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Hospitality Net
6 days ago
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Providing more than a room: How Foster Supply Hospitality reimagines the hotel experience
In this week's episode of Hotel Moment, Sims Foster, co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality, joins Revinate CMO Karen Stephens for a lesson on brand building and why hoteliers should see their rooms as more than 'just four walls.' Sims also shows how one hotelier can do so much good in the local community — serving guests as well as those in need. Sims also discusses his operational framework, specifically in regards to how he and his team approach short-term rental competition to encourage guests to experience a hotel stay, rather than another accommodation that claims to offer all the same amenities. Tune in to discover the beauty of building a brand and how to creatively market to guests so they choose you over the competition. Meet your host As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen Stephens is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinate's brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. Karen is also the host of The Hotel Moment Podcast, where she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading Revinate's global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023. Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution — including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and Watch the video Transcript Sims Foster- 00:00:00: As much as you can brand your short-term rental and create this thing, and it feels good when you check in, it's still an empty house as far as human beings. Intro – 00:00:14: Welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast presented by Revinate, the podcast where we discuss how hotel technology shapes every moment of the hotelier's experience. Tune in as we explore the cutting-edge technology transforming the hospitality industry and hear from experts and visionaries shaping the future of guest experiences. Whether you're a hotelier or a tech enthusiast, you're in the right place. Let's dive in and discover how we can elevate the art of hospitality together. Karen Stephens – 00:00:42: Hello and welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast. I am your host, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate. And today we're excited to speak with Sims Foster, co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality, a hospitality brand focused on creating unique experience in the beautiful Catskills region. With a career spanning multiple roles in restaurant and hospitality industries, Sims has an extensive background in building lifestyle brands. His entrepreneurial journey has led him to launch Foster Supply alongside his wife, Kirsten, combining his love for the region with his vast industry expertise. So listeners, you're really in for a treat when you hear Sims today. So I think it's wonderful for me when I get to speak with people who have the heart and the love for what they do, and they give that back to the community. So I don't want to spoil the episode by going too deep on that, but I'll just say I think you can hear when Sims speaks how much he cares about the region he's from, the hotel experience he provides, the restaurant experience that they provide, and also how he gives back to the local community. So here you go. I give you Sims Foster. Sims Foster, welcome to the podcast. It's a pleasure to have you here. Sims Foster – 00:01:52: Karen, great to be here. Thanks for having me. Karen Stephens – 00:01:55: Absolutely. You know what? I had a great time doing a little research before we jumped on this call. So I'd love to just start with, just tell us a little bit about your company. What is Foster Supply Hospitality, and why did you choose the Catskills? Sims Foster – 00:02:08: Two very good questions. The second one is the easiest one. I chose the Catskills because it's home. I was born and raised in a small town called Livingston Manor. And my family has been here for over 100 years. So this was a moment of taking what I had hopefully learned in the larger world and bringing it home to the place that matters most to me and to my wife and co-founder, Kirsten. Even though she's not from the area herself, she loves it just as much, maybe even more sometimes than I do, which is saying a lot. So there's that. And then Foster Supply Hospitality is a group of small hotels and restaurants that we have been developing and operating. We own and operate and we've done seven of them. We currently have four. We did sell three of them recently, which is a good success. And then we've got several in development. So that's what we are. The reason, the why behind it was really trying to prove and fall back in love with hospitality on a small scale where you've got a 12-room or a 15-room or a 30-room hotel and really getting back to taking care of people and taking care of our guests, which after being an executive with some larger hotel management companies, which is a great different experience, this was a counterbalance to that, and doing it in a place where we thought we could really make a difference. Karen Stephens – 00:03:37: That's a great story. So you've had a really diverse career. I'd love to talk a little bit about how you got into the industry. So you started washing dishes. Can you tell us about that story? How you got into hospitality, and also restaurants is a big thing for you. So let's start there. Sims Foster – 00:03:52: Sure. Yeah. Lied when I was 13, until I was 14, to get the dishwasher job, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. My brother trained me in the dish pit so that he could move out front to the front of house. So I was being encouraged from that side, too. He was done washing, cleaning out the slow cooker from Prime Rib Night. But yeah, then worked my way through all different parts of the restaurant business. And ultimately, after college, moved to New York City and then got a job. First as a maintenance man, because I needed money to pay the rent at a nightclub, and then ended up a couple of years later being the general manager of a well-known kind of celebrity hangout nightclub in the meatpacking district called Lotus. And then that really started my quote-unquote professional hospitality career, which took me from nightlife into restaurants and into hotels. And at the same time, concurrently, also we're doing some small-scale stuff back home up here in the Catskills as a side project. So that's kind of how that all came together. Karen Stephens – 00:04:53: Okay. And now restaurants also play a big part into your company and into the brand. So you talked to us a little bit, you mentioned kind of the hotels are smaller, more lifestyle brand. Talk to us a little bit about how the food experience incorporates into that as well. Sims Foster – 00:05:08: Yeah, I think it incorporates in a critical way. The idea when we started to renovate and build these small hotels was they still needed to be full service because in the rural environment, and especially at the time that the area was in, there actually wasn't a lot. We weren't able to say, come here and then here's 