First Principles from This Episode

Full Transcript below:

Dustin Myers: Welcome to today’s episode of Future Hospitality. I’m Dustin Myers, joined by co-host Jeremy Wells. We’re partners at Longitude, a hospitality branding and design group. Today’s our first episode in video format, and we’re excited to begin this chapter of the podcast and hope that it makes it easier to connect with the guests. So today we’re excited to welcome our friend, Mr. Rob Vogel.

Rob Vogel: Hey guys, thanks for having me.

Dustin: Welcome to the podcast.

Absolutely. Yeah, we’ve had the privilege to work together on a few projects ongoing and we learned a lot from you off camera. So we thought it’d be really fun to just get together and talk through some of your professional journey and some lessons you’ve learned, particularly around the boutique world and kind of operations in creating unique experiences at scale.

Rob: Yeah, this is it’s been a fun relationship that we’ve developed over the course of time. And obviously, I’ve known I think I joke with you, Jeremy and Dustin, think, you know, it’s like when I first before got involved, was like, why do I keep learning about this hotel and the Ozarkers all over my socials? And then, you know, a year later, so, you know, we’re sitting at a table with each other talking.

So it’s cool to see kind of things come full circle.

Jeremy Wells: Yeah, absolutely. That’s really cool.

Dustin: Maybe just share a little bit about your journey, how you got started in the hospitality industry.

Rob: Yeah, sure. You know, I think it’s probably very similar to a lot of people, which is kind of falling into it. I started out working in restaurants in high school and into college to pay bills and, you know, at that flexible schedule. And I really liked it. It was also really fun atmosphere versus I tried working in retail and lasted like about a week.

I do still know how to fold shirts though. But all I took from it. But I, you know, I went to actually, was living in Florida for college and…

You know, obviously tourism and hospitality is a huge part of the economy down there. So I was working at a restaurant and wanted to go apply for this new restaurant just opened in this cool hotel, the W in Fort Lauderdale. And it was the really cool restaurant right in the water. So I went and applied and this very crafty HR person was like, what about you ever think about working in the hotel side, you know, at the front office? And I was like,

Sure, why not? Again, I was 19 at the time and open to really anything like that. It just started from there. I never really looked back. There was moments where I was in school for marketing.

But I quickly realized that I really loved every day being so unique and different. you know, eventually my life took me to New York, which is really where I got into the boutique space. you know, this is about 2012 when, you know, there were so many amazing boutique products in the city. And it just really was an inspiring time to be like, well, I don’t know if I ever want to go back to a larger group.

There’s all these really cool, unique things happening. And, you know, here I am today. That was 20 years ago at this point.

Jeremy: It’s awesome. You kind of left your story off there in New York. Like what happened between New York and now and what was that, got jump like from, you know, maybe like a chain or like a more, you know, less boutique experience, jump out of the boutique and independent and kind of lifestyle space. So that transition.

Rob: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great question. Yeah, it’s actually it was it was I went and so I was from W you know, and this is during the Starwood days when I still owned by Starwood, you know, and tons of, you know, support is a much bigger hotel. And then you had, again, a big, regional team in that area. And then I moved up and I started working at Gramercy Park Hotel, which was an after Ian Schrager re-envisioned it with

Julian Schnabel doing the design and I think he had left, this is right after the recession, so he had left the picture but was basically the hotel was running on its own as its own boutique and it was like trial by fire. I was exposed to so many things. was, you know, I came on as an assistant front office manager.

And you know, have at that time there was the nightclub Rose bar there, which was like the spot in town is famous for turning Paris Hilton away, but also famously would be turning hotel guests away. They would come shout at me for not getting into the club. But, you know, to to just the different.

you know, guests that would come through the door and people in the neighborhood. is, know, Grand Mercy Park is a very unique area. It’s the only private private park in the city. So you have to have a key to actually be able to or you have to live on the park visually in order to have a key to go into the park. And there’s very strict rules with that. So we had all sorts of like really like because it was this bit of a hidden gem in a way, you know, really well-known people to you know folks that were just kind of travel junkies or like design junkies and was really into the boutique space and so that you know I was there for a couple of years and again just learned so much I was in eventually they formed a management development program so I got to get my feet wet and revenue management for for a while and housekeeping which was like the two to me the most I was like okay this is where I want to kind of be able to plant my flag as like I know rooms operations from the point of getting someone to book all the way through to making sure that the room is clean and ready to go to departure.

