Rescuing Hotels from the Brink with Jake Isaacs
When you’re facing failed QA inspections, bad guest reviews, and the threat of losing your franchise flag, there’s no time for slow fixes—you need a turnaround expert. Jake Isaacs has made a career out of stepping into these high-pressure situations and leading hotels back to health.
In this episode of The Room Key, Jake sits down with Chase Keller to discuss his remarkable journey: growing up across the U.S., launching his first business in high school, entering hospitality as a chief engineer, and quickly rising to general manager.
Jake walks us through a real-world turnaround story—how he revived a struggling SpringHill Suites in Dallas, passed critical QA inspections, rebuilt guest satisfaction scores, and did it all without big budgets. He shares insights on leadership, cross-training teams, removing “pain points” for guests, and why a $7 toilet flapper can be worth thousands in revenue.
Whether you’re a hotel owner, manager, or just love behind-the-scenes stories of operational success, this episode delivers practical takeaways and inspiring leadership lessons.
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) One of my very early mentors in the
Speaker:hospitality space told me, she told me one
Speaker:day, she's like, if you're not doing something
Speaker:every day to teach someone how to do
Speaker:something that you know how to do, then
Speaker:you've wasted your time.
Speaker:Thanks for coming in, drop your bags and
Speaker:welcome to the Today, I am exceptionally excited
Speaker:to have Jake Isaacs come on to the
Speaker:podcast.
Speaker:He's got some very interesting stories.
Speaker:Jake, when I first heard about what you've
Speaker:done in hospitality, the only thing in my
Speaker:mind is Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction.
Speaker:You're coming in with your tux and you
Speaker:are taking care of business.
Speaker:Taking care of business, exactly.
Speaker:But first off, I love origin stories.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Jake, where were you born?
Speaker:Where'd you grow up?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's kind of a funny story.
Speaker:By the time I turned 18, my parents
Speaker:had moved 12 times.
Speaker:And so I have lived all across the
Speaker:United States.
Speaker:It's been just a real blessing to be
Speaker:able to experience so much of this great
Speaker:country.
Speaker:So for the longest time, I told people
Speaker:that I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but
Speaker:that's actually a lie because my real birthplace
Speaker:was Nashua, New Hampshire, not even the same
Speaker:state.
Speaker:But I could spell Boston a lot easier
Speaker:than I could spell Nashua, New Hampshire.
Speaker:And so I just rolled with that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so like on all of my government
Speaker:forms, I have through 40 years of my
Speaker:life, put Boston, Massachusetts as my place of
Speaker:birth.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:As long as you're consistent.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm consistent.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So, you know, but I was born in
Speaker:born in Nashua, New Hampshire, and my family
Speaker:just moved around a lot.
Speaker:My dad was in sales and I joke
Speaker:that he was either really good at what
Speaker:he did or he sucked at it.
Speaker:But like every time we just kind of
Speaker:kept climbing the ladder and go in different
Speaker:places and he seemed to have more influence
Speaker:and more success everywhere he went.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did you have a favorite place?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that when I think about my
Speaker:childhood and like where I'm from, we spent
Speaker:my elementary school years here in Kansas City
Speaker:where we're recording this episode.
Speaker:And that is when I think about the
Speaker:most fond memories of my childhood.
Speaker:It all stems from Kansas City.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Who was Jake as a kid?
Speaker:I mean, my mom would probably disagree with
Speaker:what I'm about to say, but I think
Speaker:Jake as a kid, he was he was
Speaker:very driven.
Speaker:I have a brother who's 16 months younger
Speaker:than I am.
Speaker:And so I was a protector.
Speaker:He and I have been best friends our
Speaker:entire lives.
Speaker:We we had to be because we were
Speaker:like our own support network as we moved
Speaker:around the country to all of these different
Speaker:places.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So he was athletic.
Speaker:He was fun.
Speaker:He struggled in school and he he had
Speaker:a heart for protecting people.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So growing up, what was your first job?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So my first W-2 job was working
Speaker:for the Chicago Bears.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I joke that being a good kid in
Speaker:high school actually does pay off for people
Speaker:because unbeknownst to anyone in high school, the
Speaker:locker room attendant at my high school also
Speaker:moonlighted for the Chicago Bears.