20 places for you to go. So we really needed to control and really create a narrative and a story about all of these like full-scale little resorts where… Yeah, you can get a massage because we have a treatment room and you've got a restaurant on site and you've got hiking trails. While we allowed the area, which gratefully now there's plenty of restaurants on our main streets that we can send guests to, but we really needed to create a full narrative in order to compel people to come in the beginning. On top of that, we're pretty good. We think at the restaurant business, we are James Beard-nominated restaurateurs. And so it's a part that some days I wonder, but when it's right, it's great. Just the restaurant business, it's a day-to-day thing, even more than a hotel, because it's very hard to predict what's going to happen in any given day at a restaurant. Hotel, you can kind of figure it out in advance, but we love it. We do it. We've got fantastic teams and some great chefs that have been with us now. One of our chefs, Clark Hoskins, has been with us 10 years in the beginning. And so that's the key to the restaurant part of this is the stability. Karen Stephens – 00:06:36: That's great. So you mentioned that in the Catskills itself, there's been a lot of new entrants with restaurants and other things. I'm just curious. I don't know a lot about the area. Is that something that kind of happened after COVID or you've lived there, you grew up there, your family's there. So can you tell us a little bit about the area itself and how it's changed over the last couple of years? Sims Foster – 00:06:55: Yeah, I'll go back a little further. Sullivan County, where we are in 1960, had the most hotel rooms of any county in the United States. It was, for those that don't know the area, the kind of cheap and easy reference is Dirty Dancing. Dirty Dancing was set here in Sullivan County. So if you've seen the movie, that's actually fairly real, except for the Patrick Swayze dancing on the log thing. I can't. But my grandparents worked in hotels. My dad was a bellhop. And so it was a booming tourist destination and iconic. And then it all collapsed. So within a matter of 15 to 20 years, the whole market disintegrated, which is a whole other story that somebody needs to tell. And so when I was growing up here, it was kind of the ghosts of these hotels and the ghosts of an economy that was robust, that had fallen down, right? It was the typical rural environment that had one thing going for it. And when that disappeared, it really struggled to find its stability. So that's the history of the area. What happened was there were some starts, fits and starts. But right around kind of the mid-2000s was this new start of people identifying the area. Second homeowner increased. Main Street started to come back. 07, 08, of course, kind of put a damper on it. But really, it was starting to come back before COVID. And it was really kind of creating a new brand for a new generation. And so it was on its way. And then COVID had the… Had an accelerating effect. Not that we didn't have our extreme struggles like everyone else, but having rural environments, small hotels was on the, I guess, the fortunate side of the economy in that era. But I think it helped accelerate it. And now it's finding its kind of new stabilization rate, but real estate values are up in the area. They were depressed for a long time. They're up. And now our main streets are really lovely. I mean, part of the beauty of the area is that because nothing happened here for, call it a generation, there is this amazing throwback feel to the main streets. There's no corporate anything. There's no Walmart on the outside of town. And I'm not even being judgmental about that. I'm just saying, if you go to Livingston Manor or Jeffersonville or Callicoon, these little main streets, the stores are all new, but the feel could be the same as 50 years ago. And I think that's really resonating, especially with the Metro New York guests that comes with the majority of our guests. Karen Stephens – 00:09:28: How far is it from New York City? Sims Foster – 00:09:29: It's two hours. Karen Stephens – 00:09:31: Two hours. Okay, so easy peasy. And I love the idea of the nostalgic. That's something that I really love when you go to communities, and it's like this restaurant's been here since 1970, whatever, it's got that vibe and that feel. So that's really cool. So you mentioned that real estate values have gone up and I think that that's true for a lot of rural areas. COVID, people were trying to get out of big cities. Short-term rentals are also something that's come up. So can you talk to us a little bit about how that's changed the hospitality landscape for your brand and how it's impacting the guests in the area and the values in the area? Sims Foster – 00:10:05: Yeah, a lot to unpack there. So I believe the stat is that over the last five years, the increase in short-term rentals is, I think, 6x in the county. Of that is that it started from not many So that inventory has increased dramatically. And as we all know in the industry, it's an unregulated one key hotel industry is how I call it, right? Is that you can buy a house and within 24 hours, all of a sudden you can be renting it without the parts that if you're a commercial hotel that you, the DOH, and the Department of Transportation, and all the stuff that you have to go through and the planning boards and all of those things. And I think that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out long-term. I think every community is dealing with it from what I hear almost across the country. But the short-term rental increase was critical to expedite fast growth for these Main Street businesses we were just talking about. All of a sudden, overnight, there's more people here. And that's a good part of the equation. It helped and they're having good experiences. And so it just really helped put, really fuel the flames of what was already started. From a business standpoint, we're now not just competing with other hotels, but with this market that acts differently. So we've been trying to figure out, A, how serious it is for our business, what the long-term plan is, how we try to figure out how to compete. Because the short-term rental owner doesn't have the overhead of our business. And frankly, most of them are just kind of happy to kind of collect whatever ADR they can get because they're not using the house. Not intentionally, but they're now really affecting ADRs and occupancies. And they don't even know what those two words mean. They're just talking about a house and they're trying to offset their mortgage costs. I get it. So it's an interesting play. Karen Stephens – 00:11:58: Yeah. And I think that you mentioned before you have spa on site, amenities, local experiences. And I think for me as a consumer, if you're trying to market to me as opposed to going into an Airbnb, that is what is really going to resonate with me is it really is a holiday experience. So do you do that? I mean, I saw your website, which is beautiful. I recommend. I mean, already your website gives off that, you know, I'm a marketer, so that website gives off that feel of like, oh, wow, this is really kind of a