GMH Hotels: Aman Called the Police on a Creator.

Speaker A: Sam, um,

Speaker B: Good morning.

Speaker A: Good morning, Sarah. Uh, how are we doing today?

Speaker B: Doing all right. How are you? I love it when you have, like, a little bit of a different background.

Speaker A: Yeah, we got the Miami background. That's the Paramount building. I live right next to it in the Edgewater neighborhood. Everyone. So if you want to come stalk, I'm right over here.

Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. No, I wasn't trying to draw attention so people can stalk you.

Speaker A: The home background today? Uh, not in the office one. They're doing construction again in the office. They're trying to. They're building a podcast studio, so we'll see how it actually looks over there. So maybe. Okay, I could use that. Um, but I also got. We got the puppy here. Ryder. The puppy is sleeping in his crate. He's on nap time, and he may wake up during the show. I don't know. We'll have to see what happens on

Speaker B: this live, especially if he starts howling. Oh, my God.

Speaker A: Let me.

Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. So you have been a proud puppy owner for how many days now?

Speaker A: It, uh, is going on to day five right now, very successfully, I'd like to say. I think part of the hospitality training, also parent, uh, training has got me ready for this. It's like having a toddler. Yeah, I know. People are like, ah, you know, it's different. No, it's about the same. Keep them on a schedule. Got to feed him at the same time, put him at nap time. We get it going. And I'm carrying him around in a puppy satchel. People see me in Miami because he doesn't have his shots yet. I'm just carrying him around a little satchel around town.

Speaker B: I know. Get your little puppy. Puppy purse.

Speaker A: Yes, my puppy purse. Or just like in, uh, the movie the Hangover. My satchel. Like Indiana Jones.

Speaker B: Yeah, your sat. Your satchel. Okay.

Speaker A: But it's been fun. I've been fun having. Adding a dog to the world. Haven't had one since, uh, my mid-20s, so it's good to add it this time. And so I'm trying to think. He might need his own Instagram. I don't know. We got to get him to the hotels. We got to figure that out. So I'm going to have to ask you for some help and how you became such a big star. I got to figure that out for this dog, this mother fluffer.

Speaker B: Oh, mother fluffer. Oh, my goodness. This is exciting.

Speaker A: Yes, I'm very excited to add the dog. But what about you? You were, uh, having some fun, it looks like. Were you out and about?

Speaker B: Oh, uh, yeah. What did I do? I don't know. What have I done?

Speaker A: You're out and about. You were with some very cool people.

Speaker B: Oh, you mean last night? I. I was with some friends from Miami, actually.

Speaker A: I know.

Speaker B: So, um, it's a big travel week in Las Vegas. It's virtuoso travel week. Um, but this is not the reason why these individuals are in town. But, um. But yeah. So Andrea's here. Our good friend Andrea from the tourism lab. Um, and. And some others. And so it was great. We ended up getting together for dinner last evening, which was fun. Oh, my God.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: I'm going to make this a podcast about pets and hotels. And I'm going to be one of those guys. Like how pet friendly is this hotel? What do we get?

Speaker B: Do they think of everything? Do they think of the dog bowl? Do they think of a proper bed?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I definitely overspent on mine. I went a little crazy. So if you can't see, I have a yeti bed and a yeti dog walls. This dog.

Speaker B: Did you just not know any better or were you.

Speaker A: Oh, just like it's gonna lay around. I want to see something cool and that's okay.

Speaker B: Okay. Okay. All right, all right. That's fair. That's totally fair. And oh my goodness.

Speaker A: Enough coffee talk. Let me get my last sip. You want coffee talk?

Speaker B: It's puppy talk. Puppy talk. That's. That's what that is.

Speaker A: But listen, Sarah, honestly.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: About this is brought to you by Stay Fi. Okay. Stay Fi helps short term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wi fi portals, email marketing and guest data tools that turn one time bookers. What do they do. Into repeat guests. Sarah. So start growing your direct booking revenue today at stayfi.com backslash Good Morning Hospitality. That stays Good morning hospitality. It's a pro transition.

Speaker B: I don't know if you see that, uh, was fantastic. Fantastic. My m. Goodness bad.

Speaker A: Uh, King. I'll take it.