And so I kind of you know, went back and forth very intentionally in revenue management and Rooms Ops over the course of the next six years because I wanted to continue to kind of work those muscles. And so, know, I then moved over to Firmdale Hotels, which at that time was Crosby Street Hotel, which now they have three properties in New York by the time the first one outside of London. And that was incredible experience.

If you’re familiar with Ferndale, they really create a culture there where you’re, you know, in the city, everybody knew about Crosby as like, you’re going to work really hard, but you’re going to learn so much and you’re going to work with probably some of the best people you’ll ever work with in the industry. And I remember my first morning stand up there and I was just like, okay, I can learn from every single person in this room. everyone in their role takes this very seriously. It doesn’t take themselves seriously, but they take the role seriously.

And that had really really helped kind of like form the future me along that path of like what kind of leader I want to be, what kind of culture I want to create and help nurture because that was truly, you know, I spent five years with them. I opened their hotel, the Whitby in Midtown and kind of helped take the culture of Crosby and try to bring that to Midtown, realize what didn’t work even in, you different markets as know Midtown and Downtown Manhattan are so different you know and we didn’t really fully grasp that until we got there and we like this is, we have to tweak. You that was my first moment of like, okay, these look slightly differently. They feel like they’re their own, you know, they have their own name, but we can’t just totally plug and play the same framework and experience that we had downtown to Midtown. And that was like that first kind of click in my head.

So, you that was a great experience and, you know, I eventually wanted to kind of go back to more approachable hospitality as far as price point. know, Firmdale, you know, the average starting rate was north of $700. And I was, I kind of yearned for my time when I was with the W because it those that felt like you were hosting your friends. You know, it felt a little bit more just like they were curious, you were curious on what they wanted to do and it wasn’t so you know, you’re, I don’t know, probably providing hospitality to the masses a little bit more. So, you know, I ended up talking with Brad Wilson of Ace Hotels just by an introduction. And he had said to me, he was like, how would you bring luxury into a hotel that has kiosks? And I was at the time I was still working with Firmdale and I was like.

I joke with people, say it was like clutching my pearls coming from again, like being in the, in the luxury space. I was like a kiosk. was like, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. And he just like left, had planted that seed in my head and we,

You know, didn’t talk for, you know, had a great conversation with him about a lot of other things. Yeah. But we didn’t talk again for another like six months. But like, I remember at work thinking, I was like, how would I do that? And I just kept on thinking about it for six. I couldn’t get out of my head because I was like, what is it really? And that was the moment where I was like. Being able to say to myself, what am I doing every day or what’s my team doing every day that doesn’t cost a lot of money or doesn’t need to cost a lot of money to have that same feeling in someone’s heart or that moment of connection.

And, you know, Brad called me back up a couple months after that, I six, I mean, six months later and, and, Hey, we’re doing this project called sister city. It’s going to be like kind of a micro hotel brand. we’re going to use kiosks. There’s going to be this really unique experience on Bowery. and I would that by that point, I’d been thinking about it for literally six months and I was like, let’s go. I’m in. And so I, I came on as a hotel manager and employee number one. Construction delays and all that. Our kind of pre-opening office was at Atelier Ace, their corporate office. And I really was able to take little sponge, just listen to the doors all being open here, the design team, how they are thinking about something. it could have been a totally different project, but just like interesting or hearing Brad on a call and what he’s asking and thinking about to the development person coming by and saying, hey, would you look at this profile and just like real quick, this seem interesting? Like, does this make sense to you in that market? And it was just a kind of really great experience. And so we were able to that time there and also take the brand book that had been created and turn that into something that was physical, know, turn it into the actual hotel experience.

