This episode is perfect for not only travel enthusiasts but those that adore boutique hotels and a sense of feeling connected.
This week, we are honored to host David Bowd, cofounder and CEO of Salt Hotels. David is a lifelong hotelier. With over 30 years in the industry, he shares his story from his first hotel role in England to the coveted experience of working alongside renowned Andre Balazs and Ian Schrager.
David shares his insights on hospitality today and inspires us with the story of Salt Hotels. What makes this Hotel model so unique, is their mission. In fact, it is quite simple: They create settings and scenarios that connect people together.
Beyond the mission of the hotel, community is the cornerstone of their values. One example of this is Salt School - an alternative education and job training to those interested in a career in hospitality. David shares how the idea evolved and the inclusive environment it creates today.
Since 2014, Salt has been building a portfolio of locations in Provincetown, Miami, Nantucket and beyond. Join Anne and hear all about this beautiful brand. You will discover how it could become an extension of your lifestyle!
In this episode Anne and David discuss:
David's Hotelier Story
How Ian Schrager and Andre Balazs influenced his Leadership
This episode is perfect for not only travel enthusiasts but those that adore boutique hotels and a sense of feeling connected.
This week, we are honored to host David Bowd, cofounder and CEO of Salt Hotels. David is a lifelong hotelier. With over 30 years in the industry, he shares his story from his first hotel role in England to the coveted experience of working alongside renowned Andre Balazs and Ian Schrager.
David shares his insights on hospitality today and inspires us with the story of Salt Hotels. What makes this Hotel model so unique, is their mission. In fact, it is quite simple: They create settings and scenarios that connect people together.
Beyond the mission of the hotel, community is the cornerstone of their values. One example of this is Salt School - an alternative education and job training to those interested in a career in hospitality. David shares how the idea evolved and the inclusive environment it creates today.
Since 2014, Salt has been building a portfolio of locations in Provincetown, Miami, Nantucket and beyond. Join Anne and hear all about this beautiful brand. You will discover how it could become an extension of your lifestyle!
In this episode Anne and David discuss:
David's Hotelier Story
How Ian Schrager and Andre Balazs influenced his Leadership
Welcome to Classic & Curious! A podcast dedicated to exploring today’s classic-styled life.
Each month, we’ll be sharing conversations with some of our favorite personalities in travel, entertaining, fashion and design. We’ll discuss how they elevate their everyday with timeless classics – reimagined for today’s modern lifestyle
So grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine, whatever suits your fancy. We hope to inspire you, make you laugh a little and look forward to every engagement.
Cheers!
Anne:
Welcome to Classic and Curious, a podcast dedicated to exploring today's classic style of life. I'm your host, Anne Kikosky. And each month, I'll be sharing conversations with some of my favorite personalities in travel, entertaining, fashion, and decor. We will explore how they elevate their everyday with timeless classics reimagined with a modern sensibility. So grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine, whatever suits your fancy.
Anne:
We hope to inspire you, make you laugh a little, and look forward to every engagement. Hello to all of the classic and curious listeners. This episode is perfect, not only for travel enthusiasts, but those that adore boutique hotels and a sense of feeling connected. I am honored to host David Boud, cofounder and CEO of SALT Hotels. David is a lifelong hotelier.
Anne:
With over 30 years in the industry, he shares his story from his first hotel role in England to the coveted experience of working alongside renowned Andre Balazs and Ian Schrager. David shares his insights on hospitality today and inspires us with the story of Salt Hotels. What makes this hotel model so unique is their mission. In fact, it's quite simple. They create settings and scenarios that connect people together.
Anne:
Beyond the mission of the hotel, community is the cornerstone of their values. One example of this is Salt School, an alternative education and job training to those interested in a career in hospitality. David will share how the idea evolved and the inclusive environment it creates today. Since 2014, SALT has been building a portfolio of locations in Provincetown, Miami, Nantucket, and beyond. Join me as we hear all about this beautiful brand and how it will become an extension of your lifestyle, your home, just like it has mine.
Anne:
Cheers to David, and let's chat. Hello, David. And such an honor to have you join me today. Welcome.
