Latest / Hospitality Daily Podcast / What's Going On With Hotels Now - David Eisen, Hotels Magazine

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What's Going On With Hotels Now - David Eisen, Hotels Magazine · Hospitality Daily Podcast

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: What's going on in the world of hotels and hospitality.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Today, you're going to hear from one of the best journalists in the industry.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: This is Hospitality Dealey, the show that helps you stay informed and inspired each day by the most interesting people in hospitality.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: My name is Josiah McKenzie and my goal is to help you reconnect with why you work in this industry and get fired up to go out there, delight others and reach your goals.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Let's get started.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Today is Sunday, june 4th, and one of the largest investment conferences in our industry, the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference is kicking off now here in New York.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: To better understand what's going on in the world of hotels and hospitality today, david Eisen is joining us.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: He's the editor-in-chief of Hotels Magazine and has a unique perspective to share with us.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: In this episode we'll cover the trends he's watching, what he'll be listening for, how to work with media to get coverage and much more.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: One note before we get into it we recorded this a couple of days ago and we're dealing with a little bit of construction noise in the background.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I tried to remove it during the production process, but David's voice ended up sounding not quite as great as it usually does, but I wanted to share our conversation with you anyway, because I think you'll get a lot of value from what David shares.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: So without further ado, let's jump into it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: We have the NYU conference coming up next week and I want to talk a little bit about your thoughts going into that.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I've been the editor-in-chief for Hotels Magazine.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: You see a lot of ideas.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: You see a lot of people talking about a lot of stuff.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: What's on your mind?
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it's always.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I don't care what the economy is like, what the market's like, what the hotel she's doing.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: For me, going back to New York is always just a pleasure in itself.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I lived there for 20 plus years, moved out of there pre-pandemic, which I guess would be a good thing or a bad thing, i'm not so sure.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: But first of all, it's always great to get back to that conference.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: This is a year of change.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Actually It's interesting.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: As you probably know, this is the last year, i think, at NYU.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: The conference itself, not the college, the university was acquired by my former employer, questex.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: They just actually acquired the conference.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I think they announced that just a few weeks ago.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: So this will be the last kind of iteration of NYU under the I guess you could call it the John Tish regime.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know what they're going to do to the conference of the whole, if there's going to be many changes to it, the look and feel, the content, the way that it kind of operates, but anyway, so that's one big thing that this will be the last kind of year for that.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: But I mean as a whole, i mean every one of these conferences you go to.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I mean you go to the Alice conference in LA, nyu, hunter, it's always everyone's like optimistic, but it's cautiously optimistic.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I mean literally.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: That's like the tone of every one of our industry conferences every single year.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, we're consciously optimistic And, to be honest with you, i mean conferences are great, but I you know the end and you know the panel sessions are great.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: You don't get too much real frankness or candidness on stage, which you always hope for.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: A lot of times panelists on stage, they get into this habit of wanting to basically just market, especially the brands which God love them.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: They're a part of the industry, they're a huge part of the industry.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: The brands kind of make the industry go in terms of what they bring to the table, in terms of their loyalty programs and certain distribution, all that.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: But a lot of times brands are going on stage.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: They're like you know and I won't say the brand but like our hotel has the best pool in the world, where you know the water is at a perfect temperature of 72 degrees without fail.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: So it can get a little bit too marketing, you know, so kind of like a too much of a PR kind of vest.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: So it's always good when you're on a panel, especially in the audience, when the panels are very frank, they're really telling you like it is, they're not just marking themselves, they're really giving you kind of actionable whether it's tips or information about really what's going on in the hotel industry now and kind of looking down the road.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Those are the panels that are, i think are the best that you come out way, walking out of it, saying oh, i really got something, something out of that.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: And most of them are like that.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: You just sometimes want to steer clear of the other type.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: But I think NYU this year is gonna be it's gonna be a really good gauge of where the industry is as a whole right now, kind of almost like a balance sheet of like where you are right now.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, i think the biggest thing you know we've seen the trends that it came out post pandemic right.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Obviously, we know 2020 was a disaster year for for the hotel.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: It's really entire.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: You know globe Hotels are basically just running, trying to stay, break even, right running, break even analysis.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: That hopefully not lose money.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: But we came out of that.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: We saw the strength of segments like extended stay.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: They were huge.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: They are kind of resilient through all times.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: They do well With when the economy is good.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: They do well when the economy is bad.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: They basically do well when things are are.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Are.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: You know people's up, people in life.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: You get divorced.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Where you're gonna go stay?
