Latest / Brand Insiders / Xavier Mufraggi of Generator on Affordable Lifestyle Hospitality, Keeping the Host in Hospitality, and Building the Future of City Travel

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Xavier Mufraggi of Generator on Affordable Lifestyle Hospitality, Keeping the Host in Hospitality, and Building the Future of City Travel · Brand Insiders

0:12
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Brand Insiders.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm joined today by Xavier Mufragi.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: He's the CEO of Generator.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: Xavier, how are you?
0:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm very good and good to be on this show and I'm Yeah, and uh you're joining us from London, where I guess you're just assembling this incredible team of generators, I guess you could say.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, we call them the hosts.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: That's gonna be a key word for us because you know we also keep the host in hospitality.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we're gonna talk about that in all the changes.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: And uh yeah, right here in London, um, where this brand started years ago.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: And uh now we're in a new cycle, getting it to as many places as possible across across Europe and a bit of New York as well.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: So uh with that perfect introduction, give us the elevator pitch for generator.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh, where is it?
1:12
SPEAKER_01: What makes it unique?
1:13
SPEAKER_01: Any other details you want to color?
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh generator, the UF15 currently location uh across Europe, we plan to be 3040 by in five years.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: So every artistic trendy capital cities in Europe, from Paris, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, uh, and then you go in the Nordic, Stockholm and Copenhagen, uh, Italy, uh, Roma and Venice, uh, the Berlin, Hamburg, and I mean I'll skip some few of them, but you know, the goal is really to be from Prague to Orto, Lisboa, and the Borg.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: So really every city which has a very creative asset, uh, and that people, especially people in their 20s, in their 30s, uh, or adults with teens love to travel uh around the year.
2:03
SPEAKER_02: So when they want to do their one, two, three, four weeks trip across Europe, uh, we're gonna be there during the journey.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: And we have a little, not special one in New York that is still important for us.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, what generator is all about?
2:18
SPEAKER_02: I I think we're all about uh affordable lifestyle hospitality.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: Um so we we just realized that um, especially the new generation, they want to travel even more than before, uh, even more than in cities than before, uh, a little bit less on Ibisha and more about artistic, cool adventure in London and Paris.
2:40
SPEAKER_02: Um and they realize that to go in those cities and to really discover those cities, it wants to be centered.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they want to make sure that they're not in a white box with no soul and with vending machines.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: They want to be in a social design area, uh, not budget hotel for their parents.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: Um, they wanted to make it affordable because their budget might be even lower than before.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh, their income might be lower than before, their job security is lower than before.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: So affordable opportunity is very important for them.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: Um and they want something which is welcoming.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, we're talking about hospitality here, and uh many people today in the industry uh proclaim themselves to be hospitality, but it's just you know a lot of digital boxes.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is very important for us to keep the host in hospitality.
3:31
SPEAKER_02: So, really, that's why Generator is existing, isn't making it affordable for all these explorers uh to be in the city at the center of the city, exploring it.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I always say they want to see the past a little bit, so a bit about Buckingham Palace.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh, then they want to experience the city.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they want every nice, cool restaurant, trendy, uh, the drinks, uh, the experience everybody's talking, the graffiti Waterloo uh area, um, so the arts, the music.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: And then you know what they want, they want then after seeing experience, they want to meet the future.
4:06
SPEAKER_02: And to meet the future is meeting their peers uh and being able to connect with them, but very in a genuine way.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: And I and I think that's what is very, very special about all this new generation.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: It's all about they spend a lot of time on their screen, but the moment they led the screen a little bit away, they want to connect with their peers and and understand how amazing this world is all about.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: So that's where generator is all about.
4:30
SPEAKER_02: Make it possible where the budget might be limited today.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, you know what, to pick out one word from what you said, I love that you say the word gravity.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: And what I recall there is the first time I visited London, yeah, I think I was 20 years old.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: And it's just, whoa, you just are so overwhelmed by the magnificence of the city, the art, the the culture and the shows, uh the lights of Soho, the the food, um, the history, the museums.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: And uh in essence, what you're saying about is uh is you're trying to attract a creative mindset and really inspire people through uh affordable yet community-driven stays.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: So that way they can they can add this sense of awe to their to their well-being to enable future uh whatever they have in life.
5:24
SPEAKER_02: And really make it what we mean by make it possible, there's an element of budget and there's an element of connection.
5:30
SPEAKER_02: Um now, more and more, if you look for like, let's say, budget hospitality, they cannot afford to be in the center.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh we are in the center.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: And most of the time we try to be very close to international train uh station, uh the high-speed train network, uh, or being with a hub with a lot of uh metro station.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: So you can come, you know, you're in Berlin, you go to London, you arrive, uh, you're we're very close to St.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: Pancras, King's Cross, no need a taxi, you're in the middle of the town, uh, you can go in Canton uh doing bikes, uh, you can take a little bit of 10 minutes.
6:05
SPEAKER_02: So you're connected to where it's all happening.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: You don't need to travel to get there.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: Um then when we're on site, we we have a bit of everything, you know, because of course we have rooms like a hotel, but uh normal rooms, shared rooms, uh friends' room, family rooms, uh, all those types.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, but then we have F and B, you know, with the experience at the bar is going to be much stronger than any hotel bar.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: It's really a cool bar to be a cool cafe.
6:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh so you have everything is cool, but always at a price that you can accept.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: So always like we try to be one to two or 20% lower than any cool place in the area.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: But then the cornerstone of what we try to do is to say, okay, you save a bit of money to be with us.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: So then you're gonna have some pleasure time in the city.
6:52
SPEAKER_02: And our host, our staff, their goal is to understand what you're looking for and to get you to the local spot.
7:00
SPEAKER_02: They they go themselves and they can tell you where to go.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: So a concierge in a nice hotel, um, we try to get you to the very expensive places and it's very hard to find because there's not many seats uh to book.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: Or a person at the bar would tell you, okay, oh, oh, you're interested in Indian food.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: Let me get you to my favorite place, and you should use that dish.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, it's 10 minutes walking from a location.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: That you you see where the difference is, and uh that that's that's that's why we think it's super important.