David:
Thank you. Great to be here.
Anne:
With every classic and curious episode, I love to connect the listeners to the backstory. Why are we doing this episode? Of course, they heard all about you and Salt in the intro. They also know that my podcast is a tapestry of favorite personality and brands that I love. I'm going to share with the listeners how I got to know Salt Hotel.
Anne:
So one thing about me is I have an affinity for boutique experiences, whether it's fashion or culinary collectives or hotels or service offerings, I just gravitate to this model. It's who I am. It matches to my lifestyle, and it's really the core of what I enjoy. It's that intimate experience. So another thing that the listeners may not know is how my husband and I operate.
Anne:
And the funny thing about our marriage is my husband will send me these little emails, and it may be something that's from N Peel, and it could be James Bond, question mark, as if I'm to look at the collection online and buy him something. Or he'll send me a gadget from a far magazine, and he'll say, interesting He will send me a restaurant. Should we try? Question mark. And then, obviously, I have my own list, but that is usually, let's go to the theater.
Anne:
You know? Let's go to this culinary experience, 2 different planes. But what we both love is travel. So one day, I opened up my email, and it was an email about salt hotels, and it was from my husband and he sent it to me and he said, in the subject line, Nantucket question mark and beyond question mark. So like I do, this is my role in our marriage.
Anne:
I take all of these emails, and I kind of chart a course for our months ahead. And we'll sit down on a Sunday, and I'll say, okay, saw hotels, were going there in July. So it's such a fun way that we operate, and it's the most succinct way, but we both know what we adore, and that's how I found you. I went on to the website. I fell in love with the brand story.
Anne:
I looked at everything you were doing, and I said, boy, this is not only a hotel I wanna visit. This is something that I could see. I knew what my husband meant when he said and beyond question mark. And so for me, that stuck with me, reached out to you, and here we are today. So tell me your story, David.
Anne:
I just I can't wait to hear your story and creating Salt Hotels.
David:
Great. First of all, I love the way you and your husband operate together. And we do something quite similar of constantly sending each other notes on something new, something interesting, something beautiful, something to listen to. So I truly understand that for sure. I've been called, I guess, a lifelong hotelier many times, and I think that's because when I was 15, I I had actually spent some time working.
David:
My mother had a small cafe, and I'd spent evenings and weekends working in there. And I got this bug of hospitality. And I really enjoyed meeting people. I really enjoyed that no 2 days were ever the same. And I was terrible at school.
David:
I was with the the wrong crowd, what I would probably say the fun crowd now, but I was doing all the things that certainly my parents were very worried about. I was the youngest child, and I had the opportunity when I was 15, I applied for college, and I got into college. And then I think probably within a very short period of time, there was also a job advert for a tradie hotel manager about 50 miles away from where I lived. And I applied for the job, and I got an interview, and I went for the interview. And being 15, of course, my mom drove me to the interview.
David:
And she was sitting in the waiting room as well, and they said, Oh, please come in, to her as well as I. And I was horrified the fact that the first ever interview that I was going to do was gonna be with my mom sitting there. And she was fantastic, and she didn't say a word. She was just silent and listening through the whole process. But I ended up getting that job as a trainee manager in a hotel in the middle of the UK and left home when I was 15, didn't go to to college.
David:
And I talked it through with both my parents. And they were very supportive and said, whatever you want to do. And they knew that I was going to take this job. And my first role as a trainee manager was being a Bowman. And I just instantly fell in love with hotels, with people, with willingness to help people give them an opportunity to have a really good stay in a hotel, and how I understood from a very early stage and through various mentors and managers that I had that I could make that difference.
David:
And I've been empowered to really look after to guests. And so that was my introduction. I did that for a couple of years. I then moved to London. My brother lived in London, and so I moved in with him and really had a party then.
David:
I was 17 years old in London. And remembering that the legal drinking agent in the UK is 18, so a little bit earlier than over here in America. So I was able to to go out and and party with him and really enjoy London, but also enjoy the hotel world. And I worked for some of the, back then in the eighties, of more traditional hotel brands, Holiday Inn, Hilton, Marriott. And I really built my career within those more traditional hotel environments.
