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Kimpton's Hurlburt on Renovated Morrison House Hotel (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: that's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to Taking Stock
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  Speaker 1: with Kathleen Hayes and Tim Box on Bloomberg Radio. This
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  Speaker 1: is taking Stock. We are broadcasting live from the Kimpton
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  Speaker 1: Morrison House Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. That is a part
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  Speaker 1: of the Washington metro area. You know, it's interesting, Kathleen,
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  Speaker 1: when we travel around the country to be able to
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  Speaker 1: learn a little bit about each distinct area and the
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  Speaker 1: individual economy that we're able to spend some time. And
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  Speaker 1: this of course home to Bloomberg and one oh five
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  Speaker 1: point seven FM HD two. And I want to thank
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  Speaker 1: our host for setting us up today. The Kimpton Hotel,
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  Speaker 1: Hotels and Restaurants. Mark Matt Hurlbert is the area direct
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  Speaker 1: their operations for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants. And we're at Alexander, Virginia.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having us here. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: it's great to have you all. Um. When when when
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  Speaker 1: you think about Alexander of Virginia, I end up having
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  Speaker 1: to go online and I had to start off by understanding,
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  Speaker 1: you know how many people what goes on here? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's got maybe a hundred and forty thousand people, right,
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  Speaker 1: but it punches away above its weight because it's it's
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  Speaker 1: combined in this Washington metro area. Tell us about the area.
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  Speaker 1: One aspect of it is because of our location right
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  Speaker 1: next to Washington, you see, only five miles from downtown
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  Speaker 1: d C. But also because the history here for our country,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the to uh basically the start of the
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  Speaker 1: Civil War was here in Alexandria, and we've had a
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  Speaker 1: rich history before and after that, with George Washington and
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  Speaker 1: many of our leaders living and uh working and uh
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  Speaker 1: enjoying themselves in the local establishments here and uh in
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  Speaker 1: this area. And so it's great history, but also a
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  Speaker 1: location that gives as you launching point to all the
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  Speaker 1: d C metro area, Well, it's a it's a lovely
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  Speaker 1: quaint you know. They get the red brick sidewalks and
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of mixture of old and new. And you've
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  Speaker 1: got obviously that this area is developing. You're gonna be
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  Speaker 1: talking about that later in the show. In terms of
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  Speaker 1: news stores and brand names and all that. Um. In
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  Speaker 1: terms of the hotel industry, the hospitality industry, there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of competition in this area. In the DC area Broadley,
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  Speaker 1: d m V. I know some people call it DC Maryland, Virginia.
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  Speaker 1: So how does Kimpton, How does the Morrison House Hotel
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  Speaker 1: stand out and and bring in the people to eat
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  Speaker 1: and stay overnight. Well, one thing that's the key to
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  Speaker 1: success for Kimpton since our very beginning, is to having
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  Speaker 1: a real understanding and having a great restaurant and bar
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  Speaker 1: attached with your hotel. And uh that really helps us
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  Speaker 1: bring in both locals and out of town guests to enjoy.
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  Speaker 1: And that's there's no different here at the Morrison House.
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  Speaker 1: We just opened the Ashler Restaurant and bar, led by
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  Speaker 1: chef Bobby Surdam, who's fantastic. We have a great for
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  Speaker 1: our program that's actually designed around the Colonial area cocktails,
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  Speaker 1: so lots of spirits that were being traded through the
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  Speaker 1: port here back in the day and uh, including ports
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  Speaker 1: and madeiras and RUMs and uh, there's a it's a
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  Speaker 1: great um cocktail program for you to try some some
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  Speaker 1: things you probably haven't tried before. I think about Manhattan
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  Speaker 1: with run rather than bourbon things like that. UM. But
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  Speaker 1: in general Kimpton also we make sure that design is
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  Speaker 1: at the forefront of each of our hotels and restaurants,
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  Speaker 1: there's no one. There's no one. They're all unique, right,
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  Speaker 1: they're all there a little Yeah, that's important to us.