7:32
SPEAKER_02: Or oh, you're by yourself with a lot of solo women travelers, like 70%.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: You want to connect them, if they want, uh, with somebody in the same situation and doesn't make it awkward for them to meet somebody else.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because you're a solo traveler, but you love to meet or discover a city with few other people.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna connect them to each other, and then they're gonna discover the city.
7:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's really what we try to do.
7:56
SPEAKER_02: That's why I call uh, you know, we say all people say you're a hostel, you're a hotel.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're a hotel, we have a hotel, but we include some shared rooms.
8:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh we have the most amazing family rooms and affordable rooms.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: We have rooms with a view in Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Sacre Cœur in Paris.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: So we have like an amazing room at the top.
8:13
SPEAKER_02: And then we have the share rooms with a family room and the friends' room.
8:17
SPEAKER_02: That's the quiet area.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: Comfort, safe, great room, nothing too fancy but efficient, right?
8:23
SPEAKER_02: But on the other side, you say we say, you know, um, I love actually that is like quiet when you need it, loud when you want it.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: So when you go in the social world uh of a generator, then you're gonna find the cool, you know, a yummy breakfast, a cool, chilly place in the afternoon if you want to work.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: And then the start is starting to arrive.
8:45
SPEAKER_02: But again, you're in a very safe environment to do parties uh and remains affordable.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: So it's uh, you know, we're a hub and then we also a home in the middle of that creative space that a city can be.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, I believe a term that may come to describe this is hybrid hospitality.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Would you use that term to say this push-pull between quiet when you need it, loud when you want it?
9:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's uh the first thing you say is that it's a hybrid hospitality.
9:19
SPEAKER_02: And I always tell people, okay, let's start with hospitality.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: Because now there's a lot of people there say they're in a hospitality world, but now they're in the logic world.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: I know Airbnb is in a lodging world.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh most have now the four one-star, two-star budget hotels, they become more and more like an Airbnb because you know the digital is replacing reception.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's no more reception.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you don't even go, you don't need a key.
9:44
SPEAKER_02: You can you go, you go with the thing, and they say it's amazing because you can go in a place and you don't see anyone.
9:50
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's clean and you go back.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: So I say, yeah, it's an Airbnb.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: It's a lodging.
9:55
SPEAKER_02: It's good.
9:55
SPEAKER_02: It's good pricing.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: And most of the time they are out of the center of the city.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so you experience it's a good price, but you know, I'm not somebody who's gonna spend one night there because I have a business deal the next morning.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: No, uh, our people, they're explorers.
10:13
SPEAKER_02: They're on a one-week, two-week, three-week trips across Europe.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: They want to discover the city.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, so hospitality, I say we need to keep the host in hospitality.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: And the host in hospitality is I'm hosting you, I'm I'm welcoming you in my city.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: I may not be from that city, but I love that city.
10:29
SPEAKER_02: I want you to discover the city.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: So hospitality is key, and hybrid is I think now everybody's high, everything is hybrid.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh so you are mixed not only in between uh a lifestyle, hostel, and a hotel, but also you a cool bar, you kind of a nightclub.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh, all this environment of restaurant, F and B, they're all getting all together uh in one piece.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: Uh and it's it's it's all because people, when they finally get out of their phone, they realize that I always say we're human after all.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: It's Daft Punk is saying it's uh it must be true.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, we're human after all.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: And and uh and you know, the the memories you're building during your experience is not only because you see you were able to take the big band on your hands, like the cool photos that everybody's taking.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: No, wow, you know what?
11:18
SPEAKER_02: I met somebody from Berlin in London, and then we did that.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: And you know what we did?
11:23
SPEAKER_02: We went in this amazing restaurant uh that somebody from um uh from Generator told us to go, and it was like incredible.
11:30
SPEAKER_02: I was surrounded by locals.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: I was surrounded, uh I was surrounded by locals.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: That's what everybody's saying.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: I want to be surrounded by locals.
11:38
SPEAKER_02: So just talk to locals.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: Um so that's that's what I say.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: It's hybrid because it's a mix of everything.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we know that you know, you need to go in a restaurant, super expensive.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: You need to go to a nightclub, overly expensive.
11:51
SPEAKER_02: That's why they disappear.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh in our place, we try to have a safe home where everything and it's affordable.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: And then with the budget remaining, you have, we're gonna do everything possible that you have access to the very best uh of what we think you're looking for.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's so many things to pull out there.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh to pull out one word, I love it when you said when people finally get off their phone, that word finally, right?
12:15
SPEAKER_01: And that's uh what we're all coming to realize is that life isn't person.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: It isn't uh it isn't staring at a screen at Instagram and TikTok for 12 hours a day.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: There's so much to be had by speaking to the person next to you.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And people are discovering that and they they want the hotels that have that lifestyle to drive that forward when they travel and then make friends for life.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's uh I mean I always think that uh every time a trend's going too far, then you have a 180 degrees.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: Um I feel that uh the screen's gonna go back to where it was, which is a tool to prepare your stays.
12:55
SPEAKER_02: So I think I've got a 13 years old and I have 17 years old.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: They spend a lot of time on TikTok, much more than I would love them to do.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: But when when they visited a city, it's really amazing because they're looking at all the details and all the stuff.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: And and yeah, for them is like when they say visiting a city, is what I say is that they're all about experiencing stuff, but finding those little places, and and actually it was amazing.
13:19
SPEAKER_02: I visited with my 13-year-old and said, Oh, we need to go there, we need to go there, we need to go there, and I have so much fun doing it when I knew the city very well.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: Um but I think which is great is that then when they just stop looking for and enjoying the moment itself.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: Um, and for them it's very hard to do it, but it's interesting.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: The moment you're in the bar and you're starting to talk to people, and then the people around, and then the party and so on, um, it's a real moment that it's it's freedom.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: Um and and it's it's beautiful to see that in the end, as I say, we're human after all, and we are like animals.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: We need to we need to connect with others.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: Um, and we see a growing trend of people going back to doing these, you know, one-month trip, three-week trips, uh, despite the budget they have.
