Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

Travel Media Group & Ryan Embree
  • 4.8 (19)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Biweekly

The best hotel digital marketing podcast in the hospitality industry.

  1. 3d ago

    207 - Social Success Series: Scott Eddy

    The Social Success Series is back with a brand new episode featuring a very special guest and hospitality’s no-nonsense voice, Mr. Scott Eddy!  Scott Eddy joins the podcast to give audiences his perspective and insights on where the future of hospitality is headed, social media growth in hospitality, and how AI technology is the biggest innovation that the industry has ever seen. If you are looking to stay ahead of the hospitality technology curve by getting the latest hospitality information, tune in to the episode. 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 to another episode of the Social Success series. My name is Cassady Quintana and I am the brand ambassador here at Travel Media Group. And today we have an awesome guest. I am super excited, a hospitality influencer, celebrity to me. Super excited to have the no nonsense voice of hospitality. Mr. Scott Eddy, thank you so much for joining me. Scott Eddy: Thanks so much for having me, man. Cassady Quintana: Yeah, super excited. So, right now you’re in Spain. We talked a little bit about that, but for people that may be a little bit unfamiliar with you and your history, talk us through how you got involved in hospitality and how you got to where you are today. Scott Eddy: Yeah, so I actually didn’t come from a hospitality at all. I came from investment banking, which I think gives me a very different lens of the world. So I look at hospitality through psychology, positioning, ROI, branding human behavior before I even look at aesthetics, which actually means nothing. after my banking career ended, I went to Thailand on a two week trip, and after four days I called my mom. I was like, I’m never coming home. I love this place. And I ended up living in Bangkok for 11 years. So I went over there in 99, several years before social media came out. So for the next four or five years, I basically just partied my butt off all over Asia, made a lot of friends and just getting acclimated with the region. ’cause it was just, it’s like a different world over there. So then social media came out and I started the first digital agency in Asia, and we were the biggest for five years. And all my clients were hotels. So my very first client in this industry was the first Aman property on earth. Aman…, which was in Phuket. And that really taught me the whole quiet, luxury, luxury persona. Like that whole thing. It really like it was like a, like a, like a weight in my brain that is still there today. It’s really, really stuck with me and a lot of things that I learned from that project. Really, I use it every day. Cassady Quintana: Yeah. No, that’s awesome. I feel like a lot of the people I talk to and we talk to here, it’s kind of a similar story. They fall into hospitality, they don’t realize, and it happened to me too, like I was working just in normal social media marketing before I got into hospitality. And that’s kind of how it happens for a lot of people. So you live in hotels, you’re traveling constantly. A lot of people would only dream of that. I wish I could do something like that. So for you, at what point did you realize, like, this wasn’t travel anymore, but you could kind of turn that into your brand and a business for yourself? Scott Eddy: So, okay, so as I was doing the agency, and again, I just hired really smart people that worked at advertising agencies. And just watched them. But during that time, that’s when social media first came out. And I’m very early on every platform. I was probably first 2000 people on Twitter. And Twitter was it back then. So that’s actually where I built my brand. And I was the first American expat in every Asian country to have a million followers on Twitter, which back then got me headline news, which got me speaking gigs, which got me consulting gigs. So after a while, all my business was coming through my social media. And again, this is back when there was no term influencer, there was no term personal brand. There was no, that might have been a thing, but it wasn’t a thing. So eventually I just decided to sell the agency because it just made no sense to me to have a brick and mortar office paying 37 full-time employees when the clients are coming through my phone or my computer. Like, it just didn’t make sense. So I sold it and started traveling around. In total did 11 years in Thailand, one year in Philippines, one year in Sri Lanka, four years in Spain, one year in Portugal, and one year in London. And then I came back to the US in 2015, thereabouts. And that is when I literally blew up because that is when real budgets were starting to be applied to social media marketing. And I was approached by a PR agency as soon as I came back to be the travel host for the first video, for the first travel show that was gonna be a lifetime. And it was like a Anthony Bourdain type show. It was called Video Globetrotter. So that solidified me in the U.S. Then I just started doing just huge campaigns with F1, with Air New Zealand, with like, all these big brands. I was a brand ambassador for Lexus for two years. I mean, it was, it was very, very cool. But when I, before I came back to the States when I was in Europe, I was just looking at like what was gonna happen when I went back to the States and I was like, well, I don’t want to get a lease and like have like a normal life. I haven’t had a life for a very long time. So I ended up selling everything that I own while I was in Europe and even now. So I was born in Michigan, but I was grow, I grew up in Fort Lauderdale since I was little. I used to only have a storage unit in South Florida. So I used South Florida as a base in between all my trips. But I’m there two, three days. Like, I was just there this past weekend. I went to F1 and then I came to Europe right away. That’s awesome. So, yeah, I mean, it just happened. When did it happen? Who knows? But it just, I’ve been in the trenches of hospitality marketing for 17 years, since day one of social media. Not that we were doing social media strategies on day one. Back then it was like websites and SEO and graphic design. Remember when people paid for that? Cassady Quintana: Yeah. Scott Eddy: So the services side is very different now. But it’s fun. But it’s fun and hospitality, like it’s the greatest people in the world. Cassady Quintana: I couldn’t agree more. I mean, how could you not be happy with being able to travel to all these places and meet new people and stay in different hotels and you’ve experienced, a wide range of different hotels. So when you think back of all these places you’ve stayed at, for you what makes a memorable stay versus one that’s kind of forgettable? Scott Eddy: And I’ve had both. The difference is emotional impact. That’s it. Most luxury hotels today are physically beautiful. And emotionally empty. The industry has been become obsessed with that whole polished and everything else. But forget humanity. Guests don’t remember the sink design or the way the lobby looked. They remember how your people made them feel. And I’ll give you a perfect example, and this is not to put them down, but I just left Tulsa. I was there for eight days. I mean, you’re talking about Tulsa, Oklahoma. Like it’s not New York City, it’s not Paris, it’s not Hong Kong, it’s Tulsa. And I was at the Marriott there. And again, this is not a ultra luxury property, I’m telling you right now, I stay over 300 nights in hotels and have done so for the more than eight, nine years. This was the best employees, the best staff that I’ve ever met in my life, ever. And I’ve lived in Asia for 13 years. And Asia has, I mean, the best of the best. But I mean, it, it was crazy. Like the finance lady coming out and she’s like smiling and laughing with the staff. Have you ever seen finance person smile? Like that’s where the creativity goes to die. That’s the person who’s telling me, no, no, no, we don’t have the money for this. Like, it was unbelievable like every day I was just like pinching myself. I’m like, is this real? It was just, it was really crazy that the best experience that I’ve had ever in hospitality just happened. Cassady Quintana: Oh, that’s awesome. And I feel like this is something that a lot of hotels should be posting about on social media because I always say like, your hotel and the way it looks is part of the experience, but what makes it memorable or what makes it terrible for people is how the service was. So, and that can be hard to translate online. So when you are looking at a hotel, social media page for you, like what makes something make you gravitate towards it and wanna engage with it, rather than it being a promotional or sale. Like how can hotels translate that inhuman experience and how awesome their staff is and how awesome their staff makes you feel to social media so that potential guests can feel that through the phone? Scott Eddy: I mean, first off,I browse through social media profiles of hotels every day. I mean, I’m, I’m talking dozens and it’s, it’s honestly most of it just makes me wanna throw. It is ridiculous. We are in the most feel good, fuzzy warm feeling industry in the world. And they can’t stop taking these gorgeous pictures of rooms and dead pictures of an empty swimming pool. And like, it’s unbelievable. Most hotels, social media feels like it was approved by seven people in a boardroom and a legal department. That’s the problem. Everything is safe, polished, filtered, and emotionally flat human beings connect with people, not corporate perfection. When are you gonna wake up? Like, I don’t understand. It