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  Speaker 1: We we want each place to kind of represent the
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  Speaker 1: area that's in and you'll you'll find that colonial kind
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  Speaker 1: of charm of this the Morrison House and our Monico
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  Speaker 1: Alexandria just down the street. And we have another hotel
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  Speaker 1: called the Lorian Hotel and spat up on King Street
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  Speaker 1: here as well in Old Town Alexandria. Um So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: the design and the decor needs to be tied into
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  Speaker 1: the local area because we want guests to experience what
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  Speaker 1: it's like to be in this area that they're in,
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  Speaker 1: not just somewhere they can find anywhere around the world.
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  Speaker 1: So in order to experience is what is the price point? Well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, our price is verry based on day of week,
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  Speaker 1: time of year, I think for in general, if you
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  Speaker 1: if you looked at the Morrison House, will be between
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  Speaker 1: a one ninety nine or nine per night based on
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  Speaker 1: when it when it is time of year. So I
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  Speaker 1: was we were talking before we got started. Full interest
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  Speaker 1: of full disclosure, I worked at A Kimpton years ago
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  Speaker 1: in Seattle, Washington, is one of the very first Kimpton's,
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  Speaker 1: the Alexis, which is down here Pioneer Square. Now you
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  Speaker 1: have a total of what about five dozen hotels across
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  Speaker 1: the country? Is that never correct? How do you then?
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  Speaker 1: How does your business model match up? Again, you used
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  Speaker 1: to work for Hiatt or one of these huge change
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  Speaker 1: It has all kinds of hotels and some very big
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  Speaker 1: ones around the country the world. Yeah, well, it's an
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  Speaker 1: interesting challenge for us as a company that has a
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  Speaker 1: lot of different hotels and specifically have unique style and
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  Speaker 1: design to each one. What is a brand and we
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  Speaker 1: want people to be aware of us as a brand
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  Speaker 1: and then you can access us throughout the country. And
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  Speaker 1: we're continuing to grow very quickly right now. So um,
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  Speaker 1: we've been working very hard on on our marketing and
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  Speaker 1: one of the things that we're doing is put in
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  Speaker 1: the Kimpton name. So when you notice the Morrison House hotel,
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  Speaker 1: it's the Kimpton Morrison House now and that's a way
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  Speaker 1: for us to kind of help associate for people that,
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  Speaker 1: um it's part of the Kimpton chain that they know
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  Speaker 1: and love from different hotels and restaurants the experience around
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  Speaker 1: the country. Like to get your thoughts on Airbnb? What
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  Speaker 1: is that? What? What does that mean in the hospitality
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  Speaker 1: industry these days? When you when you hear that from
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  Speaker 1: your colleagues, from from other people in the business, what's
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  Speaker 1: the feeling. It's usually followed by a word I can't
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  Speaker 1: say on the radio, but al right, yah know, Airbnb
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  Speaker 1: is it's been a big change for our industry over
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  Speaker 1: the last few years. And obviously it's growing very quickly. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And you know it's part of the shared economy, that's
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  Speaker 1: that's uh that it's been a big growth in the
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  Speaker 1: well we guess you say, like last five or tenure
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  Speaker 1: your guests use Uber when they come and go from
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  Speaker 1: here or yeah, definitely, definitely for sure. Yeah, so um Airbnb.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to get statistics on air They
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  Speaker 1: don't they don't give a lot of information. But some
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  Speaker 1: of the studies that I've seen show that it's really
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  Speaker 1: more equal to a limited service hotel, so uh not
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  Speaker 1: in those rates typically that I quoted you for the
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  Speaker 1: Morrison House or typical that the that the Kimpton hotels
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  Speaker 1: would charge. Um. And you know, obviously there's different parts
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  Speaker 1: of the country where it's more popular than others. In
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  Speaker 1: New York City. Obviously it's very big and there's a
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  Speaker 1: great demand for it there um, but it's certainly something
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  Speaker 1: that we pay post Kempton. All right, well, Maco about
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so very much for joining us as we
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  Speaker 1: kick off our live broadcast here at the Kimpton Morrison
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  Speaker 1: House Hotel and Alexandria, Virginia. He's airy director of operations
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