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The Unchecked-In goes beyond a traditional podcast—it’s a raw, unfiltered space where independent hotel owners get real about what it actually takes to survive, grow, and stay sane in the hospitality business.
The Unchecked-In will explore critical themes in independent hospitality, including:
Revenue Optimization Strategies: How small properties can compete with larger chains through smart pricing and positioning
Guest Experience Innovation: Creating memorable stays that drive loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing
Technology Integration: Leveraging AI and automation to streamline operations without losing the personal touch
Succession Planning: Preparing the next generation of hospitality leaders and ensuring business continuity
Market Positioning: Standing out in a crowded marketplace dominated by large chains and vacation rental platforms
Each episode will feature candid conversations with successful property owners, industry experts, and hospitality innovators who are pushing boundaries and creating exceptional guest experiences. From family-run bed and breakfasts to boutique glamping retreats, the podcast will showcase the diverse landscape of independent hospitality.
The Unchecked-In Podcast #10: Leadership, Systems, and Repositioning for Performance | with Benjamin Gray
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Bobby Marhamat: I'm Bobby Marhamat, and today I've got someone special on the show who's basically the hotel whisperer Ben Gray, co-founder of Henlopen Hospitality. Ben is a hospitality operator through and through, we're talking 15 plus years in the trenches, running hotel teams, taking underperforming properties and turning them into market leaders.
And he didn't do it with smoke and mirrors. He did it the old fashioned way. Great operations, strong culture, disciplined execution. Along the way, he also picked up the AHLA, national general Manager of the Year award, kind of a big deal, and is featured in places like the Wall Street Journal and CNBC.
These days, Ben channels all of experience into Henlopen Hospitality where he works directly with independent hotel operators. To diagnose what's broken, build leadership teams that actually lead and put systems in place that make the whole operations hum.
Ben, really glad to have you on. Welcome to the show.
Benjamin Gray: Awesome. Thank you, Bobby. It's a pleasure to be here.
Bobby Marhamat: It was really fun reading about you.
So you have, you have a lot going on.
Benjamin Gray: Yeah, it it's been quite a career. I'll say that. It's been a
Bobby Marhamat: Yeah. And, and as we were talking about pre-show, you got great suits. So I think the two combination of the two. Great. It's great.
Benjamin Gray: I love a good suit. That's right.
Bobby Marhamat: Awesome. So, I, I mean, again, we talked about it here in the intro, but you spent more than 15 years running hotels and turning properties around. tell us the story. What originally, uh, pulled you into hospitality?
Benjamin Gray: Yeah, Bobby, so I mean, I was supposed to be either an attorney or like my dad, a minister. That was gonna be the plan,
Bobby Marhamat: Okay.
Benjamin Gray: I was gonna go into churches or I was gonna go into courtrooms, and so that was the plan originally. I went to undergrad school in North Carolina. I went to law school in Florida, and right after law school I kind of got the hospitality itch and law school wasn't really for me. The lawyer thing wasn't really for me. I, I liked helping people more than I liked arguing in a courtroom. And so I ended up just cold calling a Hampton Inn in Jacksonville, Florida, asking if they had any available positions and, and for me at 22, 23 years old, somewhere around there, 24. I, I walked in and had the interview and they said, we have a part-time night audit position, which is the overnight shift, you know, for our Hotelier that are listening today, right.
And I said, okay, I'll give it a shot. But after the interview, they invited me to a full-time position, made room for me based on that interview. And I was like, great, I'm in. So I did the three to 11 shift and I did the overnight shift. Long story short, six months later, Bobby, I loved this industry. I love the housekeeping aspect, the maintenance aspect, front desk, working with guests and communicating with them on a daily basis.
It was like, you know, if I'm talking to hoteliers and I know that they're listening, it's like once you get the bug,
Yeah.
it's hard to let it go. And so I asked for an interview with the vice president of that management company. He actually flew into Florida. To interview me. You know, this little front desk guy, you know, at the time, and I'll never forget, he interviewed me for two and a half hours, left that room that day and said, thank you so much, Ben.
It was a pleasure to meet you. I'll be in touch. And then two months later, this is now eight months into my hotel career, he calls me, he said, Hey Ben, we just acquired a brand new hotel in Shelbyville, Indiana. You're the next general manager and your plane leaves in two day. And so I went from front desk to general manager in the span of eight months, and I started to take over that hotel in Indiana.
