Transcript: Episode 202: Casino Money Bag
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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 202. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/202.
[00:00:14] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast ride up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.
[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Welcome to the show. Liz Dahlager is the Chief operating Officer and a partner at Mereté Hotel Management based in Oregon. Over the past 16 years, she has risen through the ranks from overseeing a small portfolio as an area director of sales to shaping development strategy, and now leading company operations and vision as COO. Before joining Mereté, Liz built her foundation in full service boutique hospitality with Kimpton hotels back in what she fondly calls their coolest days. Liz has also been recognized for her leadership, including receiving ALA's. Paving The Way Award and being named an Executive of the Year in Portland. Today we are going to talk about her career evolution, the future of select service and boutique hotels, and the role of women in hospitality leadership. But before we jump in, we need to answer the call button.
Call button rings
The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals, and probably in this case tired adults who have burning questions. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at (850) 404-9630. Today's question was actually submitted by Heidi. Heidi asks, how do management companies find new clients or new hotels to manage? Seems like a simple question, but it's not an easy one, I don't think. What do you have to say, Liz?
[00:02:13] Liz Dahlager: Yeah, I don't think it's an easy one because a lot of management companies start with owners who develop hotels themselves and manage and kind of grow their business organically that way. So as a third party manager, how we find and how others likely find third party management contracts. Is really through referrals from hotels you currently manage, um, investor, uh, groups that maybe, um, are in your network that have, um, other real estate holdings but are looking to get into the hotel space but don't have hotel experience, so need that third party management partner and then the other way is probably through brand referrals, right? So the development reps from each brand who are working and out in the field with owners, um, and doing that work. Um, leveraging those brand relationships, um, to kind of get connected with those owners that are looking to develop a property for existing assets. It's really kind of old fashioned sales as far as talking and networking, um, and then making your kind of value proposition to them on the services you offer and, and how you can bring more value to them. And of course, more ROI on their investment.
[00:03:27] Susan Barry: We are gonna talk about how your company does both of those things. You have been with Mereté for, for 16 years. Mm-hmm. What initially drew you to that company and also what has kept you there? Probably your meteoric rise and multiple promotions, but do tell.
[00:03:45] Liz Dahlager: Yeah, I mean, it's the longest place I've ever worked right in my life. And so I came to Mereté through a good friend, colleague who happened to also be a recruiter in hospitality. He knew me and thought it would, might be a good fit for me, and so he introduced me to Insight at the time. We changed our name a few years ago, so Insight Hotel Management Group was the name then and I knew at my first meeting in person with the founders and the leadership team at the time that it felt right from the start. Which is — what do they say? Love at first sight. It was kind of like that. It just felt really good. The conversations were really good and we were just very aligned at that time 16 years later, what's kept me engaged and excited about Mereté is really the combination of the people that I work with at all levels of the company, from hotel staff to department managers, to GMs, to the corporate staff we just, we have really, really passionate, smart people that love what they do, and that makes a big difference day-to-day. And that's been something that's kept me excited to come to work and then like you said, of course I've held different roles, so the ability to grow and be challenged and be given those opportunities to kind of expand my role has been key to staying and keep it from being stale or boring.
[00:05:18] Susan Barry: When you became COO and a partner in Mereté, I'm wondering if you experienced any moments of resistance or friction from your coworkers or, you know, people that had been peers before? And part of the reason I'm asking this is because you made the switch from this commercial strategy, like sales, revenue, marketing side to the operations side which is a big difference. And people have all kinds of feelings about that. So what happened and how did you handle it?
[00:05:53] Liz Dahlager: Moving from sales to operations, there's always gonna be people that have an opinion. You are correct. And they're gonna have some apprehension about what that's gonna look like, right? So for me, I think it's just good to acknowledge it, not ignore that. And be honest about the why and transparent with the how and where we're trying to go. You said at the beginning, I am responsible largely for — I have a great leadership team, but I'm really responsible for the vision of our growth in the coming decade. And so that's something I take very seriously. And I truly believe if your vision is aligned so that people that I work with, if we're all aligned and they know I have a vision that they can buy into that aligns with our culture that those challenges or friction, as you said, or apprehension or just, you know, being like, Really? Is she really gonna be able to do this? I had a really great mentor who at the time said, whenever you're in that space where people are, you're just not coming to common ground, you're not seeing eye to eye, really starting at vision. What does your vision of success look like? What is your vision of whatever we're trying to accomplish? Because sometimes it's just that we have different visions. And so then once you can kind of talk through that part, all of the little day-to-day stuff and who's doing what, becomes much easier.
