Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / How Boutique Hotels Can Win by Obsessing Over Emotional Details — Dina Belon, Staypineapple
Transcript
- 0:04Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
- 0:08where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
- 0:11their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
- 0:14adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
- 0:17today's guest is Dina Balaa, President of Stay Pineapple
- 0:20Hotels. They are a boutique hospitality
- 0:24company headquartered in Bellevue, WA.
- 0:27They're known for playful design forward hotels across major U.S.
- 0:30cities, focusing on memorable guest experiences and
- 0:34sustainability. Adina holds a bachelor's degree
- 0:37from Florida State University and is a lead accredited
- 0:41professional specializing in interior design and
- 0:44construction. Under her leadership, Pineapple
- 0:47has continued its commitment to the triple bottom line, people,
- 0:51planet, and prosperity. Dina herself has been recognized
- 0:55as one of the top 50 women leaders in hospitality for both
- 0:592024 and 2025, and her insights have been featured in multiple
- 1:04industry interviews. Now before we get into all that
- 1:08good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
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- 1:46To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
- 1:49AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
- 1:52today, President of Stay Pineapple Hotels, Dina Balan.
- 1:55Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
- 1:57Oh my gosh, thank you for inviting me.
- 1:59This is amazing. I'm.
- 2:01I'm really excited. And it's always weird to hear
- 2:05somebody do an intro for you. It's awkward.
- 2:08It's like, oh, Oh yeah, that's me.
- 2:12Yeah, I, I wouldn't have been so complimentary of myself, but
- 2:15thank you. Because we're always harder on
- 2:17ourselves and everybody else, right?
- 2:19That's where the discomfort comes from.
- 2:21Exactly. Exactly.
- 2:22Yeah. Yeah, I get it.
- 2:25OK. So Dina, you have found yourself
- 2:27at this interesting intersection design, hospitality,
- 2:31sustainability. And as you think about these
- 2:34different pieces of your career puzzle and how they came
- 2:37together, what was the first cornerstone piece where you
- 2:41focused? Yeah, so I graduated from school
- 2:44with a design degree, but I, I realized pretty quickly it
- 2:49wasn't a passion of mine. I wasn't passionate enough about
- 2:52it to to really argue for what I was working on.
- 2:58But what I did find really intriguing was the idea of
- 3:03experience architecture and, and it was this, you know, by
- 3:12bisecting concepts of how to, how to create something really
- 3:17unique and different and an experience for a guest or
- 3:21setting a guest up for an experience.
- 3:25My the example I like to give is a grandfather and a grandson
- 3:29walking through a green space on a resort and there's a bocce
- 3:33ball court. Well, instead of having to go to
- 3:36the front desk and check out all the equipment to go play the
- 3:40game, leave the equipment at the court so that when they walk by,
- 3:45they can have a spontaneous experience that probably will be
- 3:49a memory for that child decades from them, right, about his
- 3:55grandfather and how much he loved him.
- 3:58Those are the kind of things that got me excited, which made
- 4:02me realize that what I was really interested in, in
- 4:06architecture was the people and not necessarily the facility or
- 4:13the building. And that to me, the building was
- 4:16always just a stage for the play to happen.
- 4:20Now let me back up and ask about something that you said that
- 4:23kind of struck me. You were not passionate enough
- 4:26to argue for what you were working on.
- 4:28What does that mean? So in design, there's a lot of
- 4:34opinion when it comes to hotel designs.
- 4:36There's a lot of people involved in a hotel getting built and, or
- 4:40renovated and there's always a lot of views on how that should
- 4:45happen. And as the professional, you
- 4:48often feel like, OK, you hired me to do a job.
- 4:53Does is everybody going to be involved in the job this week or
- 4:57am I going to do it? And so I just, you know, I think
- 5:02design professionals, architecture interiors, they,
- 5:06they really have to believe in what they're creating and be
- 5:11willing to go to bat for it. And I it always my example of I
- 5:18was more interested in the people than I was the design.
- 5:22Whether the front entrance porta cochere was 25 feet wide and
- 5:28had, you know, a colonnade or not.
- 5:32I was like, yeah, OK, whatever. But how is that going to make
- 5:35people feel, right? Like, what is the emotion going
- 5:38to evoke when I pull up to the resort?
- 5:41That's what got me excited. And people would get all tied up
- 5:44and what kind of column it was. And I was like, I don't care
- 5:47what kind of column it is. Got it.
- 5:50OK. So how did you begin to explore
- 5:52that other area of interest, the people side of things?
- 5:55Yeah, well, I went to work for Marriott.
- 5:57I left design directly and and went to work for Marriott and
- 6:01then I worked for Wyndham Hyatt, you know, did the big brand.
- 6:05Anybody in the hospitality industry knows we all kind of
- 6:09cut our teeth in the big brands. Some people stick and some
- 6:13people don't. I was one of the ones that
- 6:15didn't. I learned a ton.
- 6:17I always say I learned how to do it the right way at Marriott so
- 6:21I could know how to break the rules.
- 6:26And boutique. The boutique space was my final
- 6:30landing spot where I was like, oh, this is home.
- 6:34OK, I get it. I didn't even know what it was
- 6:37really. I thought they were just small
- 6:39hotels, just like a Marriott. Once I learned and understood
- 6:43the difference of the business model, I was like, oh, this is
- 6:48what I have been looking for for a decade in my career.
- 6:51Is this kind of ability to make impact on people?
- 6:57So what does that mean? How are the business models
- 6:58different? Yeah, so the neither are right
- 7:02or wrong, but the mega brands are basically built on standards
- 7:06and having consistency, right? So when you stay at a Courtyard
- 7:12Marriott Courtyard, you literally know that the front
- 7:14desk is on the left and the breakfast space is on the right.
- 7:18And the little lobby areas in front of you, there's either a
- 7:20fireplace or some sort of elements in there, right.
- 7:24And then the elevators to the left and the guest rooms are all
- 7:27upstairs and like they all are very consistent and you're going
- 7:30to get a very consistent guest experience.
- 7:32You're going to the same bed, the same kind of linens.
- 7:37The boutique space is the opposite.
- 7:41The boutique world is built on a journey and an experience that
- 7:46you're having that is connected to the place that you're going.
- 7:50And so boutique hoteliers are trying to express a point of
- 7:56view about the city that they're in or some sort of point of view
- 8:02that has a creativity that is engaging.
- 8:07And I'm being very broad. Ours in particular in state
- 8:10Pineapple is is very much about guest service.
- 8:13We're a hyper personalization business model.
