The Modern Hotelier #264: Transforming a Route 66 Motor Lodge Into a Boutique Hotel | with Sharmin Dharas
===
David Millili: Welcome to The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. Steve, who do we have on the program today?
Steve Carran: Yeah, David, excited for today's conversation. We have on Dr. Sharmin Dharas, the Chief Experience Officer at Hotel ZAZZ and the Chief Storyteller at HERstory Hospitality. Welcome to the show, Sharmin. How you doing today?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Good to be here. Thank you so much. I'm doing well. How are you guys?
Steve Carran: Good. Good.
David Millili: All right, we're gonna jump in. We're gonna go through a lightning round of some quick questions. We're gonna get to know you better, your career, your background, and then dive into some industry topics. Sound.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Sounds like a planned.
David Millili: Good. All right. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: A doctor.
David Millili: Okay. What's something you wish you were better at?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Something I was better at by the way, I just wanna say this is my favorite part of your guys' podcast is the lightning ones. So I always dreamt if I were ever to be on this podcast, what kind of question you guys were gonna ask me, and this was not one of them. So what do I wish I was better at? I think I wish I was better at understanding how operates when it comes to scaling.
David Millili: Got it. What's a luxury you can't live without?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Earrings.
David Millili: Who's a person dead or alive you'd like to take to lunch?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Ooh, I think his highness cream aga.
David Millili: Okay. If you could have a superpower, what superpower would you like to have?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Be clear minded and be able to make executive decisions with no sleep.
David Millili: Got it. Alright, and give us something that's on your bucket list.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Okay, that's a great one. I have many on my bucket list. I think my top bucket list item is to visit. 18 hotels that are boutique and female owned before the end of time.
David Millili: Okay. That's a good one.
Steve Carran: Awesome. I love that. And I feel for that. No sleep one having a new baby girl, I'm getting a little less sleep than I'm used to, so I think that's what one of my answers too, but that was great. So now we're gonna dive into your personal background a little bit. What makes you tick? So you grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the Knob Hill, neighborhood. How did that shape you into who you are today?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Well, actually I'll say that I grew up on Central, which in Albuquerque is known for Route 66, and my parents lived and worked in this 13 Room motor Lodge. And it was a room garage room garage. And that's where I was born and raised until the age of eight. And culturally in Albuquerque, people actually drive and cruise up and down central Route 66. And so growing up from zero to eight, my parents would always drive up and down Central, which happened to also be the midpoint is Knob Hill. And so my mom would see this beautiful mid-century modern building and she always had her eye on it. And growing up I always heard of how beautiful it was and whatever not.
And by the time I was eight, I found out we were moving and my parents actually purchased that place, which was the Sleepy Bear Travel Lodge and I was so mad. I was so mad because, you know, either you move into a house from a motel or you stay in the motel that you've always known, you know? But looking back it was a blessing, you know, so it was great growing up on Central and hearing all the different stories and tourisms of different worlds. 
David Millili: Okay, and so you went to the University of New Mexico, you got your degree in biochemistry, and then you went to Avalon University to become a doctor. What led you to the medical path?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: So given my culture you only had three options when going to school. You had to be a lawyer, doctor, or an engineer. So I really didn't have much of a decision to make here, besides my dad constantly saying, she's gonna be a doctor one day she'll be a doctor one day she's gonna be a doctor one day. So I think that brainwashing really helped, or should I say path guiding, and that was all that I ever knew. And so, growing up naturally in a motel, I guess I was also absorbing how to operate and everything just naturally. Passively versus actively learning how to become a surgeon.
Steve Carran: That's great. So aside from being a doctor and running a hotel, you're also a child's book author and you specialize in Oh, so cute. I could hug you. Adventure fantasies that manifest into semi reality. Can you tell us a bit more about the books and how you became an author?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah, absolutely. So that actually happened by luck when we were developing hotels as, so we're on a branding call it's COVID everyone's starting to get their vaccinations and such. And the branding team asked me, you know, how is Knob Hill? What is Knob Hill? You know, and I'm telling them that it's this cool eclectic, artsy, hyper-local, district that's historic within Albuquerque.
