Transcript: Episode 231: Accounting for Taste
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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor with Susan Barry, episode 231. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/231.
[00:00:13] 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. Travis Burns is Executive Vice President of Business Development at Remington. Part of the new team focused on growing the company's third-party management business. Travis built a career by saying yes, starting with a walk-in application at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa after leaving a career in aerospace. He learned every corner of hotel life and eventually oversaw operations across more than 70 hotels before moving into development. Today, we are going to talk about the K-shaped recovery and travel, why luxury is booming, while other segments are struggling, and what that means for hotel strategy and owners. 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 who have burning questions. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at (850) 404-9630. The emergency call button is brought to you by Cayuga Hospitality Consultants. Cayuga is a highly concentrated organization of the industry's best-connected consultants across multiple disciplines. Members are former senior executives who now work independently on projects worldwide. Learn more at cayugahospitality.com. That is c-a-y-u-g-a hospitality.com. Okay, Travis, today's question was submitted by John and John asks, what is one key performance indicator or aspect of hotel operations you wish more owners understood? As a former ops guy and a current development guy, I know you've got a good answer for this. What do you think?
[00:02:35] Travis Burns: That is a really good question. I think the one that maybe not that most owners understood better, that maybe we don't talk enough about is GOPPAR.
[00:02:46] Susan Barry: And explain that for the non-nerds among us.
[00:02:48] Travis Burns: Well, we talk about RevPAR a lot, right? Like revenue per available room. And everybody knows that we'd rather sell one room for a hundred dollars than a hundred rooms for $1, right? Like that just intuitively makes sense, but sometimes I don't think we think enough about the cost of that revenue. What are the expenses associated with that revenue in the way that it's generated? And so we think about it, I think in compartmentalized ways. When we think about it, is it OTA-driven? Is it something with the commission? Is it occupancy per room? Are there four people in that room versus one person in that room?
[00:02:24] Susan Barry: So like making it more expensive 'cause more towels or whatever.
[00:03:28] Travis Burns: Yeah. Or more breakfast. And so I think sometimes we don't drill enough into that or maybe we don't talk enough about that with our owners when we look at the type of revenue that the hotel is generating.
[00:03:39] Susan Barry: Interesting. I agree with you. Although I don't think I've ever quite thought about it in that way. Is there a ready solution or is it just more about opening that conversation up?
[00:03:51] Travis Burns: It's a tough conversation because sometimes our salespeople are not incentivized in the same way that our operations folks are. And so you have to be willing to lose the weekly star report battle to win the GOP war sometimes. And you have to have everybody on the same page to understand that we may be better off not selling as many rooms or not selling rooms to a specific group because the profitability of that business is not tied.
[00:04:21] Susan Barry: I am very much of the opinion that every sales incentive plan in the history of time should get thrown out the window, and that everyone in the hotel needs to be incented on the one thing that matters, which is profit. Okay. Well, take us back to the moment when you literally walked in the door at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa, which I think is amazing with the sort of, I will push a broom, I'll do whatever it takes, type of energy. Why did you think that would work and why did it work?
[00:04:56] Travis Burns: I don't know if I thought that that would work, to be real honest. Well, at the time, I've heard this from so many folks, I didn't think hospitality was gonna be a career. I don't know if I was thinking about a career at that point. I had a career in aerospace. I knew or felt it was easier to find a job if you had a job. And so I went in with that kind of attitude. And a lot of my career has been predicated on serendipity, I think. And as you know, maybe mentioned saying yes to the right opportunities, and those things just kind of aligned. And I think it's the beautiful thing about hospitality is that we still work in this industry. That is the American dream, that you have the ability to work hard, and you can start at an hourly associate level, and you can be running that hotel in a year or less. You can own that hotel in a few years, and you can own a couple of hotels after that. And we see that story and that narrative through so many leadership members amongst the C-Suites and our owners. And so we see it kind of everywhere. And it's just kind of one of the awesome things about hospitality, is that you don't have to necessarily think this is gonna be what you do forever, and then suddenly it is.
[00:06:13] Susan Barry: It's absolutely what happened to me. What was it that first job that you got at the Hyatt Regency?