It was during the Super Bowl in 2012, and it was just, it completely changed the way that I thought about hotels and hospitality. But that's when I caught the bug 15 years ago this year. That was my first stint in operations, and it was quick front desk to GM in eight months. So. Little, little experience, little education in the hotel side.
It was all, you know, self-taught knowledge and learning from those that were around me.
Bobby Marhamat: Well, you definitely did something right? Yeah, for sure. So that's great. That's awesome. And that, that takes us too. You also, you know, recognized as AHLA national GM of the year. Um, when you look back at your GM days, what's something that you don't, that most people don't realize about the job that actually is more like about the day to day, if you will.
Benjamin Gray: Yeah, so being a GM and being a hotel leader is all about what I call the eternal pivot. So one of the greatest things I loved about hospitality when I first got into it and six months in, I knew this was for me, is that every day is different. I'm not sitting behind a desk all day. I'm communicating with people, working with people, and curating a guest experience that is memorable for everyone that comes across my desk, and everyone that that works together with my team.
And so one of the things that I learned throughout that process is I have to pivot on a regular basis, and I have to be prepared for the unexpected, you because again, every day is completely different. But that's also one of the things that really attracted me to this industry. Is that every day is is not the same.
Right? And that's something that still continues to happen even in my consulting career.
Bobby Marhamat: what are, what are some similarities that you see in some of these properties that you, that you look into to, to, to try to help them?
Benjamin Gray: Well, I, I think from an independent side, you know, it's a little bit different than the branded side brand. You kind of get a little bit more regimented on, on the day to day as it relates to the brand standards, the independent side, but. Is is a little bit different, but they all kind of have the same heart of hospitality.
And what, what that means to me at least is that they're all invested in their people. Right? Whether you have brand standards or not, each and in, in every hotel that I've had the pleasure of working with has individual policies and procedures and standards that they try to communicate, but often what we've noticed is that there's kind of a gap between the ownership vision or the brand vision and the people that are actually executing or supposed to be executing that
Running the show. Yeah.
Yeah. Right. And so that's kind of, you know, the reason why almost Henlopen Hospitality exists is to bridge that gap. But I've noticed that time and time again, no matter which hotel I go in, whether it's branded or independent, is that there tends to be that the visionary that's behind the scenes, that's kind of, you know, curating what that experience is supposed to be, and then the people that are executing on it.
And oftentimes those two are not aligned, but. Normally, it seems like the vision is still the same. They want to help people. They wanna, they want to curate a, an amazing guest experience, but it's not normally aligned, and that's why we try to kind of come in and, and fill that gap whenever that happens.
Bobby Marhamat: Ben? What is, what is usually not aligned? Like is it the, the economics? Is it the, you know, how they should operate? Like what is usually the, the, the issue.
Benjamin Gray: Normally it's, it's a disconnect with ownership, vision and the culture. Right. So culture is incredibly important when you're working with any type of hospitality, asset, branded or not, right? So normally the, it's the people that are executing the ownership vision that aren't necessarily understanding what that means, or even the budget or the underlying revenue implications for a decision that's supposed to be made at the top level.
And so what our job is, is to try to go in and try to bridge that gap in a way that the team fully understands where the vision, mission, and values are for that particular organization is, and ultimately what that roadmap looks like to get to success. So to answer your question directly, normally it comes down to guest experience expectations and how that directly translates into revenue for the hotel.
A lot of organizations don't necessarily communicate that clearly in a way that those that are executing it on the ground can fully understand and implement. On a daily basis, and sometimes that's hard. I mean, even for me as a front desk associate, I didn't fully understand that the decisions I was making.
For instance, giving away a discounted room, or I have somebody at the front desk that's telling me, you know, my pillow was too cold last night. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll give you a 50% discount. You know how that technically translates into revenue loss. That gap was kind of hard for me to understand, especially early on in my career.
Bobby Marhamat: And in your, in your practice, um, how do you coach through that? Of course, you have to come in and learn, you know, the vision of of, of the organization. You have to see what the operations look like. But do you have like a step-by-step process of like, this is what I look for, for us, this is what I do second, or is it kind of really ad hoc based on the property.
