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Bruce Jordan: The best piece of advice I ever received was from an executive housekeeper, she told me, If your employees don't see you work, they won't work. standard that you set is who you are, so you have to be the standard that you wanna see. Welcome to the Modern Hotelier. You're presented by Stayflexi. I'm your host, David Millili.

Steve Carran: of Hotels, Bruce 

David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program today?

Steve Carran: 20 years of hotel experience working for brands like Windham Marriott. He worked for IHG Corporate, Hyatt, Hilton, and more. Uh, now he's the managing partner of. Yeah, David. Today we have on the MJ of Hotels, Bruce Jordan. Uh, Bruce has over 20 years of hotel experience working for brands like Windham Marriott.

He worked for IHG Corporate, Hyatt, Hilton, and more. now he's the managing partner of. Hotel Guest management. Bruce is also the host of a hit hotel competition review show called Hotel Management Dues and Don'ts, which a for season is coming soon. And, uh, also for true hotel leaders. Welcome to the show, Bruce.

We're happy to have you.

Bruce Jordan: Ah, thank you. I'm so glad to be here, Man. this is an amazing platform. I, I really enjoy the content. It's amazing.

David Millili: Thanks Bruce. So Bruce, we're gonna go through three sections of the program. We're in the beginning, we're gonna get to know you a little bit better. We're gonna dive into your career, your background, and then we're gonna ask you some questions on what's going on in the industry. Ready?

Bruce Jordan: I'm ready.

David Millili: All right, here we go.

What was your first job?

Bruce Jordan: My first official job was actually at a restaurant called Roy Rogers. I was 15 years old I actually got fired for that job for being 15 years old. you can't start working in New Jersey until you're 16. So they hired me and then say, pay me for two weeks and say, Hey, we gotta let you go.

Come back when you're 16.

David Millili: Double R Burger I worked at with Rogers. It was fantastic.

Bruce Jordan: outta here. That was the only place that had roast beef,

hamburgers, chicken, everything. They had everything. I don't know how they, lost so many franchises

David Millili: I know I don't, I don't wanna get off course this early, but I was the chicken guy. I made the fried chicken and it was, it was, it was great.

Bruce Jordan: yeah, I could tell yours was extra crispy.

Steve Carran: Yeah.

David Millili: Yeah. . So what's the weirdest thing you've ever seen in a hotel? We'll keep moving along the same direction. 

Bruce Jordan: the weirdest, thing ever seen in a hotel was, someone had filled up the, tub with a bunch of chocolate fudge. I guess they had like a chocolate fudged fantasy and, they just went all in only left the $5 tip. So I, you know, the housekeeper was pissed.

David Millili: They were hoping that they liked fudge. who did you admire growing up?

Bruce Jordan: Well, one of, one of, my idols was, Michael Jordan. I mean, he just had all that charisma. He scored other points, and when he wasn't scoring, he knew the pass the ball. So I, I tried to model my career after, Jordan, just in the hotel industry.

David Millili: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received?

Bruce Jordan: The best piece of advice I ever received was from an executive housekeeper, she told me, If your employees don't see you work, they won't work. So I always make sure every day when I come in that I'm, sweeping the floor, I'm cleaning the counter, I'm helping 'em out with the rooms. I'm at the front desk doing check-ins, helping out with guests.

I'll always make sure they see me work because. The standard that you set is who you are, so you have to be the standard that you wanna see.

David Millili: Great advice. There was a person you could switch places for with, for a day. Who would it be?

Bruce Jordan: It will probably be Warren Buffet. I just wanna sit down and read a bunch of reports and, and not have to worry about anything.

David Millili: What's the most unique or random place you've ever visited? Vacation Traveled to?

Bruce Jordan: I would have to say Cancun, Mexico. And the reason why it was unique is because, I'm used to good Mexican food. And, when I went to Cancun, I couldn't find any. So, that was just a little weird. I had to go like into the hood, hood to get some good Mexican food. I'm like, This food is gonna get me.

Steve Carran: Yeah. Was it worth it? Was it good? 

Bruce Jordan: Yeah, it was actually worth it. It wasn't better than Austin though, but it was, it was good.

Steve Carran: Okay.

David Millili: Give us something that's on your bucket list,

the number one thing that's on my bucket list or right now is to get to number one on the star report for the market that I just acquired right now, which is a little new to me, but right now I'm at number two, so I'm not too far away.