    27 min

  2. Jun 12

    206 - 2026 NYU IHIF: Takeaways

    NYU IHIF 2026 was full of insights and thought leadership from some of the best and brightest hospitality professionals in the industry.  In this episode of the Suite Spot, you will get to hear from some of the most influential and biggest names in hospitality in the exclusive interviews we were able to cover at the event.  NYU IHIF is the epicentre of hospitality brands, capital, and fast-paced dealmaking – opportunity moves fast, and so should you. This is where the rebound takes shape, where leaders uncover what’s next, and where relationships turn into real transactions. 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 and VP of Marketing here at Travel Media Group. Cassady Quintana: And I’m Cassady Quintana, Brand Ambassador here at TMG. Ryan Embree: And today we are fresh back from NYU IHIF 2026. My second time in attending this incredible event. Cassady, your first, what were your thoughts? Cassady Quintana: Yeah, I thought overall was a great event. A lot of optimism, especially as we’re heading into the summer season. So I thought, you know, the conversations that we heard on the panels and the ones that we were having with people were awesome, and a lot of you know, good things coming out of that. I feel like the biggest topics that I heard, there were three major takeaways I took from a lot of the panels and people we were talking to, but one being that K-shape economy that we’ve heard a lot about, right? We know that luxury is still outperforming while economy segments are feeling a little bit more of that pressure especially as we head into this summer season and looking at some of those trends. And then I think one of the biggest topics we have been talking about since the beginning of this year is the World Cup and how international travel we thought was gonna be booming. We were expecting a lot of busy hotels, but it’s kind of been on the softer side, and we’ve actually seen international travel dip a bit. So I think right now we’re kind of in that wait and see period of maybe you know people are waiting to see if their teams make it out of the group stages and then they’ll plan on booking a hotel. So keeping an eye on kind of that last minute travel. But the biggest topic that we were talking about a little bit last year, but the biggest one this year is AI and how hotels are using that within their systems. You know, there’s a lot of trends around using that for more personalization and being able to use it to look at your, you know, revenue optimization and how you’re performing online. So finding ways that we can use AI that doesn’t take the hospitality out of hospitality and doesn’t replace that human element. But that kind of went with that overarching theme of the entire event, which was sharpening the edge. So the thing I took from that is that the hotels that are really gonna win are the ones that are understanding their guests and using AI to further that, to further get to know their guests, to make that experience a little bit better. Ryan Embree: You know, and we had some incredible conversations and interviews with some professionals that we’re gonna share here in a second. But just to kind of jump on what Cassidy’s saying, we’re at a really cool inflection point in our industry right now as we go gear towards the busy travel season. So it’ll be interesting to see, you know, we had the opportunity to meet with development person from Minor hotels who’s looking to bring their brand into US and Canada, which will be very interesting. We know how they have a huge global footprint, a lot of interest early on in getting into the Americas. Uh, we then visited with AHLA and Kevin Carey and his team doing such wonderful work over there advocacy for our industry and some really cool initiatives that we were able to sit down with Kevin for a few minutes and chat about, uh, Jan Freitag from STR our hotel Data North Star and compass. They just released a revised forecast for the hospitality industry. So we went over some major points of that revised forecast and finally we got the opportunity to sit down with president and CEO Best Western Larry Cuculic. What a wonderful conversation about the best Western brand and how they are implementing, um, some of that AI and technology into their brand, and capitalizing on not only the World Cup, but also America 250. So wonderful insights that you’re only gonna find here on the sweet spot. Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoy these exclusive interviews from NYU IHIF 2026. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Sweet Spot. We are live on location at NYU IHIF 2026 here with Genna, the VP of US and Canada Development for Minor Hotels. Genna, thank you so much for taking the time to stop and the busy big apple and talk with us today. Genna Panagopoulos: Thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: Excited about, this show. A lot of energy, a lot of buzz. You know, when you come to an NYU talking to ownerships, a lot of capital here, what are the conversation kind of stem around, and what does a successful NYU show look like as you head back to your home base? Sure. Genna Panagopoulos: Successful NYU would really be finding some deals, perpetuating some deals. So hopefully advancing some opportunities and it’s really all about for right now because we’re relatively new into the region. Educating our owners and the, the broader development community. So, you know, some of, some of the players do already know us, but in the luxury space, but there’s a lot of people we gotta get out in front of and introduce Minor hotels to. Ryan Embree: And this is a great place and, obviously a great city to do that in. What has been kind of the feedback? I mean, you’ve been tasked with this enormous job. We have such a great brand, worldwide, you’re bringing it here to us, Canada, and North America. What have been some of those initial conversations and hearing that and initial interest and feedback from owners? Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah, we’ve had a lot of feedback and interest on Anantara. So some of our, you know, established luxury brands that are pretty well known when you know the luxury hotel space in a global environment. Sure. So those owners have actually come to us saying, we’re really excited about the opportunities here. So that’s one piece. Of course we have NH Hotels, NH collection, and NH, which are very well known brands, especially in Mediterranean, Europe. Yeah. And, Central and South America. So there’s excitement around that too. Ryan Embree: Does it help, I mean, having such an international brand, we got the World Cup here, right? In a couple months. You kind of using that as maybe some momentum as you kind of come into, and introduce this brand into the Americas. Genna Panagopoulos: Absolutely. There’s a lot of, you know, I’m also educating Minor of the markets we wanna be in and so that’s definitely helping as well and putting some places on the map. Ryan Embree: And let’s talk about that because there’s been some announced projects already right here actually in New York. Talk about that project a little bit. Genna Panagopoulos: Yes. Thanks for asking too. We have a Worsely Hotel that’s opening, here next year. It’s gonna be super exciting because Worsely is a restaurant brand that we are taking into the hotel space. So it’s the first of its kind and nowhere better than to start in New York comes from London. So there’s a lot of correlation between the two markets. Ryan Embree: One of a kind hospitality venue and a one of a kind city, so. Exactly. But another project we’re really excited about just ’cause we’re home based, obviously in Orlando right down the road, a bright line away in Miami. Talk to us a little bit about that project and how that’s different. Yeah, Genna Panagopoulos: It’s a high rise building built in Miami. Hasn’t started construction yet, but it’ll open in 2030. It’ll be an Anantara hotel with branded residences, both private branded residences and, um, ones that will be able to be rented to hotel guests as well. Super wellness oriented. There’s gonna be a really extensive spa. Right. Very experiential. Wonderful for the residents that are gonna be buying, the residence. Ryan Embree: It’s incredible. It sounds like you guys are really taking care of all of the kind of popular travel trends right now. Right. FMB has really had this resurgence in hospitality with the project here. Wellness, obviously a huge piece of what hospitality is leaning into and what travelers are looking forward to. So having that flexibility between the brands too, I’m sure is a definitely a fun place to be when having these conversations with owners. But you talked about another project in Turks and Caicos. Genna Panagopoulos: Turks and Caicos. So we have an Anantara in Turks and Caicos that I believe will open in 2029. So in order we’ll have one in New York next year, and then 29 on Ontario trips and Caicos 2030, Miami. Ryan Embree: So no shortage of news on the Minor Hotel side. Congratulations to you and your team. Thank you. As you wrap up, I mean, what’s your vision? What’s your goal? As you bring Minor Hotels into the North American region? Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah. Well, if I think about next year at NYU, I hope people, more people are coming towards us. Excited about us being a different brand a different mindset. So we offer, we think of ourselves a little bit differently from the parent brands that are already established here because we have, you know, ownership still of most of our portfolio or we lease most of our portfolio. Um, so I hope there’s more inbound traffic coming towards my way. I h

