Latest / The Modern Hotelier / #314: World Cup Tourism, Booking Based on F&B, Creative Travel for Summer Vacations | Hospitality Hot Topics with Dean Compoginis
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- The Modern Hotelier 314: World Cup Tourism, Booking Based on F&B, Creative Travel for Summer Vacations | Hospitality Hot Topics with Dean Compoginis === Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of Hospitality Hot Topics, where we talk about what happened in hospitality this past month in July. Don't forget to follow, like, subscribe, and let us know what you think in the comments. Today we are joined by the voice of The Modern Hotelier, Dean Compoginis. Thank you for joining us, Dean. How we doing today? Dean Compoginis: Thanks for having me here. It's nice to actually join you all in person during The Modern Hotelier. Steve Carran: Absolutely. Well, we appreciate everything you've done for us, and we're happy to have you on to talk about what happened in July in hospitality. So the first thing on today's list is the World Cup, how it sparked tourism in the United States and also increased RevPAR for hotels. One thing I really liked was seeing the videos online of people experiencing America, going to try new food. Dean, I'm gonna ask you first, what was your reaction to the World Cup in America? Dean Compoginis: Well, you know, I'm here in the Bay Area, and Levi's Stadium, the home of the 49ers, hosted a couple of games. And it was pretty crazy from hotel occupancies. The occupancies didn't really change a whole lot, but we saw the driving of the rates certainly in all the markets around the Bay Area. Rooms were scarce. And so you saw ADR increases, you saw RevPAR increases across all the chain scales actually, from luxury to one and two star. It was a profound effect here in the Bay Area for sure. Steve Carran: Yeah. A report came out that host cities saw an average RevPAR gain of well above 20%. So good for hotels in the host cities. David, what about you? David Millili: Yeah, I think it's just something we needed as a country, this kind of goodwill towards other nations coming here, and it's kind of nice now with the World Cup, and I think this year the NFL's gonna have nine games abroad. But really, it was just great seeing the fact that there were all these different countries and people that were coming into the US, which again, it was just something that we really needed. Steve Carran: Yeah, I agree. And one of the cool stats that I saw was 80% of international travelers traveled beyond World Cup host cities, and they were spending eight to 10 times more than domestic travelers. So good for the economy and the host cities and the cities surrounding that as well. David Millili: All right. And then next we've got a survey, and I'm gonna see if Steve agrees or doesn't, but travelers are booking hotels based on food and beverage. So I think that's great. I always get nervous with some of these surveys that really don't tell you how many people they surveyed. So I'm calling a little bit of foul here that people are just booking on F&B, but what say you, Steve? Steve Carran: Man, I am one of those people. When I'm booking a hotel, I love to have a restaurant on site. I mean, it's kind of funny. I remember traveling back in the day, maybe I was just staying at more select service hotels, but it was just kind of a mediocre breakfast at best. But now some of the hotels we stay at have incredible food and beverage options. One interesting stat I saw was 60% of travelers this summer said they have booked a hotel specifically because of the food and beverage options. And another 61%, again, we don't know how many, so like you said, who knows? But 61% of survey responders said that they have previously selected a destination because of the food and restaurant scene. I think it all goes back into what we're seeing is people want experiences more, and the food and beverage is definitely a part of their experience. David Millili: So Dean, have you booked a trip based off of a restaurant? Dean Compoginis: Once or twice I certainly have. I had a chance to dine at Michael Jordan's restaurant there, which is upstairs at Grand Central. And so I booked into the Hyatt there so I could walk down because they have such a great wine selection at that restaurant. I knew that I was gonna wanna be walking back to my room. So I definitely have done that in the past, for sure. Steve Carran: Very cool. What about you, David? Have you? David Millili: Yeah. No, to be honest with you, my vibe is kind of going to the destination. A lot of my travel is based off work and then just trying to, when I get there, find somebody local who gives me that recommendation, and hopefully it's kind of one of those hidden gems. But yeah, I get it. It makes sense. Food and beverage is a big part. But like I said, I always like when I see surveys, I always like to see numbers around how many people were actually surveyed, but that's just me. Steve Carran: I think that's fair. I think that's fair. So one thing we have seen this year is the data centers being built in the United States. With the rapid growth of data centers, it is creating a major new demand for extended stay hotels, especially during the construction phase that takes years to do. Dean, what are your thoughts on this? You got any data centers popping up around you in San Francisco? Dean Compoginis: We don't. We're not one of those markets where you're seeing a lot of data centers. Land is very expensive here. But when you look at Atlanta and Phoenix and Austin and these markets that are really the build-out, it's amazing the growth in the rate and the occupancy. I think the big question, of course, becomes what happens when the data center construction crews go away? It becomes almost like a gold rush or an oil boom, boom and bust. And I think that's definitely on the maps of all hoteliers who are playing in the extended stay space. Extended stay has been a darling of the industry for some time just because of the profitability, and usually you're in an area where your onsite F&B is going to perform very well. So I think there are good times right now. I think there's a lot of