David:
Really enjoyed it. Very fun moments all the time. I often say now all of my close friends are ones that we all worked together back in the '80s '90s. And it's long hours, it's hard work, but we had a lot of fun. And I worked for a company called Thistle Hotels.
David:
I worked through all different departments of the hotels, both front of house and back of house. Originally, I actually wanted to work in the kitchens.
Anne:
Oh, wow.
David:
And I was very passionate about cooking. And then I got into the kitchens, and I realized that wasn't for me. And, 1, it was just blazingly hot. And I think that anybody who can work in that environment all the time Right. Should be rewarded very well because it's a very tough environment to work in.
David:
But I wanted to go back into front of house. And I worked my way through all different departments, ultimately becoming a general manager of a 300 bedroom hotel in Central London as my first general managership and was just I knew that this was what I'd always wanted to do. But then a little bit like you were saying before with your introduction, I was working in a more traditional hotel environment, but I was naturally drawn to a more boutique environment. And Ian Schrager of Studio 54 fame and multiple hotels at that point had recently opened his first hotel in London, and everyone was talking about it. It was for us hoteliers, it was like nothing we'd ever seen before, and I'd been there many times socially and to eat in the multiple restaurants there and told me about an interview, or they were looking for a a hotel manager for one of their hotels.
David:
And so I went for an interview, and I loved the environment. I loved the nature. The the hotel this is Saint Martin's Lane Hotel in London. Truly one of the most stunning, beautiful hotels. Wasn't great at all.
David:
And it it was very it felt very elitist, very exclusive. And I sort of did the interview, and I liked the people. And then I came home and said, Well, it's probably not for me. And then I got a call to say they'd love me to fly to New York to meet Iain. And so I thought, well, if they're flying me to New York, whether I want it or not, I'm gonna go and I'll take that.
Anne:
For certain.
David:
So I think I remember saying, exactly. And I think I remember saying, can we do it either on a Friday or a Monday? And then I could just add the weekend in there. So I did do that. And I met with Ian in New York.
David:
And like anybody that's ever met Ian Traeger, you're just blown away by just the creative genius that that he is. And so I met with Ian, completely wowed, got back on the plane, and was there like, Okay, this is what I'm going to do. -And -Wow. -And so that was sort of really my entry into the boutique world, which was 2,001, and then worked in hotels for Ian until 2010, Worked hand in hand with Ian, first of all, running London, and then I moved to New York to run operations for the company. And then Ian left, and then I left shortly afterwards and went back to Ian.
David:
Works on the very early stages with Ian of the creation of the edition brand with Marriott, which is now roaringly successful, which is great to see. And then I joined the other celebrity hotelier, who is Andre Balazs, who at the time was getting ready to open another London hotel and wanted somebody who understand the London market as well as the New York market. So I joined Andre in 2010 and ran his company for the next 4 years before starting SALT in 2014. So it is our 10 year anniversary.
Anne:
And happy anniversary on that note. But I need to go back to you for just a minute. What an impressive story. It's definitely a testimony that a great mindset and this willingness to take on more, and certainly there's hard work along the way, but those core elements can take you just about anywhere. So kudos to you.
Anne:
And then when you mentioned Ian and Andre, how lucky for you to work with some of the best in the industry. And it's interesting because we get to meet hoteliers from a guest perspective. I mean, I met Andre, you could say, through the Mercer and the Standard. You know, my previous job, I had the wonderful opportunity of traveling to different cities, and I think it probably was the early 2000s that I stayed at the Mercer and the Standard, not just in LA, but in New York as well. So that's how I met Andre.
Anne:
And then later on, the Public Hotel, and we all know Ian Schrager did that, was my absolute favorite hotel in Chicago. I mean, the energy, the design, it was just off the charts. And certainly having the pump room, the iconic pump room being the restaurant, it just, I couldn't wait to go there. So that led me to falling in love with Ian's designs. And I would stay at the addition hotel in New York.
