The Modern Hotelier #234: Quickly Developing One-Of-A-Kind Hotel Brand Concepts | with Sarah Jarnicki
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David M.: Steve, who do we have on the program today? 
Steve Carran: Yeah, David, I am excited about today. Today we have on Sarah Jarnicki, the Creator of BrandClave. Sarah, thank you for joining us. How you doing today? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Always awesome. Thank you for having me. 
David M.: Alright, so Sarah, we're gonna go through a lightning round, some quick questions. We're gonna get to know you better, your personal background, your career, and then we're gonna dive into some industry topics. Sound good? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Do it. 
David M.: Alright. What's something you wish you were better at? 
Sarah Jarnicki: So this might be relatable to the viewers. I have a very distinct voice and I'm creative. I wish that I could translate my creativity to singing, but we're not the best with my voice. 
David M.: What's the most used emoji for you?
Sarah Jarnicki: Definitely pink heart. 
David M.: And what's a luxury you can't live without? 
Sarah Jarnicki: There's no life for me without traveling. During the pandemic, I decided to do the opposite. Everybody else was hunkered down and I broke the rules, did something different, and decided to travel the world. And those experiences have really inspired a lot of my designs to see beyond what we experience every day in America to bring, um, the, the types of experiences customers worldwide want.
David M.: Okay, so if you had a time machine, which way are you going? Are you going to the future or are you going to the past? And what year are you gonna go to? 
Sarah Jarnicki: I love that question because if you spent time with me, one of my favorite things to do is watch old movies. My family owns senior living businesses and so I actually spent most of my life growing up with people older than me and understanding them.
I think some of the best music and movies are from like the thirties, forties, and fifties. And that's actually how I spend all of my time when I'm not trying to create the future. I am living in the past. However, I believe that if you wanna succeed, you always need to be ahead of the trends. And so with my experience working in technology to governments, I understand that there's a direction this is going, so I wanna lead it. And prepare hotels to be the best, uh, most futuristic places that can deliver the experiences that humanity will need as technology evolves. 
David M.: Good answer. What's the best piece of advice you've received? 
Sarah Jarnicki: My dad always told me to keep smiling since I was a little girl, and that has allowed me to survive so many personal storms that I've encountered since I was 17. Growing up in Ohio, I had this lar larger than life dream that I was supposed to create. These types of hotels the world wanted. And so there's been many paths I've taken over the years to try to make it happen. And anybody who's ever followed their dream knows that you're gonna face disappointments. And so I've had moments where I thought I couldn't do it, and I've just kept going with my dad's voice to tell me to keep smiling. 
David M.: Yeah, that's great. So what is your favorite city and why? 
Sarah Jarnicki: I think right now the cities in the Middle East are just killing it at the moment because they're really living in the future and setting the bar for what hospitality can be. You see robots, you see experiences that we can even fathom here in the United States. And so my answer for my favorite is always gonna be the best hospitality destinations, and I think that Dubai's leading the way, but I've been to Saudi Arabia and I can tell you what's going on there is simply incredible, and I think that they're gonna be right behind Dubai very soon.
Steve Carran: Well said Sarah. So now we're gonna dive into your background. So you grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, is that correct? 
Sarah Jarnicki: I did, yes. Midwest girl with the big nine. You from the world there go. 
Steve Carran: Same here. How did growing up in Cincinnati shape you into who you are today? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Growing up in the Midwest makes you appreciate the simple things and always aspire to do greater things. My parents always taught me the importance of staying down to earth and remembering where you came from. My parents family survived the Holocaust and came to the country with absolutely nothing. And so hard work was instilled at me at a young age and I started working at Marriott as young as they would hire me. And so growing up in the Midwest just taught me to be very appreciative. And that's a quality that I hope will always be most pronounced in me. 