[00:07:28] Susan Barry: Got it. What do you think makes Mereté's approach to operations and to development different from other operators?
[00:07:39] Liz Dahlager: Yeah, I mean, we both know the space is, shall we say, crowded. But, you know, that means there's room for a number of different kinds of operators. We take great pride in how we manage our business partnerships and how we operate hotels. We've been recognized repeatedly by all the major brands for our management and our guest service scores. We value knowing our owners, their goals, financial and otherwise. Most of them are very long-term relationships and we value those. We're in it for the long haul. Typically, these aren't two to five year relationships. These are 10 to 25 year relationships, typically with multiple assets. So those things influence our business decisions and how we operate every day, whether it be investments in the physical asset or product or how we take care of our people and our associates, how we serve our guests that stay at the hotels that we manage. Our founder and president is also a hotel owner. My partner is an owner in a number of properties, and so we have that owner mindset. I mean, we kind of start from the owner perspective and how we approach our third-party-only contracts.
[00:08:58] Susan Barry: Is that how the company got started? Were you owner-operators first?
[00:09:04] Liz Dahlager: Yep. Before my time, but yes. And you know, lastly I'll say culture. I know everyone says it, I'm well aware. But I have to say because I've been here 16 years and like I said, really that's about people, which I think speaks to culture. Our owners, investors, the people that we third-party manage for, see that and see the benefit from that. It's becoming harder and harder for culture to stay current and relevant, given the workforce challenges. But I think we've done an exceptional job of adapting to workforce expectations over the past few years and have been able to really stay ahead of that curve.
[00:09:45] Susan Barry: Speaking of being current and relevant, how do you, especially from a high level, balance brand standards with creating something that feels unique and local for a traveler? I mean, I think my understanding is that you as a company are moving toward a more boutique and lifestyle world with a lot of branded hotels in your portfolio. So how do you strike that balance?
[00:10:21] Liz Dahlager: There's a couple things. You know, the brands, while they have standards and guidelines, I think they have seen the value in being more flexible. And so you are seeing — and I travel a lot and stay at a number of branded select service and full service properties. You're starting to see decor that's more unique more often, right? So, that's just an easy example, but I think the brands are definitely more flexible than they have been. In branded, back in the day, every room is exactly the same. You don't see that as often. You see it for sure in some brands, but you still see some differences, some more variances than even 10 to 15 years ago. The two other thoughts I had are really working with your local DMO on highlighting things that are local is really, I think also key and kind of a lost art. I can't tell you how many front desk people I've asked like, “Hey, where should I go eat? Or Is there anything I should see while I'm here?” And they're like, “Yeah, I dunno.” So really educating them and using the resources that are in your community — tourism, chamber of Commerce, that sort of stuff, and updating those quarterly I think is great. And I think the brands generally are a recipe and we're all chefs. That's how I like to think about it. So there's a recipe that they give you and I think the brands want you to cook an exquisite meal, right? Whatever that is for that brand. But I do think they want you to make it your own and those hotels with the highest guest scores, I can tell you, I think do that really well.
[00:12:07] Susan Barry: That's a really good analogy. We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every single episode of Top Floor with specific practical tips to try either in their businesses or in their day-to-day lives. As a former on property director of sales and marketing, I can tell you with extreme confidence that many of those folks, many hotel salespeople are super, super, super interested in the development side of the business, but really have no clue exactly what it entails or how to get there. What advice would you offer to someone on property or even above property, but leading the operations sales side, who wants to make the leap into development? What should that person do?