Anne:
And then when I went to London, I stayed at the addition in London. So it is interesting that we get to meet the essence of a hotelier through their hotels. So when you walk away from these 2 brilliant men, and I always say people build their toolbox from their experiences. So when you started your quest with SALT, what did you take from Ian and Andre that you felt was important as you created the ethos for salt?
David:
That's a great question. And I think first with Ian, and Ian has a fanatical attention to detail. And to the point that as a guest, you would never realize it. But as a somebody who works for him, there are very strict rules and guidelines that you follow. And, for example, the way, you know, next to the bed on the bedside table, there would always be a notepad and a pencil.
David:
And the pencil had to be sharp, had to be beautiful. It had to look like it was brand new even if it wasn't brand new. So if it had been used even to write one sentence, it had to be resharpened and had to be put down, and it had to the sharp end had to face away from the guest. It had to be feeling less aggressive than a sharp end facing towards the guest. And there are literally thousands of stories, like, that I was struck with of how much attention Ian pays to everything.
David:
And so that was certainly something that I took, and my team now will probably have many stories about me in similar sort of situations. And I think with Andre, it was nothing happens by accident. And when we opened the Chilton Firehouse in London, it was early in 2014, and we had been working on the project for about 3 years. And Andre moved to London from New York and ingratiated himself with everybody, all of the cool, hip, trendy people of London, all of the would be guests, and learnt the different styles of what it meant to run a hotel in London versus running a hotel in New York. And he left nothing to chance.
David:
It was he wanted to be the face. He was the face of the property. He worked from 7 in the morning until 3 o'clock in the morning and never left anything to chance. And I think that was what I took from him As we're in an opening mode at the moment to open something, I'll for use that. Let's not leave it to chance.
David:
Let's make sure we know exactly what's going to happen.
Anne:
Well, I also love the mention that you said he didn't leave. I I I think there's something to be said for that. There's if you're creating this culture, this essence that you want in your brand presence, really, next to the people you're working with, is a way to cultivate that in a very authentic and organic way. Maybe in Andre's point, a little bit more aspirational, but at the end of the day, what a beautiful thing, because I think absenteeism does leave it to chance. And there is trust, no doubt about it, and that grows in time, and it happens so beautifully.
Anne:
And you get to sit back and watch it and then just smile and your heart just dances. But I think at the end of the day, what a wonderful thing to grab from him. So here you are at salt and you're creating this beautiful culture, and you're thinking of all the things you learned. Let's first talk a little bit about the era of hospitality today, and then let's go into how Salt is mirroring what that needs. So from your point of view, how has hospitality changed?
Anne:
Where is it in the moment? I'd love to hear your point of view on that.
David:
Yeah. I I think that where hospitality is now is and and I think this has been really exaggerated by the effects of COVID and and us all living through those few years. People, our guests, are really looking I think guests are really looking for bespoke individual experiences. And I think people used to look for a nice, clean hotel, and now they look for a hotel that is, of course, in a good location, but is reflective of the city that they're in. And it used to be well, when we used to do the budgets many years ago, we'd split business into business and leisure.
David:
So your sort of corporate business and then your vacation holiday business. And that line between those two areas is now incredibly blurred. I've heard it being called blisure, and it's a combination of the 2. And I think that even when people are traveling on business, they want to experience the city that they're in. They want to feel like they, you know, live like a local.
Anne:
Yes.
David:
And I think there's a lot of people I think probably the upcoming of Airbnb has also had a big impact on that. But I think, as a hotelier, I look at it that when somebody checks out of our hotels, if they didn't love the destination, then we haven't done our job properly. We haven't shown them the best of that town, city, village, country. So I think that it will get more and more focused on people enjoying people having those true experiences rather than just hotel stay.
Anne:
I completely agree. I no longer just want a hotel stay. And it's funny from a traveler perspective, a guest perspective, I just expect the core to be right. Clean, neat, and organized. I love a design that has a good vibe for sure, but it's really to me the holistic feeling from the people and the surround that are the differentiators.
