The Modern Hotelier #200: Turning a Love for Hotels into a Career in Hospitality | with Stacy Warner
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David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program today?
Steve Carran: Yeah, David. Today we have on Stacy Warner. Stacy is the Executive Vice President at Eat.Drink.Sleep. Where she oversees brand strategy and operations for the company's boutique hotels and restaurants. Eat, drink, sleep is known for creating concept driven hotels, bars, and restaurants that blend unique design with unforgettable guest experiences. Stacy's been with Eat.Drink.Sleep since 2012, helping shape their distinctive hospitality experiences with a People First approach. Welcome to the show, Stacy.
Stacy Warner: Thank you.
David Millili: Okay, Stacy, so we're gonna go through a couple different sections here. We're gonna go through a quick lightning round. We're gonna get to know you better, your personal background, your career, and then we're gonna dive into some industry topics. Sound good?
Stacy Warner: All right.
David Millili: What is something that you wish you were better at?
Stacy Warner: Oh gosh. The guitar.
David Millili: Okay. That's good. What's your most used emoji?
Stacy Warner: Thumbs up.
David Millili: If you had a time machine, which way would you go? To the future? To the past, and what year?
Stacy Warner: Definitely the future and probably like 2030 or 20 45, 20 50, somewhere in there. Not too far.
David Millili: Okay, good. What's the best piece of advice you've received? I.
Stacy Warner: Oh gosh. That's a good one. Um. Best piece of advice that I've received is probably, gosh, sorry,
David Millili: That's okay.
Steve Carran: You're it's not a hard question. 
Stacy Warner: The best piece of advice that I've ever received is I was worried about something and one of my girlfriends said, when has anything happened that you. Couldn't handle. And I think about that a lot. It always, I am capable person.
David Millili: That's good. That's good advice. What's your favorite city and why?
Stacy Warner: My favorite city is probably Montreal, and I just love the, the culture, the vibe, the architecture, I mean, can't get enough of it.
Steve Carran: That's great. That's great. So now Stacy, we're gonna dive into your background a little bit. What makes you tick? So you grew up in Lakeville, Massachusetts, is that correct?
Stacy Warner: It's true.
Steve Carran: Yeah. So how did growing up in Lakeville shape you into who you are today?
Stacy Warner: Well, lethal is a very small town in Massachusetts near pretty much nothing. Um, so growing up I always knew that I would. Want to leave there, but it was a great place to grow up. Very safe, A very tight-knit community. I think I graduated with 90 people and I'd been in school with them since elementary school. So you really got to be yourself and avoid some of the cliques and things that you hear about. 
David Millili: You went to Fairfield University, what did you major in? What made you decide to go to Fairfield?
Stacy Warner: well, I chose Fairfield because I was very young and immature and it was beautiful.
David Millili: Okay.
Stacy Warner: It looked like a college campus out of a movie, and that's how it felt going there too. And. it's a Jesuit school, so there was a lot of focus on how you. Can be responsible for giving back to your community, and we did a lot of projects as in our classes, in our schools that focused on community work. And that really spoke to me. and then I was an English major with a finance minor. I went in as an English major, and then I have a boyfriend whose dad was like, you gotta pick something else up, like something that's gonna get you a job. So I picked up a finance minor at the end and that was it.
Steve Carran: That's incredible. So, you know, I had to call around Lakeville, Massachusetts to find out this, but I heard that you fell in love with hotels as a child because you hated making your bed and like swimming pools. Is that correct?
Stacy Warner: This is true. I would beg my parents for my birthday to take me to Boston and let me and stay in a hotel. I wanted to order room service. I loved the white sheets, the indoor pool. I mean, couldn't get enough loved hotels from a very young age.
Steve Carran: And look at you now. Spoke that into existence. I'll say that. That's great. So now we're gonna get into your career a little bit, how you got to eat, drink, sleep. So, you worked at the Westgate Hotel. Help as a catering sales manager, what did those early days teach you that you still take with you today?
Stacy Warner: That was such a great experience starting in hospitality. They had a really, Robust J one program. So who had gone to hospitality school, they came over to San Diego to work at the Westgate, mostly Austrian, and this was their career. They wanted to work in hotels. They had a really high standard, it was pretty exacting. We had a chef, I mean a very old school, school chef, the kind that you. Said we too, and didn't look in the eye. but it was just exciting and I had not really considered it as a full fledged career at that point. But being there, I could see how fun that could be.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. And I have a follow up question from this. Moving from Massachusetts to the West coast, were there challenges or things to get used to with that move? And how'd you end up in San Diego? 
