The Modern Hotelier #96: Improving Team Communication & Overcoming Language Barriers in Hospitality | with Derek Pando
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Steve Carran: We are excited to release this episode with Derek Pando from Relay. David, what was one of your favorite takeaways from this episode?
David Millili: I never knew how much a lawn mowing business at 15 could influence your career. I thought it was fantastic his take on just his drive and, and, and his commitment. And I think it's a great company and I love what they're doing, especially with the translations.
Steve Carran: I agree. I agree. And that hospitality report they came out with for the first year, man, some really great insights. Um, I'm excited to see how this report not only grows next year, but down the road as well. Some really valuable information from this. So enjoy the episode.
David Millili: Enjoy.
 Welcome to The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged hospitality podcast. I'm your host, David Millili.
Steve Carran: I'm your co host, Steve Carran.
David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program today?
Steve Carran: Yeah, David. Today we have on Derek Pando. Derek is an entrepreneurial marketer with over 10 years experience in product marketing, leadership, and international strategy. Derek is the Director of Product Marketing at Relay and was brought on to build out the product marketing and content marketing function across all of Relay's products during this hyper growth phase.
Welcome to the show, Derek. We're happy to have you.
Derek Pando: Thank you. I'm really excited to be here and grateful for the chance to get to know you guys better. I'm excited.
David Millili: All right, great. So we're gonna go through a couple of areas. We're gonna go through a lightning round. going to get to know you from your background, your career, and then we're going to jump into some industry topics. Sound good?
Derek Pando: Sounds great.
David Millili: All right. What was your first job?
Derek Pando: I had a lawn mowing business from like 14 to when I went to college. So mowing people's lawns in the heat of the Texas heat.
David Millili: What's something you wish you were better at?
Derek Pando: Oh man, I wish I was more handy around the house. We became a homeowner in the last four years and. I'm always like, man, I wish I knew how to do this instead of paying someone else out the nose for it.
David Millili: What's a luxury you can't live without?
Derek Pando: Luxury, I can't live without. Oh, that's a good one. Um, I really like, um, I really, oh man, you guys, you stumped, you stumped me this early. Wow, uh, luxury I can't live without. Um, I think just like a really comfortable comforter on a bed is something I can definitely, uh, say is, is that for me.
David Millili: What's a place you've never been to that you'd most like to go?
Derek Pando: You know, right now I've been thinking a lot about Alaska.
David Millili: What's a superpower you wish you had? Yeah,
Derek Pando: flying, hands down.
David Millili: okay, cool. So if you had your own late night talk show. Who would you choose to be your first guest?
Derek Pando: My first guest? You know, I'd probably choose a comedian I like, like Nick Bargatze, uh, or Nate, Nate Bargatze. Uh, yeah.
David Millili: All right, cool. All right.
Derek Pando: You know where I was going with that. Yeah.
David Millili: This is the last one of this round. If you had a time machine, are you going to the future? Are you going to the past? And if so, what year are you going to?
Derek Pando: Oh, I think I would love to see, like, the untouched, unspoiled American West. Uh, I don't know how far I'd have to go back, and I wouldn't want to stay there, because that sounds like a savage place, but I'd love to see, you know, those parts of the country before it, uh, you know, was developed and modernized.
David Millili: right, cool.
Steve Carran: That's a great answer. Great answer. That was great. Now we're going to learn a little bit more about you. What makes you tick? So like you said, you grew up in Texas. Is that right?
Derek Pando: That's correct. Yeah.
Steve Carran: did that shape you into who you are today? I
Derek Pando: Well, you know, it's funny you asked about my first job because I think that lawn business really has probably had an outsized impact on my professional career because I learned You know, uh, selling and customer service and doing a good job and how to work when you don't feel like working and, and all those, all those good things.
So I, I feel like my, you know, ability to like take something from zero to start, was really nurtured when I learned how to take my little lawn mowing business from something my dad wanted me to do to something that could help pay for college.
Steve Carran: love that.