Anne:
And when I reference people, certainly, it's the staff, but it's also the other guests that are there too. It's the whole community. So for me, when you say if they didn't love the destination, then we haven't done our job properly. I just mentioned the people factor in all of that. But if we get down to the literal meaning of destination, I kinda go back to the comment you made where, you know, holiday and business, that line is really blurred.
Anne:
And I couldn't agree more because I like to go away to escape for weekends or join my husband if he's traveling on a business trip so we can have an extended weekend from his travels. But if I can't explore beyond that hotel and have a full circle experience, I may not wanna go. And there has to be something there that draws my curiosity in. And this doesn't mean it has to be a popular destination. It just needs to be unique and special to itself.
Anne:
So on that note, tell me, how do you select your locations?
David:
I think it's, first of all, it's somewhere that resonates with us, somewhere where we get. And I think that's really important that we understand it. We don't know everything about it when we first go, but it's they're like, oh, this is a beautiful place, or this is an interesting place. The people are interesting. The town is interesting.
David:
It has interesting parts of history. I think we look at those. How does it feel? We look at our partners. Who would we be working with?
David:
In fact, one of our rules on development is great projects with great people in great places, and that allows us then to be able to continue our culture. If our partners are aligned in our culture, then they will understand, and they're not going to be forcing us to reduce staff or to change things around, which we don't think is the right thing to do. And, fundamentally, then, where would our guests want to go here? We've built up over a1000000 regular guests. And by regular, I mean they've stayed with us more than once.
David:
And will they go to Litchfield, Connecticut to to Nantucket? And what would they be looking for when they got there? And so we really use that theory to carry on as we go through the development process. And I I think in addition to that, one of the markets that I think strong, and I think it's getting stronger and stronger in the US, and it's certainly been a little bit it's more traditional in the UK, is the sort of within 2 hours of a major city. And I think that what COVID did when suddenly none of us could get on an airplane and go over to Europe or wherever we were we were traveling to, the staycation really became a much bigger thing.
David:
And I think people can now work from home on a Friday or a Monday, and so they can add a few days. They can make it a little bit more worthwhile. And so I think we look at those factors too. And can we make a difference, I guess, is the last part of that of, can we enhance? And I think that is is really important to us all as well.
Anne:
I love that. So now let's go back 10 years. You're starting salt and you're taking your experiences from the past and you're thinking ahead, I'm sure, as with any visionary. How did you shape the mission or the core of the culture of the brand?
David:
There was a very small group of us, and we knew that we needed to outwardly display what Salt Hotels was going to be. And how do we form that? How do we do the elevator pitch? What does that look like? What does it feel like?
David:
And I think so I started with collaboration, and I think that my style is all about collaboration. I don't enjoy working with people who just say yes all the time. I like people who challenge me, who challenge the norm, who challenge each other. I think that gets the the best result. And so we sat in a room, and a lot of it was down to personal values.
David:
A lot of it was down to, what have we seen in our careers? What works? Let's adapt it, adopt it, improve it, things that work. And then what doesn't work? And how do we introduce it into salt that you can and and I use the specific example of service.
David:
10 years ago, I think well, 15 years ago, service in boutique hotels wasn't good. It was all about how things looked, how things felt, apart from how staff were trained and teams looked after you. And I think that number one focus was making sure for salt that everything we ever did had the guest in the center of our thoughts. And so when we make a decision to change a linen or a duvet standard or a pillow, which are the worst things to ever choose for anybody because every because you've gotta try to find one that Exactly. But really ask the question every time, how does that affect our guest experience?
David:
And so that was how we started. We then really wanted to focus on the neighborhoods and the locations that we were at and really make sure our hotels exemplified everything that this city, town was all about. And so it was really, how do we bring locals into the hotel? How do we train locals to work in the hotel? And as a group, I remember we sat in a beautiful room which was overlooking an ocean in New Jersey, and we wrote this together.
David:
And then we all went and sat on the beach, and we modified it. And then we all went back. And over the period of a few days, we'd written the narrative of what Salt Hotels was going to be about. But it was really that the key other piece of Salt Hotels is our team and making sure that our team are really well looked after in the hotels. If they look good and feel good and are treated well, they will be able to do that to our guests.