[00:06:18] Travis Burns: I was a sales and catering associate. I don't even know what that means. It just meant that they knew what it meant.
[00:06:26] Susan Barry: They just were like, he's a good talker sitting down in here.
[00:06:29] Travis Burns: Well, no, I don't even know if it was that. I think they just, we need a warm body that'll do a lot of things. But it was awesome. I was able to park cars and do eos and serve dinner and work the front desk. And I think I installed some servers at one point in the IT room.
[00:06:46] Susan Barry: It's clearly all in your job description.
[00:06:48] Travis Burns: Yeah. And I worked with some really incredible people that I still talk to today. It really helped shape a lot of where I am now.
[00:07:00] Susan Barry: Well, your career has been something of an elevator ride through the P&L. So you mentioned starting in sales, that's equivalent to top-line revenue. We've talked about GOP so far, and now, of course, you're very focused on NOI. How did each of those sorts of shifts through the profit and loss statement impact how you think about hotels?
[00:07:25] Travis Burns: We work in an industry where we're not selling a commodity, something that's just replicated. It has to be created on property by our property-level associates. And so that experience and that interaction, that's what we're selling, right? And so you learn that and then you move into sales. You focus on growing top line by attracting people and selling that experience. And nothing at an old boss that nothing happens in a hotel. If we don't sell rooms, there's no paperwork if we don't sell any rooms. And so you work with revenue management, and you learn that part of the game, and then you move into operations and you're now looking down at GOP and you feel like an orchestra conductor. Especially if you're in multi-property operations. Conducting an orchestra, trying to get everybody into harmony, or maybe you're herding cats, whatever term you want to use. But how can we deliver on that hospitality and that guest expectation, but do it in the most profitable way. Those experiences have been what have made me successful in development. They've enabled me to change the way others look at an asset or an investment, understanding that it's this living, breathing thing and it's more than just a model or numbers on a page. And that experience and drawing on all of that has helped me to be able to articulate that and how we're gonna deliver on those promises to investors and owners.
[00:08:51] Susan Barry: It's interesting when we talk about sort of the tension between top line and GOP, I wonder if you have this same feeling that I have, which is that people are constantly like trying to quote, solve the tension between revenue, generators and operators, right? Between sales and operations or whatever. I don't think we need to solve that tension. I think that tension is by design and beneficial to our industry because if you don't have that push and pull all the time, you're either gonna have a completely unprofitable business or no revenue to flow to the bottom line.
[00:09:36] Travis Burns: Positive tension. We talk a lot about positive tension and respectfully disagreeing with those that you work with. But at the end of the day, understanding that between sales, operations and revenue management, you have to live with those decisions together as a team, you don't have to agree with every decision, but if you don't support them once they're made, they always fail.
[00:10:00] Susan Barry: You talked about serendipity, which I'm not sure, I believe that you are the beneficiary of serendipity as much as hard work, but I also know that the serendipitous path of your career has led you to make what other people might think are some weird choices in your career. Like, for example, going from sales to operations. That's a pretty unusual move. Or, you know, there have been plenty in your career, so I'm interested if you've got a rule of thumb or a personal filter for knowing when a weird opportunity, or at least what looks like a weird opportunity from the outside in, is a smart one or when it's a trap, or do you just roll the dice and hope for the best?
[00:10:21] Travis Burns: Those are unique. It's some unique opportunities. Well, what is intuition? What is a gut feeling?
[00:11:00] Susan Barry: To me, I think it's an algorithm in your brain where your brain moves more quickly than you can articulate, right?
[00:11:06] Travis Burns: I think taking in as much information as possible, processing it and coalescing it into something actionable is intuition. It's often subliminal, but I think it's a skill you can hone and it's maybe one of the most important skills you can have because in this day and age of like unlimited data and information and not all of it is correct, like the ability to sift through it and find themes and trends and move on them. I personally think we'll be one of the biggest differentiators for future success. And so I think you just have to see that curve ahead of the road and action on it. And when I was in operations, that I would tell people was a superpower of mine. And those that I know that have been very successful in operations always had the ability to be proactive to opportunities instead of just putting out fires. That's how I think, you know. I think that's true for development right now, too. And I think it's more important than ever, as you look at different markets and you look at different segments. You don't always want to be the first adopter, but you definitely don't wanna be the last.