David M.: You knew you wanted to be in hotels since you were 17 and your junior year of high school, you were part of DECA and you were able to work in a hotel. What made you fall in love with hospitality? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Well, originally, I loved leaving school early and getting paid, but then I realized he doesn't love that, right? And then I realized that this is an incredible industry, one of the only ones that will reward you for being kind and creative. And I saw that this is the most wonderful industry to shape somebody's day. People are traveling and face all sorts of stressful things, and so by connecting to the customer, hearing them understanding what they're going through, you have the opportunity to transform their entire day, even if it wasn't as struggling when they first checked in.
Steve Carran: So during your first year of hospitality school, you're working at the Westin and you had a pretty great opportunity. Can you tell us more about that? 
Sarah Jarnicki: So I was working at their Indianapolis location during the summer of my freshman year. And during downtime when we weren't serving guests, I would be thinking about ways to enhance the guest experience. And I realized I was thinking about things that weren't in hotels anywhere at the time. This is before scent marketing was mainstream. I had a lot of ideas, and so it was an amateur and really cute attempt looking back. That I gave my general manager a scrapbook of ideas to implement into w Hotels. And somehow my amateur attempt did make it to corporate who was kind enough to invite me. And I'll never know what would've been because for a different reason I didn't end up going but the message from that is never let fear stop you from pursuing your dream, which I think that I did at that point. 
Steve Carran: That's great. So now we're gonna get into your career how you became the creator of brand claims. So after college, you actually got into trading commodities like food and technology with governments. What did you learn trading commodities that you still take with you today? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Yeah, I don't look like one of the characters that would've been on War Dogs. Right? Did you guys ever see that movie? 
Steve Carran: I did. And it was crazy. 
Sarah Jarnicki: There's not many women in the commodities space, and the reason I ended up going that direction is I realized that there was a secret industry that was powering how the world truly works. I realized this could be an amazing opportunity for me to raise a little bit of capital to make my brands happen. And so all along my goal was to reenter the hotel space just like a lot of, uh, major hotel developers. Their background was in banking or finance, right? This was just the avenue that I took, and I don't regret it a bit even though you face a lot of disappointments because you're offering products to the biggest decision makers in the world, whether they're private buyers or heads of governments. It taught me to be extremely confident to understand other cultures and to be persistent because there were a lot of opportunities I could have gave up. There are not many women, especially women, with my personality type walking around the commodity space. And that could have made me feel like I didn't belong, but I always knew that I had a purpose and I went after it. Ultimately, with the goal of ending up in this space to create the hotels that people really want. 
David M.: Two months ago you started BrandClave. What inspired you to create BrandClave? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Well, I think it's accurate to say everybody from the industry, from the guests to what we see on LinkedIn, people feel a little bored from the brands that are out there, and we're hearing about all of these new brand announcements.
But they're not touching the experiences that we all want to feel. And so originally my plan was I had 12 brands that I created, all concepts that don't exist anywhere in the world, and they're all backed by what customers wanna experience. And I originally was going to go to different developers and I started that process to sell one by one. And then I realized, wait a second, with the advancement of technology. I have the ability to use it for the good and democratize the brand creation process, making it faster, cheaper, and accessible for brands to use information that customers are showing they want they want, and to make them real.
And so, I'm trying to do just that BrandClave was born out of the fatigue of the industry, just being kind of tired of what's already been done. And so I'm coming in not to criticize the past, but to give both big brands and independency ability to create what customers are actually craving. So travelers today are living, uh, in a faster, more fluid digital life, and yet hotels are often reacting years behind them even if we see what's happening with AI right now. A lot of articles and a lot of opinions out there is that AI is just a fad and maybe they're considering adding Chatbots. But the reality is we can use it for the good to help developers move at the pace of demand and to be the first, not to react after and then look like you've copied. Does that make sense? 
Steve Carran: Yeah, absolutely. That was well said. So I'm gonna change your mind a little bit. What made you focus on the technology side of hotels utilizing AI and Web3 technology. 
Sarah Jarnicki: Yeah. So in my war dogs journey when I was trading commodities, like I said, one of the things that I was offering a thing called artificial intelligence before most people knew what it was, and I started to realize at a high level how this technology was being added to every part of human life. And so whether we like it or not the reality is hotels will need to be prepared and they need to do it like right now, because the reality is it's going to take a few years to develop these properties and we see how fast technology is changing our world, especially with this AI race. It's a competition, and so it's literally a government initiative.