14:03
SPEAKER_02: I think many people will have difficulties to find jobs in the coming years.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: It's another assessment because we we we're gonna recruit more and more of our of our customers.
14:10
SPEAKER_02: Um, but they feel that oh, I need to travel, I need to do my own experience of what life is all about.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we're gonna be part of it.
14:18
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, digital is there, but digital is not there to replace human for us.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: And digital is just a tool to make your experience frictionless or to connect then later for what you're gonna do next in your trips.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I I want to drill down to how you make this happen because of course, yeah, it's it's fantastic to see the results of this, but behind the scenes, hospitality is still a very tough industry.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I want to take a step back first now that we're 14 minutes in.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: And if anyone looks at your LinkedIn profile, they immediately just say, wow, uh, this this way is the real deal.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh so tell us a little bit about your background uh and how you came about to Company Generator and uh just what your vision is for guiding the generator ship.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's a lot of questions.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: So let me go one by one.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh the first one, who I am.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: Um the first thing is uh I'm really a kind of a global citizen myself.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh you can hear it.
15:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm I was born uh French, I'm still French.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: Um but I had the ability and the opportunity to travel all my childhood.
15:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh I lived in Africa and Europe and uh and in the States.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: Uh my wife is British.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh now we're also American because we spent 15 years in the US.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: I worked a lot with uh Chinese investors.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: So I kind of love that kind of environment, which are from a lot of different countries.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: And uh started in uh what we call the CPG, the food, like the Maxwell House, uh, meancare brands, depending where your uh people are coming from, which are really experts in everything which is branding.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, how do you understand branding?
15:59
SPEAKER_02: How do you understand the customer?
16:00
SPEAKER_02: How do you look at their behavior?
16:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh everything you do must be linked to what you want to create in terms of emotion with your customers, their needs, their insights.
16:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh otherwise, you're pushing a product to them, and you need to understand them and to answer those remarks.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: And then I, after seven years, I moved to CloudMed, uh, which is a very unique uh experiential hospitality company.
16:23
SPEAKER_02: At the time, it was moving with even more international and even more upscale at that time at that point.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: And that that company really shaped me as a leader and as a hospitality uh executive, because I spent 15 years with that.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: Um the first thing is that because it gave me the opportunity to be a CEO when I was only 31 years old.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: So you can imagine I have my 4,000 employees uh in North America and the Caribbean, and with losing money, we have to rebound and we have to make it upscale.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: We need to be more direct, we need to start to make experience.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: But amazing school of not only about fast career growth, but about diversity.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: We're everywhere it would work with 70 nationalities, everywhere.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: It's part of the business.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, and it was all about the experience.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: The rooms were okay, but I mean, the memory was outstanding.
17:17
SPEAKER_02: The way uh Clamat is able to understand customer expectations, not the basic one, even the very emotional one, is is really amazing.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: And they're able to do that because people are able to grow very fast within the company.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: And they go from one property to another.
17:34
SPEAKER_02: So you cross um cross-colonization of assets is that there's not not amazing standards, but just people going on one side to another.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: They go with their team, the experience, they learn from it.
17:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and it's incredible that it's a company where I was able to graduate some general manager three years old.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: So I love that company for its values.
17:56
SPEAKER_02: I love this company for its ability to give a great jobs at the young age for everybody, no matter their nationalities, background, and and demographic, whatever you're thinking of.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that sense of understanding what uh experiential hospitality was all about, I think 20 years before everybody.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: And it was a company we're not coming from real estate, even if they owned their real estate, it was really coming from customer experience.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: Because Climate started as an NGO, and it's another story for another time.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: Um so it was very human-oriented.
18:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh so when you see in my career, I think other stuff, uh, fun stuff, probability, things like that.
18:35
SPEAKER_02: But um officially I'm 50 years old, but I say the moment I started the regenerative journey, I went 20 years younger.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: So I feel I'm 30 years old with 20 years' experience as a CEO.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, because when I was approached about this job, I said, oh, you know what?
18:53
SPEAKER_02: I love what I've done, but I'm missing my time.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: Where I have a team, I can know everybody's name.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh, where when we have ideas, we can do that, we could do it in you know, a month instead of three years.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh I I was I was longing to be with team, coaching new talent, uh, get things done fast, gross.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, and really about the cool aspect of the hospitality, which I always love, even if I'm starting to do something else.
19:20
SPEAKER_02: Um and and so then when I saw the generator story, I say, oh my god, not only they have that, but it could be a mission-driven organization because I'm sure I was starting to be worried for my kids, for the ability for them to travel and also for them to get great jobs.
19:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, because I think there's going to be a myth of great jobs in the coming three years.
19:41
SPEAKER_02: And and so I was in my head to say, okay, I'm turning 50.
19:45
SPEAKER_02: Now that I've already been a CEO, wants to be a CEO is a mission, something which could align with my own values.
19:51
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, I would love something which is sustainable in terms of business.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: Um and and um and the first slide I saw about generator, I'm starting to see also their margins.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: And I say, I look three times and I say, okay, they have amazing value, amazing growth, amazing partners to do that.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: They bought this company 800 million, and now I'm starting to realize what they did it.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, is that the model is really amazing.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: Is that I think it's one of the only models I know in the budget industry when you can do margin that sometimes can be 40% better than a four-star hotel.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: Not the four-star hotel, like I try not to say uh, you know, brands, but there's some cool four-star hotels which are experiential driven, got something unique and something special.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: These ones are doing similar margin.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about 60% of the authors.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh, where we change flag one year to another, they're replaced for one flag to another.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: And I call that the white uh empty box uh with no soul and with a lot of vending machines.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Um and and that's the where the model is very interesting, is that gener when you convert uh uh let's say uh basic means no experience, and I I don't want to say brand, but the many brands of that uh into a generator, you can really improve your margin by 30-30 percent.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh so you can convert, yes, we've done it, convert uh uh an old office.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh we had uh London was a police station or government.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh but actually right now um we're gonna convert a new hotel in Greenwich, so in in near London.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: And when we see the margin, we're gonna do, and and it's Novotel is a great location, great place, great industry, but the model we have is extremely unique.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: Um and it works also because we're a little bit bigger than uh an old typical uh hostel you may know about.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then we can really have group business, transient business, family business, and then the cool vibe we're bringing uh make also a lot of uh money coming for the FA.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Be.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: And also a typical hotel that kind, if you have 100 rooms, you have 120 guests.
