174 – Suite Spot: Independent Hotel Show Series – David Bowd

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

Tune in to the most recent Suite Spot: Independent Hotel Show Series episode to hear from the founder of Salt Hotels, David Bowd, as he discusses the origins of Salt Hotels, founding the Salt School, hospitality industry trends, and the next generation of hotel professionals.

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Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, for another edition of our independent Hotel show series. I can feel the anticipation, the excitement building up. We’re just a few months away from September where we’re gonna have independent hoteliers from all over the country coming down to Miami Beach of the Convention Center. And one of those hoteliers and guests is my special guest today who I’ll invite into the podcast for the very first time. David Bow, founder and CEO of Salt Hotels. David, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

David Bowd:
Thank you for having me. Great to be here.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited. We’re gonna talk Independent hotel. We’re gonna talk about your beautiful portfolio that you have over there at Salt Hotels and everything about that. But before we do that, we always like to get a little bit of background for our hospitality guests. Talk to us a little bit about your hospitality journey, David, and what led you to ultimately founding Salt hotels?

David Bowd:
Yeah. My story began crazily 40 years ago now, back in the UK. I started when I left school, and I left school very early at 15 years old. And I became a bellman in a local hotel and absolutely loved it. I realized this was the career for me up to sort of, during my school years, I’d played, my mom had a cafe/restaurant, and I really, really thought I wanted to be a chef, and so I started to go towards that department. But I was too young to go into the kitchen, so I started as a bellman, and then I finally got into the kitchen, and funnily enough, I got into the kitchen and didn’t enjoy it as much as I did front of house. So, which is often the case, I think, for a lot of people, they have this dream, and then it’s not as, it’s not, the reality’s not the same. So I sort of spent the time in the kitchen. I did a couple of years in the kitchen, and then I went back to front of house and I worked through all departments and then moved to London where I was working in the more traditional hotels, the more, you know, Hiltons, Marriotts, holiday Inns. And actually at the turn of the century, Ian Trager had just opened his first hotel in the outside of the U.S, in London. And I was out invited to go and to meet with his team. And I met with the team and loved it. And, you know, his first hotel St. Martin’s Lane was an absolute masterpiece, as was his second, which was Sanderson. And I was fortunate enough to get the job, and I was hotel manager of one for a period of time. And then I took over as regional general manager of both properties. And I ran those through 2000 through to 2007, which were the phenomenal, phenomenally good years in London. And so we were making a lot of money at that time. And Ian invited me to move over to the US and to take over an operations role focusing on a lot of openings for what had then become Morgan’s hotel group. And I did that, moved over to New York, loved New York, and loved the lights in America, and spent some time with Morgans. And then Ian had actually left to go and start addition and public on his own. And so I ended up leaving Morgans and going to Ian and to work on those projects with him before moving on to Andre Bola, sort of the other, what I would consider the other genius celebrity hotelier, you know, who is one of the founders of our sector of the industry, I think. And I was fortunate enough to work on some great projects running standard brand overseeing iconic properties like Chateau Marand, Sunset Beach, the Mercer in New York, and opening the Chilton Firehouse, which was my last major project before leaving Andre and then coming over to set up Salt Hotels.

Ryan Embree:
It’s incredible story, and I’ll tell you first as a former bellman myself, look, we got a couple bellman here just on a podcast talking about the hospitality industry, but sometimes it’s those entry level jobs that give you the introduction that you need into a career, whether it’s a couple decades old or, you know, four decades old, of your hospitality career there. Another common theme that we’ve heard from a couple of my guests recently is parents working in the industry and also being that first introduction into hospitality. And I think that’s a really unique way to be introduced into hospitality is your parents working, having that passion there and ultimately finding mentors along the way, which you mentioned several of those, and I’m sure some a lot of those brands, a lot of those you’ve been at properties that you’ve opened, you’ve been at properties that have the historic legacy. I’m Sure. That has really shaped you as a hospitality professional. And here you are founding, you know, salt hotels, I’m sure that played a huge impact and role. You know, we’ve had the opportunity, David, to speak to several individuals that kind of have founded their hotel management companies. And in those conversations, I really find that common thread of whether it be a specific moment, a place, a conversation that sparked this idea. Did you always have that in mind that you wanted to kind of do your own thing? Or was it kind of a moment in time where you were like, you know what? I think there is something, a path, a different path for me.