And that was like, just…probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to say like, took this literally a esoteric idea and turned it into like, okay, how does the check in experience network? How does a housekeeper function in this space? How does, you know, all these things and you’re doing it within a place that had a really strong culture of its own with, you know, ACE being ACE. And this was very much supposed to be the little sister. was sister city was the idea. So it was like, there’s really fun challenge to say, what part of the DNA do you want to pull out of the ACE DNA? And what do we want to make as its own for Sister City? And it was ended up being really focused a lot around just engagement because again, that we’ve the kiosks scenario when that came to life, we were like, well, I thought about my time as a front desk agent and I would always be like, you know, waiting to see my name on TripAdvisor reviews or get it, you know, hopefully you maybe get a tip or something like that. But and I was like, man, I’m never getting any good tips in the Bellman that’s doing like half the stuff and it’s just a great schmoozer and is going to tell a guy or a woman how to make a left or a right to the subway is cleaning up and they’re getting all in the name of the TripAdvisor or the, you know, so that was one example. And then the other side of it was the concierge, which fit more fairly. I’m not hating on the Bellman at all.

But the concierge, you know, locking them in with like great reservations or recommendations. And I was like, well, what is like the connection? How do we, if I don’t need to be worrying about like what is basically processing somebody through a system check-in because they’re doing it all themselves, what kind of person should be there to greet them? And I was like, can I mash together that bellman personality and that concierge know of what’s really fascinating and interesting and make that what the, you know, we call it, I think it was a guest services, managers or agent.

And it was, you know, and then that helped us form who we wanted to bring on because we knew that we one, maybe two touch points with the guests because once they make their keys, they never have to come by that front desk ever, ever again. So how do we just like hit them with like so much excitement that they’re there and meeting them also where they’re at.

Are they actually exhausted? And they just got off a really long flight and they just want to go crash. okay, let’s, let’s maybe take a different approach with them. So a lot of like super high EQ folks that we brought in and we had a really great team did really well from the, the, the, the operational and guest experience and then COVID happened. And, yeah, so that shut everything down and everything ground to a halt in our industry. And obviously, I think shifted so much of what we look at today as through the pre and post COVID for so many people in so many different facets of life. Like, think particularly in hospitality, we think about it a lot because it changed everything and kind of reset the play, you know, having to rewrite the playbook and figure out what does this world look like from a staffing perspective and from a guest perspective, what are they going to be looking for as we came out of the pandemic? And that kind of led me eventually to to bunkhouse hotels in 2021 and joining their team down in Austin, Texas running their, originally was Hotel San Jose and Austin Hotel and then we picked up the Carpenter Hotel which is just another block away.

Jeremy: Incredible. It’s seemed to me like and fascinating how you touched pretty much every single facet of hospitality, development, marketing. And so I think it, you know, you bring so much, you know, experience, also just perspective that I think are valuable, especially as you, you know, have come into your new role here at Arbus, we’ll get, get into how did all of that that you’ve derived, know, prepare you for what your Arbus, what you guys are doing, that kind of defining, you know, next steps for Arbus as well as you guys are building it out and envisioning what the future looks like.

Rob: Yeah, thank you. think that that’s a great question. I think that, you know, for me, it’s…

It’s been a kind of a culmination of all these things. It’s interesting how life takes you on a path and you, you know, when you’re younger, perhaps think, okay, this is what will be the next logical thing. Um, and it’s, you know, letting kind of the chips fall and see what happens in some cases. Um, and you know, that’s around the time, you know, uh, with, I had been with bunkhouse for about four, four years at that point and, um, started talking to Eric and Stephen, the founders of,

Arbus and Eagle Point Hotel Partners. And we started talking about what they were trying to build. And I was like, this is really fascinating to me because there’s, you know, there’s only a handful of, I think, boutique groups really left that are trying to ensure that they’re creating something hyper authentic. And I think the part that I resonate with is I really love brand. love that part of the business of understanding and appreciating what is really to me is the foundation of what is going to drive the experience afterwards you because it’s going to define who the guest is going to be and define what kind of employee wants to come work for you.