22:06
SPEAKER_02: For us, when we have 100 rooms, we can have like 500 guests.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: So we also, which is very unique if some owners have a long-term investment to a property, generator actually could be helpful, what we call gentrification.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: So let's say your area is it's it's safe but not still edgy.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: Think about a trend station area.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: In a transstation area, you used to have no hotels.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: For us, it's perfect because there's a lot of communities moving, moving, moving.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: And then because in a hotel, now we create 500 guests, and all those guests they eat with us, but they love to eat in the area, you're starting to create some energy into the economy.
22:44
SPEAKER_02: And then an area which will be considered like a B minus, starting to be a B plus, and then some other stuff are coming up and become an A.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: So that's why also for investors it was interesting, is that the model itself is pretty amazing.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: So when they buy an asset uh with us transforming like a hotel to us, it's very interesting.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: But also when you buy a building, you know that if you keep it for three, five, six, seven, eight years, then you're starting to see the impact of a generator in the activity.
23:15
SPEAKER_02: So it's a very different way of seeing the business.
23:17
SPEAKER_02: And that's what I love is that uh in all the lives I have from crafts, I learned, you know, the branding and understanding the customer, never cut corners, you know, always play the long game, not the short game.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh with ClubMed, I learn about experiential experience and uh career paths.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing for your talent.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I did some commercial reset.
23:39
SPEAKER_02: I worked with private equity, and all of that helped me to re understand that uh, generator is generating not only margin, but a long-term value for not only your customer, but your investments.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's a fantastic answer on all fronts.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, even though it was multi-pronged, you handled that each step perfectly.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: So um, generator is not just a generator of margins for investors, it's also a generator of gentrification for neighborhood.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: You're bringing more people in, and it slowly brings life back as you're bringing in not just the traditional backpackers, uh, but as you said, families, creative types, people in their 30s and 40s.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: So that way uh you're not just having a single ICP, ideal customer profile, or target guest persona.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: You can touch across all these different segments to generate demand.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: We we have where where they're unique is that because they're they're traveling, most of them travel in multi-cities.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because they save, they they want to save money in some ways in their lodging, at least for 70% of us, because we still have the normal rules, but even our normal rules, I call it private rooms, they're gonna be like 25% then uh lower than the others.
25:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because the margin are creating by the 70%, but we want to keep the 30%.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: Um and so people can they want to do that because they want to spend money around.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: And that's where very unique.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: You don't have like the business travelers uh going to our place.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: You really have people once they're explorer, and we do everything for them that they explore the city uh and the and the neighborhood.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: So uh, and that's the beauty when you center it.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: Our customer do not uh eat quickly and then take the subway or the metro for 30 minutes.
25:37
SPEAKER_02: No, they're they eat with us, they cool, uh, and then the next day most of the time they eat somewhere else, a coffee in area, and then they're gonna experience our area around.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: And and that's a very different impact.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's what I love also in the very, very, you know, 20-minute uh walking distance impact that a generator can have.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, you know, the the whole idea of margins here is traditionally things like F and B can be quite labor intensive and cost intensive.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: So therein you found a secret special way to really make that into a lifestyle product where it is it is part of the not only an amenity for guests, but also part of the the value add for each generator hotel as a whole.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: So at first, and every generator hotel has to have his local flavor as well, which is very important.
26:36
SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, we are low, we you know the beauty, the what I love the most is that I had that with Clemen as well, is um we're free.
26:46
SPEAKER_02: We're like we're really free because I'm not like a brand in between 20 other brands in the group.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh so um funny story.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: Um one of the designers came up and said, We want to have new uh showers, right?
27:02
SPEAKER_02: So uh they come up and they show me showers and I say, What is this?
27:07
SPEAKER_02: And and I make a joke.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: I say, it looks like my public swimming pool in the area.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: It was literally the same color than the swimming pool in my public area.
27:15
SPEAKER_02: Um and he said, Yeah, because you're uh you're a budget brand.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: And I say, I'm gonna stop you there.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm affordable, I'm not cheap.
27:27
SPEAKER_02: So why do you paint those doors blue and put the ugly numbers everywhere?
27:32
SPEAKER_02: And I say, and I and I go there and I say, okay, this is the photo of a Lloyd's club, or and I say, is it more expensive to do that?
27:40
SPEAKER_02: And they say, uh no.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: But you would be in the premium category.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: And I say, good answer.
27:47
SPEAKER_02: And and and and it's uh and that's that's the beauty of it, is that when you have like six brands going from one star to five, you need to differentiate all of them, even if it's the same price.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh and I realized that uh, you know, why don't we do the premium?
28:03
SPEAKER_02: And then when it's very expensive, we do a bit differently.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: Same thing with the food.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're never gonna do, don't try to impress people doing uh like a Michelin star stuff.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: You don't have the budget, they don't look for it.
28:17
SPEAKER_02: No.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna need to tell them where to go if they want to have to have the best pasta ever near Roma, where we are.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: But for us, this is the budget our customers have.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: What can you do with that budget?
28:31
SPEAKER_02: And I'm coming from the all-inclusive industry.
28:34
SPEAKER_02: Uh and you know, in command, we can have breakfast, lunch, dinner for 15 euros, right?
28:38
SPEAKER_02: Um it's mind the mindset is completely different because your chef needs to be about something they can do very easily, but always perfect, always good, and and comfy enough for a customer, but they know they have the best for their budget, the value for money.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: Same thing for a breakfast.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: Don't try to impress people.
28:58
SPEAKER_02: Nice uh FFNE, as we say, like great environment, yummy smell.
29:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh get me a good bread, okay?