[00:13:02] Liz Dahlager: This is a great question and I actually get asked this often because my background is not typical as you said. And I would second that it is very unusual given my work history to be in the role that I'm in. So what I would say my advice — nothing, nothing crazy. It's to show interest. Learn on your own, being engaged and interested, and letting people know that you're interested, and then also taking some initiative to learn about the things that you're interested in pursuing. So for me, there's a lot of online resources and then networking with people that are in that part of the industry. I will also say, and some people won't like this, but I, especially younger people, I've shared this before with younger people that have asked me about how did I make this transition and they don't love this part of it. But, honestly, I took on tasks outside of my role. This is something that I think my younger workforce people really struggle with, but that's what happened. I mean, I was in a sales role. I expressed interest in being like, Hey, like, I've got this, I've been doing it for a number of years, and this isn't something I think I wanna do for the next 20. What else can I do? How can I be the most use to where the company wants to go? And so I took on — and I'll be really specific — I took on market analysis for the executive VP who was the partner at the time and a founder for a potential development project. And I did the market analysis, I did the 20 page overview of demand and what I thought top line projections would be and why, and what were the demands — you know, kind of a regular sales and marketing plan, but for a property, a potential property. I wasn't technically in the role. I was asked if I would consider doing it, I accepted, I did it, and I did a good job. I mean, that's how simple that is. And honestly, what I love about that story is the first one I did, I'm actually in the process right now, in my current role, of developing a second hotel with that owner that I presented that study to.
[00:15:34] Susan Barry: Oh wow, that's cool.
[00:15:35] Liz Dahlager: Is that crazy? And he's with a different entity, like he's not even with the same — like, he moved on, but we've stayed in touch. But that is crazy. I mean, it's, I think it's a 10 year gap, maybe seven. But that's what I did. And then once that happened, I kind of, it kind of grew from there. They could see that I was adding value as far as the presentation. I won't lie, I think I'm a good presenter, so that I think was helpful. And I'll add another kind of advice piece, which is somebody early on in my career said… Oh, actually, this is funny. Why they told me this was because I had applied three times to move into a sales manager job from an assistant level, and it took me three times, three interviews to get to that. And the advice that I was given that made that switch possible was: the person, the boss, whoever you're interviewing with, needs to be able to picture you in that role. So if you're work within an organization, if you're looking to advance, putting your sights at that job that you want, but then you need to act like you're in that role so that they can picture you in that role. And so for me, that was very, I think, helpful and being like, okay, you know how if I was a VP of development, how would I present myself in this meeting? How would I present my work? How would I present? So it's kind of like one of those fake it till you makeup ones, but different.
[00:17:14] Susan Barry: It's good advice though, and it's not very far afield from what a lot of folks in our industry say, which is that you need to, regardless of what sort of upper level position you have your site set on, you need to broaden your horizons, take on more than what your day-to-day is, et cetera. I'm interested in that. You know, I do have sympathy or empathy — maybe more sympathy — for the folks who are like, why should I have to do another person's job in order to get someone to invest in me? I really do understand that perspective. At the same time, this industry, the hotel business is an apprenticeship business, and you learn by doing. I don't know, that tension is a little hard for me to resolve. Anything to add there?
[00:18:13] Liz Dahlager: Yeah, I mean, I completely agree because I, like I said, I don't think I would've acknowledged it, right? If it doesn't give me pause. To touch on the women in leadership piece, I think that will shift as more women are in leadership because we are more cognizant of that.
[00:18:28] Susan Barry: Because I think we are expected to do it more. I think that we are expected to do unpaid extra things more than men are.
[00:18:37] Liz Dahlager: And so I think we will, with the people that we bring up, I think that that will look different and probably feel different to them because of that. But I also think there's something to be said for not limiting yourself. So just out of principle, Right?
[00:18:58] Susan Barry: And also 'cause it's interesting, like it's fun to learn something new and not be bored.
[00:19:04] Liz Dahlager: Yes, for sure. And I, and I, and I would say that was another part of mine. I was like, okay, I love this company, but I can't just be a director of sales for 20 years. Like, I'll literally go insane. Like, I love it, but like after a while, after 10 plus years, you're doing the same thing every day.
[00:19:27] Susan Barry: Right. There's a reason I started a company, I did it for 10 years and it was time to move on. AHLA survey in 2023 that found women represent 22% of C-suite positions in hotel companies. That doesn't seem like enough to me. What practical steps do you think hotel companies should or can take to eliminate obstacles for women in leadership?
