of the Suite Spot: Spotlight series. Ashish Verma, Senior Vice President of the Luxury Division, Unbound Collection. Ashish, welcome to the Suite Spot. Ashish Verma: Thank you so much, Ryan. What an exciting introduction and, to be the first guest for the Suite Spot, which definitely hits a Sweet spot with me. Ryan Embree: Excellent. Yeah, we might steal that catch phrase, from you there, Ashish, but tell us where you're coming from because we know that the people make this industry, but this Suite Spot Spotlight series is all about, again, the most iconic hotels that we have. Where are you joining us from? Ashish Verma: I'm based in New York. It's my hometown and I'm in the heart of Manhattan. I was born and raised in India, so a great culture of hospitality. I drove my career with hotels, one of the finest in luxury hospitality. And then I moved to Hyatt International the very best, and I worked with them in India, in France, where I did my highest studies, my MBA in Paris and I worked with Hyatt again there and I moved to Phai, the original UN Plaza here in New York. Went on to work with a great hotel company Orient Express, as a GM down in New Orleans through hurricane Katrina and beyond. Returned to New York, my hometown, and it was a GM at the Luell and I've been in charge of the Chatwel, New York Luxury Division for a little over eight years. Ryan Embree: Your story is the true embodiment of hospitality is worldwide, right? And I'm sure you've seen just some incredible places, incredible hotels. So tell us a little bit about this iconic and historic hotel, The Chatwal. This fits the bill of being just a timeless property. Can you give us, you know, we shared your, hospitality experience, share a little bit of history of, of this specific property. Ashish Verma: Yes. global hospitality, hospitality being global goes hand in hand. There are some great hotels around the world and we all have a bucket list to experience and travel around the world. And the world has become a little microcosm of our own aspirations and luxury at the very finest embodies that, expresses that, offers that. And I'm fortunate between Asia, Europe and the US here in New York, having experienced some of the best. Where we are now in the heart of Manhattan, there's a lot of history where the Chatwal New York is,

Join Suite Spot Host, Ryan Embree, as he and Chief Technology Officer,Jason Lee, break down the insights and data collected in the 2nd edition of our TMG Summer Guest Sentiment Report on the podcast. This episode contains valuable information for hoteliers looking to make better operational and strategic decisions for their hotels as the end of the year approaches while closing out the year strong. 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: This is your host, Ryan Embree here, coming from the content creation studio in Maitland, Florida at the headquarters of Travel Media Group. Got another great episode for you today with a very special guest, but a guest that has been with us a lot of times on these episode. Jason Lee, Chief Technology Officer at Travel Media Group. Jason, thanks again for joining the Suite Spot. Jason Lee: All right, thanks for having me, Ryan. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and this has become a little bit of a tradition here with these episodes that we're doing. We're gonna talk about summer guest sentiment. Now, for those listeners or viewers, if you're watching us on YouTube here, give us a little background about guest sentiment, how we're pulling it and what the trends and insights we're gonna be talking about today. Jason Lee: Okay, so here at Travel Media Group, we process all reviews received by hotels in the United States. So meaning we, we bring them into our system. We use natural language processing to kind of pull out specific keywords, and then we use that same kind of processing in an AI that actually decides whether this is positive or negative. So taking all of that information and sort of splicing it and dicing it. But then we call it sentence chunks, but it's looking at little chunks of sentences that basically would determine whether or not those key words are positive or negative. So that's where all of this comes from. So it, so you could have, in one single review, you could have five or six sentiment points, and you know, that review could be rated positively, but the actual language could have positive and negative pieces to it. So we do not take rating into account. It is all based on the actual language in the review. Ryan Embree: Well, that's important because we've talked about before a four or five star rating could still have some negative elements to it. Right? Absolutely. You know, everything was great in my stay, but you know, I felt like the parking was a little expensive, or there might be some positive sentiment with the negative reviews where, you know, everything seemed to go wrong, except the staff was just super nice and friendly the entire time. So that's why it's so important to kind of break down these patterns and trends. And when he says every single review, we're talking big numbers, 1.6 million reviews, that is 100,000 more than we got when we did this in the spring, which is expected. Summer still continues to be our busiest travel season, but within that 1.6 million reviews, over 7 million pieces of guest sentiment. So subjects, topics, elements of a review that people are talking about having sentiment towards, that's all broken down in these insights and data. Jason Lee: Yeah, we use the kind of bigger categories. So the main categories we have are the room, the service experience, and the facility experience. So we use those sort of as the bigger category, and then we have a bunch of tags and aspects inside of each one of those categories. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And what we're gonna do today on this episode, Jason, is we're gonna give some of our key takeaways and insights to all of this data, right? Me and you, we absolutely love this data. We could probably spend hours talking about it, dissecting it and putting it, you know,

