The Modern Hotelier #134: Inside the Only 100% Electric, Zero Emission Hotel in the United States | Hotel Marcel with Ben Webster
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Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier. We're excited to release this episode with Ben Webster, GM of Hotel, Marcel. David, what were some of your highlights of this episode?
David Millili: Well, I think it was great because Ben really deciphered what it truly means to be sustainable. And we both love independent hotels. So just the whole story of how they're not only an independent hotel, but how they work with the community to continue to, be the only true sustainable hotel. I thought that was amazing.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. First, all Electric. Solar powered, LEED, platinum Certified Fossil Fuel free hotel in the us, the first and only one. he had great tips for any hoteliers that are looking to be more sustainable. just. Overall, great conversation. He's been a GM for 11 years, so, he knows the ropes, but really a great episode.
I'm excited for everybody to listen. Enjoy.
David Millili: Enjoy it. 
Welcome to the Modern Hotelier, Hospitality's Most Engaged Podcast. I'm David Melilli.
Steve Carran: I'm Steve Karin.
Jon Bumhoffer: And I'm John boom. Hoffer.
David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program today?
Steve Carran: David. Today we have Ben Webster. Ben is the GM of Hotel Marcelle. Ben has 23 years of experience in luxury independent hotels with 11 of that being a GM in hotels around the U. S. stands as a testament to the seamless integration of historic preservation and modern sustainability, offering guests an eco conscious stay without compromising on a comfort or style level.
Thanks for joining us, Ben.
Ben Webster: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
David Millili: All right, so Ben, we're going to go through a couple areas. We're going to go through a lightning round. We're going to get to know you a little bit better, your, where you grew up, your, career. And then we're going to get into some industry questions. Sound good?
Ben Webster: Sounds good.
David Millili: What's something that you wish you were better at?
Ben Webster: spending more time with my four month old
David Millili: What's the most used app on your phone?
Ben Webster: Gmail.
David Millili: All right. What's a luxury you cannot live without? 
Ben Webster: Well, I don't lead a very luxurious lifestyle. I am very tall though. So I would say, extra leg room on planes.
David Millili: if you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would you trade places with?
Ben Webster: my wife to see what it's like to live with me.
David Millili: What's the best piece of advice you've received?
Ben Webster: best piece of advice. give the company it's money's worth.
David Millili: Got it. Right. And what's your favorite city and why?
Ben Webster: Well, I don't like the cities. I like to be out in the country if I can. don't have one.
David Millili: All right. Yeah. Good answer.
Steve Carran: That's great. That's great, Ben. Great. So now we're going to dive into a little
Ben Webster: That's the toughest part of this.
Steve Carran: Yeah. Yeah. You're the rest is easy street. You're good. You're good on this. So, you grew up in Southberry, Connecticut, is that correct?
Ben Webster: That's true.
Steve Carran: How did that shape you into who you are today?
Ben Webster: you know, I, well, that's a good question. You know, I think I was a, I work up, I grew up in a family that, me and my father's a mechanic. My mother worked at the library, kind of blue collar family. And I ended up when I was 16 years old going to work at a hotel. My brother and I passed each other on the road one day and he said, we need extra valets at this hotel.
Go home, change your clothes and you're going to work at a hotel. And that was Connecticut's only five star five diamond hotel at that point in time, exposed me to a world Maybe I never had exposure to and you know ADRs, you know near a thousand dollars sort of thing that wasn't a lifestyle I ever understood So I think growing up in that area.
I had a good mix of real world and what maybe some of the luxury hospitality world could be and finding the blend between the two was awesome and I think that Mindset's kind of carried with me throughout my career.
David Millili: And you went to Eastern Connecticut University, Eastern Connecticut State University. You got your degree in business administration and management. How did you end up at Eastern Connecticut?
Ben Webster: I wanted to go to school for business. I like the smaller school. You know, I got into, you know, UConn and some of the bigger Connecticut ones, like a lot of my friends all went off to. But, you know, I liked the smaller feel of the school. and, you know, I was a distance runner, you know, like the smaller team feel sort of thing.