Speaker B: If anybody. If anybody wants to have any bedtime stories, read to them. Steve is available for that too.

Speaker A: I. Listen, I'm ready to do it. Sarah wants me to do. She has her favorite book she wants me to read her. I got it.

Speaker B: No. Oh my gosh.

Speaker A: I can't.

Speaker B: Uh, anyway, well, with that, why don't we go ahead and get into, um, our first topic here. This is kind of interesting. It's actually kind of, um, uh, going on from our topic from last week, uh, with I. So for ihg, while rivals have Been cutting fees. IHG is taking a different route on owner economics. So we talked last week about Marriott launching a rebate program. Hilton also cutting fees across seven brands last week. But IHG is basically taking a, uh, different approach. So rather than reducing what it charges, ihe is arguing that it's technology. Basically the technology that they have is actually the real answer to owner economics. Um, so I, I kind of appreciate this approach. They're saying they're better approach.

Speaker A: The money you're giving us, we're actually investing. And how are we investing it? We're putting it into social media, we're putting it into marketing, we're putting it into training, we're putting it into these programs that help save you money at the property level so you don't have to hire people. And I like that kind of, you know, idea where they're saying, hey, we're here to support you. This is where your money's going. And it's also a way for them not to cut those fees and show them, hey, we're actually creating value for you.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So I'm curious to see which one goes where. I'm just cutting fees because sometimes I see that it's almost like a race to the bottom.

Speaker B: It's, yeah, of course, you know, like,

Speaker A: all right, keep cutting fee, cutting fee, cutting fees. So Marriott does it, Hilton does it, Hyatt does it. But ISU saying no, no, no, we're not going to cut, we're going to show all the value we're creating for you. Um, totally.

Speaker B: Well, and then that's where the challenge is. I mean, I love that you brought that up. Is, I mean basically the challenge with that is that for owners that need that sort of like financial relief now this might be a nice thing to like, nice talk. But they're like, we need relief now. We're not necessarily looking for relief in two years, three years. So that, that is a challenge. But I do, that being said, I do love that there is that longer term approach that IHG has because obviously this better technology is really gonna save owners more, uh, money and generate more revenue over time, which is the greater goal. So for those that are having that longer, longer, um, uh, view and approach, I think it's, it's kind of great that also what's been interesting is that IHG has been more selective in adding hotels. Uh, and so, and it's because it's again, it's very strategic. Not to say that adding more is not strategic, but for them, they want to make sure that it really is the right property and it adds value. Um, and it's with every new property they're actually increasing profits as opposed to um, just making the company look bigger just because they have, they have more rooms, you know, so it's very specific.

Speaker A: I'm a fan of IHG and they're growing in you know, areas that we may not pick. We always think like Intercontinental and Six Senses and some of their high end brands but they have Holiday Inns and that's where they're seeing a lot of growth too. But one thing I'm curious to see is that they're rolling out their new PMS. So by the end of the year they're saying 4,000 hotels should have their new PMS in place that they remember they built from the ground up adding all this technology. Um, and so they're running they said 150 million pricing calculations a day using that software and personalization tools for 160 million loyalty members that uh, are all designed to make the individual hotel more profitable. So not just a system. And I can tell you I think that's going to speed up. Like we just started doing that in my little management company where we're connecting everything into AI so we can see, you know, we use Slack to communicate. We have different tools that tell us what's going on in the, in our rooms. We have our PMS, we have our internal SOPs and we connected everything. So it's giving us real time solutions based off of what's happening in the day, using our SOPs and personalizing it for the guest conversation. So it's wild to see how powerful this can be in just my little company. So I'm excited to see what happens when you plug this into 160 million people or the 300 million that Marriott has or China H World that has you know, the 4 or 500 million. So it's going to be incredible to see what these tools can do as uh, technology gets faster and faster.

Speaker B: Totally. And I'll do a quick shout out to an IHG property because I was just in New York for um, a bit of time and I stayed twice, I stayed two weekends in a row at the Kimpton era hotel. Um, it was great. It was brand new hotel, they opened in March and uh, and it's right across from Rockefeller Center. Fantastic, fantastic property. And they re. You know, um, I don't have, I mean I don't have a huge number of pointer nights with ihg, but I'm, but I, I really enjoyed staying there and I thought that they just, they really delivered to the point that I was like, oh, because I'm going back to New, uh, York, not this weekend, but the following weekend, I'm like, oh, should I do that like, again, you know, or try another one of the properties? Because I really, I'm a big fan of Kimpton. I mean, they've just, they've obviously done, uh, a great. I haven't met a Kipton I didn't like. Let's just put it like that.