David Millili: Outside of bathtubs filled with fudge, what scares you?

Bruce Jordan: What scares me the most is when an employee calls out on my shift,

David Millili: Right, what's something you wish you were better at?

something I wish I was better at was, leadership, like strategic leadership. making employees feel great and making employees feel special. You know, for us, especially in the hospitality industry, that comes natural because we do it, for guests, but being able to place the chess pieces.

Bruce Jordan: Where they need to go, where you're seeing five, six moves ahead. You know, that's, a challenge. Right now. I can see two or three moves ahead, but if I can see all these moves coming, that'll be great.

David Millili: Is there a secret talent that you have that nobody know?

Bruce Jordan: Yes, yes. There's a very secret talent I have. I can give myself goosebumps on command. It can be 100 degree weather outside, and I can give myself goosebumps. So,

Steve Carran: I gotta ask, how'd you find that out?

David Millili: Yeah.

Bruce Jordan: it was an accident. I found out when I been, I've been able to do it since I was a little kid. I was in martial arts class and they was teaching you how to channel your cheat and punch stronger and kick stronger. And they said focus. And when I started focusing, I started getting myself goosebumps.

Steve Carran: So, uh,Wow,

David Millili: Wow, that's 

Bruce Jordan: Yeah. 

David Millili: If you could pick a superpower, you get one power, what would it be?

Bruce Jordan: The power to read minds, I'll probably be a

professor Xavier. Yeah. Cuz long as I know what everybody's thinking, I know exactly how to handle the situation.

David Millili: That's cool. You're the first person to say that at all the guests. That's pretty cool. 

Steve Carran: so Bruce, this is where we kind of get to learn a little bit about your background a little bit, who you are. so where did you grow up?

Bruce Jordan: I grew up in New Jersey in a small, little urban town inside of Union County. it wasn't the best town. let me tell you, everybody say urban when they really mean to say it's ghetto, but they're just trying to be nice. Yeah, that's, that's why I grew up. it was a, an amazing experience.

but you know, when you grow up in those type of towns, a good side because it makes you really strongly fast and the downside it makes you really. Insensitive, to a lot of situations. So like, think about it, I'm like, seeing a shootout on my way home, leaving school.

so when someone says, Oh, I got a paper cut, you're like, Man, I was dodging bullets and you playing about paper cut.

Steve Carran: Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna ask how that shaped you, but it, you kind of answered it already. It's like kind of puts life in perspective, right? I, I guess like kind of the things you saw weren't normal , guess.

Bruce Jordan: For sure, for sure.

we might know the answer to this already based off of your, title, but what did you want to be when you were a kid why'd you wanna be.

Bruce Jordan: actually what I wanted to be wast an attorney, the problem is I'm extremely honest,

David Millili: yeah, 

Bruce Jordan: so I knew that wasn't gonna work for me.

Steve Carran: What was one of your biggest challenges growing up in life?

my biggest challenge was probably my mom put me up for adoption when I was like four years old. I was in foster care for about two, three years. My mom just had to get some things together. so once she got me back outta foster care, things was a little bit smoother. But of course we still had some, tough times.

Bruce Jordan: But that, foster her was absolutely terrible. I don't know I was probably better off in the kennel, like like, but. I was better than the dog kid than foster care. Like, there it is just ridiculous. Like, I can't believe some of the, some of the, I mean, I don't like how do you qualify these people?

I watched one of my foster parents, take a bucket of boiling hot water and made, one of the other foster kids, drink it and shove soap down his throat while he was drinking a boiling hot water. it was just a 

nightmare. 

David Millili: Wow. 

Steve Carran: That's tough.do you have a passion right now, I should say? Outside of hospitality? Is there a hobby or something that you like to do when you're getting away from work?

Bruce Jordan: But believe it or not, my hobby is a photography and videography. what I love about videography is especially when you're editing and shooting, you're painting your own picture and Adobe Premier is my canvas. So there's so many things that I can do and, and change and, you know, to make a, an amazing experience, for everyone to look after.