You know, if it’s if you’re a Ritz Carlton or something very high end, you’re going to get a certain type of guest and a certain type of person that wants to come work there. Something that’s a little bit more funky, a little bit more unique. You’re going to get that funky and unique guest and employee. And those all, you know, there’s the pluses and minuses to all those things. And so, you know, that was the excitement of working with Stephen and Eric was they had all have these really unique properties that are hyper distinct in their own ways and trying to help figure a way of connecting them the right way that doesn’t feel inauthentic or you know where kind of your wiping the slate clean of what has been there to put this stamp of Arbus on top of it.

As we’ve talked internally and continue to tweak and figure out how we want to connect the properties, talk about Arbus as the mother, not the mothership, just the mother. And then the properties are all siblings, they’re all the family. If anybody, I think everybody knows somebody with siblings, you know, there’s usually like some, know, one might be really outgoing and one might be very artistic. One might be like hyper, you know, into mathematics or sciences and the other one might be a jock or whatever, all these different personalities.

But you all know that you’re like, okay, that’s the Vogel family or, you know, the Wells family or the Myers family. And you know, there’s that connective thing there, but it’s not like they’re not like, hey, like this is who our family is and this is what we, you know, this is how we all behave. So that’s been the fun, the, the fun experience of like trying to make sure that we’re very protective of like what we would consider kind of micro brands of each of the hotels and, and not, well also finding the connective tissue. And to me, that’s really comes down to this really big embrace of authenticity and experiences.

And I think those are very broad terms, right? But I think, you know, there’s, I think if you go to any of the properties, you walk in, you know that somebody deeply cared about how this was created. And the people that are working there deeply care about their particular property and who it is and how they come into that fold of it. know, it’s especially apparent when you do, it’s, you know, it’s very easy to see it when the properties are in the same market as each other, you know, right around the corner or, you know, in the hub and spoke model kind of situation where a Cache house guest in Jackson Hole is very different than our Anvil guest. And they’re literally… in the same building. know, one’s a hostel. It’s more, you know, approachable in price point. It attracts a very specific type of guest. It also attracts a very specific type of, excuse me, employee that’s guest facing that wants to work in that space.

And while at Anvil, it’s a different price point, a different traveler that becomes more of their home base. And so we’re like, okay, how do we make this somewhat home base but then really give them amazing recommendations and experiences that are not just a you know whatever the other hotel down the street is plugging or some you know tour that anybody can sign up on on you know Viator or whatever any of those kind of online tour agencies.

But like, you know, going back to the cash house, cash house guests are, they’re usually there for one night. They are highly self-sufficient. They’re very fun to talk to. They’re probably coming out of the woods after camping for a number of days, like really in some cool spaces being that, you know, where those properties bump up to Teton National Park along with Yellowstone National Park. So you get that. then in the winter, you have these skiers that are just hardcore. They’re out the door very early and they’re back early and they’re ready to crash and knock out for the night. And then you get another, you know, random kind of group. it’s a really, I think that’s the fun part is recognizing all those things and we’re like, okay, how do we make sure if you’re a guest thing at an Arbus property that you’re not being inundated with this formula that would just like make no sense to each one of those properties, guests that are looking for something a little bit different at each one.

Dustin: Yeah, I think that’s really good insight. We see…

So many properties at a really small scale that understand their guest and are creating these unique experiences, you know, the team is aligned and then kind of on the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got the very sterile, robotic, consistent, scalable, probably profitable, you know, and so trying to blend.