Speaker A: Yeah. One of my faves is right here in Miami beach, the Kimpton Surf Comber. So shout out to their general manager, Mohan Koka. He does a great job. Um, they're fantastic property, so they do a great job. A lot of Kimpton loved here today.

Speaker B: So, yeah, Kimpton ihg all the love. Well, why don't we go into our next topic if you were okay with that? Um, I was gonna try and play around with this before, so hopefully. So thank you. Oh, my gosh. So Google is bringing Agentic AI to Maps and hotel search. So, um, Google basically is launching Agentic a capabilities inside Google Maps and hotel search, so allowing travelers to basically describe a trip in natural language and then receive end to end planning assistance, including hotel recommendations with. I love this live availability and pricing. Also things to do navigation, all of that within a single conversation interface. So did you play around with this already?

Speaker A: I did. You have to do a little search for it. So if you have the Google Maps app on your phone, um, there's a little button at the top that says AI. Um, question or AI. You see it when you get in there? Yeah, the exact question that the article asked. Um, and it showed me a couple of great properties. And then I got even a little further into it. I said, you know what, I don't want to stay there. I want to stay at the best hotel in all of Miami and Miami Beach. And I was curious to see what it would serve up if it was just one answer, if it would give a lot. And I kind of gave them my general area that I was staying in. And they gave up four hotels.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: Number two, the four season surf club. Number three, the Satai. And then number four, I forgot what they had mentioned, but I was like, all right, it knows it's reading guest reviews. So it shows you. I'm reading guest reviews, I'm reading sentiment. I'm looking for the star ratings.

Speaker B: And then where is it on the Google Maps you have to do on

Speaker A: your app on your phone?

Speaker B: Oh, so I'm on my desktop. I can't do it.

Speaker A: I don't know. I didn't try it. So I don't want to get us in any kind of trouble with Google. Uh, but if you go to your Google app, see if I can show there's an Ask Maps button right at the top.

Speaker B: Oh, there you go. Ask Maps. There you go, guys.

Speaker A: And then you can ask them what you want to ask them. And it pulls up. So best hotel in Miami beach for under, I don't know, $650. I love great spa. Let's see what it does again with a great spot. And we hit search. And then it starts thinking, let's see what it does here, everybody. Let's see what it pulls up for us as it goes through. What did it pull up here? The Elite Wellness Hydrotherapy, um, Sanctuary at the Standard Spa, Miami Beach. So, all right, I said I wanted a spa, good value, under $650. It gave me the standard that. Then it gave me, you know, one of my favorites, the carillon right underneath.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: And great property, by the way, backwards for me. Look at this. A, um, Nobu, my old hotel.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Does have a great spa. Uh, so. And then Fina, under that. And then Miami Beach Edition. So it gave us some rankings. It shows it on the map, shows you the guest reviews. So I like it, but it's hard to find. That's the one thing you just said, like, where do you find it?

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I will say this because I just happen to be on my. On my computer, but they. There was something on my computer that also ties into this. I could easily find when I toggled on the left side, um, your preferences. And that actually ties into this. Is that what's great is that basically it's learning, uh, your preferences, um, over time. So they will actually prioritize hotels that. That match what you generally prefer, which is great that they're. That they're doing. Um, and, um. So. So, yeah. But why this is also important for hotels is that you need to make sure that your information is up to date. Because if anything that you have about your property is outdated or incomplete, the AI platform that they will have on Google Maps may actually overlook it entirely. So again, another.

Speaker A: Reviews are big. So just like we go back to where we were. You know, I hate to age us, but when TripAdvisor was the big thing and you have to have a good TripAdvisor score or you were going to fall apart. Would you ever have that in your hotels where it was like that was the main focus of the month, whatever your TripAdvisor score was and where you were ranked in TripAdvisor for the city.

Speaker B: I had to respond to the TripAdvisor reviews, which is not exactly part of what, um, a concierge normally does. But I was told that I write good, so I would, uh, girl, you

Speaker A: write good, you should answer these messages.