And, it was far enough away from home without being too far from home. And certainly in state tuitions friendly. So that was a nice thing to do. but yeah, I really enjoyed my time there and was able to kind of work my way through college as well, working at a hotel the whole time, 
Steve Carran: Very nice. So you mentioned you're a distance runner. You were in cross country and track and field, high school, college. What were some of your favorite events? That you got to participate in
Ben Webster: Well, cross country, I think, was, you know, being out in the woods running was always a good feeling, you know, I think you challenge yourself as an individual, in distance running, but it doesn't work unless you have the support of the team, and while you're still competing to a team, you know, it's not like someone's passing you the ball sort of thing, You know, I, I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess.
Distance running is most people's, torture. it is what we, thrived on. So, I think that's just, my personality. I enjoyed the distance running. I enjoyed the discipline needed for it. the time out in the woods was always good. but it was definitely probably a tighter team, because it's usually a smaller team or a smaller group of people.
And I enjoyed that.
Steve Carran: That makes sense. I'm one of those people. I'm not a running 
Ben Webster: These are good questions. These are good questions. All
David Millili: Yeah. 
Steve Carran: guy. So, now that we got a little bit more about you, we're going to go how you got to where you are and, kind of go through your career. So like you mentioned before, you started packing bags and parking cars and worked your way up to assistant GM at the Mayflower Inn in Spine, Connecticut.
Is that where you fell in love with hotels or can you tell us a little bit more about how you, got that itch for hotels?
Ben Webster: you know, I'll give a shout out and I think to my, former mentor and GM, right? I, think you learn to love the industry or love a business that you're with because of the leadership that's there. Right. And you know, that property, I love the exposure. I love the incredible people that just came through that property that you get to meet.
I think I fell in love with that part of hotels and, you know, at that intimate, very independent, you know, 30 room property, everything's very relationship based instead of transactional, right? It was about actually delivering the highest level of hospitality and really getting to know individuals as to who they are and what they care about and what their families are like.
we had a leadership team that was there. I mean, I think the seven or 80 C members were had 150 years experience at that property. It was very familial. And I think that's a part of hospitality that I really enjoy. And I, you don't see that in so many other industries. You know, I, could have walked into a room and that I realized I think at an early age of my teenage early twenties when I was there that I could walk into a room and be surrounded by an incredible, you know, James Beard winning chef, someone who knew accounting, a massage therapist, you know, a housekeeper, You know, college age kids, people in their 60s, you know, it was, you know, different ages and races and sexual orientations.
It's the most diverse group of people you'd ever find in any business, all working towards one goal. And I think that's what I really fell in love with about hospitality and any other industry I look at, you don't see anything that deep. Right. So I think that little property helped shape, that perspective for me.
And that was, something I've always appreciated. Part of what I fell in love with this industry.
David Millili: That's great. And so you've been GM of hotels in Connecticut, Nashville, Colorado. What did you learn from being a GM of hotels around the country?
Ben Webster: Yeah, so my most recent company. I'm with Charlestown hotels It's the management company here at Hotel Marcel, I've been with a CH for almost seven and a half eight years now in five different states some task force some permanent You learn a lot, right? I think everything in this world is about perspective and, you know, I was in Greenville, South Carolina at one point in time, you know, national, so being in the South and then going out to Denver and, you know, I spent time in Fort Lauderdale, Stowe, Vermont.
Some things about hospitality are just consistent, regardless of location, but, you know, I think the employees, some of the guest needs, they change, by location and I think that's, it's just a great perspective of, you know, what the staff. valued maybe when I was in Greenville versus what they valued when I was in Colorado versus what their needs are here in Connecticut are very different.
So always being in tune with that is important. and the types of properties have been a little different. So the guests have different expectations at certain properties, but, you know, all in all, I think hospitality is one of the most universal languages. there's so many themes, You know, the core competencies of what guests are looking for stay the same regardless of location and type of property, which make it easy to do those transitions.
Steve Carran: And it's actually funny. This is how small the world hospitality is and how our cross, our paths crossed. I actually stayed in the property, your origin outside of Denver, Colorado, while you were the GM of that property. I actually was a guest
Ben Webster: we meet before? Did we meet? I don't know.