29:05
SPEAKER_02: Get me a good bread, good Viennese, good um good eggs, people, but you know, guess what?
29:12
SPEAKER_02: I want that to be at nine pounds or even 8.5 pounds.
29:16
SPEAKER_02: And they say, you're crazy.
29:17
SPEAKER_02: I say, no, not crazy.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: That's that's what I give you, okay?
29:20
SPEAKER_02: And and then they think differently because I say, no, it's have to be affordable for them.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: And the beauty of it is that if they take a breakfast, they don't need to go to a restaurant for lunch.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: So they're saving money.
29:30
SPEAKER_02: And that's why they want to have a comfy breakfast.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: Or you can do a grab and go, a coffee and a biennese, and you do it four pounds.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: Always you need to be one, two, three pounds lower than if they were doing it outside.
29:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, but don't try to do things we're not.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh so we're not the five stars.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we don't have you know the the plates of a five star.
29:50
SPEAKER_02: We're great, we're efficient, we have amazing stuff to make it yummy in the morning, chill in the afternoon, and very cool at night.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, but deliver that consistently every day for every customer.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: That's the most difficult part of what we do.
30:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh what you're talking about here, the key word is value and value engineering.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh and where we're seeing the market in affordable travel going across all different customer segments is they're looking for specific features that they value.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: So a luxury guest will value the ornate marble and uh one-to-one guest staff ratio, um, things that are unattainable for affordable brand.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, what other features or amenities are guests really valuing at the affordable level that really drives them to choose generator?
30:47
SPEAKER_02: So that's gonna be different because we have a lot of different uh clientele.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:51
SPEAKER_02: Uh so our number one clientele, uh solo woman traveler traveling in Europe, she's 90.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: What's the number one thing you think she's thinking of?
31:01
SPEAKER_02: Security.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: Security comfort being centered.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: So uh we start, you know, we're in the process right now.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: But for for them, uh first it they they want sometimes to be when they're in the dorms to be in a woman-only dorms.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: So we're building more and more of those dorms uh because otherwise there's so much demand and wants to keep the same pricing.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: But uh we train a security guy and uh to them and I say, hey, when you want a solo travel she can for the first time, you introduce yourself and you make it clear, you know what, if you have anything, I'm here for you.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: Right?
31:35
SPEAKER_02: Just some small things that we're gonna make sure that everything is gonna be great.
31:40
SPEAKER_02: It has to be safe.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, the camera system, the number of times you're gonna batch, uh, we're gonna have a bracelet coming up so we can really identify the different types of clientele we have is extremely important, non-negotiable.
31:54
SPEAKER_02: Cleanliness, non-negotiable.
31:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, basic comfort, non-negotiable.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: And then they, you know, they're solo, they want to meet people, but they want to feel they're flirting and they want to be able to say stop when they want, they want to feel security in the hard call they receive.
32:10
SPEAKER_02: So that's super important for what we drive.
32:12
SPEAKER_02: So they're gonna meet other people, other solo travelers, other people, and then when they want to say start, they stop when they want to keep on, they want to keep on having a trip with them.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: That's fine if they want to travel.
32:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh, second thing, um, a group of friends, uh, five, ten, twelve, fifteen, if they're good groups.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh, for them, it's again uh cool, comfort, great place that we can have drinks.
32:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh so they're gonna be less about security because they're surrounded by everybody else.
32:35
SPEAKER_02: So they're gonna be more about the social, the drinks.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we have roof, lots of rooftops, uh, which are amazing.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the rooftops are perfectly pretty incredible.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh, so the cool ways of meeting people, having fun.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: But again, you know what is cool?
32:49
SPEAKER_02: There's that, oh, I'm tired, I'm gonna go to bed, while the other is gonna stay killing party.
32:53
SPEAKER_02: So the flexibility for them starting to be great, the social aspect is very important, and meet other people is gonna be great.
32:59
SPEAKER_02: Um then you have the I mentioned more and more, which was not a core target at all, but uh I've seen many of those, especially during the summer period, is uh family with teenagers.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: You know, teenagers are 14, 15, 16.
33:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, they don't want to be uh, you know, two queen beds and sleep with their siblings anymore.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh they want to be in a cool place.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I mean who can afford two rooms in Paris or London or after that?
33:24
SPEAKER_02: It's too expensive for parents.
33:26
SPEAKER_02: Um so like here you have a blast, the blast because you have a queen bed and two bunk beds in some of the rooms, or you take you can take two rooms with us because it's not expensive.
33:36
SPEAKER_02: And uh the kids can be in the bar area, which they cannot drink alcohol, but they can have a cool vice, meaning people, cool atmosphere, and the parents feel safe in the same area.
33:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they can have a cool breakfast in the morning, depending on what time everybody's waking up, and then they can go because the place is centered.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: So, but I will go back to it.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: I think which is cool for what we do is you need to be centered, all of them cannot be in the periphery.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: You need to be in the center of the action.
34:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you're the gate for the city.
34:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh, social design is critical.
34:07
SPEAKER_02: The affordable aspect to it is starting to be so we make it, we say not affordable, we say possible, but in our industry we say keep it affordable.
34:15
SPEAKER_02: No matter what, every year we need to find ways to keep it affordable.
34:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh and the last point, which I think is uh what people remember is a welcoming.
34:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh you you're hosted by people who want to make sure that you connect with the city, you connect with the other people around, and um and and you connect with them as a host uh uh every time they they did it.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, behind the scenes, uh you mentioned wristbands, badges.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Now we're getting into technology.
34:44
SPEAKER_01: And a phrase I have now for unique brands like Generator is that IT, information technology is now IP.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: IT is IP.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: So I'm wondering if you could speak now to um, again, without giving away too much the secret sauce, how you're using technology to drive the organization and to improve the guest experience.
35:08
SPEAKER_02: Maybe my first answer IT in generator will never be our IP.
35:14
SPEAKER_02: Really?
35:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: Never.
35:17
SPEAKER_02: Never.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: We'll do everything to copy and paste who are doing the best in the industry to make the experience frictionless.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's with people first.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: Right.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you another story.