Stacy Warner: Well I ended up in San Diego because I wanted to learn how to surf, so I intended to come for a year, but you know, then life happens and you get entrenched. and. It was definitely a little bit of a culture shock, not shock, that's too strong of a word, but definitely a culture difference. when I went to school in Fairfield, I, it's right outside New York City, so I had an internship in New York City and you would see people in the morning like literally sprinting down the road to get to get into work. And then when you come to San Diego, you know, it's so casual and everyone's like, good morning, how are you doing? I'm like, good morning. It's 6:00 AM just gimme a cup of coffee. But now I'm that person. I go back to the East coast and I'm like, hi, how you doing? So it's changed. 
Steve Carran: East coast is totally different. It's a different, different animal.
David Millili: So in 2012, you ended up joining Eat, drink, and Sleep, and you've worked your way up to Executive VP. How did that all come about? How did you end up with eat, drink, and sleep?
Stacy Warner: So I actually started with eat, drink, and sleep. Before they were eat, drinking, sleep when they just had Tower 23 Hotel. when they were building it, it just happened that I lived in their neighborhood and I saw that hotel being built and I was just, I wanna work there. It was right on the beach.
It was really cool. It had a really cool design. and then it turned out that my previous boss went to be the GM there. So he called me and was like, do you wanna come work for me? And I was like, I absolutely do. So I started there as a catering manager. I think it was 2006. eventually became the director of sales and the director of sales and marketing and then as EDS grew, I went to work on with the corporate team.
David Millili: That's great.
Steve Carran: Awesome and we can vouch Tower 23 is an amazing, amazing property, so I, I definitely see why that one caught your eye. So for those that might not be familiar with eat, drink, sleep, can you share more about what you do and the background?
Stacy Warner: Yeah, absolutely. So each ink sleep is an owner operator of hotels, but we also work with clients on development projects. Um, so we really do everything. Across a hospitality projects lifespan, all the way from feasibility to early branding, concept design development, and then day-to-day operations. and we've expanded in the last couple years, so we also work with other hospitality related projects. So not necessarily hotels, but we've worked on amusement parks, golf courses, marinas, those types of projects.
David Millili: It's a great name. So what is some fun news or some upcoming things that are happening with Eat.Drink.Sleep.?
Stacy Warner: We're working on a project right now. It's very early stages. we're just doing some consulting at this point in Liberty Station. they're exploring the option of building a hotel. It's a really cool locale, um, Liberty Station for listeners who. Don't know. It is right outside of downtown San Diego, close to the airport.
It was a military base during World War II. And then in the last 20 years it's been redeveloped as a multi-use space. So now there's tons of dining, tons of shopping. There are some hotels, but mostly flagged more business hotels, nothing really dedicated to leisure travelers. so the foundation that is. For the arts program at Liberty Station, would like to add a hotel. So we've been working with them on that to explore, you know, whether that can happen in the site. 
Steve Carran: Very nice. So now we're gonna go into the thought leadership industry thoughts section of the podcast. So, eat, drink, sleep is known for creating boutique hotel experiences, kind of focused on the personality of not only the property but the staff as well. I wanna understand how, how do you balance the operational side of things with creating that memorable guest experience.
Stacy Warner: So, I mean, honestly, we put the guest experience first. That's really at the center of every decision that we make. Um, we're really fortunate, we've had employees with us, the leaders at all of our properties currently. Have been with us since the front desk days. people tend to come with us, grow through the company, so they bring with them this focus on the guest experience. 
David Millili: That's great. And so how do you. Expectations evolving In the next, say, you know, three to five years and how's, eat, drink, sleep, preparing for some of those maybe more demands from guests.
Stacy Warner: I mean, ultimately I'm not sure that the guest expectation is changing. Dramatically. You know, of course people want more convenience. They want the option of more convenience. especially for our hotels, their leisure hotels, people are coming there, they're trying to relax or celebrate or spend some quality time with the family, and those core drivers are not changing.
I think what we are seeing a lot. Is more a changing attitude with team members and what they want out of a job and what they expect from an employer. I think we're in a good position to navigate some of that, but that's been, we've definitely seen a shift in that. and how do you instill in this upcoming group of employees, this guest first mentality and how do you make it fun for them to. Interact with the guest and be there in that way. You know, we always joke that the people that we're hiring now have grown up watching videos of Karen's, so they come to their jobs, sometimes a little defensive. so we really work to support them so that they can understand like everyone is here. For these people. And our job is to make sure they're having a really great, memorable time. And that's not to say, you know, you have to take bad behavior from a guest, but we do need to go out of our way to deliver on what we've promised to them, which is that they're going to have a relaxing, enjoyable time with us.
Steve Carran: I love that, and I want you to expand a little bit more on that because you know, one thing that we talk about on this show quite a bit is a labor shortage that's happening and how hard it is to not only hire new hoteliers, but retain them as well. Do you have any tips or tricks out there for other hoteliers on how to retain their top talent?