Steve Carran: you've obviously come a long way from, from where you started. Did you have a mentor, either growing up or, or even currently throughout this process?

actually one of my first mentors, his name was John, John Beki, uh, when I was growing up. and he showed me that, Hey, you don't need to sell drugs or any of that stuff. be successful was like, he was just an average, average white guy that, I don't know why he lived in my neighborhood, but he was an average white guy, took the train to work, came home, he was a computer programmer, he was pretty frugal, which is explains why he lived in my neighborhood.

yeah, he was, one of my first mentors and my, second mentor was Steve Porter when I was at, uh, IHG Corporate. he let me know. Hey, we're the CEOs, but we are also the leaders and, leaders need to train their people and leaders need mentors. So he, established a mentorship program, for the people that were, you know, mid-level management.

Bruce Jordan: And, we were able to take part in that program. I was one of the people that was able to take part of that program. so those two mentors really helped me a lot in my career.

Steve Carran: Awesome. well now we'll learn a little bit more, kind of on that segue, learn a little bit more about your, career. at your first paying. Was in the H Hotel in New Jersey. what made you enter into the hotel world?

Bruce Jordan: You know, I started off in the hotel industry as a temp. Yeah, I started off at attempt doing accounts payables, and within a year I was promoted to chief Accountant, so they hired me on full-time. I did accounts payables, I did accounts receivables. I did, income audit. after that, the system controller left and they, pretty much say, Hey, this is gonna be your show, so you gotta run it.

Steve Carran: Wow. So you got thrown in right away? Pretty

Bruce Jordan: Yeah, Yeah, it was a little tough because, uh, people were quitting because I was really, really young. I was probably like 20, 21, and my peers or my staff, they were well into their forties and they were like, I'm not working for this young kid. But the good thing is I knew how to do all their jobs, so I just, you know, just worked a little bit more hours,

Steve Carran: There you go. There you go.

David Millili: Yeah, so from that job, Being a controller at the Crown Plaza, how did that prepare you to be a gm? at the days in. How did that prepare you?

Bruce Jordan: I love the being a gm, at the days in because one is select service and two, you. have to know everything and do everything. So I took all my accounting experience and my operation experience that I got from Hilton, and I threw that into the days in with, no problem. So there was one point in time, like, and you know, this is Cain, Florida, Those one point in time that we were charging $350 a night and booking it with no, problem.

So 

yeah. 

Steve Carran: How did you like being a gm? was that an easy transition for you or was that, did it take a little time?

Bruce Jordan: being a GM anywhere is, never easy. especially when it's a failing property, because it requires a lot of grit and gut and, like I said before, you gotta set the standard so, A lot of employees that are there, they really never seen true leadership or they never seen leadership by example.

They're just used to someone sitting at a desk barking orders at them all day long. So when they see someone that can literally do their job physically, that changes their perspective because if I'm out working you. And I'm paying you to work . What am I paying you for?

Steve Carran: Yep. A 

gap.

Bruce Jordan: So they know they have to step their game up because I, I have no problem doing 16 hour shifts or 20 hour shifts.

It's, I've done it before. I'll do it tomorrow if I active. if I'm outperforming you, you probably wanna reevaluate your position.

Steve Carran: It's that Michael Jordan mentality right there. 

Bruce Jordan: There you go. There you go.

David Millili: you took a break for a couple years. You came back for the, banon, hotels and micro suites. what made you come back? Like, I mean, a lot of people leave the industry obviously recently, specifically, and don't come back. What made you come back?

Bruce Jordan: Well, one thing I didn't like, especially when, when Covid hit, is I didn't like the direction our industry was going in. everybody was pretty much, singing the same. SOB story one thing that I realized is that it wasn't the fact that. They didn't know what to do, it's just that they didn't have the tools, got these people out here that are, trying to change an engine with the screw driver.

Of course you need more tools in that. So, uh,I say, you know what, let just give some of my, tools that I have, to the industry and maybe that'll help point, the industry in the right direction. So that's one of the main reasons that made me get back in the game, cuz I just didn't like the direction it was going in.

Steve Carran: That's awesome. And then when you were at banning hotels, you doubled hotel revenue within five months and also increased occupancy from 52 to 79%. You implemented a front desk sales training. Program, and then you increase the revenue score from 2.5 to 3.8 on Google and 2.0 to 4.0 on TripAdvisor.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that, hotel, kind of what state it was in and what that experience was like transitioning it to, I guess, be successful?