[00:19:56] Liz Dahlager: So I have two items that I think, especially when you say practical. So, and part of this is based on my own experience, not so much as on the kind of receiving employee end, but as the manager side. So I think maternity leave is a serious challenge. Oregon actually has paid leave now from the through the state, which is great, but I mean, it's a challenge from a perception standpoint. There's not a way to formally welcome women back into the workforce or a way to accommodate that leave and then allow them to continue growing. So for me — and again, I don't know that it's intentional on any, but I think it just happens. And so what happens is women either return after leave or after some extended childcare leave, maybe they quit, take five years off till the kids are school age. But we need to do a better job supporting their growth after that point. What I see a lot of is, oh, on maternity leave, oh, they have kids. Okay. Like, they're not even in the discussion anymore.
[00:21:11] Susan Barry: Just written off.
[00:21:12] Liz Dahlager: Yeah. Which is illegal, but happens, right? So for me, I think when you think about practical things companies or organizations can do, it's really about okay, development and career planning, especially given the challenges in our industry for long-term upper management, specifically, lately. We need to be able to take that into account to better either welcome back into the industry and give them a plan to grow their career that's sustainable. But then also school hours, right?
We talk about this a lot, post pandemic, right? Childcare was a huge challenge. I work with a number of community organizations around trying to find solutions around childcare for a workforce because housing and childcare are the two biggest challenges. So school hours these days, with technology, I think is really doable. Eight to two. As a mom of two kids, my kids are grown, but school hours and work hours and all, that dynamic continues to be very challenging. But I think that should be something we look at for all parents, not even just women. I also think, four day work week, I'm a big fan of. We continually talk about that at my organization. People say, oh no, hotels can't do it. I'm like, oh, yes they can. Yes they can. And that gives people an extra day to kind of deal with the life stuff. So there's things I think we can do to encourage women that having children and adapting to childcare and all of those kind of challenges that come with that. Because we're losing a big part of our workforce because we're like, Nope, you can't work seven to three or three to 11? Um, you're out. No, you can't work full-time? No! You could be a corporate regional, but you don't wanna work past school pickup and you wanna be able to tr— It's like, okay, we have all this technology. We have this amazing experience and knowledge and we're not giving them a path forward when they come back.
[00:23:24] Susan Barry: It's interesting. I almost wonder if, do you know before when you were like, it's illegal, but people still do it? If there was a way to eliminate the bias that comes hand in hand with this, how interesting would it be to do career planning exercises where you actually acknowledge that somebody wants to have kids and say, okay, you wanna be a GM, but you also wanna do have three children, so, here are the things that, the steps you could take to make that happen, or whatever the case may be. Like sort of, yeah. Instead of the idea of, you know, pretending like it's not gonna happen until the very last minute, really acknowledge that it's gonna happen and, and put your arms around it.
[00:24:11] Liz Dahlager: And that's, I guess what I'm getting at is really something practical that companies and organizations need to do is think about that. And be intentional about the return plan. If it's five years, it could be three months, maybe they just go for leave and they come right back. That's a different transition, right, than if somebody leaves for five years but wants to come back. The other one I wanna point out from a practical standpoint — and this is more on the development side — so that's really kind of operations. I think a challenge is, and why women don't advance as fast or as high from a hotel level. On the development side, I think the amount, number of women at development events, networking, events, conferences, panels — although we're, we're doing better on the panel side, continues to be way less than 22%, I can assure you.
The other obstacle, and again, people might not like this, but is really the boys club. People will say it's fixed. People will say, oh no, like, everything's great. I think men need to be really intentional about being inclusive to both men and women at the highest level. I'm not talking about GM level, I'm talking about. The other COOs, CEOs, in the industry. And so what I see happening a lot now is women creating their own space. I mean, I've done that. I have separate women groups that I'm engaged in because I'm not gonna get that same support, input, advice, whatever that is the same network access. And so that serves its purpose for sure. And I know for me it's been extremely beneficial. I would not be where I am without that group of women. But it isn't sustainable and honestly, I don't think it's good for business generally. So I'd love to see C-suite men lead more by example and not just talk from a stage about it, but actually be very intentional about including women in those rooms.
[00:26:23] Susan Barry: I love that. You know, I have this idea that I don't even know how to execute, but it's the 50/50 pledge. I feel like this has happened in other industries, but where to your point, the C-suite guys say if your panel is not 50/50 men and women, then I'm not gonna be on your panel. I think one of the challenges in our industry is that speakerships, panel participation, all that stuff is so intimately tied to sponsorship dollars.