- 8:16So we want you to feel like you're checking into a six room
- 8:20bed and breakfast in Vermont and you get to know us and we become
- 8:26friends and you send us messages after you leave and like you
- 8:31make connections, you feel like there's a sense of belonging at
- 8:35the hotel and it's in 100 room hotel, not a six room bed and
- 8:42breakfast. So we we figured out a unique
- 8:46way to create that kind of hyper personalized experience in a
- 8:51larger format. I gotta hear about that, right,
- 8:56'cause it's one thing if it is that sort of 6 room bed and
- 8:58breakfast you can, right? You know, more easily remember
- 9:01who your guests are and, you know, the little bits of
- 9:04conversation that you've had with them.
- 9:05But 100 rooms, how do you do that?
- 9:07Yeah. Historically, we've done it kind
- 9:11of the old fashioned way. We listen to our guests.
- 9:15We have a lot of return guests and so we know them by name and
- 9:20recognize them, but by and large it was just listening to what
- 9:25people say. And then we have a program
- 9:28called Surprise and Delight, which is really a team member
- 9:31empowerment program. It's about the team members
- 9:35being able to do anything to surprise and delight a guest at
- 9:39any time in any way they want. They don't have to call the
- 9:43manager, they don't have to ask for permission.
- 9:45They can just do it. And that requires them to be
- 9:49attentive and, and aware of what's going on with the guests.
- 9:55You know, whether it's sitting at the bar and having a
- 9:57conversation with them or a check in or they're hanging out
- 10:01with their spouse in the lobby and you happen to hear them talk
- 10:03about their anniversary or whatever that might be.
- 10:08Now in more recent years, we have a two years ago we
- 10:13completely changed out our tech stack and are using technology
- 10:18and AI now to help us do that and enable the team members
- 10:22better. We provide the team members a
- 10:24lot of information, all zero party data.
- 10:28We can get into that in in a little bit I'm sure, but all
- 10:32willingly given by the guest. So it's an, it's an exchange of
- 10:36information for service, right? Improved service.
- 10:40We're we're very clear about. We don't gather people.
- 10:45We don't, we don't go out on the Internet and it's not like.
- 10:49I make a reservation and then you're going and looking at my
- 10:51Facebook. Posts.
- 10:52And yeah, we. You know, there are hoteliers
- 10:55that do it and do it successfully.
- 10:58We have chosen not to do that because it feels like it's over
- 11:03the line. We want to have a very a
- 11:05relationship with our guests that is very honest and truthful
- 11:10and we want to make sure that guests feel like you've given us
- 11:13information and we're going to use that to make your stay
- 11:16better. So let's go back into the olden
- 11:19days where you know you didn't have this new tech stack in
- 11:22place and give me a specific example of how one of your team
- 11:27members would delight a guest. Sure.
- 11:31I have so many. So one that I'm thinking of in
- 11:38San Francisco, we had a guest check in and she, she was
- 11:45Filipino and she was staying in San Francisco at, at our hotel
- 11:50specifically because there was a restaurant nearby that she
- 11:54absolutely loved. And it reminded her of her mom's
- 11:58cooking back and home. And so she was telling the, she
- 12:01was so excited. She was telling our, we call
- 12:04them everything people, not front desk people 'cause they
- 12:07can do everything for you, right?
- 12:10And she was telling her all about it.
- 12:13Like our team member was also Filipino.
- 12:15And so, you know, she totally got it.
- 12:17They were engaged and having a a really cool conversation about
- 12:21it. She left for the evening to go
- 12:23have dinner and came back absolutely despondent because
- 12:27the restaurant was closed for that night and she was only
- 12:29going to be there for one night. She was flying through San
- 12:32Francisco and decided to stay the night to go to the
- 12:34restaurant. I'm so they, the team member was
- 12:39so like just felt so bad for her.
- 12:42She went home and made the meal, the dinner for her.
- 12:46And when she came, when she came to check out the next day, she
- 12:50she made the food and laid it out and had a whole lunch set up
- 12:55for her in our restaurant area that wasn't open at the time.
- 12:59White cloth tablecloth like made a big thing of it and she got to
- 13:05sit there and dine and experience the meal and many
- 13:11that's incredible. It is really an incredible
- 13:13story. It's very, you know, it's very
- 13:16touching, but it's also very in endemic of I think what
- 13:23hoteliers don't allow anymore the hotel business in general.
- 13:28There are a handful of things that most hoteliers would cringe
- 13:32about at that story. Oh really?
- 13:35Yes. What?
- 13:37Because like, outside food was brought in.
- 13:41I don't know how it was handled. Were they wearing plastic gloves
- 13:44or sneeze on it? Or hair Nets, you know.
- 13:46You, you know, having that level of connection to a guest is it
- 13:53there's team members are almost trained now to they they put on
- 13:58a Navy jacket and a nameplate and they aren't themselves.
- 14:02They are a representation of the brand.
- 14:06The big brands talk about this right.
- 14:08You are representing Marriott standing at the front desk and
- 14:12you're and so. You're supposed to like
- 14:13anesthetize your personality. They're.
- 14:15Not supposed to be you. You, you're supposed to be the
- 14:18representation of the brand. And we have a very the opposite
- 14:22model, which is we don't put our team members in uniform.
- 14:26We don't ask them to act a certain way.
- 14:28We don't ask them to answer the phone a certain way.
- 14:31We ask them to be themselves. And in some ways that's harder
- 14:35because you can't put a mask on in the morning when you walk out
- 14:39to do your job. You have to be vulnerable and be
- 14:43who you are and let that come through.
- 14:46And, and we have people that don't like it.
- 14:48We have people that started our company and think they
- 14:50understand what that means and then struggle because it's
- 14:56scary. It's hard to be yourself
- 14:59sometimes, and particularly if you're having a bad day.
- 15:03You know, how do how do I come to work today, be myself and not
- 15:09be plastic and overly sunshiny when I just had bad news, but
- 15:17still give good service, right? We talk about that all the time.
- 15:20You don't have to be bubbly every day.
- 15:22Like you can have different characteristics from a
- 15:25day-to-day. Every day.
- 15:28The the vibe of the hotel is Co created between the team and the
- 15:31guests and it's different from day-to-day.
- 15:34Depends on who's there. That's really interesting again,
- 15:37right? The building doesn't create the
- 15:39vibe, the people create the vibe.
- 15:42Yeah, and I can see how it would be helpful for a lot of folks to
- 15:47not take your approach, right? Like you said, sort of put the
- 15:50mask on. OK, I'm going to work.
- 15:52This is the the rigid, sunshiny, bubbly person, you know, persona
- 15:58that I need to project today. And then, you know, as I'm
- 16:03getting in my car and leaving my shift, I can take the mask back
- 16:06off and just sort of settle back into who I naturally feel like.