35:30
SPEAKER_02: When I arrive, they show me we have an amazing new IT inventory.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: We would be the first one to do that, it's amazing, and so on.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: I say, what is it?
35:38
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have an uh hologram, a hologram as a receptionist.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: And I say, get out of here.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: Never in my dead body.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, this is not hospitality, it's everything I hate about uh what can be done.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: Um so technology is here to help, uh, it's here to connect with each other.
35:58
SPEAKER_02: We can talk even about uh AI and things like that.
36:01
SPEAKER_02: That's gonna impact our way people are gonna do it.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh so frictionless, yes.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: Make it uh us um visible uh for our customer, yes.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh tracking how we do well and not do well instantly, yes.
36:19
SPEAKER_02: Helping our housekeeping to do every standards they need to do, yes.
36:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh procurement platform to buy well what we do, have flags when we don't buy it well, yes.
36:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh having information of our guests if they want to, uh, to better welcome them so they can go faster, yes.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: The rest, never.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: Um it's it's because at one point you're starting to forget that IT is a tool.
36:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh it doesn't create uh I mean create value, it may create some value engineering, but many times at the expense of the experience.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh we don't process guests, right?
37:02
SPEAKER_02: We are hosting a guest.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh every piece of a great experience where you create a memory to a customer, for me has never been generated by technology.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: Technology will never get that.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: Well, they will get it one day, maybe they will give you advice, but in the end, if you're starting to have your team concentrating on technologies, they forget the audience, right?
37:30
SPEAKER_02: Um so, like for example, uh, which is more important for my for my uh all my staff, I trained them because it was something we're doing in Clement and I love it.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: They need to learn the first time, the first name of their customer.
37:45
SPEAKER_02: First name, right?
37:46
SPEAKER_02: So you find a way to say the first name, you repeat the first name two times, and you try to think about what the first name makes you think about so you remember the first first name.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: The next morning when they arrive at breakfast and you say, Hi Adam, how are you doing?
38:01
SPEAKER_02: Doing great?
38:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh, do you have a good sleep and so on?
38:04
SPEAKER_02: How do you feel today?
38:05
SPEAKER_02: Do you have a party yesterday?
38:06
SPEAKER_02: Yes, no.
38:07
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
38:07
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
38:08
SPEAKER_02: Just sit down a moment.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get your favorite coffee right away too.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: How much does that cost?
38:14
SPEAKER_02: Do you think IT can do that?
38:16
SPEAKER_02: Not for a long time.
38:18
SPEAKER_02: Um so we I I always sell them technology, yes, but it's always gonna be a tool.
38:23
SPEAKER_02: The moment it goes on the other side, um, yeah, you're doing affordable, you're not doing affordable hospitality, you're doing budget hospitality.
38:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh I was uh very influenced by Claude Mail.
38:36
SPEAKER_02: And if I have one book for everybody's listening, that is the most amazing book in hospitality, uh, it's called Reasonable Hospitality for Greg Guevara, means the best book ever on hospitality.
38:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, talking about the best amazing restaurant and and what was I let you read it.
38:52
SPEAKER_02: But it's all these uh moments of truth that you're able to bring during the journey.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: Technology can help you to identify when it is important to have those, but in the end, is finding the right people who just love people.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: And uh this you cannot invent it.
39:10
SPEAKER_02: There's no hospitality if you don't have people who love people.
39:13
SPEAKER_02: People they love their own staff, their own team, and they just enjoy uh being with humans.
39:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh so that's my place for technology.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: And the only thing which is amazing now with technology is that uh technology is much cheaper than it was before.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: Before we used to have a big technology project for data and so on.
39:33
SPEAKER_02: I think with the explosion of AI, AI is not cheap, it's gonna be more and more expensive, but it makes you be able to be very flexible and fast.
39:42
SPEAKER_02: And because we're a new organization, a new company, we don't have any legacy in technology.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: So, with very low investment, we're gonna be able to be uh on par with the best in the industry because we're starting from scratch, and it's a huge advantage right now to be able to start from scratch.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: And for example, we have an idea of creating an unlimited uh euro generator pass.
40:04
SPEAKER_02: So let's say you're one week, two weeks, three weeks, four, four weeks in Europe.
40:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you create your own week, right?
40:11
SPEAKER_02: Uh, your own week, two weeks, three weeks.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you have a price.
40:14
SPEAKER_02: You can go at any generator you want at a limited uh at a price which is defined.
40:18
SPEAKER_02: But let's say, oh, you eat Xavier, an amazing cool person in Paris, and he's going to Amsterdam, you are going to Berlin, you go to the app, you switch one location to another, there's room.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you go, we go together tomorrow, and then you think I'm very cool, but you know, I'm going to uh Barcelona and you've been to Barcelona already.
40:37
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Xavier.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to Berlin, and then you switch, here you go.
40:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, the ID was generated three weeks ago.
40:44
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna launch it four weeks.
40:48
SPEAKER_02: And I love it.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: But you see, what I'm talking about technology as a tool, uh then the the the the here you give flexibility, you get freedom, you get a lot of stuff, but in the end, what what will make people to come back is my host and my customer.
41:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, we maybe we didn't even talk about it, which is very important, is that at one point you need to stick to your customers.
41:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because your customers are part of the product.
41:17
SPEAKER_02: So my bunk beds might be uh the lowest we can do, maybe 29 euros, 29 pounds.
41:23
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of hostel, they hear them go back to a hostel.
41:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh, in January, they put the hostel at 19 pounds, even 9 pounds, I've seen in some of them.
41:34
SPEAKER_02: But then you have a different type of customers getting in, and then you kill your experience.
41:40
SPEAKER_02: So, in in everything we have to do is that you have a respect to customers and always make sure that at one point, no, don't go below a certain level of price, because then you you flip your experience and you flip your product.
41:56
SPEAKER_01: It's an incredible vision, uh, what you've described, and even just this idea of a generator pass.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, it's it's almost the holy grail of where we're going with travel.