    36 min

  3. Jun 3

    205 - Respond & Resolve™ 10 Year Anniversary

    In this celebratory episode, The Suite Spot hosts two TMG veterans, Director of Product – Respond and Resolve™, Jackie Avery, and Chief Technology Officer, Jason Lee, on the podcast to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the Respond and Resolve™ digital solution.  Jackie Avery discusses what the milestone means to her and her team, and how responding to reviews is the foundation for connecting to guests and why it’s critical for hoteliers to give authentic responses to their guests. Jason joins the podcast to share the history and evolution of the Respond and Resolve™ digital solution and how it has become the industry solution service it is today.  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, a celebration, my favorite type of episodes we have on the Suite Spot. Very excited to share a milestone and achievement, a celebration, like I said, a 10 year anniversary of our award-winning, industry leading Respond and Resolve™, review response solution. Here with the Product Director of Respond and Resolve™, Jackie Avery. Jackie, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Jackie Avery: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here. I’m so excited to talk about this too. Ryan Embree: Congratulations, what a feat. 10 years of responding to reviews. We are gonna have the opportunity to speak with Jason Lee, our Chief Technology Officer, and we’re gonna talk to him about really the history and evolution of this solution, and really guest feedback management in general, how that’s evolved over time. But with you, I thought we’d start with talking about present today and this solution respond and resolve, again, responding to guest, hotel, guest reviews. What makes this so special? What is the secret sauce? Why has it seen such an explosion of growth from our hotel partners, and what do people love about it? Jackie Avery: Yeah, so I’d say everyone on my team probably has a different answer to this, but for me, it really comes down to passion, time, and flexibility. So we’re really passionate about that connection making, you know, that moment with the guest truly matter. Taking the time to really connect in that way with them. And I’d say, I guess right, others might say, well, you know, these other people within the industry or at the hotel also have that passion and, and care about that connection. So, I think we all agree that that’s really important. But then you come to also adding in time. So someone might be able to dedicate an hour to responding to their guest reviews, or maybe even a few hours a week, and they feel really good about that. But like for us, right? This is day in, day out. This is what we do all day long. We really have the time to not only have the passion for that connection with the guest, but take the time to think about what they wrote and how they wrote it. And so, and there are gonna be people who have the passion and have the time, and I absolutely do not wanna diminish that. I’m so happy that they do. I’d say the third, and just as equally important aspect though, is flexibility. So this is an ever changing landscape, right? One moment. The M dash in writing makes you sound human. It’s casual. This is how you connect. The very next day, that’s an indicator of AI. If you’re using that, no one thinks you’re you. So in the past, right, you would start writing a response and you just wanna make sure you’re not sounding defensive, you’re not being dismissive of, whatever their concern is. And that’s still important, but that’s not where you start anymore. You start by convincing someone that you’re a person, you’re sitting at a computer taking away from all of these other aspects of your job, and you’re like, my first step is showing everyone that I’m me and I’m real. So, on top of all of that, right now, you’ve got that going on. Maybe, you know, you feel like you’ve got a handle on it. There is a very intense, again, ever changing landscape when you’re thinking about the political climate, the economic climate, and those impacts the guests and travel. We all know that. And so it’s really hard to meet a guest where they’re at. If you’re not keeping up to date with everything going on. You have to be aware of those shifts that are happening all the time to everyone. Ryan Embree: Yeah. It’s ever changing, especially over the course of a decade, which has obviously been the timeline of this solution here. And you’re absolutely right. I mean, that authenticity is so key to show the guest that you actually care about what you wrote. And you’re right, there’s a challenge now to almost convince that guest that I am real. I am listening to you and I’m connecting. And there’s a reason why in this age of technological advancement and AI, we were talking about it every single day. We’re at the peak of technological advancement. Every single day we move forward, there are still hotels that come to us and say, we want to maintain a human to human connection. We don’t want AI to be responding or generating responses that are going straight to our guests. Why do you feel like that is, and and what are the feedback you’re hearing for these hotel partners? Jackie Avery: Yeah, so when you zoom out, right? Guests are the entire reason that hotels exist. So when you’re considering reviews and checking reviews before you stay somewhere or leaving a review, after you’ve departed, these are really important aspects of the guest journey. They’re a part of your guest experience. So when you are a property who is fully invested in your guests having a great experience at your hotel, you want them to be surprised when they come in the best ways. You want them to leave with the best memories and spread that by word of mouth and online, you understand that you have to continue that real connection the same way you want to at the front desk in those points online. You have to connect with them human to human in that review response. Ryan Embree: You know, Jackie, one of the things that I think makes the solution so special, and something you’ve done a great job of is curating this team of professional writers where a lot of these writers here went to school for writing and communication. You know, these are degrees that are their specialty. They have a passion for this, right? And you talk to a general manager nowadays maybe they didn’t, maybe they don’t have a passion in writing, right? Like, that wasn’t why they got into hospitality to say, I wanna be a writer. But, you know, you created this team that also understands the nuances of the hotel world. It’s the only vertical that we work with in hospitality. And there’s so many of those little nuances that you have to teach and you have to incorporate in your messaging and in your review response writing to make sure that is articulated so clearly to your guests, or really it undermines your reputation as a whole. Talk to us a little bit about some of those nuances, maybe some examples and how you’ve been able to generate just this team of, again, just incredible writers. Jackie Avery: So, I’m fortunate because we’re doing this episode to celebrate 10 years. So we know what we’re looking for and we have experience in how to train specifically writing for hospitality and guest reviews. So fortunately, you have these degrees where people come in, they’re educated, they know how to write well, and then you have this training based on real world experience. And having seen the evolution of guest reviews. You used to get it where guests only left reviews when they’re angry. That’s not the case anymore. Guests go, they love the praise of feeling rewarded for leaving a good review. They wanna leave a good review. And having written so many, right? Each individual learns something and takes it back to the team. So it’s consistent workshops, it’s creative workshops, it’s adjusting to the new landscape, right? Being aware of what is seen as AI and what is AI. Being able to identify a review where a guest used AI to leave it, maybe. Or also being able to take a moment and pause and know the best way to reach another human when they’re being skeptical. So where as someone on property, right? They’re so focused maybe on, well, I wanna let this guest know that’s not how we do things, or that’s not really what happened here. And this professional writer on the team realizes the first line of this review was, and I bet a bot is gonna answer this. You have to cross that bridge first. You have to tackle that first. And if you don’t know how, it’s gonna be really hard to get your actual message across to this person that you really want to. So, we’re always building on what we know, because we realize what we know today can’t be what we rely on forever. Everything is gonna be different in three months. Everything will be different in one year. And when you’re set up to be able to make those adjustments, and you’re excited about that, when you love writing, when you love being able to write in a different way and connect with someone, and this is your passion, you know, you thrive in that landscape, it’s not a challenge that you don’t wanna take on. You look forward to it. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. And you’re absolutely right about the landscape. Completely changing. Sometimes, even though over the course of 10 years, I mean, booking has their pros and cons. They actually essentially solicit some of the negative feedback so that you can address that character count, right? With a TripAdvisor and maybe now going into reviews with no content at all, and responding to those PPI and personal information using people’s names in those responses. Is that something tha