[00:27:01] Liz Dahlager: I get the business challenge on the event producer side, but it's unfortunate and I think actually devalues the credibility of most of the panels, to be honest.
[00:27:13] Susan Barry: There are conferences that don't do pay to play that are able to achieve 50/50 on the podium. So, you know. Okay, well we've reached the fortune telling portion of our show, so now you have to predict the future, and then we'll see how good at it you are. This is just the most general question in the world because I think it's so interesting to hear what people say to this one. What is a prediction you have about the future of hotels?
[00:27:41] Liz Dahlager: Hmm. Right. Um, okay. It is fun to think about and I do think about it a lot. I think my sales background, I tend to obsess about direct sales in regards to — after the pandemic, this was like a really strong focus for me, even though I wasn't leading necessarily the sales effort. But I remember just obsessing about what is gonna change, what aren't we gonna do, especially because it was a long time that we were kind of limited in how we could behave from a sales perspective. So for me, I think it will change drastically. I think AI will drastically change what sales looks like for hotels. You're probably like, okay, that's not mind blowing enough, Liz.
[00:28:34] Susan Barry: No, I think it's because I think a lot of people think that AI and automation is only at the low barrier to entry jobs and that sales is about relationships and so how could you ever replace it? I totally agree with you, but keep going.
[00:28:48] Liz Dahlager: Yeah, no. I fully believe that AI will handle all group bookings. Any group blocks, meeting, conference, all of those things. And honestly, likely corporate rate negotiations as well, if we even still have those. I would predict those go away, honestly. So what does that mean for relationships, like you just said? Will it purely be an electronic exchange of services? I need this, I need a hundred group rooms and meeting space and three breakouts, and you type it in and you get your hotel? Where it's really driven by brand choice, I do see that kind of playing a factor in that. But I like to think about, okay, so where in the client or customer journey for that type of business are we and or are brands going to have impact? I don't have the answer by the way. But it's something I think about a lot is, in our direct sales effort, internally, we talk about this quarterly about, okay, what's going away? What do we need to be prepared for? What do we need to do next? It's really thinking about, like you said, where in that relationship, if there is one, how many people do you need for how many relationships? Because that's gonna change. A lot of this is lever pulling at this point. That is gonna go away fairly quickly. I mean, I think it will happen quickly. We’re 10 years out.
[00:30:19] Susan Barry: I think you're right. Yeah. I also would make the tentative argument that the relationship part of hotel sales is overblown. And here's why I say that: because there is nary a situation, you cannot name a time that a meeting planner or a corporate client took a contract term that worked against their interests to save a relationship. The only person working on a relationship is the hotel salesperson. That in and of itself is a transaction, not a relationship. Do you know what I mean?
[00:31:01] Liz Dahlager: Oh, yeah. And I've seen it. When I started, there wasn't such reliance on email. We didn't have electronic C Event Lead, right? Everything is done electronically already, so that human elements already challenged. But I think, like you just said, it's declined enough that this transition won't feel as big. So it will be interesting to see how we allocate human resources to impact that buying decision. Or if the brands and even independents, because it'll be an electronic journey anyway. When I was thinking about this last month with our sales teams, I was like, are you gonna go to do virtual sales calls? Like you go to a virtual room and there's your clients and you kind of do your one-on-one — it's like, no, you're not gonna do that. They're just gonna read it themselves. There's no need for it.
[00:32:04] Susan Barry: It has to be something different. Yeah, I wonder if there's a place for a host. So rather than being a sales person, you are the host for an account or a meeting planner across a portfolio of hotels versus for your specific property.
[00:32:24] Liz Dahlager: Right? And then how does the brand… anyway, yeah. So that will get interesting with the brands. I think the other prediction that I'll touch on really quickly is just that I really see an increased separation between a simple room and a bed and something more experiential, location. Right now we have a number that divide exists, but in the middle are kind of hotels that have services and amenities, but not a lot. And I'm thinking — well, I won't say which ones. So that might not be good. But I think the separation of a simple room and a bed and an amazing experiential, unique space for a hotel stay those are, that separation's gonna get bigger and the middle ground is gonna get smaller and smaller.
[00:33:17] Susan Barry: Interesting. I certainly hope so because the middle ground is too big and boring right now.