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: an extended stay hotel, right, you, you, you're moving jobs.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You got to go stay for a long time somewhere.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You go to extend a stay hotel.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So they do well in doom and loom.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: They also do well during doing times and you can see why all the, all the brands are like Pornie, into that, into that space.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: We've seen Hilton announced a new extended stay Offering and I guess the lower mid-scale site That's another.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: We can talk about that later.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: I just have this segments are all sliced and diced now, but Hilton's launching a new product there.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Marriott's coming out with one that they haven't announced yet.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Hi, it just came out with the new extended stay product.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: So everyone you know who hadn't been in it before had been in it But only had there.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Like you know, we're dabbling in it or really rushing into that space.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: So extended stay.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: We saw resorts were resilient.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: So we've seen pox of growth.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: It's been.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: It's been the city markets.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: You know you're deep.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I'm in DC right now.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I remember during kind of the real bad days, i remember sitting in my in my we work and looking across the street And I saw that there are more lights on in the hotel than the office building next door, so you can see there was a disconnect there.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: But we're waiting to see that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Corporate travel, i think, come back in in gusto, but it's coming back.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Groups are coming back.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I said before well, i think right at the outset of the pandemic, i said that people have short memories and I still believe that.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I actually think that You know we talk about work from home and that's here to stay.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not so sure.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I think and I think it's it's not here to stay, because I think people actually want to go back to the office.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I think people are sick of sitting at home working out of their robe at their kitchen table.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I know I am, although I do get dressed in the morning.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I do shower usually, typically.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So I think that trend might be a fad.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I think I think people want to get back out there.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: So we're seeing or seeing group come back.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: We're seeing corporate come back.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Slowly, leisure has held through this entire.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: It shows that people don't want to.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: You know, forgo travel right, they want to get out there on the road.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: And for hoteliers, performance has done, you know quite well.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: We've seen strong rates and we've seen that growth.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: That's the rate growth sustained throughout this time period.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I think there's, it's gonna get.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: It can only get, i think, a little bit, you know, ebb a little bit and get a little bit weaker as we move into the summer season and beyond.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Looking at terms of demand, occupancy, there's still.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Everyone talks about this recession.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: That still hasn't happened yet, so I don't know what will come of that, but I think things are looking pretty good.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I think, from a travel perspective, if you want to flip it over to the kind of the real estate finance side And we've seen base rates, interest rates have gone up It's tougher to get financing specifically for new construction, it's more expensive to get financing.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: You know we year, you know, just five years ago, basically, money was nothing, was it was cheap money.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: He was like, basically, banks are like please go build something, we want it, we want to give you money.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Yet That's flipped.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: So it's hard, but I think that's a good thing, because I think it it constrains supply a little bit and if, very if you own a hotel, that's a good thing, right, you don't want to see more who else popping up on your block.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: So it's obviously it's hard.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: It's harder now from a transactional standpoint to trend to make transactions, to do deals.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: You know, i was looking at some JLL numbers.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Obviously compared, i think, compared to last year and the year before.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Transactions are down, but I think those will pick up as we move through into, you know, q3, q4 And beyond.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: There isn't has a bit too much to stressed assets out there.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I'm only thought, oh, there's a pandemic.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: You know everyone's gonna tank and there's gonna be all this stress cell and a bank's been taking back Back assets.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I think the one thing we all Not me myself, because I don't own any hotels But with the real estate community, learn and lenders learn.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I was like we can't go back to the So wow, wow West days when people were were let with over leveraged and loan to value ratios were like, you know, 95% debt versus a small sliver of equity.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I think they were smarter this time and they've gotten that rebalanced.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Um, so I think, i think everyone's in a better position now going into, uh, the rest of the year and into 2024.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, hopefully there's not another black swan event, but who knows?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: So that's my take on it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I'm standing on that and that that's that's.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I'll start there.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: That was a lot.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: That was a long answer, so I you could edit out as much as you want.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: No, no, i love that.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I love that You mentioned something that you know.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I've always kind of felt that somebody conferences not necessarily just nyu, but at conferences people tend to be pretty guarded and unfiltered and I I'm curious because I Imagine everybody in the industry wants to get on your radar.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: They want to get their sound bite covered in in your recap article.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So if you could wave your magic wand, what would you like to hear?