42:05
SPEAKER_01: Um uh, you know, able to adjust on the fly frictionlessly, and the speed at which you're able to launch that unique product to guess uh to bring it from testing to production is incredible.
42:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's the beauty of an headquarters with 70, uh with 60 people at the headquarters.
42:23
SPEAKER_02: Can you remember, Gene?
42:24
SPEAKER_02: And the goal is to remain uh I say actually we have 55.
42:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh I tell the team we're gonna double our size, we're gonna have 40 properties, and I say, guess what?
42:34
SPEAKER_02: We cannot be more than 70.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: And I say, why?
42:37
SPEAKER_02: Because we got 70 plus 30 general manager, it's 100.
42:41
SPEAKER_02: Everybody knows their name.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: The moment you go over 100, one over 120, they're not gonna say, I talk to Xavier.
42:48
SPEAKER_02: They say, Oh, I talk to London.
42:51
SPEAKER_02: And I say, Who's London?
42:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh the uh revenue management, who's revenue management?
42:56
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's six people in revenue management, you should know their names.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's the beauty of it.
43:02
SPEAKER_02: You can go very fast because now technology can go super fast.
43:05
SPEAKER_02: But then a night, we're in the ID.
43:07
SPEAKER_02: We are like we're 15 in the room, and somebody said, Wow, that's really cool.
43:10
SPEAKER_02: And the hospital said, That's really cool.
43:13
SPEAKER_02: And then the IT guy was there and said, I think we can do it, right?
43:16
SPEAKER_02: And I was thought it would take a year.
43:18
SPEAKER_02: And then he went back to the next meeting and said, Yeah, we can do it.
43:21
SPEAKER_02: I I found somebody who can help us to do it, and we're gonna I can talk about it because I know we're gonna patent it.
43:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh but it's incredible that that's what is possible in this new world with the new technology.
43:32
SPEAKER_02: You can go extremely fast uh from an ID to implementation, and you have to go very fast because I can tell you, my 13-year-old and my 17 years old, they don't think about traveling the same way at all.
43:46
SPEAKER_02: And all these big white box, whichever name you put on them, uh, and you say uh any brand of them, there are like thousands of them.
43:55
SPEAKER_02: So they can't change from one thing to another within 10 years.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: uh I can change in six months, right?
44:05
SPEAKER_02: And and and and and that's the beauty I think about uh the model.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh so so you know you you raised that whole idea of 70 plus 30 and how you can change so fast because you're under the quote unquote Dunbar limit the anthropological term for what a human tribe used to be when you knew everyone.
44:26
SPEAKER_02: So to close out here uh with that as your limit and of course with your classic training of never sacrificing the long term for the short term uh where is generator headed ha you know what that's the beauty I don't know where um but you know which is super interesting is that we're building a headquarter headquarter we call it not even a headquarter I say it's called shared services um I've got a lot of my myself five years ago uh I talked to them about the project and I say I'm in I'm in I'm in so announcing like some great C-suites coming out I would never thought they would be interested in it but they have the same journey I have they say I want to be in a mission driven organization I want to create great jobs I want to remain close to the operation.
45:16
SPEAKER_02: So you have you have um a good blend in our share offices where you have people with a lot of experience but having the energy of when they were 20 years youngers, right?
45:27
SPEAKER_02: And um and the ability now to grow is pretty phenomenal for what we want to do but also for the category.
45:36
SPEAKER_02: We probably announced uh we're talking a lot with people from Drifter uh which is in Australia and New Zealand we're talking with Viajero in Latin America uh so you know this idea of mission-driven organization is that everybody who has this vision wants to do that.
45:52
SPEAKER_02: We want to get all of us together and say hey let's work together uh can join and everything we're gonna do uh in terms of HR, in terms of uh initiative technology and approach.
46:05
SPEAKER_02: So I I really want generator either we we're gonna do some acquisition or partner.
46:11
SPEAKER_02: That's where I don't know where we're gonna be but I love working in ecosystem.
46:16
SPEAKER_02: And the ecosystem is going to be everybody who's had the same idea about hosting hospitality, right?
46:22
SPEAKER_02: That's paramount.
46:23
SPEAKER_02: So there's some brands who are not going to be there premium enough so we really had a good experience safety uh exchanges where we can mix also our own um staff but there's also student housing uh you have players like uh EF, Comtiky, uh G Adventure, Intrepid, uh you name it, you know, sorry if I miss some of those.
46:46
SPEAKER_02: The bigger already customer with us but I say no let let's let's sit down and see our strategic plan and work work on it together.
46:52
SPEAKER_02: And we have like amazing ideas coming up.
46:55
SPEAKER_02: Then we're gonna either still owning our um own location or starting to do uh some uh management contract so in our development uh so we're gonna look for a lot of owners who now need to do something with a Novotel, Sophie Tel, Hilton, uh you know, Travelodge, all those areas if you're center but in a good number of rooms, uh give us a call, we look at it, we can transform them.
47:21
SPEAKER_02: Either we buy the building or we can operate it for you, but not franchise.
47:25
SPEAKER_02: I want to control the experience from A to Z.
47:29
SPEAKER_02: We may help and I'm starting to talk with more independent people who try to be in the premium hostel but they have difficulties to do that.
47:39
SPEAKER_02: And they may want one or two and say okay we're building a platform we can host you as well.
47:44
SPEAKER_02: So we may we may be helping those uh helping for the procurement we might open our on a second brand um because I think that generator is too big to go in some of the uh beach area smaller cities area where I think there's a video market.
48:01
SPEAKER_02: It's what Drifter is doing.
48:03
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know where it's gonna be but we're super excited about it.
48:07
SPEAKER_02: But the first thing is to let's have first we have 15 properties we're gonna renovate 11 of them with massive investment to make it at the level we want in terms of experience we're gonna be full on to recruit a lot of new talent coming from the best hospitality school in the planet EHR, Grillon, Lausanne School, you know, there's plenty of those schools.
48:30
SPEAKER_02: We we want the very top talent.
48:32
SPEAKER_02: And they say why would I get there?
