The Modern Hotelier #128: Inside San Antonio's Beautiful Hotel Contessa | with Miguel David
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Steve Carran: Welcome to the modern hotelier. Today we have a special episode for you. We are launching a brand new series called the hotel experience where we give you a behind the scenes look at some of the coolest hotels and talk to some hoteliers that are making a change in hospitality and creating some great guest experiences.
The first episode features Hotel Contessa, a beautiful independent hotel in the heart of San Antonio. Right along the Riverwalk, Miguel David, the director of Sales, gives us a tour and talks about what makes Hotel Contessa special. This series and the full episode is over on YouTube, so we recommend you head over to youtube.com/at the modern hotelier to see the full hotel experience of Hotel Contessa.
We'll leave the link in the show notes. What you're about to hear is a bit of our conversation we had with Miguel David. Enjoy. Welcome to another episode of the Modern Hotelier. We are coming to you from Hotel Contessa in San
Antonio, Texas,
right on the Riverwalk.
We're joined by
Miguel David, the
Director of Sales. Miguel, thank you for joining us.
Miguel David: Well, thank you for having for
all the energy that you're bringing to the hotel.
Steve Carran: Appreciate it. You bet, you bet. So Miguel, I'd like to learn a little bit
more about you. How did you get into hospitality and how long have you been at Hotel Contessa?
Miguel David: I'm going to try to make this a really short story because it's actually long, but I got into hospitality when the movie Father of the Bride came out. I wanted to be Frank. I wanted to be the guy that did all the party planning and then, long story short, I went from culinary to planning, catering, and eventually got myself into group room sales and never left.
I've been in hospitality pretty much since before I went to college. I think this is probably where I'm going to end my entire career.
David Millili: career. That's great. And so take us through some of your main responsibilities here at the hotel.
Miguel David: Well, 
one of my main responsibilities at the hotel, aside from, of course, leading a dynamic and awesome sales team who really makes things easy for me, is really making sure that we are cultivating the right relationships with our customers, with our clients, with the community, and really making sure that we're putting the right kind of business in the hotel.
As an independent hotel, we don't have the luxury of all the other brands where you get leads coming in this way and every way. We have to really find a way to, um, cultivate, well I guess curate the leads that we get and really develop those relationships to make sure that the leads in the business that we're working with and the clients are really the right fit for our hotel.
Steve Carran: I have to ask, everybody I've ran into here since I've been staying here for the past few nights always is in a good mood and they seem to be enjoying themselves. So I gotta ask, what makes Hotel Contessa such a great hotel to work in?
Miguel David: I think that is because of the people here at the hotel. I moved to San Antonio a year ago, specifically for this role. And I told myself I'll probably be here for about a year, year and a half. I just renewed another lease at a new place because I love San Antonio. And a reason I love San Antonio so much is the community and the people.
And the people here in this hotel, it's by far one of the best hotel teams I've ever worked with. People are not just stuck on this is their job. Their job, they understand no matter what their role and their title is, is to make our guests happy. And you see everybody working behind the scenes around the clock for one purpose in mind.
to satisfy all of our guests. And I think that is something that we do with each other, but it's also something that we do with our guests. And I think that's why you experience and you've seen so many people who are happy, because really, we're happy doing what we do.
David Millili: you're creating great guest memories. What are some of your favorite memories so far being here at Hotel Contessa?
Miguel David: Well, again, aside from the people that I work with at Contessa, I think one of my favorite memories is, um, a few months ago I put a project, um, I, I guess we birthed a project. Um, the hotel Contessa gets its name from the beautiful painting that you see in the lobby when you walk in, painted by a local artist.
When I first moved here, I said, there's something missing. I feel like there's a painting, local artists, color, vibrant community. We're right in the heart of everything. We have mariachi playing on Friday nights. We draw events and inspiration from the community, but I felt like there was something missing.
And uh, being an art lover, walking around San Antonio experiencing different art fairs, I met a lot of artists, and eventually had this idea in my head to put an art fair together every last Sunday of the month, that takes place right where we're sitting right now, we have vendors that come, they sell their art, but to take it a step further, It's not just a Sunday art fair.
So the play on words is Sunday art fair, but it's art fair every day because we have about 25 guest rooms upstairs that feature local artists work hanging in the room. So we give the artists a chance to be able to display their work, share their talent with a community with, with guests. And we have guests who come in who may not even leave their hotel rooms, but are already getting immersed in what San Antonio culture is in some of the San Antonio culture through the art.
David Millili: the years. Yeah,
Steve Carran: That's incredible. So 
one 
of my favorite parts about staying here 
is
every 
morning I 
have sat right
by the Riverwalk and had my breakfast.
Miguel David: Did you meet the ducks?
Steve Carran: I did meet the 
Ducks. They are, 
they're pretty friendly. They get close.
but
tell me about that. What makes, you know, having a hotel right, literally right out next to the Riverwalk such a unique experience.
Miguel David: I think what makes it a unique experience is a part of the river walk that we're on. There is a part of the river walk that tends to be a lot busier and a lot more commercial, I would say. And I think our part of the river walk is a lot more serene. It's a lot more peaceful with, um, a lot of movement, but the right kind of movement.
It's a steady pace. It's not a fast, I need to get to the next place kind of pace. It's very steady. It's serene. And I think the backdrop of the trees and the colors really lends itself into what makes this a unique spot on the Riverwalk. And I think also you combine that with a restaurant and the type of food that we offer.
Um, you know, our chef is very proud of, to say that he is, you know, it's Texan cuisine, it's modern Texan fare. But a lot of fresh ingredients that, you know, change from the, the seasons. Um, but of course, influence from, you know, all the travels that he's also had and experiences that around the world. Um, so I think being able to put those two together, you know, you've got the, the tangible product of the food, and then you've got the other side of the product, which is the atmosphere and the environment you're in.
it really makes it an even more unique experience.
Steve Carran: Miguel, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to sit and chat with us for a few minutes.
We really appreciate it. How can people get in touch with you or Hotel Contessa if they're interested in staying here?
Miguel David: Well, if you're interested in staying here, I think the best way to get in touch with us is you can go right to our website. So the hotel contested. com there's a inquiry page. There's an art, you know, you can send an inquiry, send an email, send a message, and those messages are checked every day. They're sent right to us, can call us.
Um, and you can ask for me, ask for the director of sales or ask for the sales team and they'll route the calls right over. And yes, we do answer our phones. We do return our messages and we respond to all of our emails.
Steve Carran: Man, that is great. Great. Well, thank you so much. This was great. Again, coming to you from Hotel Contessa on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. If you're watching or listening, have a great day.
Thanks again for joining us on this episode of the Modern Hotelier. What you just heard was an excerpt from our conversation with Miguel David from Hotel Contessa. Head over to youtube. com backslash at the Modern Hotelier or go to the link in the description to see the full hotel experience video highlighting the beautiful Hotel Contessa.
Thanks for watching or listening and we'll see you at the next one.