    47 min

  4. May 27

    204 - Suite Spot Road Trip: Comfort Inn & Suites Orlando Sanford Airport

    The Suite Spot Road Trip is back! Tune in to the latest episode to hear from hospitality leaders from Choice Hotels and Newport Hospitality Group, as they celebrate the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Comfort Inn & Suites Orlando Sanford Airport.  Check out the exclusive interviews with Andre Hickman, Wayne West III, Adam Hill, & Dena Hansen, only on the Suite Spot.   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 Embry, here for a special edition of the TMG Suite Spot Road Trip Series right down the road in our backyard in beautiful Sanford, Florida to visit the grand opening and Ribbon cutting event at the Comfort Inn and Suites Orlando Sanford Airport. We were invited to cover this celebratory event and talk to some of the instrumental individuals that made this property happen. Andre Hickman, the owner of the property, Wayne West III, president at Newport Hospitality. Adam Hill, VP of Operations at Newport Hospitality. And finally, Dena Hansen, Director of Sales at this beautiful, gorgeous new property opened up here. We had the privilege to cover it, bringing it to you in this episode in a busy hotel lobby celebrating the grand opening of this property. We hope you enjoy. Wayne West III: Well, welcome and thank you for coming to the celebration of the opening of this great hotel, the Comfort Inn and Suites. So make sure I get it right. Between Orlando Sanford Airport. Thank you very much. This hotel is a great example of what happens when you put a lot of smart people together and visionary people in a growing market like the Sanford Airport area. So thank you again, we’re, it’s great being here. Uh, my name is Wayne List. I’m the president of Newport Hospitality. We are honored that we get to operate a couple hotels for Andre Hickman, who I’ll reduce introduce in a little while. You’ll hear me use a couple, you’ll hear me overuse a couple words as I talk to you tonight. Really, really proud of the Hickman family. When you walk through the hotel and you see the amenities that he’s put here, how thoughtful he was and how intentional every decision was to be successful, and not just successful for him, but to make sure that all the guests are well taken care of at every touch point in the hotel, whether it’s the guest laundry or the cabana, or the pool or the exercise room. He was very, very thoughtful. I’ve, I’ve been blessed over the years and I’m trying to find my partner. Mike. Mike, I know you’re here, Mike. Yes, the tall one over here. Mike and I have opened up a lot of hotels in our years. Uh, I’m not sure we’ve opened up one Mike, that the owner was as thoughtful about every step along the way and cautious and careful and trying to do it just right for the long-term legacy of this hotel. So I’ll have to thank the Hickman family for that. If you look at the design, the finishes, the touch and the construction, the touch points are just incredible for a hotel. So the Hickman family, if you would kind of raise your hand, Andre and the Hickman family, a lot of them are over here. We want to thank you personally. I want to, I wanna talk a little bit about businesses in the area. Um, the airport obviously is, is booming. Uh, Boomba, which I know has been here a few years, but needed a desperately needed a hotel in the market. I spoke to someone the other day that was so excited. We had, they had a hotel in the market to use Go Port, one of our biggest clients here. Uh, really want to thank the community, the leadership of the community, the chamber, the folks that have joined us, um, the lending and financial partners, which really is a testament to, to Andre and his team and his legacy of all the development that he’s done. Uh, the folks from Choice Hotels are here. If they would raise their hand, I’ll lose you in the back. We have Joe, who is the leader of the Choice Hotel, sys the choice, comfort in hotels system. So great to have you with us. Uh, I wanna thank some people particularly too personally here. You’ve met Mike Clinger. He raised his hand. We have a lot of our people here that worked really, really hard with Andre to get this right. Andre did the hard work. We came in behind him and tried to fill in where our responsibility of opening up a great hotel. But I’ve got Sandra Lucas here. I saw Sandra and her husband, Sandra’s in charge of revenue for about two thirds or a third of our portfolio of 36 hotels. Uh, Adam, Adam, where are you? Adam Hill. Adam is the back. Adam is the vice President of operation for this hotel. Reports to Andre about the hotel. Uh, Whitney Ties is Whitney is in the back. Whitney’s our, our chief commercial officer and senior vice president, also an owner along with Mike and I, Mike Pinger. You’ve met, uh, Matthew Hoffman, who I hope all of y’all have met, is the general manager of this great hotel, the back, Dina Hansen, who everybody needs to beat tonight because we want her to book business with you. She’s our director of sales of both of our hotels. And part of the remarks I’ll make is about, you know, why Sandford, we’re the first hotel, I guess this close to the airport anyway. I know there’s a couple of other hotels in the market, but we don’t pay a lot of attention to those. I’m sorry if I’m offending some of the owners and general managers that are here, but that’s the truth. Uh, the airport’s booming. Andre’s had this in his line of sight for a long time and waited for the time to be right. Uh, it’s always difficult building a hotel. It’s always difficult putting a great amount of equity down and then a year, a year and a half of, of painful getting it to the birth thing, right? Yeah. Not nine months, but a true year and a half. So we thank you for that. We thank all of our partners that are here. Thank you very much for showing up. This hotel I mentioned a little earlier, has a lot of amenities, whether it’s our shuttle to the airport, whether it’s the outdoor pool, the cabana, um, the, if you haven’t seen the exercise room, we have 36 hotels. Many of them are larger than this. None of them has an exercise room that has the quality touches and is as large as that. We’re gonna be super attracted to sporting groups that are going to Baba. We’re excited about joining and, and partnering with them. I, I will tell you, as Andre built this hotel, it was all about the messaging of getting it right for his family, our guests, and our team members. So it wasn’t just about Andre. He really made the decisions based on what, how he’s gonna be successful here is taking great care of our guests and great care of our team members. I hope you all will come back. Join us lots and lots in your relatives here, your colleagues here, your weddings, events here. So thank you very much. It is really my honor. Now to introduce you to Andre Hickman, who is the developer of this property. Probably many of you know Andre. He, he’s done several other ventures in this market. We have another great hotel. We operate him for him in Sanford. But it really is just an honor and a pleasure to be here with y’all to do this grand opening. Uh, again, it was so thoughtful and so intentional. When you walk around, those things don’t happen by accident. Those things happen because this gentleman here was thoughtful about it and really tried to produce the best hotel he could in this market. So thank you very much. It was great talking to a lot of y’all. Tonight I’ll let Andre take takeover. Ryan Embree: Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot live at the grand opening of the Comfort Inn & Suites, Orlando Sanford Airport here with the owner Andre. Andre, passion project, multi-year project. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears coming. We’re here finally at the grand opening, the ribbing front. How are you feeling right now? Andre Hickman: I’m ecstatic. Yeah, it’s been a long time in the making from the first phone call to finding the property and signing the franchise and, and, uh, just very blessed to be here today. Ryan Embree: A lot of choice representation, because this is really a star property for the comfort brand. Talk to us about the words I keep hearing is intentionality, very deliberate on all the amenities where even things you were talking about in your speech over here about even where parking spaces were. Talk to us about, you know, the passion behind this project and why you wanted to make it so intentional and so deliberate. Andre Hickman: Well, it was a labor of love a lot of years in the making. Yeah. Uh, we’re near the airport and so we did a little bit of theming with the, the metal and the, and the airplane wings and the, the portico. Uh, we did a lot of extra features. We, we had another com We have another comfort in in Sanford, and I wanted to do things a little different. Yeah. And so I went bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. So bigger pool, bigger deck, barbecue grill area, bigger lobby, taller ceilings, bigger rooms, bigger bathrooms. Um, we wanted to do a walk-in shower. I really don’t like curtains and, and glass doors. And I said, you know, if we can make a, a walk-in shower and a comfort in, that’d be quite a feat. And so a lot of design work, and we’re really pleased with how it came out. Ryan Embree: Yeah. I love doing these types of episodes and grand openings and talking to owners like yourself because you don’t get these stories sometimes in the background of the labor of love, like you speak of in the background. Now I’m a resident of Seminole County, here in Oviedo, but we’re here in Sanford, just right up the road, yet a couple Sanford City officials here, also welcoming this new business. Talk about, uh, the special place in your heart a