David:
If they're not, they're really not going to be able to do it. And so really back of house and front of house very much merge within song.
Anne:
I love that. And there's 2 things I kinda wanna unpack for a minute there. I love when you said the client is the center of it all. Back in my brand days, we used to say, are we speaking to ourselves, or are we speaking on behalf of the client? We'd have all these ideation sessions, and then we realized we were using language in some cases that didn't even relate.
Anne:
It wasn't relevant. So I love that you stay true to speaking on behalf of the client. And you feel that as anybody that goes into any hotel or any service based industry, you feel that not just from the sensory experience, but you feel it from the experience you get from people, which brings me to, I believe, above and beyond any beautiful hotel is the beautiful backdrop within the team. And it's funny because I remember hearing, and I can't remember who in my leadership passage that I heard it from, but I remember somebody saying to me, the heartbeat of a company is key because that beat moves everybody at the same pace, but it's the soul of a company that is the most important piece you have to pay attention to because that creates the memory factor and the soul is the people. And I do think the way that you have told this story is beautiful, and I wanna talk a little bit about that.
Anne:
So let's talk about how you build a community within the group of people that work for you. What are some of the values that SALT stands for, and how do you cultivate that?
David:
Another great question. And I owe this 100% to my father, who was the chief of police in the UK many, many years ago. And he told me very early on about and I don't remember how the conversation came up, but about fairness, about being fair. And it's something that's really stayed with me the entire time. I think that is, overarchingly, that is the the fundamental room that everybody will be treated fairly and equitably.
David:
And we're all now learning so much more into equality and diversity and, you know, which I think is a great educational piece for us all as as we continue to go through our careers. But for me, it was always, you know, treat people how you want to be treated yourself. Treat people fairly. Treat people consistently. And in a high pressured environment, it's not always perfect Right.
David:
And there's always room for improvement. And I always say, if we're not looking at ourselves and criticizing ourselves and improving ourselves, then we're not moving forward as well. But I think it comes down then to hiring people with that mentality and hiring people who, in their interview, talk much more about the people than they do of the process. I remember many, many years ago, I was in London, actually, working for Ian, and I had somebody had bought me one of those rip off calendars. Mhmm.
David:
And I think it was Gary Larson Far Side or something, and it was all sort of fun stuff. But one day, I walked in and I ripped off the day before, and it said, The greatest companies hire the attitude and train the skill. And I ripped that off, and I stuck it on my computer, and it still sits on my computer today. I can train a room attendant how to make a bed. I can train a front desk agent how to check someone in.
David:
What I can't train them in is their attitude, their willingness to help, their smile, their opening the door and checking if somebody else is coming behind them or can I let them in front of me? That's sort of very much part of who they are as a person. And it's hiring to that level, and it's hiring at a senior level to those with that direction and that thought process in mind. And then it sort of has the trickle down effect that everybody's doing it. And I talk a lot within the company, and I did it very recently.
David:
We had a member of the team whose mother got sick, and I said, you need to deal. You need to go, and you need to take care of mom. And it's family first. And I look at we, as a company, are a family, and then our family have the extended family and their own families. And I think that's how you create the culture that it isn't a book of rules and regulations.
David:
It is every situation, every day is very different, and it's sort of reacting to each situation and keeping those fundamentals of fairness and family in mind all the time.
Anne:
I love that. Fairness and family, Two words that keep it relatively simple and balanced. So I love those filters. Amazing. You know, I can really see why the words with us it's personal are immediately after your brand name.
Anne:
Makes complete sense and your guests, I'm sure we'll feel it. And quite honestly, it intrigues me as well. So I just can't wait to talk about this. I wanna talk all about SALT School. I think it's pretty fabulous.
Anne:
Can you share with us everything about SALT School?
David:
Yes. So back in 2016, we were getting ready to open our hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey. And I was in Asbury Park, and somebody said to me, oh, your greatest challenge is going to be to find good staff. And I said, well, what do you mean? And they're like, well, it's there's there's no hotels have opened here in 50 years.
