MH_016 === GB Sharma: Now, everyone who travels, especially at this day and age, it's about the storytelling that I went here and I did this. I was able to enjoy this and this property did this for me. It's no longer the same cookie cutter brand of, we got in, this is how the room looked and that was it and I checked out. That's no longer, to my mind at least, an acceptable norm if you're trying to be different in the industry, right? So you David Millili: Welcome to the, The Modern Hotelier you're presented by Stayflexi. I'm your host, David Millili. Steve Carran: And I'm Steve Carran. David Millili: Steve, who do we have on the program? Steve Carran: David. Today we have on GB Sharma. I'm excited to have GB on GB, moved up the ranks at Highgate for 15 years. He became the COO of the impulsive group. And now he's the executive vice president at S hospitality in New York. Welcome to the show GB. GB Sharma: Thank you, Steve. Hi, David. First off, let me just say what an awesome effort you both are doing across, like to share this knowledge and the insights, why The Modern Hotelier and by running this podcast, Steve Carran: Thanks GB. David Millili: Yeah. Thank you. So we're gonna go through three parts of the, the podcast, the first part, we're gonna get to know you a little bit better. We're then gonna ask you some, get some information about your career, the history there, and then we're gonna dive into some industry topics. So we also have a little bit of a surprise. At the end of the, questions that we, we ask you. So we're just gonna dive right in and, uh, go for it. So what was your first job ever? GB Sharma: Oh, wow. my first job was at Bethany college in West Virginia. I was flipping the most awesome chicken burgers with curly fries. David Millili: What, what do You think you'd be doing if you were not in hospitality? GB Sharma: You know, when I came to America, I majored in the field of political science and communications. I wanted to work for the foreign ministry of India at the UN September 11 happened, the criteria changed and I kind of got lucky to come back to the hotel industry or just enter the hotel industry. Otherwise I would likely be working at the 40 ministry of. David Millili: Good. So this question, we know we can have an entire show around, but what's the weirdest thing you've seen or the weirdest story somebody's told you that of something that's happened at a hotel. GB Sharma: Oh, my God, like this would need to be a PG 18 forecast. Like that question is David Millili: Okay. All right. Yeah. A lot of people do skip it, but we, we still we're pulling. We figure if we get enough good answers. We'll just have a whole podcast on that. was there somebody that you admired when you were growing? GB Sharma: Yeah. Like my father and mother, they sacrificed so much to raise like two crazy, crazy kids. Like my brother and I were probably the most mischievous kids. So hats off to them. David Millili: If you could take anyone dead or alive to lunch, who would it be? GB Sharma: That's a good one. I would probably say dead Robin Williams. I mean like, the kind of person he was, I mean, good morning, Vietnam, dead boy society, Jumanji Aladin. I mean, I mean, absolutely awesome. So I would probably say Robin Williams. David Millili: that's funny. Cuz we just, we just cleaned up and I was looking for it behind me, but I saw Robin Williams and I got an autograph, went backstage and got an autographed, a photo. And I just, I forgot that I had that photo, but I was cleaning up and found it and it was so it was eerie cuz was right. He just had, would've been 71. I found the photograph right around his, uh, would've been his birthday, but that's a good one. GB Sharma: well, David, I'm guessing that's the surprise you have for me towards the end of the podcast. David Millili: we'll see what I can do. If you wanna change your name to David you're, you're in good shape. what's the best piece of advice you've received. GB Sharma: actually from one of the ladies who I looked up as a mentor, early on, when I started in the hotel industry, it was often about, Hey, Garra, GB go do this, go do this, go do this. And you kind of become a yes, man, to a lot of different things as you grow in your career. And she kind of pulled me aside and said, Hey, someone told me this and she passed it to me. was I cannot give you the formula to success, but I can give you the formula to failure and that's to please everyone. Right? So you just need to learn to say no. And that to me was very powerful. David Millili: That's good advice. What now? Tell us something that's on your bucket list. GB Sharma: it's so crazy. I would love to be chasing our tornado. Like go watch the storm chasers and go chase our tornado or go for bungee jumping. Like, like to Macau, if they have the, yeah. They have the longest, I believe what is it? Like 700 feet or something that you can just jump down. So that would be awesome. David Millili: you wanna push the limits of being alive? GB Sharma: Yes. And not be one of the folks that you say, who do you want to have lunch or dinner with David Millili: Right. Exactly. So this is a, this is a good, uh,segue to this question. What scares you? GB Sharma: you know, blind spots, I would say blind spots and by blind spots, I would say not just in, scope of when you see it when you're driving, but also in your own work. Like oftentimes we take a lot of things for granted and those kind of become your blind spots over a period of time. So I look at blind spots, very careful. Steve Carran: Wow. David Millili: What's something you wish you were better at? GB Sharma: If you would ask my wife, she would probably say it needs to go to the gym more. David Millili: right. GB