Steve Carran: we didn't meet, we didn't meet, but I was at that property and it really stuck out to me because I loved how kind of the Red Rocks culture.
was into the hotel and I traveled with, I travel with my pets a lot, so it was extremely dog friendly as well. So just a couple of things that stuck out. It was a really cool property and awesome stay.
Ben Webster: I've there, I have a guest. I remember when I was in Greenville, South Carolina, I was, you know, reading over the list of arrivals that day. And it's Man, that name is familiar. Sure enough, they stayed with me when I was a GM in Connecticut, or I was an AGM in Connecticut. Then I'm out in Nashville and I'm reading through the list of arrivals that day and I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.
Same guest, stayed there too. And it's are you following me? but it's, you know, I just, I was attracted to those independent, you know, type of properties. That's what they like to stay at. You know, I think we all stay engaged in who's in our building at that every day. so yeah, I've had the same guest in probably three or four of my hotels across my career, which is just pretty incredible.
Steve Carran: That's awesome. That's awesome. So, One now the G now you're the GM of Hotel Marcelle is probably one of the most unique properties that we've had on this podcast and that actually I've ever heard of you're the first all electric solar powered L. E. D. Platinum certified fossil fuel free hotel in the United States.
What made sustainability such a priority at Hotel Marcelle?
Ben Webster: It's a mouthful, isn't it? Yeah. we're one of one here,
Steve Carran: I practiced like four times before this.
Ben Webster: the accolades and certifications and those sorts of things we've been able to get and the only passive house hotel in the U. S. and the largest in the world. Let's not forget that one, I guess. where did it come from?
It started with our ownership. you know, a lot of independent hotels, we are part of the Hilton Tapestry Collection, but we're very independently minded. Bruce Becker is a gentleman, he's our, him and his wife Kramer, they are Becker Associates. they've done residential buildings and that sort of thing.
but they ended up getting this old building. this old cool burglars building from 1969, that's been empty for 20 years and they were going to, you know, it was going to be leveled and as a passionate architect, he was like, no way. So he takes over, saves the building, doesn't know anything about hotels, but he has a passion to fight the climate crisis.
And he said, you know, let's just make an incredibly sustainable hotel. I want to do it zero emissions. what I don't think you realize during that process was it's never been done before. So We are who we are. I, teased Bruce all the time. I said, we're who we are because he didn't know any better.
David Millili: Right. 
Ben Webster: so we, he just had it. It's amazing what happens when you have a commitment to something, right? So, and his commitment was no fossil fuels in this building. Was that an easy task? No, particularly doing it in the middle of a pandemic. he bought the building a couple months right before the pandemic started, three months before the pandemic started.
So, as a fun pandemic project, let's start the only zero emission hotel in the U. S., but he did it out of passion, right? As of a commitment to say, we don't want to have any emissions, just zero emissions. And ultimately, I think he's a visionary because that's, you know, you look at public policy now in certain cities, public, you know, Boston, New York, that sort of thing.
You're not allowed to have fossil fuels in new buildings as they're, being developed if they're over a certain square footage. And every building in Massachusetts now of certain size has to, Be passive house required that sort of stuff. So, you know, I think that a lot of phone calls and other, you know, hotel management companies, developers, we were a Hilton affiliate hotel, but we have every other brand has come through this property to say, what are you doing?
Cause they understand it is the future. So we're in a historic building, but definitely the future of travel. It started just off of a, commitment.
David Millili: That's great. And you've been open a bit over two years now. How do you continue to explore sustainability options?
Ben Webster: so the first and foremost, what makes us, I think the most, sustainable hotel, is the building itself, right? Is that what Bruce did during construction, the actual build out. so the physical entity, checking off a lot of those, boxes and things that you just talked about, That's what's made us Zero Emission Hotel.
What we get to do as the operator, you know, myself, my, my leadership team here, Charleston Hotels as a management company, you know, we challenge each other. Bruce challenges us, we challenge Bruce. we work together as a group to say, what else can we do? So we look at it from how we're sourcing products, you know, how we're getting deliveries in just to reduce, you know, the scope three emissions, you know, offer free EV charging to our staff members doing entice them to, to, you know, to do better and pull off their reliance on fossil fuels.