David:
It's very it's very consistent. It there's been no changes. And I didn't say very much, but I took it on, and I went on to the next meeting with that in the back of my mind. And then we got on to talking about what makes a community, what's important about a community. And somebody said school is fundamentally communities are built around schools.
David:
And I was like, Wow, that's very interesting. And how could those 2 match, and could they work together? And that evening, I came up with Salt School. And it was an idea, and I wanted to write down the outline of what salt Salt School would be that evening because I wanted to make sure it was very true to who we are, that Salt School was open to everybody. Salt School would be an introduction into hospitality, a way for people that weren't very sure of if this was a route that they wanted to follow on career wise or not, but they had a chance to come in and see what hospitality was all about.
David:
And there would be no guide there would be no restrictions on coming to Salt School. It wasn't as somebody who didn't have those formal qualifications, I can't tell you how many times I've read job applications that tell you what formal education you should have.
Anne:
Right.
David:
And I still see it to this day. And I'd be like, this is 30 years ago. What is it really relevant today, you know, whether I think it is in certain industries and, of course, medical or or legal. I think it's very important what you learn there. But for hospitality, where it's all about people, is it really that important?
Anne:
I agree.
David:
And so we said no. It's this is about the attitude. Back to hire the attitude, train the scale. This is, you know, if people want to work with us and they have the right attitude, then it doesn't really matter what they've done in the in the past. And so that was how Salt School was born.
David:
And we wrote a curriculum over, 8 weeks every weekend, every the mornings of every weekend, and it would be an introduction into hospitality, an introduction into what all the different aspects. So whether it's the accounting department or the restaurant or the bar or housekeeping, it was all the different areas. And we we sat I after that night, we sat with the team, and everybody had great input, and we really beefed up the curriculum. We made it really interesting. We realized that we had no half the sessions, we had nobody to teach, because we just didn't have enough senior staff at that point.
David:
And so I we said, right. Okay. Let's call every friend we know. Doesn't matter that they work for competitors. Let's get them in and let's so we had a fantastic salesperson that I'd worked with in New York.
David:
We called her, and she's there. Like, I would love to do it. We're like, look. We can't afford to pay you. We'll pay your travel, and I'll take you out for dinner.
David:
And when you wanna come and stay at the hotel, you get a free night. And that's exactly what happened. We had we launched the applications, and for the first one. And I was, of course, desperately paranoid no one would apply. I was the guy that was throwing the party that no one was gonna come to.
David:
That was how I felt. And so and we ended up getting over 400 applications for the 1st Salt School we did. We could only find a space big enough for a 150 people, so that was what I would have done 400 if we could have done it at that point. But we ran the 1st Salt School, and we hired about 70% of the attendees. And from so many different backgrounds, from so many different ages.
David:
And some of the things that were really interesting, probably the most impactful thing for me was because we had no age limits, we had 15 year old goal leavers like like me, and then we had 60 year old retirees or people that had had not worked for a while and said I couldn't find a job because they were always up against people that were younger than them or for whatever reason. And so but we paired a lot of the younger people and older people together, and it suddenly became this wonderful dynamic of the young people were so tech savvy and so quick on the computers. And, you know, we've all got those nieces and nephews who are at 5 years older, working an iPad faster than any of us can do it. But then you had the maturity and life experience of people of slightly older people who were much calmer. And when somebody had an issue, we were doing role plays.
David:
And when somebody had an issue and they were you know, we would had these scenarios set up where people would shout, my room's not ready and all the rest of it. And the more experienced people would be very calming. And you put them together, and you have an ideal situation. You have the younger people teaching the older people the technology side of things and the older people teaching the younger people much more of the calm, don't worry. This isn't personal.
David:
This is business, and we'll we're the the guest is unhappy. They've just done the red eye, and we need to get them into a room as soon as we can, and all of those sorts of things. And that was the biggest impact. And I think that the saddest thing about any organization is when they're only looking to employ one type of person because that doesn't elevate everybody. And, really, you know, we're about to launch 10th Salt School this summer in Litchfield, Connecticut when we open the Abner Hotel there this summer.