Sharma: And if you ask me, I've been designed to say that she's always right. Steve Carran: Yeah. David Millili: Got it. That's good. All right, so that's good. So this is, uh, it's another good segue. So you're doing a good job leading me to the next question. So if you could be a superhero, who would you rather be? Superman, Batman, or Spiderman? You gotta pick one of the three. GB Sharma: I would probably go with Superman, Don't ask me why I don't ask why. David Millili: That's no problem. All right. So now we have a part, this is where we, we sneak something in. So we are gonna play a quick round of family feud. Uh, the final part of family feud. I'm gonna ask you three questions. If you get the number one, answer on each question, we'll donate a hundred dollars to the charity of your choice. if you're familiar, how it is, I'm gonna ask you a question. You tell me what you think. The number one answer is that people. And we'll take it from there. Got it. GB Sharma: Okay. David Millili: All right. Good. Here we go. We're gonna give you about 20 seconds. Uh, and Steve's gonna mark down your answers.So if you could go to the land of Oz, what would you ask the wizard for? GB Sharma: What are my options? David Millili: You have to just pick, GB Sharma: Oh my David Millili: throw, throw out whatever you think. GB Sharma: I will skip that question. David Millili: Okay. Name something. A snowman might have nightmares. GB Sharma: Oh, my God sunshine. David Millili: Okay. Name a type of insurance. GB Sharma: Geico David Millili: Uh, not a brand, an actual type, like covering something. GB Sharma: car David Millili: let's go. Let's go back. So we get, so think about what if there's you go to the, the, the wizard of Oz and you can ask him for one thing, what would you ask him for? GB Sharma: Can I have a superpowers powers? David Millili: Okay. That's good. Yep. Steve Carran: That's a hard one. That is a hard one. David Millili: All right, so we'll go back. So, we'll start with the first one. So the, the wizard, the question, the number one answer, people, that were surveyed asked for was money. but magic power was on there. Money was 37 magic power was for and to fly. So it goes with your Superman thing. the name something a snowman might have nightmares about. You got the number one answer there that was sun beach weather. So that's, that's there. And then name, a type of insurance. And number one answer was car number two health. David Millili: So we will still donate. We'll get a charity. We'll still donate $50, to a charity of your choice. But that was just a little fun. We like to have before you start getting into some of more of. Serious questions. Steve Carran: Yeah. So now we'll kinda get to know you a little bit more where your background is, how it shaped you and things like that. So, so where did you grow up? you grew up in India. GB Sharma: That is right, Steve. I grew up in India. I came to America, right after my boating school. So I was in Bombay till the age of 14. I went to a boarding school in south India for four years. That's a very interesting story sideways. and then right after that got a scholarship and was able to come to America, went to West Virginia to do my bachelor's followed by university of New York to do my master's. Steve Carran: How did, how did growing up in India shape you to, to, the person you are today? GB Sharma: Lot of, I believe, you know, when you see it, there's a lot of competition, right? When you see it growing up over here, there's a different narrative of you getting a 95% score versus a 98% score. So the pressure there is tremendous, cuz you may have 50 people ahead of you between the 95th ranking and the 98th ranking. So the pressure is kind of ingrained in. That you kind of work a lot out of fear as a child that, oh my God, I'm not good enough. I got 94, 95 versus here. It is very different where there's a source of encouragement to say we won't even publish rates. I mean, our scores were written on the board, so it was public knowledge for everyone to say. And, and if you did for, I. You went home first, your grandparents were upset at you, then your parents are upset at you, your teachers already upset at you. So it was just three strikes. Right? So I think the pressure was very different in one way. It shaped us to be a lot ahead of the curve in a lot of things. So you kind of like absorbed a lot more. So the transition to coming to America was a lot easier in one way, especially when it came to education or really being focused. To taking a disciplined approach, call it. So that kind of helped a lot as a foundation growing there. That's the other side of it, but, that was really ingrained in us as a child. Steve Carran: and and you mentioned your secondary school, you went to, they're pretty well known for their football team. Is that correct? GB Sharma: Oh my God. I mean, I can talk to you about like the St Joseph's or I can talk to you about Bethany. I mean, across the board. Steve Carran: Yeah, St. Josephs, I believe their nickname is, uh, the sporting giant of, uh, NORIS. Is that correct? GB Sharma: So mild. So we call ourselves Josephites. Yeah. We call ourselves the Josephites and there's a whole song to it. I was a very horrible goalkeeper, but at least like I made it to the team. So that was great. You all had to pick a sport? I picked the one where I had to stay in my place. but it worked out okay for a while. Steve Carran: That's great. I actually was a goalie, all growing up too, and I just didn't wanna run. So I just was a goalie. So , we're in the same boat. That's pretty cool. David Millili: So what made you decide to go to Bethany college? GB Sharma: Good question, David. So talking about the sports side, one