Speaker:And one day he came up to me,
Speaker:he said, hey, I've been watching you for
Speaker:the last couple of years, which might sound
Speaker:creepy coming from the locker room attendant.
Speaker:A little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:But he's like, you seem to be a
Speaker:really good kid.
Speaker:You've got a good head on your shoulders.
Speaker:There is an opportunity with Chicago Bears.
Speaker:I would like to put your name up
Speaker:for an interview.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:And so he did that.
Speaker:And I went and I got the job.
Speaker:And so I worked for three seasons for
Speaker:the Chicago Bears.
Speaker:What age did you start?
Speaker:I started as a sophomore in high school.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I worked there my sophomore, junior and
Speaker:senior year of high school.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It was a blast.
Speaker:That's a good gig.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was a really good gig.
Speaker:Really good gig.
Speaker:The first entrepreneurial money-making scheme that I
Speaker:got myself into though, was my brother and
Speaker:I ran a paintball company.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:And so we leased some farmland.
Speaker:We were living in Chicago at the time
Speaker:because of the Chicago Bears, but we were
Speaker:in Chicago at the time.
Speaker:And so we leased some farmland on the
Speaker:Illinois, Wisconsin border.
Speaker:And we just charged our buddies to come
Speaker:play paintball with us for the day.
Speaker:So we'd hundred bucks to come play all
Speaker:you could play and eat.
Speaker:And you know, we'd walk away with a
Speaker:weekend, $4,000 in cash.
Speaker:And really?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:It was incredible.
Speaker:That's a lot of money.
Speaker:It's a ton of money.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Still in, while in high school.
Speaker:Still while in high school.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:How long did you have that?
Speaker:We did it for about four years.
Speaker:When I went away to college, my brother
Speaker:didn't do it on his own anymore.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But we started when I was a freshman.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:I had no idea.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or were you good?
Speaker:At paintball?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Terrible.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Terrible.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:But I was extremely good at like collecting
Speaker:money and telling people that they should come
Speaker:play with us.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:The important part.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I was good at solving problems.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So how, we'll get into how that led
Speaker:to where you are today, but where did
Speaker:you go after that?
Speaker:Did you go to college?
Speaker:I did go to college.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I went to a small Native American college
Speaker:in Lawrence, Kansas.
Speaker:It's called Haskell Indian Nations University.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it's partially funded by the Bureau of
Speaker:Indian Affairs.
Speaker:And so that's where I went to college.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Major?
Speaker:Business administration.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Makes sense.
Speaker:With a minor in speech communication.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:So where did you, where did you go
Speaker:from there?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So my, I disappointed my parents.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:I went, I went for my freshman, junior
Speaker:or freshman, sophomore and junior year of college.
Speaker:And then I dropped out for five years.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so I ended up going back and
Speaker:finishing, but it took me about 10 years
Speaker:to finish my college education because I, I
Speaker:dropped out to pursue success in a multi
Speaker:-level marketing business.
Speaker:I was on fire for, and the best
Speaker:practical business school I could have gone to.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Did it work?
Speaker:Did you learn?
Speaker:A ton.
Speaker:Did you make a little bit of money?
Speaker:A little bit of money.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And just a ton of life lessons.
Speaker:And if you got back to college to
Speaker:finish it up, that's, that's absolutely a success
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:So what, obviously getting into the hospitality, when
Speaker:was your first venture into the hospitality world?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So after I had dropped out of college,
Speaker:I'd moved back to Kansas city.
Speaker:I'd gotten married.
Speaker:We were married for about seven years.
Speaker:And then we got divorced and in the
Speaker:process of me, like recovering from the divorce
Speaker:and trying to find myself, I moved to
Speaker:Dallas to be closer to my brother and
Speaker:just to start life over again.
Speaker:We had so many like friends and memories
Speaker:here in Kansas city.
Speaker:I just didn't feel like I could continue
Speaker:to live here as I was trying to
Speaker:heal myself and find myself after the divorce.
Speaker:And when I got to Dallas, my buddy
Speaker:introduced me to a friend of his and
Speaker:that friend happened to be a regional vice
Speaker:president for a hospitality company that was based
Speaker:out of Dallas.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And he knew a little bit about my
Speaker:background.
Speaker:And part of my story is that I
Speaker:used to run a home handyman company.
Speaker:And so he's like, Hey, I've got a
Speaker:couple of Marriott properties that doesn't have a
Speaker:chief engineer.