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: What are the unfiltered takes or things that you'll be listening for, uh, that people hopefully can open up a little bit more and share?
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: You know, i think it's funny you say that because any journalist in my position knows, before about a week or two weeks out, before a copper starts, you start getting emails from PR saying will you meet with this person?
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And you get like third, you know, we meet with this person, we meet with that person and pure people are great.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: They actually Shout out to all the press people out there because they make our jobs a lot easier.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: They're the gatekeepers, right?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: The problem is is that you only have so much time at a conference is specific, especially if you only have a.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: You know, when I come to a conference, i'm basically the only person there from our magazine.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: So I'm the one kind of I have to be everywhere at once.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: So I I actually typically enjoy sitting in on panels to sit there and See what's going on.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: You get different.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: You get different takes.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Just there's multiple people on stage And then other times you take, you take what you take a meeting with someone.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Now I I have to be select with those and kind of choosy just because you only have you don't?
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: you definitely don't want to fill your dance Core, i think, with like back to back to back meetings because, be honest with you.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: A lot of those, as we had said before, it's basically them saying, oh, we've opened 500, or not five, we've opened 10 hotels this year.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, i can get that from the press release and you get see stuff out of it.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: But you know, just, it all goes back to just I, typically, when I speak to to someone, you know if they want to take a meeting with me.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of times the PR people or they'll say, oh, they want to talk about this, so they want to talk about that.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Well, so that's great.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: But I'd like to talk about this and the thing is, i always like it's.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It's the more usually, the higher that higher.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: The Higher up the chain you go, the more and more they want to.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: They want to make sure they control the messaging and they control What they're gonna say.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: So that always like My.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: My favorite thing is this will be like will you meet with so-and-so the CEO of blah, blah, blah?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: and you'll come back and say, yeah, that sounds great, i'd love to do that.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: And then the next e-mail to them, it to you as okay, what do you want to ask him?
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: so it's like you just asked me to interview your, your your person and you're now you're making me do some Kind of effort and dig up question.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: So It's good.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I usually, for my setup, i sit down with someone.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I don't really like to come in with formal questions, it's more organic.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You just sit there and they might get on a topic and you'll and you'll say, you know, like a topic like here's one seller financing which is like, basically I have an asset that I want to sell And I'm literally gonna pay you, give you money to take it off my hands, right, seller financing just being that, it's like the seller Actually finances helps finance the deal.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I've never heard of that really before, but apparently that's some of that is happening now and there are a lot of.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of assets out there that I think will get and if you know, diabestive only.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And there was another thing like you were seeing things like you loans maturing, you know.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: So like if you're loans maturing, it's like you know you either need to shit or get off the pot.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Sorry, i don't know if this is a children's podcast, but it's either.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Like what am I going to do this asset now?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I have my loans maturing, i'm going to have to refinance at a higher rate.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: What am I going to do with it?