- 16:12So OK, let's go back to the tech stack that you put in.
- 16:17Let's actually first talk through that and then I want to
- 16:19hear an example of how you guys are leveraging that.
- 16:22So this tech stack allows you to take information that the guest
- 16:27has voluntarily provided to you, correct?
- 16:30Such as? Can you give me some examples?
- 16:33Sure. Yeah.
- 16:33So for example, we send a single question in our pre arrival
- 16:40communication with a guest that's just ask in a kitschy
- 16:44cheeky way because we like to be that way.
- 16:46But basically, you know, why are you coming to visit us?
- 16:49And guests provide us all kinds of information.
- 16:54One recently in Chicago was 2 girlfriends that were meeting at
- 16:59the hotel and they were coming to go to a specific concert,
- 17:05right? And they were super excited
- 17:06about that. And so there was like paragraphs
- 17:09about their friendship and all kinds.
- 17:12Yeah, all kinds of information. So the team takes that and they
- 17:17decorated their room for the musical band that they were
- 17:21really into. They went and like printed stuff
- 17:25up and did I, you know, all kinds of really cool things.
- 17:30And it's just, it's just surprising, right?
- 17:33It's fun. It's we're in the hotel
- 17:36business. We don't.
- 17:37We're not brain surgeons. Like good Lord, it should be
- 17:41fun, right? Funny, with little sidebar, I
- 17:44was talking to a brain surgeon one time about his work and a
- 17:49family member who had had a brain scan and kind of talking
- 17:52through it and he, it's like, you know what?
- 17:54He's like this stuff really isn't that complicated.
- 17:56It's not like it's rocket science.
- 17:58I'm like, no, it's the other one.
- 18:00It's the other one that people always talk about is brain
- 18:03surgery. Yes, it is complicated.
- 18:05It is complicated. It's either brain surgery or
- 18:07rocket science, and that is not what we do.
- 18:09We make people happy. You guys are having fun.
- 18:13So Speaking of fun, what's behind the name?
- 18:15Oh. Stay pineapple.
- 18:16Yeah, our founder, Michelle Barnett, she used to wear her
- 18:21hair bundled up on top of her head and kind of spiky.
- 18:24And her dad called her his little pineapple.
- 18:28OK, so. That's where the name came from.
- 18:30The pineapple is also the symbol of hospitality, so it it was a
- 18:36natural fit. So I.
- 18:38Wasn't aware of that. Today I learned something new.
- 18:41OK, so we've talked about the design aspect, sort of like
- 18:45these different cornerstones for you, the people aspect that
- 18:48you're much more interested in. And then where does the
- 18:51sustainability piece come from? Yeah.
- 18:53It's really my personal journey on sustainability started I
- 19:00think as a child. I don't think I knew that, but
- 19:05in my career, when I was at Marriott, I realized that we
- 19:09were building huge, you know, I was in the resort side of the
- 19:12business. And so we built big giant
- 19:14resorts and we were working on this particular one and we were
- 19:17going to kind of lop the top of a hill off and put the resort on
- 19:22the top of the hill. And I remember sitting there
- 19:23thinking, couldn't we near the property?
- 19:27Like is lopping the top of the hill off?
- 19:30Oh. Kind of like building it to the
- 19:31whole side. Sort of the thing should.
- 19:32Should we should we change the structure of the area that much
- 19:40to put our resort up there? That seemed environmentally poor
- 19:47choice, right? Everybody can put their mind at
- 19:51ease. We didn't build.
- 19:52We didn't actually build the property.
- 19:53So it didn't get the building, the hill did not get it didn't
- 19:56get built. No, it did not end up getting
- 19:58built. But that was the first moment
- 20:02that I realized that the job that I had picked and my
- 20:06personal ethos just be I'm very outdoorsy person.
- 20:10I love nature. I've I grew up in the country.
- 20:14On a farm and love animals that might that it was disconnected
- 20:20and I was like, OK, I have to figure out a way to do this in a
- 20:23way that aligns with who I am. And so I just started doing my
- 20:29own research and learned about sustainable development and
- 20:33really understanding how to create amazing spaces for people
- 20:39that aren't a detriment to our environment or our natural
- 20:43resources. So it was totally self-taught
- 20:47and, well, not. Totally.
- 20:48You got a lead certification? Well.
- 20:50Yeah, right. That that is maybe the.
- 20:52Early days of laying sort of the foundation that that was all
- 20:56self-taught self. I didn't.
- 20:57Go to college for it. How about that got?
- 21:00It OK, So explain what the lead certification is, what this
- 21:04means, how you got it? Yeah.
- 21:05So LEAD accreditation is for a person.
- 21:10So you get accredited to in having knowledge around
- 21:15environmental sustainability features of the built
- 21:20environment. LEAD LEAD certification is for
- 21:25an actual building. So buildings get certified to
- 21:28the LEAD standard, which is the US Green Building Council.
- 21:32Yeah. Got it.
- 21:33Thank you for fixing my language.
- 21:35There everybody. Everybody makes that the
- 21:38accreditation you are. Not a building.
- 21:40So you are not lead certified. You are a person who is
- 21:43accredited and LEAD. Okay, got it.
- 21:46And so, so maybe let's, I think these specific examples, you had
- 21:51two great ones, you know, talking about how you guys
- 21:54really wow your guests. Can we talk about a specific
- 21:57example here of how you approach this triple bottom line approach
- 22:02people, planet prosperity. Yeah.
- 22:05And I really like the triple bottom line methodology because
- 22:10I think it it correlates the most important pieces.
- 22:15Many people think sustainability is only about the environment
- 22:18and it's it's not. It's about ensuring the
- 22:23community isn't impacted negatively, supporting, you
- 22:28know, where we have hotels in six different markets,
- 22:32supporting the communities that those hotels are in.
- 22:36All of that is part of sustainability, health and
- 22:38Wellness, transportation, all kinds of things are connected.
- 22:44And then you can't forget that the actual business has to be
- 22:48prosperous or it can't continue to employ people.
- 22:51We employ, you know, almost 400 people and that's a big part of
- 22:56what we do for the community is, is be an employer and provide
- 23:02people a living wage. So that's all of that is a more
- 23:08holistic way of looking at sustainability.
- 23:13So it's really hard to provide you a specific example.
- 23:16We do, you know, there's because it covers so many things, but I
- 23:22think it's really important to focus on the areas where your
- 23:28business can make an impact. And so one of the areas that we
- 23:32focus on is how we can be a model to guests, how you can
- 23:37take something that we do at the hotel home with you.
- 23:41Whether it's noticing our composting program, identifying
- 23:46the fact that we provide reusable aluminum water bottles
- 23:49for you to take home instead of plastic bottles.