Speaker:And so you don't have a job.
Speaker:Why don't you go screw in light bulbs
Speaker:and plunge toilets for me until you figure
Speaker:out what you want to do with your
Speaker:life.
Speaker:And it was just mutually beneficial for both
Speaker:of us.
Speaker:And what I wasn't expecting to do chase
Speaker:was just fall in love with it.
Speaker:Like every time I walked by the front
Speaker:desk, I would ask someone to teach me
Speaker:something new about the computer system.
Speaker:And, and I just absolutely fell in love
Speaker:with hospitality.
Speaker:And within six months of that first chief
Speaker:engineer job, I was promoted to an assistant
Speaker:general manager job at one of the hotels.
Speaker:I was chief engineer one AGM of the
Speaker:other.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And then within a year, they made me
Speaker:GM of my own hotel.
Speaker:And from there, it was kind of off
Speaker:to the races.
Speaker:This is still in Dallas, still in the
Speaker:Dallas area.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:What, what, what level of class all select
Speaker:service?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So primarily Hilton and Marriott at the time
Speaker:when I first got started, I was working
Speaker:for Marriott properties and in the Marriott world,
Speaker:they called them seafirst.
Speaker:So it was courtyard Fairfield, Spring Hill town
Speaker:place.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So kind of all seafirst hotels for Marriott.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so you got your first GM role.
Speaker:Give us, how was that experience?
Speaker:How long did you do that role in
Speaker:that hotel?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was the general manager of that first
Speaker:hotel.
Speaker:It was a Spring Hill suites.
Speaker:And I was a general manager there for
Speaker:three years before the ownership group that owned
Speaker:that hotel ended up selling it selling off.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And when they, and when they sold the
Speaker:hotel, they retained me, or I'm sorry, they
Speaker:retained my staff, but they didn't, they brought
Speaker:in their own management team.
Speaker:And so my management company sent me somewhere
Speaker:else.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you, you were out of a job
Speaker:there, but the same company sent you to
Speaker:a different hotel.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Still in the Dallas area, still in the
Speaker:Dallas area.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:What was that transition?
Speaker:Like, is it easy?
Speaker:I mean, cause you are used to being
Speaker:uprooted and moved all over the place.
Speaker:So was it an easy transition where you,
Speaker:you know, putting down some roots in that
Speaker:hotel anyway, and was it difficult?
Speaker:How was that experience?
Speaker:Yeah, it was really difficult because we had,
Speaker:we had taken that hotel from it was
Speaker:in the bottom five, not bottom 5%.
Speaker:It was in the bottom five of all
Speaker:Spring Hill suites within the Marriott system.
Speaker:It was a very underperforming hotel with a
Speaker:lot of challenges.
Speaker:And we were able to turn that hotel
Speaker:around over the course of a year and
Speaker:a half, which led to the ownership group
Speaker:being able to sell it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think when I left, we were in
Speaker:the top 50 hotel, 50 for the brand.
Speaker:And so our, our GSS scores, our guest
Speaker:satisfaction scores were, you know, constantly in the
Speaker:green.
Speaker:And we really turned that around, but through
Speaker:that fire of turning the hotel around, we,
Speaker:I developed a lot of really great relationships
Speaker:with people that I'm still actually friends with
Speaker:today.
Speaker:That's fantastic.
Speaker:And so when I left and they stayed,
Speaker:it was a little bittersweet.
Speaker:Oh, I'm sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:What was the process like?
Speaker:So obviously they, they sent you in, they
Speaker:said, we need a Winston Wolfe, pull the
Speaker:guns out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Take care of business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What, what needed to be turned around?
Speaker:What was wrong to start out with and
Speaker:what needed to be fixed?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Just the lack of attention around customer service
Speaker:was really our, our downfall.
Speaker:The hotel had been managed as a profit
Speaker:center for the ownership and the management company
Speaker:and not necessarily as a hotel that they
Speaker:cared about the guest service scores.
Speaker:And so as a result, there was underspending
Speaker:in the maintenance and upkeep of the hotel.
Speaker:There were just a lot of things that
Speaker:were allowed to slip.
Speaker:And because of that, over time it compounded
Speaker:and it just was a really dump.
Speaker:It was an interesting hotel.
Speaker:So was this one that was within, did
Speaker:they buy the hotel and it was in
Speaker:that bad position or it was already in
Speaker:their portfolio?