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Am I just going to say, okay, that's it.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I made my money, i'm going to get out, i'm going to sell it, right.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: So there's that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: The other big thing is, like you know, during the pandemic, the brands are like they were cool.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: They're like all like you know, don't, you don't have to put any.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: We understand this is tough times.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: You're probably using your capex reserves to pay your mortgage.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: It's all good, man, it's all good.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Now things have flipped back and they're like well, that lobby hasn't been touched in 10, you know, 10 years.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: It's time to.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: It's time to get put some money in there, some some, some capex money there, and upgrade.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: You know, those guest rooms you need to be.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: They're too small, they don't have the right technology.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: That that's needed right now.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Your soft goods, or hard goods That's the word I was looking for.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: I think I was thinking soft, soft goods All those things need to be kind of, you need to up your game with.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: So there's that part that, there's the pips that are coming.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: So I think a lot.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I think owners now are in a position where they need to like really sit down and say, okay, is it worth it, maybe we could take, we could sell, take money, put it elsewhere.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, i mean that's a big thing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: I think when you're talking to owners to see what that is, and on the brand side, it's the same questions like what are you making, what are you, what are you asking of your owners right now?
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: because you know as much as we the hotel industry is such a dynamic industry and the fact that there's so many different hands in it, you know you have, you have the asset right.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: So you have the owner of the asset, you have the brand that's on the front door, you have the person who's operating that asset, you have an asset manager, you have the lender on it, there's so, yeah, all the employees.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: So there's, it's such a dynamic industry And it's like operational real estate.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: It's always moving.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: It's not like and you know you reprice it every on a nightly basis, not like office or or, or multi fan or whatever it is where you know you have a lease for a year and you can just, this is a dynamic it's.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: It's breathing 365, 24 7 business.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: So that interplay is always something I'm interested in.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: When I think, because there's so many participants in the ecosystem, as you pointed out, there's room for innovation, and I appreciate you kind of sharing your perspective on this, because I guess what I would like to see is more industry participants.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: You know kind of approach, earning media by creating something worth talking about right and and doing something differently right.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: And so I think you know getting your take.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: It's like they probably think okay, i opened new hotels, that's, that's so fascinating and it's so exciting.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: It probably is to them.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: But like you see this, you know from every brand, from every industry participant, you're like No, it's not, my readers don't care about this.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: You got to do something different.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So, whether it's seller financing or it's, you know, some other element of the ecosystem, i think my takeaway from hearing you is like No, do something different and then actually communicate what is different in the industry.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: I agree.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Those are the things we live for.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, actually, the funny thing is I is, you know, you've been around in this industry for a long time.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I remember when I so I've been, i guess, covering the hotel industry since 2006.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: And I remember that every conference you go to back in the day you're like, oh, they're probably gonna, maybe they'll watch and there'll be a new brand announcement or something like that.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: And that was cool.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: You were like man, they blah, blah, blah, just watch the new brand.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: You wait for those announcements to be like Nowadays, there's so many, there's so many brands and brand announcements.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Not only can't you keep track of them all, there's some of them going to the radar.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: But let's say it's not big news and it's news, but it's not like huge news, like, oh, they launched a new brand.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, they probably launched one.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: You know, last week also, i mean you know what I mean Like there's literally brands.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I've seen that.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I'm like What is that?
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I had no idea that this was even a thing anymore.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: But I but to.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: But you know, when we get, when we talk about things like that, like brands, like there's not everyone talks about you have too many brands.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Are there too many brands?
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: That's always a question that you get that a lot of the brain guys get on stage And I would say there's not.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, i mean, look at adjacent industry not adjacent industry, but look at like a company like Procter and Gamble.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, how many brands do they have?
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: they have thousands or hundreds of brands.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: They have the same brand, but it's different in in Argentina, as it is in, like, you know, Beijing or something like that.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's too many brands.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I think it's literally like Is it, does it make sense to add something here?
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Is there a gap here that we can fill right?
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: That would make sense for our loyal travelers, but for me and what I've seen of the year, it may has to make sense for the, for the guy is gonna build it Right, the money guy, the developer, the owner.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: So it's like when you, when they build out these brands I think they're all in and they'll admit it they build brands for For a traveling niche that I guess they weren't reaching before, but it's always like okay, can we get the money guys behind it to actually see this, see this through and And let's be honest in?