And so if America is trying to win that race. American Hotels need to as well. Right now we're currently behind, we see markets in Asia in the Middle East, leading, and the answer that I've gotten brands when I've asked that question is. Well, they can secure financing easier because these are countries that aren't a democracy.
So their government's trying to do whatever to draw customers. But the reality is, with the right business plan, which is one of our services, a bank will be attracted to see actually these projects are worth investing in because this is what the future is going to be, so their hotel will be worth even more.
So I wanted to talk a little bit about how we can validate that value to, from an investor standpoint, so how it works and how we can be so sure that these aren't just great ideas that don't exist in the market. Aside from being human created, I verify it by seeing what customers are responding to online. And so from millions of life, cultural signals, social behavior, emergent lifestyle content, we can see what people want. And we're filling the gap in between and finding what people want and what doesn't exist, and making those brands for de developers to essentially plug and play into their next development.
Steve Carran: That's great. So now we're gonna move into the thought leadership part of the podcast. And one thing you said earlier was that traditional hotel branding; the process is broken. What specific pain points convinced you to reinvent it with AI? 
Sarah Jarnicki: So I think, like I said, people feel like it's just kind of the same brand experience on repeat. It feels soulless and we want to give the experiences that feel alive and there's actually technology aside from AI, that can do just that. But that's really futuristic, so maybe we shouldn't go there yet. However, there's an opportunity to use technology and the design process to not only make guests feel more connected and not disconnected from the hospitality experience, experience, despite what a lot of professionals feel, you can use technology to enhance the experience, but also the main goal of BrandClave, aside from delivering the brands that customers really want, is to make the developer and the operator as much money as possible. And so using technology we can do that. 
David M.: So that's a great segue. So BrandClaves engine predicts travel desires before they appear on any trend reports. Can you tell us about the benefit that offers hotel developers? 
Sarah Jarnicki: So it gives developers the creative edge. If you can see six to 12 months ahead of what travelers will desire, say silence, retreats out performing social retreats or AI curated rituals, replacing static programming, you can lead the category instead of reacting to it. And that's the real power of data-driven insight. Additionally, let's talk about how long takes. So typically, when you're branding a property, you have probably a dozen creatives involved and their timelines can increase your expenses and delay your project using brand clave is one powerful platform. Where right now you're only interacting with me, but in the future it will just be a software that you can log in and build your brand direct. And so the goal is you'll know the trend before any of your competitors know what's going on, and you can use that in seven days instead of if it takes you a year to brand a property cutting off a lot of time in your development, which ultimately means delivering a product a customer wants much sooner. 
Steve Carran: Let's dive into that a little bit deeper. You mentioned that you can go from raw data to a fully designed investor ready hotel brand in just seven days. Can you tell us more about that?
Sarah Jarnicki: So the idea is that we use AI to assist, but not to create all of my ideas, our mine are concepts that I created many years ago, and we're simply using AI to enhance the speed, to deliver the experience that guests are looking for. And so the weak is fast and focused, but essentially day one we talk about where your potential property is. What type of guest rate you're trying to have a night, the type of customers you want. And I introduced three different concepts and we go over the pros and cons of each one and agree which one to move forward with. So it's really just a day of data ingestion. We go over what's trending in, say Miami and what's missing, and by the end of the day, we know the emotional desires that are trending globally. And I feel it's important to highlight emotion for a minute. As we're entering this age of ai, I think people in the industry are very concerned that the guest experience is going to be lost in technology, but the number one trend is emotional design. Guests really want to feel, and that's what's missing, that's what's going to create a repeat customer. And so on day two, I keep all of that in mind by taking our insight and translating it from a creative and strategic roadmap to see who's it for, what's it feel like, and how are we gonna make this baby as much money as possible?