    22 min

  5. May 20

    203 - Suite Spot Road Trip: Hyatt Place Delray Beach

    The next stop on the Suite Spot Road Trip takes travelers to Delray Beach, Florida, to visit the newly re-imagined property, Hyatt Place Delray Beach, with special guest and General Manager of the hotel, Taylor Wauhob.  This recently renovated property boasts incredible ocean views, robust F&B, newly designed interiors, and an attractive location that supplies plentiful fun for the whole family.  Tune in now to hear the full episode and why Hyatt Place Delray Beach should be your next vacation destination. 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 edition of the Suite Spot Road Trip. We are here down south, just a bright line trip away from our TMG headquarters at the Hyatt Place, Delray Beach, a beautiful property, which I’m so excited to talk about and showcase today, with the general manager, Taylor. Taylor, thank you so much for hosting us here at your Hyatt Place. Taylor Wauhob: Thank you so much for having me. It’s such an honor to be on the show and really excited to tell you about Delray and show off our property. Ryan Embree: It’s a beautiful property. It’s an incredible location. I can’t wait to get all into it, but in hospitality, we love a good story, right? We love talking about experiences. We come from different brands. Sometimes we fall into the industry, sometimes we went to school for it. So share a little bit us about your professional journey and the hospitality career that brought you here to the Hyatt Place. Taylor Wauhob: Absolutely. My journey into hospitality was certainly unexpected. I got a job at a front desk during college, just needed something to do in the downtime. Ryan Embree: Heard that before. Taylor Wauhob: Yeah, it’s something to keep me doing the right thing. And I fell in love with it. I was really nervous stepping into it. It’s a lot of guest interaction and I was a little shy at the time, so I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I really loved it. And I didn’t know what life after college was gonna look like for me. So I decided to just invest fully in that role and see where it took me. And thankfully I worked for a management company that really invested in internal growth. And so just a few weeks before graduation, I was offered a role as a manager in training. And I was excited to have an idea of what my future would look like. So I pursued that and I’ve moved all around the country I had with that company, and it eventually brought me to Florida where I finally felt like, all right, this is a good spot to put down some roots. I found Kolter Hospitality, which has such a beautiful portfolio, so I really liked the opportunity to grow within a company without having to leave the state of Florida. So I started here two years ago and this is where we’re at now. Ryan Embree: Well, it’s incredible and a true reflection on the transferable skills of hospitality. You really can go wherever across the country, and then you end up at a beautiful property like this. Well, congratulations. The property recently underwent a complete renovation, a complete design reimagination. Obviously those story, there’s always a story with those, right? Sometimes headaches, but they’re passion projects that end up looking like this, like we have here. Tell us a little bit about the renovations, what guests love about it, and then maybe personally what you love about it. Taylor Wauhob: Yeah, absolutely. I think I started at the perfect time. I came into the property about three months before the renovation was gonna start. So I got to see peak season at this property pre-renovation which was certainly a challenge. It was an older hotel. There was some condition challenges that we were facing, but I also got to see the guests who still loved this property, even despite that. So it was great to interact with that clientele and then be here through the whole process. And I’m really thankful that I still have over 50% of my team from pre-renovation. Ryan Embree: That’s amazing. Taylor Wauhob: Yeah. It is, it is no easy feat. Anybody who’s been through it knows that you hope to never do it again, but it was certainly worth it. So it was really cool to see this all come together. I think it’s really easy to look at the individual items and kind of think how is this gonna come together as a design. But the designer did an incredible job. It’s got a really coastal feel now, and I love that it really fits Delray Beach. There’s no other Hyatt place that you’re gonna walk into and have this design or feel this kind of property way. So it’s been really nice to see our guests come in and be so pleasantly surprised at the changes and just how much it fits the area now. Ryan Embree: Any elements that you particularly like? Taylor Wauhob: It’s bright and it’s airy, which I absolutely love. But my favorite is our bar. We’ve got such a beautiful light fixture over that bar. With big open windows, so you can see everybody walking around downtown. And it’s just a really great draw right there. Ryan Embree: It’s a unique property for a unique location. And I had the opportunity yesterday evening to walk around. We were talking about, you wouldn’t even known it was a Tuesday night. It felt the energy, the vibe, the feel felt like a weekend. There were kids playing in the green areas and families, there was nightlife going on. I think I walked by a couple live bands that we’re playing as well. Paint a picture for those who aren’t familiar with Delray Beach about the location of this property because you’re steps away from a lot of of great, just nightlife and food and beverage, everything. Taylor Wauhob: Well, you summed it up really well. You can go for a stroll, you wouldn’t know what day of the week it was, and you wouldn’t know who lives in the area. Really, it’s a little bit of everything. It’s such a great draw for families, for college students, for retirees. If you just walk from here to the beach, it’s a mile away in that walk. You’re gonna hit every kind of cuisine you could imagine. The best seafood, of course, you’re gonna hit great bars that have patios, live music, outdoor games or rooftops with coastal views. You’re gonna pass by all kinds of different events. There’s comedy shows, there’s concerts, there’s the retro arcade where kids and families can hang out, but you can still grab a drink and hang out for the day. Great boutique clothing stores, every kind of gelato and ice cream you can imagine. So just so much lively stuff going on. It’s really great. Ryan Embree: Very cool. And obviously nightlife, food and beverage, big draws to this area, but great for events as well. When people are coming in. Groups that come in behind us here is the front desk. I’m sure one of the most common questions is come in and you’re like, Hey, where’s the best place to eat? What is some of your staff saying? And then maybe, what are some of the food and beverage options you mentioned the bar before that you offer here on site for guests? Taylor Wauhob: Well, we always try to make sure that we’ve got something for our guests who come in and they just wanna be able to unwind here and not have to step out. As much as we love Delray, we also want them to be comfortable just on property. So we do have a really great small menu, but it caters to a little bit of everything. We’ve got some good chicken caesar salads, some sandwich options, flatbreads, wings, you know, all the necessities. And some of those items are available 24/7, so if you’re coming in off a late flight, we’ve still got you covered. And then we’ve got our grab and go market, which has some great options as well. Fresh pressed juices and sandwiches and things like that. But outside of the property, there’s really too many options to count. But some of my favorites, we’ve got Geronimo’s that just opened up. It’s a new tequila grilling bar, a beautiful patio and awesome spot to hang out. We’ve got Gabriela’s, which is an amazing modern Italian restaurant. And then right next to that is Hyde Park Steakhouse, which is a little bit more elevated. They’ve got a live piano player in the evening sometimes. It’s a really cool environment. Ryan Embree: Oh, awesome. And again, just steps away from the properties location, which makes it really nice. Local events, obviously big occupancy drivers for the hotel as well. What are some of those bigger draws that get your guests and travelers here? And then maybe some of those events, local events that you might not know about those secret finds? Taylor Wauhob: Absolutely. So our biggest one of course, is gonna be the Delray Beach Tennis Open. Happens for two weeks every February. We are the premier location for that. We’re the closest in walking distance. Just a block away from here and even if you don’t like tennis or don’t know anything about it, as I don’t, it is so much fun to attend these events. This past year, this city of Delray actually started a window decorating contest. So all of the local businesses participate, and we set up these huge window displays. We didn’t win this year. We’ve got a little chip on our shoulder about it, so we’re coming back strong next year. But it’s really fun for everyone to participate and vote. Ryan Embree: Awesome. And any kind of smaller local events that people might not know about? Taylor Wauhob: Yeah, absolutely. Again, we’re the best location for that too. Right across the street from us is the Arts Garage and Old School Square. So the Arts Garage is a really cool venue that offers comedy shows, live musicians, plays all kinds of different performances. It’s a really intimate venue