of the sports, we had to take sports in the boarding school. I was like, my body was not made to run. So I landed up hoping upper sport that I thought was somewhere I could stay in one place. And that was rifle shooting. Now little that I realized that rifle shooting is all about breathing and it's your breathing exercise. And that requires very stable heartbeat. So you. but once you're in it, you're committed to it. So for four years, practice, practice, practice, you became good at it. And eventually it reached a point that you could get sponsored for the same thing. So part of the scholarship came from the education side and part of it also through your supports academics, and I was able to get a scholarship and Bethany college was the one was the only college I applied to. And I. Steve Carran: Wow. David Millili: You kind of already answered this one, this one, but we're gonna ask you anyway. So you majored in international political communication at Bethany, and then you went on and, and, at the, city college of New York, and international communication. And you had mentioned earlier that, you know, as far as being in the political side, was that? The driving force behind you going, studying those topic? GB Sharma: Yeah, it was a subject. Like it was quite an Orthodox subject back home because no one. Studied and college to go into politics in India. so that was something that you wanted to be the disruptor. You wanted to be the one that brings change and you're speaking through a, trajectory of education. Right? So, studying politics was very important to me. Like just seeing, growing up on what was happening back home, and I believe the best way you could make an impact was in foreign. So that kind of got me into thinking, Hey, that would be a very interesting way for me and also to utilize, what I believed were my skills. unfortunately post September 11, a lot of things changed. I was, uh, international student hiring was a freeze. Things were very different. So I got lucky GB Sharma: to get into an internship in a hotel, and that changed my trajectory of code forever. Steve Carran: did you get in the hospitality world right after college or Did you do something else after college? GB Sharma: So I started it in my junior year of, bachelor's and then, then while I came here, I did the first internship and thereafter I got asked to come back. So I came back right after graduation and then did evening college to get my master's while in the daytime I worked at, our properties in New York. Steve Carran: Very cool. So that was, that was your first job in, in hospitality was while you were still in college, you were, working at the hotel. GB Sharma: Yeah, we were building the very cool website for the Radison Lexington, which was 99% HTML, where it was all static. But we got an award back then because we were able to put in one simple JavaScript that allowed the picture to rotate, but that did take five to 10 seconds, but it was so disruptive back then that it was like, it won the award of what a cool website it was Steve Carran: Wow. That's awesome. So from there, did you go to Highgate or did you do stuff in between and, and, and figure it out, but I know you were at Highgate for, about 15 years, right? GB Sharma: Yeah. So Highgate was actually only one hotel back in 2003. Highgate was only the raison like LinkedIn hotel. And from there in 2004 is when they acquired the metropolitan New York, which became the double tree and thereafter the park central. So hay really started to grow at the same time. So I joined them kind of right at the early start of their own growth. then in 2008, as hay was expanding on the west coast, I was able to move with the company to the west coast to take over their GB Sharma: portfolio on the west coast. Steve Carran: Very cool. and you were the VP of revenue and distribution for, Florida and the Caribbeans. Correct. Was there something about Highgate that really helped enable you grow your career there? Or, what about Highgate really? You were there for 15 years. What made you stay there for that long? GB Sharma: Yeah, I think it, comes down to the people, the people you work for and the people you get to mentor. Right that like that to me is very close to my heart. And Highgate had that level of leadership that really was very disruptive early on in the world of revenue management in the world of commercial strategies and also very disciplined in that approach. So that was the kind of learnings that you always aspired in our world. We call it, Hey, how do we chase from being good to being excellent. And that was always a chase that the bar was always very. And it was quite different back then that it was not the norm, but we were trying to create a new norm. So that was very cool. And I think that kind of just, kept us growing throughout. So going to the west coast, taking over my first hotel as a director of revenue there, growing from there to an area director, then slowly taking on more properties and then eventually to a regional direct to a regional VP and then to a. And as the portfolios expanded, we then started to grow in south Florida where I was able to come and also oversee the portfolio of the hotels between, south Florida, between, uh, key west and Miami. And we had just opened up our first property in the Caribbeans as a AC Marriott. Steve Carran: Very cool. did you work with, uh, Carran Mack? GB Sharma: Yes. Yes, of course, like carry my phenomenal, phenomenal human being like so smart. got work with her when like a bunch of others at the company. Yes, David Millili: Yeah. That's great. What really drew you to the revenue management side? Really? What got you passionate about that side of the business versus other