You know, I think every decision we make, every touch point for the guests, is there an opportunity to, reduce not just emissions, but, you know, single use plastics, you know, our BLDG restaurant and our executive chef, Megan Gill, how we're sourcing our food. We donate all of our food waste off to, you know, Haven's Harvest and some of those local food rescue, opportunities.
It's just in our, it's just in our ethos of the bill. It's in our mission to say every decision we make, how do we do this in a manner that's reducing, our impact? and it's, I don't think it's as complicated as people think. It's just, you have to prioritize it. And we've also found it not to be that much more expensive, right?
And some things are actually less expensive. and we've seen it welcomed by the guest.
Steve Carran: That's great. So now what we're going to do is go into more of the industry thoughts and best practices and, you can imagine it's focused around sustainability. so Hotel Marcelle that you've really been a pioneer, like you said, first of its kind, what advice do you have for hotels that are looking to be a little bit more sustainable and how can they best put that into action?
Ben Webster: it starts with your decision making, and you have to go to the why, right? I think if it, you need a commitment from the ownership, you need a commitment from the management company, you need a commitment from the brand, if you're, brand affiliated, everybody has to agree as to what you're doing.
And I think that's why we've been so successful here. there's a lot of talk, right? I think this industry has a lot of greenwashing in it, The U.S is behind the curve, I think, you know, most of the initiatives we brought in and some even the technologies in the building, we were the first of our kind bringing them in from Europe, whether it was our Mitsubishi Heat 2.
0 domestic hot water system, whether it was, you know, we were the first six six of the first seven commercial heat pump dryers that we brought in. the primary goal that we did, and I think it's good for every building or business, or if you're in a PIP, or you have to make some CapEx, can you electrify that?
Can you electrify it? Can you do it without gas? Our kitchen, fully induction. Some people say that's crazy. I have a 77 seat restaurant. We can host events for 300 people here. We can do it all, out of an induction kitchen. So, if people have questions or how do you do it, come and see me, right? Come and see me and Bruce.
We'll walk you through the building. We'll talk about how, it exists. but it starts with, I think, the commitment, The technology curve has caught up lately. Probably the biggest questions of pushback we get from people who are interested in it, but they're skeptical or like, how do you do it? It's, a math game, right?
And I think, you know, I'll always go back and say, hospitality kind of started to die off 15, 20 years ago, right? It became not about. you know, actual engagement and hospitality and taking care of guests. It became about the deal, right? It was about the real estate deal and that's painful for the industry.
and a lot of the questions we get are from owners and developers who were like, Well, how much more does it cost? What was that out there? And what? What we've proven now two and a half years in, right now we have some data to actually go up and back this up, is I I spent a quarter million dollars less a year than I would if this was a traditional fueled building.
certain states have great incentives. Bruce would tell you he put in less cap, you know, less, capital into the building because of you know, some of the ways we could do our lighting and drapes was a little less actually than maybe a traditional system. And with the cost of rising utilities, maybe some of the items that were more expensive that maybe had a, 10, 12 year return, we've chopped that to four years because in Connecticut, the electricity rates doubled, right?
Well, we're making our own. So, that math turns out in our favor. But it starts with a commitment. You know, Bruce is committed to this building and seeing it through for a while. And if we want to see a shift in the industry, we need owners maybe who aren't looking to sell their hotel in the next 10 months.
Right? I remember when I was in Nashville, I think every hotel that opened sold in the first three years. Some of them sold the opening day, right? I don't remember which one it was, but one of the big ones that developed and opened, I think, in 2019 or 2020, They sold an hour and a half after they opened their doors.
So it was never about hospitality. It was about the deal. So let's find, if we want to find a ways to increase our sustainability within the industry before it was scary because it would maybe was impacting the deal so much, but now we found ways in here and Bruce is what he's kind of calculated and what.
After being open two years, we've seen in our monthly P& Ls that time is shortened, and it is actually worth the investment in the building, ahead of time. So I think that's probably one of the biggest takeaways that we've seen, from a, you know, what was stopping other people to do it was the financials.
And now we have some math that says I have extra cash flow to help pay the mortgage because, because I'm spending a third of what a normal utility expense may be at a hotel. You know, I, think. As management companies and operators, we fight, you know, labor, rising labor costs, rising cost of goods, those sorts of things.