And it's like Center point. It's where everyone goes to eat and hang out and do things locally. However, with COVID, you know it totally. Killed all that. And so we just need to bring some pizazz back. So my 18 month old daughter attached at my hip on many of these Zoom calls, looks at me. She was just learning how to talk and she's like, Daaz, what’s that? And I'm like, that's it, dude. That's it. The parameters of this branding call were the name of the hotel had to be starting with an X, Y, Z had to be four letters and ZAZZ sounds about right. And so I used her as my North Star and she's very talented and whimsical. And so I asked her, you know, if ZAZZ was an animal, what would it be? And that's where she said, Raffi. And so then I went a little further and I was like, okay, if Raffi had his favorite snack, what would that be? Can you guys guess based on the branding of hotels as.
Steve Carran: Ooh, I have no idea.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Nana, this child was obsessed with avocados mixed.
Steve Carran: Oh my goodness. Yes. 
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: And we are the home of the golden banana, and so you have to tap the banana three times on the tip to get you in this beautiful speakeasy. And so taking all that the marketing team was like, how are we gonna explain this on a website? You know? And I just put something together while getting, giving her a bath and started writing out this story. And my asset manager's like, dude, this would be a fantastic children's book. You should get published. I'm like, while we're doing construction, I was like, you're crazy. And while we're making our own toiletries, you are crazy. He's like, no really. You should. So, a publishing company picked it up and here we are, the ZAZZY Adventures of Ru and Raffi, and it's the whole whimsical story of a mother and a father, a family purchasing a hotel and them living in it while they're renovating it. And throughout the book, you know, she goes and explores and finds. A magical mini giraffe named giraffe, and they go on all these adventures. And throughout the adventure of the book, you kind of see the whole blueprint of hotel ZAZZ. And the greatest part is, which I'm really excited about, is at the end of this book, they somehow find this magical room with this magical hot air balloon. You know, 'cause Albuquerque's known for that, and they hop into this hot air balloon off to their next journey. Could that be a little pretty cool to the next hotel? Who knows?
Steve Carran: Very cool. What a great story. So now we're going to dive into your career a little bit. How you got to hotels at, so like we talked about, you started in the medical field, you were at the Phoenix Children's Hospital, then you went back to your university at Avalon as a director. Is there anything you take from your medical days today, now that you're in hospitality?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Actually, I take a lot. I joke a lot about how growing up in a motel 24/7 seeing my parents do the hustle, you know, at the motel life really primed me to learn how to not sleep and be ready for residency. And residency helped me not sleep, plus be more clearheaded and make some life or death decisions, and then using that, coming back into hospitality in the hotel world taking the fact that we're using medicine to help people making emotions that help people get excited and feel good and happy. And taking all that into effect we were able to implement that with Hotel ZAZZ. You know, and I love to say that we are pioneers of chromotherapy, but not in the cookie sense, you know, because I do practice medicine at the end of the day.
But more so about colors make you feel something, right? So on property, you won't ever see a painted room that's red, because red universally means alarm danger, right? And so with hospitality, you wanna feel calm, but you don't wanna feel neutral. You wanna feel bold, you know? So we do the hot pinks instead, we do the passionate purples and the ferocious blues, you know, and surfer blues to help bring the calming natures and, um, the gold standard yellows. And we made our own path where when you stand on property, the first thing you feel is happiness because of the bold, rebellious colors that are not technically hospitality worthy.
David Millili: And you also got into politics working for Emerge Arizona, emerge New Mexico. Why did you decide to get into politics and what did you do when you were working with Emerge?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: That's a great question with Emerge that I am so thankful for Emerge in medicine you don't get to learn how to make Excels and, you know, do the typical admin work. And a lot of the skills that I learned from Emerge really helped shape and guide how I was gonna operate a lot of my hotel ZAZZ world and her story, hospitality and really the empowerment of women.
During residency, I was taking a course because I was asked by someone to run for office born here, raised locally lots of people knew me and you know, I was passionate about the community, right? And in that course, I had told the executive director then in New Mexico that, Hey, one day I wanna do what you do. And that one day came about like 20 weeks later. I was flying back and forth from Arizona to New Mexico and she was like, Hey, Arizona needs an executive director part-time. Since you're kind of already gone through the whole thing, maybe you could help them kind of get started and such. So while doing the whole medical thing, I was also doing emerge part-time, and that was truly also because medicine became very morbid. Right, and I wanted to put, dabble myself into something that was a little bit more rewarding. I know it's hard to find how to, hard to hear that medicine is probably not as rewarding, but it takes a lot out of you. It literally, you're worried all the time about life and death. And so with the pol political co uh, aspect of things, I was able to really connect with people. And empower women to find their voice. And I think that's really important. You know, being a daughter of a first generation, you know, being the first American and seeing what my parents fled and went through to have that American dream and. It was really rewarding to do that and I'm so thankful we did that because it also brings a lot of connections here.