The uniqueness as well as the scale and the profitability is definitely a challenge, I think, for those of us in the space. And it seems like what you learned at Bunkhaus and kind of what you’re implementing. With your role at Arbus is kind of trying to blend those two and making sure that while it is super personalized and boutique, it is also something that can scale and can be profitable and repeatable. So I guess kind of with that thought, what are some of the challenges that you’ve seen and overcome

Rob: Yeah, totally. I think you took the words right out of my mouth and a lot of the ways it’s, it’s, you know, a lot has to do with the challenges really come around scale because you are asking folks to do usually wear more hats than they would in a bigger box hotel that has, you know, as I tell people, usually when they sign up for any boutique experience and they’re coming from a more larger organization, I’m like, I’ve worked in those spaces, you get a playbook, they say, do not deviate from this playbook. And I’m like, your playbook is here, there’s no pages in here. You write the playbook, you get this level of autonomy that is very special in my mind, but at the same time, it’s a lot of responsibility and it’s extra work straight, you know, to completely honest, you know? And obviously we’re not saying we give them no direction, but again, to your point and to what we’re talking about.

We do need to, the checking experience isn’t going to be the same at the Ozarker as it is going to be for Cache House. It’s going to need to be tweaked. It needs to feel different. needs, we have different key counts. There’s a different, you know, different approach on how you can engage it. Can you, you know, we’re working on a project right now with 19 keys. We’re going to be able to have a really high touch, long checking experience that’s going to engage and talk.

But we can’t do that with, mean, frankly, after you get over 40 keys, 50 keys, and if you get up to 100, like Ozarker, you don’t have that time because you multiply the math on, especially on a weekend high travel period of time. You’re like, I need to get these people into these rooms because otherwise they’re going to be upset with me that they’re here waiting in line and hearing the same spiel over and over again. So I think that that’s kind of, you know, things that we’ve been working on and what we’re trying to do to combat that is work on an overall structured playbook. Kind of, as I said, there was no playbook, but there is one that we’re working through. And the goal is that we’ll say, okay, here’s a really strong foundation for you at any property. You can take this and we say, okay, you need to have an orientation. that orientation isn’t just for your hotel, it’s for your department because it’s important as a housekeeper.

What is my role in this organization? Every role is important to this business to be successful. So we need to make sure that they have an understanding of their connection. You know, so it’s like, but we need to tweak that, right? It needs to fit whichever market that we’re or whatever asset it’s going towards. Job descriptions, same deal. SOPs need to be tweaked again. Same, same story, you know, different room type needs to be approached a different way when it comes to the steps of cleaning and inspections and what needs to be in the room. we’ll

That’s one of our goals is to help build more muscle memory in with people in the team so that it’s more that we can plug and play the parts that are not the sexy bits of running a hotel or boutique space and be able to whether it’s a front desk or the kitchen or whatever is like how can we utilize efficiency and create a smoother process so that they’re not bogged down and just working hard all the time, but they have moments of working smart and freeing them up to be able to engage with guests more. And I think that that’s really where we start to do that. And then it’s also when we start to think about scalability with these things and if say if you wanting to, to grow the platform is recognizing again also that size of a property in the world that we’re living in with post-COVID as we were talking about earlier. The industry shifted massively. A lot of people left.

And a lot of people that there was a lot of hiring freezes for a period of time. that, you know, that time I was talking to a friend, I remember a couple of years after COVID, uh, two years after COVID. I was like, man, I can’t find a good sales manager anywhere. And he was like, because all those sales managers that would have been sales managers now, they got frozen as a sales coordinator during COVID. There was no development or that role was eliminated. that pipeline that was occurring disappeared or froze. And so you now have to fill this gap on a lot of positions. And I think also just with the workforce and the new generation entering, they have a different way of approaching how to learn and how to work. And it’s meeting them where they’re at.

For so long, I was…like old men shouting at this guy kind of like, don’t they understand this is, you know, and it’s just, it’s not how we have to meet them where they’re at and figure out how do we teach them and develop them and get them to a level where we’re confident with their skill set. And then also as a management company, how do we support them? Like almost like flank them on both sides and say, okay, you’re great with these couple things to spend time developing you more on here. Let’s say it’s, you know… operational efficiency. Like, all right, let’s dig in there. Let’s talk about that more and let’s figure that out. Who’s another person I can connect them with on the team to say from another property or from the corporate team and say, hey, will you kind of give them some guidance here or, know, again, kind of creating some guardrails to help them be successful.