How many people are really looking at their utilities and what upgrades can you make to your building where that extra money I'm saving on utilities, we get to. Maybe have an extra employee or do something to invest in our team members or do something to invest in the guest experience Nobody ever looks at that line as detailed as they do is their labor or their cost of goods that sort of thing
Right.
We look at that and I think we've found some solutions that help Move that forward.
So as an industry trend and you know, what's part of the restrictions there. That's definitely something that I think we've been proud of. And that's something we continue to work on. We're not done yet, right? We're still laboratory. How can we continue to tweak, our energy usage or maybe find ways to add more?
it never ends. It keeps going.
David Millili: Well, you kind of read our minds because that was pretty much the next question, but I'll tweak it. So, you know, last year I was
Ben Webster: Sorry.
David Millili: and was, that's okay. It was on a couple, It was good stuff. It was, you know, and I went to a couple, I saw, watched a couple panels, and cost was always brought up just like you said, it was always kind of this in the greenwashing and everything.
So I guess the kind of takeaway from everything you just said, is there. One, is there one main thing, like if a hotel was trying to go be more sustainable, is there one main, area to focus that really is, you know, the cost is worth the savings long term,
Ben Webster: yeah, I think so. when We use the word sustainable. I think that's a very vague term, not only in our industry, but across the board, right? What does sustainable even mean, right? You can say, oh, there's a sustainable hotel. This is a sustainable business, most sustainable business. What does it mean, right?
So that definition to us is about decarbonization. I think if you look at a lot of, Experts and you follow the data. The word sustainability is really about how do we reduce emissions, right? And so the decarbonization element that just starts by electrifying things And just pulling our use off of fossil fuels and I think that's where the biggest maybe investment goes, but that's also where there's probably now the most incentives.
and also where you see the biggest, the fastest return is on those elements. now when just putting in the physical systems in the building, to make your building more efficient. but also, you know, we look at like our windows, here, just the way we built the building and. reenergize the building, we're able to do it in a manner that's, you know, different systems, you know, whether it's domestic hot water, kitchen, laundry, lighting, find systems that are, can do it at 30 percent of traditional systems, energy use.
So then it makes the energy you do have, you know, that much more efficient. So it goes a little further. It's not a big investment to do those things, but it depends how you define sustainability, right? The big one, you know, is about just decarbonization in general. And there's a lot of What a gray area out there right now in the industry about what does sustainability even mean?
we like to try to educate the way we think is true about what does it mean to be, sustainable and, decarbonization. You know, there's a lot of businesses that say they're going to be net zero. There's a carbon neutral. There's even hotels now say they're carbon positive. Right. What does that mean?
Right. That can be confusing. But. We don't have a gas line to the building. We don't burn any. We don't have to through offsets or, you know, how many trees are we planting, that sort of thing. You can do it without any in the first place, right? And then you don't have to worry about some of those, that math.
And I think, the education of the guest and how they book through, you know, whether it's through a brand app or through an OTA, there's a lot there too. I think that as an industry, we're still evolving to help make that clear to what the guests are, like what they're looking for. that's what I'm excited about 
Steve Carran: Absolutely. So one of the things I'm sure guests that stay with you are focused on sustainability. That's one of the reasons they want to come stay at Hotel Marcel. Is there a way for guests almost to get involved while they stay with you to almost help Hotel Marcel be more sustainable?
Ben Webster: Great question. Yeah. Who stays here too, right? So I, do think first and foremost, we're just a good hotel, right? Like I have a lot of guests who come, they don't know the difference. We're not forcing anything down their throat. they don't have to sacrifice quality of any type. Right. but there's definitely a good percentage of our guests who are staying here because they have a choice of where they stay and they're making a choice because it aligns with their values, right? how can they get involved? Ask questions. I think that's the biggest part because there's still that educational piece of like, how does it work within the industry? my team and myself are very, we're accessible, come and talk to us.
you know, we launched some things like the climate change wake up call. So there's a phone or a lobby you pick up and they can hear fun facts about, well, that's not necessarily fun. There's some of them are Maybe a little scary. facts about climate change, those sorts of things. you know, go to our website, read through how we're doing it, that sort of thing.