Speaker B: Thanks for picking up what I was laying down there. Uh, but yeah, so I, I just remember being like, why am I responding anyway? But yeah, but so it's so definitely super important when it, when it comes to that. Uh, and you know, it's interesting because I don't know how many people already do go to like Google flights or are just already looking at booking their travel through Google. I feel like a lot of people, a lot of depending on how you search and how you like to look for places and inspiration of places to stay. The point is, is that this will probably increase more users booking and searching through Google. So I mean, in this time where everybody is fighting for a piece of the pie of where can they keep those travelers that are looking for inspiration and looking to book? I mean, this is, this is a really big move for Google for sure.

Speaker A: No, it's huge. They want to control it, right? There's so many places out there, but I think they're in a great shape. Like everyone, if you have Gmail and like I use, I don't know what you use, but I use Gmail and the Google Calendar and Google Drive, Google search, it starts to learn everything about you. And so soon I can really see it say, hey, we recommending. We see you're traveling to this conference. Here's the flight and hotel. I think it's going to get to that point. Um, whether this year or the early next year, it's already seeing it in my world where I've asked for every day to get a daily briefing of what's in my email and my Slack channels and notion and all these places. And it gives it to me every single morning. Like, here's what's important, here's what you need to work on and.

Speaker B: Are you talking about with chat myself?

Speaker A: Yeah, I'm just saying so because of

Speaker B: our conversation a couple days ago. I linked all. Not all, but I linked a bunch of extra, extra things. And it has been very useful. So thank you for. I'm publicly thanking you for that and

Speaker A: coach you along anytime, Sarah. And if any listener wants to see how I do it and how you could operate, let me know. I'm happy to answer any questions because it really has saved me hours a day for sure.

Speaker B: It is, it's super helpful. Um, well before we go on, um, I'm going to take this over here.

Speaker A: Let's see everyone.

Speaker B: So before we move on, we're going to do a quick shout out to our sponsor. Built. They are helping restaurants and hotel F and B teams better understand their guests and create more personalized experiences that drive repeat visits. So if you care about loyalty and guest experience, it's worth checking out. Head to joinbuilt.com gmh. That's joinbuilt.com backslash gmh. Thank you guys. Built. So there you go. Maybe I, my, my little bedtime reading stories.

Speaker A: I think we created our own app. You could choose or Steve to read you a bedtime story.

Speaker B: Yeah, right. Totally, totally great.

Speaker A: All right.

Speaker B: This is a good one. This is a hot topic, so I feel like everybody is probably aware of this one way or another if you have been living on social media. Um, wow. Uh, our good Aman Aman threatened to call the police on a creator and the industry should be paying attention. So quick backstory. Uh, do you want to actually do the quick backstory on this?

Speaker A: I'll do this one. So we got a creator, Brian Walker.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Uh, he's a YouTuber. You know, a personal brand expert. Hasn't, um, worked in hotels or hospitality before according to his background and bio. Um, but he does very detailed reviews of luxury hotels, yachts, restaurants. Um, some are good and some are well balanced. Others are scathing. Um, and so that's the background of who we have here. Um, Aman opened up their newest hotel. Um, what was the name of this one? Sarah, you gotta help.

Speaker B: Ah, Amanbari.

Speaker A: Yeah. So brand new hotel. He booked it, he pays. He booked it for 6,000 a night. So big number in advance said, hey, I want to come and film. And they sent him an email saying, hey, they'll help him get everything set up for him. Um, I'm sure he was talking to the marketing department, got everything taken care of. And then upon arrival to the gate, they said, you know, you have to check in at the gate because it's a very exclusive place. They say they don't have his reservation available for him. What are you talking about? Here's my emails. I even got one, you know, this morning saying, welcome to the hotel. The security officer says, I'm sorry, we don't have one. Asked to talk to his supervisor, the supervisor comes out for security. They say, you don't have a reservation here, you are not welcome. To come in, which then brings a third person out who says they're going to call the police if he doesn't leave. Um, now the second person said in the video, hey, we sent you an email the night before. Take a look at that email. Which basically said, hey, the hotel is, you know, we're not fully ready. We had to cancel some reservations and unfortunately your reservation has been canceled the night before. So hotel didn't handle it great.