    17 min

  6. May 7

    202 - 2026 NYU IHIF Preview

    On May 31 – June 2, in NYC, the industry-defining NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference is taking place. In this Suite Spot episode we are pulling back the curtain on what to expect at this year’s landmark event. Joining us on the Suite Spot is Alexi Khajavi, President of Hospitality, Travel, and Real Estate at Questex. In this exclusive preview, Alexi breaks down the 2026 NYU IHIF agenda and shares why this year’s gathering is more critical than ever for hospitality leaders, hoteliers, and investors.  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. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree here with another hospitality event preview with a very familiar guest, very excited about this conversation. It’s spring, so right around the corner, we know what’s next, one of the premier events of the hospitality event calendar. Here to talk with me, a frequent guest, Alexi Khajavi, Questex, President, Hospitality and Real Estate. Alexi, thank you so much for joining me again here on the Suite Spot. Alexi Khajavi: Ryan, great to see you. Great to be back. Ryan Embree: Yes, it has been too long since we last spoke. We were out in Denver together at the Hospitality Show there on stage. Alexi, you were talking about everything that happened over the course of an entire year. I feel like from October to where we sit right now, in the middle of spring, it’s felt like a complete change. Whirlwind. I’m not even sure if when this episode’s released how much there could be even more change, but since then, so ground us. Give us a little sense of the state of hospitality and the sentence EE everything that you’re feeling right now. Alexi Khajavi: What we saw each other end of October in Denver, just at the conclusion of the hospitality show. And I guess, yeah, to your point, every day is, like an like a year or or seven years for that matter. So, six months on I mean, some consistencies, and I suppose the consistency is the volatility just in the geopolitics, macroeconomics, local state of affairs. And that does have a knock on effect on, on tourism and hospitality certainly. But some of the themes are consistent and that is that it is a, a continued challenging operational environment. rev pars have which we talked about rev pars, we were starting to see some normalization after they had been really on a only an up into the right performance for the prior three years. We started seeing that slowing down in Q3, Q4 of last year. And that has continued. One of the, the aspects, and a lot of people are talking about it, is a Ks shaped economy. And so you’re still seeing some, some interesting and pretty exciting, RevPAR ADR growth on the luxury side of that upper part of the K, if you will. And in the lower K of the market, you’re, you’re seeing increasing and continued challenges. Right? And I think everyone is sort of asking two questions around that, which is one is how much more runway of growth does the luxury market have? And then in on, on the sort of upper upscale midscale and economy, is the economic conditions going to encourage a trading down of the consumer. Speaking to David Pepper, for example, from Choice yesterday, they are seeing some positive RevPAR growth in that upper upscale, which, they’ve got a lot of hotel stock in. So I think the question is and we’re seeing some data that the customer is still traveling. They still see both on the leisure sh leisure side from the experience economy, travel as not being discretionary and not being something that they’re willing to give up, but something that they may trade down for make it more economical, domestic tourism, and drive to staycations those types of things versus the international travel, which certainly was in demand for the last three years. Corporate travel, I think that’s, that’s directly tied to GDP and the economy. But again, corporate travel has actually been coming back. It lagged leisure tourism recovery. So that’s been, performing quite well. Again, business is done face to face. It’s why we do live events in the, in, in, in the sectors in which we serve. So, continued operational challenge, questions around demand, a lot of impact from AI on demand, and how that demand is coming to your brand.com or to your property website, how they’re searching. SEO is in massive disruption. So, it’s not a typical recovery at this point. It’s, it’s fragmented, it’s bifurcated. It depends what part of the market you are in. There’s divergent recovery that’s sort of replacing that, that high tide lifts all boats. That uneven demand is translating into really kind of diversity of performance. And so it depends what markets you’re in. So the operating side is, is is tough. It is becoming harder and it is becoming more expensive. And yet there are some tools out there, AI and others, and technology generally that’s offering a lot of opportunity for optimization, efficiency, productivity in those areas, which will flow through to the bottom line. And then we’re also seeing, kind of a bifurcation in the capital markets. On, on, on the big side, there is a ton of capital that is chasing hospitality, moving from other asset classes whether it be office or retail or industrial. And they’re moving into hospitality for all the reasons that it’s operational real estate. It’s a tailwind market from the experience economy, despite the fact that we are cyclical, right? It goes up and down, but there’s a ton of liquidity. There’s a, there’s a wall of money that’s chasing, the asset class ranging from your owner operator franchisee, which is looking to grow from three properties to 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, whatever it may be, to institutional capital, which really never looked at a hospitality in general. So that’s creating more diversity in the type of investors which is coming into the market. So again, all of that challenge could unlock the transaction market. And then with those transactions, we see this regeneration of capital CapEx is deployed, and that’s really good for the industry. I mean, nobody likes to see falling net operating incomes, in running hotels. But that being said, it means that people have to be hyper-focused on how to run those hotels more efficiently. Why we run the hospitality show. And at the same time, NYU coming up, a lot of new capital coming into the market, a lot of capital chasing that, trying to figure out where the deals are, where to deploy that capital. And again, that’s why we have events like IHIF EMEA in Berlin, which was a few weeks ago. And to your point, NYU IHIF coming up in five weeks. Ryan Embree: It’s so many storylines in our industry right now that we’re chasing. We’d even touch on the upcoming summer, summer World Cup and events like the Olympics here in a couple years that are also gonna have a massive shift in international travel, which has been down. So again, so many challenges, but also think opportunistic time right now in hospitality and being at a spot like NYU is one of those places to capture those opportunities, to learn more about that from your peers, to have those conversations. Networking, I mean, I’ll, I’ll turn our attention there with some impressive numbers from the event. 2200 delegates, 450 plus C-suite executives, 400 plus investors, and $132 billion in assets under management there. So it’s impressive, like I said, impressive feat and number that you have all gathered in, one of the hospitality meccas of the world, which is New York City. What makes this event different from other hospitality events, and why is it a really a can’t miss for, for hoteliers investors this year? Alexi Khajavi: Yeah, I would say it’s a couple of things. One which you touched upon, which is, New York City financial capital of the world, it is the gateway city for the us it is, a hospitality driven economy. But it’s also one of the most thriving, financial market economies, in the US and certainly the world as well. So, that if you were to think, where do you hold an investment forum in any sector, but for that matter, in hospitality, New York, no better place, right? The money is there, the banks are there, the professional services are there, the brokers are there and many of the, the top brands are on the Eastern Shore board from DC and Maryland, up to the city here. So, it is just simply having it in New York. Second, it’s got a 40 year history associated with the New York University and the School of Hospitality and the John Tisch Center of Hospitality. It’s the only event where a portion of every dollar and revenue spent there goes towards supporting the next generation of hospitality professionals. So, we continue to partner with NYU and the School of Professional Studies. There, it’s an incredible partnership, which we’re just privileged and delighted to continue. And the fact that labor and talent is a massive challenge for the industry that, that you’re, you’re supporting a school which is turning out some of the most talented future hospitality professionals in the world by attending or sponsoring that’s goodwill. And, and we’re just delighted to be able to support that. So, that, again, I think is another anchor for why NYU is just such a special event and is different from a lot of the other good events that are, that are out there. And then lastly, NYU is part of a global portfolio of hospitality investment forums. And so, we have our event in Berlin. We have an event in Manchester, UK. We have an event in Athens, Greece, which is focused on the branded resi and the resort, segment, which is international and frankly, one of the fastest growing segments in hospitality. And then we have our Asia event in

