David Millili: Welcome to 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: Yeah, David. Today we have on Tom Larson. Tom is an industry veteran with 20 years of experience at Lowe's Destination Hotel and Two Roads Hospitality. For the past four years, Tom has been the president at Coral Three Hospitality. Welcome to the show, Tom.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Thanks Steve, and thanks David. Appreciate it, but glad to be on.

David Millili: So Tom, we're gonna have three sections. We're gonna get to know you a little bit better. We're gonna talk about your career, and then we're gonna ask you some industry. Thoughts. And with that, we're gonna dive right in. So what was your first job?

David, I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. my father was in the hotel business and so when I was 13, I had the first job of cutting grass, at his hotel, and that quickly got to my first. Termination from my father, and he moved me from a bad grass cutter who had bad allergies. So I spent more time blowing my nose than I did cutting the grass.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): And then I moved into, the culinary side really, working in the garge.

David Millili: Who did you admire growing?

my father was certainly, uh, the biggest, um, figure in my life one as a patriarch, but also as a, a Hotelier. And, my second one, is probably the most influential in my adult career, and that's a guy named Steve Barlin. Steve's a dear friend and Steve's the chairman of, Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and Sea.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Steve and I worked together initially in Nashville about 40 years ago at Opera Land Hotel, and I just really learned the essence of leading people under Steve.

David Millili: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, so many different anecdotes along the way. I think,you know, there's a phrase in real estate development that I apply a lot, and that's, um, if you can't fix it,

You know, we seem sometimes in our worlds of leading people and problem solving, we see the problem first and we kind of try to work everything around it.

And, you know, sometimes maybe we are, are so complicated, we see the obvious that how can we, take this negative and make it a positive. So that's one. And I think the other one is just remember people come first. Uh, that was something my dad said, you know, as a child. Just family values. But clearly today, you know, we've got, you know, 5,000 plus, team members.

And, it's something I say often when we talk people first.

David Millili: What's the worst piece of advice you've ever received?

Um, you need it to move and relocate your families if you're gonna be in the hotel business to be successful. And I found that to be inaccurate and it. Made me change my career cuz I thought that was not the type of family I wanted to, be as someone who had to relocate and move everywhere. And I think, um, there's certainly parts of our industry where people have had to do that, but I found a path where I didn't.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): And, uh, that path led me to the independent space more than the branded space. But you know, I've had a great quality of life as both a husband and a dad, three kids, and also a great career with firms that I didn't have to probably relocate and uproot from where I was.

David Millili: What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, invested into a winery in 2000 and. At that time, I didn't really drink much wine, didn't know much about wine, and I was lucky. And it's kinda like my golf game. I'd rather be lucky than good sometimes. And, the end of the day, it worked out very well, but it was a high risk, decision that in the end worked out well.

But it was the riskiest one I'd.

David Millili: If you could trade places with somebody for a day, who would you trade places with?

I'm a, fan of sports, so I'm, uh, I love, uh, thinking about athletes and, you know, there's, different role models that both are great athletes but also great people. so I think about that. I think about in the day I grew up in Louisville where Muhammad Ali.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Kind of became an entertainer through sports and also had a social platform.

Uh, you know, we really, became, defined more so in that context than he was others. So I'd say, you know, in the aspects, I didn't want to be a boxer, but it was somebody I thought was really cool. Then it's hard not to talk about, you know, great leaders. if you could, you know, be mandala for a. And have sat in his, life shoes for someone who'd been imprisoned and then could change a country that could change a world. how awesome would that be?

David Millili: What makes you.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, when one of my sports teams 

David Millili: Yeah. 

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): uh, when my children say whatever, um, you know, and in. And in the world of business, I don't think I get angry. but you know, what's frustrating in the world of business is just, prescriptive thinking. you know, where someone thinks that there's only one way to find a solution or create an idea.

I'm a big ideation person and I get turned off when I find narrow thinking and people who can't broaden their per.