Bruce Jordan: Well that, hotel was a, it used to be an extended state property that had a really rough crowd. Okay, so you have to take that property and turn into a viable product. Mind you, it had a, endless renovation. , I'm not sure if you ever experienced a endless renovation. It's like, that construction work that's on a, in a DC area on a, on 95, it's never done.

It's been working on it for 20 years. We're almost there, Just gives us another 20 years. and that's what that was like, at that property. So mind you, you're going through a renovation trying to get all these rooms up. You're trying to improve the quality, and then of course you need to increase the revenues.

And when you go in, you're, you're usually not going in with the best team. So you have to take a F, or D team and turn them into a and b. Why you're making all these changes. So that's what the, most difficult part was, having to weed out the people. I know that they can make it versus the people that like, listen, this was a crazy ghetto roach motel before, and this is the way I'm gonna keep it as the employee.

You ain't gonna tell me what the deal like. Yeah, that's, that's not gonna happen. Stay home. Don't come back. The good thing is Florida's in an at will state and I sure fired at Will 

Steve Carran: did you bring in a whole kind of new team or, or kind of a core of a new team to, change the attitude.

yeah. Well, after I got rid of a lot of people, one of the things that really helped me out was that I, started outsourcing housekeeping instead of hiring my own housekeepers, I start, uh, outsourcing it to a company. So when I, didn't like somebody, I just say, Yeah, don't bring that person back.

Bruce Jordan: And I didn't have to worry about unemployment

David Millili: Smart.

Steve Carran: was there a secret or anything that, that you really did that really stuck out for turning around that hotel?

Bruce Jordan: Yeah, the revenue management in the marketing and hotel was God. Awful.

And the reason why it was God awful was because in, in the beginning it was done by the owners who was like a stock trader. So I guess he thought it was going to be like, just like the stock market, like, Oh yeah, we're gonna be here this day.

we have a hundred rooms. Let's lower the price so we can. be sold out. You have one room left. He lowers the price so he could be sold out. He, he has like a thousand rooms. He hires the price so he could get more money. it was just a nightmare. Revenue management was a nightmare.

Bruce Jordan: So I said, let me take this off your hands for,you because I got a better strategy that may, work out a little bit better.

Steve Carran: There you go. There you go. after that, you got a little bit of reputation. You, you got the nickname, the MJ of hotels, and then you became managing partner at, hotel guest management. And then you started, you know, growing your YouTube channels as well with the shows we mentioned before.

And your podcast. Last year was ranked, I think number 14 in the industry. So, what made you decide to go out on your own after that?

Bruce Jordan: Well, I seen that I, I still had a lot to give because, I guess I came, so popular because even though I'm a positive person, there's a lot of people that beat me yet positivity, like. I'm not gonna outperform Craig Pool when it comes to positivity or, Glen or Craig Sullivan, because they, they just got me beat.

They have my number when it comes to positivity. But, so I say, You know what, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna be number one at keeping it real, gonna keep it real. I'm gonna give it to him raw. And, I guess it just resonated with the audience because they were going through that every day. At work. they couldn't use the bathroom because they were so overwhelmed with meetings, and employee issues and problems. they got tired of all the tens of thousands of meetings. You're, you're in the middle covid, revenues are going down. you're having staffing issues.

and the management companies and owners, they want to have 10 meetings a day. Like, how you gonna run a hotel if I'm stuck at a meeting, after meeting, after meeting every day. And then a, a lot of the hotels, they, a lot of 'em are starting to implement the revenue management software, which is a great guide.

but you really don't wanna rely on it 100% and it seems like it was taking two times the amount of work to enter the information into the software versus doing it manually. So all their time is being sucked away by the time they get home. They just dive in bed with their clothes on. But

Bruce Jordan: Wake up, take a shower, chase clothes, and then go back to work. You know, working seven days a week,

David Millili: with hotel guest management and focusing on building revenue, streamlining operations, increasing, you know, the reviews, there a certain type of hotel that you like to work with and how do you help the hotels that you work with? What's kind of one of some of your secret sauce?

Bruce Jordan: Well, I love, working with value add properties. And underperformer properties. And the reason why is cuz no matter what I do is gonna look good, but we're starting to get those properties that like, oh, right, listen, we look at the numbers and like you're looking at a 10, 15% increase in, in revenue, you're, you're not gonna see double digits or you're not gonna see a, a 50% increase. So we're starting to see. properties well. But my specialty is turning around failing properties in, terrible markets.