David Millili: That's great. And so you majored in political science and you got your master's in marketing at BYU, then your master's in public administration from Harvard Kennedy. Give us some insight how you chose those schools, how you chose those majors.
Derek Pando: Yeah, I, you know, I, I have, I have a, a very expensive interest and that is, uh, lots of education. I, I, I tell my wife, like, I don't golf, like, you're good, like, that's not gonna take a lot of time or money, but I have this expensive interest, which is, uh, grad school and education, but I, I think it came from, like, um, a, uh, just always a belief that education is, is, uh, You know a wonderful thing and I've always enjoyed it and I have varied interests as you can tell I studied political science and then did an MBA and was marketing focused and then later went back to study public service, but Yeah, a lot of that has just come down to you know I've wanted to find different opportunities to learn and nurture different interests at different stages of my career and I Education has been one way that I've tried to do that. 
Steve Carran: I love that. So you mentioned your lawn mowing business. Is it, you, you, you're big on the entrepreneurial side of things. Is that kind of where you got bit by the entrepreneurial bug or was it something before that where uh, that kind of bit ya?
Derek Pando: No, it was absolutely the lawn business because I looked around and at like 15, I was making three times as much money as all my friends and half the time and I could set my own schedule and I started hiring my friends and I just thought, wow, this, uh, this is nice. Like for me, like that was a much more attractive option than the other things that were available to me.
And also just gave me confidence, you know, to like interact with, uh, people directly and how to, when something goes wrong, um, what to do. I had a case where I was weed whacking and It picked up a rock and it shattered the back of a window of the car of one of my clients. And I had to think, what am I going to do?
So I actually, I was like, you know, I'm just going to tell him and then offer to pay for it. So I knock on his door and I say, Hey, I shattered your window. And, um, if you get it fixed, let me know how much it is. And I'll write you a check. And the guy had his jaw dropped. At first I thought it was because He, I shattered his window, but later I think it was because a 15 year old was offering to write him a check for however much it costs for something he broke, you know, and that was, that was something I learned, through, uh, lots of experiences like that.
Steve Carran: Very cool, and I have one more question here, and this is just, this is actually off script a little bit, but I, when I was doing my research about you, you seem to have a passion for the International Rescue Committee, and I just wanted to kind of see where that came from and kind of where, how you got involved with them.
Derek Pando: Wow, man, Steve, you do your homework. I'm impressed. Well, so I, so my, my father was born in Cuba and he came to the U S in the sixties, um, essentially fleeing communism. And so I think that experience and that family experience has always made me have a more, um, I don't know, a clearer view of. People in those challenging situations and also like a downstream view of what your life can be like when people make, you know, make sacrifices and are able to kind of, uh, adapt in new, in new countries where there's greater, you know, opportunities and greater freedoms and things like that.
And so that, that's a big reason why, you That's been my charity of choice the last few years. I've done fundraisers for it around my birthday and things like that. Um, and then I also think, you know, if we read what's happening in the news, there's always something going on that's displacing a lot of people, uh, that has nothing to do with decisions that they've made or wanted to, uh, you know, be displaced.
And so that, that's, that's why it's something near and dear to my heart.
Steve Carran: That's great. Love that. Love to hear that. So now that we've learned a little bit more about, you gonna get, we're gonna get to how you got to where you are today. So, um, your first few jobs were in kind of these larger tech companies, Salesforce, LinkedIn, zoom. What did you learn from these larger tech companies that helps you in your current role today at Relay?
Derek Pando: Well, I'll say when I joined Zoom, it was not large. It was actually not that much bigger than Relay. It was about a hundred million in revenue, uh, 500 employees. Um, but yeah, I think, you know, I, I think in every company you work for, you learn of like really good things and maybe some things that you would not do going forward.
But I think in both those earlier companies you mentioned, what I learned is like solving real pain, having, you know, deep, uh, customer care, interest, and, and obsession. And I tried to take those things as I've started to work on kind of earlier and earlier stage, companies. And that's what I've looked for.
I've looked for companies that are focused on creating, you know, creating value and that they really are, you know, obsessed with listening to their customers, adapting and improving based on their customers feedback. And that's a lot of what eventually led me to Relay.