home away from home in the woods and that. But how do you think about that when you leverage marketing assets to drive bookings? Sims Foster – 00:12:33: Yeah. I mean, what we're trying to do is continue to tell the story of each of our property, of the area, and why you should come to the Catskills and not just support us, but support all the communities, which is what we're about truly. And then I guess the benefit of staying in a hotel with those amenities and what that experience is, and why that might be better for you than the short-term rental for this particular reason in your life. I think. To be blunt about it, what's interesting is that a lot of the short-term rentals basically copy and paste our amenities as being their house being almost near just out in front saying, like, if you stay here, you're only a mile from, and they've got this, this, this, and this. Karen Stephens – 00:13:21: We're amenity adjacent. Sims Foster – 00:13:24: It's a great one. I'm going to use that. Thank you. So again, I get it in isolation. So how do you then say, yes, those amenities? Because we're not the kind of hospitality brand that says, well, this is only available if you have to stay here. That kind of makes us go backwards. We've always been about embracing everything around us. I think there's a couple of things practically in that we're starting to look at, look at is the right thing because we haven't figured it out yet, is one of the competitive advantages is removing length of stay because no one really is renting their short-term rental for just Saturday night, but we're equipped for it. Karen Stephens – 00:14:05: Yeah, because the cleaning fee would be more than the rent, you know, for a short-term rental, right? You need at least two nights to make it make sense. Sims Foster – 00:14:11: Yeah. So that's an interesting advantage that we have, we have to figure out because it doesn't work for our business to have sold out Saturdays and nobody there on Friday. So we're trying to figure out people's patterns and what they use a short-term rental for versus the hotel. And I do think that there's also been enough time where people have checked into short-term rentals, and let's just say their expectations were not met. And I think that the idea of trust of professionals… Is starting to weigh a little more in the equation than maybe it was even a couple of years ago. Karen Stephens – 00:14:45: That's right. And I think there's also an opportunity. Obviously, this is our biz over at Revinate. But when those guests come over into the restaurant, come over into the spa to interact, get their guest data if they're willing to provide it, and then market to them directly. So you kind of use them like an OTA channel. The first time coming in, it's a new guest. That's great. But the second time, you're going to hopefully come to me directly because now you've seen my beautiful property. You know what's here. You know the restaurant. You know everything about it. And now I can market to you directly. Sims Foster – 00:15:13: You're so right. And I'm so glad you said that because we kind of stumbled upon one of our James Beard-nominated hotel and restaurant, the DeBruce. This is an interesting stat. It's been open seven years. And let's say even five years ago, our Saturday night, we do a course tasting menu. And almost always the hotel was full. It was only 12 rooms, and we'd have a couple of outside covers. It is completely switched now where we're fighting to fill the lodging, and we have a waiting list for the dinner. And that is what we started to do. It's like, welcome. We love that you're here. And we created like, next time we'll make your bed for you and breakfast is on us. Karen Stephens – 00:15:52: Voila. Sims Foster – 00:15:53: Yeah. Karen Stephens – 00:15:54: 100%. And there's some kind of packaging that happens there. Sims Foster – 00:15:57: Yeah, just a little card to say, yeah, next time, you know, it's a lot easier to stay with us. You can have more to drink and stumble upstairs. So I think there's that. And then I would add to it that the lack of, as much as you can brand your short-term rental and create this thing, and it feels good when you check in, it's still an empty house as far as human beings. The biggest thing is just that human connection that when somebody comes in and they meet Will, or Sadie, or Anastasia, any one of our people, and they connect with that human being, that reminds them of the real power and joy and specialness of staying in a hotel. Karen Stephens – 00:16:39: That's what guest experience is all about. It's really about the hosts and their excitement to bring you in. And then, of course, the atmosphere and everything else. So very key. So let's shift gears a little bit. We'd love to talk a little bit about the local community. So you mentioned you've been there since birth, and your family's been there. Can you talk to us about A Single Bite, which addresses food insecurity, and how your company works with that organization? Sims Foster – 00:17:02: Wow. Thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, I didn't expect that, although I should. So Sullivan County is one of the poorer counties in New York State. So you're two hours from what some people would argue is the center of the economic universe. And we all know New York City. I lived there for 20 years. And yet we're not only rural, but it's also just a very different. And I think that those two things work well together. They always have is that escape from the city. But we're one of the poorer counties. And as of five years ago, we were still the second from the bottom in health rankings. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation does a ranking of all the counties in New York State every year with a very thorough, all different impacts of the health of the community. So it could be access to health care, transportation, morbidity, opioid crisis, all of those things. And one of those things in there is nutrition and health. So all the other stuff I'm not qualified to do anything about. But when we got there, I just got sick and tired of seeing us as 61 out of 62 counties in the farming, agricultural. And so we started A Single Bite as an awareness, not-for-profit, went to the school that I went to K through 12. My mother was a first grade teacher. And we created an education program that is in four parts where we talk to the kids about their choice and that they have a choice between real food and processed food. And that has, we now fast forward are in every school district in Sullivan County. And we get to every seventh grader in our county with that program, which is pretty phenomenal. So we take them to a farm as part of it. They come to one of our restaurants to have lunch as part of it. And then we're in their classroom for two sessions. And it's really just saying, hey, you have a choice for the rest of your life about what you put in your body. We just want to make sure you know the difference between what real food is and processed food. And along the way, there's all these other hidden things in there. But during COVID, as we were just ramping up the education program, we couldn't be in the schools. And we answered the call, the immediate call of a