David Bowd:
It’s very funny. My grandfather always said, whenever I would see him, he would always say, you know, you should do this for yourself. And he, and luckily he lived to see just as we bought our first hotel. And so I was always very, very happy about that. But when I left Andre and bought our first hotel, the plan at that time was really just to do one hotel. And when we opened Salthouse in Provincetown, I think it was the reaction from our guests, the reaction from the travel press, a reaction from colleagues that I’d worked with over the years that then really gave that force that we can do that and we should do more. And so honestly, I was thinking of after working for so many years, particularly in New York and London, I was thinking of sort of quietening down a little bit and having more of a life and that didn’t materialize at all.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s interesting, and hospitality is, there’s so much opportunity out there. It really is an industry of opportunity where you have the chance to, because the skills are so transferrable to be able to say, hey, you know, I’m a GM here, but this GM opening just happened across the street or across the country, and being able to kind of plug and play. So our industry hospitality, one of the reasons I love it so much is because of those opportunities. So whether it’s a position or what you found yourself in, which is buying properties, managing properties, and saying, you know, we wanna continue to do this because of the sentiment that guests are telling us because of the reaction that we’re seeing. We know and understand we’re doing something right. I’m curious because it does, we’ve talked about this, and this is not a knock on independent hotels, but it is a very special individual and management company to take on an independent, a portfolio of independent hotels. I think that it’s sometimes a challenge, but it’s also one of the most rewarding spaces to be in as independent and lifestyle hotels. Obviously you have a ton of experience in that you’ve shared, but when you created founded Salt Hotels, you really could have gone any direction, right? You could have gone branded, you could have gone. What kept you in that lane of independent hotels?

David Bowd:
I think, yeah, having spent some really, the word excitement is, you know, is in hotels every day is different. And I think that that really applies to all types of hotels, whether they’re branded or whether they’re independent, but independent hotels, lifestyle hotels, just have a sense of excitement that really I don’t think I’ve seen in other types of hotels. And coupled with then for us and everywhere I’ve worked has been a sense of community. And you can, you know, branded hotels often, and I’m not knocking them because I really do believe there’s a great place for them. And, but you know, they have to work off brand standards and they have to, you know, they’re almost always cookie cut, whereas independent hotels can really flex to the location and the neighborhoods that they’re in, and that makes them, you know, our collection for sure. And so many of our competitors than my colleagues, all of their hotels are very, very different. And you are absolutely right that it makes it, I think it makes it much tougher, but it does make it more exciting. It does make it, to me, it makes it more fun. That challenge is one that we all rise to, I think.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I think also it makes for unique experiences, authentic experiences, which at this day and age is going to be something that is prioritized by travelers. We have seen it over the last decade of personalization and just the rise of obviously digital marketing and social media. People want unique experiences, and there is a different type of community and loyalty, obviously, that comes with brands, but a fierce loyalty that comes with independent hotels because you feel like this is a one of a kind property and a one of a kind experience. I’m not gonna get this anywhere else. And we’re gonna talk about some of those, maybe one of a kind experiences and properties here in a second with your portfolio. But I wanna to take our Suite Spot listeners, if they haven’t visited yet, check out Salt hotels.com. It’s a beautiful, very innovative site, but one of the first things that you see that pops up when you visit is the phrase with us, it’s personal. And with founding a management company, there’s so much intentionality from the name branding slogans and phrases and your culture. Why pick that for that to be the first thing? What does that mean to you? And the intentionality behind? With us, it’s personal.