Benjamin Gray: Every property's different. So we always offer a customized approach, but I can tell you it really comes down to three things for us at Henlopen Hospitality, and that's people, systems, and service. So one of my approaches that I've learned first is I become a guest. So for every hotel client that we work with, I stay the night at that hotel and I do a comprehensive assessment as to what's working, whether you know, whether it starts at the lobby, whether it starts with the booking experience.
I'll cold call that client because their front desk team doesn't know that I'm actively engaged with the owner. So I'll actually cold call and say, Hey, can I make a reservation? Start to document what that procedure looks like and what that reservation process is like, what that experience is for me as a guest, staying at that property as it stands today.
And then I'll actually go and stay the night at that hotel and start to document what that experience is like from the stay over process to the check-in process to the next morning at breakfast, and my interactions with the front desk and the housekeeping team, what the room looks like. Do a comprehensive room assessment as a guest of that property.
And it normally comes down to people, systems, and service. And that's normally what we focus on first. And on the system side, it's the tech stack. And I'll give you an example. I had a client, you know, that I, I recently booked with and I had the experience of calling on the phone and then I asked, Hey, can you email me a confirmation letter?
And believe it or not, they said, I'm sorry, we don't do that. And I said, okay, so what is the best way for me to verify my reservation? Oh, well you have to go online and log into our system to see your reservation. And I said, okay. And then they said, then from there you can print off your confirmation email.
And I said, well, could you just do that, save it as a PDF, and email it to me? And they said, oh yeah, uh, I guess I could, I guess I could do that. So that's one of the things that we look for. And we start to identify gaps, you know, throughout that process. And a lot of them, Bobby, are really low hanging fruit to change the guest experience.
For me, it was just a matter of receiving an email confirmation that would change my experience right away. But now I go into that hotel experience thinking that that hotel is out of date. And it all came down to the way that they were. Working their systems and training their people behind those systems, which ultimately translates into the service that they're giving to their guests.
Bobby Marhamat: A hundred percent. And I love that. I love that you identify all those things and kind of figure things out, um, and, and help them figure things out. As you think about this though, if you had to choose Ben, one thing that's the biggest operational mistake, what would that one thing be?
Benjamin Gray: That's a great question. Uh, I think. Operationally, it, it comes down to how you're leading the organization, uh, and, and the people behind it. And the culture and leadership structure of an organization at any hotel normally is really where the heart is for that hospitality, you know, systems and tech stacks aside, it all comes down to leadership and development of your people that can execute on your vision.
And it ultimately comes down to what I call when I'm working with clients is that with versus for. Mentality. And so Bobby, if you're working with somebody and you're like, Hey, I'm coming in to to work at this job. I don't care if I'm line level senior leadership, whatever it is, that owner then communicates the vision, or that operator communicates the vision to that employee and they say, okay, now you work for me.
I'm going to dictate how your life is going to be throughout the organization. And you listen to my vision, right? I've seen it time and time again, whether, again, branded independence, whatever it is, I've seen it time and time again. Whether it's the operational leaders or the ownership that's dictating that you work for me, there's a huge difference, Bobby, between with versus for,
because if I have an owner and I have an operator that's telling me even early on in my career, this is how the GMs shaped my leadership structure, is that Ben, you work with me.
You don't work for me. And so the number one piece of recommendation that I have in order to fix that is to change that preposition, right? And to make sure that owners and operators understand it's a with versus for mentality, and that you're looking to hire people to tell you what to do instead of hiring people so you can tell them what to do.
Bobby Marhamat: There's a big difference there.
A hundred percent. And, and it ties into the culture, right? in, a big way. Yeah. So like, speaking of the culture, um, you know, for any owners listening who might have a small team, let's say 10 to 15 people, what's the single bi, uh, biggest thing that they can do to build a stronger team culture?
Benjamin Gray: Yeah. Um, I, I think it's, you know, really it, it comes down to. How they're interacting with their employees. Communication is a huge, huge thing for owners and operators, and so making sure that the line level team understands what the senior leadership team understands what the ownership team is doing on a daily basis is incredibly important to getting that ownership buy-in for those employees.