- 23:53Whether you see us talking about our 80% renewable energy in our
- 24:00hotels, whether you know all of the factors, whether it's our
- 24:05health and Wellness program, whether it's our PET Wellness
- 24:08program, whether you know, like all of these different elements.
- 24:12Hopefully when you leave, you start to see an ethos that
- 24:16connects an ethos of care. I guess that that's what
- 24:21sustainability is about, is about caring.
- 24:23So I'm going. To pull out just one of those
- 24:25examples that you threw out, the reusable aluminum water bottles,
- 24:29that really strikes me. So a lot of hotels they go to,
- 24:32especially if it's in an area or maybe where the drinking waters
- 24:35could be a little bit questionable.
- 24:37But even not, you know, they, they provide a bottle or two of
- 24:40water in the room, you know, just kind of a nice little value
- 24:43add. Didn't cost the hotel a whole
- 24:45lot but cost them something you guys don't do that you provide
- 24:50hey here's an aluminum water bottle that you can refill
- 24:53reuse, take home with you that's a bigger expense for you guys
- 24:57it. Is it's about twice as we used
- 24:59to do plastic water bottles and it doubled our cost.
- 25:05But it was so important to our strategy that plastic is a very
- 25:14visceral and obvious place to have a negative feeling, right?
- 25:23Like if people see us talking about sustainability and then
- 25:27they check into our hotel and we have, we're buying, we were
- 25:30buying 750,000 bottles of plastic water bottles a year.
- 25:36OK, that's, that's a lot that's impactful, right?
- 25:41That's a place that we can put our money where our mouth is and
- 25:46and make a commitment. So we partnered with PATH and we
- 25:51do a custom. What we did do talking about
- 25:55prosperity is we tried to turn it into something that was also
- 26:00valuable to us from a marketing perspective.
- 26:03So we partnered with PATH to create a custom Stay pineapple
- 26:07bottle that's really cool and really pretty and people will
- 26:11want to take it home with them and hopefully they'll walk
- 26:13around the airport with a stay pineapple water bottle and
- 26:16somebody will go. Who's that?
- 26:18Where did that come from? That's a cool bottle.
- 26:20Where'd you get that? And they might, somebody might
- 26:23talk about us. So we, we equated it to some
- 26:27marketing expense, right? That's how we kind of worked it
- 26:30out from a prosperity perspective.
- 26:33I. Like that, That's a great
- 26:34example. Let's talk a little bit more
- 26:37about some of the fun stuff that you guys do there.
- 26:40I want to hear specifically about what you call the naked
- 26:43experience. Yes, so I mentioned earlier, we
- 26:48like to be a little cheeky and kitschy and irreverent on
- 26:53occasion. So the naked experience is
- 26:57really our beds are so comfy, cozy and amazing you'll want to
- 27:01sleep naked. We buy incredibly wonderful
- 27:05sheets. We have a double duvet system
- 27:08that if you've travelled in Germany or Scandinavia, you may
- 27:13have experienced. Each person gets their own twin
- 27:17size duvet so that you don't have to fight over the covers.
- 27:21Yeah, it's really lovely. Yeah, it's really brilliant.
- 27:25And then we have oversized towels and big fluffy robes, so
- 27:30everything that touches you is really luxurious.
- 27:33And so do you want to be naked? But please be naked in your
- 27:37room. Fair enough.
- 27:40I gotta tell you, when I first saw the name of the hotel,
- 27:42Pineapple brought up a different connection.
- 27:47For me, it's people with an open relationship.
- 27:52Yeah. And is there a connection to
- 27:55that in the hotel name here? Yeah, there.
- 27:57Isn't we we do giggle and lean into it sometimes, though.
- 28:02We get we get every so often we'll get a funny post to
- 28:06somebody old post. I think I accidentally checked
- 28:09into a swingers hotel and and you know, we'll do video about
- 28:13our pineapples. You see my pineapple on my
- 28:16jacket here. I always make sure it's right
- 28:17side up and cuz our coffee upside.
- 28:21Down means yeah, so upside. Down pineapple is the symbol of
- 28:27the alternative lifestyle you reference.
- 28:29Yes, something else. I've learned today, whatever
- 28:32you. Want to do in your hotel room is
- 28:33all about you but you know. And I want to go back to this
- 28:36double duvet set up. My wife and I just recently
- 28:39started doing this in our home and it's made such a big
- 28:42difference for the quality of sleep that we have.
- 28:45And. But I think this is the first
- 28:46hotel that I've heard of that does the same thing.
- 28:49Yeah. People absolutely go crazy over
- 28:51our bed. And the bed is also an amazing,
- 28:53amazing bed. So I know it sounds like a
- 28:57simple thing, but how many hotels have you been in that you
- 29:01slept horrible because the bed was terrible?
- 29:04So many, right? So many.
- 29:06Yeah. A great shower and a great bed.
- 29:10It is not a simple thing. It is a huge thing, right?
- 29:13You're traveling, you're, you know, you're out of sorts, you
- 29:16long days, etcetera. And it just gets compounded if
- 29:21you get a bad night's sleep. So if you can wake up when
- 29:24you're traveling feeling refreshed, man, that's that's.
- 29:27One of the pillars of our health and Wellness program.
- 29:30So again, I think everything goes back to care.
- 29:34We care about our guests health and Wellness while they're
- 29:38staying with us. So sleep is number 1 and the
- 29:42naked experience is core to that.
- 29:46Hydration is number 2, so our reusable water bottles and we
- 29:51have refillable water stations in the lobbies of all of our
- 29:55hotels that have cold, sparkling and hot water.
- 30:01And then the last is movement. So we provide free bikes and
- 30:07walking tours and bike or or dog walking tours for people to get
- 30:14out in the city and experience the city, but also get some
- 30:17exercise and, and movement. We know how difficult it is on
- 30:24the body to travel. And so it's really important to
- 30:28us that we provide the elements that will help you feel good
- 30:33when you get home. And remember, stay Pineapple as
- 30:36somebody who cared about how you feel physically and.
- 30:42So this is are all of your hotels dog friendly?
- 30:44All of. Our hotels are not only pet
- 30:47friendly but dog obsessed. And So what does it mean for a
- 30:52hotel to not just be pet friendly, but dog obsessed?
- 30:55So we have no rules. Every, every hotel chain that
- 31:00does allow pets, generally it's £25 or less, not any more than
- 31:05one, sometimes two dogs. You cannot leave them in your
- 31:09room. That's kind of standard SOP for
- 31:12the hotel business. We don't have any of those
- 31:14rules. You can bring your Great Dane,
- 31:16you can bring 3 Great Danes if you want.