David Bowd:
When we founded Salt, we set out to really ensure that how we live at home, how what’s really important to us was conveyed into our hotels. And we hired, had a new head of marketing, and we said we want the first three months to just look at our company and tell us what you really think of our company. And through the three months, she came back and she said, you know with Salt hotels, it’s truly personal. And that’s how it’s, and that was really the, that’s why that, with us, it’s personal is on the website, but what it means is, you know, when we design a hotel, we think of how do people shower, how do people sleep? What do people do when they get into bed? What are people looking at when they get into bed? You know, and it, so it comes to where are the plug sockets when you go into the shower, turning on the shower is, you don’t wanna get your hand wet with a freezing cold or a boiling hot shower stream, put the, you know, put, and that happens in so many hotels. Put the plumbing on the other side, don’t go, yeah. I’ve stayed in so many hotels where I can’t understand the light switches and, you know, make it simple. Think about things from a guest point of view. You don’t, in your own home, you understand how things work. So make it that way from a guest point of view, when you have people coming into your house and they arrive, you’ve got guests coming for the weekend and they arrive at noon, you don’t say to them, oh, check in time is at three o’clock. And for me, that is the singular most annoying thing about arriving in a hotel, any hotel across the world, when that front desk agent looks at their watch and says, oh, check-in time is at three o’clock, it is the worst welcome you could ever have in a hotel. And we all know that there are probably rooms ready. We all know that there could be rooms ready. And so, for that example, we got rid of check-in times we said, there is no, there are no check-in times in our hotel. And so what we do is we have, like, you have a restaurant expediter on the line, we have a housekeeping expeditor, and we work really hard with our teams to find out as many arrival times for as many guests as we possibly can. And then we work backwards and say, okay, these are all the guests arriving today. These are all their arrival times, these are all their room types. Let’s juggle these and try and get everybody into their rooms as soon as we possibly can. Now, we don’t succeed it all the time, but we manage it probably 90% of the time. And what a nice way to start your vacation or your business trip where you can just go and throw your luggage, or you can go and have a shower. You can change into your leisure clothes or your business clothes. It just makes the start of things so much nicer. And really that’s what we wanted Salt Hotels to be an extension of home, an extension of guests in our own home. And, you know, from an ownership point of view, for the partners that we work with, we wanted, we didn’t want layers and layers and layers where an owner of a hotel dealing with us as the management company would have to deal with lots of different people. We wanted them to have direct access to us and to be able to have a collaborative approach to things and a transparent approach to the way we do business. And that’s, you know, I think it’s, it’s, we’re still going to 10 years later, and I think it’s been, it’s been part of our success.

Ryan Embree:
It’s brilliant, David. And I’ll say right off the top, I wish I was working at some of your hotels when I was at the front desk. I probably get a lot less of those mean looks. And, but sometimes that’s all it is, is that they just want a place to put their bags and have a shower. And you’re absolutely right. Great parallels. I mean, at the end of the day, we are hosting our guests every single evening and to be able to say, hey, come to our home. Come to our, come to your accommodations at whatever time, and we’ll try our best to accommodate you. Sometimes even the effort in doing that goes a long way with our guests. And you just put that with everything that you were talking about, I think is a brilliant way to run a business. And goes a long way in hospitality right now where, you know, we’re trying to get more automated in every aspect of our business and more efficient. But sometimes that personalization, it’s still a trend that we’re hearing every single day. And what people still talk about when you look at guest reviews and feedback, what are they talking, they’re talking about those moments of personalization, the moments that people were able to get them into a room earlier than they anticipated, didn’t think that they’d be able to get into their room at that time. Those are the truly special moments in hospitality. Another one of those is f and b, right? Which plays a major role, obviously in your portfolio. David, talk to our independent hoteliers out there about how a unique curated food and beverage experience can really be a differentiator for your independent hotel, maybe going against those, that local competition.