I'm really creative with that my background is working in that space. And so I come up with unique ways for the property to make money in areas that aren't common. And so day three and four, I'm designing the narrative, the visual identity, the guest experience. Architecture, guest rituals, and all of those things. And then on day five, we're gonna do a little group, make sure that everybody likes it, that we're on the same page, even though it is a seven day process. Don't think it's just like, well, here's your brand. I am absolutely a perfectionist and somebody that's looking to create long-term relationships, and so day five is really the opportunity to make sure that the customers completely satisfied and will keep going until they are.
We're gonna go over financial modeling and positioning to see what does this man brand mean to the developer's bottom line, and how much and how can it scale? Because maybe there's an opportunity depending on what the brand envisions for them to make multiple locations and franchise it in the future. So we think about all of those opportunities. And then last but not least, day six and seven is the packaging everything into an investor ready deck. What I mean by that is I offer two different models. Say you are a developer that wants to build a hotel, but you don't exactly know the direction that you want it to go.
You just know for sure you want a brand that nears what customers want, and you wanna own it right now, so nobody else can create it. I create a digital brand that delivers all of the same services as the physical brand, but can be used as a hold for one year. This gives them the exclusive rights for a year, and to also use all of the information and designs that I've produced to raise capital if that's something that they need to do. Then when that year expires, they can come to me and make it a physical brand and all of their services have already been delivered to them. The difference is they're now gonna have exclusive rights and that's it. And hopefully our seven-day process is something that really delights and wows developers to build relationships long term. 
David M.: Very impressive. All right, so I'm putting a lot of pressure on you with these questions with time travel. So here's another one. So if you could teleport listeners into hospitality in 2030, what surprising traveler behaviors would they see first? 
Sarah Jarnicki: So my answer is based on my experience selling advanced technology before a lot of people even envisioned the AI. So it's not just my imagination, but I've been in the future for a while now. So these are things that I know are gonna be a part of how the world interacts. And so I think the following should be included in hospitality by 2030. If not, the hotels are gonna be really behind. And so the number one thing goes back to what I've already said about guess we'll expect an emotional experience, meaning the space to respond to them that means the lighting the digital art shifting to their mood. That's one of my concepts. So if anybody takes that, I thought of that first.
David M.: You here gotta recorded. 
Sarah Jarnicki: Yeah, exactly. That's good. Exactly. This is my digital footprint, footprint of that. So you're gonna see we're gonna see a rise of identity tourism where travelers will stay at brands that reflect who they want to become. Think of a hotel as a living algorithm, reading preferences, curating experiences in real time and beyond that, hospitality will merge with wellness and longevity. I also have a brand for that, call me if you're a developer.
And so guests won't wanna just book for to rest, they're gonna want to rejuvenate both physically, mentally, and even creatively. And I think the real reason Longevity's gonna be on the rise. Isn't just because people are trying to look good and be into yoga with downward dogs and green smoothies. I think the reality is people are very exhausted by technology. It's very overwhelming seeing the feed. You know, a lot of people sleep with their cell phones, shower with their cell phones. I don't, but I've heard people do that and people feel very connected to this external thing. As then, and so I think that the positive of technology is as technology advances, it could really inspire people to reconnect to themselves and we can create the resorts that will empower them to do that.
Steve Carran: That's great. So what immediate steps do you have for developers to take if they wanna be one of those, you know, first movers to take advantage using AI powered brand creation, and also how can they future proof their hotels as well? 
Sarah Jarnicki: So I'm really looking for partners who have the same vision of the future as I do. I wanna align myself with the people who have the desire to deliver the experience guests really want, not just because they see everybody else doing it. All of my concepts are first in the world, concepts that don't exist anywhere, and so this presents a tremendous business opportunity for a developer to lead a completely new category.
And so I want to work with the right partners who see the power in that as an example of how guests are traveling for experiences. Over the summer I discovered on my Instagram feed, this Egyptian beauty service was offering onboard services on a pink yacht to do blowouts and manicures. And well, I just needed to experience that. And so over the summer, my plan suddenly became, wait, how can I go there to have this once in a lifetime experience? And I wasn't even planning on going to Egypt, but that suddenly became on the top of my bucket list. And so I think that when developers understand that guests are thinking like me and want to align themselves with the future, those are the people who should give me a call.