community that was people just didn't have food. We didn't lay anybody off during COVID. So I had a bunch of chefs and cooks. And it's better to keep those people busy, in my experience. Karen Stephens – 00:19:17: Oh, yeah. Sims Foster – 00:19:20: So I called, I said, hey, we had this new hotel we were about to open and couldn't. And so we had this brand new kitchen and I called the chefs and I said, guys, we're going to start making food for people. And they said, okay, boss, how much do you want? I said, let's start with a thousand meals tomorrow. And they said, herd, as all good kitchen people do. So during that acute time, we got up to almost 3,000 a week of meals, not only produced, the producing part, not to diminish it, but that's what we do. The real thing is getting it to the people. Perhaps the one thing I'm most proud of is that if you're struggling with food in a rural environment, you're also struggling with everything else, including getting places, consultation. So once we saw that part of our community, even when we went back to business, we continued on. So we're now over 200,000 meals delivered, and now we're also piloting a farm-to-school cafeteria program as the third leg in the stool. We're in three of our districts, really trying to figure out how we can replace, some of the food that none of us love that's being produced, you know, grown in our community. So that's what we're doing. I always say our ultimate goal is to put ourselves out of business. Nobody needs assistance tonight and that the generational educational fix takes place. But until that happens, we'll just keep going. Karen Stephens – 00:20:42: First of all, I love it. Obviously, you're feeding all those people, but I love it that the education coming in for kids, that there is a difference in the food that they're eating and they get to make that choice because that's really where it starts. And then I would just love to get your take on, I think the argument for all the processed food is that it's cheaper. So how do you debunk that? I mean, it's kind of insane. You're sitting in an agricultural area. So it's like, how the heck would it be cheaper to ship God knows what from God knows where in? But is that something that you come up against or have the school districts and everybody gotten on board with your program? Just curious for your take on that. Sims Foster – 00:21:17: I think the school, on the education program, we now have, it took a couple of years, but you have to earn trust. And we've done that, both from the administration level and from the teachers and from everybody. And every school is different. There is no one-size-fits-all all. If anybody were to start this up, that's where something's saying, I'm like, you have to be on the ground, hand to hand. You can't just come up with a PowerPoint or ask AI to come up with something. It is about the people and what their schedule is and what their priorities are. And you've got to listen and you've got to tailor it, but still hold on to your core value. So that part of the team has done just incredibly well. And the truth is, processed food is accessible in rural environments more than urban because our options are limited. You have the gas station that's three miles away. You've got grocery stores that aren't part of huge change. There's no Whole Foods here. So there's just a lot more processed food in the rural environment, which is counterintuitive. And when we first started the meal program, we polled after a while, like, hey, how are we doing? Are we giving you what you want? Are you eating everything? And the poll came back and it was amazing to see what they loved and appreciated was the fresh vegetables that we were putting in there because that's more expensive at the grocery stores. Karen Stephens – 00:22:39: Oh, wow. So it was like, I don't want to say a status thing, but the correlation of like, oh, that's more money must be better. Sims Foster – 00:22:46: Yeah. So a lot of learnings with A Single Bite and just really proud of the team. And we continue to do good work. Karen Stephens – 00:22:52: Yeah, that's phenomenal. So my final question for you, looking at your journey and all the growth with Foster Supply Hospitality and everything you've experienced there, what advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs? So you started your career in restaurants, you worked for a big management company, now you've brought it all home. So what would your advice be for somebody who's looking to take that kind of leap? Sims Foster – 00:23:13: I think the way that I answer this question, my mind first goes into a very kind of tactical, make sure you do an honest business plan, make sure you do the numbers. And then after you do the numbers, do them again, make sure that like all of those things. But I think that can be found in a lot of places. I think that the sustainability of a life where you are running your own business is only really possible if you deeply believe in what you're doing and not necessarily about the money or that part of it. Is that the spirit of what you're doing is deeply resonates in your soul? Because there are so many days, I'm sure you can relate where things don't go the right way. And you wonder what you're doing. And would life be easier this other way? And if you can wake up the next morning and say, yeah, but what I do is I believe, right? I believe that we can actually change the trajectory of our community short-term and long-term. I believe that the businesses that we're running are good businesses and we treat our people well. And we've made a difference in people's lives on the capitalist side by providing jobs and stability. And we attract people here who wouldn't have found the area without us, but buy a second home. And now we're in the Rotary Club. So those are all the pieces that matter more. But I think that in the business community, that's viewed as like, that's secondary. I think that you got to love what you're doing enough to sustain you through times where you inevitably Will question your own judgment. Karen Stephens – 00:24:58: Thank you, Sims. Very well said. My guest has been Sims Foster. Appreciate the time today. Thank you. Sims Foster – 00:25:04: Thanks so much. Outro – 00:25:10: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hotel Moment by Revinate. Our community of hoteliers is growing every week, and each guest we speak to is tackling industry challenges with the innovation and flexibility that our industry demands. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if you're listening on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe for more content. For more information, head to Until next time, keep innovating. View source
Hospitality Net
22-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Innovation in hospitality: Insights from a Forbes Travel Guide executive