[00:12:19] Susan Barry: Why don't you wanna be the first? I think that's counterintuitive.
[00:12:24] Travis Burns: Because sometimes when you're the first, there's a lot of brain damage that has to be done that maybe it's not a trail you wanna blaze. And that can come at a time cost. It can come at an actual monetary cost. And so sometimes, well look, there can be a lot of reward there. It's not always best to be the first one to plan a flag there. Sometimes you can learn from others' mistakes and still do something. Do something.
[00:12:51] Susan Barry: I just think our industry likes to be last to adopt new things. And I don't think that's a good position to be in either.
[00:13:00] Travis Burns: It's always hard to show. This is in life as much as it is investments, but an indirect benefit. If I do X and I can't show exactly Y, how do I make sure that that's a great investment? And sometimes even defensive plays, right? We talk about that a lot. Where if you don't do X, then Y will happen.
[00:13:24] Susan Barry: Will you say an example of what that is, like how that plays out in a hotel environment?
[00:13:30] Travis Burns: We'll have owners that ask, if I put X amount of dollars into this renovation, will I see a reciprocation in Y amount of ADR? And sometimes the actual way we should be saying it is, if you don't put X amount of renovation dollars into this hotel, this could be the downside or the continued slide. You'll lose this. And I think sometimes that's difficult. I had an owner one time that was really savvy about, are you asking the right question? And someone said, well, if we include this amenity, will guest use it. Well, that's the wrong question. A guest will use it if it's there. If we include that amenity, will guests pay more to stay at my hotel, or will they choose my hotel over another hotel? That's difficult to quantify sometimes. But the smart ones can do it. And sometimes, again, we go back to that gut feeling, right? Can you see that trend? Can you see something in, whether it be social or whether it be empirically, just something you hear with your friends anecdotally. Can you put a beat on something that's maybe a trend that's kind of emerging that you think can lead you to, whether it be that next career move or it be the investment that you make so on.
[00:14:51] Susan Barry: All right. Well, speaking of trends, it is a trend right now to talk about a K-shaped recovery. What is a K-shaped recovery? What does that mean for travel and hospitality, and what does it look like on the ground, like in average rate or demand or staffing, owner expectations, all that stuff? It's a big question, by the way.
[00:15:15] Travis Burns: KHA recovery, right? If you think about the way a K looks and you've got one thing going up in the middle and one thing in the middle going down. It means we're seeing the same results that a lot of the rest of the economy is seeing. Moody's said, I think it was in 2025, that the top 10% of earners accounted for over 50% of U.S. spending, which was a historic high. And that trend continues in 2026 and we see it in luxury and upper upscale, seeing positive momentum while upscale midscale economy are down overall. And that momentum is in ADR, right? I believe luxury and upper upscale kind of combined were up 3% last year, while occupancy was flat, which is great for those owners because operating costs are also increasing. So they're doing this without selling more rooms necessarily. They're just doing it at a higher rate.
[00:16:10] Susan Barry: Is it just rich people don't care about how much money to spend or do you know what I mean?
[00:16:20] Travis Burns: How many rich people do you know, Susan, that don't care about how much money?
[00:16:23] Susan Barry: Exactly. So how are they pulling it off?
[00:16:27] Travis Burns: Well, there's a bunch of data that we could look at. I won't belabor all of it, right? There's inflation and tariffs and unemployment or underemployment that's eating away at disposable income. But in previous downturns, that would lead travelers to make more rate-conscious decisions with luxury or upper upscale, taking bigger hits. So, like what gives, we all know that the science says, to your point, that the rich and now ultra rich was a new category, are still traveling, but I think there's a little more art to this. I think post COVID and that post COVID traveler boom, people got exposed more to upper upscale and luxury in a way that they hadn't before. And whether they stayed there themselves or someone they follow on social stayed there, or they've been influenced, as I use some bunny ears that you can't see. Now those same travelers, while they're not spending as much, maybe this year, maybe they're taking one trip versus two or two versus three. I think they just value their travel dollar more. And if you're gonna take that one trip this year, why not spend a little bit more for a hotel that isn't just where you sleep, but it's part of that story.