Speaker B: Uh, the hotel did not. Also, for those that great at all, not good. Maybe he did not book properly. And he absolutely did because I watched the video also. And as soon as he pulled up and. And they were. His driver was checking in. By the way, the property is not close to the airport, so it's a solid. I think it was like two hour is drive, um, you know, into the specific part of Mexico. Uh, so there's that too. But one, uh, of the first guys that came up to him was like, oh, yes, I know who you are. So. So, I mean, this is what I know happened.

Speaker A: Not know I can guarantee happened. Okay. So I happened to stumble upon this guy. I don't know him. I was, I watched, you know, tours of hotels and videos on the weekend with a morning coffee.

Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, and it's Ryan Walker, by the way.

Speaker A: Ryan Walker. Sorry, Ryan Walker.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, I watched. I just happened to stumble across his video of the Four Seasons yacht. Brand new experience. I have some friends that worked hard on it for years, put their heart and soul into it. He got on, on the very first voyage and tore it apart like everything was terrible. There was not one good thing about it. It got millions of views and impacted that Four Seasons yachts bookings and revenue going forward. Right. So it just shows you the power of one person and what they can do.

Speaker B: Sure.

Speaker A: Um, and I look back at saying, man, this is someone. I guess I understand you're paying thousands and thousands of dollars to go to an opening, but we all understand that at an opening it may not be perfect. I've opened hotels many times and it is the hardest thing you could ever do. And you really want to do a good job and put out there the best.

Speaker B: Everybody knows you got to work out the kinks. And it takes anywhere from six months

Speaker A: to a year to really come in and destroy everything. That's what this Four Seasons video that he did on his yacht, um, which got him the most views of any of his videos. Because in our world of headlines, negativity, and big things like that with big names usually grab those views. So I Will guarantee I'm not a part of that. I'm on team. But they. And you know, you worked in a luxury hotel. The executives meet the day before. Who are, uh, VIPs checking in. Who do we have coming in? Got to Ryan Walker. Who is this guy? Ryan Walker is filming a video. I didn't approve filming any video. Let me see this YouTube video of the four seasons. Absolutely not coming into this place. Place.

Speaker B: And that's why that happens. Oh, I'm sure.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But I do feel like it could have been handled. I mean we all.

Speaker A: Well, yeah, it was not handled well by the hotel side.

Speaker B: Uh, they sent him an email. There was no phone call. There should have been a phone call ahead of time.

Speaker A: Like actually call the hotel. He tried to call the hotel from his phone. I kept going straight to voicemail. Then he used his photographer's phone and it went straight through. And then they're like, oh, so and so is not available the gm. So that part definitely not handled well. If you're going to do that. I've kicked people out of hotels. You show up face to face and say you're no longer welcome here for how you're behaving. Right. And you got to show your face and you got to have that call and make that happen.

Speaker B: And yeah, as uncomfortable as that is, it's like, hey, look, you know, based off of your re. Whatever your recent videos, this, um, we feel like if you came right now, it wouldn't be a fair representation station just because we are so newly opened. We would love to extend you to come back. I would almost. What I would probably do is as a hotel owner or the GM is say, um, we understand that this is last minute. We, you know, we would cover your fees. We will invite you back for a complimentary two night stay in whatever, like in a month or so, two months, whatever. Um, and you, you handle it that way. I mean, but I obviously they notoriously do not give out comp stays. That's not the type of property that they are.

Speaker A: But as I'm building a property, you know, I'm putting, I put in now three years into this and we're starting demolition and we're starting to build and hopefully, hopefully open in a year. Like I can only imagine if Ryan Walker showed up to my first week open and then try to destroy everything I built with a negative review. Um, from his point of view, never working in a hotel, never having spent time in operations, just trying to build his personal brand and viewership, uh, to, you know, get the revenue from his videos. And he says, I'm warning people not to come. I'm trying to give a very clear view of what it is. I just don't love people like that. And I hate to say it like this. We were talking a little bit backstage. It's almost like the athletes that go out there and play sports and then have these people comment that has never played the sport. And so I get a little bit on that sometimes. I know you have a different point of view on it too, so I get a little confident about someone like that.