Steve Carran: And how do you, how do you do that? what are some steps you take to turn around a failing property?

Bruce Jordan: The market is key. you see a lot of properties start to go south. It's because leadership lose their hustle. Okay? You can, teach skills. There's two things that's very difficult to teach responsibility and hustle. Hustle has learned from people being around you, seeing how you work, seeing how you flow, and having an initiative and drive to pick it up and go out there and get the business.

So you see a lot of hotels, leadership, they lose their hustle because they they're really not being held accountable, especially in this day and age where you're scared to just lose the employee. I could tell you this much, the employee that I had in, 2019, the ones that I have right now, Run circles, circles around them.

the quality of employee isn't as good as it used to be unless you were able to keep all your employees after covid. so that's number one is, hustle. You have to get out there, you have to grind, and you have to get it.

Steve Carran: So now here we'll talk a little bit more about kinda your industry thoughts, speaking about what we were talking about. What's your advice for somebody who's just starting out in the industry?

Bruce Jordan: Someone who's just started out in the industry, they have to be able to do every single position that's out there. Don't say no to anything. Don't. If they say, Hey, I want you to work housekeeping for a day. You get to learn housekeeping for free, okay? You get to learn operations for free. If they want you to help out with maintenance, you get to learn maintenance for free.

Do you know how much maintenance men make in New York? You have the opportunity to learn it without taking a course, without paying for a course. They want you to work the front desk. Anything they want you to do, do not turn down the opportunity to learn. 

David Millili: I agree with you a hundred percent. So my first job, like you, I was a, busboy at the Hyatt in Pittsburgh. my food and beverage director transferred to Princeton. I grew up outside of Philly, so I went home for the summer and he said, Come over, I'll get you a job.

And he took me in hr. And said, Give this guy 40 hours a week. And I worked everything Banquets host. There was a catcher, Rising Star Comedy Club. I was barback, I did room service, I was Pool Boy. I was getting paid for it. And it was like the greatest, summer for me as, a professional.

Cause I, got to experience everything and get paid for it. So it was great. So I agree with you. Hundred.

Bruce Jordan: Now imagine you take that experience to your next hotel. you're worth more now because now you know. You're already developed, so of course you're gonna command a higher price.

Steve Carran: Have you seen a trait in folks that, you know, you've, worked with countless, folks in the hotel world. Have you seen a trait in, in, those successful folks that maybe they, they all share or of 'em share?

Bruce Jordan: were all hungry.

they were all hungry. there's one trait that I see that I don't like, that's the, people that they wanna be the gm, but they don't wanna be a GM when it's time to do what GMs have to do. see, everybody, Everybody wants to be GM on payday.

Nobody wants to be a GM when you got three callouts in a row. Nobody wants to be a GM when the news is called. And you have to speak, to the PR person. You gotta speak to the media, okay? Nobody wants to be a GM when you have to lay off 10, 15, 20 people, at a time because of c or because of a renovation or, or whatever the case may be.

Everybody wants to be at GM on payday, but nobody wants to be at GM when it's time to do what a GM has to do.

you know, especially on LinkedIn, and we've talked about it today. yeah, everyone's talking about labor issues. during Covid, post covid, what's the biggest challenge you think outside of labor that's facing the industry right now?

Bruce Jordan: Technology. Which is why I love your platform so much. I love the UX designs. I develop a hotel software myself, and we are so far behind.

If Jesus came back today, he will be able to use Marriott's products. He would need no training. , he would be able to use Fosse, he would be able to use Marsha.

If Jesus came back today, he would get behind that front desk and say, Hey, I remember this from when I was here before. So.

I mean, it's amazing because, um, when I switched from being a GM to the, tech side and you start talking to people, it was, crazy. another quick funny story. So I'm a good friend Anthony, Mel Curry. He was still on property when I left to start my first tech company, and it was a booking.

David Millili: he said to me, What are you doing? He said, Nobody's gonna put their credit card on the internet. I think I've done that. So, so, you know, he, You made an excellent point, but how do you think hotels should be using technology to drive more revenue?