I mean, we had the mayor here a couple of days ago. We get to do fun political fundraisers, you know, of all sorts, and, um, really engage even more so with the community.
Steve Carran: That's awesome. That's awesome. And you do have a little bit of a entrepreneurial bug in you. You've started a couple companies. You have Usafii, am I saying that right? Body oil, and then you also started Bite Yard, which is where her story hospitality got its start. Can you tell us a little bit more about us Usafii body oil and also the start of bite yard, which led to her story?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah, so, Usafii is actually my first entrepreneurial bug, I guess you could say when I was in medical school. I had to do a presentation on, um, certain, various diseases and such, and one that came up was psoriasis of the Scalp. And so when I did a whole deep dive, I was able to get in the lab and kind of experiment a little bit.
And with that experimentation I created the base, this oil which became that is currently patent pending actually to help with psoriasis of the scalp and help generate regrowth of the hair, after treating psoriasis of the scalp. And so my fiance at the time was like, Hey, have you thought about like maybe bottling this up and just seeing what happens and. It literally started up from the couch from there, you know? And that was in 2015. And we just took it further and further and started creating the beauty aspect of it, and it's all Ayurvedic and natural, and then from there were put together bite yard. Bite yard is a food truck lot and right now, and that was just kind of more of a holding place until we could figure out something more permanent. And that was in 2018 that that started to develop. And while that was happening University Lodge had to get a little bit of love and so that's when we also started to look into what to do with the property here. And so we created Herstory Hospitality to help manage all these different Companies. It was actually called Heritage Hospitality first. And because Heritage is a trademarked name here in New Mexico, I actually got a cease and desist to change my name. And so I was like, okay, David and Goliath here. I'm gonna show you as a female entrepreneur what that means. And so boom, we got her straight hospitality doing it for her.
Steve Carran: That's great.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah.
David Millili: So you spoke about it. So your parents owned from 96, they owned the University Lodge, and then you took over in 2022 created the hotel ZAZZ. Tell us more about that process and how that came about.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah. So, when I was at Emerge, I wanted to become a mom, right? And so in order for me to be a mom, I had to also slow down everything medical related practicing medicine 'cause I was not getting any sleep. I was not taking care of myself and I really didn't have time, you know? And so I deep dived even more into emerge to allow me the opportunity to have more flexibility. And during that time. I found out that my mom was diagnosed with early onset dementia, and I could kind of see it, you know, they were working and just coming back every year and just seeing how she was kind of deteriorating. I asked to move here to New Mexico so emerge actually, let me come back here and then be the executive director here.
And so while I was out here, and doing telehealth remotely, I started to see that University Lodge needed a little bit of help, you know, the area just in general became a little bit blighted and there were opportunities for development and such. I had two ideas at the time, which was one, come sell it and make it apartments or something, or two. Maybe we have an opportunity to make this a boutique hotel because when I used to travel, you know, volunteering around the world as a physician, I would see like cute little places not coined boutique then, but you know, renovated motels, hotels, whatever it was. And I thought, okay, this has an opportunity, you know, opportunity.
And COVID happened. And when COVID happened, that allowed me the opportunity to tell my parents that, Hey. Why don't we trade babies? I'll give you my baby. You gimme your baby and you guys go retire in your dream home. You know? And that actually helped my mom understand and absorb that. I'm not really taking anything away. I am not selling anything, but we're gonna try to stabilize things and get her okay. And so she could enjoy her granddaughter as well. And so we're in COVID and everything's shut down and I see that, you know, a lot of people are doing DIY projects, might as well, right? Might as well go do a DIY project. So I picked two rooms told my husband, you know, go to Home Depot, grab me this, this, and this, and Amazon that. And we were able to renovate and learn how to do drywall and like, man, sanding is as a good arm workout and you know, really refresh the look of a room not knowing when we would be opening up or anything like that. So now we're here like what, one year into COVID and the property has never, ever, ever been online, ever. It was always paper and pen, registration card, you know, like, I think it was even the old school credit card machines, you know, where you had to like put the credit card and carbon copy and then, you know we even had like the key maker and stuff like that, right?