And then also realizing again that you don’t have the giant mothership of Marriott with a group that could swoop in and and do everything basically to have that to solve these issues and also that you know kind of bopping around a little bit here but I think like having some larger group come in like that it pulls away from you might solve some of your issues with that You know these these smaller boutique properties, but then you suck the life right out of it You know and it’s so it’s this delicate balance of like okay How do we support as a management company and protect these the team and provide them everything they need to do their job well and then How do we make sure that we don’t? Take away the secret sauce, you know

Jeremy: Yeah. And that kind of, think that that leads right into my next question. One thing that I always hear is a challenge and maybe this is an industry specific to hospitality, but I know just because that’s the industry we’re in, it’s top of mind for a lot of folks is who you’re looking for, like what’s an ideal candidate, how do they fit into the Arbus mentality and spirit that those things, skills side, what are you looking for and how are you trying to solve for that?

Rob: eah, great question. think to me it’s really…

A lot of it has to do with how curious the person is as a soft skill is is the is or a character attribute and that can show up in a lot of ways, right? You know, someone that’s interested in photography as their as a hobby or they like to fix cars or their love to read books, whatever it is. I always like to ask like, know, like, what what are you what are you into? Like, what are you what are the things that kind of make you really think on? Because that tells me a lot about… person because to me that’s you know usually those things if you’re curious and you’re picking up things like this it’s because you want to learn and you want to figure something out you want to problem solve and I think curiosity naturally meets when you’re when you’re curious you naturally meet people with a little level like of openness more than I think people that are are not as curious and I think that makes it creates a safer space and nature, just by nature of it.

Because I can say to you, Jeremy and Dustin, we’ve had plenty of conversation. I’m really curious on like, what you do, like, how do you get, know, how do you create these experiences? like, how do you take a product that you may have only seen one time physically and then create a whole story to it? You know, and I take that and I think I apply that to when I’m talking to whether it be a GM and see how they think about that as well as you know a front desk agent as well like what what do you what are you into what tell me more about you I want to know about you and then I think the second part is is empathy is critical and I think that that’s where we’ve had a lot of success as like hiring in in 2026 continues to be challenging to find the right people, but when I’ve shared the vision of ARBUS where it’s really focused around responsibility, hospitality, community and looking after each other. If you’re in hospitality, you’re usually pretty naturally an empathic individual.

So I find that it attracts them almost immediately. And it gives me like, okay, I have an in now to talk to them more about it. And like, how does that empathy show up? And like, how do they approach things? So for me, those are like the two most important things. If you don’t have those parts, it’s, as a ripple effect on the other other soft skills that you do need as a leader or just a team member.

Jeremy: What are like a couple questions or things you might look for? You mentioned curiosity, you know, you mentioned empathy, but like, how do you like, are there questions you can ask that kind of get to the root of that?

Rob: Yeah, for sure. think there’s for me the the the curiosity one is always first. I kind of I’m asking about what what their hobbies is the obvious one. But I think once you get into empathy is the interesting part. I try to I always I pick this up from a colleague and I and I was like, oh, it’s such a great question and I was like, what are your three adjectives your your people that report into you would just how would they would describe you and that tells you a lot right away because if it comes off a certain way, you’re like, oh this person Yeah, think very highly of themselves and they’re not thinking about I asked the question not what do you think about yourself?

I want to know what your team thinks about you About the people that have to deal with you on it on when you have a bad day when you’re having a crazy idea, the person that’s, you know, then on the days of like stability, you know, providing that that space. So I that’s that’s my one of my favorite questions to ask. And again, it’s a very soft scale question. It’s it’s not like in a it helps me figure out what that personality type is, because, you know, that my follow up is always is like, you know, what is your leadership style? And I think a lot of times they say, you know, it’s…

They might use throw around the term servant leadership, which is very, you know, buzzy word and hospitality space. And then I like to double click in and say, explain to me, what, does that mean to you? And if they can eloquently be able to describe to me, how are they show up to their employee and their team and show up and treat them as the, as what I like to call it was like, or many people call, as the internal guest. I don’t get much time with hotel.