Bruce Jordan: Listen especially with the, with the tags and everything else, one thing I always recommend, especially when it comes to, marketing, is you want to download. Your reservations, you have the telephone numbers, you have the email address, and what you usually do is you'll take it and split it up in quarters because the biggest mistake you can make is download all your reservations and then market everything together throughout the whole year.

You gotta remember that different guests are coming in different seasons, so you wanna market to those same guests because nine times outta 10, they're coming back in that season that they was there for before. So I usually split it up into different quarters.

download my whole database and upload that into Facebook for a retargeting program for that quarter. So this way I can target similar guests, for that quarter because if they're coming there for that reason, more than likely a similar guest, it will also be coming during that time period as well.

So using technology for marketing is, one great way to get the increased revenues and get more gas.

Steve Carran: So every, quarter you're just targeting the same types of folks on Facebook or other social networks that were, ready there.

Bruce Jordan: Correct. 

Steve Carran: Very smart. do you have any secrets on how to help a hotel that might be losing revenue or they wanna make more revenue? Any, any secrets you wanna give away?

Bruce Jordan: look at your reservations. The times that they're coming in, everyone has like this max window. for some people it's from four to six. For some people it's from, 7:00 AM to 12. PM they have this, time period that their reservations are being booked at a peak and at that time, that's where you decide if you're gonna lower your rate or increase your rate.

The good thing about the hotel industry, and why it's so easy for me to be, is because everybody was trained to do the same. if they have like 10 or 15 rooms left, they're about to be sold out, what's the first thing to do?

Oh, we're gonna, take all of our, uh, listings down, and we're not gonna show our reservations and our, rooms inside of the OTAs. I love that because now I'm the only one on there. So now I can go ahead and increase my price. Let all the other idiots that don't know what they're doing, you know, uh, sell out and I'm the only guy with rooms.

they're closing out their rules cause they don't wanna pay the commission. And I gotta increase my rates and add the commission that I'm gonna pay in it. And there you go.

David Millili: So we've hit on this technology. So if there was one area, if you had, you. Your budget, the last place you could spend money, what would you spend that money on? There was one area that you just, you had, a couple thousand dollars left in your budget you could spend, where would you spend it?

Bruce Jordan: I'd probably split it. but if it was just one area, I'd definitely focus on market.

that's what 90% of the hotels lose. They just don't know how to market. So I put all of that money into marketing.

David Millili: what's a trend that's happening now that you think's here to stay? Something that we, that hotels weren't doing five years ago, they're doing today, and it's just gonna keep going on.

Bruce Jordan: Self checking, self checking isn't going anywhere. It's just gonna grow. so many people are used to the, Airbnb and, and, the home chair program they're used to not dealing with the front desk so much. So as the old people like me start to move out out of that zone, the younger population is gonna come in that's all they're gonna want to do. Like, even right now we have a texting program and guests are texting us saying, Hey, I wanna extend another night. I need towels.

Which means they don't want to get up and come to the front desk and talk to someone. So you're, you're gonna see a lot more of that, and that's not going anywhere.

Steve Carran: do you think that that the whole check-in process is gonna evolve over time? do you kind of have a, have a thoughts of how that is gonna evolve?

eventually you're just gonna see front desk agents, just like we're talking to, to each other right now. front desk is gonna be work from home. Like, cuz only thing they need to do is, oh, if they wanna talk someone, all they gotta do is hit a button and say, Hey, it's a video.

Bruce Jordan: I'm here. So that, that's eventually what you're gonna see. it's gonna be a very different position.

David Millili: we've talked about this a lot, with previous guests, but why do you think it is that, as the guest, they book their Uber through an app? They go to the airport, they check in with an app or on their using their phone, but then hotels somehow still think that guests don't want to use their phone when they're on property.

Why do you think that is?

Bruce Jordan: it's the hotel Illuminati. They control the world. I can't talk too much about it because I may get canceled, but yeah, it is a hotel. Little

David Millili: Yeah, 

Bruce Jordan: these are the same people that saying, You know what, F and Marsha, it's not that bad. We can stick it out.

this is the problem. When, when you have the leaders at the top, they're not engaged. with the people that's actually doing the work. So since it's not their problem, it's not a problem.

Steve Carran: Any advice for somebody who might be in a position like that, who's like, Man, our guests keep asking for mobile. Check it, and we just don't want to go there. Like, any advice for somebody who's in that position?