Speaker:It had been in their portfolio, just not
Speaker:being run well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was in the portfolio and not being
Speaker:run well.
Speaker:When my management company that I was working
Speaker:for at the time took over management of
Speaker:those hotels, it was inside of that portfolio
Speaker:that they took over.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so they took over the portfolio so
Speaker:they weren't mismanaging it themselves.
Speaker:They had pulled it into the portfolio and
Speaker:obviously needed to turn it around.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:As far as the relationship with the brand
Speaker:themselves, obviously they don't like when the reviews
Speaker:are bad, when customers aren't happy, when the
Speaker:property's in bad shape.
Speaker:What were they requiring?
Speaker:Were they looking at pulling the flag?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When I took over as general manager of
Speaker:that hotel, we were three quarters of failed
Speaker:QAs.
Speaker:And so Marriott would have pulled the flag
Speaker:if we would have failed the fourth quarter.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That was really close.
Speaker:It was really close.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, when I took over, I had
Speaker:a 90 day mandate to, and the 90
Speaker:day mandate was to pass the QA.
Speaker:It wasn't to improve guest hotel scores.
Speaker:It wasn't, you know, the rest of that
Speaker:stuff kind of happened over the course of
Speaker:time.
Speaker:But yeah, it was to get the hotel
Speaker:to pass the QA score and get off
Speaker:of the radar of getting the flag pulled.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And those reviews, the customer, a lot of
Speaker:that kind of depends on the quality and
Speaker:the condition, of course.
Speaker:So naturally that will start to improve.
Speaker:Did you have to replace a lot of
Speaker:the staff?
Speaker:Did you keep a lot of them in
Speaker:place and just changed systems?
Speaker:So how did you start to work through
Speaker:that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Really what needed to happen is it was
Speaker:a couple of key positions that I needed
Speaker:to hire for.
Speaker:I retained most of the front desk staff
Speaker:because they were actually really great.
Speaker:I hired a new executive housekeeper that had
Speaker:an alignment with my vision.
Speaker:And then I hired a breakfast person.
Speaker:And in those C-first hotels, you know,
Speaker:breakfast is included.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's a big selling point for those types
Speaker:of brands.
Speaker:And so I needed a really dynamic person
Speaker:that would be in breakfast that understood maintaining
Speaker:standards, but really was like the face of
Speaker:the hotel.
Speaker:I found this just amazing guy.
Speaker:He's still one of my best friends.
Speaker:He actually, when I got married the second
Speaker:time, he was, he got ordained in order
Speaker:to perform that service.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Those relationships and you're in the middle of
Speaker:fire together.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And that is either going to completely push
Speaker:you apart because you don't believe in the
Speaker:same mission or bring you together because you're
Speaker:working for the same thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's exactly what happened to us.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker:What are some key things that really helped
Speaker:you turn it around?
Speaker:Was it just throwing CapEx into the property
Speaker:or was it obviously hiring these couple key
Speaker:roles, but how much capital needed to go
Speaker:in to get it into a better QA
Speaker:position?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Good question.
Speaker:Because there was so much volatility around whether
Speaker:it was going to be able to remain
Speaker:a Marriott property or not, the ownership group
Speaker:actually wouldn't invest any money.
Speaker:And so they understood that there was going
Speaker:to be a need of investment into the
Speaker:hotel in the future.
Speaker:But it was like, you got to prove
Speaker:to us that you're not going to lose
Speaker:the Marriott name in order for us to
Speaker:invest real money into the hotel.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:And so it was just doing a lot
Speaker:with a little.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was very little.
Speaker:If you can't, if it's in a bad
Speaker:QA position without any money.
Speaker:So it was one of the hotels that
Speaker:I started as a chief engineer.
Speaker:And this is just kind of some of
Speaker:the thought process from the management team that
Speaker:I took it over from.
Speaker:I had a room that was out of
Speaker:order.
Speaker:This was in Dallas in the market.
Speaker:That's right down the street from Rangers Stadium,
Speaker:right across the street from a Six Flags
Speaker:water park next to the Cowboys Stadium.
Speaker:It's a high volume area all year round.
Speaker:And we had a guest room that was
Speaker:out of order for 31 days because the
Speaker:toilet was running and he wouldn't approve me
Speaker:going and buying a new flapper for the
Speaker:toilet.