David Bowd:
It really is. I look at food and beverage as an enhancement to the neighborhood and to the hotel, and I, so when we start a project, we really spend a huge amount of time thinking about what that concept, what that food and beverage offering is going to be. And for example, you know, we always try and have sort of a cafe coffee shop type of operation within our hotels, but in certain locations, there’s one down the street or there’s one next door. And if that’s the case and it’s good, then we are not going to do one because we don’t wanna be in competition with our neighbors. We want to be, you know, we want to enhance the neighborhood. We want our hotel’s arrival to make everybody more successful because, you know, hopefully then the whole neighborhood will, you know, as a colleague of mine used to say, you know, rising tide to raise all ships. And so that’s how we look at all of our offerings. When we were doing the Abna in Litchfield, Connecticut recently, you know, we looked at all of the restaurants, we’re on a street with 20 different restaurants, we looked at all the different types of cuisines that they had. We hired our chefs and we said, right, okay, let’s look at everything that everybody else has, and let’s do a completely different menu. Let’s do, you know, if we’re doing a burger, which we do a burger, let’s do the best burger that’s in town, and let’s make it so it doesn’t feel like a hotel restaurant. I think so often restaurants in hotels are put in because they have to be put in, whereas it, there’s no need to do that. There’s some incredible food and beverage consultants that have worked in our industry and in the independent sector for many, many years. And I’ve worked with many of them, and I’m fortunate that I’ve, that I’m able to, to be able to do that internally. But I think that there’s a lot, my recommendation is always hire a consultant and bring in people from the outside that can really help you create something that doesn’t exist in your neighborhood. And that’s going to enhance not only the hotel, but then the local neighborhood. And then only the other side of it is buying local is so important. And it’s, again, using the Abner as, as an example, is we are surrounded by literally hundreds of farms. And so we had, and it was probably the best two weeks I’ve had in my job for a few years of going around all of these farms and looking at them, understanding what their specialties are, and then how can we incorporate those into our menus. And then there’s a great story to tell your guests and they love it too.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. That’s what I was going to really preach to our listeners and independent hotel and hotels in general. I mean, if you have a story like that, that you are sourcing locally, that might be something that a decade, two decades ago, really, you’d keep it back of house. You wouldn’t share that. You’d say, Hey, listen, this is just a sourcing track for us. Like, but now guests wanna be a part of that, right? They want to hear that you are involved in a local community. They want to know that this is locally sourced. Sustainability is a huge hospitality trend that’s going on and locally sourced, food and beverage is a big part of that, and your guests care about it, but you need to make sure if you’re doing it. It has to be told out there. It has to be a story, whether that’s on social media, whether that’s your staff, whether it’s on your physical menus that you’re sharing it, that story needs to be told so your guests can feel a part of it. And that all really stems back to that community, and that community feeling that you were talking about at the top of the episode. David, you know, one of the things that I’m really excited about, this topic, because this is one of the most innovative things I’ve seen in hospitality recently, is the Salt School. First of all, tell our audience what is the Salt School? Talk to us a little bit about its origin and ultimately its mission.