David Millili: And so you were the founder and CEO and now advise BELO. Can you tell us how this idea came about and the story behind that company?
Derek Pando: Sure. So yeah, um, you know, a couple of years ago, actually during the pandemic, my kids kept coming up to me and asking me to print stuff off. And I thought, Oh, that's such a great thing that they want to, you know, instead of asking me to play, you know, video games or watch TV, they're asking me to do something that I saw as a parent, that's what I want them to spend more time doing.
And so Beeloo was a little startup that I launched that, nurtured that and made it easier for parents and use different software and AI to make it easier to have, you know, hundreds of variations of crossword puzzles and coloring pages and things like that. So, uh, that, that was what I was doing 
directly before I joined, uh, Relay about a year ago. 
David Millili: great.
Steve Carran: great. And now you are the Director of Product Marketing at Relay. Can you tell us a little bit more what you're responsible for in that role? And for those that might not be familiar, a little bit more about what Relay does.
Derek Pando: Sure. Yeah, so Relay, we are a next generation communication device, um, most commonly, you know, replacing radios for, for two way communication, but instead of a big bulky radio, it operates a lot more, uh, like, uh, your soft, uh, like your, your smartphone with, you know, location, uh, GPS tracking and software based controls and, you know, you can create hundreds of channels and a lot of the things that have really kind of, you know, Plagued modern radios, especially in the hospitality industry, uh, have been areas that we've been, you know, improving and with our, our apps and also our, our devices.
but, uh, your, uh, question about, you know, my specific role, um, I got, I got brought in to kind of, as, as we've been growing, you kind of hit a stage where it's like, Hey, we need someone that really thinks about, our, our customers and can create, uh, different materials, a lot of it marketing wise.
Adds value beyond just like, Hey, we have a product and it's awesome. And so, uh, you know, we're gonna talk about that, you know, we're gonna talk about the hospitality report, but that was one of our first major, major, pieces of content that we invested in that was really like, Hey, we wanna contribute to the discussion that's happening in the industry and we wanna be a part of it.
Of course, we wanna everyone to know who Relay is, but with our viewpoint of. Uh, with having so many customers in the hospitality industry and so much unique data, we want to start sharing more of that, information with, uh, with the world and with the industry and hopefully contribute and help make the industry more informed and, uh, overall.
So that's really a lot of what my mandate is, is to, uh, you know, do research and create content that, uh, supports our customers, With communication challenges, but also with many other kinds of challenges that they may have.
David Millili: Great. And is there anything coming up, new products that excite you that you can share, that you're you're excited about that are going to be rolling out this year or even next year? Yeah,
Derek Pando: is our next generation of hardware devices. Now, you know, it is designed, uh, specifically for like really tough environments, uh, where, you know, it's going to get beaten up and it's going to get wet and it's extremely loud. Um, and so.
There are some environments within the hospitality industry where that's the case, like engineering teams, sometimes security teams. They are just super tough on, you know, the devices they use. And so, you know, this was born from what we've heard from customers across the many segments that we serve. And we're really excited about it.
Hardware takes a long time and is, and it's tough. And so any, anytime you're a company that 
announces a new hardware device, it's a really big moment. So we've been excited to share it with everyone. 
Steve Carran: how many different products do you all have now? do you have three, four, do you have?
Derek Pando: Yeah, well, I would say, I would say like from like a core product perspective, this is really our, our second, uh, we have the RelayPlus devices, which are used to communicate and also the two in one panic button. And then well, we just announced the RelayX is kind of the, another kind of physical device.
Now within kind of the ecosystem, we have, you know, apps that, that work with it, and we have other kind of infrastructure pieces like Bluetooth beacons that help you have. You know, indoor location tracking and things like that. but I'd say that those are kind of considered our, our 
two, you know, main, product lines, 
Steve Carran: Sure, sure. And you have the real time translation too, don't 
Derek Pando: we do. Yes. Yeah. That was the other one I was maybe, maybe going to mention, but yeah, we, uh, earlier this year we launched a real time translation within all of our devices, in application, uh, which has been really exciting.