48:33
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to be a reception manager at a fourth season or do you want to be a general manager at 27 years old?
48:39
SPEAKER_02: And they can have both parties you go I have my my daughter as she wants to go to a fourth season I say go four season.
48:45
SPEAKER_02: They're the best at first they have an amazing CEO.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: I know him is like amazing this brand is amazing everything they do is amazing.
48:51
SPEAKER_02: They don't cut corners but there's moments in your life where I want to be trained on the top luxury and there's an area no I want to be a leader.
48:57
SPEAKER_02: I want to be a manager I want to be in a cool area I want to be in trendy area.
49:02
SPEAKER_02: And I tell them okay then just go to a pure player.
49:05
SPEAKER_02: Let's go to people who just do that and they're gonna give you a pass to be a general manager in five, seven years.
49:10
SPEAKER_02: And I tell them after 10 years, you can even even be a shareholders a partner in the company which has never been done before and my private equity say yes Xavier that's all they're crazy.
49:21
SPEAKER_02: But they understand it.
49:24
SPEAKER_02: I mean now I can have the top talent uh and then I only need 30 stack to run my operation they're gonna be paid a little bit more than markets even if I'm a budget.
49:34
SPEAKER_02: But imagine uh when your friend's gonna be a senior after three years of being an intern, finally they got a job in Doloit or price for the house.
49:44
SPEAKER_02: After 10 years they're gonna have like super assistant brand staff with a team of two.
49:51
SPEAKER_02: My guys at 30 is going to have a team of 50 being a shareholders and then five years later they they would have paid for their mortgage for the house.
50:00
SPEAKER_02: That's that I think we need to think about that new generation has very high risk of being in very low income job or unsecurity in job in the next three years.
50:12
SPEAKER_02: I want to take care of them as a customer and I want to propose them options with a great job hospitality is hardworking you don't cut corners.
50:22
SPEAKER_02: Work ethics number one you need to love people you can't fake it but if you're ambitious and you work ethic and you love people you can become a GM in seven years and you can be a shareholder.
50:35
SPEAKER_01: That's very very exciting to look forward to because it's it's just I I I the word I want to use is it's it's hope.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: Right?
50:45
SPEAKER_01: You're giving people this incredible opportunity that if you work hard you're gonna move up quickly and you're gonna be exposed to all these different uh skills that are required for different parts of hospitality instead of you know the traditional route of being single silos, single department and then from there the they're gonna merge up and grow as you're growing with uh all these new ideas you have the the partnerships with other other brands around the world moving into beach or resort areas uh expanding generator refurbishing uh or going to renovations uh everything that that you're doing is so is is is just right on point with where the future of travel is going.
51:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah but that's a beauty when you I mean the the beauty of it I feel is that we already like a you know 800 million value company but we still like it's very entrepreneur.
51:41
SPEAKER_02: And we have an ask for investors to bring speed as well to the industry.
51:47
SPEAKER_02: And then they are great investors because they understand that okay I need great talent, top talent.
51:53
SPEAKER_02: And I need to have people who are completely in line with what we want to do like low ego, teamwork, a lot of experience ready to go.
52:03
SPEAKER_02: I give you um another example we uh we we in the final steps for uh getting to uh our top C suite and when we're doing some interview we're like an amazing person great great great and then uh at the end of the process starting to ask a lot of questions oh but my um my salary no no no and do that and I say okay guys you have two shots uh after three shots I'll talk to my child I say that's not gonna fit that's not gonna fit because amazing but we cannot like talking for hours and hours you want to be in or you want to be out don't tell me you want to be in and then oh yeah but I already have something great.
52:38
SPEAKER_02: I say you're in or you're not in and I can tell you that was amazing like I took like uh a new chief people officer um called Sarah Jackson and she's she built Az up you know this amazing cosmetic with with the founder and you should see I know I know from the head hunter she was uh in discussion with top top retail and luxury companies and we talked to each other it like it was a never like we have today like an hour conversation and she said I just love it I just love it she was like I love it I want to be part of it I want to be part of it and she said and uh I think the interview was at the end to say okay we we keep you in touch and I say you better be because otherwise I'm gonna be really really disappointed and okay we get her right away with investors and she was a hire right away and I it's you know having that mentality from everybody's joining um get us extremely excited about what it is and hope yes because uh you could be very worried about what's going on right now and um and I think that's very proud and everybody's joining has the same view.
53:44
SPEAKER_02: We say you know it's it's I you know I work with the the the top 4% population in terms of household income for 20 years.
53:52
SPEAKER_02: And what at one point it's it's great to think about the 96% of the population and especially the new generation and and we want to prove that you can have a business model that is is good.
54:08
SPEAKER_02: You know with a lot of people talk about ESG ecology and I'm all in like you should see I travel on a bicycle I'm careful about everything I do.
54:16
SPEAKER_02: But you know in ESG there is a employability a career jobs right and good jobs good careers um and that's what we want we want to make it affordable possible for the new generation of explorers to visit the cities and being at the center not at a periphery understand the present understand the past meet the future and at the same time and and it's part of the business model we need our teams in the property to be peers of our customers same age starting with the GM so that means to give them the opportunity of losing careers and uh and we love it because it's hospitality and that um no AI is going to replace that and find good career AI proof it's it's it's really cool.
55:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah it's it's incredibly cool.
55:15
SPEAKER_01: Xavier did I pronounce that right the the French way for Xavier?
55:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah but you know I I live for 12 years from Miami so it could be Xavier Xavier Xavier Xavier X Xavier Merci beaucoup fantastic conversation um again very inspiring for the future of hospitality and how you're leading the way for the next generation of hoteliers and really giving giving the entire industry a bright future I can't thank you enough for coming on the show.
55:48
SPEAKER_02: Thank you thank you I feel like an old guy trying to do some freshness in the industry uh and I'll let you I'm 40 you're you're 50.
55:57
SPEAKER_02: 50 is the new 30 come on yeah that's what I'm saying I'm 30 I'm now 30 in my head so it's all good and uh and thank you for the time we appreciate that it's it's been fantastic thank you