David:
And I hope we'll have exactly the same results that we've seen through the last 10 years. But I still have a dream one day that Marriott will call and say or Hilton will call and say, this is a great idea. Help us bring it into our organization because we might have created it, but if all hotel companies did this, I think our industry as a whole would be so much better.
Anne:
I think you're actually gonna get that call, and I think it even transcends beyond hotel. And as I listened to the story of Salt School, I thought to myself, you know, companies have these committees for diversity and inclusion. But what really touched my heart with what you're doing is this organic approach to diversity and inclusion by bringing all these people together who are very different, I'm sure, different races, different cultures, different dynamics, any way you wanna look at it. And I think it's just amazing because it's growing organically within itself, and the curriculum expands beyond what's in writing. So I think it's so terrific.
Anne:
So I'm gonna pivot us here for a minute. We're at the end of the episode, and what we do at the end of every episode is ask our guests the same 5 questions. It's a way to kind of bring out the classic soul in all of us. So I'll kick it off with the first question, and it is, who has influenced your style the most?
David:
A gentleman called Stephen Paramore, who was my mentor when I was a young my very young manager. He actually gave me my first management position, and I ended up working for him for about 10 years in London. And one of the fairest, nicest, kindest guys that would push you to the absolute limit every single day. And he has had the biggest impact on my career without a doubt.
Anne:
I love it. Love that you addressed it from a personal style versus a fashion style. That just took me over the edge. So now I'll switch you into fashion. What's your favorite item in your closet?
David:
My favorite item in my closet? That's such a great question. I recently bought a really lovely I call it jumper, Americans call it sweater. And it was in a sale, and it was a Hugo Boss rollneck sweater. And I absolutely love it, and I've worn it the entire winter.
Anne:
I love it. That's so great. What's your favorite classic cocktail?
David:
I no longer drink, but it was always a Manhattan.
Anne:
What's your most memorable dining experience?
David:
The French Laundry, Thomas Keller. I'm so fortunate to go, and we happened to go on an anniversary of the restaurant, and it was just mind blowing at every level.
Anne:
Oh my gosh. So we have something in common. I love Thomas Keller. In fact, I'll just divert here for a minute. The first wine tasting that I did for charity at my home, I tried to do all the courses.
Anne:
I personally wanted to cook them, and I used Thomas Keller's cookbook. It took me days to practice against that, and not everything went perfect, which really is actually okay. I learned that later in life. For me, it was like everything had to I was kind of a little bit of Ian Schrager. Like, everything had to be purposely placed.
Anne:
Now I'm a little bit less fussed, but still very attention to detail, but in different ways. But so funny you brought up Thomas Keller. So that was cool. Favorite destination for travel?
David:
Sydney, Australia. You must go. My brother lives there, and I try and go every year and see him and the family over there. And it is just we've talked a lot today about culture. The Australian culture is just such a beautiful, wonderful culture that doesn't have the restrictions that other cultures do in the world.
Anne:
Isn't that funny? My niece is there right now, and she goes there almost every other year and goes for a whole month at a time. So, you know, I must join her the next time. She's been kind of fully me. So thank you, David, for sharing your time with us today.
Anne:
Listeners, this is a brand I put in my portfolio, and I know when you look up Salt Hotels, you'll put it in yours as well. Their story continues to unfold, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead. And again, thank you, David, for sharing your beautiful story with us. We so appreciate it.
David:
Thank you very much for having me. It's been a pleasure and lovely to meet you in the process of somebody who I know I'll talk to and see many, many times in the future.
Anne:
Absolutely. Thank you, David. Thank you for listening to this episode of Classic and Curious. You can find Sault Hotels on Instagram at salt.hotels. Be sure to book your next stay via salthotels.com.
Anne:
Take a peek at the Classic and Curious podcast page on Styled by airk.com to find a listing of this episode's show notes. You will be delighted to see my favorite Sate Hotel destination and all of my recommendations surrounding this location. Of course, we invite you to hit the subscribe button and share your feedback along the way. Looking forward to our next time together. Tata for now.