David Millili: It was funny because we talked about this at high tech and I was laughing and I was gonna say can I borrow these because I'm going to my wife's mother's 70th birthday in Dominican Republic. So I was the one, I was the one gringo and everybody was most, a lot of the people that were there were local and didn't speak, you know, they spoke English, but I was like, wow, if I had that thing, that'd be really cool if I could just like sync up with people.
But anyway, that was a funny thing I was thinking about during that trip.
Derek Pando: Oh, no, that, that's, uh, that's a use case we have not explored yet from the, the. Guests bringing it, but no, it's very common though, uh, that, uh, in hotel setting that they will use it to communicate with guests when there is, uh, a language, barrier as well as within teams where, you know, there are kind of ongoing, language challenges. 
Steve Carran: Sure.
Absolutely. Well, another case study might be for families with David. 
Try it out with him. 
this is where I'm really excited. I'm excited to dive into a little bit more how Relay is affecting the hospitality industry. So you guys, like you mentioned earlier, just released your first ever hospitality report.
What were some of the trends that you saw in that report, that are emerging?
Derek Pando: Yeah, so we were really excited. Like I said, this was part of what I was brought on to do. And I think Relay has just also gotten to a unique point where we have visibility into customers and kind of the aggregate anonymized data that is really unique to us. And like, we can pull out some insights that really nobody else is able to pull.
Now, you know, we had a qualitative survey, but then we also did, you know, data analysis. So it's, it's a mix, but I think what surprised me the most is that, you know, when we surveyed and we asked about, All sorts of things and different technologies people are investing in. But when we asked like, what is going to impact the industry the most or what trend, it came down to personalized guest experiences.
And I, I kind of looked at the data and, and, you know, I'm in the tech world. So like, this is what we focus on, but as I've, you know, uh, talked with other, uh, hoteliers around, around the country about it, I think it's one of those, you Hey, this is our, this is our business. This is, this is what it, this is what it takes.
And a lot, you know, technology can augment that or make it easier. But, some things have not changed, which is personally, I guess, experience, um, just has a huge impact on guest, guest satisfaction. So that, that was one of the first things that really stood out to me.
Steve Carran: And how is Relay helping with a more personalized guest experience? 
Derek Pando: Yeah, we, you know, so we, we've seen that, especially in, uh, you know, luxury hotels, one of the things that they're known for, obviously, is creating a much more personalized guest experience. And, you know, there's been lots of pioneering brands that have, you know, made that happen. And when we've actually looked at the data of how do luxury hotels communicate differently, they communicate differently. almost 50 percent more in luxury hotels versus the average. And so relay, relay is part of that is to create an incredibly high level of guest experience. It requires. Like a level of communication, that is extremely high and free and frequent. And the way so many, you know, hotels are communicating is over, you know, different, uh, over relay, of course, but, you know, through two way communication devices, live audio communication, to get things done.
And so. We really see that like what we do in making that better, optimizing it, pulling down the barriers so that people can communicate in a way that works best for their business impacts that end result of they're able to provide a higher guest experience with less time and less effort and with less games of telephone and all the other things that can get in the way of providing, you know, what everyone is trying to do, which is 
a better personalized, high level guest experience.
Steve Carran: I love that. And David, we had somebody on who was asking about how luxury hotels provide this high level of guest experience. And they're like, oh, you know, the moment outside, he'll radio back, oh, Mr. Carran or Mr. Millili is coming in, and then everybody knows who you are by name. So it just kind of shows how critical.
Your soft, or your, you know, not even soft, but hardware is to, you know, the communication of, of these hoteliers.
Derek Pando: Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think, I think a lot of it too is like speed, you know, 
if, if, if, you can, like, if someone requests something and you get it to them, look at a split, that's going to impress, that's going to create that feeling. But often what gets in the way of that is not of like a speedy, you know, uh, response to a guest's need is not.
Like, oh, we don't have enough towels or, or whatever. It's, can we communicate it effectively, and quickly enough to provide the response that we want? 