In this week's episode of Hotel Moment, you'll find out if you're sacrificing the guest experience for the sake of reducing costs or if you're making smart technology decisions that increase staff productivity and make your guests happy. Stuart Greif, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy, Innovation & Operating Officer at Forbes Travel Guide, joins Revinate CMO Karen Stephens to share how he's seen AI technology make or break a hotel. Get his practical examples on where you can integrate this technology into your tech stack while keeping the point of hospitality the main point. Tune in to discover how to approach technology innovation in hospitality and learn which non-negotiable service standards remind your teams of the joy in the hotel experience. Meet your host As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen Stephens is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinate's brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. Karen is also the host of The Hotel Moment Podcast, where she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading Revinate's global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023. Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution — including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and Watch the video Media Team Media team | Revinate +1 415 671 4703 View source
Hospitality Net
21-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Recast: Guests define what luxury means today
In this week's episode of Hotel Moment, we're re-visiting a conversation with Shannon Knapp, President and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, and Revinate CMO Karen Stephens. They discuss how technology is the 'great facilitator' of luxury experiences and the driver of true guest loyalty. Shannon also sets the record straight on who really calls the shots on luxury experiences (hint: it's your guests), and shares why serving your guests' preferences is one of the best things you can do to elevate on-property experiences. Tune in to discover what's really important to your guests and get tips on how you can teach your staff to make the most out of your technology so your efforts don't go to waste. Meet your host As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen Stephens is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinate's brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. Karen is also the host of The Hotel Moment Podcast, where she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading Revinate's global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023. Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution — including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and Watch the video Transcript Intro – 00:00:04: Welcome to the Hotel Moment podcast presented by Revinate, the podcast where we discuss how hotel technology shapes every moment of the hotelier's experience. Tune in as we explore the cutting-edge technology transforming the hospitality industry and hear from experts and visionaries shaping the future of guest experiences. Whether you're a hotelier or a tech enthusiast, you're in the right place. Let's dive in and discover how we can elevate the art of hospitality together. Karen Stephens- 00:00:37: Welcome to the Hotel Moment podcast. I'm your host, Karen Stephens, the Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate. And on today's episode, we are thrilled to have Shannon Knapp. Shannon is the President and CEO of The Leading Hotels in the World. With a deep background in luxury hospitality, Shannon has been pivotal in driving global customer engagement, brand strategy, and marketing innovation for over a decade. Under her leadership, LHW has seen significant growth in brand awareness and customer loyalty. Prior to her current role, Shannon held various senior positions at American Express, including Vice President of Marketing for Travel and Lifestyle Services, where she spearheaded key initiatives in customer experience and loyalty programs. With over 20 years of experience in creating integrated marketing strategies, Shannon is recognized as a leader in elevating brand presence and enhancing customer satisfaction in the luxury travel sector. This conversation was just phenomenal. I mean, first of all, to have a leader of Shannon's caliber on the podcast, I mean to say — I am very grateful. We started out our conversation talking about the shift in the luxury space. So Shannon had a really good insight about how luxury has shifted over the last, call it 20 years or so. It used to be very led by the hotels, and now it's really down to the travelers. So it's really an n-of-1, is how she put it. So the need to understand the expectations of the customer and how to provide the guest experience is more important than it's ever been. And personalization is really at the core of that. She also talked about the shift in the technology stack. So the center of the hotel that used to be the property management system has now really shifted over to the CRM. And we also talked a lot about, since the time of COVID, the shift for a lot of hotels in their marketing mix. Obviously, we're seeing a lot more leisure than we've seen before. Corporate has kind of stepped back, and it's ebbed and flowed, but she really hit on how hotels should think about how they get the right mix of business in their hotel and what really matters there. And finally, we capped off our conversation by Shannon talking about her own career trajectory that led her to the top spot at the world's leading hotels. So obviously, as a CEO, whether it's in hospitality or in any industry, it's still fairly rare for a woman to be holding that top position. And Shannon talked a lot about what got her there. So some of that has to do with the mentors that helped her throughout her journey with advice as she came up in her career, and the importance of mentorship. And then she also talked about being open to all kinds of different roles, understanding what you like and what you don't like. So I really encourage anybody who is looking for career advice or is inspired by someone who has reached that echelon, to give a listen. So I give you Shannon Knapp. Welcome to the podcast, Shannon. We're so delighted to have you here. Shannon Knapp – 00:03:34: Thank you, Karen. I'm thrilled to be here. I appreciate the invitation. Karen Stephens – 00:03:38: Absolutely. So I'd love to jump right in. So can you give our audience an idea of who are The Leading Hotels of the World and what is, kind of, your role? Obviously, you're the President and CEO, but we'd love to hear a little bit about the luxury travel space and how Leading Hotels of the World really contributes in that area. Shannon Knapp – 00:03:55: Sure. So Leading Hotels of the World is a collection of over 400 truly independent luxury hotels all around the world. We're in, I think, over 80 countries at this point. And our mission is really to empower the success of our independent hotels so that they can continue to make the choice to stay independent, which, as you know, in this time is increasingly difficult thing. So what we try and do for our members is to provide global distribution, obviously a global luxury brand, sales, marketing, technology, data analytics support, so that they can continue to be successful. Many of them are brands in and of themselves, but they can continue to be successful, grow their business, and we can continue to support this thriving independent luxury segment. Karen Stephens – 00:04:44: Yes, and we're familiar, we have a lot of Revinate customers that are also the world's