Latest / Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast / 168 – Suite Spot: Independent Hotel Show Series – Kat Woods
Transcript
- Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, introducing a brand new series. We are here at the Independent Hotel Show series. Now this is a series where we're talking to independent hoteliers, advisory board members, and really getting geared up for Miami in September, all leading up to that incredible show that the Suite Spot is gonna be a part of. And so will my guests that I'll bring on with me right now, Kat Woods of Bridgeton and New York City Women of Hospitality. Kat, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot. Kat Woods: Thanks, Ryan. Excited to be here. Ryan Embree: Yeah, we've got a lot to cover, including that independent hotel show, uh, which we're gonna talk all about. But as it is tradition here on the Suite Spot, this is your first time. Would love to learn a little bit about your hospitality journey. What led you to Bridgeton in the New York City Women of Hospitality? Kat Woods: Sure. Thank you. So many years ago, um, I started my career with W Hotels. I actually started with W Barcelona in college and fell head over heels in love with the brand. I worked for about five years in rooms operations between the w New York Union Square and the w New York downtown here in New York City, and got a really great foundation for operating hotels in a nice corporate structure. But in the mid 2010s, the boutique lifestyle hotel scene in New York was really starting to grow, and 11 Howard was one of the hottest hotels opening at the time. I was able to join that team shortly after opening, and that was my first introduction into truly independent boutique hotels. I fell in love with it. There was so much creativity in the operation, so much creativity in the branding. Um, and that really started my career in independent and lifestyle hotels. After that, um, I was able to continue with, uh, l Howard up until the pandemic and throughout the pandemic I helped with a couple projects here and there, but ultimately landing with Bridgeton as the, uh, assistant general manager of their Walker Hotel, Tribeca Property, which is an incredible lifestyle property located in Tribeca. Um, and I've been with the Bridgeton team now in a variety of roles for about four years. Ryan Embree: That's awesome. And creative freedom is, you're right, such a draw for independent hotels and why some people like yourself Kat. Sounds like once you get a taste of that and the ability to really express and tell your story, which we're certainly gonna cover, and one of the, the foundational reasons why a lot of people are not just working, but also guests choose independent hotels is because of that, that story and creative nature. So it's, it's so cool to see. And again, this, this series is all about independent hotels and that that massive show that's gonna be happening in September. Now you're also the executive director of the New York City Women of Hospitality. For those who aren't familiar, talk to our audience a little bit about this organization and its mission. Kat Woods: Sure. So the New York City Women of Hospitality was founded in 2018 by Jolie Feld and Tiffany Perra. And the goal upon the initiation of the group was to create a supportive, safe space for women in the industry. It's no surprise that women are facing some battles that maybe their male counterparts don't. Um, and the idea was to create a community where we can bounce some ideas off of each other or help individuals through tough professional times or tough personal times for that matter. In 2023, I became the executive director of the New York City Women of Hospitality. And while we still maintain that mission, we added a layer of educational focus, and this allowed us to partner with some local law firms to host educational series. It added an additional dimension to the women of hospitality. And so now you'll see as an attendee of our event, anytime you come, you are guaranteed to learn something as well as meet some pretty incredible individuals. Ryan Embree: Yeah, I'm sure. And you know, I've seen on social media the growth, of that organization, um, just following it has been incredible, which I think is a testament to that community and, uh, the interest in, uh, women in hospitality banding together. And Kat, recently I saw on social media that the Women of Hospitality, uh, hosted an event at the Walker Hotel Greenwich Village to celebrate Women's History Month, which just wrapped up. It looked like an incredible panel that you were able to curate. Can you share with our Suite Spot audience a little bit about the event, the, the turnout, and maybe some of the key takeaways? Kat Woods: Absolutely. It was a home run of an event. We were so excited to host it in partnership with Boutique Hotelier, and we hosted the first US-based Women in Hotels brunch. Now each year, boutique Hotelier hosts this in London, and they've sold out for the past whatever number of years it's been. And as they told us about this event, I was so excited and said, of course, we need to do a New York City one. Luckily, my position with New York City Women of Hospitality afforded me the opportunity to meet the boutique hotelier team. And my position with Bridgeton allowed for us to utilize Society Cafe at Walker Hotel Greenwich Village in order to have the most beautiful backdrop for this event. We had 50 female leaders in attendance in the audience, and we had a truly, truly powerhouse panel, uh, Vera Manukian, Amber Asher, Natalie Le Claire Dee Patel were our panel talking about some of the issues and some of the problems they've overcome in their leadership positions as women in the hospitality industry. Um, and we also, you know, talked a lot about what they see for the future of the