other areas, GB Sharma: that's a good question, David. For me it was just. The data was very sexy to me. and, just seeing that it was kind of a rush that you wanted at that stage, because it's not that you were making tremendous money. I mean, working in the hotel industry at that early stage and working in a companies where revenue management is not as known was very different. So you were chasing something that was outside the. norm When you can hold a 20% occupancy in a market like New York, two days before that date. And you know, 80% will pick up when the entire market is sold out, the rush you get from it. And the excitement you get. I mean, you cannot put it in words, but, and then you repeat, and then you figure out new places where you could do that. Or you figure out a way of man, the market runs 40%, but you have the ability to chase it to 80% and what went behind it, there's a level of excitement it's a passion. You have to be passionate about it. And to my lens, it's an art. You enjoy it. You like, you truly will, but it's not cut for. David Millili: Yeah, it's funny. It's kinda almost like you're calling plays. In a football game, trying to figure out how to beat the competition. And I love the, the old timers that tell the stories that one of the ways they used to do revenue management was drive by their competitor's hotel and count how many cars were in the parking lot to try to figure out what the occupancy was. So I think that's pretty interesting. so, so tell us, so you, you went from high to the impulsive group, to EOS and maybe people aren't familiar with EOS. tell us about the company. Just give us some insight. GB Sharma: Sure. So years now as a standard, it's about just 40 plus hotels with about 37 of those hotels being in the drive leisure resort. Years began in 2017. Our founder was Jonathan Wong, who felt that there was an opportunity to bring investors closer to hotel operations and those operators closer to the investment rationale. So it was all about making an impact, that foundationally turned into our competitive advantage in bringing those trends together. And it allowed us to make more thoughtful investments through EOS investors. And then managing with an ownership mindset came to us as EOS hospitality. So it's kind of broken in two parts. our first hotel was the Hamilton hotel in Washington, DC in 2017. And over the past five years, we had that tremendous growth on the EOS hospitality. Now we're seeing that same portfolio. Of those 40 plus hotels, many of which are owned and managed by EOS. And some of it also now into that third party, we started building out our management offerings last year, and we are so proud now that we managed these three hotels in Florida keys for some of the other owners. Steve Carran: I used to live in DC for about. So familiar with the Hamilton and it's, it's such an awesome property. So I, I love that you guys work with that work with them. what are you focused on? You're the executive vice president at EOS. What is your main focus there? GB Sharma: overall, when we look at the themes of what EOS is all about and what our culture that we are trying to drive, people are the most important part of our business. And the part of our magic is how we build that team. That's genuinely kind people and the culture is positive and it's filled with collaboration. and we have the reputation now in the market of really recruiting some of the best people in the industry on our side. It now comes down to if you look at it from a lens of a director of revenue, if we hire, do they do the basic three things, right. Do they understand the market phenomenally well and have the ability to truly impact it and stay ahead of the. Do they have the ability to, work around the different systems that you have so many different technologies to work with. And do they have the ability to work around the system versus just saying, Hey, the brand tells me to do this, so I do this. And then number three, the big focus for us is to really build our own credibility in the market as AOS, cuz we are a new company. But with that, we have been able to gain over the last five years, how do you mutual. Leverage each other in terms of, Hey, what is you reliant for your growth versus what we are and how do we partner up so we can get to those results. So that part of the coaching takes a lot of, while you also emphasize on the talent growth And the bed strength that you're always working towards. Steve Carran: Sure. And how has, how has your, your day to day changed? Like you used to be solely focused on the revenue side of things and now, you know, your role has obviously expanded, like how has that just changed your, your day to day? GB Sharma: Yeah. So as you grow as a company, I think we grew very fast into 2020 and 2021. So this year is more about a reset here for us, where we really tried to grasp everything that we have done over the last college. Two years and three years, and really take a disciplined approach of what is the prioritization that we need to do now in order to be ready to scale when EOS gets to one 50 assets or 200 assets, and what is it that's required. So really focusing on systems on system automations, do we have the right people? What is it that we need to do? Are we missing something that we are not looking at to what we talked about? Our own blind? that's what we are more focused on and really empowering our team to make the calls, on that note, I'll just share one thing too. Within EOS, we hold our GMs as the CEOs of their hotels. So we really differ to them on those calls in terms of what needs to be done on the property side. So really to empower them, to coach them the right way to that. What does it mean to