- 31:20You can leave them in your room and go out and enjoy your stay.
- 31:25We do ask that guests leave their cell phone number with us
- 31:28so that we can let them know if their pets are upset.
- 31:32I also mentioned that we have a pet Wellness program, so we have
- 31:36Sounds SOUNDZ which is a pet musical tool that is good for
- 31:49pets that are have anxiety or stressed.
- 31:52So you get just like some. Kind of a track that suits,
- 31:54yeah. It's you get a 14 day free trial
- 31:58when you stay with Stay Pineapple so that you can leave
- 32:01the dogs with some sounds on that'll help soothe them.
- 32:05We also have a 24 hour emergency vet care program partnership
- 32:12with Veg ERVEGER at all of our hotels in case something goes
- 32:20wrong and you need veterinary care.
- 32:22So like it's a really, really well thought out program.
- 32:25It's not just, it's over the. Top you can.
- 32:27Bring your pet. It's we want to care for your
- 32:30pet as much as we care for you. They get the dog bed and treats
- 32:36and a water bowl that you get to take.
- 32:38You get some things to take home with your pet.
- 32:40You know, all all kinds of good stuff.
- 32:44And you guys presently have 10 locations, is that correct?
- 32:48Yep. And future plans?
- 32:50Yep. We're we're growing, so
- 32:54hopefully you'll see us in a southern state near you one of
- 32:57these days. So we're in Seattle, San
- 33:00Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Boston and New York.
- 33:05Any plans to come a little bit further my way to Ohio?
- 33:08Yeah, we would love to be kind of in the centre of the country
- 33:14too. And in the South, you see, we're
- 33:16very northern climate oriented. And so yeah, we we want to have
- 33:22some new dots on the map for guests to experience.
- 33:27We have a lot of very, we call them pineapple evangelists,
- 33:32people that just absolutely love our brand.
- 33:34And so we want to have more opportunities for them to stay
- 33:37in other locations. I love this.
- 33:40OK, so tell us about the signature welcome drink another
- 33:43one of these fun things that you guys have.
- 33:45That we actually did that. That happened during the COVID
- 33:49year, I think 2020. We did that and it really was
- 33:54around making people feel like the world wasn't coming to an
- 33:59end and that coming to a hotel could be welcoming.
- 34:04At the time we were doing it for people to take up to their room.
- 34:07We've now, you know, changed it so that you can go to the bar
- 34:12and get a cocktail or in you. We also have sodas and things at
- 34:18at the front desk in a grab and go environment and you can get a
- 34:22bottle, another stay pineapple water bottle if you'd like.
- 34:26You know, a lot of options, but it's really a it really starts
- 34:31with the idea of friend style service.
- 34:34So again, we want you to walk away from your experience with
- 34:38us feeling like you have a friend in Seattle now that you
- 34:41can go visit and and that what what is the thing that what is
- 34:45the first thing that you do when somebody comes to your house?
- 34:50Aside from welcome inside, ioffer them something to drink
- 34:53or eat. Yep.
- 34:55Exactly. So that's what we do.
- 34:57We offer you a welcome beverage. Welcome.
- 34:59Welcome to our home. Love it.
- 35:02Yeah. I mean, we're talking about all
- 35:05kinds of fun stuff, ways that you guys wow your guests.
- 35:09There's another side, though. Sometimes the ball gets dropped.
- 35:12Sometimes mistakes happen. Sometimes you've got a guest who
- 35:16is upset, whether rightfully so or not.
- 35:20Can you think of a particularly challenging experience on that
- 35:23front, how you navigated it, how you sort of brought things back
- 35:28around? Yeah.
- 35:29I mean, we, we make mistakes fairly regularly.
- 35:33It's, it's, it's an interesting commentary that I have because
- 35:39we don't have a lot of SO standard operating procedures in
- 35:42our business because we want people to, we want our team
- 35:45members to do the things that they want to do and how they
- 35:48want to do them. That's natural for them.
- 35:52And people say to me all the time, well, that must create a
- 35:54lot of, you know, things go wrong.
- 35:58And I'm like, when was the last time an SOP kept things from
- 36:01going wrong? Please tell me it it's it's a
- 36:06misnomer to believe that if you create standards that you're
- 36:10going to keep things from happening, not the way you want
- 36:15them to occur. So I just want to lay that
- 36:18groundwork. There's so many things that are
- 36:21outside of our control. Right.
- 36:24Yeah. So our team members come at any
- 36:29situation with the very first thought of do the next right
- 36:34thing. We say it all the time.
- 36:36It's one of our favorite sayings.
- 36:38It's you don't have to write a standard if that's what you're
- 36:41always thinking. If somebody asks for something
- 36:45and I know to say yes, I know how to figure out how to get to
- 36:48yes, then it makes it a lot easier to not have things go
- 36:54wrong. But it still happens, right?
- 36:58It still happens, OK. So let me just play devil's
- 37:02advocate for a second and tell me why I'm wrong in the context
- 37:06of the state pineapple environment.
- 37:08You know, I've owned multiple businesses in my career, been
- 37:11big about standard operating procedures.
- 37:13If X then Y. And at some point that SOP, that
- 37:17standard operating procedure breaks or we find a crack in it
- 37:21because there's an exception to it.
- 37:23So then we go back and we revisit that SOP and it's like,
- 37:26OK, if X and not Z, then Y. And if you know just sort of
- 37:33create more of those if then variables and I like that, you
- 37:38know as a business owner, I like that there is sort of that
- 37:41predictable path there. Tell me why the approach for
- 37:46stay Pineapple is better? Mine is also predictable.
- 37:50It's just broader. I, I guess we have ASOP, it's do
- 37:54the next right thing. Like if you own a tire store,
- 38:01which very one thing is the hospitality industry is all
- 38:06about human interaction. So rarely is it repeatable.
- 38:10Like we don't have a very repeatable process or service
- 38:15because every person's individual and unique and
- 38:17different. And if we're providing
- 38:19personalized service, then we're not treating you like we did
- 38:22Missus Johnson. We're treating you differently
- 38:25and unique to you. And it's really hard to write an
- 38:27SOP for that. But let's use a business that is
- 38:30much more standardized, a tire store, right?
- 38:34You come in, you order tires, I put the order in, the guys go
- 38:40put tires on your car, you get your keys back, you pay me and
- 38:45you leave. It's, it's a very standard
- 38:47process. I, I can understand why you'd
- 38:50want to write an SOP about that. But if the person that they that
- 38:54the customers interacting with always comes from a place of
- 38:59care, what is the SOP adding other than training?