What I typically do and what I've done in the past with my teams that I've led as a general manager, is that I look at my team members as if they are also owners of the hotel, and I treat them with the same line of respect and the same level of communication that I would as a hotel owner that is technically my boss at the time.
Yeah.
so they are equally as responsible for the performance of that asset as I am. They're also driving revenue. They're driving the guest experience and making sure that you're effectively communicating what that vision is from the ownership perspective, the reasons why we're making these decisions, instead of just telling them what the decisions are, them understanding the why is gonna be even more important to getting that ownership buy-in.
And that's something that's a simple, quick, easy change. You just have to communicate with your team instead of leading them in the dark, because if they're left in the dark, they're not gonna fully understand what that vision is supposed to look like.
Bobby Marhamat: And what their actions, you know, translate into. So, absolutely, totally agree. What about when, um, if you had to choose, again, when a hotel isn't performing, what percentage of the time would you say it's systems versus leadership and people.
Benjamin Gray: Ooh, that's a good question. So for us, we've seen really a combination of, of both, right? But the core solution normally sits with people, right? Systems can be broken, but if the people really aren't invested in fixing them and just maintaining the overall status quo of the hotel, you gotta rejuvenate that spirit.
You gotta make them excited, right? This is why I'm so excited about hospitality and why. I haven't really had any coffee today, Bobby, but I'm just excited about
I love it.
right? Like you gotta rejuvenate the spirit for the people that you're working with on a daily basis. Notice people that you're working with, not people that are working for you.
So training and development are a big component of what we do and what we've learned. It's, it's really the backbone of our approach. I feel like systems can be upgraded and fixed really quickly. But the people component really takes time, effort, and a dedicated approach. And that's where most of the time and effort, you're gonna see the greatest return on your investment and return on the time that you're giving your team with the development of those people.
So it is slightly a combination of both. Tech is normally the quick fix, but people are the ones that are gonna deliver you the highest return on your time investment.
Bobby Marhamat: Have you had a curiosity, Ben ever walked into a place and, you know, gone through this analysis and at the end of it said, Hey, like maybe it's not systems or leadership, it is a different problem, or maybe this is kind of the different, a bad location or whatever the case is. Has that ever come up in, in kind of your analysis across the board?
Benjamin Gray: Yeah, it has, you know, we've had some clients that have had, you know, just hotels and poor performing markets. Right. And COVID really kind of changed what a poor performing market really looks like. But so it, it really doesn't necessarily mean that every single time that you're coming in and you're working with an underperforming asset, that it comes down to systems and people and processes.
There could be aspects of that hotel, particularly the location, as you mentioned, as an example, that could legitimately be the reason why they are underperforming. And so as we tackle that issue with a variety of different hotels, it's a matter of repositioning them in the market. I'll give you an example. One of our hotels, um, that was in the the beach resort market, we noticed that they used to be a branded property. Um, they were with the IHG brand. We went in there and noticed that despite the loyalty that they were getting from the IHG guests, that the resort area and the resort market really was going to cater a lot more towards that independent
Mm-hmm.
And that the money that that hotel was actually spending on their loyalty points and on the commissions that they were paying and the. Sales and marketing percentages that they were paying, that particular brand may not ultimately pay off, and they could still get an equal level of guest engagement if they had a boutique non-branded asset.
And so what we did is we went in and stripped the brand from that particular asset, converted it to an independent property. Actually made it a seasonal property over time and saw the performance as a result of that skyrocket because they were drowning in brand fees. And so that's not the case with every particular asset, obviously, 'cause there are markets
where
Bobby Marhamat: that brand and loyalty recognition works, but sometimes it does make sense to completely reposition the asset just purely because of its location.
Because the location, yeah, you really are the, the hotel whisperer. I love it. I love it.
Benjamin Gray: Thanks Bob. I've been through a lot, my friend.
Bobby Marhamat: so let, let, let's talk about, um, as you've been through your, your career kind of looked at a, a lot of different properties. Um, what's a leadership or operational screw up earlier in your career that taught you a lesson that you still carry today?
Benjamin Gray: So the first one is don't wear flip flops when cleaning up sewage water. Uh, I will absolutely tell you that Bobby, uh, I learned that, you know, pretty early on in my career, uh, I was actually at a McDonald's with my, I got three boys, by the way, all under 11. And so I was at McDonald's with one of them several years ago.