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be the first to say this.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: It's like when Marriott or Hilton pull, pushes out a new brand, i think the other brands are like Well, shit there, marriott and Hilton are now jumping deeper and deeper into our pool, like we talked about extended stay.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: When you look at at other you know extended-state brands like wood spring or Or the other you know extended-state America, they've been like the name traditional names in this space.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: They've done it for so long.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: They've done a fantastic job.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: But it's like now you have these bigger guys that are coming down into your neck of the woods.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: It just make it just place to the pie that much spinner.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally I would, if we get.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I want to promote your panel.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, tell me a little bit about kind of what you're, what you're gonna be talking about.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: So our panel is actually called the alumni panel.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Right, i was lucky enough.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: This is my first year actually moderating a panel at NYU, even though I'm an NYU graduate.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's, it's a first for me and I'm really happy about that that they finally thought to, thought to include me.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I was like where's my?
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: where to my tuition dollars?
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Do I don't even get to moderate a panel?
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: now I'm moderating the panel, so I'm, and I'm not moderating what's called the alumni panel.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: They don't even give it a name, they're just like we'll call it the alumni panel And it's basically.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: It's me and four other graduates of NYU are the better, probably done better in life than I have after it, after NYU.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: But so the panel?
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Oh well, you know, the panel is basically analyte.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: It's looking at deals, analyzing deals and in Against these kind of macroeconomic issues.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: We talked about inflation, the economic slowdown and more.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: That's the the panel name.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: There's always and more, and So it's a great group I have.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you real quick what I have.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: So I Cook read he's the VP of operations finance for MCR hotels.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: If you know them, if you know MCR, then you know their CEO, tyler Morse, who is actually the one guy that you, you, you stop to watch him speak when he's on stage because he, he's about, he's he when we talk about Frank, this He's the one guy like he's gotten so good.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I've been in multiple Industry events with him speaking and he has like a stump speech now And I don't know if it's changed, but it's like literally like he's on the stump, like a politician.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: He says the same thing every time.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: There's a little bit of nuance to it and I appreciate that, but it's always very candid like he, he, he always says it like it is or how well, he says it like he thinks it is.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: So we have some friends here.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: We have Chu Zhu.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: She works for RLJ They're real estate investment trust huge.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: She's the director of investment and portfolio analysis.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: She'll be there.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I'm really Shaw, she's great, she, she, she, she owns her own hotel company with her family.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: She's also an attorney, she's a banker, she does literally everything.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: So she, she'll be talking about, about That entire kind of world there.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And then, last one, that not at least Estelle Yang, because a senior associate.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Capital markets are collier, so we'll get that kind of consultancy perspective and basically, you know, i, you know, i've gone through and I've already put two questions together, but basically we're talking about the same things that we I've been talking about for the past 30 minutes.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Really, it's about Kind of you know, one of the things we're talking about is, once the we talk that we hear all about private equity And they're kind of like on the sidelines now and they have this huge wall of money, what they call.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: They always say we have, there's all this dry powder out there That private equity is just kind of sitting on.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: So I think we're all everyone's waiting for, like the black stones, the Brookfields, to kind of light that match and see what they're there up to now.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I think the funny not the funny thing is I mean, it's not the kind of it's funny about the private equity world.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: It's like the humorous of a thing to talk about, but you know People like last and they're always out there at the forefront.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: They know what to invest in usually, but you're seeing, like the Brookfields, the world get slaughtered when it comes to like they're getting out of office, like out of it, because We don't know what's going to happen to real office, real estate anymore.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Is it going to be converted to probably multi-red, to multi-residential, even hotels, because That's the other thing.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: This whole trend of working, how everything's changed now that people aren't in the office Five days a week, seven days a week, you know, working from nine to eight, five o'clock or whatever it is, and what that does, it has this kind of like domino effect, like a people aren't in the office, you know, i want to say, destroys, it, hampers local economies there.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: So the guy, the big guy who owns a sandwich shop down the street, he's not getting that income every lunch.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Now, right, so this kind of has this, this hang on effect that it's like if the offices aren't crammed with people, adjacent businesses aren't gonna do as well, hotels aren't gonna do as well.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Was it not made?
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: as many people are traveling into the cities for work, corporal or otherwise?