So, I thought, okay, a year later, let's go and put it on an OTA, just kind of use it as a platform, as a PMS and see what happens and get a website going that makes something happen. And we started seeing bookings, right? You could get 25% occupancy, I think, in New Mexico at that time. And we were seeing all sorts of people. And it was wonderful. And that's when I realized like, oh my god, motor lodges are probably back in the in and in and up and up and that's it. You know, we were getting feedback on our DIY project. We did, and everyone loved it, 'cause it wasn't your typical, you know, eggshell creams and mobs and stuff. It was like in your face, hot pink, purples blues, you know, whatever color my daughter enjoyed at the time is what we did. And that's when we knew like, we have something here. It was like our own personal feasibility study.
Steve Carran: That's awesome. That's awesome. So Hotel ZAZZ is actually the only motor lodge style boutique hotel in the country with a full service wellness spot. Also speakeasy, you mentioned it a little bit, but can we hear the full story about the Golden Banana and ZEMA Vinyl Lounge speakeasy?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah, absolutely. Oh my God. I think those are like the spotlights of the property. You know, when you come to a motor lodge, you know, you think exterior corridor, you don't really think that it'll have a spa or a speakeasy. You're just in and out, but here we really curated an experience.
So when hotel guests are checking in, they do their whole ring them a roll, you know, get, get checked in. And at the end we provide suggestions of places to eat, 'cause Knob Hill has lots of places to eat and do. We tell them, Hey, do us a favor. Do you see this golden banana here? And by the way, most people have already been texted to ask about the golden banana. And so if they ask for the golden banana, we'll say like, here's the golden banana. And they'll be like, okay, cool. What do I do? Or what is it, you know? And then we'll tell them to tap the top three times 1, 2, 3, and boom. They hear like this wall opening and it's like another portal. And you turn into this portal, you know, and it's beautiful. It's a 1970s vinyl speakeasy. You could see come some of the vinyl stuff behind us. And the faces we see, oh my gosh, the recordings we have of people's faces like, oh, sometimes people like tap in. They're like, okay, what's supposed to happen? What's supposed to happen? And they may not hear that the wall opens until we like point it to them and like, oh my God. Their reaction is fantastic. All of the employees, I think that's their number one thing working here is to enjoy the reactions of all our hotel guests. And it's, it's just so wonderful. And then above the speakeasy is our full wellness spa, like you mentioned. And so we have massages, facials, sauna, jacuzzi, the whole shebang. And that story was really interesting how that came about during construction, you know, I was looking for a taco truck or some food truck to come hang out permanently with us, and I just put it on my Facebook. You know, I have tons of people on there, my friend from when I was in medical school, I used to have like cystic acne. She was an aesthetician then. And she messages me and she's like, Hey, have you thought about a spa? I was like, whatcha talking about? And she's like, have you thought instead of a taco truck or a taco or food or something to have a spa? And I'm in this like era of yes for everything. And I told her, okay, yes, let's do it. Show me. She had a background. She actually, after, when I finished med school, she went into engineering school. So she became a civil engineer and worked for the city of Seattle. So she had moved back and she wanted to go back into being an aesthetician. So her and her husband, who's an architect, came out here, looked at the space that I was talking about, and we're like, we're converting this into a three room treatment spa with sauna and jacuzzi.
And I'm like better you than me 'cause I have no idea you're gonna come and do that. And 2023, March 1st. Boom. Monet's Spa is at Hotel ZAZZ along with ZEMA Vinyl Lounge. And it is an experience to have, imagine just going on Route 66, driving all day to get to your destination and knowing you booked a motor lodge on Route 66 that can give you a massage. You could hang out in the jacuzzi and sauna, along with doing dive-in movies and playing some vinyl tunes. Like talk about nostalgia. Right. And happiness and wellness. 