concern. But when you look at the budgets for the data center build-out and six hundred billion being spent in one year, this year alone, it's a good time to be in extended stay for sure. Steve Carran: Absolutely. There's one going up in my hometown of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and the amount of cost and land that it took to buy up the houses, buy the land, and now to build it, it's insane. David, what about you? David Millili: Yeah, I agree with Dean. I think it is kind of short term, depending on how you define short term. But living here in Phoenix, this is one of the hubs of data centers because we don't have earthquakes, we don't have hurricanes, and we have extreme heat, but that's about it. So even back in the day, there were a lot of big companies. Like when I was with Pegasus, we had our own data center. We built our own data center, backup generator, and everything in Scottsdale. So I agree with Dean. I think this makes sense. The demand is there, but again, I think the viability long term is a big question mark. So with everything that's going on, gas is up. Travelers are now finding creative ways to take summer vacations, and they're really just trying to figure out a way, how do we get out and actually still enjoy a summer trip even though maybe with gas and the economy and things of that nature. So Steve, what do you think about how travelers are viewing summer vacations? Steve Carran: Yeah. This was kind of interesting to me. I think after COVID, people really realized how important travel is and how they missed their summer vacations. And me being a millennial, I took road trips growing up, and those are always core memories for me. And it seems like that's still the trend today. Around 70% of Americans still say their summer vacations are important to them. They're just looking to make it cheaper by traveling to cheaper destinations, traveling closer to home, and driving instead of flying. And they're also reducing costs by shopping less while they're there, dining a little less or at cheaper options, and also cutting back on entertainment while they are traveling. So I think people still wanna go to those destinations, but maybe be a little bit more frugal and cost-effective once they're there. Dean, what about you? Any big vacation plans this summer? Dean Compoginis: Oh, a few. You know, I'm retired now. I just do voiceover work, so I'm kind of free to go when and where I want to. I'm usually staying in the Western United States and doing road trips. I think one of the things that really jumped out at me from the survey is that despite the cost, less than a fifth of travelers are actually changing their plans and not traveling. So we are going to travel. It's just a matter of where we're gonna go. And as you mentioned, Steve, it's more of a drive to destinations versus flying, even though the price of gas is a bit of a limiting factor for some folks. It's which way do you want to go, right? And it's also interesting to me that the younger demographic of travelers, Gen Z and millennial travelers, more than 80% are saying they're taking that trip. And this really goes hand in hand with the fact that this demographic is much more interested in experiences versus material things. So if there's an age group that's really driving travel this year, it would have to be the younger traveler, which is really good for the industry. Steve Carran: Yeah, we're already in student loan debt, credit card debt. Why not add a few more dollars? Dean Compoginis: What's a few bucks? Steve Carran: David, what about you? Any closing thoughts on traveling this summer? David Millili: No, I think, like Dean said, and we've kind of covered, people are gonna travel no matter what. And Dean, you talked about the West Coast. On the East Coast, there's I don't know how many thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people who have their Jersey Shore trip or their Ocean City, Maryland trip, and that's not gonna stop. They're still gonna do it. But I think what you said, Steve, is that people are maybe not gonna get as many pizzas on the boardwalk as they normally would and just cook in. So yeah, people are still gonna travel. Steve Carran: Yeah. They won't cut back on the drinks, but they'll cut back on the pizza. So Dean, a lot of our listeners have probably heard your voice. This is kind of where I want you to fill people in a little bit more about your background and how you got into the voiceover business. Dean Compoginis: Well, you know, I've had two careers. So the first 20 years of my life I worked in commercial radio. Y'all might remember something called radio, and it had this little knob, and all you had to do was turn it on. You didn't have to run an app. You could just turn it on, you'd get music. And before there was an internet, and certainly before there were phones in everybody's hands, the radio stations in each market were really the lifeline to what was going on, both musically and with what was happening in that town. So radio played a huge part in people's lives, and it was a great business to work in. I have many friends still in the radio business, and we all pretty much say the same thing: that really beat working for a living because we never felt like we were working when we were on the radio or out amongst people doing our promotional work. So for 20 years, from about '77—I started when I was 17 years old—up to about '97, I worked in commercial radio in San Francisco, Sacramento, my hometown, Honolulu, Hawaii, Eugene, Oregon, and it was great. Then along came the Telecommunications Act in the '90s, the first one in '91, the second one in '96, which effectively eliminated ownership limitations and paved the way for the consolidation in the industry. And it just ceased to become a great place to work. It was hard to make money. Jobs were getting cut. So I looked for something else to do, and I reinvented myself at the age of 36, became a marketer, and got into high tech. I live in Santa Cruz, California, which is just a short drive over to Silicon Valley, so I thought, "Well, I should really become a high-tech marketer." And I set out with that as a goal, and within a couple of