David Millili: what scares you,

in a world where we lead people, that I could do something unintentional consequences that could negatively impact someone's life with not knowing about it. You know, we've, I think in thousands of employees and we make business decisions all the time. And I think one of the things that sets us apart is we're a company of.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): We really do care about our team and we have a very family oriented culture. And I can always overcome a business decision that I made a mistake about, but changing someone's life in a way that was unintended in a negative way, that scares the hell out of me.

David Millili: What's something that you wish you were better?

everything you know, I think the, the real leader that's successful says, look, it's a lifelong, you know, learning process. So I want continuous improvement. I think, um, the ability to relate to, um, different aspects of people, both their intellectual side and their emotional. I think if I could constantly perfect that, I'd love to be a speed reader.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): You know, if I could read, I'm an avid reader and I love to learn that way, but if I could do it faster and do more of it, that would be awesome as well.

David Millili: If you could be one of these three, which one would you. Batman, Superman or Spiderman?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Batman had a really cool car and he had a partner. the other ones kind of ran solo. so I think I'd stay with Batman. Um, the Cool car. And uh, he hung out with Robin. That's not 

bad.

Steve Carran: that's great. That's great. And the cool gadgets tool, so it can't go wrong there,

David Millili: Yeah.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Right. He also gotta know Bat Woman too, 

you know, so, 

Steve Carran: he had a whole community of bat people around him and Robin, so . Well, awesome. That was great. Now we get to learn a little bit more about you, your personal side, what makes you take things like that. So, where were you born? You, you Kentucky. Right.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Yeah, I grew up in, uh, Louisville, Kentucky where, my mom and father, you know, resided and lived their life there. And I finished my high school career there and then, eventually moved to Miami, Florida. Which was, you know, quite culturally different than Louisville, Kentucky, and it was a wonderful exposure.

I went to FIU and graduated with a hospitality degree there.

Steve Carran: How did growing up in Kentucky shape to who you are?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): You know, I think it had a formidable perspective on me. You know, everyone's proud of their, places of origin and I am as well. It was a city of wholesome. People really, you know, have that Midwestern culture where, you had kindhearted, people looking out for others, very family rooted.

it was very common to see, you know, legacy after legacy, living in the same area. So I think I learned that about, trust and people and values. also think it was a state of business that, had to re reimagine itself, you know, was a state. Made its fortune early on in its life, in the tobacco industry and in agriculture, and it had to evolve.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): And, now is one of the, you know, world headquarters for, uh, ups and a place for cars. And from an outsider looking in now years later, they learn how to adapt their business model as well. So, um, I think I learned a lot from.

David Millili: Did you move to Miami to go to fiu, or did you move to Miami and then decide to go to

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): No, I, I was a very intentional move. I moved there for that degree. I, uh, I played sports in high school and, had some success there and had one of those, uh,summer dreams where I actually could maybe make it and make a living in sports and, uh, dose of reality hit really quickly. And, um, I needed to grow up and figure that that wasn't going to. And, by that time I had already had six or seven jobs working in 4, 4, 4 Diamond Hotel, excuse me. and doing different things. So the equivalent of what would've been a college internship I got through high school. front desk, culinary bell services, housekeeping engineering. And so, uh, when I decided what I wanted to do was like, look, this is something I can do.

I saw it. My father, I was more interested in the f and b side when I started, when I was the hotel side. So I moved to Miami intentionally and, uh, just loved going to school there. And I learned a lot about the cultures, the diversity of the city.

David Millili: Yeah, I went to FIU and it was great because you could actually, you could work at hotels,Cornell, you can go to the Staler and you can go, there's like a Holiday Inn and I think a day's in fiu, you know, a plethora of hotels to

I probably age you David. I, uh, was in these, what was now called the South Campus. I was on Tamiami Trail, that was long ago. And, um, I had to pay out-of-state tuition, which, and I paid my way through school, so I had a full-time job running restaurants, a little restaurant company called Raffles. And I did that and it was, uh, great as I was managing restaurants, but also learning the academic side through the hospitality program.

you founded Wonderland experience. how did you come up with that idea and tell us a little bit about what that was?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Yeah. Wonderland Express is a, nonprofit 5 0 1 C three that we started in Oregon, think it was now 22 years ago. And,in Oregon in this area called Sun River. It's a near a rural community called Le Pine, Oregon. Most of our employees, we had about a thousand employees that were employed by the resort, the largest employer in the area.