be a CEO? What are the tools that they require? And is there something that if we are missing, we need to continue to train them or educate them That's what we are there to provide. Steve Carran: So you've grown quite a bit in the, in the hospitality space. Have, did you have a mentor throughout this whole process from when you just getting started into hotels and now being a executive vice president at all? GB Sharma: I do, I do, early on, like you have different mentors at different stages in your life, on who you look up. But I believe consistently it's been a couple like between Corey and Jacob and, uh, L Jane who both, worked much early on at the raison, like LinkedIn, who I worked under. I've always been someone that I've looked up to, it allows me to always stay one humble, always hungry to learn, but also at the same time to say, what's next? What are we really aspiring to? Because, the best thing we look for in our own team is we expect our teams to do things better than us and faster than us, right. Because if they have the ability to do so, we know our companies in the right trajectory and we are gonna do phenomenally well, but if they don't have the ability to keep up, then we know that we may go through a level of stagnation. So that's what keeps that drive going for me. And equally we could share the same with our own. David Millili: I'll give you a quick story. So, I had a company called open hospitality, which was web development booking engine. I was selling into KJ, maybe 2006. And, um, they were using unre and my company had been partners with Pegasus, which owned unre. And I presented my offering and the time I think, because of the number of hotels, we said, oh, we'll charge you X amount of percent of a booking. And he looked at me and he said, well, why would I pay you that one? I could just go have people build it in India. And I was thinking, wow, I'm like, I wonder if he's gonna do that. And then you left the meeting and then like two years later, it's like Highgate invest into travel trip and they built the, a complete competitor. And it was, it was just very funny, but I actually, you know, spoke to KJ the other day. He's he is a really smart guy. And, um, I bumped into a couple times at the independent lodging Congress. We've had some people on that show. So, talking about, you know, you mentors, people that have helped you obviously you've been around, we've both been around a while. what's one trait that you commonly see that successful people have that work around. You. GB Sharma: well, I believe, at least my mind, it's always chasing growth and like, you want a company to be building on your own bench strength. and to my mind, it always comes down to your next generation of talent. Because if you wanna leave a good legacy behind for the next company to grow forward, you want to make sure to what we spoke to was the next generation has to always do things better than you and faster. than you Right. So they have to get to pick up those trends. If it took you an X amount of time to do something, can they do it faster and can they jump onto it? And, and can they multitask? Those are the things that we always look for because that to us is a success in our head that I don't have to rely on something and my team can do it way better than I can. That to me is an ultimate success. Steve Carran: So now we're gonna move into the last part of the podcast. And that's more along the industry trends, getting to know, you know, seeing your, your thoughts on a few things, for somebody who's just starting out in hospitality, what would be, uh, a piece of advice you would give them? GB Sharma: I think the trends change so much, right? Like right now you're just coming out of. Pandemic, the narrative is everyone's working from home and it's okay to work from home. like when you went through the crisis about, say about 12 years ago, when you went through 2008 crash and 2009, the mindset was very different because what's happening is you see the industry going towards, oh, the inflation is so high and there's a potential recession. Travel is on. Right. So there's always a need for label there. There's always a need for more people. So as you're getting into it, know what parts that you're going, cuz in hospitality, you have many different, parts that you could take. One, if you're chasing stability and you're chasing something, Hey, I want a job for the rest of my life. And I want something that I can enjoy doing. You have France where you could go into in the world of hotels and you could be stable. You could be working at the front desk, you could be working at so many different places. And that gives you the stability. Also, whether you're in a union or a non-union environment, if you're chasing to say, Hey, I want to chase. Knowledge and continued learnings. And I want to continue that path. You have parts like those too, where your first five or 10 years, maybe a struggle where you're going through either the world of revenue management or you're going through critical analysis, or you're going into data mining, et cetera. Like, like you could have a path in that front. And if you're chasing to say, Hey, I wanna try something. I love talking to people. I love being out there. Sales and marketing is for you because one at core you can understand. The systems and you have the ability to understand the property, but you can relate it and you can connect the dots to what a customer wants to, what the hotel has the ability to offer. So you have the ability to connect those dots. So dependent on where you are in your career and what will make you happy. I believe those are probably one of the three options that would suggest that. Steve Carran: that's a