Speaker:And so this is early 2010s and we're
Speaker:selling guest rooms at $119 a night during
Speaker:the summer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so for a $7 toilet flapper, we
Speaker:lost out on 30 days worth of revenue
Speaker:on that room.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so that was just the thought process
Speaker:around spending money because it was going to
Speaker:put us over budget.
Speaker:We couldn't spend the money and it was
Speaker:like we were cutting our nose off despite
Speaker:our face.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And there was a lot of stories like
Speaker:that that just was real frustrating too.
Speaker:When I took over, I was like, I'll
Speaker:take the heat if we're over budget by
Speaker:seven bucks for the toilet flapper.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But no one's going to complain because when
Speaker:the star report came out at the end
Speaker:of the week and our OC and our
Speaker:revenue was up, it'd be fine.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's a very short sighted mindset to
Speaker:be worried about a few dollars, but knowing
Speaker:that a few dollars can mean a lot
Speaker:of dollars, you know, $3,000 in revenue
Speaker:for a $7.
Speaker:For a $7 part.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's just crazy.
Speaker:And that was while you were the engineer,
Speaker:but when you took over, you were like,
Speaker:we're not making those decisions.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Was that decision from the general manager or
Speaker:the ownership?
Speaker:Yeah, it was from the general manager.
Speaker:So that was.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, in, you know, I understand it
Speaker:once I got on his side of the
Speaker:desk because so much of his bonus structure
Speaker:was tied to those performance metrics.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so it probably would have adversely affected
Speaker:his money personally if he would have done
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But when you like zoom out and you're
Speaker:talking about a $3,000 potential revenue on
Speaker:a room for a $7 part, like it
Speaker:just doesn't make sense.
Speaker:The fact that he was even in that
Speaker:position to have to make that decision.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Is silly.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's that's just an example of a
Speaker:poor payment structure that is even considered that
Speaker:he's going to kill the revenue that much
Speaker:just for adding a little bit to his
Speaker:own pocket.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not necessarily his fault.
Speaker:I mean, that's the deal that they had
Speaker:written up for sure.
Speaker:He was he was doing what he could
Speaker:to make his own money.
Speaker:Obviously, it doesn't work for ownership for the
Speaker:property itself.
Speaker:So you were given not a lot.
Speaker:Not a lot.
Speaker:To be able to turn it around.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would imagine you were able to turn
Speaker:it around without putting a lot of capital
Speaker:in.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Past the QA.
Speaker:Past the QA.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:By a lot.
Speaker:By a little.
Speaker:By a little.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:But pass is a pass.
Speaker:A pass is a pass.
Speaker:Pass is a pass.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that got you to convince them to
Speaker:put some capex in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To put some capex in.
Speaker:And so immediately what they did, one of
Speaker:our concerns, because it was such a high
Speaker:volume area, you know, on a Saturday morning,
Speaker:the way that we were kind of tracking
Speaker:the usage of the hotel was by the
Speaker:number of plates that we would serve or
Speaker:like go through on a Saturday or Sunday
Speaker:morning.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:That was just like a real quick way.
Speaker:Like we went through 500 plates, which means,
Speaker:you know, that's how many because families would
Speaker:come in and it was a hundred and
Speaker:fifteen room hotel.
Speaker:But a family of six would come in
Speaker:and be in a two bedroom standard room
Speaker:and just destroy everything.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so, you know, when we had that
Speaker:much volume or traffic inside of our lobby
Speaker:area for breakfast, people couldn't eat like we
Speaker:would have lines down the hall on the
Speaker:first floor, people waiting to get scrambled eggs.
Speaker:And, you know, they're making noise, standing in
Speaker:line, talking to each other, disrupting the guests
Speaker:that are trying to sleep in the room.
Speaker:And it was just a really bad set
Speaker:up and really bad flow.
Speaker:And so one of the very first things
Speaker:that the ownership group did for me is
Speaker:they actually expanded my lobby.
Speaker:And so they came in and added a
Speaker:bunch of extra square footage to the lobby
Speaker:so we could get some more tables and
Speaker:really kind of alleviated some of our breakfast
Speaker:pain.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:Was that taking out rooms in order to
Speaker:do it or adding onto the property itself?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:We just we had some outdoor seating area.