And, as a part of how we run our business, we had to do things that could help the community and be not just a steward of our business, but a steward of the community. And in the end, we had a lot of our housekeepers and frontline team members that, couldn't afford holiday. So we created this event so that, uh, people could come in and bring their families and their children have a great day.

with Santa Claus showing up and bags of, uh, groceries that we organized for them. All the children left with wrapped presents and photographs, and we did, uh, carry rides and the like. I think now over the years, um, on average we did, you know, six or 700 people per event. And now, you know, you put a 22 year calculus on that and you know, we've now fed thousands of people and the organization's going strong and it's all volunteer based.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Every penny that we raise goes to that event and I'm really proud of it. And it's certainly not me. There's still a group that is involved, but I was really proud of starting that and see it still being.

Steve Carran: Absolutely. That's awesome. That's, it's gotta be an exciting time of year too, 

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, it's a great, you know, and I had, at that time when we started, I had young kids and uh, they were a part of it too, and they could see us giving back and many of the, you know, people we knew over the years, because they'd come year after year. So, and ended up being one of the most meaningful days of the holidays as just a person, forget the non-profit event.

It was just, you know, you walked away. And I think I got more out of it than the gifts and things that we gave to.

Steve Carran: absolutely. That's awesome. So you, you went to college in fiu, now you live in, uh, Colorado, outside of Denver. are you a beach or a mountain?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, I'm definitely a mountain guy. Uh, it divides my house. Uh, my wife, it's36 years is, uh, you know, her attitude is, uh, you know, you go to the mountains on Friday, she'll go to the beach and I'll see you Sunday night at home. but I, I love the mountains. I, uh, love four seasons, so I love the notion of having a. All the different components of weather. And Stacy, my wife, would definitely love the beach in the south more than I

Steve Carran: Absolutely. We're in the same boat on that one. so that sounds good. Now, now we move to the part where we learned a little bit more about your career, kind of how you got to where you are today. so you graduated from fiu. And then you were managing restaurants in Miami, then you made the move to Nashville to become a manager at the original Opry Land Hotel.

then you also worked your way up to the Kings Mill Resort as well. What foundations did those, you know, first two jobs really, really teach you?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Well, you know, Many people say, I feel like I've been blessed with great, experiences to learn from. And I was fortunate to, um,each time meet somebody that evolved into a new opportunity. So, while I was in college, uh, in order to go to college, I to say that I needed to to work and I was actually, 20 years old, wasn't, able to serve alcohol, but I was running a, very powerful and popular.

Restaurant operations. That was back in those days, 40 years ago now doing 6 million a year, which would be the equivalent today of a 20 million restaurant. So high volume. and, when you were young and you were managing older people at the time, I learned a lot in that experiences that still today sticks with me.

And, I love the f and b piece cuz you could be creative and love the vibe of the. And I love that you could adapt to the market conditions quickly. I met Jack Vaughn, who was the CEO of Opera Land Hotel. At that time, op Land was the largest convention hotel in the United States. He came to our restaurant and I ended up striking a conversation with him and he invited me to fly to Nashville.

he said, I don't know which job, just fly there. At that time, uh, they had about 3000 employees. I flew there, kind of thinking it's not what I wanted to do, but it was a little closer to home. And, going back into the hotel business where my father initially exposed me to, and it worked out, uh, Mr.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Vaughn was a, um, an icon in the hotel business. opera Land was a celebrated business that now years later it's called Gaylord because they franchised it. but it was a great experience for me. It was independent, operated, and they allowed you to. Autonomy and empowerment. you know, you didn't have a, corporate standard.

You created that because it was one of a kind and I learned the business skills and then not only how to think and create standards, but then how to implement them through other people. so I learned a great deal, that I frankly learned that was more exciting because it was more diverse than a re.

The restaurant was a couple of meals each day in an evening and those types of things. And each day was a bit different. But in this mega hotel at the time, all kinds of things happened every day. You know, we had f and b and conference services and caterings and weddings and restaurants and bars and entertainment venues.