great answer. Very David Millili: Yeah. Steve Carran: done. David Millili: So we see on, on LinkedIn, a lot, a lot everyone's talking has been talking maybe not as much now, but COVID labor shortages. besides COVID and labor shortages, what, what should we be talking about that we're not talking about in the industry? GB Sharma: Automation automation to me is, probably the lowest hanging fruit. And also one of the toughest ones that you would say that it takes a lot of effort from the hotel and partners on both fronts to get there. And then if you're going into more deeper and saying, Hey, what is probably important four, five years from now, you always wish you could do it sooner, but the reality is sustainability, right? In terms of how you stay more and more like in a equal kind of a sense. Right? So when we see it on that side, When we look at all the different arms, at least from my world, you look at PMs, CRS, CRM, CR RMS BI. I mean, all of these sides, you're looking to see what is the harmony across all the systems? Where does the data live? How are you looking for to say, if I need to access something in a journey of a guest, whether it be in one property or multiple properties you have the ability to do so by really stitching all the data together. So it's easy for us to comprehend. That's more on the back end side on the front end side, it comes with technology of what are you doing for the guests on a digital experience? What we call it as eCommerce for experiential eCommerce, right? That what is it that you're doing? Because that's the storytelling right now. Everyone who travels, especially at this day and age, it's about the storytelling that I went here and I did this. I was able to enjoy this and this property did this for me. It's no longer the same cookie cutter brand of we got in. This is how the room looked and that was it. And I checked out. That's no longer to my mind, at least an acceptable norm. If you're trying to be different in the industry, right? So you have to drive that sense of the experience on the property. And then what are you doing from our side to constantly capture those eyeballs? Right. In terms of marketing to them and ROIs are so different now, because first it was, Hey, I want to get this person. I want to get it. Hey, can I spend 5,000? And can you gimme a 10 or a 15 to one ROI? Great. and that was the entire conversation Now through social media, you look at it as a long-term attribution that yes, we have to constantly target them. We have to constantly keep them engaged and over a period of time, they will convert and that's. okay Steve Carran: And, and you kind of talked about this a little bit as far as you know, that digital experience of the guests, but what are some of the best ways that either you've seen or you could recommend to hotels about increasing their revenue through utilizing technology? GB Sharma: Yeah. the thing in our industry, the best thing we can do is learn from each other because our industry is relatively not the forefront of technology, but we are more of copycat adopters of technology. So you see airlines do it. Well, you see apparel do it. Well, food and beverage do it well, but that's also because they live in an ecosystem of an app-based environment where all the data can all live in harmony with one another in the world of hotels. unfortunately it cannot be done because you have got so many different hotels, right? You have so many different level of pros and so many different ownership companies. So everyone is working in its own micro. So, how do you stitch it all together to us? What we believe is it starts from the discovery stage of the guest all the way to the time that you actually check out from the property. And how are you touching the guest? Oftentimes you see hotels, you are there to give the warm welcome, but the guests, when they check out, they just leave. Right? So in terms of how you touch the guests from start to end to us is very important. And what are the things that you're plugging in a, to either drive the experience to drive ancillary revenues to your properties, or to be in touch with the guests that, Hey, are you okay? Are there things that we are missing that we need to do better? Are there things that you need that we could help you with? Are you sure that you have like, are there more towels you require or is there more reservations you need? Do you know that we have a concierge? Here's a link to all our activities for this week. All of it, right? That we over communicate In a period of time where we know staffing is a challenge. So we have to use technology to offset those, but also making it a point that we don't turn our own hotels into vending machines, where everything is at a touch of a button. And there's an absence of human element. David Millili: Yeah. And I think it's a question of just like you had said the balance and, and to kind of remove the fear because a lot of Hotelier are, you know, I go back to a company I was talking that was a texting platform. And, the sales force was telling me, oh, hotels want, you know, personalized messages going back to the guest, but I was arguing, well, how can you personalize? What's the wifi password or what time is checkout things of that nature? I think sometimes hotels are afraid that that technology is gonna, you know, somehow diminish the guest experience when it can actually, I think, improve it in many cases. GB Sharma: Absolutely. And I think a lot of this also then does really come down David to how you connect the dots. For example, the same texting platform should have the ability to talk to your CRM as well. That we had a communication with the same exact guest two years ago, a year ago. And they constantly