industry and how we can con continue to contribute and raise one another. Up after the panel, we had what we called a confidence cocktail led by Karen La who is a fantastic speaker. Um, and she curates these workshops, and this one in particular was so practical. The, the advice and the exercises were truly practical, going back to the educational component of all of our events, of course, and it talked about a lot of these tendencies that we have as women maybe to play with our hair or to end questions, or sorry, end statements with a question mark almost when it's a statement and it's not a question. And, and while these things are maybe seem logical and you and I are talking about them, it was so nice to have it in a workshop that allowed every individual to just come out with a few tips and tricks that they can bring to the boardroom, to their morning standup meeting, to a conversation with theirs, their superiors, about their next steps. Um, yeah, the event was just, it was truly remarkable. We were so proud to host it. Ryan Embree: It's so cool to hear. And, um, I'm sure it was very powerful to hear from, from some hospitality peers there. Uh, have no doubt that women of hospitality just does an incredible job inspiring young women to join and grow in hospitality. And we were just doing last summer, the, uh, our hospitality campus crawl series where we were visiting different, uh, schools and campuses and kind of talking to the deans of those schools to try to influence and, and get more of this generation thinking about hospitality as more than just a job. I'd love to hear, I'm sure you're hearing a lot of those stories on your, uh, your side, Kat, with this organization. How do you think we can get this younger generation excited about a career in hospitality? Kat Woods: That's a great question, and I, I think about it often. I, I go to my alma mater, the University of New Hampshire, if not every semester, at least digitally every semester, to speak with as many students as I can. And more often than not, I get asked questions like, what's the coolest place you traveled? Or, what's your, you know, most incredible and exciting story, right? And no offense to other industries, but we certainly have the, the obvious edge when it comes to the travel, travel perks. And so I always tell them, you know, I, my first, one of my first hotels was working in Barcelona. That's an incredible city to go visit to, especially if you're used to, you know, the New England lifestyle. It's certainly an eyeopener. Um, I've worked in Barcelona, I've worked in Bermuda. I have had the privilege of working in living in New York City for over a decade now. And, and the travel bug, I see it more and more now with some of the students that I speak with. They're excited about that. And if we can use that as a little bit of a hook to let them understand that this isn't just a summer job, this is a lifestyle you can live and a career you can build. I, I think those are the ways we're gonna convince them to, to join the forces. Ryan Embree: Well, hospitality Kat, uh, as you know, is a, is a universal language, right? It can be shown in, you know, one part of the country or in your case, in, in a different country, right? So it is the oldest profession that they say is, is hospitality and hotels. So being able to kind of share stories to younger, there have been countless guests that I've hosted on the Suite Spot that have shared their story of, you know, I was in college and I started at the front desk at this local hotel, and now here I am, 30 years part of this brand or part of this management company. And I've just found this passion in hospitality. And we can get more young people not to necessarily fall into a hospitality career, but see a path forward. And I'm sure the work that you and and your organization are doing are creating those stories and pathways, uh, which will really help us, uh, moving forward. I wanna shift to the current state of the industry for, for independent hotels, right? There's a lot of uncertainty right now. You have economic shifts, geopolitical factors. How do you feel independent hotels are positioned and maybe do you see it as an advantage or, or disadvantage compared to other hotel segments? Kat Woods: Yeah, it's a complicated time and you know, there's no, I don't really see any industry that's fully shielded from some of the things that are going on, but if we're speaking specifically of the hotel industry, independent hotels have an opportunity to really start eating up more than their fair share of the markets. They have that creative and, um, quick ability to pivot and change direction or change service model or change whatever it is they need to in order to continue to lead the market. Where sometimes with the branded properties, you don't have as much of that for a good reason, right? Brands have brand standards for a reason, of course, but the independent hotels and the boutique lifestyle of hotels have that flexibility. And I think we've all seen in times of uncertainty, flexibility is really the tool that will get you through, continue to help a business grow. Ryan Embree: Yeah, I think there that, Kat, you're absolutely right, and I think there's a real opportunity right now as travel is, as we saw, right? We'll continue no matter what the circumstances are. We saw that in 2020 and, and in these maybe economic uncertainty, travelers might start getting creative or look outside the norms of where they're staying. And I think this presents a really great opportunity for independent hotels that are doing a great job of telling their story, which I'm gonna ask you about in a second. But if you can, you might now have eyes, uh, the eyes and ears of travelers that you might not have in the past, and that's that market share that you were talking about, and