Our latest and greatest TMG Hospitality Trailblazers episode features the President and CEO of AD1 Global, Daniel Berman! Join Suite Spot host, Ryan Embree, as he and Daniel discuss some very eye-opening hospitality subjects prevailing in the industry and give insights into how hoteliers can effectively navigate the landscape. And so much more! Suite Spot Podcast · 117 - TMG Hospitality Trailblazers: Daniel Berman 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, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree, thank you for joining me. It's been a minute. We are going to be continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. I am so excited for the next guest that we have today in our trailblazers series. If this is the first time you're hearing this, we've been doing this series almost for a year now. We've had almost a dozen hospitality leaders and trailblazers in our industry, and this series is all about the people and the groups that are pushing our industry forward. So very excited with that set up to invite our next Hospitality Trailblazers, Daniel Berman, president and CEO of AD1 Global. Daniel, thank you so much, for joining the Suite Spot today. Daniel Berman: Thank you for having me here. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and this is your first time here. So what we do with all of our first time guests is we live in an industry or work in an industry rather, where we've got all types of stories of how people end up where they are. So, give us a little bit of background on your hospitality journey and what led you to AD1 Global. Daniel Berman: Yes, perfect. So thank you again for having me here. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, move to United States in 2001. And while deciding what to do here and, I learned how to do invest in real estate. Started in 2008, and then I got into the hospitality by mistake. We bought, we bought, and my partners and me, Ari and Alex and me, we bought, almost 500 room hotel, thinking there was a real estate investment. Didn't understood there was a business within the real estate and we almost lost everything. It took us about two years, almost three years to get that project, on a positive numbers, decided that we love the business. It was very hard, but we learned the hard way and thank God, that's how AD1 was born. Ryan Embree: Wow. You didn't really start off small huh? When it was straight for the 500 Room hotel. That's pretty amazing. And you know what, I was talking to Daniel before this episode started because the VP of HR over there in AD1 Global Bertha Cordovis actually gave me my first job in hospitality, which was a bellman, at a resort here in Orlando. So, it's funny how, you know, we talk about these journeys and hospitality and you, I've heard the mistake one before. I've heard, you know, the journey of, of saying, Hey, I'm just going to school. This was a side gig. That might be a first for me of hearing, you know, purchasing a 500 room hotel and kind of falling into the industry. But we're so happy that we found this, you know, and we'll kind of talk about this love for our industry and transition. Ryan Embree: You know, before we start really talking about where we are today, where we've kind of gone with this series has kind of started with this rocky road that we've been on the past couple years, right. Obviously the pandemic in 2020. We've now had some time to kind of time to reflect on that recovery which is nice, but still, you know, battling some headwinds with staffing shortages here and there. Tell me a little bit about,

Podcast host Ryan Embree welcomes the newest addition to the TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series, Mauri Berry, Vice President of Marketing & Digital Strategy at Remington Hospitality! During this episode, listeners can expect to learn a plethora of valuable and exciting insights and takeaways that encompass current trends in the hotel industry, such as technology advancement, effective digital touchpoints for guests, and hotel rebranding. Suite Spot Podcast · 116 - TMG Hospitality Trailblazers: Mauri Berry 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 everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is Travel Media Group Marketing Director and host of the Suite Spot, Ryan Embree. Thank you so much for joining us today. We are continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazer series. We're heating up a very, very busy summer season, but I am very excited about our guest because she's got some exciting news about a chapter for definitely a hospitality trailblazer management company out there, Remington Hospitality. So, without further ado, I will go ahead and bring in Mauri Berry, Vice President of Marketing and Digital Strategy at Remington Hospitality. Welcome to the Suite Spot, Mauri, this is your first time. Mauri Berry: Yeah, thanks Ryan. So happy to be here. I'm honored to have been invited and talk a little bit more about what we've got going on. Ryan Embree: Yeah, certainly have a lot going on, but we always like to start these episodes, just because our industry is so unique in the sense of, you know, some people find hospitality just through maybe a side job or gig here and there. Some people were born into it, some people went to school for it now, we're seeing that more and more often. So with every new guest we kind of like to ask your hospitality journey and tell us a little bit about your background. What led your hospitality path to Remington. Mauri Berry: Yeah, sure. So I've been around longer than I care to admit, primarily in our industry from even before I graduated from college. You know, I've been around for a while. My background, I started in PR as a PR major straight out of college and worked for a major attraction in Atlanta. And then sort of over the course of the years evolved and adapt my career all within the hospitality space. You know, I've worked in agency environments in PR and integrated marketing for hospitality and tourism companies. I've worked at Lakeside Resorts, I worked for Marriott where I spent most of my career is in field marketing at Marriott International for about 14 years. So, have really, like I said, been around longer than I care to admit. I did leave Marriott after almost 14 years and went to a hotel management company. I knew that in order to really grow and expand my career, I needed to maybe step outside of the Marriott bubble, expand my horizons a bit into other brands, other hotel types, other ways of doing business. So jumped into hotel management space and have never looked back. I've been, as you mentioned, with Remington Hospitality for about two years and you know, it's been nonstop adventure from day one with a number of different updates and corporate and company pivots and new exciting updates. So, you know, I don't see myself going anywhere for a while, if the excitement continues the way it has since I've been here. Ryan Embree: Yeah, certainly a lot of exciting things to share, some of which we're gonna talk about on this episode a little bit later, but it's just so fascinating to hear. I love in this Hospitality Trailblazer series kind of hearing where people jump from,