asked us for about the king size rooms or the corner rooms, but that wasn't the text platform. The text platform at this stage is not connected to a CRM. So to that CRM, let's say whether you use Cine or you're using revenue, for example, does that speak to revenue? Unless you're using a revenue CRM, the other one might not. So all the data and they own Navis. So when you pick up the phone and you call, does my agent know everything that you actually chatted through to understand that this was the behavior, this is what they required. This is what was important to them. So we can address it in advance. Then reinventing the cycle of, let me ask you the same questions. All. Steve Carran: Exactly. David Millili: they must have been listening to you because I was an advisor to go moment when they sold to revenue. And so that is. Their concept is getting that, that information to the, the CRM. So, what trend has, have you seen that you think is here to stay or gonna be more prevalent in hospitality? GB Sharma: I think you could see it by market segment. for example, whether you look at it as a third party channel or you're looking at it, um, how are you driving results to brand.com or to your own call centers, or you're seeing it as corporate travel? you could see it in a lot of different ways. If you see it for corporate travel, I believe the emphasis will be more on the leisure travel as more and more people have the ability to work from. Do they also consolidate personal trips? Do they have longer length of stays now where the first two or three nights are for business, but the rest for the one or two is in addition to their families and extending it into the weekends, is it to do also whether it's not for transit corporate travel, but business group travel that comes in and actually becomes a blazer where they actually come with their families and do end up staying longer. on a transient front, like to my mind, best rate guarantees, et cetera, are meaningless at this stage, simply because of the fact that you have the ability to geo target. You have the ability to show member pricing in different places at different times. So what you may see, Steve, on your computer to what I target myself to what I target to David, we all can be seeing three different rates for the exact same room type, right. GB Sharma: with every company out there on a third party channel, giving you points and racking up points that to my mind will also change. Like it will gamify it a lot more. Going into the out, heres that what do independent hotels do to keep up with the loyalties to keep up with points. It doesn't need to be points that are tied to them, but I think that aspect will turn a lot more simply because people may not be loyal to a brand and they choose to stay with independence. They're probably a lot more loyal to an airline. So is it airline miles that soon tend to merge a lot more as an open API to us that we could give. Or does it come down to more and more credit card companies that start to open up a lot more in terms of points that we have easy access into to double down on those. But that to me would probably change a lot more in the coming years versus being at a point of, Hey, you need to offer the best rate on your website, give this one and call it today. And that will just drive you more direct booking. Steve Carran: is there any organization, you know, that you've either worked with in the past or any that you're working with now that you'd like to kind of talk about or promote a little bit more. GB Sharma: I wouldn't say remote, but I can definitely talk about it, right. That I think, COVID was a period of us testing ourselves and also testing partner. Right. So a lot of the partnerships that we had in place then also went through really tough times. Right. So that kind of like in to me, like I see it as iron, right. It's forced in fire. So to us also, we see like partnerships are best formed at the time, but things are really going sideways versus versus when things are going phenomenal. So COVID was a testing period for us. We kind of reset a lot of our approaches on who do we choose as the right vendors. When we look at DMS, CRS, CRM, et cetera. And that's where we went through those same points of saying for the sake of our portfolio then, which was only two hotels or three hotels, we believe we could get to 10 hotels. We land up growing a lot more, but for that stage, we believe this was the right system. And we partnered along then we grew more, we were like, wow, for this scale, this doesn't make. We got to expand a lot more. So we chose new partners and we brought in new technology. As we have learned over the years, what we have tried to adopt is what is the right solution now that even if we scale to one 50, the model works and if we need to spend more money on technology, that makes sense. So we have kind of chosen those partners in place to say, these are the partners we believe are long term WestEd, not only into their growth, but to also hear what we have to. That what we have to say. They have the ability to pivot if at all it's required, but they can be nimble and they can be really fast to act versus working with some legacy providers that you may be stuck with. Not saying, yeah, this is one of the things we have added. It it'll come at some point next year, right. That to us is unacceptable. So we still earn on the side of finding those partners that we believe we have a voice. That they see the value in what we are sharing because through our lens, how we see it as if I have the ability to make you a platform better, not only does it enhance new, but it helps us being the first adopters to it. So it's a mutual win on both fronts we take that