And so that launched me to stay into the resort business to. Now, again, 40 years later, I've only worked in resorts. I just love the complexity of it and the, you know, it's like managing a small city and bringing things together. And what's really required is, communication skills and vision, and then the ability to execute, through other people.

And again, that spirit I have today. So I went from there, uh, to Kings Mill Resort in Virginia that was owned by Anheuser Bush, their only resort in. . And again, I met, um, somebody there at Opryland who said, we're opening up this new resort, Mr. Bush, it's private to him and personal, would you come and, head up that, operation?

And so I did. And, uh, that's how it happened. And later on and ended up at the Woodlands, Texas. And now, of course, with our company and the common thread of 'em all, they're all owned by an in. They're all patriarchal owned. So Opera Land was Ed Gaylord at the time, owned Gaylord Publishing. August Bush at Kings Mill.

When I moved to the Woodlands, it was owned by George Mitchell of Mitchell Energy and Development. And then eventually when I joined the company I'm with today, it's owned by the Low family Bob Low.

Steve Carran: Wow. That's crazy. That's crazy. So, any, any good stories that you have while, uh, working at Opry Land or Kings Mill? Like to ask people who've worked in hotels that come on. Usually we, uh, , there's, there's a couple good ones.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): I've got great stories. You know, I don't know for sure for public, uh, consumption completely, but I have one story that I could tell, at Kings Mill that it's kind of a fun one for me as again, I was a pretty young executive running a. built a four star, four diamond resort, uh, three golf courses. held a PGA event, which he still holds today.

And I was in a leadership position and August Bush, the fourth flew into town. And, I would typically meet him and pick him up and, he would bring an entourage. And so we had a 24 hour experience with him when he was on site. And, uh, he would go to the restaurant. we tasted beers and sometimes you might over taste the beers on occasion per se.

And I think that happened that night. And he got a little excitable and he wanted to go into the, back of the house restaurants. And he went into the, walk-in coolers and there was a lot of product that was, in the coolers that was owned by Craft and Craft at that time was a part of the Miller Brewing.

it's the only time I ever saw August, Bush and his armed capability. He had the ability to throw cheese quite well in the walk-in and, uh, it was paranoid. I thought, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get fired. And, uh, that night we had to clean up the mess and of course all the product was reversed out and, changed, uh, where we bought it from.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): But the next morning I asked him if everything was okay. He goes, ah, that was such a great.

That was a great night. I couldn't sleep. I just assumed I was losing my job. a story, I maybe shouldn't say the names, but there was a famous golfer who was known for his driver and how long he could hit the drive and the club that he played with, I think it was, uh, the Big Bertha.

So if you can put that all together, if you know your golf,he was doing an event at one of our resorts and he had. I guess on the outs on his corporate sponsorship and also on the tour. And he was in our, in our property doing a televised event and it was a match play. Think of like a Shell wonderful World of golf event.

he was there and certainly had vowed to the community that, he didn't drink and certainly was on good. I had dinner and we did a celebration that night. If you all remember Jack Whitaker, he was the famous, uh, broadcaster for NBC and did Wide World of Sports. He was the host. And I went home after a nice dinner and celebrating and kind of, got that call at midnight that night that said, you know, we've got an order for some alcohol to a room and it's for one of your guests, and, uh, is it okay if we take it?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): I'm like, yeah, that's, you know, that's just.

The next morning I found out that that was a violation of the contracts. And, in 48 hours that person was terminated from that contract. And it was a nationwide story about a change in that, you know, he was a master's winner, not a master, sorry, a majors winner, then a changes careers.

So, we were all a part of that. We watched the media tell the story. Later on that week. And of course it was a little bit different than what we had experienced, but I remember those very vividly

Steve Carran: Wow. Those are good 

stories. 

David Millili: so through the years, what do you think's changed the most in resorts o, other than technology? What do you think's been? The biggest change.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, I think the diversity of the revenue centers, you know, it's a little bit of business talk, but. You know, we didn't know what spa and wellness was years ago. that was really more of a European offering, and today you can't go to a luxury resort without having spa services.