- 39:06Like I know how to use the system clickety, clickety,
- 39:09clickety, right? What is what is being added if
- 39:16somebody's coming from a truly care focused model, always
- 39:24thinking about your customer? So I get what you're saying and
- 39:29I buy into it to a certain degree.
- 39:31I think in order for your model to really work well, you've got
- 39:35to get the hiring right, like your team has to be the right
- 39:40folks. How do you figure that out?
- 39:43How do you filter and sort of that hiring process?
- 39:45Yeah. Hiring and retention is critical
- 39:48to our business model. So we do, we look for two
- 39:52critical things in hiring emotional intelligence.
- 39:56So your ability to read other people and adjust how you're
- 40:00interacting with them based on the information that you're
- 40:04gathering, body language, verbal cues, all of that.
- 40:10And critical thinking, your ability to problem solve and
- 40:15come up with creative solutions, whether it's, you know,
- 40:18solutions to something that's gone wrong or a surprising
- 40:21delight, something that you've heard that you want to be
- 40:24creative and, and do something that's well beyond what the
- 40:28guest would expect to happen. You wouldn't expect to show up
- 40:33at a hotel and have your room decorated for Christmas with a
- 40:37Christmas tree in it. But you told us that Christmas
- 40:41is really important to you, and you're sad because you're going
- 40:44to be on the road the week before Christmas.
- 40:47We would do that, right? Like those kind of things don't
- 40:51happen because somebody wrote an SOP.
- 40:54They happen because we give ultimate free rein to very
- 41:01smart, emotionally intelligent people to create a a care model
- 41:08at our hotels that is way beyond what a guest would expect.
- 41:13So Dina, I'm sure you know the organization of your size.
- 41:16You are not at the front line doing the employee interviews,
- 41:21but do you know how they're filtering for that?
- 41:25Like are there some like magic questions that help to get to
- 41:28that, that EQ part of it, as well as the critical thinking
- 41:33aspect of it? Yeah.
- 41:34We do a lot of questions around in in a situation like this,
- 41:41what would you do? Tell me how you would handle it
- 41:45and then tell me about a time something like this has happened
- 41:48to you in the past and what did you, you know whether again, it
- 41:51doesn't have to be negative it some of the questions are if
- 41:54you, if you've had a challenging guest that was angry with you,
- 41:58certainly those are great questions.
- 42:00But the better questions are what?
- 42:04What do you do when a check in is normal and it's fine?
- 42:13I don't, I wouldn't even know how to begin to answer that.
- 42:15Like, I don't know, go on to the next task really.
- 42:17I think it went well, right? But the people so that I just.
- 42:21Failed the interview. Did the people that say Oh well,
- 42:27if it's just fine, then I want to find a way to make that cast
- 42:33feel really special. That's when you go, OK, I have
- 42:37something interesting here and then I start to then you start
- 42:40to dig. You're like, OK, well tell me
- 42:42about that. How would you potentially
- 42:44surprise and delight isn't only stay pineapple term?
- 42:47People in the hotel business have heard it many times.
- 42:50How would you surprise and delight a guest?
- 42:52Tell me about a time you've done it.
- 42:54You know that. That's when you start to get
- 42:57into what is their personal value system around being of
- 43:03care. So do you think when people come
- 43:08to an interview, they're already familiar with the brand, they
- 43:12understand that this is like an over the top customer
- 43:17experience, kind of an expectation not?
- 43:19All of them. Many are many people come to us
- 43:24and we we get to two people, two potential hires coming in one
- 43:32that's they're really into pets. And so they're like, I want to
- 43:36play with dogs all day and we're like, great.
- 43:39That is a perfect place to start with us.
- 43:42Let's dig into that some more, right.
- 43:45Or the other is I know about your brand and I have always
- 43:51wanted to work here and I just think what you do is so special
- 43:55and unique and I want to learn more about it.
- 43:59Those kind of people again, are they're going to they're going
- 44:04to pique a interviewer's interest and they're going to be
- 44:08like, OK, let's dig, let's dig, let's dig in that right?
- 44:11It's just like surprise and delight and listening, like we
- 44:15listen to what people say, ascertain if they've got that
- 44:20stay pineapple thing that's going to make them fit in our
- 44:23culture, and then we hang on to them when we get them.
- 44:27How do you hang on to them? Well.
- 44:30Primary. We give them what they want,
- 44:32right? People go into the hotel
- 44:34business because they want to take care of other people.
- 44:37They don't want to be put in a Navy jacket with a name tag on
- 44:41and told how to answer the phone.
- 44:43That's not why they start in the hotel business.
- 44:46They start because they love taking care of people.
- 44:51And we let them do it their own way.
- 44:54We let them be themselves. And we create really great
- 44:59bonded teams at our hotels through, you know, team member
- 45:04experiences and events and, you know, all kinds of stuff.
- 45:09And then the other thing is, is we model.
- 45:12We don't teach the GM. We have a centralized business
- 45:17model. So all of the kind of back
- 45:20office, all the drudgery work is done at our Home Office so that
- 45:24the general manager and the front desk manager are on the
- 45:28floor working with the team everyday modeling what it looks
- 45:33like to be great at guest service.
- 45:37So if you want to be. A great if.
- 45:39You, if that's your desire, right, If that's your career
- 45:43path, you want to be in the hotel business and you want to
- 45:46become a general manager and a regional and you want to really
- 45:50understand the ESO ethos of great guest service.
- 45:54Stay Pineapple is an amazing place to work.
- 45:57Our average length of stay, yes, we use length of stay instead of
- 46:02retention 'cause we're in the hotel business and we think it's
- 46:04cute is 3 years, which is incredible on it in our industry
- 46:13it is that's. I've not heard of anything like
- 46:17that before. It's really stellar.
- 46:19Yeah, you're. Very passionate about what?
- 46:22You do. We had a lot of fun talking
- 46:24about a lot of great things, but let's talk about something hard.
- 46:28Let's talk because that that's where a lot of growth comes
- 46:32from. Personally.
- 46:33What's something really challenging, Dana, that you've
- 46:37experienced in your life, whether it's personal or
- 46:39professional? How did you get through that and
- 46:41what did you learn? Yeah, you know.
- 46:46I think the most challenging thing that ever happened to me
- 46:50the the one that I wasn't prepared for was I was let go in
- 46:58a big layoff at a big corporate, one of my corporate roles that I
- 47:03had and I was a leader in the organization.
- 47:07I was a vice president in the company and what a whole
- 47:11department got eliminated. And it was something that I had
- 47:17created it. The department hadn't exist
- 47:19previous to me and I created it and it was, it was a bit, it was
- 47:23my baby. I like I, I put the passion that
- 47:27you hear in me now and into that as well.