    42 min

  7. Apr 29

    201 - TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl: Georgia State University - Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration

    In this episode of the Suite Spot podcast, we’re heading to the prestigious Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration at Georgia State University. We sat down with the school’s Director, Dr. Benjamin Lawrence, to go behind the scenes of one of the country’s top hospitality programs. In this video, we explore: How Georgia State is shaping the next generation of industry leaders.  The innovative curriculum driving modern hospitality education. Insights into the future of the hospitality profession. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just passionate about the industry, you won’t want to miss this deep dive into hospitality excellence! 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 for another edition of our TMG Campus Crawl Series. We are here in the heart of downtown Atlanta at Georgia State with Dr. Ben Lawrence, Director of the Day School of Hospitality Administration. Thank you so much for hosting us and being a hospitable guest. Dr. Benjamin Lawrence : Happy to have you down here. Go Panthers! Ryan Embree: Well, we’re excited about this. You know, we’re here in Atlanta. We’re gonna talk about the location. But before we get rolling with this episode, Dr. Lawrence, this is your first time on the podcast. We would love to hear. Hospitality is all about collection of stories, right. Of individuals. Share a little bit about your hospitality journey and how you came here to the Georgia State, Day School of Hospitality. Dr. Benjamin Lawrence : So, people sometimes are surprised about my past because I was born in Singapore and I grew up in Indonesia, and I came to the States when I was 18, and I came to the States because I wanted to go to the best hotel school in the world. And so, when I was 17, I went to one of those high school, like, what are you gonna be when you grow up? And this Swiss hotelier said, you wanna go to hotel school? Go to Cornell. So, I applied to Cornell and I arrived in the States when I was 18, and I went to Cornell. And so, I went to hotel school there met my wife at, she was a hotelier at Cornell. After I graduated, we ran an inn in upstate New York, historic inn, went back to get my MBA, then worked, in a couple of different industries for a while. Went back to Indonesia to help my family and their business, and then came back to the States. Then I worked in a community college, a couple of community colleges, teaching hospitality. Then I went back and got my PhD at Boston University and my PhD, focus was in franchising. And I know we’ll talk a little more about franchising in a minute. But, franchising is the primary form of distribution of our product. After I graduated from Boston University, I got a job back at Cornell. So I went back there and I was a food and beverage professor. People always laugh. What was your professor? Food and Beverage? So I taught the most of the freshman students at Cornell, Food and Beverage Management. And I also taught, a multi unit franchising course there. And then this position at Georgia State opened up and a benefactor of ours gave money for an inapt professor in franchising. And there’s nothing better as an academic to get inapt professorship in the area that you study. And the weather in Atlanta is a lot better than the weather in Ithaca. Ryan Embree: I don’t know this week my, uh, my… Dr. Benjamin Lawrence : True. We’ve been cold, but it’s gonna be 80 degrees. 80 degrees this weekend. So when my kids moved down here from Ithaca, they were like, oh my Lord, you can play soccer in January, and we have a pool. So, I really loved working here in Atlanta. Georgia State is a very dynamic place. It’s a large state university, so very different from Cornell, but we really transformed the lives of our students here. So I’ve been here, I was here for seven years as a faculty member, and then just last July I became the director of the the Day School of Hospitality. So, we’re working on a lot of interesting stuff here. I’m excited about the position and excited about the potential of Georgia State and Atlanta. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Excited to share it with our audience and your story. Dr. Lawrence is a true indication of what hospitality is international. Right? We say that all the time. Hospitality is the language spoken all over the world. Your journey is certainly a reflection of that across the globe and, and now across the country here. So, share a little bit about the school’s history, Georgia State’s history, and where you think that this program is unique based on maybe others across the country. Dr. Benjamin Lawrence : So Georgia State was founded, the university was founded in 1913 as the kind of nighttime business school of Georgia Tech. And that has evolved over time. We’re a very large university. We are over 50,000 students here. And we’re a very diverse university. So we graduate more African Americans at Georgia State than any other university in the states. So we are a majority minority institution and a research one institution, so an R1 institution. So, we are not only a research powerhouse, but we also transformed the lives of our students. So we are the Day School of Hospitality, was founded in 1973, as a school of Hospitality, and was named in the eighties by the founder of Days Inn, Cecil B Day. So that really ties back into the franchising story, into the entrepreneur story. You had a local Georgian building, a brand that became worldwide brand, which is amazing. We joined the College of Business, and now we’re a school embedded in a business school. So there’s two forms of hospitality programs. There’s hospitality programs like UNLV or University of Houston. They’re standard loan colleges. And then there’s schools like ours that are embedded in a business school. So those are two basic models. There’s advantages and disadvantages to both. One of the advantages that we have is that we are in a college of business that allows our students to take many different courses from marketing department to computer information systems. One of the disadvantages is that we tend to be fairly small. So cost guide programs in business schools tend to be smaller, than standalone colleges. I took over the program in July, and we’re working on our strategic plan right now to grow the school to get more students. Because industry’s always looking for great hospitality students. And also looking to expose hospitality to students in other disciplines. And so if you’re a real estate student, if you’re a finance student, if you’re a student, a psychology student, right? So getting those students among all university students interested in hospitality. And I think that’s, that’s a model in which, will help grow enrollment. Well, only our majors and our minors, but also students just interested in hospitality. Many of our students are working in hospitality, right? They’re working as waiters or they’re working at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. So, they’re exposed to the industry especially being here in Atlanta. Ryan Embree: Even if they’re not in hospitality jobs, you could still be using hospitality skills within those jobs. Which is very important to share because, I think there’s that common misconception of, you think of a hospitality or a hotel worker, you think of all the disadvantages sometimes, right? Of like the holidays, the long hours. It’s a 24 hour business. But at the same time, there’s these different departments, whether it’s accounting, marketing, all the HR, these different avenues within hospitality, that you can be exposed to franchising. And being, which we’re gonna talk about. But one of the things is you look for that strategic plan, I think is a huge advantage, is obviously your location. Right? You’re in the heart of downtown Atlanta. It’s massive headquarters for global brands, sports venues, I mean, state of the art sports venue. You got World Cup coming here this summer. Talk to us about how you’ve used this location to your benefit for the students and prospective students. Dr. Benjamin Lawrence : Yeah. I mean, we have people on campus all the time. We have headquarters for ISG is here. We have, you know, we can walk from our campus to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, state Farm. We have the World Congress Center here, which is one of the largest convention centers at the day school. We don’t really have that many physical facilities. We don’t have a restaurant, we don’t have a hotel, but we don’t need to because we have Atlanta. Right. So that is a huge advantage for us. When we want people to come to campus to speak, they just need to just turn the corner and they’re here. And so we get great speakers to come to campus. Our students are engaged with the local industries here. Atlanta is the capital of franchising in the us Right? So if you think about the brands that we have here, Chick-fil-A, inspire brands, Rourke Capital. Rourke Capital, which is one of the largest private equity companies that owns Inspire and go-to Foods and over 50 franchise brands. And Atlanta’s growing. Right? And so if you’re a student and you come here, you can stay here afterwards, right? So if you’re a student at Cornell and you go to Ithaca, you’re probably not staying in Ithaca, right. Because there’s not much there. People have to get on a plane and they gotta fly to Ithaca to be in class. And so that is a huge advantage for us, right? Absolutely. For universities that are based in cities where people wanna work, that is a hug