[00:17:43] Susan Barry: I think that's so insightful. That's such an interesting way to think about it. So, in a sort of similar vein, during COVID and during the pandemic, extended stay hotels were the only ones that were performing well. So all the way at the opposite end of the spectrum. And so everybody got crazy for extended stay, started buying buildings, etc. It is my opinion, I don't know if you agree with me, that the segment is oversaturated now that it is allowing municipalities to not solve housing problems because people can just live in extended, say, hotels. That is a question for another day, but my real question for you is, will hotel owners and investors hear this like, oh yeah, people love luxury now. Luxury's doing great. Let's build bazillions more luxury hotels and stop fooling around in the midscale.
[00:18:43] Travis Burns: I don't think so. The fundamentals are just so different. Time to market, barrier to entry, and overall cost. They're just more expensive to develop and build, and those things protect the luxury space. Now, what I think you have to be careful of is that, as we see more luxury developments and the conversation about them, it just doesn't get homogenized. Part of the appeal of luxury is the uniqueness and the individualness of the assets, and I think we have to protect that and protect that experience. That's where I think you could see future issues, if there's not a delineation between brands, if there's not a bifurcation between the uniqueness of an asset and they become a little bit more cookie-cutter. That's when I think you're gonna see that oversaturated feeling. Though it may not be a number of keys, back to the previous point about why do people still want to go to these. Hospitality at its core is about making memories, and that's what it is. And I think people are willing to pay more for that experience as long as it's not part of the background, but if they all become the same thing, then all of a sudden it just becomes part of the background. It's just the backdrop. And that's where I think you could feel that kind of oversaturated feeling.
[00:20:04] Susan Barry: Quick side note, we are giving away a real sponsor ad read on Top Floor. Not just a shout-out, not a mention in passing, but an actual host red spot in a real episode where your brand can become part of the conversation instead of just an interruption. I keep thinking about how much noise we all swim in every day with ads, pitches, promos, and popups. And how rare it is to hear something that actually feels human. So we are opening the mic to one brand that deserves to be heard. The giveaway opens on Tuesday, February 17th and closes on March 6th, and we will announce the winner on March 10th. If you have a business with a story worth telling, visit topfloorpodcast.com/win to enter by March 6th, 2026. Okay, back to the show.
We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every single episode of Top Floor with some really practical, tangible tips to try either in their businesses or their lives. I have three questions for you on this topic, each for a specific group of listeners. So, for owners and investors, what do you think are the signals you look for to tell whether a market or a property can really sustain those ultra-rich, luxury sort of treat yourself rates over the long term?
[00:21:47] Travis Burns: I think a place that we don't look enough at on the investment side, on the real estate side, as we're evaluating investments, we're evaluating the health of an asset. And to your point, pushing rates and pushing EDR as guest reviews, your guests are going to tell you. And one of the biggest issues you can have at a property is if there is cognitive dissonance between the guest's expectations and then what they receive when they get there. And that can happen in all kinds of ways, right? It can happen with price, it can happen with the pictures they see online. It can happen with the service that they receive. And value isn't always just, and typically isn't found in price. We associate it with price, right? But guests are willing to pay more if their expectations are met. And so, sure, it's gonna be a trailing indicator as you look back, but guests will always tell you if what they paid did not match what they expected. And so I think that's a great place to look. Another one, we talked about GOPPAR previously. I think sometimes when we look at assets, we look at forecasts and we look at pace and we look at them separately. And I think when you combine the two and you say, what is our forecasted GOP pace? So what is the cost of business that we have on the books currently? Future looking. It's tough. But if you look at your current pace of what we have on the books, and you look at that mix of business, you can typically come to what is a cost-preoccupied room based on that type of business mix. And so in some cases, and we talked about earlier, are you willing to lose the star battle to win the GOP war? In some cases, when we look at pace and we say, okay, well, we're pacing down versus last year. Okay, that may be true, but what does that revenue consist of? Is it a higher ADR? But we're selling less rooms, but it's a more profitable piece of business force, or we pacing at a more profitable GOP. Oftentimes, we don't compare that when we're looking at our forecast. We just look at what we are forecasting for the month. And then does our pace match us? Are we able to get there? But if we can look at both of those things together, I think you can kind of tell, okay, well, yeah, we can push ADR more here because this is a more profitable mix of business.