But I think just keep asking questions. when you're booking, understand, you know, maybe a little education, understand what it means to be zero emission versus carbon neutral, that sort of thing and help. Let that form your opinion. I think that's the biggest way. I didn't know anything about it until I got here.
Right. And I asked a lot of questions and yeah, I'm, a hotelier first and foremost. I don't know anything about, I didn't know I might need a minor in electrical engineering and, you know, some of these environmental sustainability things. But we get here and I ask a lot of questions because it's cool too.
I think, you know, my staff are engaged probably even more so than guests that are curious and ask questions. We see it when we're, when we have applicants come in, we've seen people are passionate about it. It's, probably helped me hiring. I think I'm probably one of the fortunate hotels in New Haven who could say they're fully staffed, because I have people who are interested, they ask the right questions, they want to be part of a solution, you know,
David Millili: This is kind of piggybacking off an earlier question, but what trends are you seeing in sustainability in 2025 or, you know, just moving forward in the future?
Ben Webster: I think the trend I'm most seeing and I is really coming about. understanding, right, about clarity within, you know, you see it from the OTAs. They're trying to figure out how do we position what sustainable hotels mean because it's coming, right? I'm one of one right now. Maybe in the next couple of years, we're one of 10.
In 10 years, maybe we're one of 50 as the only, you know, zero mission hotels. I think that, the brands have figured out hey, we got to prioritize this. We have to talk about this. We need to find ways to. get more of these in our portfolios. I think the OTAs have realized we've put putting green leafs on properties to say they're sustainable, but nobody really knows what that means.
We need to clarify that. We need some form of, industry standard, right? And there's, you know, great organizations that are, helping standardize that. there's a lot of third party certifications now because, you know, maybe an OTA knows they're not the best people to certify that, right? So it was an Audubon or Green Key or some of these other, third party certifications that you could come through where there's a little more understanding of, consistency, right?
Of what, it means when they do those things. So I think that's a trend that's going to, we're just in the beginning of, I think the next couple, you know, hopefully five years or so, we're going to see some more movement in that direction. you'll probably see the U S start to adopt, adopt some of those European standards and metrics that they're having, for classifying what sustainability means, consistently.
Steve Carran: And one thing before we move on to the next section here, before we launched, you're telling me about the wall and the wood behind you. it seems You and the owner had, have just created this amazing culture at Hotel Marcel. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that wood got picked out?
Ben Webster: So, well, it, we're a historic building, right? So, first and foremost, the building, right, being built in 1969 is this old brutalist concrete building. The best thing we repurposed and recycled was all the embodied carbon within the building, right? Which is usually the, one of the larger carbon, impacts you have is that embodied carbon.
The building had so many cool old things in it. The light fixture above my head has been in this building for 50 years. The wood paneling was picked out by the, I'm in one of our suites and they have this cool original paneling, that was the executive offices and each executive got to pick out the wood they wanted for their paneling, which is really cool.
So preserved a lot of these items because we're also listed on, the National Registry of Historic Places. So not only were you kind of a hotel of the future from our, zero mission and in sustainability model, we've done it in an old building. Which is cool. So we're a bit of where kind of old meets new, and I like to think of that culturally as to how my staff and maybe we, deliver guest experience.
I kind of want that old world, hospitality, high level of engagement, not necessarily, you know, we don't want anything stuffy or pretentious. We just want something that's engaging, right? You feel comfortable when you come in, the staff are engaging, they show care. That you should in hospitality, but we're doing it in a manner that is making decisions from the business about the environment, right?
So not only do we want to be engaged with the guests, we're engaged with each other. We want to be engaged with the community and the local region, how we source our food, that sort of thing. We're also engaged in the global climate crisis and how we're delivering our building, right? So. I think it's a, it's a kind of a weird dichotomy, of that old meets new within the building.
And I kind of look at that from our culture as well. And I like to think it's working. Yeah.
Steve Carran:  Well, that's awesome. So this whole time we've been the one asking you questions and you've done a great job answering it, but this is where we're going to turn the tables and we're going to let you ask David and I a question.