- 47:30And I, I think that's when I first learned that probably the
- 47:35big box brand corporate world wasn't the right one for me
- 47:41because it felt like my family had been ripped away.
- 47:47And I know that sounds melodramatic, but I get really
- 47:51invested in what I do, what I do and who I am.
- 47:56I don't have good work life balance.
- 47:59I tell people all the time not to model my experience.
- 48:02I don't have kids. I, I've put, I've put a lot of
- 48:07my energy into what I do because I really believe in taking care
- 48:12of people and the the idea of it and the impact that it can make
- 48:17on an individual that might be going through something really
- 48:20rough or celebrating something. Creating a memory that they can
- 48:26take home and have for decades to come is so much more valuable
- 48:31than a thing that you can buy. So I after this happened, I went
- 48:37to my mom's. This is probably my most
- 48:39embarrassing thing in life. I was in my 30s, so I was not a
- 48:44young person. I flew to North Carolina to my
- 48:47mom's house and stayed there for a week and just cried.
- 48:52Literally. My husband called me and was
- 48:55like, are you ever coming home? What is happening?
- 48:57I don't. I was like, I just had to mourn
- 49:02the loss of something that was really important to me.
- 49:06And I think the people around me were like, Dina, everybody gets
- 49:10laid off in their career at some time or another.
- 49:12It's not that dramatic. But I think, I think different
- 49:19people react differently to different circumstances.
- 49:24But it was a turning point that changed the trajectory of my
- 49:28career. I was climbing the ladder in
- 49:30corporate America. I was the youngest vice
- 49:32president in the organization I was in.
- 49:35That was what I was going to do. That's what was going to, you
- 49:38know, make make me, make my family proud of me and all of
- 49:43that. I stopped in my tracks and
- 49:47turned in the opposite direction and I became an entrepreneur,
- 49:51which I also realized I was not. I was not my thing.
- 49:55Took me about five years to get through that and go, OK, that
- 49:58that's not right for me either. I took a number of missteps over
- 50:02the next decade. Not missteps, but paths that hit
- 50:06a dead end, right? I learned I did a lot in
- 50:10sustainability around that, but I learned that I didn't like
- 50:14consulting because it was 2 separate from the actual
- 50:19activity and accomplishment. I you wrote a lot of papers, but
- 50:23you didn't get to do things. So I learned a lot what I didn't
- 50:28like over the next 10 years, and that got me to stay pineapple
- 50:33after three rolls and many missteps.
- 50:38So it I I have young women particularly ask me often, well,
- 50:44you know, how did you become the president of a company?
- 50:46And I'm like a very circuitous route.
- 50:49It was I kind of went all over the map.
- 50:54I like to brag that I have varied experience.
- 50:57Well, that really means I couldn't figure out what I
- 50:59wanted to do. And so I went in a lot of bad
- 51:02directions. But so don't be afraid of that.
- 51:05Don't miss it. Don't miss the wrong steps
- 51:10because they teach you things that you can't get in another
- 51:14way. So I want to go back to the
- 51:19earliest part of that story and honor something that you said
- 51:22about mourning for a week and having it feel like your family
- 51:28had just been ripped away from you.
- 51:30And I don't think that's melodramatic at all.
- 51:35I have the similar conversation a lot with entrepreneurs, people
- 51:40who have started something, built something, and it feels
- 51:45like a part of you. It feels like an offspring, a
- 51:48child, like there is a real emotional connection to it.
- 51:52And if and when either that business does not work out, has
- 51:56to be wound down, or you exit that business in a successful
- 52:00way and you're no longer a part of it, there is a very real
- 52:04mourning process that takes place.
- 52:07And you as not the owner, the entrepreneur, but in a sense the
- 52:13owner, right? Because this is a whole
- 52:14department, a whole thing that you had burst within this
- 52:17company. You had taken so much pride, so
- 52:21much pleasure, you put so much passion into it that you had
- 52:25that same emotional connection to it and the team around you
- 52:29that you had built. And so I don't think this was
- 52:32melodramatic at all. Like, I very much understand
- 52:35that mourning process that you went through.
- 52:37Yeah, that was 100%. That's.
- 52:39Exactly what it felt like, yeah. And.
- 52:46It closed that door. It had you thinking about life
- 52:50in a different way, looking for new doors, looking for new
- 52:53Windows. It took you into some different
- 52:56experiences that weren't ultimately a direct path to
- 53:00where you are now, but I would guess that the things that you
- 53:04learned at each of those stops have set you up for the success
- 53:08that you're now having. The state.
- 53:09Pineapple True or false? 100% True, 100%.
- 53:13True. I would not.
- 53:14I wouldn't have the breadth of experience and the the ability
- 53:19to address things I don't know anything about.
- 53:25So that's the biggest thing about leadership that I think
- 53:27people miss is you were going to get asked to make decisions on
- 53:34stuff that you are not a technical expert at and you
- 53:37don't know. You don't necessarily know.
- 53:41You have to use your intuition and your experience and take
- 53:47things from adjacent experiences and, and figure out how to use
- 53:54them. And the more that you have a
- 53:57variety of experiences, the more breadth of information that
- 54:01you'll be able to pull from. And so I think I, I always used
- 54:06to say when I was young, because I had a chip on my shoulder and
- 54:10I was very young in my leadership.
- 54:14You know, somebody that has 30 years of the same experience
- 54:17doesn't have as much experience as somebody that has five
- 54:20different years of experience. And people would just right, it
- 54:24probably wasn't the appropriate thing for a 25 year old to be
- 54:27saying, but right the the sentiment is accurate.
- 54:32If you if you have five years of a lot of very different
- 54:37experiences, you're going to have a lot more to pull from
- 54:40than if you've done the same exact thing every year for 30
- 54:44years. I.
- 54:46Would tend to agree with that. I mean, I think there's a depth
- 54:50of expertise that comes from being sort of in that same
- 54:53vertical for a while. But as somebody who's had some,
- 54:57you know, varied experiences, different kinds of businesses, I
- 55:00I would agree. Like there's a lot of different
- 55:03disciplines to be able to pull from when curveballs get thrown
- 55:06at you. Yeah.
- 55:08So how would you characterize your superpower, Dina, My
- 55:13superpower? And actually the one that
- 55:17everybody tells me is my superpower as well is
- 55:21identifying what people are great at.
- 55:25So I'll give you a couple of recent examples.
- 55:30I'm, I'm really good at seeing what people may not see in
- 55:35themselves and helping them find a path to utilizing their best
- 55:42skills or their natural tendencies instead of what
- 55:47potentially they've been told or told themselves about
- 55:51themselves. So our chief growth officer
- 55:55who's in charge of all of revenue, so sales revenue, our
- 56:00growth strategy actually comes out of human resources.