David Millili: And so you also discussed in the report safety trends and investments. Did any of those, anything coming out of that, that surprised you 
Derek Pando: Yeah, I mean, I think there were two, well, there was a lot of things that surprised me. I'll throw out a couple and we can kind of talk about which ones, whichever ones you'd like. I think, you know, slips and falls was high on the list. And I think for me, That surprised me just because I couldn't pinpoint anything that's dramatically changed that, you know, over the past, you know, floors aren't more slippery than they 
were. If anything, maybe the only thing that's changed is we're in a more litigious society now than we were, you know, 15 or 20 years ago. so that's one. I think we're, I was also surprised that when we asked, okay, what are you doing to invest in employee safety? And what are you doing to invest in, invest in guest safety?
They were pretty much exactly the same. most of like, pretty much, I think the, the view that we, we, extracted from the report is that investing in those things is one in the same. Which I think is a good thing because then you don't have to worry about or like, we're going to prioritize guest or employee safety.
Most of the investments are going to impact both groups positively. And then I think the last thing that kind of surprised me was You know, we think a lot about, you know, relays have a panic button incorporated in it. We think a lot about the threat of physical violence. but when we asked, actually asked the hoteliers, that was lower on the list.
It's obviously there and something that they're worried about, but like, they were much more worried about slips and falls and, you know, severe weather and, and other things that, were not physical violence. So,
David Millili: you know, one of the things that's so interesting about your product and you talk about it, you know, whether it be guest or employee, do you have, obviously we know we can't say the name of the hotel, but any stories you have of like kind of real life stories where it's, it's come in and played a part, whether it be for the guest or for the employee?
Derek Pando: Oh, I mean, absolutely. And, we have a bunch of examples on our website that we can share. I have not on my head, but I'll tell you a couple of the stories. So one is, you know, we, I was talking to a GM who, you know, one of the, one of his periodic things that he would do was he would check the location dashboard of all his people.
And, he noticed that someone had kind of been in one room for a long time, you know, longer than they'd expected and they couldn't get hold of them. And, he went up there and he found an employee passed out. luckily everything was okay, but you know, in this situation, this person, lost conscience before they were able to even, signal an alert, or maybe they didn't, you know, just hit them.
So suddenly they didn't know, but because they were able to kind of see where people were and understand how long they'd been in places, they were able to. respond much more, quickly. we've had similar situations with, heart attacks. you know, someone's having a heart attack and, and they've been able to, alert their teams and, and get, uh, get the help that they need much more, much more quickly.
So, that's what fuels us. That's what keeps us going. When we, you know, hear one of those stories and it comes in, we share it with the teams. It's like, that's why we're here. We build these products. This is what makes it exciting to work at a company like this. We feel like. We are helping keep people safe.
So I got more examples that I can, uh, I can send you all later. Um, but 
those are 
just a few that I've heard recently.
Steve Carran: That's great. So, like you mentioned earlier, you're all about helping teams communicate effortlessly. What are some best in class communications for, you know, hotels? How can, how can, how can hotels really communicate more effortlessly?
Derek Pando: Yeah. So I, I think, um, I'll throw a couple of things that we've seen in the data. And then also just throw a couple of things that I've heard frequently as I've interviewed, and talked to, hotels around, around the country. So, uh, thing that I think is critical is that you enable your teams to work cross departmentally.
give you an example of this. So like, let's say I'm walking down, the hall and I see a light bulb is out and I You know, some, some, uh, organizations in the past, it's like, okay, if you want to get ahold of maintenance, you're going to call the front desk and then the front desk is going to call, you know, somebody.
And then next thing you know, you had this game of telephone happening, but enabling more situations where. Uh, a housekeeper could jump to the maintenance channel and say, Hey, uh, team, just so you know, I'm on the third floor. I just walked by. I look like, you know, the light in front of room 302 just went out and, and eliminating that game of telephone, like getting people more quickly and especially more cross departmentally is what we see in our best in class customers.