Ben Webster: Well, how come you haven't come to see me at Hotel Marcelle yet? I guess that'd be my short 
Steve Carran: think my invitation got lost in the
mail, but as, as soon as I get it, as soon as I get it, I'd love to see it. I was kind of talking to David about this, the property before this, and it's just incredible what you guys are doing. I mean, to be one on one in the country, really focusing on sustainability, I'll use that least term, but, really kind of leading the forefront of this initiative.
So thank you for doing this. And it seems like you guys are doing an absolutely incredible job.
Ben Webster: We're getting there, you know, and I, one of the things I'll have a good question for you, you know, I think you caught me off guard on that one. So I think the real question I would ask, you, cause you guys are so engaged, you know, you guys talk to every level of decision makers within hospitality, you know, obviously GMs to owners.
you know, one of the things I think we have, maybe I don't engage so much as to the level you do. We have so many fortune 500 companies who have all these, you know, nationally, there's so many companies who have these great sustainability messages. We want them to be able to live their message. Many of them have these decarbonization goals, right?
When it comes to the people who are planning the meetings and events, you know, the folks that you talk to, whether they're GMs, they're, you know, with the brands, industry professionals. When these groups and, meeting planners want to make the decision of where we hosting our events, right? I have 9, 000 square feet of meeting space.
I host events for up to 300 people. You would think that those who have it as part of their mission would like to come and host them at a place like us. But there's a disconnect there between what these companies say they want versus how it goes through the planning and meeting cycle process, right? To who's actually signing the decision.
So when you talk to a lot of people and your experience, What do you think people are actually prioritizing when they are booking their large meetings or events? The consumers, when you talk to them, right? And you're saying, when you're choosing locations, how do you actually do it versus when do you actually, the person signing the contract versus what it says on their website is very different.
There's a disconnect there. I want to challenge those fortune 500 companies to live their message, right? Do you see this? Maybe it's not even sustainability, but just these companies say one thing, how they're booking their events and meetings or another. Have you run into that in the history of this podcast or your experiences?
David Millili: I mean, my experience is that, you know, and I think what you're getting at is a lot of people just, you know, they kind of just kind of BS their way or say what they think people want to hear. And then they don't really act that way. They don't really care. They say they care, but they don't do anything.
And I think, and that's part of the challenges right now, you know, the, people I think who are running a lot of these events aren't necessarily like worried about sustainability or worried if they're more worried about location and cost and things of that nature. and then I think it's also what you hit on several times.
It's also choice, like how many, like you said, how many, like really viable sustainability, like hotels that really care about it are there. So I think, you know, I think a lot of people are well, if the hotel itself doesn't care about it, why should I care about it? That mentality and then they just go on with their, life.
Steve Carran: Yeah, David, I, agree with you. I feel like I agree with you on most of these questions, but yeah, you hit the nail on the head. I think it's, you know, maybe it's sustainable. They say they're sustainable. It's kind of like those hotels that say, Oh, this is a sustainable hotel. And then you walk in, there's individual shampoo, conditioner bottles and things like that.
And it's well, I. Don't know how that's sustainable, but it's kind of not really that top priority. They're more thinking, Oh, where can we go? That's going to be sexy. You know, where are we going to go? Or guests are going to come and it's Oh, this is fantastic. So we end up in Orlando or Vegas or something like that, where it's kind of these more traditional places, but they're not really focused on, okay, we're bringing Thousands of people in here.
Think of all the emissions just from travel, right? Not really bringing sustainability to, the forefront of mind, which I hope we see a shift in, the near future. because your hotel should be one of the hotels with great meeting space. Sustainable. You should be on the top of the list for any event planners.
Ben Webster: And I, there's just that disconnect I think between event planners, whether it's the planning organizations, the travel agents, whatever it may be, I always use the example. You can, whether you're Boston, New York, Philly, DC, whatever, Mid Atlantic to New York. New England, you can get on an electric train, come here, we'll pick up an electric shuttle, host your whole event here in a building with zero emissions, and leave.
You've hosted, you can host a 200 person normal event with, higher quality food, in services, and leave, and you've consumed no fossil fuels. That's what they say they want, right? And it exists, but we're one of one, right? So I think that's, that's what I'm excited about for the future, but I, the question I still have, and I think my team and you know, our sales and marketing team is, you know, how do we really.