[00:24:17] Susan Barry: Well, and that metric answers the question that the thing that drives owners crazy, which is you start getting to the end of the month, you're not gonna meet forecast, and so you turn on the faucets a very, very low margin, very expensive third-party channel business.
[00:24:37] Travis Burns: 100%. And the best operators, the best management companies should be able to deliver you a forecast that's really accurate and is not being reactionary to that piece.
[00:24:52] Susan Barry: Are there any tools that will do that for people?
[00:24:55] Travis Burns: There are. You can utilize Power BI and utilize internal forecasting tools to get you to that number, but you have to be very sophisticated. You have to be savvy enough to know how to do it. And that's where I think you could get me on a whole diatribe about everything we ask the general manager to do. And we want them to be an accountant and we want them to do all these things, but we're not quite there yet. And where I've seen it work and where I've seen folks working on it. I hate the term AI, they're working on algorithm-based forecasts that then do exactly what we're talking about. So, not a good answer for this, but the tools are there. They're just not quite perfect, I don't say perfect. They're not quite there yet.
[00:25:44] Susan Barry: Well, let me know if you would like to start a little side hustle, and we can make one of those because I can absolutely see how it would work. And I can see it in my mind right now.
[00:25:53] Travis Burns: People are working on it, they're just not quite there yet and so you still have. And the other side of that, the art and science of our business, though, too, is nothing replicates knowing if the phone is ringing on the property. We use a lot of algorithm-based tools on pricing and pace, and forecast, and that's the science to it. And I mentioned art and science earlier, but the art is, is my phone ringing? It's the fun part about our industry. There's always this information that can only be gained at the front desk. And that's the part where you still have to have the general manager, just as we talked about gut feeling that knows that group just isn't quite gonna pick up. Or knows that this weekend, I know I can push more because I know that we'll get last-minute pick up. That stuff, it doesn't show in the numbers all the time. And the brands give it to you. Whether it's one yield B two or whatever it is, you get their forecast. It's accurate, but it's never like perfect, right? Because there's still always that human component we have to account for.
[00:27:14] Susan Barry: For operators, what is one operational truth about lifestyle, luxury-type hotels that people underestimate until they're in it?
[00:27:26] Travis Burns: You have to have a general manager and a management company that understands high customer expectations and service levels while still being able to maximize profit.
[00:27:38] Susan Barry: Well, everyone would say they can do that. We think like an owner.
[00:27:43] Travis Burns: You say that, but you've been given the gift of high revenue, but you still have to be a good steward of it. And I have seen general managers, I've seen management companies, I've seen owners that, I don't wanna say forget, but maybe are so focused on the customer side and so focused on the experience side that they're not really great at controlling costs. They're not really great at controlling labor, and you still have to do those things if you wanna maximize that investment. And it's those that are able to do both, those are the ones that are really successful in this space because it's very easy to start adding costs and to start adding labor when it may not be what the customer expects, or quite frankly, just may not be necessary. You've just got more margin.
[00:28:36] Susan Barry: I don't know exactly how to articulate this, but there's something to the homegrown luxury person, luxury hotelier who came up in luxury hotels, who often thinks that service and the reason they're there is like this moral imperative and they forget that they have an owner and debt service and money that they have to deliver like they think we're here to serve. Well, another, you're here to sell the service of making a profit is what you're here for.
[00:29:09] Travis Burns: A great example of that. How many great, incredible independent restaurants have you been to where the food was amazing, but they weren't open a year later? Because the chef wasn't a great “business person”. Great at making food, not great at the accounting. It can be the same thing in luxury on the operations side, that you have general managers who are just incredible at the service component, but we still have to understand or know how to control labor. We still have to be able to drive that to the bottom line and when you get leadership and management that can do both, that's when things really, really hum.