Steve Carran: That's great. So, well now we're gonna dive into a little bit more about the industry thoughts and some thought leadership parts of running your own hotels. So Hotel ZAZZ was recognized by Forbes as one of the 77 must see hotels around the world. What advice would you give to other hoteliers out there on capturing kind of those Instagrammable moments or kind of those moments that translate into social media?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Absolutely, honestly, when we were designing this place, it was never about how do we make it more Instagrammable? It was truly authenticity. What my daughter liked is what we did. What I liked is what we did and that naturally because of our bold, vivacious personalities, happened to be very maximalist and Instagrammable and we didn't really care what the industry standard was are known as rebels, right? Who puts bold and crazy neon colors everywhere, especially in rooms, hotels, as does. And with that, you know, you stand out from the crowd and people really like that they really wanna see that they love the story, they love the authenticity, and you know, every room is my daughter's dream.
While we were going through construction, you know, COVID really affected the construction world. You know, there everything had gone up like 400% and so we had to be creative. That's why every single hotel room is a different experience, you know, and it's natural. It's not like we planned it just happened, and each room has a mural that had to do with the dream that this two, 3-year-old thought of the night before or dreamt about. So I believe that the best advice would be authentic and be authentic to yourself, and don't care about what anybody else thinks 'cause if they like it, they like it. If they love it, they love it. If they don't, well move on.
Steve Carran: That's great advice. Love it.
David Millili: So I don't think a lot of people even know Route 66, how long it is, the history behind it just had an anniversary and that people even come from Europe to drive it. So how has it helped the property get more bookings being part of this historic route?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah, I will say growing up here, which by the way, this used to be my former bedroom right here. There's a window here, and then every window was a bedroom. But growing up here, you know, I would sit in the kitchen, which is the bar, and I would hear my dad checking in a guest, and I would hear the story he is telling, and I would hear the guest telling him the story. And a lot of these guests came out here. When I was young because of Route 66, they were from Eastern Europe, they were from Germany, they were from Japan, they were from Finland, like all over the place. And when you have a smaller property, a boutique hotel, you're able to spend a little bit more time to get to know one of these, know your guests. And I was always fascinated for the fact that these. International travelers came and stayed at our motel because we were on Route 66. Right. And it was mind blowing. And I think what really, really made me think like I need to get more involved and start loving Route 66 more was I came back from my first semester of medical school. And in room 1 22 where they filmed Dreamland Crush and they had these like turbos, I think they're called those angels, you know? there was this couple from Germany, they were about like 2023, you know, around my age. And I was shocked to see them 'cause I've never seen young folks staying with us, you know? They were coming outta their room, going, walking towards their Mustang. And I asked them, I was like, what brings you guys here? And in this thick German accent, they're like, route 66, you know? And I was like, whoa. Oh my gosh. I was like, what? What's so cool about it? You know? And they're like, the history, the mother road, the American dream, you know, like the wild west.
And you know, she just kept going and going and I'm like, whatcha talking about? And so after I spoke with them, I actually got on the computer and I was like, tell me more about Route 66. You know, I felt really, really dumb being an American living on Route 66 and not knowing what they knew. You know, it's not something we really grow up with like, yeah, let's go drive the mother road. Right? But I'm hoping we do now, and that's a little part of this, you know, is we're an old motel. We're not like the blue swallow where we're maintaining exactly how it was back from the 1930s, but we added a little bit of swank and pizazz to it so we can invigorate and get the younger generations excited about Route 66. Right. And being on this beautiful mother road. And by the way, Albuquerque has the longest stretch 18 miles long of active Route 66, it's just been phenomenal. You know, we get people from all over. I know when we first opened up, um, I had done another interview and the first thing they asked me is like, what kind of demographic do you see? And I was like, all international. And they're like, really? You know, like in Albuquerque at your motel? I'm like, yeah, because it's the round 66 like people really want to say they stayed on the Route 66, you know, and drive these awesome, cool cars and Lowriders and the Neon and it's just, it's just so cool to see all the stories and hear people so excited about the Mother Road. And yes, we are at our centennial.