David Bowd:
So Salt School was founded in 2016, and it started because we were opening a hotel in an area that had not had a new hotel opening for 50 years. And somebody in the opening process, somebody said to me, probably a year or so out, somebody said, you’re going to really struggle hiring staff in this neighborhood, and you’re not going to get good staff. And for anybody that knows me, if you tell me I’m not going to do something, then that is, that truly means that I’m going to do it. So later that same day we were talking about in a different meeting, we were talking about what makes a community and how our hotel can really fit into the community. And we talked about how school makes a community. And that night I was sitting probably having a cocktail and thinking about the two conversations we’d had that day. And they sort of formed in my head of, well, let’s do, let’s do a hospitality school. And I didn’t finish, as I said before, I didn’t finish high school. I spent probably the first half of my career being very quiet about that. You know, I had become quite successful, but I didn’t have any formal exams. Most of my colleagues, certainly when I was a general manager in London, and all of my colleagues were older than I was, and I think they’d all been through university, and I hadn’t. And I felt quite intimidated by that. But I realized, particularly when I moved to America and, and I think America is a fantastic country for allowing people to have their dreams and to realize their dreams. I realized that, you know, anybody I had been able to, without a formal education, been able to run some of the best hotels in the world. So it’s all really about attitude. And if we can train, if we can train the fundamentals of the skills required in hotels, if we can give people that introduction into hospitality, then people might get the bug. They might like it, they might enjoy it. We welcome people into our industry. We all know how difficult it is to get talent into our industry. Then, you know, even if we get five people that come to us through the school, it’s, in my opinion, it had been successful. So we launched our first school, it was in Asbury Park, New Jersey. We had no idea what it was going to to be. We ended up having 400 applications, and we found the biggest space that we could possibly fit, which was to take 160 people. And we had, again, I didn’t want it to be, you know, one of the things that I was very adamant about with school is that I didn’t want it to be based on experience or qualifications. I wanted you to answer one question that, which was, why do you want to do this? And just to hear people’s reasoning, just to hear why people wanted to do this and if they really wanted to do it. And we had, so we started the school, it was over 10 weeks, Saturdays all day Saturday for 10 week for a 10 week period. And each week, each Saturday, we covered a different aspect, hospitality. So it was one day, it was front desk and housekeeping. The next week it was accounting and sales. And on each week was different. I invited and invited was, I badged all of my friends in the industry and said, look, I can’t afford to pay you to come and teach at this school, but I’ll pay your travel expenses and I think you’ll get a lot from this experience. And everybody said yes. Everybody came and did it. And everybody was phenomenal and got so much from it. And we hired probably 80% of the school, almost all of them are still employed, zero turnover. And so many of them have had 2, 3, 4 promotions since we did that school. And it just opened the doors to hospitality. And I realized that there’s a lot of people that don’t know really what our bus, what our industry is about, and they don’t think they can do it. Whereas we know from the inside that one of our company, internal company slogans, and it sits on above my desk, is higher the attitude and train the skill because I can’t train anybody to smile, but I can train anybody to check somebody in. I can train anybody to make a bed. And that’s what the school was really about, is showing you the fundamentals. And if you have the right attitude, then we can, you can go as far as you like. And some of them really have, and some of them are senior managers within our organization now, which, and are very involved in the future salt schools. And so we do all of our new openings have Salt Schools. If we have a season seasonal properties, then we do salt schools for those over COVID we did online, which was really challenging, but we were still able to do that. And yeah, we’re planning our next Salt School, which will, which will be, Spring of next year.

Ryan Embree:
Alright, fantastic. Well, it’s so cool, and I mean, brilliant, but you know, David, sure. It’s incredibly rewarding to see some of those students still within the organization to see them thrive and then also to look to you as this ambassador, right, of this is what you can achieve, you know, if through a career and hospitality, I mean, so many hospitality leaders I have on this podcast started at that entry level job. There’s very rarely you hear about a GM that said, yeah, I started as a GM in hospitality. A lot of them start at entry level jobs, different departments, and make their way. It’s a beautiful kind of river of a career to where people get to in hospitality. So for you to provide this channel, this entry point and get exposure, because a lot of the time, I think that’s where hospitality just doesn’t, there are some, this is a 365 day job. You’re constantly stressed. You’re con like, there’s all these myths I think out there about hospitality and the career in hospitality. And then you hear stories about people getting into it via summer job, via their family, and all of a sudden it’s a 30, 40 year career down the line, and it’s one of the most rewarding places and careers to have. So. Very cool. You know, I want you to share some advice maybe to some young hospitality professionals out there. Obviously there is ton of opportunity, there’s a little bit of a shortage right now in our industry, but for young hospitality professionals, what would be your pitch to them about the value of working and gaining experience at an independent hotel, maybe versus a different track?

David Bowd:
I think it’s the future. I think that, you know, the evidence of that right now is that all of the major hotel brands are out there looking for independent boutique lifestyle hotels to join their collections. And I think that this is definitely the way forward. I mean, it used to be used to represent when I started 3% of the industry, and it now represents still only 10%. But that’s a significant growth. And I think it’s going to, you know, that’s going to double, double and triple in in the years to come. I think it’s the most fun sector in our industry. I think, you know, you’re gonna meet the best friends of your life. I look at my friend group and most of them are either hoteliers, suppliers, clients, the group of people that you meet are the best group of people that you’re ever going to meet in your entire life. And, you know, no two days really are ever the same. And I think it’s a little bit, like you were saying earlier on as well is right, you have to, it, it’s a little bit, it’s a little bit more risky. You have to work a little bit harder. But because of that, I think you generally work with a more creative group of people. You are, you know, , you are working with more entrepreneurs and see, and that opens your mind and allows you to do things in a different way. And you can always choose to go down a more branded route if you want to later on. But having that experience within this sector, I think really opens you up to much more from a career point of view,