[00:29:48] Susan Barry: So I think this is a good segue to my next question because a lot of the times to do that, you have to rely very heavily on your salaried managers. So many hospitality leaders, including you, attribute their success and their sort of big careers to the fact that they said yes a lot. I absolutely understand that. I experienced it myself, but I also recognize the desire and maybe the increasing desire for work-life balance and boundaries that a lot of early-career folks are bringing to the table these days. I don't wanna say that kids don't wanna work. I don't mean it like that, but I do think that as a trend, a recognizable trend. So how do you strike that balance? What's the difference between building that sweat equity and getting exploited or exploiting your managers?
[00:30:49] Travis Burns: When the investment doesn't have an exit strategy. I have a friend who is currently in that space. He's younger, he's working hard. And we had that conversation where he said, I don't know where I am right now, if I'm gonna be able to move up. And I said, that's okay that you're investing right now in your learning. It may not pay off where you are, but you have to be able to cash in that investment when the time is right and it may be somewhere else. And so as long as you understand the trade-off that you're making, as long as you're okay with it and you have an exit strategy, whether that be internal, I'm doing this so that I can get promoted to this or I'm doing this because I'm going to learn. Maybe it's that you're being asked to do development stuff. Maybe you're being asked to help. Maybe you're front desk and you're being asked to help in another department. If you view that as a learning opportunity, but you know that that investment is going to pay off somewhere else, that's when you're not getting exploited. If you don't have an exit strategy or you feel like there is no reciprocation to what you're doing. That's when you know that there's starting to be an issue. And so I think you just have to, you have to weigh those things. And the kids these days, I think everybody is just more aware and more cognizant of those trade-offs. And I talk about this all the time. How do you be present with your family? How do you be a great husband or wife or partner or spouse? How do you be a great parent? How do you be great at work? There are trade-offs all the time, and I think you have to just understand those trade-offs and feel good about them when you don't start feeling good about them or you don't think there's gonna be a payoff. That's what I think you have to really, really sit, take a step back and just reevaluate the investment that you're making.
[00:32:55] Susan Barry: I love that. That's such a good way to think about it, and that really just clarified some of my past career moves and why they made sense or didn't make sense. So thank you. You are now my spiritual guru. We have reached the fortune telling portion of our show, so now you have to predict the future as our guru, and then we'll come back and see if you got it right. What is a prediction that you have about the future of hotel transactions in the near term?
[00:33:28] Travis Burns: So we actually have to come back and see if I got this right.
[00:33:31] Susan Barry: Yes, absolutely. We were gonna put you on trial. This is very serious business, so get it right.
[00:33:40] Travis Burns: I think that we will finally see transactions break loose towards the back half of 2026. But I don't think that they will be dominated by the traditional institutional owners. I think that they'll do fine and I think that we'll still see those. But my unempirical experience recently has been that there is a lot of capital that's been attracted to hospitality. It's just not necessarily in the traditional platforms, whether that be family offices, whether it be multifamily to develop developers. There are all kinds of folks that are now attracted to that investment and they're not tethered to maybe the same return requirements or same committee approvals that others have been in the past. And so I think that while there's gonna be more opportunity for those just kind of traditional acquisitions, they've got some local market knowledge, they don't have, again, a committee that needs approval, they can move quickly. I think there's gonna be a lot of opportunity for those folks, and I think we're gonna see a lot of new players in the space over the next 12 months.
[00:34:57] Susan Barry: Oh, that's so interesting. What do you think is attracting, like say a multifamily developer to hospitality? Is it the cash flow or something else?
[00:35:07] Travis Burns: I think it's close enough to their wheelhouse that they understand quite a bit of the investment, specifically on new developments. They know entitlements, maybe they have a piece of land that they can work on. And when you look at multi, as an example. It's a very forecastable cash flow in most cases, and there's not a lot of levers to pull, so you can't really yield it up. Whereas in hospitality, you can. And so a lot of times they've gotten a little bit of investment, but maybe it was an extended stay that brought them in. Maybe it was something else and now they're looking at upper upscale or they're looking at luxury or maybe they've done a luxury apartment development. So, there are a lot of entry ways into this space and I think that there are a lot of people with sitting a lot of money that they need to deploy.