Steve Carran: That is so cool. So you mentioned earlier about all the great restaurants around Hotel ZAZZ. There's actually 206 businesses and awesome restaurants around you. What are ways that you're partnering with those? Businesses and restaurants to help not only create a hyperlocal experience, but also help drive revenue to them.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah, that's a great question. So yeah, like you said, there's almost over 206 restaurant bars. And local retail all within the one mile radius of Hotel ZAZZ. And that's a walking radius, which is phenomenal. And knowing that, um, we were really intentional with what spaces we were gonna have at Hotel ZAZZ and one space that we do not have on purpose is food because of the amount of restaurants there are in the neighborhood. Um, there's so many James Beard winning restaurants. There's a Michelin Star chef without the Michelin Star prize. There are unique Guinness Book World record holding corn dog places here, you know? And that's one of the questions we ask when you're checking in is like. Do you have any plans for dinner tonight? You know, or have you had lunch? And you know, the guests are usually always hungry and want to try local food. New Mexico is known for our culinary experience, and so we send them a round and when we get feedback of new places that they have tried, that's when we approach these unique businesses. Fun Fact is I have almost every single business owner on my cell phone, so at any time if there's a hotel guest that wants a reservation, our team will contact them and get them on the list. You know, that's something that's unique. You know, that's that concierge experience that we could provide that no one else can, especially during Balloon Fiesta. And so we'll have packages like Breakfast On Us with Flying Star and Flying Star was actually that location was in Back to the Future. It used to be called Double Rainbow. We'll have a Dine and Dream package with Mauch Cheese's Bar Roma, and they stay with us, they go have a special curated menu that's like a shared appetizer, two entrees, a shared dessert. No beverage because then they come back here and have their nightcap at ZEMA Lounge. And so it's really, really awesome to be able to provide that community and that collaboration effort so that we do push foot traffic out to the neighborhood and build community. 
David Millili: Great. So you're the only female mother-daughter owned hotel in Albuquerque based off this interview, I think you could probably do anything you wanna do. So this is gonna put a lot of pressure on you. What advice would you give to the younger generation who's interested in being an entrepreneur, or opening a hotel?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: That is a great question and actually we've been kind of harboring that passion in young females that want to open hotels. When we opened hotels as we had this one woman that worked with us, she was 18 at the time, she had just gotten to hospitality. She was working at Hilton as a night auditor only on weekends. And she needed, or on weekdays, and she needed some weekend hours. And so, you know, we hired her and she was studying to be a surgical tech, and she had no idea. I had a background in, you know, surgery and medicine and I was asking her questions that, Hey, why are you doing this? And you know, she's also a refugee from Congo and you had a background of wanting to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, you know, and I told her, I was like, what do you really love? And she's like, I honestly love hospitality. I love working here. I enjoy telling the story. I love people. I love interaction. I was like, well, being in the operation theater is not gonna get you there. You know, you don't get to communicate really with many people besides your surgical team, you know?
And her and I talked about it back and forth, but she never could see that dream. And so the whole purpose of creating the book was to also put all the profits from that book into a fund to help harbor more passion and educate females in hospitality, specifically in hotel hospitality. So, fast forward four years later, um, we work closely together and she is now a partner in the bar for the hotel so that she can eventually also be a partner in a hotel with us in the future or on her own. And use the experience that she's gained with us. And I usually sit down with a lot of the unique individuals that work with us that are super interested, specifically women, and guide them and give them everything like I am completely transparent about the hard, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. And so this way, you know, they could live through my experience and do better than what I can. And so it's been really a blessing and opportunity to house more females in hospitality where there isn't that space of female ownership. And, you know, mother designed.
Steve Carran: That's awesome. Well said, Sharmin. Well, we've been asking you questions this whole time, so this is where we're gonna actually turn the tables and let you ask David and I a question.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Okay. How fun. Wow. I like this. This is a great part. Now, you guys see so many people. You speak to so many people in different aspects of hospitality. And by the way, I love the name Modern Hospitality 'cause that's truly what we are, is modern in the hospitality sense. knowing that, you know, we're one small boutique hotel that has a lot of interest and such from your experience of talking to people who have scaled and you know, grown their businesses, what are the top three things that you hear that can help lead to better scaling and success?
Steve Carran: Great question. Great question. I think one of the things that we do here when we talk to, you know, groups that are either growing is kind of what you said earlier about being authentic. Don't forget like who you are and where you came from and like, especially like being authentic, maybe it's in different markets, if you know you're in Albuquerque right now and then you open a hotel in Oklahoma, maybe it won't be the exact same theme or something like that, but the core of the hospitality or the way you make people feel will still be there at its core. So I think never, never forgetting where you came from, I think, is one thing that we've heard to help be authentic and create those unique experiences.
So I know you asked for three but that's the one that comes to mind right now. But I think you know what you're doing is so awesome and authentic and it's you. So I don't think you can go wrong with that. 