leading hotels. And I can tell you, I mean, obviously, you know, some of the most beautiful hotels that are all over the world. And I think what I love so much about your organization, and you just hit on it, the hotels are able to maintain their independence. And so they have their own character, their own experience, but they have that support from the overall organization. That's great. So you've been operating in the luxury travel space for quite a while. So before you were at the world's leading hotels, you were with American Express on the luxury travel end. So can you talk to me a little bit about the history of luxury hospitality? What have you seen change when it comes to creating a luxury stay experience and what has kind of remained constant? Shannon Knapp – 00:05:29: I think, and I'm certainly not going to share anything that is probably earth-shattering here, but luxury has changed so significantly over the last, let's call it 20, 25 years. I think in the past, especially on the hospitality side, the hotel side, the hotels almost used to dictate what luxury was. We define the standards of luxury, and we told that to the consumer, and we demonstrated that in the experience to the consumer. But what has evolved and changed so significantly, is that luxury now is such a personal experience. It really is about what is important to me as a traveler, as a person, and what is luxury to me might be completely not luxury to you. And I think that that is both a challenge and an opportunity in our business. I mean, we certainly see this reflected in the guests that stay with leading hotels. Not only do they absolutely love their traditional palace hotels in our portfolio, like the Ritz-Carlton, or like the Lowell here in New York City, but they're also really interested in hotels that meet different criteria for luxury these days based on who they are. Maybe having different experiences being with a hotel in a remote location or a hotel that offers a hyper authentic experience that is authentic to its destination. Or maybe they want to stay at a really small, intimate hotel that maybe doesn't have all the traditional five-star amenities and multiple F&B outlets. Or maybe not a central lobby, for example, but something that's a little bit more home-like. They embrace different kinds of architecture and design. We see, obviously, and I know, again, this is a trend that we're all seeing in the industry, but this shift towards a focus on holistic wellness and sustainability as interest. So I think the definition of luxury over the last several years has evolved to be much more of an N-of-1, in a way. What is luxury to me, and how will I express that in the choices that I make with the hotels that I stay in? Karen Stephens – 00:07:27: You know what, that's a really great point. And what you're hitting on or what I'm hearing from that is how important personalization is. So really understanding what that guest wants and needs. Because as you mentioned, again, going back to the uniqueness of the world's leading hotels, 400 hotels, they're all different. You know, they all have their own flavor. So can you talk just a little bit, how do you approach that from a marketing standpoint, thinking about how you understand the guest and make sure that that experience is as personalized as possible from the communication standpoint, website brand? Like how do you approach that? Because it's a tall order. Shannon Knapp – 00:08:02: Absolutely, as marketers, it's no longer just broad segments that we can create offerings for and call it a day. It really is segments of one. So it starts with, and this again, many years ago, the center of the tech stack universe at the hotel used to be the PMS. The PMS did everything for our members and for hotels around the world. But so much more now is available to enable the hotel, to deliver a truly personalized experience. I mean, obviously Revinate is a partner of leading hotels, actually, in terms of being a CRM provider. You know, CRM for a hotel is really a fairly recent development, and it's something that has become so vital to being able to collect the interests and the needs and the preferences of your guests, and then be able to match the right promotion or the right experience. That is all being done now at scale. So especially on the luxury side, when you think about luxury being, about white glove service, personalization, really delivering that, that used to be delivered exclusively by the most connected GMs who had the most robust Rolodex of customer information on their desk that they could pull out when they knew you were coming to stay. But now we can do that level of personalization at scale, and really free up the front of house staff to deliver the experience that they want to deliver, to do what they do best, which is really, spend time with the guests, speak to the guests, get to know what their needs are and kind of match the experience for them. That's something that historically couldn't be done at a scale that we can do it today because of the availability of technology and data resources that post-COVID, we've really seen the luxury hotel industry embrace. Karen Stephens – 00:09:45: And that is so exciting. I think you really hit on something extraordinary there. If you have somebody who really loves hospitality, staff and hotels, what they really want to be doing is interacting with that guest. And if you're leveraging that technology properly, you've done the heavy lift for them, and then they can just put the guest experience on top, which I know for luxury hotels is at the center. Shannon Knapp – 00:10:04: It's their passion, right? Their passion is not technology, but I think they've come to realize that technology can really empower and enable them to do what they do best. And what they want to do is make that guest return. They want to make that guest so happy that they want to return to their hotel, and they now see the power of technology to enable that experience that they deliver personally that drives that level of loyalty. Karen Stephens – 00:10:27: That's exciting. So speaking of loyalty, you just brought up another buzzword near and dear to my heart. Loyalty in the context of a collection of independents. And I know that you initiated the Leaders Club program. So can you share how the program has evolved since its inception and how hotels are utilizing it? Shannon Knapp – 00:10:45: Sure. And Karen, I wish I could take credit for initiating the Leaders Club program, but I certainly can't do that. It's been around for many years, but we did relaunch the program in 2018. First off, and kind of leading from the last question, loyalty really starts and ends with the experience that's delivered at the hotel. From our perspective, we have the best hotels and hoteliers in the world who do this every day. And so it really starts and ends there. But of course, being in hotels, we need to have a loyalty program. And we have created what I think is a really great platform, loyalty platform for both the consumers as well as the hotels themselves. So as an independent hotel, it neither makes economic sense nor practical sense for you to have your own loyalty program. The expense of the loyalty program is very difficult. The