Speaker:And so they just pushed out the enclosure
Speaker:to absorb some of that outdoor seating.
Speaker:And yeah, it worked out really well.
Speaker:Smart.
Speaker:Smart.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:So, you know, multiple problems at once.
Speaker:The other thing that I convinced them to
Speaker:do is to get rid of our hot
Speaker:tub.
Speaker:Why you would have a hot tub at
Speaker:a hotel these days is just crazy to
Speaker:me.
Speaker:They are so finicky in the maintenance and
Speaker:they're so dang expensive.
Speaker:And so the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Speaker:In fact, later on in my career, I
Speaker:made it my mission to every hotel that
Speaker:I was at to remove the hot tub
Speaker:just because they were such a pain in
Speaker:the ass and just a cesspool of germs.
Speaker:It was just nasty.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's got to be a certain level of
Speaker:risk there with hot tubs because they are.
Speaker:I used to have a hot tub and
Speaker:it was a pain in the rear end
Speaker:to just keep it up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Much, much more difficult than the pool.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so we had a hot tub that
Speaker:wouldn't function as a hot tub.
Speaker:So it was like a cold plunge pool
Speaker:before plunging got cool.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so I convinced the management group to
Speaker:get rid of the hot tub.
Speaker:And that immediately brought our guest service scores
Speaker:up because now there was nothing to complain
Speaker:about.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It was broken and they couldn't use it.
Speaker:There was something to complain about.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But if it didn't exist, there's nothing to
Speaker:complain about.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Like the story.
Speaker:I think Tony Robbins talks about he was
Speaker:on a plane.
Speaker:It was the first plane to ever have
Speaker:Wi-Fi and everybody was so excited.
Speaker:They got up in the air and the
Speaker:Wi-Fi stopped working and everybody was pissed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Couldn't believe how upset everybody was for a
Speaker:Wi-Fi that they probably didn't even know
Speaker:existed when they got on the plane.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I used to at a college, one of
Speaker:my first jobs was as a corporate meeting
Speaker:planner for a company that would travel around
Speaker:and put on seminars around like how to
Speaker:use Excel or different things like that.
Speaker:And we used to always put coffee in
Speaker:the back of the room when we negotiate
Speaker:meeting space.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And that consistently was the thing that always
Speaker:came up in the customer reviews was like,
Speaker:coffee was terrible.
Speaker:Coffee was too bitter.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So we just stopped putting in the coffee
Speaker:and automatically the customer service scores went up.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:If they want coffee, then they can be
Speaker:in charge of it or get Starbucks to
Speaker:bring it in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Makes sense.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:Then it's on them.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:They can't complain to you for something they
Speaker:screwed up on.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:What other, any other, anything that stands out
Speaker:as far as what you were able to
Speaker:do to start turning around that first property?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:My dad told my brother and I growing
Speaker:up, and I love this.
Speaker:It's probably the best piece of management advice
Speaker:chase that I've ever been given.
Speaker:It's that people don't respect what you expect.
Speaker:They respect what you inspect.
Speaker:And really where we saw the biggest change
Speaker:is because I had done the chief engineer
Speaker:job in the past myself, I wanted to
Speaker:make sure that like the person that took
Speaker:that mantle from me was upholding my standards.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so anytime I'd onboard a new engineer,
Speaker:we would do this, this training process where
Speaker:he would go in with some green painter's
Speaker:tape and he would walk through the room
Speaker:that he was going to PM that day
Speaker:and put green painter's tape around everything that
Speaker:he thought needed to be fixed.
Speaker:And then I would go in and do
Speaker:blue painter's tape around the things that I
Speaker:thought.
Speaker:And then we'd walk in the room together.
Speaker:And what happened over the course of time,
Speaker:when we do this together is like our
Speaker:visions in a room would match.
Speaker:And he was seeing the things that I
Speaker:knew that needed to be fixed.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:And so I took that same concept with
Speaker:the executive housekeeper that I hired.
Speaker:And she and I did the same process.
Speaker:Because the thing about clean, it's black and
Speaker:white.
Speaker:It's either clean or it's not clean.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:There's no sort of clean.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Especially in the hotel.
Speaker:Like if there's a hair, it is not
Speaker:clean.
Speaker:It is not clean.
Speaker:It doesn't matter.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so us just being able to walk
Speaker:through the rooms together, I spent a lot
Speaker:of time inspecting rooms.