David Millili: I'll try to give you three. So what I think what we've learned is that, one, you need to care. Care about what you're doing, you need to be curious. So I think, you know, just things of you listening into your father shows that kind of curiosity side. 'cause you could just be bored and doing something else, but you were like listening into his conversations with people. So caring, being curious. And then I think, just this kind of accepting of whether it be people, your location or even just technology. And I know that's kind of more of a boring part of it, but I think our industry, you know, you talked about it like you guys were doing the old, you know, Steve never had to do it, but I used to have to call in checks when I worked the front desk. I'd have to call in numbers on a check, or punch in into the keypad. So I think you know, that caring curiosity and then just really kind of just that adoption of technology and being kind of open-minded and not being scared that technology is gonna hurt hospitality when it can really help it.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Are great points. Love that I do in the tech part for sure.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. And I'm gonna pause right here because we just. Actually posted about this today. Tom Larson said something the President of, and I just wanna get that quote in there. So one other thing that I'm thinking now more about it is Tom Larson was on our podcast in season one and he talked about how it's different managing independence than brands. And he said they don't mandate anything, they make suggestions and lead with influence. And that stuck with me. And I think that's super powerful because independents are different from brands. And then I also think being financially smart too. Like you obviously know the numbers and things like that, but if you don't have money to scale or aren't a, a good position to, might not be the best time, but so those are my top three I'll say.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: I love that. Yeah, that's absolutely true.
Steve Carran: This has been great Sharmin, really appreciate it. Our producer, Jon, has been listening this whole time. We're gonna kick it over to him for one more question before we get you outta here.
Jon Bumhoffer: I loved hearing your story and it's very cool how you really got interested in Route 66, the history, and you can see that exude throughout the property and stuff like that. So I think that's really unique. And you alluded to, um maybe looking at future properties expanding or scaling. So you kind of asked those questions to David and Steve. Now I'm gonna put you on the spot. And if you are actively searching for properties, I'm curious, what are things you're looking for as somebody who has a very unique property and made it very unique? Like, what are you looking for in your next property?
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Absolute that is a fantastic question in order to preserve the uniqueness and authenticity of the brand in general after one year of being open, I really knew exactly the type of property we were looking for. And the first thing is it has to be U-shaped. The actual layout of the property helps build that community because we're a U-shaped exterior corridor, we were able to create this beautiful courtyard type appeal. So you enter into the speakeasy. With tapping on the banana. Banana and you exit one way, which is you're out where the life-size chess board pieces are and where the outdoor living room is for hotel guests to enjoy their popsicles during popsicle happy hour. And it allows that local, you know, hotel bar guest and the traveler to really integrate together. And you'll see that at 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock in the morning, there's hotel guests and locals playing chess and having a competition while people are watching and eating popsicles. And it's been so amazing to see that natural community build because the way the property is shaped in this U shape. So it allows that courtyard type feel. So that's the first one. The second one, exterior corridor, that'd be cool. But if it's not, that's fine. And third, it is gonna be location. You know, we don't want to overextend ourselves, you know, in every single state, that's not what we're looking for, we're looking for this story to carry through into a journey that tells Heritage, you know, and so some of the places we've been looking at are Arizona, Zanzibar, Dubai, and Portugal.
Jon Bumhoffer: That's awesome. This U shape is really interesting because we had. Bradley Stewart from Stewart from Caravan Al Poston, and they do like the Airstream kind of thing. And they have it similar where it's U-shaped kind of Airstreams, and then in the middle they have like a communal fire pit and a common area. So it is like that flow of you have a private space for you where you stay, but then there's this very common gathering space that doesn't feel like forced, but it's just a great place to gather. 
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Correct. Yeah.
David Millili: Well that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. This is where, and I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of people are gonna be Googling Golden Banana, but this is where you get the plug Hotel ZAZZ and let people know how they can find out more about the property and how they can get in touch with you.
Dr. Sharmin Dharas: Yeah, you could find us at www.hotelzazz.com and follow us on Instagram at hotelzazz and also look for the Golden Banana. We're the only hotel and speakeasy in the world where you tap it three times on the tip. I mean, the Savannah Bananas did it. You can do it too. Come visit us hotelszazz.com
David Millili: That's great. So that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Thank you for joining us.