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: There's always this kind of knock on That.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: But I think one of the things is we're just waiting to see who's gonna be some of the buyers that swoop in.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know Blackstone's been Creative in the in the past, in in the hospitality space.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Obviously, if you look at what they did with Hilton and they made a, they made a bundle when they exited that investment.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: But you know the black stones that the, the KKRs.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: There were all the cast, a lot of tell you There's a lot of buy a big-time buyers out there and and well, so we'll see kind of what will transact there.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: And then obviously on just on the operation side, like, how are you operating a profitable hotel?
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I think there's been this kind of.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I work for another company.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: You know This is me doing exactly like hold it myself I wouldn't do is be a marketing guy.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: But I work for a company called hot stats, which is basically a They won't, they won't want to see me to say this, but they're the str of the profitability kind of a space.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: So they're really focused on not so much as red part just looking at room sales, right, but really digging into the P&L and looking at, you know, your total revenue per available and looking at your gross operating profit for available room.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: So when you look at hotels nowadays they're not a lot of the way the hotels are built out now It's not just about selling rooms.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: There's the ancillary revenue that comes through, you know, fnd that comes through, spa, that comes in, all the all these different kind of outlets, bar obviously.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: So looking at your in ancillary revenue there and basically Taking all that revenue into account.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: But but then looking at your expense picture and flow through and looking at your utility costs, looking at your obviously your biggest cause, which is your labor, and then seeing how much of that money flows down to the bottom line, so really booky honing it on profit.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: So I think hoteliers, as they kind of move further and further out, it's really about looking at your P&L and making sure that you're operating an optimal kind of asset right and and profitability.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: You know, as I've said before, you can't take, you know, revpart isn't pay the Reston, pay the mortgage, right.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: You can't take it to the facts.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: You, you can only take the back, the bottom, what you squeeze out at the end of each month.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: So those are kind of some of the topics that I think you know we'll be, we'll be talking into and obviously I'm gonna kind of hopefully They'll be very candid, like I said before and looking at You know what kind of market it is is a buyer sell market.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Looking at you know bid-ass spreads and all that fun stuff, right?
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Or maybe I'll just talk about basketball and the NBA playoffs for a good, a good 20 minutes.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: I could do that too Well, you got to be there, so you got to be there to find out.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: But no, seriously, i think I'm really interested in you know, kind of like the, the panel that you put together here, where there's, you know, we talked about this trend or that trend, but having the people that are looking at the data all day and they're the closest to it, right, they can actually speak to what is happening, versus people's just pontificating, right.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: So you got an awesome, awesome lineup there.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: So I'm definitely pointing people your your way, david.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I feel like we covered everything I was hoping to.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Is there anything before we go that you wanted to talk about that we didn't get to?
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think no, i think You know it'll be, it'll be.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: It's always listen.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I think conferences are great.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: It's it's a chance for people to it's really, really what it comes down to is networking and their networking.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: And then you know, see past, you know friends of the industry and you know getting, sometimes getting deals done.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of these powers are just for that.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: It's like I'm at the bar having a drink and someone walks over, you start talking and I'm looking to buy something.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: You might be looking to sell something or something of that.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: So it's a lot of like that collegial atmosphere.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: That's really what these conferences are all about.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, the education is great too.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: You know sitting at panels and kind of hearing of what's going on in the industry.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: But it's really about, like I said before, it's about people to people.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: It's about people to people and mono a mano and Tethetect.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: I think I'm using up all my, all those crazings, but really kind of coming together as in as humans and you know, Talking over a coffee or a or a beer or something like that, and really I think that's what conferences are great for.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're seeing, i mean I was, i was at the was the last conference I was that I can't remember.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: You know they was.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: They're getting, they're back to over.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: You know, like logic conference in September, over 2000 people plus, or 3000 people and people people I think are are Are itching still to get back out there and I think conferences or something that allows that To happen.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to open yourself up to serendipity, right?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: So definitely pointing people to your panel and thanks.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, david.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your perspective and looking forward to seeing you at the show.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: You.