Bruce Jordan: Yes. Don't be afraid to get fired

Because when? When that, guy comes down. The first thing everybody does is they don't say anything cuz they don't wanna lose their job. so you can't be afraid to get fired. You have to speak up. Like, this is the problem that we haven't, this is the solution.

I think we need to take another look at this. But if nobody says nothing, they're just gonna keep thinking that everything's okay. So they're not gonna change anything.

David Millili: I mean, I think there's, both sides that have to change. Um,I think it's the tech companies and the. hotel companies or Hotelier because, you know, just like you were saying with the text messaging, I had seen a demo I won't name the platform, but it was a texting platform and the guy giving me the demo I was asking, I said, Oh, well, can I just set it up so it responds to some of these common questions?

And the guy said, No, we don't wanna do that because we want it to be personalized because in hospitality. And I said, Yeah, but I just wanted, if somebody asked for the wifi password, I just wanted to respond with that. Or somebody asked what time's checkout. So, I don't know what your thoughts, but I know we've, we've kind of beat this to death, but why are Hotelier resistant in some of these tech companies to just to let AI kind of do other industries let it do

Bruce Jordan: The number one reason is budget. they felt like it's too expensive and they can't afford another penny,when it comes to expenses, but they wanna see their revenues increase, which is kind of weird cuz order to make money, you gotta spend money. So I'm like, and it's all about the guest experience, so, a lot of hotels are cutting back on a guest experience to try to save a penny, which leaves rooms for people like me to come in there and blow 'em out the water.

but That's

the number one reason I think is, cost. And the number two reason, I think is they just don't understand because they're not involved enough in the operation. So if it doesn't make them more money, if it costs enough more money, And it doesn't increase the guest experience like a hundred full for them.

To them is, it's not worth spending that extra $2, of room

to get it done.

Steve Carran: kind of speaking on this technology front, how do you think, or do you think the metaverse NFTs, blockchain are, do you think that's gonna affect hospitality 

Bruce Jordan: it may initially, but only thing I really, that really scares me about that is the government. The government doesn't like anything that it can't control. So when once it has something that has it can't control the first thing it does, it, it has this, spam on there where they, uh, plagiarize it.

The deaths, say it's, it is terrible. It's awful. Stay away from it. the next thing they'll do after that is they'll come out with their own, version. So now I think the government is about to, to launch its own version of cryptocurrency. so where would that leave the, the rest of, Bitcoin and everything else?

And with NFTs, you get to set, set your terms. So let's say if I sell a book and it's an nft, if I sell a book without a nft, it sells. Once someone can resell it, I get nothing. If I sell as a nft, every time it sells, I get paid. So, How that will work in hotels. I don't know, but I, it is gonna be very interesting to see, how this whole thing evolves.

Steve Carran: Do you think NFTs could be incorporated into hotel loyalty? Where, there's only a certain number and there's only like 3000 nft, only 3000 loyal hotel members, and, basically that could drive up the price. If this hotel is a very, popular or something like that, do you think that would ever be a play?

Bruce Jordan: That would be a great idea. I will, I will love to see something like that in the future. But the problem with rewards guests is the expense. So if anything that's gonna reduce the expense, a program that I reduce the expense for the hotel, you can see hotels looking at it thoroughly. only problem that I have, is that it's gonna be hard to get the f.

to move on that because they make a little piece off of that rewards program as well, so they would literally be coing theirselves out of a deal. And I just don't know too many franchises that's willing to do that.

Steve Carran: Totally true. fair.

David Millili: Yeah. Well, that actually it brings us to the end. I would tell you something, Bruce. This is one of our, shorter ones, but it was definitely quality over quantity. really enjoyed, talking to you and I thought you gave us some great insight. And, this is where we'd like you to kind of plug away, tell people where they can find you, your company, the MJF Hotels.

how do they get to you to work with you?

Bruce Jordan: Oh yeah, you can go hotel youtube.com. That'll take you directly to my YouTube channel. you can find me on LinkedIn. you could also email me at bruce hotel guest management.com. And, if you have any selling properties or just needed some, good hotel marketing, just, give us a shout out.

David Millili: Well, we loved having you. That ends another episode of the Modern Hotelier. You're presented by Stayflexi. we appreciate you Bruce, and uh, thanks for joining.

Bruce Jordan: you. It was a pleasure,