My oldest, and I'll never forget the call. I could still see myself in the drive through right now. Bobby, this is how core memory this is for me. Is that I had, I got a phone call from my front desk team, uh, while I was in the drive through at McDonald's getting my son, you know, chicken nuggets, and they said, uh, Ben. We have a sewage leak. And I said, okay. I said, where is the sewage leak? Is it, is it outside? Are you guys able to clean it up? Do we need to call Roto-Rooter? Like, what's going on? And they said, no, it's on the third floor. And this is an
Oh man.
lifestyle, boutique, luxury style hotel. And they're telling me that the third floor right now has toilets that are backing up at, at a, at an aggressive rate right now.
And mind you, this is, you know, six, seven o'clock at night. My day off, right? Um, and I'm in flip flop shorts and a t-shirt. And so I say, okay, I'll be there soon. And instead of thinking about what I was about to walk into Bobby, I dropped my son back off at home with my wife and I just left, right? I just went and so I showed up in shorts, t-shirt.
Flip flops and ask where the problem was. And I'm the type of guy, like, you tell me where the problem is, man. I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to fix it. And especially as the GM of that property, I went and grabbed the shot back and I was the guy in flip flops, walking in ankle high sewage water on the third floor of this property, cleaning up this literally for hours.
Bobby. And then not only that. But it took me overnight. I had to stay overnight at the property because the problem persisted even after we called multiple plumbers and after we got the problem, we thought resolved. I'm also not the guy that's gonna leave my team hanging. And so I stayed the night overnight at the hotel with.
Alarms set every two hours to wake up, to go and check on the guests, to check on the staff, and to also clean up if necessary, any, any residual issues. And so I say all of that to the GMs listening on on here is pack a go bag. You know, go bags aren't just fine. pregnant wives, they're designed for GMs.
Make sure you have those backups ready to go, but that's a story I'll never forget, Bobby. So definitely pack a go bag. But seriously, on the, on the operations side, I could tell you that as it relates to personnel, one of the things that I learned early on is don't un underestimate the power of a new hire and don't allow yourself to hire just to fill a role.
roll. Yeah.
So, you know, do your research. Make sure that person has a customized onboarding and training plan for your hotel, because that'll directly translate into tenure and immediate buy-in for your property. And again, you want your teams to feel like owners of the hotel who are equally invested in its success.
And a lot of times, as a GMs in particular, I managed over 15 properties in my career. As a GM in particular, I would try to find the quick fix more often than not, instead of taking my time and finding the right person, because turnover can be extremely expensive, and you wanna make sure that you're taking your time with your hiring decisions no matter what position it is, and not trying to find that quick fix.
So bring a go bag make sure you're taking your time with all of your new hires. Those are the
Bobby Marhamat: Wow. That's a great story. That's great. And that, that teaches you a lot. I can tell. I, I haven't done it, but I can tell.
Benjamin Gray: Sewage water on the third floor. You know, I think about it more than you think, Bobby.
Bobby Marhamat: Crazy. Crazy. Well, okay, so as you think about, what about systems, like, let's go back to systems for a second. So like, as you think about, um, you talked a little bit about repositioning properties, um, you know, in some cases really to become market leaders, repositioning them, either branded, non-branded, et cetera.
Um, what's one example of a, you know, small operational change that created a big improvement in performance? Like, one of the things that a lot of our. Listeners ask for is, are there, like, is there like a few things, small things that I could do as I think about my greater vision to actually make a material impact?
What is your suggestion or, or advice to them?
Benjamin Gray: Yeah, so regardless of the size of your property, whether you're a four room bed and breakfast, or a thousand room hotel, one of the things that I've noticed throughout my client base and throughout my career is that a lot of hoteliers and a lot of owners and operators really undervalue ancillary revenue.
Bobby Marhamat: Yep.
Benjamin Gray: so hotels definitely undervalue that aspect of their business. And a lot of times that ancillary revenue, it's a straight flow to the bottom line and can make an immediate impact,
So more revenue and, and, and it also improves the guest experience at the same time. So I'll give you an example.