Stacy Warner: I mean, I think there's quite a bit of hand ringing in the industry, and some of it is. Somewhat self-inflicted. You know, especially in tough markets or expensive markets. There's been a lot of focus, I think, on keeping labor low. and the employees who are coming into that are used to working in that environment where they feel pretty expendable and.
We really make that extra step to show them there's a career path for them if they stay with us or you know, if they wanna go somewhere else. So if they're working in the restaurant. Okay. What do you need to make this a career for you, whether that be wine knowledge or food knowledge? Like I mentioned, we have a lot of employees who've been with us for 10, 15, 20 years, and that's because we've given them opportunities to grow.
Steve Carran: That's awesome and I'm excited for this question. This is something I didn't know. About eat, drinks, sleep, but you actually help build second site design, which is eat, drinks, sleep's in-house creative studio. What benefits have you seen from having your own in-house creative studio? And would you recommend that to other hotel groups?
Stacy Warner: Yeah, I mean, it's been great. we like to say that we specialize in projects that need extra TLC. And what I mean by that is. They have some serious constraints. so whether that be the size of the property, the location of the property, we have a property out on Catalina Island.
Not an easy place to get to, or really budgetary constraints. So these constraints that for traditional hotel would make the property or the project not really that enticing, we find really drives a lot of creativity. And so when there's a lot of. Challenges and obstacles. You have to ask really good questions about how you're gonna solve those problems, and having our own in-house team lets us make sure that everyone is very aligned on what, where we're going. and we are able to bring really that owner operator mentality to every step of the design process. Sometimes when you are working with outside firms, you know, they also want a beautiful portfolio piece and at the end of the day, our projects, because they're constrained often in size, they need to, every piece needs to work, and we don't have the luxury of having a little nook that is unused or sp. Big budget overrun. So having that design team in-house really makes sure that we're able to make those decisions quickly. our owner, Brett, he is really involved in the design process, so he has a big vision for what he wants and while we still bring a lot of design ambition to our projects, at the end of the day, they need to function. And having that team in house really lets you kind of iterate on those ideas. So yes, I would would recommend it.
Steve Carran: I just gotta ask, is there one project constraint that really sticks out to you where you're like, I don't know how we're gonna do this. But then you ended up overcoming it as well.
Stacy Warner: So the project that I mentioned on Catalina, we acquired that project in 2018. We came on as the owner operator and it. We have the intention to renovate it. we started that in 2019. It's on an island. You can only access it by barge or ferry, I mean, or helicopter. 
Steve Carran: It's very hard to get to wine mix right.
Stacy Warner: Yeah, Kelly, a wine mixer. It's a real thing. and then we started that project in late 2019. Obviously by March, 2020, we like, how are we possibly going to execute this? Um, so it was very, very challenging. But because we have the team in house, we were able to keep working on things. we had to get really creative with some of the design aspects our graphic designer was out there installing artwork herself, um, because you know, people were, couldn't get there. It was a huge challenge, but it ultimately all worked out and it's a beautiful hotel. The renovation came out really wonderfully. So that would be a good example.
David Millili: All right. I got two questions. The first one, there's no right or wrong answer and I don't know why I'm asking it, but I just thought about it this morning. Um, what do you prefer? I mean, everyone either uses the word boutique or independent. Do you, as a company, do you guys look more and think of yourselves as boutique or an independent or am I just crazy and there's no difference? 
Stacy Warner: I think there is a difference. I dunno that I have a strong preference, but if I had to pick, I would say independent. I think boutique has been a little overused. It seems like any hotel that's under 200 rooms with a decent restaurant is claiming to Bo be boutique. so I think that independent maybe means a little bit more, but I'm not sure that the consumer understands what independent means, so we often use boutique.
David Millili: I was just curious, what emerging technologies are you seeing that are really shaping the future of independent hospitality and hotels?
Stacy Warner: I mean, a lot of it's communication based, right? So guests are expecting. Needing instant communication. So it's like, how do you facilitate that? How do you get these questions answered quickly? How do you make sure that you're in the right place at the right time when they're ready to book? so we've been investing in that with new websites and, some chat functionality and also internal communication because, the guests have more access, because you know they're texting us. How do you make sure that you're able to follow through on all of those things? So that's facilitated a lot too.
David Millili: Yeah.
Steve Carran: That's great. Stacy, I got one more question for you here. If you could give yourself advice when you were first starting out at Tower 23 on how to move up in hotels and in hospitality to now you're the executive vice president, what advice would you give yourself? 
Stacy Warner: I think a great way to move up in a hospitality environment is to work for an independent hotel. We are really lucky, um, we're not hedged in. By a lot of rules or a lot of brand standards. There's very much an entrepreneurial spirit at EDS. So generally if you have an idea and you're willing to execute it, the answer is yes, go for it.