Ryan Embree:
Makes you, I would also say it makes you a lot more flexible sometimes, you know, when we talk about employees within a brand track, they’ve got this way of thinking about doing things. And like you said, with the independent hotel, you have to be on your feet. You know, sometimes there’s not a SOP for how to do something like there is on the brand side, right? So it’s, it’s exactly what you said, creativity, flexibility, which are all great skills that will lead you in your career, in hospitality no matter where you are. So let’s turn to some rapid fire. We’re gonna get to know you in the Salt Hotel’s portfolio a little bit better. David. So favorite view at one of your properties.

David Bowd:
Favorite view would be the rooftop of Hotel Graystone in Miami, which has the ocean on one side and Collin’s Avenue running right in front of it. So you’ve got the bustling side of Collins Avenue, and then you have the serenity of the beach.

Ryan Embree:
Favorite fun fact about one of your properties,

David Bowd:
I think it has to be the Abner because it was the old courthouse 200, 200 years, 150 years. And so there’s so many stories within that, but you know, everything about that building is built as a courtroom. So you walk in there and it’s like you’re staying in an old courthouse. So that one really is just such a wonderful historic building.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I love to hear those about repurpose historic buildings sometimes. And, you know, sometimes it needs to be pointed out by the staff or employees on there, you read about it or something to see because it’s, you know, we had another one that talked about how it was built between two buildings and they kind of made the archway there, and you were walking through an alleyway as you were walking through a property. So an old courtroom that’s the first time I’ve heard, that unique kind of repurposing favorite signature dish at one of your properties, David.

David Bowd:
God, that’s a really tough one.

Ryan Embree:
It’s usually one of the tougher ones.

David Bowd:
I’m very much split between, we have an incredible smash burger in Connecticut, but we have probably, I’m a huge salmon fan, and we have a phenomenal Russia called Seban in Miami, and our chef, PTI created this dish with a king salmon, and it is just the best salmon I’ve ever tasted in my life. And the trouble is everywhere else I go and order salmon. And I did it recently. It’s just pretty average after you’ve had that.

Ryan Embree:
It ruined salmon in a good way. Exactly. In a good way. Right. So what about favorite guest experience or most unique guest experience at one of your properties?

David Bowd:
I think probably Salthouse in Provincetown as our first property is we truly, you know, we’ve known our guests for a very, very long time in that property. And we have guests that come back year in, year out from the day that we opened. And we had unfortunately, we literally just opened the doors and we had one guest who went out for dinner and she injured, she fell down the steps of a local restaurant and broke her leg on day one of her stay. And the team just got together and said, okay, our mission is to make her have the best vacation that she could have, even if she was able to walk for the time. And they took her everywhere. They had the best time with her. And she comes back for two weeks, every year and still raves about that time 15 years ago, or 12, 13 years ago, where she had the worst experience followed by just this really special memory. And I think that goes to say again of how you can turn these experiences from the worst into the best round with just a team. They didn’t spend a huge amount of money. They just spent time and care.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Well, who would’ve known that? That was a obviously unforgettable experience, but in kind of a different way than you would think when you get injured, you know, on vacation. So a great example there of personalization and care. Last one, favorite piece of art at one of your properties?

David Bowd:
We partnered with, in Nantucket, we partnered with a local photographer and she did scenes of Nantucket, Michael Gallard. And he did these incredible scenes of all over Nantucket, both summer and winter. So you have these sort of gray foggy scenes as well as beautiful bright summer scenes. And then he came and hung them, and that was a big learn for us as well, rather than have our design team hang them, he hung them and and he hung them in the places with the light and the fight that he wanted. And it just changed everything about this art, if you just got the light exactly how he intended it to be. And they’re spectacular. And every time I go into the brand and I look at them, I mean, always, always in awe of them. And you sort of lose yourself in these pieces of art every time you look at them.