[00:33:23] Liz Dahlager: I mean, I wasn’t going to say it, but…
[00:33:26] Susan Barry: Well, it's hard. I mean, consumers don't know what any of these brands are or mean, and so what's the point? I mean, I guess the point is real estate?
[00:33:38] Liz Dahlager: And if you think about the nature of travel in the future and the generation that's coming, there's gonna be people that are like, I just need a place to sleep and I don't care. Like it can be a white room with a bed and a bathroom. But then you're gonna have people that travel for the purpose of traveling, and there's gonna be that product that in-between kind of drive market. Like, I just think that that space becomes much more challenging, given the demographics that are coming up.
[00:34:05] Susan Barry: There's another piece of that purpose of visit thing too, which is like, you know, I since 2011 have been writing about the fact that the hotel industry acts crazy when it comes to short-term rental and vacation rental properties. And you know, for the long, I don't think it's still like this, but for the longest hotel people will be like, oh, it's a different customer. It's not our customer. Come on bro. Yes, it is your customer. It's a whole purpose of visit thing. If I'm doing a certain kind of trip, I want a kitchen and a living room. And to be in a neighborhood, if I'm traveling by myself, I wanna stay at a hotel because I feel scared. Like there's, you know, a whole other, other piece there. Well, if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the hospitality industry, what would it be?
[00:34:54] Liz Dahlager: Oh, I think for me, I'm really waving the wand big on this one. Just gonna warn you. I would wave my wand and give people, especially entry level or people new to the industry, a passion for hospitality. I think the post-pandemic world is very tough for a lot of people, and I think that passion that I had when I was young. I started at, I had a summer front desk job. That was my first hotel job. I went to school for something else, like, went away from it and then came back to it because I was like, that's where I was happiest. And I think it's just lacking. And I think that's circumstantial partly. And then we just have to find a way as an industry to reignite that and get more people excited about the industry and its potential for them as a career. But also if it's not a career. I mean, I’ve had a lot of people who I've worked with move on from the industry because they had different goals. But it's such a great catalyst. And the skills are transferrable and it's a solid foundation for whatever you wanna do. If I could wave my magic wand, all of the people that are starting out, that are in hotels would feel how I felt about hospitality and the excitement of making someone else have a great experience.
[00:36:28] Susan Barry: What do you think is missing? Something that comes up a lot on this show is that people talk about their entree into the hotel business. Like the reason they wanted to go into it is from watching that show hotel in the eighties. Do you know it? I've never seen it. I do is not streaming anywhere. Like I may end up buying a DVD player and buying the DVDs or VHS or whatever the case may be 'cause I've never seen it. I was not allowed to stay up that late. But is that what's missing? Do we need a show?
[00:37:03] Liz Dahlager: Maybe?
[00:37:08] Susan Barry: It can’t be White Lotus, there's too much murder, you know?
[00:37:13] Liz Dahlager: Right. I was thinking that. Oh, and there was this show where the gentleman, he went and fixed hotels. That wasn't helpful either. I don't know if you know that show. I love that show too, but I love hotels. Like I could talk about hotels all day and go look at hotels all day. I don't know. That's why I'm using my magic wand.
[00:37:35] Susan Barry: I got it. I got it. Listen, a show to watch if you want, the happy side is the Shelburn. That may not be what it’s titled, but it's on Netflix and it's a semi reality show about the Shelburn Hotel, which is a Marriott luxury collection property in Dublin, Ireland. And that show is so good. There's two seasons or three seasons. It's absolutely like thrilling to watch if you're a hotel person.
[00:38:02] Liz Dahlager: Okay. I have not watched that.
[00:38:04] Susan Barry: It's so good. You love it.
[00:38:05] Liz Dahlager: I do think, I do think The Bear is also one. I've had non-hotel people that I've worked with who are above property, HR accounting, et cetera, who don't come from hotels that I'm like, if you watch The Bear — and I know it's restaurants, but the idea and the training the brother goes through, I love that whole sequence and their passion for that, that attention to detail. I think that's been one that I've kind of been like, Hey, if you wanna try to understand where I'm coming, like this is a good, a good thing, way to understand it. But I think it's just lacking, we're lacking that inspirational passion. I think honestly part of it is that people's threshold for others and service has just been challenging because of circumstances with the pandemic plus, I'll say.