Speaker B: I will say this. Just because you have an opinion does not make you an expert. And we have a very easy. I see this a lot because I'm obviously in the travel creator space and I actually kind of alienated a couple of people several years ago, and this was in coming out of the pandemic, because I would see travel creators getting complimentary stays or this or that, and then they would talk about things and I'm like, wait a second. Like, you're. I understand that you want to point out faults or things that aren't great because then that makes you sound like you're more of an expert, but you. It just sounds like you're complaining and you're a whiny little. You m. Know. And I remember I actually made that comment on a story of mine, and I remember several of the individuals that saw it, because it wasn't just one person that inspired me to go on this, make this comment. There were several people that I saw in a row. And I'm like, all you guys are on free trips. And like, you're, you're, you're kind of complaining like, what, what do. You don't even know what it takes to operate a hotel.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Um, and so, and trust me, I've also thought about this. When it comes to my content is because people are like, oh, my gosh, you're always so nice. And you don't really, you don't. You don't say anything bad about the properties. And there's a couple things and how I tend to focus, uh, my content is. It's like, look, there's going to be something for everyone. Yeah. I may not like the style of XYZ property. It's not quite my vibe, but it's clearly somebody's vibe. So I'm going to focus on what they are doing. And if that resonates with you, then perfect. I'm not going to sit here and be like, okay, you know, and I've been actually to properties where it hasn't been ready. And there's been issues from plumbing issues, like big, big issues. And I wasn't the only press that was there. But again, it's how you. You handle it gracefully. Because I, I, uh. You just have to understand that there's a. There is.

Speaker A: It.

Speaker B: It takes time to. To get things up and running, and you just have to be gracious. And going in and pointing out faults does not make you an expert. I always like to say those who can't create are critics.

Speaker A: And I like it there. And so I really think that's what this guy had happened. It was his comeuppance, right, for being, I think, ultra negative on that review. And, uh, he has a lot of balance. I watched after I saw the article. He has a lot of balance. Reviews and he talks about things. But listen, you have to understand, when you start putting things out there, you're not going to be welcome everywhere when you start to tear down what people are building and working on. And I like what Patrick put up here. It's a long quote, but it's Teddy Roosevelt's quote. Um, and it's about. From the man in the arena. And I'll read one part of it. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, but who does actually strive to do the deeds. I do like that quote. It's a long one. But Teddy Roosevelt says, you got to be the man in the arena. I. I preach that all the time, Sarah. Uh, I know you probably have that mindset, too, where you're putting yourself out there. We do it all the time, creating. We have haters and things that happen. But I get fired up about this. Create something. Don't tear something down.

Speaker B: I. I have a problem with this, with, uh. And there's actually. There's a couple of creators even on LinkedIn, that love to come in and be like, you know, if you're doing xyz, you're doing it wrong now. Okay, I get it in a nutshell, that. That creates clicks, but

Speaker A: clickbaits.

Speaker B: You know, it's. Until you've actually, like, been behind the scenes and you've actually moved a property to hit certain goals, uh, that's. I mean, it's just. It's a lot of hot air. It's a lot. And I mean that respectfully. It's more theory than practice. That Is what I'm saying by, by hot air. It's not to be disrespectful to those, um, individuals, but I have a real hard time when I see, across all, all platforms. But, um, I know that we definitely see a lot of it on LinkedIn just because, you know, it's, it's more.

Speaker A: I mean, I posted something like three years ago and I still think about it because I was like, man, was that negative. I didn't talk about the hotel. I just saw something that was really poorly done. It was like, yeah, I forget what the menu. It was a man. I called it menu mayhem. The menu was rusty. Everything was kind of peeling.

Speaker B: Yeah. Ah, we've all been there, we've all seen that.