it's really untapped. And that can kind of create this loyalty that goes beyond sometimes what a brand can provide. So it'll be very interesting in these upcoming months and years, and I'm sure it is going to be a big topic for independent hoteliers at the Independent Hotel show in Miami. They're gonna be talking about how can we figure out to get more people to through our lobby doors and see us as maybe that family tradition where we travel to every single year, right? But it all has to fall back on storytelling and the Suite Spot. Our podcast started originally as a digital marketing podcast and kind of has evolved since. So we're really big believers in using places like social media and online review sites to really amplify a brand. So how do Bridgeton and the women of hospitality use storytelling to grow its presence online? Kat Woods: I'll speak a bit more to Bridgeton first. Sure. So Bridgeton specializes in boutique lifestyle, experience driven properties. And because of that, we offer what we consider to be truly unique experiences at a lot of our properties. And what does that mean? Of course, that means anything from a nature walk to a journaling session on the ocean, right? And these types of experiences we're seeing travelers are creating more and more, they are authentic. We stand by what we deliver in these experiences, and because of that, we have the advantage of being able to benefit from user generated content. And oftentimes you'll have a, let's use a journaling session as an example, I guess who's part of this journaling session, but they'll document it on their own social media, and we share those posts. We show truly what people are experiencing at our property is time and time again on socials so important to us, and it allows for some more authentic content. We of course, have certain things we wanna make sure that we're highlighting, but I think all in all, especially in the independent boutique market, the true guest experience is what needs to be highlighted. And if I, I know as a traveler, if I'm seeing that from another guest perspective, I'm going to believe it more than if I saw it from a professional photo shoot perspective for New York City Women of Hospitality, our online story is a little different, but it, it's still an online story, right? We still need to have a brand and we still need to send a message, and we are finding that there is no substitute for social media. It is the best and easiest and most effective form of communication of talking. I mean, we spoke earlier a little bit about how much we've been growing over the course of the past three years. We wouldn't be able to do that without, without the LinkedIns and the Instagrams of the world. So much so that I would argue we wouldn't even have had the event that we had back in March if it wasn't for it. And so, you know, it's, it's truly incredible how much social media and digital storytelling is impacting everything that we're doing. But for small organizations like New York City, one of hospitality, it's kind of our lifeline. Ryan Embree: Sure. Yeah. I mean, and you to, to speak to your first point, Kat, you used the word that is going to continue to be a premium, which is authenticity. Um, in a world where we're gonna see more AI be incorporated in, in our everyday lives, which there are certainly a lot of benefits to that, but I think it is going to cause a hunger for authentic travel experiences. One of a kind experiences that I think independent hotels have the edge right now over brands. They're able to offer things that are truly one of a kind and truly authentic experiences that then in turn will hopefully be shared and amplified and that storytelling at its finest. And hopefully, you know, some traditions and stories are told at your, your hotel from your guests, and, you know, we've, we've heard some of these independent hotels have incredible stories that I love talking to the hoteliers at the Independent Hotel show, and they tell me some of the stories about their guests or, um, some of the traditions that they have on site, and that, that happens naturally. You can't force that tradition. And I think there's something magical about that. And the second point that you made about social media, it is a community builder, right? And you're witnessing, you, you said, you mentioned the brunch that is the power of social media in real time and, and real space and, and creating meaningful connections that even that maybe just a follow or a like, uh, now all of a sudden it's turned into drinks at the independent hotel show, right? Coffee in the morning and leads to something bigger and better. So it certainly could be the first step of a true relationship is, is just that initial reach out. I I, I have so many connections that it kind of all started with that and now it's, it's blossom and evolved into something completely different. So very true words there. So Kat, I thought we have a little bit of fun get to know you and the Bridge Tim portfolio a little bit better. I've got some rapid fire questions here. Are you ready? Kat Woods: I am. Ryan Embree: All right. Awesome. So, uh, what is your favorite view at one of your properties in the portfolio? Kat Woods: Ooh, that one's easy. Um, it's sitting on the patio at Maram Montauk overlooking the ocean, enjoying some food from Rador. Definitely the best view. Ryan Embree: You know, I ask that question a lot. This the patio outside, you know, sometimes those sunset, uh, yeah, <laugh> images typically make the favorite view. Alright, Kat, what about favorite fun fact about one of your properties? Kat Woods: Oh, great question. Uh, so Walker Hotel Tribeca is a New York City landmark building and has been home to many things throughout the years, but my favorite is that it used to actually be a button in Ribbon Factory. And