kind of an approach. Steve Carran: Absolutely. And growing with a company is so important, especially like on the technology side. Right. Especially as you're talking about growing a P. You need that technology that can grow with you. So you don't have to replace it, you know, in two, three years, once you're reaching that size. So GB Sharma: Yeah. Steve Carran: love that. GB Sharma: Yeah. Steve, like you work with, stay in touch. You saw how we grew our relationships there with stay in touch and not, to say that there are no other good vendors that may be better or not be better to stay in touch, but it's the partnership that we have in place. And. And what do they have the ability to do? And are they listening to us when we run into roadblocks or are they listening to us when we run into issues and do they have the ability to resolve it? Right. So that's how we see it. And, and those are the ways that we chose that who's the right partner that we need for call centers. And we landed up going with Navis that we believed, even though you may see it as an expensive platform to us, it makes. when we looked at it for our CRM, we decided to go with revenue for the same reason that they were vested equally like us, not only to enhance their technologies, but also sync up a lot of different data that sits in so many different buckets. So that's how we kind of forged our partnerships together for each of them to save. This is what we believe could be for the next one year, the next two years. This makes sense, but nothing beyond the scope of one year or two years. Practicalities change, market change leadership changes, And that can pivot. So we kind of keep everything to a clause of one or two years. Steve Carran: Exactly. Exactly. And I don't wanna go off too much of a tangent here, but it's so funny when I came to Stayflexi I was talking to our leadership team and I'm like, the one thing that I really wanna do is be an enjoyable team to work with. Right. Because nobody enjoys changing a PMs. It's not a fun thing to do. Right. So if we can make that process easier and, you know, make it quicker. Cheaper faster, you know, that's all we need to do is just be enjoyable to work with. So that's kind of one of our goals here, but I don't wanna go off on too much of a tangent, but one, one last question I gotta ask you. how do you think the metaverse is gonna affect hospitality? GB Sharma: If anyone gives you the right answer. Probably or like if anyone gives you an answer with a straight face, it's probably bluffing. Right. but what I would say is we are probably good five or 10 years away, at least to my mind from really capitalizing on that front and really seeing it. I think it's good to follow trends. I think it's good to see what's happening. It's good to be involved to understand. So you're a little ahead of the game, but if someone says you need to open this or do something. I would probably earn on the side of caution because to me it is more of a student's hat at this stage of just learning and absorbing as. David Millili: Yeah. So before we wrap up, cuz we are at the end, I have to, as a ex New York city, general manager pay you respect for the tie because I wore a tie for many, many years. yeah. I had one guy on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. He said, I'm very impressed. You, flew the whole flight with a tie on he's like, how did you do that? And I'm like, I'm a GM. I used to sleep with my tie on, you know, but anyway, so we're, we're, we've wrapped it up. we really appreciate all your time. This is where we give you a chance. Tell us about EOS. Tell us what's going on. Tell us if you have any properties, opening, plug away, tell us, you know, what we should be looking for next from you. GB Sharma: Sure. Thank you, David. And I'll tell you about the Thai situation. I hated wearing ties being in New York, especially from being an intern to growing. going to Macy's each time and trying to find the stuff on stage. If you're making like 15 bucks an hour, you can't afford anything. And now, and then you move to the west coast and no one wears a tie there, like everyone's in a jacket or a hoodie. You suddenly start to miss the tie. And 10 years later, you move back to New York and you see, no, one's vetting it. You kind of David Millili: Yeah. GB Sharma: old school here. Right. So. David Millili: That's why I said respect. I respect the GB Sharma: Oh, yeah. Thank you. Like I think from the EO side, I'll just say that working at EOS is incredibly exciting. we have the industry rock stars at our talent pool. it's a disciplined approach within revenue. As we study the market behaviors, flesh out new opportunities, and also we get a chance to double down. we have rolled out a lot of new initiatives at EOS. We have rolled out paid parent to leave for all of our full-time employees that have worked with us at least for a year. GB Sharma: And that's about 10 weeks. our corporate offices, we have unlimited DTO and we actually encourage people to take it. the entire month of August in our New York office is work from home. And so as we try to work through it, like we are really trying. create a culture that is different, but also at the same time, really holding the true disciplined approach of accountability. As we shared, we hold our GMs also as the CEOs for their hotels, with corporate office, or like the EOS corporate, really being the supporting foundation. David Millili: thank you so much. Uh, thatconcludes another episode of the, The Modern Hotelier you're presented by Stayflexi, GB. We appreciate you and we thank you for your time. GB Sharma: Thank you very much. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, David. Steve Carran: Thank you. drew.