diversity of where guests travel makes it very difficult for smaller-scale groups or individual hotels to have a loyalty program that makes sense. So what we've done is we've provided a platform for our members to be able to offer loyalty benefits from Leaders Club that enable them to reward their best guests, to enhance the stay experience, again, to make that guest want to return, not only to the hotel that they're staying at, but also to make the connection between the hotel and the extraordinary experience that they're having there with Leaders Club and The Leading Hotels of the World, so that when they travel to a new destination, they look to The Leading Hotels of the World and Leaders Club for where they would like to stay. So the loyalty program is complimentary to travelers, and it really creates that gateway to our extraordinary collection of independent luxury hotels around the world. And it enables the guests to have an elevated stay experience with benefits and amenities, including pre-arrival upgrade, complimentary breakfast, the ability to earn points to redeem later for stays. And what's interesting or unique about our program is that you earn those benefits from day one. So you don't have to go through a tier before you get some of these, for example, complimentary breakfast or upgrades. Those come day one with your membership with Leaders Club. Karen Stephens – 00:12:53: That's wonderful. And are you also leveraging personalization within Leaders Club? So making sure that whatever the guest is telling you, you can then transmit to other hotels. How does that work? Shannon Knapp – 00:13:03: There's quite a world of GDPR and PII and all those things that we have to obviously be very conscious of and very careful with the data of our guests. And we are different than your traditional fully branded hotels like Marriott or Hilton's, and that we don't own operate or franchise our hotels. So the data of our hotels is actually uniquely the data of our hotels. However, as Leaders Club, the program, if you sign up as a Leaders Club program, and you choose to share with us your preferences and you choose to say that you're happy to have those preferences shared across your stay experiences, we absolutely do and are able to share that information with our hotels, whether that's something as simple as your arrival time. So you can hope that your room would be prepared for your arrival to your preference in the type of location of your room or the type of amenities you enjoy. So when the guests chooses us to provide that, and they're comfortable with us sharing that, we do share that with our hotels around the world. Karen Stephens – 00:14:03: That's wonderful. You know, one thing that we've always talked about with personalization, or if you're asking for guest information, is that you use it properly, obviously, but then you do actually use it. So if somebody tells you in one hotel, you know, I want to be facing whatever, the courtyard, you want to make sure that the next hotel gets that information. So that's great. You're able to tie it together with the loyalty program. So shifting gears a little bit, it is that time of year, we are heading into the budget season. And so I'm sure as the world's leading hotels, you probably give a lot of advice and help hotels as they move through it. But generally, what kind of advice do you give during this period? Why do they think about their financial planning, their marketing budgets, their tech stack? How do you advise the hotels in that regard? Shannon Knapp – 00:14:46: It's such an interesting time. I do think that it has really stimulated a different approach and a different take on the annual budgeting process now. What we try, and when we speak to our hotels, and we are strategic business partners for our hotels, we are there to help ensure that they're maximizing the revenue that comes to them through all channels. So we work with them on their budgeting strategy from a revenue perspective, as well as their distribution strategy. How will they achieve that outcome? And what we're seeing a lot of these days is a shift in mix. So leisure, obviously, it kind of took off in 2021, 2022, and has really become a major part of the mix of a lot of our hotels, so much so that some of our hotels who were historically maybe more of a balanced mix of corporate, and group, and leisure, are now really leaning very heavily on the leisure business, and maybe reducing the amount of corporate business they have or the amount of group business that they're pursuing. So the guidance that we give to our hotels is really understand, obviously, your owner's expectations, but also where is that business coming from today? Where do you think you need to invest resources to increase your share? And increase your share in a way that's realistic. So you may wish to have a highly rated business from a certain country of origin, but if you've got zero of that today, it's going to be very hard for you to suddenly blow that out of the water. So help them really have an eye to what is their mix today? What is their aspirational mix? What is the investment that they need to make both themselves as well as in collaboration with us to affect that outcome? As it relates to budgeting for CapEx related things, specifically technology, we have a lot of conversations with our members about not being distracted by the new shiny object. Really understand what the use case is for these new technology platforms that we all get. You know, every day I get probably 50 emails from various vendors of data technology. They're all great, I'm sure. But what is the problem that I'm trying to solve as a hotelier from my hotel? Really be clear on what the use cases are. Don't be distracted by the next shiny object coming through. And make sure that you have somebody on property who can actually manage that vendor. And if you can't, work with us because we can help you with that. Because having the greatest technology platform that no one on property understands means you're not maximizing the value. It means you're wasting money and resources. Karen Stephens – 00:17:19: Oh my gosh, truer words were never spoken. You know, we had our own conference this spring in Miami, and our CEO got up on stage, and he showed a picture of a utility closet, you know, in a hotel with all the wires and hanging out. It's like, here's where technology goes to die. And I think you hit it on the head. All these platforms, they don't speak to each other, and nobody's managing it. And so somebody thought it was a good idea, but I think that truer words were never spoken. Making sure that everything could be integrated, you can have access to the data, and someone's managing it. Shannon Knapp – 00:17:50: Exactly. And I mean, think about it from an independent hotel's perspective. If you're a small hotel in the middle of the Swiss Alps, maybe you have a team of 10 folks on property between sales, marketing, and distribution. It's hard to expect that somebody on property is going to have the experience, the knowledge, the time to be able to manage this increasing collection of technology providers, especially when they don't speak to each other, especially when what they sold you is not necessarily what