I mean, we measure, that's one of the things that we measure is like, how often are you, communicating across the channel that you're normally assigned to? And what we see is that in. Large hotels, you're four times more likely to work across departmentally. and then in luxury, you're three times more likely, compared to hospitality overall.
And, and so I, I think that's a strong indicator that, enabling people to work across departmentally, will enable like better levels of service. And then also just, you know, for employees, you get more quickly things done and that makes you feel good versus, hey, I called the front desk yesterday and like, I don't know who got relayed to, and I don't know what happened.
that's never fun process to go through.
David Millili: That's great, that's the next GM, I love that. So we've interviewed a lot of people and, you know, obviously post COVID, staffing is a big issue across the board, whether it be How do you retain those employees? How do you incentivize new employees coming in? So how do you feel, how do you believe that, you know, relay communication tools can impact hiring and retention of staff?
And also, do you have any examples or any hotels that have kind of, you know, let you know that?
Derek Pando: Yeah, I'll share a couple little examples of things I'm excited about. the thing that inspired me the most was a Team Translate example or live translation. someone was able to get promoted because they could now communicate. you know, they were not being able, they were not able to promote this person because their language skills were not at a level, that needed for the job, but once they started using Team Translate, that was no longer an issue and they were able to promote the person.
into, uh, a management position, essentially. And, uh, that one, like, really inspired us because, you know, learning language is tough, and even no matter how hard you're trying, it's like, you know, it's not going to happen overnight. we've also heard similarly along that, on, along that vein of if you were able to use technology instead of people having, you know, uh, being bilingual, trilingual, whatever you want, that broadens your hiring pool. It gives you more access to more people that maybe you would have, you know, not considered before, which, you know, we've been hearing from our customers is, has, you know, helped with their hiring. so language barriers has been one. I think a couple other areas where we hear that, where we impact is, people want to work in a place where they feel valued and they feel safe and they feel empowered.
And if you don't give someone the right tool to do the job, they're not going to feel that way. You know, if, if I tell, if I tell my nine year old to like, You know, go mow the lawn. I give him scissors, like he's 
he's not going to be happy. And he's gonna be asking about why is this a punishment and how can I never do this again? And I think, I think that applies not only, you know, obviously for communication, we feel like best in class communication, but really any tool. Do they have the tools to do their job? and then lastly, we find that. You know, there are physical aspects of working in a hotel that are, that are taxing, right?
So if I say, Hey, I need towels in room, 201 and I send someone who's on the 10th floor. It's like, okay, I got to travel all the way down. I got to go all the way back or in this part, you know, has stairs. And so what we found is that when we have a good understanding of where people are, you know, through like indoor, location tracking.
We can say, hey, you know, Joe, I see you're on the second floor, five doors down. We just got a request instead of, you know, sending someone from 10 stories up. And, you know, it was just not really feasible to do that. And you think of like large resorts that are spread out and you've got people all over the place.
or even the scenario of, you know, you look, you're looking at the map and you see that, hey, it's check in time, but I'm only got, I only have one employee in that location. They gotta be swamped. So where you're able to proactively. You know, reach out and say, Hey, we need to send a couple more people to this location.
I think all of that helps people, you know, feel valued, feel safe. feel like they're not, you know, there's hard things about jobs, but nobody really likes things that waste time and that they're like, why did I have to walk all the way across the property? So those are a handful of ways that we've seen that impact, you know, 
that big challenge that's facing our industry.
Steve Carran: I love that, man. That is really great. It seems like you guys are not only helping with staffing, but also the communication side and also helping your employees be more efficient as well. So really cool to see what you guys are doing. Well, 
that was great. So we've been asking you questions this whole time.
So this is the last section here where we let you, we're going to turn the tables and let you and you ask David and I a question.
Derek Pando: Yeah, well, so, I mean, I've got to take advantage that you guys have been looking at the Hospitality Report. I'll throw a couple questions out, y'all pick what works best of, okay, what surprised you both the most? And then for next year, because we're going to do it again, what are some areas 
that you'd like to see us focus on and pull more insights out? 