[00:35:59] Susan Barry: If you could wave a magic wand and change just one thing about the hotel business, anything at all, what would it be?
[00:36:07] Travis Burns: More women in C-Suite in leadership roles.
[00:36:09] Susan Barry: Baby, you must know who you're talking to. What an excellent answer. Say more.
[00:36:07] Travis Burns: We all know, and it's been brought up plenty of times, but we work in an industry that over half of the employees are women and they're underrepresented in leadership and in C-suite roles. And some of the best, sharpest folks I've worked with have been women. I'm gonna talk outta the other side of my mouth. I think hospitality has done a good job of being a place where women can lead and succeed and minorities can lead and succeed. But we need more opportunities for female-led ownership. We need more opportunities to see women in the C-suite. And if I could just ma wave a magic wand, I could probably name you a bunch of names that would be great for those roles. So I hope to see more of that in the future and hope to see more opportunities for the incredible women that I've worked with.
[00:37:06] Susan Barry: Excellent. Well, I could not love that answer more. And before we tell you goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told.
Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”
[00:37:22] Susan Barry: The loading dock is brought to you by Hive Marketing. At Hive, we specialize in business-to-business marketing and communications for the hospitality industry. Working with hospitality brands, operators, owners, and vendors to create content and campaigns that keep you top of mind outside the sales cycle. Visit hive-marketing.com for more information. That's hive, like a bee hive-marketing.com.
Okay, Travis, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock?
[00:37:59] Travis Burns: So I was in operations where all the good stories come from. And was doing some pre QA property visits and was in Houston in a little bit of a dicier area of Houston, if you will. At one of our mid-scale economy, extended stay assets. And this was an incredible leadership team, awesome general manager, awesome staff, awesome regional. So we get to the property, we walk in. It's clean, it's great. Everything is just as you would expect it to be with that team. And so we go floor by floor and you're checking rooms, you're looking for all the things, just trying to make sure that everybody, that they're QA ready and we get to the fourth floor. We walked in and we had taken the stairs and there was this smell. And I couldn't quite place it, but it was noticeable. And so I mentioned to the general manager, I was like, do you smell that? Like, what does that smell? And she said, well, this is a pet-friendly hotel. And she said, well, we had a guest that had some pets and I think one of them had an accident and whatever out in the hall. And so we've cleaned it, we shampooed it earlier. I'm pretty sure that's what it is. And it's kind of lingering around. I said, that makes sense. So we're walking down the hall and it just keeps getting worse. And now we're in Houston and this is the summer. And so the ptax you are fighting for their lives and it's humid. And so it's just hot in air and the smell just kept getting worse. And it was palpable. Like, I remember telling the regional then general manager, I was like, okay, if this is a pad issue, like we need to get professional cleaners in here. It's just so bad. And it got so overwhelming. I was like, all right, I think we're done. Like, everything looks great. We need to get this addressed. And so we go downstairs and the regional director of operations had been driving around and we get in her car. And I said, do you need water bottles? 'cause she had mentioned bringing some earlier and she's yeah got in the back and I was like, gosh, that smell is just in my nose. It's like in my mouth. Like I can taste it. Like it's just in there. And so I leave and and fly home. And I'm greeted when I get home to an incident report that a gentleman who had been staying at a hotel had expired. And that they had found him later that day doing housekeeping. Now you gotta remember at these hotels, you clean the rooms once every five days. So the taste in my mouth that I had previously experienced, that palpable smell that had permeated my nostrils, was that of the gentleman in the fourth-floor room that they had found? Later that evening.
[00:41:20] Susan Barry: Absolutely. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Well, I can only say that Houston's pets are probably grateful that they can still stay at that hotel. Travis Burns, thank you so much for being here. I love talking to you, and I know our listeners learned a lot. Thank you so much for writing with me to the top floor.
[00:41:42] Travis Burns: Thank you for having me.
[00:41:45 Susan Barry: Thank you for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/231. Happy Mardi Gras! 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.
[00:42:21] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 850-404-9630 to be featured in a future episode.