Speaker A: And I posted it and I was like, you know, saying, hey, you, here's how you can make this better. Here's the little effort you can show to get it better. I had people write to me privately saying, hey, don't tear down people like this. Don't do, do that. Stay positive. I was like, didn't feel like I was tearing it down. But then I was like, you know what? That's when I did the 50 hotels and 50 day video challenge that I did. And I purposely came from that saying, I'm going to find one positive thing in each one of these hotels, um, and highlight it that they're doing for.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: And I walked in some terrible ones, but they still were putting in that effort to try to help people. And I want to highlight those people

Speaker B: that are doing it so totally well. And I, I will just say this, is that the bigger question is like, can, uh, should influencers just be able to come and film? Look, at the end of the day, you're going to have guests that are going to be coming and filming and that is your quote, unquote, free marketing. And if you don't like what the creator or the guest is posting, that they are a real time reflection of the product that you have created. So if you don't like what they're doing within reason, like if it makes sense, then maybe that's a signal to you that you all need to change what you're doing. So that, yeah, whatever the experience that you are trying to create is accurately reflected because that's when you know what you're doing is operating on all cylinders. Is that when, whether it's a creator, personal, like a regular guest, whatever this thing is at your property, they can capture and you're like, yeah, that's what we're trying to do. Then you're doing it right, and that should be your goal.

Speaker A: As opposed to those reviews are the answers to the test. I always say it's not rocket science. Read the reviews. Your guests are telling you what's good, what's bad. Um, try to fix those things. So if you're doing something good, do more of it. If you're doing something bad, do less of those things. Um, and just kind of keep it going from there. But we talked about this one for

Speaker B: too long on this. Why do we go to your favorite segment, sir?

Speaker A: My favorite segment, the only reason I do this show every day, other than seeing Sarah, is whose brand is It Anyway? The game show where we show a sub brand, and we have to try to guess who the parent brand is of that sub brand. So get your ideas ready. Let's see. Which sub brand are we guessing today? That vibe without a name. Very 1990s, I feel like. Or Vib. I don't know. This feels like something.

Speaker B: No, don't go there.

Speaker A: Something in Europe. I'm gonna guess a core is my guest today. Who are you going with?

Speaker B: Damn it. Whatever. I don't know. I'm always like, it's a core.

Speaker A: Yeah. Lou. Lou says isg. Who do you all say? You all have five seconds to guess. Whose brand is it anyway?

Speaker B: M. I'm gonna say minor hotels.

Speaker A: Good guess. Good guess. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Five, four, three, two, and one. Boats are in. Who do we have? Best Western? Way off. Let me look this place up here by Best Western. All right, all right, I see it. Let me pull this thing up here. Can we get it on the screen? I'm curious to see. I don't have much information on it. Um, but it looks to be a nice.

Speaker B: An urban boutique hotel.

Speaker A: Yeah. Ah, urban boutique, uh, hotel.

Speaker B: Yeah. A modern new hotel where guests enjoy signature luxury and technology amenities designed for today's connected travelers.

Speaker A: Very nice. Here it is up on the screen.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: See? Looks like something very much overseas. Oh, they got one here in Springfield, Turkey.

Speaker B: You name it. They're all over.

Speaker A: Yeah. Look kind of like a mix again. I feel a lot more of these. The Yotel moxie.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Kind of vibe.

Speaker B: Um, by the way, I'm a big fan of this style of property, especially when I'm traveling for work, you know, because it's. It's. It's simple, it's clean, it's new. But I like the modern feel.

Speaker A: Yeah, it shows that. We talked about Best Western. Right. They're trying to push more and more into, like, the higher end of their properties. So I think that that's what they're doing here with this one. Nice job. We learned something new today. That's why I do this show.

Speaker B: Lou, saying the new word is vibey for all fun things. I like that, Lou. Uh, but which, by the way, I. I have absolutely noticed that I've talked with so many different brands, not just hotel brands, but destinations, and, like, it's just when they don't know what to say. It's just a lot I've caught myself saying. I was like, it's a vibe, maybe. No, now all the new kids are saying, it's chic, it's chic. When, oh, my gosh, it's great, let's go ahead and ruin all different words from the English language by just overusing them on social media. Last year was demure. Now it's chic. And yes, I feel very strongly about this.

Speaker A: Well, you're very chic and you have a vibe, Sarah. And I think for all of you watching and listening, you all have a vibe. And we appreciate you listening and watching every single week, especially our live viewers. We love having you on here and being a part of the show and really, you know, pushing us to do our best every week. And so since we're doing our best, make sure to share this with one of your friends. Hit that share button, send this link on over to them. You know they're going to appreciate it. And if you haven't yet, make sure to hit subscribe, uh, so you don't miss any of our updates. But, Sarah, great show. Great show. Until next week, stay hospitable.