Steve Carran: Oh, what a good question. I just love the safety aspect. I mean, I think that's so important. I did work in the, panic button area for a little bit in my tech, tech days. But, you know, I just think the safety is so important. And kind of like you said, it not only helps them feel more safe, but more comfortable as well.
And it's You know, hotels like that get tax breaks as well for, you know, those different compliance things. So, I thought that was great. Um, focusing on next year, man, I'm, I, I love the communication aspect of it. I really thought it was cool how you, you know, talking about the translation and how employees can, can communicate so effortlessly.
Back and forth. So, you know, I would, I'd be interested to hear how much, I guess, time this has saved hoteliers for, the communication aspect. And like you said, like, oh, instead of going five or ten floors down to another room, you can just go, uh, five doors down just seeing where the employees are. So, that's kind of my, my two things that really, really caught my eye.
David Millili: Yeah, the biggest thing for me, you know, especially, you know, talking to your team at high tech for me being an XGM, it was, and I would like to see more of diving into that communication piece and how many languages and, and that like the stories and, and the retention, things of that nature.
I know you can only put so much in a report. You don't want to put all these different stories, but to me, that's what was, you know, That's where I would love to see more and more about, you know, as you guys grow, you know, the number of languages, the number of staffing, um, and things of that nature, because, like I said, as an XGM, uh, that was a big, big issue, managing a hotel in New York, we just really struggled, because we had so many different languages, and it was like, we needed staff, and we weren't, we were an independent hotel, so we weren't a union hotel, so, You know, we were able to pick and choose who we hired a lot freer than Union Hotel, but it was definitely the communication piece and the languages.
And so, uh, any more deeper dive into that as the staffing concern is still an issue, and I think 
it will always 
be, at least for the next couple years, that would be key to me. 
Steve Carran: Yeah. 
and kind of those numbers, like staffing, we've been, David, we've been hearing about that for like two years, right? Like how much does this language translation open up that talent pool? how many more applicants are you able to have just because they now don't have to worry about that barrier of language?
So that, that was the language thing David and I actually talked about multiple times after talking to your team at Hitech. That was one thing that just really blew us away and really impressed us.
Derek Pando: Oh, good. Well, no, those are great areas. We, we're excited. You know, this was our first step, but you know, I, the plan is every year to make it bigger and better and to dive deeper. And, and also, you know, if you look at when we launched the language translation, you know, there was only a couple months later, we did this report where we're going to have a full year of being able to pull those stories out.
Yeah, the language piece is really, uh, you know, for me, there's been so many kind of empty promises when it comes to language translation, in technology overall, but, you know, our team was really thoughtful in saying, no, this is real, this is how it works, and I was with a customer last week, that was nearby where our headquarters is, and I talked to a housekeeper, that did not speak English, and I interviewed her in Spanish, and she described, because we had implemented, uh, the translation, they had they turned on the translation like two weeks after she started.
And she was saying, you know, the first two weeks, I didn't feel connected to my team, I didn't feel empowered, I didn't have a relationship with my boss because I could not speak with them. She's like but now, it's great, you know? And they were like, laughing, and it was clear that, it had just so much impacted, You know, her, how she viewed her job and her ability to like, do, do good work.
And that's what we want to do more of. We want to empower, empower people to, to feel that way. So we will definitely dive deeper into that in the, in the report next year and really excited to do it.
David Millili: well, this has been great, um, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. Derek, this is where you get to let people know how they can find out more about Relay, how they can get in touch with you, so plug away.
Derek Pando: Relaypro. com or just type in, you know, relay, uh, communicate, you know, communication devices or whatever you want to Google, it should pop up. always welcome people to reach out directly to me on, uh, LinkedIn or any other social channel or platform. My email is dpando at relaypro. com, if you'd like to reach out and yeah, please love to, we'd love to hear from anyone and, you know, Steve and David, just thank you so much for having us and, asking such insightful questions and we really enjoyed being on the show.
David Millili: So that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged hospitality podcast. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to see you again soon. Thank you, Derek. We appreciate it.