Ryan Embree:
Well, that’s so cool because, you know, we hear all the time, right, the adage of we partnered with these local artists, and that’s a way to incorporate into the community, but to take it a step further and have them actually hang the art themselves and really give that perspective, I think this is a really unique way of incorporating that community into your property. I wanna shift gears to, you know, what this series is all about, David, the Independent Hotel Show, as a reminder to our listeners, September 17th and 18th, down at the Miami Beach Convention Center Sweet Spot, listeners can use promo code EMRE 25. That’s my last name, E-M-B-R-E-E 25 for a complimentary registration. David, you recently joined the advisory board. Congratulations. What really inspired you to get involved with this event and how do you see it supporting independent hoteliers and what would be your pitch to them to come join us down in Miami Beach?

David Bowd:
It’s I have, I was honored to be asked and to join the advisory board. I think it’s a phenomenal show. I was fortunate enough a few years ago to be part of the London show. And what said at that time, this was a good few years ago, we should definitely have one of these in America. And I was really delighted when it came, and even more so when it came to Miami. It’s the right place for it for sure. I think when you meet great people. There’s great EXI exhibitors there, but I think for me, the biggest pitch would be some of the sessions that are happening that as independent hoteliers, we just, you know, you just, you don’t get the chance to hear a lot of professionals talking and or peers talking about certain things in the industry. And when I look at the itinerary for the show, and you’ve got sections on, you know, maximizing bookings and local search engine optimizations and things like that, which we can all learn from, right? You’ve got experts talking on that thing, and these areas change so rapidly every year there’s something new. So as an independent hotelier, those are the sorts of things that I sit in on and write copious notes so I can bring them back to the team and then drive everybody insane and say, have we looked at this and have we done this? And you know, I noticed this year there’s also a move on the AI side of things. And I think that in our industry, that is something that’s going to become more and more prevalent. And as again, we don’t get a lot of exposure to that. So we are getting, you know, we’ve got some great people going to be talking about how we keep things personal, but we bring AI into the business. And so I look at it as a social opportunity and a learning opportunity. And I think where else also to go in September, the Miami.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, that, well with some of the creative people that you were talking about in the independent hotel space. And, you know, for better or worse, again, independent hotel and hoteliers have these unique challenges that all independent hotels sometimes struggle with. So to be able to have, you know, like you said, thought leaders there, to hear from your peers about how they’re combating maybe some of these challenges that they have best tips and practices that you can then incorporate into your independent hotel, or even some of the vendors. There is a great way to hopefully give you a competitive advantage and for your property. So David, I hope, uh, our sweet spot listeners will join myself as well as you down in Miami, down in September. As we wrap up today, appreciate the time you took with us, David, talk to us about, we always like to look towards the future at the end of these. What exciting developments, pipeline do you have and what’s your vision for the future of Salt Hotels?

David Bowd:
Yeah, we’ve got a very exciting future. I’m very pleased to say we’ve had sort of a few years of working on some incredible projects, more behind the scenes. And now we’re getting ready to launch those. Next year we’ll be launching an incredible project in Minneapolis, which we’ve been working on for a few years. And so I’m very, very excited to launch that with a large hotel, 125 bedrooms and local food and beverage. It’s part new build and part historic renovation. So it’s gonna be a really interesting project and a fan, fantastic designer outta Shanghai which is that first, this is their first US project. So I think that’s gonna be bringing something really interesting to the neighborhood. We’ve got another project in Florida, a little north Florida, which is sort of where everything’s happening right now, which is great. So that’s under construction, at the moment, and then another Northeast property. So we are just starting on that which will open, I think, in mid 27. So, it’s very exciting, you know, and I think that for us, we’re, we’re still looking at a couple of other opportunities, but along the same lines as what we’ve got, you know, for us it’s, they’ve got to, you know, fit into where we are at the moment and really what I guess are looking for in places that I guess go and stay. Because I think that’s really important.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, exciting developments, we’ll be sure to keep an eye on them. Obviously our hospitality professionals can keep an eye on those salt schools, which will probably be opening in conjunction with those projects. But congratulations to you on your team. We’re looking forward to see you in Miami in September. David, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot with me today.

David Bowd:
Thank you very much for having me. Great to chat.

Ryan Embree:
Thank you so much. And we’ll talk to you next time on The Sweet Spot To join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Barry Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.