years, I wound up as the vice president of marketing for a company named Teledex, which at the time was by far the greatest supplier of hotel guest room phones. We were in 125 countries. In the global business, everybody had Teledex phones, and it was a good business. I did that for about nine years, started my own company, co-founded a company that did similar things, although I was fortunate to win some industry awards with some products I designed, and exited that after a few years and moved into high-speed internet, working for great companies like Ruckus Networks, which is the gold standard for Wi-Fi in hospitality. I was fortunate there. It was a wild ride at Ruckus. I was there for four years, and we had four acquisitions in four years. We were acquired four times in four years, so I had five email addresses in four years. I also worked for Meru Networks and a couple of other players in the hospitality industry, always on the vendor side. And I have to say that while radio was fun, my enduring friendships and relationships, some of my closest friends are from the folks that I've met over 20-plus years in hospitality. There's something really special about hospitality. It's all about serving people. And so when you serve the people who serve people, they appreciate the service that you give them. It really goes a long way. I've had two stages to my career: radio and then marketing. And to answer your question directly, how did I get into voiceover? I had my radio career, and I got out of it and became a marketer. In one of the jobs that I was in, moving my way up in the marketing ranks, I had a boss who said, "We got these national TV commercials, and we want to create these little ten-second product inserts in the middle, and the guy who recorded it in Hollywood wants too much money. Will you do it? You used to be on the radio." I said, "Sure." So I did it, and it was a nice paycheck, and I said, "I should really do this." So I built a studio in my house and got some equipment, and this was back before people were podcasting all the time. So to have a studio in your house was really pretty unique, and that paved the way to me landing some voiceover work. I got a really good agent down in Los Angeles, and for all the business trips that I used to take in hospitality technology, I always traveled with a little road kit because you never know when a client's gonna call and say, "We need a pickup on this script." I'll never forget, I was on the 44th floor of the New York Hilton with my family, and I had just won these awards at the New York Hotel Show, and a client called and said, "We've got these promos that you're on on Comedy Central, and we need to recut three of them." I said, "No problem." I got my stuff and fired up my kit, kept the kids quiet for about 20 minutes in the room—they were young—and voiced what I needed to voice, and I was done. So that was kind of my life during hospitality. I tried to keep it a secret for a while but eventually found very supportive companies who said, "No, this is great. It's a side hustle, but it's not getting in the way of your day job, so go ahead." So I was able to do it part-time while working in hospitality technology. And then the last few years, it's what I do full-time, and it's really fun. I've never been busier as a voice actor than I am right now. So it's been kind of a fun full-circle trip. Steve Carran: Yeah. I don't get intimidated much on the podcast, but having the two best voices in hospitality really is making me feel inferior on this episode. But this is great. Do you have a favorite thing you've voice-overed or a favorite project you've worked on? Dean Compoginis: Oh, wow, that's a great question. My first big one was for Burger King, and I played a wrestling announcer, and that got me a lot of work. It was this national TV spot on all the channels for Burger King. But what I really like are the down-home, kind of folksy things. I did some campaigns for a dairy collective in Upstate New York called Upstate Farms, and they're in all the hotels, and they're nationwide. And I got to do these really folksy, down-home kind of things. That one still resonates with me because it was just a one-to-one kind of thing. I did car spots for years, and you know what car spots sound like. So I was going crazy and losing my voice doing car spots. Then once I started booking the more conversational reads where I'm just kind of a home, down-home announcer, I really resonated with that. So probably the Upstate Farms commercials I did—I was on a number of their campaigns for years—were really some of the most memorable. Steve Carran: Awesome. David Millili: That's great. Well, we really appreciate this, Dean. So this is where you get to let people know: how can they get in touch with you if they wanna hire you for some voiceover work or they're launching a new radio station and they need the top DJ? How do they get in touch with you? Dean Compoginis: Disc jockey, but I'm happy to do the voiceovers. So yeah, my website is my name, deancompoginis.com, and all my contact information is there, along with demos and samples I've done. If you listen to SiriusXM or iHeartRadio stations, I'm the current voice of an outfit called California Psychics, which people have varying opinions on what psychics are. But I think that what California Psychics does is help people through difficult times in their lives and get some answers. You may or may not be skeptical, and that's okay. They understand there's a lot of skepticism around it. I'm enjoying it because I get to be very real, and it's in very high rotation. I'm getting people calling me all the time saying, "I was listening to Market Wrap CNBC on Sirius, and your voice is all over it." So if you listen to Sirius, you'll probably hear me on the California Psychics spots. But go to my website and contact me. I'd love to work with anybody who thinks that I can bring value to their entity. David Millili: That's great. Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier Hospitality Hot Topics, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Dean, thank you so much for joining us. Dean Compoginis: Thank you. Steve Carran: Thank you, Dean.