So whether it's flowers or you know, beach chairs or gym memberships, like whatever it is at your hotel, what are you missing from the guest experience? And again, this is oftentimes while I approach a relationship, I become a guest first. So I can see what that guest experience is and I can say, oh, I've been missing, like I wasn't able to work out today.
This hotel doesn't have a gym. And I go to the front desk and say, Hey, do you have a gym? Instead of saying, no, it's no, but right. So no. But we have a partnership with the gym across the street and here's a free voucher for you to go and enjoy. Right, and now that gym becomes an extension of the amenities that you offer in your hotel.
One of the best things that I saw as a result of that, that immediately transitioned into an immediate effect on our bottom line and also enhanced the guest experience, especially in a resort market, is beach chairs and umbrella. So I had an owner, a couple actually in a couple different properties that came to me and they said, Ben, I wanna offer beach chairs and umbrellas to our guests.
All these other hotels have beach chairs and umbrellas, and I really wanna offer that to our guests that are visiting our beaches. And I want them to be branded and I want them to be nice and I don't want them to fall apart. And mind you, you have to store them and you have to make sure that we have the staff available to go and collect those chairs and umbrellas.
After the beach day,
Yeah.
And I said, okay, so here I'm hearing it right? But at the same time, I know that there's probably a better way to handle that scenario. And so what I've also known about this particular resort market is that they have different huts on the beach that sell beach chairs and umbrellas.
And what I ended up doing is getting in contact with the owner of one of those huts and I said, Hey. I'm a local Hotelier and, and in this downtown resort market, what would it take for me to send all of my guests to you to collect chairs and umbrellas instead of purchasing them elsewhere? Instead of buying them and bringing them with them on their vacation to take up space in their vehicle, what if they could come and as ex an extension of my hotel, you guys offered my guest customized chairs and umbrellas for their experience, and they said, well, that sounds great, because our number one competitor.
Is people bringing their own stuff.
Yeah.
And so I said, okay, what if we created a voucher program wherein you give me a discount because I'm sending my hotel guests directly to you. I'm not sending them to a retail store. I'm not telling them to pack it. I'm actually telling them, leave your stuff at home because we'll take care of it.
What if I create a voucher program wherein you give me a discount and then I pass on some of those savings to my guests to give them an incentive to get their chairs and umbrellas? From you. And I'll tell you what, Bobby, the very first year we did that, we sold thousands of vouchers, right? And we ended up making a $50,000 impact on our bottom line after the very first summer that flowed directly to the bottom line.
The reason why we did that is because they offered me a specific discount on every chair and every umbrella. And as an operator, I didn't pass that entire discount. Over to the guest, right? I passed a portion of that discount, so that way every time I gave away a chair and an umbrella, I made a dollar.
There you go.
so every time I sell a chair, I'm making a dollar.
Every time I sell an umbrella, I'm making a dollar. We no longer have to purchase chairs and umbrellas or staff it or build a shed around that experience. We're now offering that guest an opportunity to still have chairs and umbrellas with a local partnership to enhance the guest experience. And guess what?
It doesn't take my team a lot of time and effort to give them a voucher
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.
The revenue flows directly to the bottom line. So again, to answer your question, it's ancillary revenue. What are you looking at right now to kind of cultivate that guest experience that's currently missing from your hotel, and how can you monetize that in the most efficient way to elevate the guest experience?
Bobby Marhamat: It's actually interesting that you say that because when I travel, if a hotel sends me an an add-on or an upgrade, you know, kind of email after the fact, I actually have more of an appreciation for the property just 'cause I'm like. They, they're not just thinking about, you know, the room that they're giving me, they're thinking about like, the experience that I can create even before walking into the door, the type of experience I can create while I'm there.
Right? And like the type of experience if I'm traveling with my family, that that will leave with them as well. Right?
Right, you're
Benjamin Gray: enhancing your experience because they made an effort,
Bobby Marhamat: Hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Benjamin Gray: like, okay, you're trying to help elevate my experience because you're making an effort to make it better. The other thing I did was I had a gym in my property that nobody used. It was in a resort market. It was really small.
Nobody wanted to go to that gym. I converted the gym. Spa and I ended up getting a, a discounted voucher with a local gym provider. So there's different ways that you can kind of cultivate and elevate that guest experience. But ancillary revenue is something that is missed time and time again, and it's very low hanging fruit.