    34 min

  8. Apr 23

    200 - Suite Spot 200

    Celebrating 200 episodes of the Suite Spot! 🎉✨ The hospitality landscape has undergone a radical transformation since our first episode. In this milestone celebration, host Ryan Embree takes a retrospective look at the Suite Spot’s journey from Episode 1 to Episode 200. The conversation dives deep into the accelerating pace of technology adoption and the digital transformation that has redefined the guest experience over the last several years in hospitality. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or are just joining the journey, tune in to hear what Ryan is most looking forward to as the Suite Spot embarks on its next 100 episodes. 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. Cassady Quintana: Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Suite Spot. My name is Cassady Quintana and I’m the brand ambassador at Travel Media Group. Today’s episode is a little bit different, but very special as we celebrate our 200th episode. We’re flipping the script a little bit. Instead, our usual host, Ryan Embree, is stepping into the guest spot. Over the past 200 episodes, Ryan has led countless conversations with industry experts, leaders, and tons of insights. But today we are turning the spotlight on him. So whether this is your first episode with us or your 200th, we’re super excited you’re here. And Ryan, welcome to the Suite Spot. Ryan Embree: Thank you. Thank you. It’s, it’s a bit odd to be on the side of the mic, but I like it. Let’s do this. Cassady Quintana: I’m super excited. I feel like, you know, you’ve led countless conversations and, but not many people may know much about your story. So, before we jump into a little bit deeper conversation, tell us a little bit about your hospitality journey and what led you to this spot. Ryan Embree: Yeah, so, you know, I’ve had the, the privilege and opportunity to start my hospitality journey and career, to be honest with you, like a lot of our guests have, which is right on the front line of hospitality. And I started as a kind of a pool bar server out at the Gaylord Texan, a beautiful, beautiful property out there in Grapevine, Texas, which I still visit to this day as a guest. And then had the opportunity to work at some incredible, resorts out here in Orlando where I, where I’m based point Orlando, where I was a bellman, and then eventually a front desk agent. And then the Grand Bohemian, which is a downtown property, very different from the resort property that you see in Orlando. Gave me a completely different type of experience traveler segment. Again, started there as a bellman, but also, moved through operations to the front desk as well. It was some great experience that kind of got me there. I took a pause from hospitality and went into kinda, apartments and residential for a couple years up in Atlanta, but always had a passion for being in hospitality and eventually got the opportunity to come back down here to Travel Media Group, here where we partner with so many hotels and resorts across the globe. And then kind of led to this podcast, which we’re gonna talk about today, which is, which is all of the subject matter today. Cassady Quintana: Yes, absolutely. It’s awesome hearing your history. Because like you said, it’s similar to a lot of the guests that you have on the podcast. You know, you kind of maybe don’t know if that’s gonna be your passion, but you get into it and then you end up never leaving it. So, as you stepped into this role at Travel Media Group, you started on one side and you ended up in marketing. What was kind of the inspiration behind the Suite Spot and how, how did that come to fruition? Cassady Quintana: Yeah, honestly, it was inspired by just trying to educate hoteliers and hospitality about digital marketing a a topic and a subject that changes so frequently and so often, right? I mean, I think some of the episodes that we did at the very beginning of this podcast aren’t even relevant today because of the amount of change and transformation that has happened in this industry. And it makes for an extremely exciting and compelling subject matter to talk to those who are on the front lines and who are experiencing it from day to day. So it always keeps me on my toes about the subjects and topics that we talk about. But, you know, a lot of the series came from inspiration based on the conversations that we’re having every single day. You know, some of those leaders that I talked to, so many of their stories started on the front lines and, and they kind of fell into the career, like you were saying, Cassady. And what I wanted to do is see, you know, we have such amazing hospitality schools over the, the entire country, especially right here in Florida. One of the main inspirations of our TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl was to showcase that, to show young hospitality professionals that this doesn’t just need to be a summer job that you fall into and are there for a 30 year career. There’s career paths, there’s growth here, and it’s such an exciting industry. So a lot of the inspiration for some of the series and subject matter that we do know, another one with our Spotlight series where I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to showcase some of the most incredible hotels are based on the fact that at Travel Media Group, we work and we partner with those hotels and resorts. Whether it’s managing their guest feedback or whether it’s managing their social media and creating a unique and content for them, whether it’s video or social content, and to be able to showcase some of those properties has just been such an amazing experience. And something, you know, I learn something every single day. Cassady Quintana: Oh, yeah, me too. And I’m glad you brought up this series that we do on the podcast, because that kind of leads me into my next question. If you had to take everything you’ve been able to do over the last 200 episodes, what would be your favorite part about hosting the Suite Spot? Ryan Embree: Yeah, I think we’re gonna talk about it here in a minute, but I think it’s about just the, the transformation that has happened since the beginning of this podcast. You know, Suite Spot episode one, which I encourage any of my listeners. Do not go back and listen to that. It was my first time doing this two, here we are at Suite Spot 200, 8 years later, and how much has changed? I love kind of leaning into that and seeing, just in the, something that I remember in Hospitality school, my professors and teachers telling me that hospitality is literally the oldest profession out there for sure. It was the first thing hosting people and how much has changed just in an eight year span in 200 episodes, but also learning about people’s journeys and stories. I know I shared a little bit about mine, but it truly is one of my favorite questions to open up the podcast with talking about people and their journey because it is such a melting pot of experience that we have in hospitality. It makes for some really compelling content. And you’ll find that a lot of the guests that I have have a particular mentor or an experience that really opens up their eyes, Cassady, and changes and transforms the way that they view their career. Whether, and that’s why I always encourage, whether you’re a young hospitality professional or a more seasoned one, look for those opportunities to connect with someone there, because so many of those stories have someone that’s been meant so much to them, right. Has been kind of the guide to them, their Sherpa, so to speak, on their hospitality journey, and has led them to a place that they have just this incredible passion and love for our industry, which, so I love to hear that. And just again, the melting pot of brands. You know, when someone says, I worked at Hilton for 10 years and then moved to IHG or Marriott and, and I was, you know, an independent hotelier, and then I moved to a more branded hotel. I worked at a small, independent, or a major convention resort. All of those experiences shape who you are as a hospitality professional. It gives you lessons. So it kind of like makes this skillset that’s so unique that no two hospitality professionals are the same. And I find it absolutely fascinating to dig into that. Cassady Quintana: No, I love that because every conversation you’ve had listening to it, it’s, you know, the principles of hospitality stay the same, but their stories are completely different, like you said. And even one person story that at a boutique hotel is completely different than their experience at a branded hotel. So how much, you know, again, those principles stay the same, but how diverse your career and hospitality can be in the multiple different departments you can even be in with one hotel. So, you know, you mentioned how much hospitality has changed since you started the Suite Spot. What’s kind of the biggest change that you’ve seen either in digital marketing or hospitality in general since episode one to now episode 200? Ryan Embree: I think it is the digital marketing aspect of it and the technology. I mean, I don’t think we can do a Suite Spot episode now without talking about AI and technology. Right? And you are spot on Cassady with the, the premise of the principles of hospitality have stayed the same, but the way that we engage with it, the way that our travelers engage with technology or the expectations of technology have completely flipped upside down. And like I mentioned before, I think some of the episodes that I did early on educating some of these hoteliers, I mean, we had episodes very early on, Cassady, that we’re talking about the importance of having managing your reputation on review sites, the importance of posting on social media.

    22 min
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