- 56:05He had a 20 year career as a human resource professional and
- 56:10he was hired here as the VP of Human Resources.
- 56:15And about 2 1/2 years into his career here we were doing a lot
- 56:21of expansion and going to conferences and speaking and
- 56:26trying to get other people to understand what we do.
- 56:32And Mike went with us on something and I realized in
- 56:38instantly how incredibly good he was at articulating who we were
- 56:44and getting people to believe in what we did.
- 56:49And, and, and I think it came from his years of doing that
- 56:52with people in HR. So he, he started getting really
- 56:58involved in our growth strategy and, and got really, really good
- 57:01at it. And at one point I, I also
- 57:04learned that telling people about these things can be hard.
- 57:09If you're trying to get somebody to redirect, telling them
- 57:13directly can be challenging. So what I did was I kind of
- 57:17dropped some bread crumbs and I was like, hey Mike, I, I think
- 57:22that we have an opportunity for you to take on some new, new
- 57:27initiatives in the company. And so I, I kind of dropped a
- 57:31few hints and then I, I was like, oh, I got to catch my
- 57:34plane. I'll see, I'll call you when I
- 57:36land. So I gave him like 5 hours to
- 57:39think about it, knowing him really well, knowing that he
- 57:43would, he would get from my little bread crumbs to the end
- 57:46result. And when I landed and I called
- 57:48him, he was like, take it Dina, I know exactly what you want me
- 57:52to do. You want me to take over growth
- 57:56and revenue. I was like, yes, I do.
- 57:59And he has been incredible at it.
- 58:02He's amazing. He's so inspirational to a group
- 58:06of creative people and science based people, data people,
- 58:11creative people. He brings them together.
- 58:14We used to have a department that was very segregated and had
- 58:19all these sub departments. They all work collectively.
- 58:22Now under his leadership, they're working hand in hand,
- 58:26they're collaborating and it's just, it is absolutely
- 58:33phenomenal to see the difference in our revenue team compared to
- 58:39two years ago when Mike took over.
- 58:42I really like that story because I think.
- 58:44As humans, whether we're doing it to our team members or we're
- 58:49doing it to ourselves, we tend to paint ourselves into a box,
- 58:52right? Like, you know, oh, I'm an HR
- 58:54person. So that, you know, that means my
- 58:56path is, you know, strictly within HR.
- 58:59I'll do some payroll stuff, some benefit stuff.
- 59:01Eventually, you know, I'll become a director, but you had
- 59:05like this bigger vision, like, oh, like he's got these
- 59:07personality traits that, yes, he's been a great asset in the
- 59:11HR department. Oh, I, I think, you know, he can
- 59:15really build on that and be fantastic in this completely
- 59:18different area of the business. Yeah, now he's on the.
- 59:22Executive team of the company and is the Chief Growth Officer,
- 59:26so I love that. I want to call out one of your
- 59:31accolades, being named one of the top 50 women leaders in
- 59:36hospitality now two years running.
- 59:39What do you think has contributed to you being
- 59:43designated I, I? Am so honored by it and I think
- 59:51it's because we do things differently and, and I talk
- 59:55about it a lot and I'm clearly very passionate about it.
- 59:58I, I believe in people and I believe in the, the amazing
- 1:00:04impact people can make on each other.
- 1:00:08And so I think in this day and age of AI and automation and
- 1:00:16reduction in force. And all of the things that are,
- 1:00:20you know, being talked about in the news, I think it's
- 1:00:23refreshing to hear a business that is using technology.
- 1:00:27We're not shying away from technology at all.
- 1:00:29We have an in house AI programmer at our corporate
- 1:00:32office. We are leaning into technology,
- 1:00:36but only as an enabler to our teams, only as a tool to
- 1:00:42eliminate the transaction and the friction out of a guest
- 1:00:47journey so that our team members have more time to build
- 1:00:50relationships. And I think that's just really
- 1:00:54refreshing story. I'm not trying to put myself
- 1:01:01down or say that I'm not worth the top 50 women in hospitality,
- 1:01:06but I think I have a leg up because I've got a really
- 1:01:10interesting story to talk about. I think what I'm hearing.
- 1:01:14You say at least on that AI side of things, is you don't want
- 1:01:18fewer. What's your term for them?
- 1:01:20Guess the the team members our front.
- 1:01:25Dust team everything people the everything people you don't
- 1:01:28want. Fewer everything people.
- 1:01:30You want your everything people spending more time with the
- 1:01:33guests. Exactly.
- 1:01:34That's how you look at and think about AI.
- 1:01:36Yeah, I've just got one more question for you today, Dina.
- 1:01:41But before I ask it, I wanna do three quick things.
- 1:01:44Anybody who wants to get in touch with Dina, 2 options.
- 1:01:48You can find her on LinkedIn. And her last name is spelled
- 1:01:51BELON. So kind of like Melon, but with
- 1:01:54AB at the front of it instead of an M.
- 1:01:57And then also she's given us our her e-mail address to share.
- 1:02:00So it's DBELON at state pineapple.com, DDELON at state
- 1:02:06pineapple.com. And we'll have links to her
- 1:02:08e-mail and LinkedIn profile and show notes for folks.
- 1:02:12Also, as a reminder, if you want to get more hotel employees,
- 1:02:15access to doctors, therapists and prescription meds that Can
- 1:02:19you believe it actually puts more money into the company's
- 1:02:21pocket, reach out to us at Add back benefits.com.
- 1:02:25Finally, if you're enjoying the show, a quick comment or review
- 1:02:29on your favorite podcast app goes a long way towards helping
- 1:02:32others discover the show. It means a lot more than you
- 1:02:35might think. So thank you.
- 1:02:37So last question for you, Dina. A year from now, you and I
- 1:02:41reconnect and you were celebrating something big,
- 1:02:44something very specific. What is that one specific thing
- 1:02:48that you hope to be celebrating one year from today?
- 1:02:51We are celebrating. Some new stay pineapple hotels
- 1:02:56in our portfolio. Yeah, that would be great.
- 1:02:59Let new babies out there. I love that.
- 1:03:04Well, we'll have to check back. In in a year and see how many
- 1:03:06more of those babies have been birthed.
- 1:03:10But Dina belong from stay Pineapple hotels.
- 1:03:13I wouldn't be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
- 1:03:15and your story with us today. I really appreciate you.
- 1:03:19It was really fun. Thank you so much.
- 1:03:21I I appreciate the opportunity, Anthony.
- 1:03:25Folks, that's a wrap on another episode.
- 1:03:27Of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
- 1:03:29today.