David M.: So you have an announcement about the world's first web hotel. Can you tell us more about that? 
Sarah Jarnicki: I do. Yes. So the Web3 movement, let's talk about it. What this means. So remember the days of Craigslist, that was Web one where you're just reading information on a screen, and then web two was when Google, Facebook, all of these companies realized, wait a second, we can make a lot of money off of people and sell their data. Essentially, the problem with web two is there's no privacy. And as a creator, even if you have a website, you don't really own it. Somebody could take it immediately. And so that's the need for Web3. Web3 is a decentralized, uh, world. That kind of aligns with people who are into crypto, but the idea is for the owner to be in charge of their content, giving power to the creator.
But additionally, the web experience that we're having now will be completely immersive. So instead of looking at each other on Zoom, it will be like we're together in the same studio. And so I decided I wanted to create the very first Web3 hotel. That will be ready for when Web3 rolls out. If anybody's tried on the Apple Vision goggles, that's how I imagine it will look like. But people think that like the Metaverse was a video game. It's not that because that's like a plot created by developers. But in our web hotel, we are the developers. It was created by us. We are the actual characters. You're not pretending to be somebody else. And let me tell you about what I mean by us, because this is the exciting part, I thought instead of making this historic project myself.
It would be a lot more powerful to combine other people's skillsets to collaborate with the top female thinkers in the Web3 world. The top crypto finance. People as well as I'm trying to attract some hospitality females who are also involved in this space, but that's, uh, a bit more tricky as hospitality is a conservative space.
So ladies, if you're listening and you are a high level executive, uh, from development standpoint up, please contact me as right now we're sorting through. A hundred of the most influential voices in Web3, finance and hospitality. And together we're going to be co-creating the very first web hotel. The idea behind collaborating is to make this, uh, digital culture real, to make this a place that creates the future of networking. We will be meeting in the web hotel to have events. So that way if women are all over the world, we can come together in this place and it's our place to hang out. And so the first initiative will be us actually designing this together and wish me luck because it will be difficult taking into consideration a hundred very special people's opinions and keeping everybody happy, but the idea involving so many people was intentional. It's supposed to be a project that celebrates women uniting instead of separating our talents. This is a place where we're gonna work together and I hope using all of our contact including mine in the hospitality space. This will be the very first hotel in the world that was created digitally and then will be created physically. 
Steve Carran: Very cool. Well, Sarah, we have been asking you questions this whole time, so this is where we turn the tables and let you ask David and I a question.
Sarah Jarnicki: Love it. I'm very inquisitive. So let's do this. Welcome to my show. So, well, I would love to ask you guys, what are experiences that you feel are missing in hotels that would check your boxes? 
Steve Carran: Oh man, that is a loaded question. I'll go first. I love when I travel, I really wanna be immersed in the community. So whether that is, we just had a conversation with somebody about coffee, local coffees in the hotels local live ations, is that right? Live Asian. So like local beer, local distill, things like that. So like anything that they can incorporate into their hotel that makes it a real local experience those are kind of the things that excite me. 
Sarah Jarnicki: Steve, I love that you just said that totally unscripted because you just validated a brand that I created for Suno. If you guys are listening, it's around local culture that doesn't exist anywhere that would be perfect for them that I know guests like you are waiting to experience. So, David, what about you? 
David M.: Yeah, I want the local stuff too. So for me, I always tell people the best experiences I've had when I've traveled, especially abroad, is when I know somebody locally who takes me to the places that they would go to, not necessarily the places that the person behind the front desk might recommend.
So I think the connection between local experiences and the hotel are extremely important. So for me, the more I can get. Obviously, you know, Steve and I both we're aligned. We like independent properties, but if we can get that kind of same feel on property, but also off property, where we get the experience things that are local is I think, really key to what's happening in the future.