Guess anymore because of my role and I tell the managers often

You are my guest. My job is to look after you. So make sure that you have what you need to do your job. Make sure that you have an, you can call me at any time. You have my phone number. I will always call you back or text you. You can email me about anything. In my expectation is that you’re doing the same thing for your employees that are reporting in to you. And if.

If a leader doesn’t have that approach to it’s, it’s just not going to work because again, talking in the boutique space, especially you wear so many different hats. you’re a department, like higher up department head or GM, are sometimes you’re a pseudo HR person. You’re a pseudo therapist. You’re a pseudo, um, you know, sometimes in like a paternal or maternal way, this relationship that you create

with the crew, you know? And I always stay away from like, we’re just a big family. It’s like, no, we’re a team, we’re a crew, we work together because I think it’s important, because that can also get a little bit dicey when you start to go into those terminologies. But you know.

You quickly realize if you develop a nickname of some sort of, I was like uncle Rob for some, some hotel employees as a running joke. like, then I was like, okay, I know what my, what my, what I am to them and how they look at me and how I need to make sure that I’m approaching them. And how would, how would I do that? And that’s obviously not to say that I’m going to be, not holding people accountable. think a good uncle.

Jeremy: That’s awesome.

Rob: Or whatever would do it would hold be like dude. What are you doing? You’re screwing up over there? This is you know, you need how to do your job. You’ve done it a million times You know, we’ve talked about this. Come on. Let’s get back on track, you know But yeah, think you know, that’s a long way of saying I think it’s really It’s digging into like what type of leader they are and asking specifically What do you? Give me examples of how you do it in what is

How do you go in and show up also to me the other part of it is? If they aren’t in the trenches, you know with the team and aren’t able to you know jump go like aren’t willing to get down on their knees and look under a bed to make sure it’s ready for a guest or to You know do the really you know again coming from housekeeping housekeeping background a shower curtains there I pick up the shower curtain and I make I smell it because I want to

make sure it’s clean. If I don’t have a GM that’s coming in and is willing to do that stuff at the level that we want our boutiques to operate, they’re never going to work out. You’ll never get what you need out of them. That might go work at a bigger box where they have an executive committee and a housekeeping director and all these things where they’re mostly behind a computer. I want somebody that’s in the weeds. And in turn, you’re going to get so much respect out of the housekeeper.

housekeeping manager or that front desk agent or that cook that you just sat there on the line watching them expedite.

Jeremy: Yep, absolutely.

Dustin: Okay, Rob, ⁓ pretend that I am a new hire. You have observed curiosity, you’ve observed empathy through the process, and say I’m on the front desk. What type of charge would you give to me to be able to take ownership, create a personalized experience for our guests? Like, what would you be saying to somebody in that new position?

Rob: Great question. I think I would say to them, I’d say Dustin, welcome to the crew, first off.

We’re super excited to have you here because of who you are and you know that what we talked about in your interview and you know what I want you to feel is comfortable saying hearing a guest talk about something maybe they’re here for a special occasion or maybe they’re traveling alone and you want to do something nice for them. Go for it. What and you know it’s all.

Okay to give a shot like let’s let’s go through it and if there’s time I think the one rule I would tell you is we don’t compromise without an approval from the GM. Otherwise I trust you. Whatever you give away no one’s going to die. No one’s going to we are going to be okay it will not put the business in ruins. So I want you to feel comfortable surprising a guest with something kind and a nice gesture and I you know

And it can be as simple as a coffee, clocking what kind of coffee they liked from the morning before or a special drink that they liked the morning before to, you know, checking in on them on, you know, how their stay has been. But specifically if they were doing something, you know, very, you know, maybe they’re on a work trip or something like that. Like what are we can do so many things when you want to kind of get you a beer when you get back tonight from your from your day or