Bobby Marhamat: As you think about, and, and you work with a lot of hotel owners, as you think about, um, you know, the problems that you see or you know, the, the, the issues that they bring up to you, how often is that unique versus like, you're seeing kind of the same problems show up in different buckets?
Benjamin Gray: I think a lot of them are, every hotel is different, so I will say that, that there really is not a, an actual, you know, re repetitive problem to the extent as like, okay, it's this again, or, okay. It's that again, right? There is certain, you know, people, leadership issues, culture issues, you know, that we see kind of resonating across the board with any of our hotel clients.
But there isn't exactly, you know, one problem that continues to be repeated time and time again that we. Actually try to solve in the same exact way every hotel has been different. But I will say as it relates to the tech, to the technology and the systems part of what we do, the, the number one thing that we're seeing on the technology side is that they're not adopting it at all on the independent side.
Um, and that's a lot of the times the reason why they're calling or they're not adopting it in the right way. Um, a most recent example, for instance, I'll give you, and this is something that I've seen time and time again with clients and hotels, is that I recently had a client that reached out to me and, and engaged in a, in a consulting relationship, and they said, you know, Ben, I want you to do a financial analysis.
And I said, okay, I could do that for you. I'll need the, the past three years of your p and ls. And they said, oh, okay. Call our CFO. So Bobby, I called that CFO and I said. Hey, can you give me the past three years of your financials? Can you just email it over to me? I'm gonna, you know, carve out a, a few hours this afternoon to kind of dive into the finances.
'cause my, my client, your boss, wanted me to look into 'em and he said, sure, let me drive to the property and get that for you. And I
Oh wow. Yeah.
a minute. I said, are you unable to log into the property management system from where you are? And he is like, no, no. Every time I need a report, I just drive to the property. print it out. And I said, oh no. I said, okay, so we have a system problem and that's something that we need to fix right
Yeah,
to me, Bobby, the PMS is the heart of the hotel, right? That is absolutely something that every owner needs and you
percent.
make sure that's one of the, again, low hanging fruit that we normally try to attack first.
So if there is kind of a recurring issue that we've seen the most, it's on the technology and the system side, more so than it is on the people and culture side.
Bobby Marhamat: totally. Ben, it looks like we're out of time, but I wanna ask you one last, you know, question. If you had to go to the beginning of your career as GM and give yourself, you know, one piece of advice that you see kind of being done across the board kind of incorrectly.
Um, as you look at properties, what's that one piece that people can walk away with?
Benjamin Gray: I think, you know, for me, for the past 15 years, and then again transitioning from operator to entrepreneur, uh, one of the things that I've learned that is still resonant today is that you have to take one day at a time, especially as an operator. Uh, you know, both as an entrepreneur and a multi-property leader, you can get overwhelmed with the fear of tomorrow, but you need to focus on the opportunity of today to be the best leader for yourself.
And your team and, and nothing greater was, was a, a really, uh, an accentuating factor for that than when I started my career in 2011. I mentioned I was in Indiana. For the Super Bowl that GM double booked the Hotel Bobby, as soon as I got there with NFL clients and also with guests at a $69 rate. And also I had Hilton Honors members at the time that were diamond members that had booked with honors points for the Super Bowl.
And so the average a DR for the Super Bowl for that hotel was $100,
Oh wow.
for that timeframe. And they put me into that hotel again, front desk to GM in eight months and said, here you go, Ben. You gotta fix it. And so I can tell you time and time again, I learned that I'm gonna, I'm worried about tomorrow, right?
And the success of that story is amazing too. But I, I'm gonna worry about tomorrow, but I gotta focus on today, take one step at a time, and I, it's learning how to redirect your focus from the problem to the solution, and staying focused on that solution that stayed for me since the NFL all the way to 2026.
Bobby Marhamat: I love that Ben Gray, co-founder of Henlopen Hospitality. Ben, if people wanna get ahold of you or check you out, where do they go?
Benjamin Gray: Yeah, they can go to LinkedIn. They can also check out our website@henloandhospitality.com, and you can find me on LinkedIn under Benjamin Gray, GRAY.
Thank you again, Ben. It was great to talk to you today.
My pleasure. Thank you, Bobby.