Sarah Jarnicki: David, I have a follow up question based on what you just said. You said that your preferred vibe is independent hotels. I wanted to ask you what you think the future is for branded properties for them to be the preferred mode of travel for guests again. 
David M.: Well, I think what you're seeing is that the branded properties have woken up, and even though they've been, they've been acquiring a lot of these independent groups, they've taken a step back and said, Hey, this might be a Marriott autograph or a Hilton tapestry, but we don't wanna put that in your face.
We want to kind of take a step back and let you feel like you're not at a Hilton. You're not at a Marriott, but you're gonna get the benefits of Bonvoy or whatever the rewards are, and you're gonna, it's gonna come up in your feed when you search through Marriott. So I think the brands are waking up to understanding that even though they want the independent hotels, they can't brand them as heavily as they do their other stuff. Like people want to feel that they're at an independent hotel, even if it is part of Marriott. So I dunno if that makes sense, but that's what I'm feeling, that I've stayed at a couple branded properties that used to be independent, that joined, and there's nothing like I stayed at an autograph collection hotel.
There's nothing about Marriott at the hotel. Like, I could book it through Bonvoy, but there was nothing in my face that it was a Marriott, they really made a extra level of effort to make sure that you didn't feel you were staying at a Marriott. So that's what I think is happening now. So it's more about distribution and loyalty points versus actually being in a Marriott.
Sarah Jarnicki: Yes. I love how Hilton just acquired that outdoor collection. Um, something I love to do in my spare time is hike. I love being in the outdoors and just in nature. And again, I think what we were talking about, how people feel, technology fatigue. That's why sector is really on trend, so I love that Hilton's doing that. And I think that Hyatt actually has been on, on the money with some of their recent luxury developments, so kudos to them. 
Steve Carran: Absolutely. Well, our producer, Jon, has been listening to this whole conversation, so we are gonna kick it over to him for that last question and then we're gonna get you outta here. 
Jon Bumhoffer: Sarah, it was fun listening to the conversation. I'm really curious, you said you have a lot of unique brand ideas. I'm curious though, you kind of asked Steve and David, so I'm gonna kind of pitch that question right back at you. What are some of your favorite experiences, whether they're hotels or just, you know, travel experiences that inspire you and influence some of the designs that you're creating in some of the concepts that you've come up with?
Sarah Jarnicki: I love this question and not to tease, but I can't fully give you that answer because that would give away some of my brands. And like I said, uh, they're all concepts that don't exist anywhere in the world. And so I'll tell you what has inspired those. In the end, it's what all of us want to experience that's missing from the market. And finding ways to make a physical building feel internal. Like, you know, if you've ever been inside of any of Ian Tracker's properties, you really feel them, they give you the total feels right. And so all of our concepts, whether it's wellness related, I have something space related, all types of things, they're all things that align with what customers want to feel. And so, I'm hoping people see the value in that, especially the big brands. Because they're reaching the masses and I want to be able to deliver what a majority of people are looking for based on my data. 
David M.: That does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. Sarah. This is where you get to plug away, let people know how they can get in touch with you, how they can find out more about BrandClave? 
Sarah Jarnicki: Great. I had so much fun today, and if you're listening, I hope you're inspired to think about what the future holds and if you're a developer, how you can use this as an opportunity to make as much money as possible.
So let's do it. Reach out to me on brandclavehotels.com I also created a YouTube channel that I need to be more on top of, but I've been busy trying to get out there. I created the first series called Make a Futuristic Hotel with me, and the whole idea is I'm trying to create a movement to get the collective just as I am with the Web3 hotel of the web. I'm trying to get people online to imagine together what the future of hotels can be. So I'm trying to use my channel as a hub for that. So check me out there, say on hi on LinkedIn and let's make hotels of the future. 
David M.: Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. So whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Thank you so much, Sarah. We appreciate you. 
Sarah Jarnicki: Thanks for having me. It was so much fun. 
David M.: Thank you. 
Steve Carran: Thank you.