You love the hotel so much. Why don’t you grab a t-shirt on the way out? Take whatever one you want and have those moments

and if I come back to you and I say hey Dustin You gave 15 shirts away today. I’d like I love you and I love this energy But let’s make it maybe two shirts a day one shirt a day and a mix in some of the other kind of lower Lower cost items that I think that would be how would I would I would approach but I think it’s very important like You know, we’ve talked about this on, you know ops calls like getting the team to feel comfortable

giving away, giving something free, not understanding that it’s connected and this experience that just added so much value. You giving me a free t-shirt or baseball cap on my way out? my God. I am free advertising for you because not only, you know, any good experience gives, I think they say that a person will talk about it to five different people, but now you’ve just upped your opportunities.

because I’m wearing a cool baseball cap that says Ozarker on it. And people are like, oh, what’s that? like, oh my God, have to tell about this. It’s rules. If you’re coming to Branson or even if you’re not, need to go to Branson and make this a little trip, like weekend getaway. you just up the ante so much. You don’t even realize what you’ve just done for this, for the guests and for the business. So.

Jeremy: What are some of the things you’re looking ahead in the future of this industry? Different trends, different things you’re preparing for, you personally or our best as a portfolio and a team, what are you looking ahead at and excited about?

Rob: Yeah, sure. I think for me… You know, the buzzword and add a lot of context to it is AI. Obviously is a big topic right now. My interest in it is really focused on kind of going back to what we talked about earlier of I want the back of house experience to be as most efficient so that staff can focus on doing their job really well and engaging with guests. I don’t have as much interest. I think it’s going to go into different ways. think you’ll find a lot of the like pod style hotels with the kiosks having more AI engagement where you know what you’re signing up for and then I think that there’s going to be this continued want and this is kind of the other part of it is every report talks about millennial and gen z travelers being interested in highly experiential and authentic experiences and I think if we are able to

utilize AI over here to make things really smooth and easy to operate. can focus on making sure that the guest experience feels really truly authentic and we can create really unique experiences and make it feel a little bit more analog. I think people are going to be wanting. I know that I find myself when I can’t stand seeing QR codes all over the place. I want to see like, you know, I want to

hold something in my hand sometimes, you know, I still like I don’t use an e-book I read paperback. I like the feeling of a book And I think that we’re gonna keep on doing that as all this technology Is is inundated into our lives. There’s gonna be this, you know You’re just seeing it with like listening bars things like that vinyl coming back into the world I think we’ll just continue to see that like on steroids and I think the last part I’ll leave with is

as the industry, all these boutique groups getting acquired by the bigger groups, that pulls the authenticity away further and further. I’m watching it in real time. I’m not going to throw shade at any name of any groups, but I’m watching it and hearing about it. And consumers can know that right away. They can sniff it a mile away. So there’s going to be this demand that’s left.

but the actual amount of inventory.

isn’t there. So there’s a, I think, a great opportunity to be able to do that. I think the other part of it is making sure, is trying to make sure we find on the real estate side, people that are a little bit willing to take a little bit more risk and not bet on the Bonvoy points that you’re going to get at this other hotel and want to create something special. yeah, that’s where I think I see the industry going. And that’s where I know that I’m really trying to push our team is

AI in the back and log in the front.

Dustin: Well said. thank you so much for taking the time. think that this will be a really great episode. People will get a lot out of, and it’s always just fun to talk shop and hear from you. And so I appreciate you taking the time to be with us.

Rob: Absolutely my pleasure. thank you. Thank you both for, thinking of me. This was definitely a super fun. and look forward to having these conversations in real life next time.

Jeremy: Rob, how can people find out about Arbus?

Rob: So as of right now, can, we’re still kind of building out our online presence, but you can definitely check out the hotels specifically such as the Ozarker, Anvil Hotel, Cache House, Alpine House, Turpin Metal Ranch, the Parker Hotel. And soon to come in a couple months, we’ll officially launch our website and kind of online presence.

Jeremy: In the meantime, I’m sure people can reach out via LinkedIn to you. Yep, awesome. Cool.

Rob: Yes, absolutely. DM me. I’m pretty active on there. I love to just chat and meet new people. please reach out.

Jeremy: Awesome. Well, thanks Rob for being on the podcast conversation.

Rob: Yeah, thank you all. Appreciate it. Thanks guys.

Dustin: Thanks a lot.

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