[00:39:03] Susan Barry: I could not agree more. The loading dock is brought to you by Siv, the platform helping hotel sales teams boost conversion by responding instantly and personally to every inbound group lead. 24, 7, 365. I talked to their CEO Mike Medsker in episode 198 that we recorded at HITEC, and I think I said this to him then, but I absolutely wish we had something like this when I was leading hotel sales teams. If you are tired of missed leads, ghosted planners, and your team spending hours digging through their inboxes, visit sivconverts.com to see how fast can still feel personal. That's sivconverts.com. Siv is S as in Sam, I, V as in Victor converts.com. Okay folks, before we tell Liz goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told
Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”
[00:40:14] Susan Barry: Liz, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock?
[00:40:21] Liz Dahlager: Okay, now I didn't sign any NDAs or anything, so I feel safe in sharing. When we first started talking and I mentioned, I started at the front desk and then sales and marketing for most of my career. So a lot of people are like you don't understand operations, et cetera. So I just, I decided I wanna share like an more operations story from my early days where I maybe was in over my head. So one hotel that I worked at had a lot of staff turnover. And this is many, many years ago. So I had to be the manager on duty fairly regularly. Which essentially I was the GM, right? I oversaw the whole property. It was a big property. 200 plus rooms, restaurant, bar, pool, private event space, banquet space, all the things. It was not small. And as MOD, I, of course had access to the safe, the money. And again, this is back in the day where cash, there was more cash. Now we don't handle as much cash on property, but there was a good amount of cash, and I'd have to get change for the different outlets, right? The restaurant, the bar, or the front desk, whoever. So one day, it was the weekend and usually I would be MOD for a week on, a week off. Like that was kind of how it went.
[00:41:43] Susan Barry: That's horrible.
[00:41:45] Liz Dahlager: Oh yeah. No, I know. But you know, we were short staffed, like, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I was doing the sales and all the banquet sales and revenue management — so I was doing all the things. So, the front desk says, Hey Liz, we need change. I was like, okay, no problem. I'll go to the safe. I go to the safe. It's empty. So my heart thank a little bit as as it would, and I radioed — yes, we had radios, not cell phones. Radioed the F&B manager in the restaurant and said, Hey, maybe he took it, he would have access. Maybe he took the money bag. Oh, he says, “Oh yeah actually the housekeeping manager took it to the casino.”
[00:42:27] Susan Barry: Shut your mouth.
[00:42:29] Liz Dahlager: And I said, what? Like, yeah, sometimes they borrow it, but they'll put it back before Monday. So we can go there and get them. He's like, I'll meet you in the parking lot and we'll go down and we'll find him. It's no big deal. It's no big deal, Susan. It's fine.
[00:42:54] Susan Barry: That is crazy. Like, to the casino to gamble with it? What?
[00:43:00] Liz Dahlager: Yes. So, I am an MOD, who kind of knows what she's doing. But I had never, never experienced anything like this, so I just wasn't… so I was like, okay. So we went, we drove in the car to the casino, and sure enough, there's the housekeeping manager gambling with the bank money with the bank bag.
[00:43:26] Susan Barry: Oh my goodness.
[00:43:28] Liz Dahlager: All’s well that ends well. So it was fine. We got the change.
[00:43:34] Susan Barry: And that person kept their job?
[00:43:36] Liz Dahlager: Uh, no they did not.
[00:43:37] Susan Barry: Okay. There we go.
[00:43:38] Liz Dahlager: Yeah, no, unfortunately no. I mean, it's still crazy every time I tell that story but the craziest part in addition to that it was happening was the F&B manager knowing and just like where to go to find the person.
[00:43:59] Susan Barry: Yeah, no problem.
[00:44:00] Liz Dahlager: That was the part that I was like, wait, you all know that this is the thing and we're just gonna go get it at the casino?
[00:44:10] Susan Barry: That is wild. Liz Dahlager, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners got some great tips for how to, uh, improve their gambling and I really appreciate you riding up to the top four.
[00:44:26] Liz Dahlager: Thank you. Thanks so much.
[00:44:29] Susan Barry: Thank you so much for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/202. Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer, and all around genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen and your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like.
[00:45:05] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 8504049630 to be featured in a future episode.