Speaker:I was a very active GM.
Speaker:I was not around behind the desk very
Speaker:often.
Speaker:One, because I didn't have an office.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And so there was no desk for me.
Speaker:They actually had to take a guest room
Speaker:and they converted a guest room into the
Speaker:sales office and the general manager's office.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So when the hotel was at its peak,
Speaker:we had the director of sales, the sales
Speaker:coordinator, the AGM, myself, and the chief engineer,
Speaker:all officing out of the same guest suite
Speaker:that we converted.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Out of the same 300 square foot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Making us cozy together.
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:And so I didn't want to be there
Speaker:very often.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so I was out inspecting rooms, working
Speaker:with the housekeepers, making sure that clean was
Speaker:clean.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:How often are you, you're obviously, you're walking
Speaker:the property all the time.
Speaker:You're inspecting rooms, inspecting everything.
Speaker:How often are you needing to jump in
Speaker:and help either behind the desk, checking in
Speaker:or help clean a room, fixing, you know,
Speaker:obviously, you know, the maintenance, so fixing stuff
Speaker:yourself.
Speaker:My comfortability was always either at the front
Speaker:desk or with maintenance.
Speaker:If I had to push a cart and
Speaker:clean rooms, like I'm doing a quarter of
Speaker:the board that the usual, the girls are
Speaker:normally doing just because they're so dang fast
Speaker:and skilled and good at it.
Speaker:I think it would probably take me 15
Speaker:minutes just to put pillowcases on chase.
Speaker:And so, you know, that just killed our,
Speaker:our profitability, but I, you know, on days
Speaker:that you have to, you just have to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And that was the expectation for anyone in
Speaker:the hotel.
Speaker:You know, I didn't care what role you
Speaker:were.
Speaker:You cleaned a board when you first got
Speaker:started.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:How much cross training between positions did you
Speaker:have to do?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In, in those C first environments where you
Speaker:don't have a lot of like extra facilities
Speaker:inside of the hotel, it was my opinion
Speaker:that everyone needed to know how to do
Speaker:everything because the operations were fairly basic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so my front desk staff cross-trained
Speaker:with breakfast.
Speaker:So then you had to start breakfast.
Speaker:So we never had an issue with it
Speaker:not being out on time.
Speaker:My maintenance staff and my, my housekeeping staff
Speaker:cross-trained with each other.
Speaker:Our, our housekeepers knew how to, you know,
Speaker:touch up drywall and touch up paint and
Speaker:just do some of those real basic things
Speaker:that needed to happen.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And you've got a relatively small staff and
Speaker:stuff happens with the staff stuff happens with
Speaker:a lot of guests coming in problems happen.
Speaker:And sometimes you got to jump over cross
Speaker:lines and just help out, make sure the
Speaker:team is going in the right direction.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what this is all at one hotel,
Speaker:all at one hotel, they sold the property,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:You essentially lost your job there, but that
Speaker:same management took you to the next property.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Did they give you the nice, the best,
Speaker:you know, something that's already at the, you
Speaker:know, the top 30 of the properties across
Speaker:the country, or do they send Winston Wolf
Speaker:back in?
Speaker:Winston Wolf came back in.
Speaker:And this hotel wasn't necessarily like the second
Speaker:hotel, you know, in that first three years
Speaker:that I was managing that Spring Hill that
Speaker:we've been talking about, you know, the management
Speaker:company did a really good job of allowing
Speaker:me to go to other hotels inside of
Speaker:the portfolio to help out.
Speaker:And so I saw operations at bigger hotels
Speaker:at different tier hotels.
Speaker:And so I got some exposure with some
Speaker:really cool things.
Speaker:And I had an idea of kind of
Speaker:what I wanted for my next posting.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And I ended up going to a Hilton
Speaker:property and the management company managed it, but
Speaker:it was owned by a different group, right?
Speaker:Like we had a bunch of different ownership
Speaker:contracts.
Speaker:And so we didn't work for just one
Speaker:owner.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so this ownership group was more corporate.
Speaker:It was a bigger REIT and they were
Speaker:less interested about customer service and customer service
Speaker:scores and more interested in bottom line numbers.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And what I didn't know when I took
Speaker:over that hotel is there were some bills
Speaker:that they were 36 months behind on.
Speaker:And