because of that fun history, we've secretly or conspicuously put a few small details within the hotel, uh, to honor that. So if you come, stay with us, see if you can spot them. Ryan Embree: I love that. I love those little Easter eggs and you know, especially with an independent hotel, sometimes historic hotels, they have such stories behind them. Sometimes those are, are marked as landmarks, so you can only do so much, right? I'm sure, as you know, that, to, to impact the original building, but sometimes those make for the greatest stories and, and little Easter eggs, so that's really cool. And favorite signature dish at one of your properties? Kat Woods: Oof. Well, honestly, I would eat anything that Chef Nick McCann over at Society Cafe makes. He's incredibly talented, but if I have to choose one, he recently has started making an off menu burger that really is only kind of word of mouth. So if you find yourself in the Greenwich Village area here in New York, definitely stop by Society Cafe, early dinner slots, because those secret burgers, they go fast. Ryan Embree: Secret menu item, uh, tip from Kat, uh, that awesome cat. Last one. Favorite guest experience at one of your properties? Kat Woods: Oh, that is a great question. So Bridgeton prides itself on offering a lot of these really, really unique experiential hospitality experiences for our guests. And a great example is at Dawn Ranch out in Kernville, California, we offer Birdwatching for Beginners. Maybe it's not something that I thought I wanted to do, but when you take a Birdwatching for beginners class with an expert and somebody that really knows what they're talking about, it's really is such a fun, unique, um, opportunity for our guests. Ryan Embree: It's fascinating. And, you know, again, that's, uh, an amenity, uh, on the list of amenities or, or experiences like you were talking about Kat. I don't know if I've, I've ever heard that one <laugh>, that one's so unique, but I think those are the things that make the memorable experiences, right? I mean, you could have some incredible accommodations, but maybe some of your guests are talking about their memorable experience at the, their birdwatching or their guide. So that's super, super cool, uh, to hear. And again, that's the flexibility of having an independent hotel that, that you're able to do those things. And that's a great segue into our next question about the Independent Hotel Show taking place September 17th and 18th and Miami Beach, by the way, Suite Spot listeners can use promo code EMRE 25, that's my last name, E-M-B-R-E-E 25 for discounted, uh, registration. Kat, you're on the advisory board of the show. You've attended, you've been an attendee of the show. For those Suite Spot listeners that have not attended, talk to us a little bit about this event. Paint a picture of what it's like to be at the Independent Hotel Show. Kat Woods: Yeah, I think a great example is, you know, last year I attended because of Emily Goldfish of her Tellier and was able to meet, meet up with her and met a variety of just awesome, awesome contacts that most of which quite honestly I'm still in touch with regularly, uh, these days a whole year later. But the Boutique Hotelier team was a team that I met last year at the, at the boutique, or I'm sorry, at the Independent Hotel Show. And we met just having a couple beverages enjoying the show. One idea of hosting a small event together kind of snowballed and that was what really stemmed from attending the Independent Hotel show, this great event we had back in March. Um, so I know that for me it's a can't miss event and I can't wait to see what happens this year. <laugh>. Ryan Embree: Yeah, so that is just the power of a ton of hospitality people being together in one space. And that is what's happening this September in Miami Beach at the Independent Hotel Show. I hope you join both myself and Kat and like, like we said, who knows what opportunity will be, will be met there. So really excited about that event. Really excited to see and and network with all the people. This is our third time, I believe this is the third time that it's been put on in Miami Beach. And, uh, the third time we'll be attending. So we're so excited to be a part of that. Kat, as we wrap up, we always like to try to gaze into our hospitality crystal ball. What's your vision for the future of the N-Y-C-W-O-H? Kat Woods: Well, we are so excited to announce that we're growing, um, recently on Instagram. If you do follow us, you will see that we announced a Florida chapter. So the Orlando Women of Hospitality Soft launched recently. Um, our original co-founder, Tiffany Perra, has relocated down to the, to the Orlando area, um, and is starting our second branch of Women of Hospitality. And so we're growing, that's what we have on the horizon. We look forward to continuing to offer education based, um, and networking focused opportunities for all of our members and those that may not be members yet. So that's what's exciting and to come from the Women of Hospitality. Ryan Embree: So incredible to hear Kat right in the Suite Spot's backyard. Uh, Orlando, we will be sure to keep a close eye. Make sure you follow Women of Hospitality on social media as well as Kat and Bridgeton. We want to give a huge thank you to our guest, Kat Woods for, for joining me today. Thank you so much, Kat, for joining the Suite Spot. Kat Woods: Thanks, Ryan. It's been a pleasure and hope to see everyone at the Hotel Show in September. Ryan Embree: Yes, and thank you all for joining us on the Suite Spot. We'll talk to you next time. And as Kat mentioned, hope to see you down in Miami Beach in September. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot to join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I'm your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.