has been implemented. So it's really important. And this is a role that has become increasingly important for leading over the last several years is consulting with our members first. As I mentioned, don't get distracted, understand the problems you're trying to solve, but also then how are you maximizing the tools that you have? You don't need anything new. You actually have a great setup here. You have a great tech stack. How are you using it? And how can we help you do that? Karen Stephens – 00:18:42: Absolutely. And I can just say from the vendor side, when we went through the partnership with Leading Hotels of the World, your team stepped in to do all of the technical due diligence. It was not a one-and-done. There were many competitors in that boat. So I just want to give a shout out. I think, again, if you're an independent hotel, for you to do that kind of diligence is difficult. So to be able to kind of look to Leading and say, 'Okay, this vendor works or doesn't', I think is important. Shannon Knapp – 00:19:07: Yeah, thanks, Karen. It is something, like I mentioned, it's a newish, certainly not a newish capability for us. We've had a very strong tech team for many years, but in terms of turning to the hotel operations side, and really helping to be a partner for our members in identifying their needs, finding the right partners, the right vendors to meet those needs, because the needs of smaller hotels, independent hotels are very different from those of larger hotels or hotels that are part of chain brands. So really understanding what the distinct needs of these members are and then helping to make sure that they're getting the best business terms, the best commercial terms, best service terms, as well as obviously world-class technology solutions. So, I mean, we're proud that we're able to help in that way. And the demand for that is ever-increasing. Karen Stephens – 00:19:51: It really is because, my goodness, to your point, to wrap your brain around the speed at which all of the things are coming out now is a lot. And so to be able to leverage kind of the experience of a central team, to be part of an association where you've got other hotels, you can leverage that knowledge and have something centrally driving it, it's really exciting. So speaking of kind of global brand presence for a hotelier, what one piece of advice would you offer to hoteliers that are looking to increase their brand's global presence and customer experience in the digital age? Is there anything that comes to mind? Shannon Knapp – 00:20:25: I think it comes down to really having a good understanding of your business, your growth aspirations, and trying to, in all seriousness, maximize the partners that are available to you. Because I would say, and it's truer than ever, as much as I think there are a ton of capabilities that enable, that may sell themselves as, 'Hey, you can do this all yourself', I think that that is a really tall order for any independent or smaller operator to figure out how to elevate your brand, how to define your distribution across literally, thousands of channels globally to manage your operations, to deliver a great guest experience, to manage your loyal guests. The task is taller than it has ever been for hotel operators. And I think the best advice that I could offer is to stay maniacally focused on what you are trying to achieve from a business outcomes perspective, from a guest experience perspective, and put your resources on the things that matter in driving those outcomes. Karen Stephens – 00:21:33: I love that. That's great advice. Okay, so Shannon, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you this question. So for women aspiring to reach top leadership positions, what tips do you have based on your own career journey? Moving from a marketing leadership position to the top job, what helped you make that transition? Shannon Knapp – 00:21:51: I would say the most important thing across my entire career has been the support and advocacy of mentors. I have had three mentors across my career that have really invested in me and have helped me, and they've challenged me. They have helped me refine what my career aspirations were, and they really invested in my success. And that's something that I think as a rare female leader in this industry, is something that I love to kind of pay it back or pay it forward, however you want to look at it. But it's something that I think is really important for those of us that are in this industry to be able to not only model behavior for future leaders, but also to take the time to mentor and be a support so we can help bring more women into the leadership positions in hospitality in particular. I would say the other thing that I did that maybe at the time I wasn't as conscious about, but I think has been a really important part of my ability to continue to progress in my career is I never charted too narrow a course for my career. I was very comfortable taking lateral moves. I was very comfortable going into areas that I perhaps, that maybe it first didn't appeal to me or I wasn't aware of. And what all of that did was help me really understand and refine over time what I liked, what I was good at, what I didn't like, what I wasn't good at. And all of that helped kind of refine my path as I went along in my career. And I think that that's a really important, especially as I kind of look at our younger workers these days, is to be okay with having a broader scope of experience. Because ultimately that is where I had the greatest learnings. I got to work with different customer types. I got to work in different functions. I got to work with different types of products. And all of that contributed to my knowledge base that I think was really important for me as I moved from being a functional expert in marketing to really taking on the CEO role. I was able to draw on a really diverse background and experience. Karen Stephens – 00:23:59: I love that. And I love the shout-out to mentors as well. I think it's so important to be able to have trusted advisors because I think as we grow in our careers, we gain more and more confidence and to be able to help younger people get some confidence and try and fail and it's okay. Shannon Knapp – 00:24:16: Yeah, failure is an amazing thing, actually. Some of my best lessons, bar none, have been as a result, not of successes, but actually of failures. Karen Stephens – 00:24:23: Failure and learning. Oh, I love that. Shannon, it's been a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much. My guest has been Shannon Knapp, who is the president and CEO of Leading Hotels of the World. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Shannon Knapp – 00:24:34: Thank you so much, Karen. Karen Stephens – 00:24:40: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hotel Moment by Revinate. Our community of hoteliers is growing every week, and each guest we speak to is tackling industry challenges with the innovation and flexibility that our industry demands. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if you're listening on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe for more content. For more information, head to Until next time, keep innovating. View source