So that gives you a lot of opportunities to, interact with ownership, interact with upper leadership, and really be able to. Make a mark on the guest experience and what's happening from an employee experience, perspective, and it's really fulfilling, I think, to be able to be someone who's making an impact in the day-to-day operation.
David Millili: I love that.
Steve Carran: I love that. Great advice. So Stacy, we've been asking. You questions this whole time. So now we're gonna turn the tables and let you ask David and I a question.
Stacy Warner: Oh, wow. I wasn't expecting that. So thank you for the opportunity. well, what brought you two together?
Steve Carran: Oh, David, you wanna take this one?
David Millili: Yeah, so through very interesting. So through my network, I ended up talking to a venture capital firm that had invested in a startup property management system based out of India. That was India, which was launching in the us. And so I ended up talking to the CEO, became an advisor. Steve was the head of sales.
One of the initiatives was how do we create this brand awareness? And so I said, look, I'm the old guy. I've been at this for like 20 something plus years. Let's do a podcast 'cause I can get guests on and we can leverage that as a way to kind of bring brand awareness. And so, kind of just took off from there.
And then we were fortunate enough, I think that company went back to India and we ended up buying the podcast from them. And that's kind of our story since then. 
Steve Carran: And we've been pushing then David's realized how great his voice is because every time we travel, people are like, your voice is made for radio, and it's great.
David Millili: It's funny, I always tell people it's solar being, I've been dating my wife since 1996. Never got many compliments. But anyway, um, she, we started the posse like, oh, you have a nice voice. I'm like, really? I'm like, it took like 20 something years for you to gimme a compliment. But anyway, I, I hate my own voice, but that's, that's another
Steve Carran: I don't think anybody likes it.
Stacy Warner: Sounds very podcasty.
David Millili: All right. Good.
Stacy Warner: I have a follow up question.
David Millili: Oh,
Stacy Warner: Who's your dream guest?
Steve Carran: I have a few of them. I really want Richard Branson on. I think he would be great. And also Dave Grutman in Miami from Group Hospitality. I really like his background as well. So those are probably two, two of my white whales that eventually I wanna get. David, do you have anybody you wanna add in there?
David Millili: I would say right now I'll change it. 'cause we did a, we did another segment on another episode. But I, I would, I would love to have Conan O'Brien.
Steve Carran: Oh.
David Millili: Just because he, he interviews people he's had a lot of formats, like he's done travel shows where he is traveled to countries and, his current format is kind of a cool setup. He's got two, two side side people there. They very different personalities. So he would probably be someone I think would be a lot of fun to, to interview.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, those are good questions, Stacy. Thank you. So, now we're gonna bring in John, our producer. He's been listening this whole time, so we're gonna kick it over to him for one final question before we get you outta here, Stacy.
Jon Bumhoffer: So, kind of going back to your first, uh, the first segment where you said you got into hotels because you were just a lover of hotels as a kid. I'm curious what, with that in mind, what are your, like what's your top two favorite hotels that are not eat, drink, sleep properties, and then. The second part is what, as somebody who loves hotels and um, is in the industry, what do you learn when you go to a different property or how does that inspire your work and your day-to-day work with Eat.Drink.Sleep. top hotels.
Stacy Warner: I love the park in Palm Springs, and also there's a hotel called the Lennox in Boston that I have a real soft spot for. I got stuck there during a blizzard. The whole city got closed down for three days, and this team was, I mean. We were just stuck there and they were making us cereal and hamburgers and there's no power.
And they were working so hard and it really was just an amazing, I mean, ended up being fun experience. and then as far as what I learned, I mean, I love to stay in hotels. I love seeing the design tricks. I recently stayed at a hotel in New York City and just seeing some of the. Ways they used the space, it really, I mean, we don't have those kind of restrictions necessarily in San Diego or in California space wise, it was really interesting how thoughtful and how intentional they'd been about the space usage. And I think that's a lesson that anyone can bring into a hotel or any developer can bring into a hotel.
And it just felt like whoever had designed that room had. Anticipated my every need. You know, you woke up and the lights like gently turned on and like led me to the bathroom and everything was right where you intuitively expected it to be, and it just felt perfect.
David Millili: Alright, well that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. Stacy, please let people know how they can get in touch with you or find out more about Eat.Drink.Sleep.
Stacy Warner: So you can find out more about us at https://eatdrinkandsleep.net/ , or you can email me directly at swarner@eatdrinksleep.net, or call me. Or I'll be at Bit Tech next week in Sarasota, so we can bump into each other there. Please reach out.
David Millili: All right. That's great. Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Thank you, Stacy.
Stacy Warner: Thanks.