Continue to get that message out. And I thank you for having me here to talk about it. Maybe this helps get that message out a little bit.
Steve Carran: That's what I'm saying. Event planners, go look at hotel Marcel. Let's be
sustainable. Let's do 
Ben Webster: Come and see me. Yeah,
Steve Carran: So, so Ben. Our producer, John, he's been listening in the background the whole time. We're going to let him ask one more question and then we're going to get you out of here.
Jon Bumhoffer: So I don't know if you said this throughout the episode, but listening to you talk about it to me, I was drawing the line between or drawing the theme, connecting the dots between the sustainability and. A local localized experience like Steve and David talk about how hyper local experiences are becoming so big and it just seems to me that focusing on sustainability means you have to be more local and I'm curious what your experience is with, how, what you guys have done has really tied you into the community or the, location and the community around you, 
Ben Webster: I think it's, I think it's twofold. you know, I mentioned we were opening this building in the middle of a pandemic. so we had to source differently and just the way that ownership had sourced a lot of our case goods. I mean, literally the table that's underneath me and the bed frames and things like that, that we have here.
If we were to order those through traditional methods. You know, they're getting, you know, shipped from Turkey or something like that, and we, I don't know if this hotel still would have been open at that point in time, but there are local opportunities. We were able to get them from. You know, between that and some of our window surrounds, these companies within, you know, over the border in New York, one up in Torrington, Connecticut, a lot less submissions.
We got them faster. We got them cheaper, right? It all kind of worked out in our favor. You just have to be willing to source differently. You have to be willing to source outside of, the traditional hotel FF& E methods, right? So I think that was, that's one fold there, right? I think just be willing to source a little differently.
that does carry over into operations as well for us. you know, when we're thinking about the dog treats that we serve to the guest, or if Steve comes and stays with us and brings his dog with him, the dog treats we have aren't getting shipped out of St. Louis and coming to us here. No, we make them in house in the kitchen, right?
when we source our, Yeah, and with leftover food scraps, right? There's no waste. It's just sourcing our food, which, you know, tends to be a huge emissions buster. and they're coming from farms that maybe aren't as ethical. You know, Chef Megan gets out to the farms here, sees how they're raising the animals or growing their food.
How is it getting shipped to us? to even how we clean some of our streets and those sorts of things. We look for people who use electric snowblowers and that sort of stuff to help us clean our streets up. But when it gets to the guest experience, we have EV bikes to get you down into New Haven, right?
So you can go visit, you know, the libraries at Yale or whatever it may be here in town. we also have a lot of partners, right? I think, education and sustainability is important for us. You know, where our compost goes, off to the local farm and. We get some of our animals from that farm. So it's, very circular.
I think the, more you can shrink the radius of where you, where your vendors come from, whether it's through food and beverage or whether it's coming from, soaps in your room, whatever it may be. If you can shrink that radius, You're innately just shrinking those scope three emissions and maybe you don't even know it, but you're also supporting the local economy, right?
You come and have dinner here in New Haven. The meat came from old lime just down the road from us, right? So, not only are you helping the local economy, you're helping usually smaller businesses too in that world. And I would challenge anybody to say that I'm paying more for those products. than I would be if I was doing it differently, right?
My, my cost of goods and, those sort of percentages are industry standard, if not better. So I'm not paying more for it, but I think the guest sees that, feels it, appreciates it for sure. it just starts by looking and asking the questions. It's homework.
David Millili: Well, that does it for another episode of the Modern Hotelier. Ben, please let people know how they can either connect with you and find out more information about the hotel.
Ben Webster: Yeah. I'm easy to find on LinkedIn. certainly go to Hotel Marcel, you can find us there. Go to our website. shoot me an email. be web website, hotel marcel.com. Go ahead and get ahead of me. you know, we're, happy to, get people here to the hotel share stories, industry, things we've run into.
It hasn't been all easy, that's for sure. we've done some of the hard, challenges to get to this point, and we're happy to, Maybe see some more zero emission hotels, come down the line here in the next couple of years.
David Millili: Well, that does it for another episode of the Modern Hotelier, Hospitality's most engaged podcast. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to see you again soon. And thank you for being on the program, Ben.
Ben Webster: Ah, thanks for having me gentlemen.