And SPA has evolved into really much beyond the four walls of a treatment room into this notion of wellness. And then I think the programming, and I can't say it's completely changed. Where it was when I started in the career, only the exclusive Grand Dames of the industry had really extensive, robust programming at the resorts.

And you know, that could be dancing and live music and culinary vintner dinners and the like, and it was something to do. Now again, the programming's expected in a luxury resort that you're gonna go to and there's gotta be something for the children. There's gotta be something for the teenager.

Something for the lifestyle, younger adult and something for the older adult. And it's expensive to do, but we've learned how to be entertainers while at the same time being hotelers.

Steve Carran: Absolutely. And, and I wanna talk about this in 2014, you came back to Destination Ho Hotels as the Vice President of operations. What made you come back and. And it seems like this role was pretty much to, expand and bring in high talent to, make it even more powerful and, uh, even more popular for destination hotels.

Is that right? Or

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): It's a little play on, um, our company's nomenclature. I actually joined the low owned hospitality companies. We've had three names over my 25 years. The first was Destination Hotels and Resorts, you know, and I started, that at 1998 and I was running a property called Sun River Resort up in Oregon. And, that led to then an expansion of duty to oversee a portfolio.

Hotels and resorts, which then eventually led to becoming, chief Operating Officer for all the named entities, destination Hotels, two Roads, hospitality, and then eventually to President of Coral Tree. But, I always thought that's to the, like the earlier aspirations of being in the business. I always thought being in a corporate role was not for me.

I was a little bit too independent. You know, I get my juices by being with the team and I get inspired by, you know, being on the ground with them. And I always thought that people in the corporate offices, were further removed from that experience. And as a result was very adamant. I was, you know, recruited a lot to do those roles and I always said no.

And what I loved about our firm is the low group came to me and said, look, keep doing what you're doing, but just do it for more. You don't have to standardize, you don't have to be anything that you're not. They really promote it, uh, individualism in my style and, you know, consequently it's why I've made my career with them and it's worked out well.

And today I still think I go back to the notion of when I was a CEO running a resort as opposed to running a company. I think a lot about how we deliver a message from a corporate office. To the properties. I don't want it to sound, you know, we almost say it's a cuss word to say the word mandate in our company.

We don't mandate, we make suggestions and we lead with influence, but we really empower and provide autonomy, and that's what you can do differently when you're an independent space. Each property, we operate and we manage differently. We've got a huge resort in Southern California called Terrana.

it's gonna do very different than what we do in the Woodlands, Texas at the Woodlands Resort or what we're doing at the Wave Hotel in Lake Nona. That's customization. So I've learned a lot about going from a property, but I've been true to myself into our organization that I don't want us to be a overly programmed, overly prescriptive company.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): We want that creative entrepreneurialism 

David Millili: And what led to the formation of Two Roads Hospital.

destination Hotels and Resorts is family owned, wholly owned by the low organization out of la and we had an opportunity to acquire, a portfolio called Commune Hotels and Resorts that was owned by John Pritzker of the famous Pritzker hospitality name. And, as a result of.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): previous to that acquisition, low was very focused in on the independent space. We were, at that time, the largest operator of independent resorts and hotels in the country under the Destination hotels and resorts label. when we acquired Commun, we acquired five brands, juve Brand, which was created by Chip Conley on, you know, the West Coast.

And, John had bought. The Thompson brand, which had been created by the Pran and John had acquired that brand. And, it was evolving. When we took it over, it was only a few properties and we had a chance to grow it. And then we had the Allele brand, which was a competitor to Ahman Resorts. They were based in s.

And it was a brand that we brought, brought it over to the United States, and the first one was in Ventana and Big Sur, and made the Allah brand come there. So we ended up with a interesting portfolio of independent resorts, but in to the urban space. By acquiring Commune we had urban brands so we could, grow the portfolio and synergize the databases between the.

To accentuate how we could perform in each of the business classes. And it worked out quite well for us. It was a great, great opportunity for us. We learned a lot. and, those brands are still in existence today. They're just now owned by Hyde Hotels.

Steve Carran: having such a large portfolio, what really, what made an independent hotel successful? was there any characteristics or a trait that you saw that really made, made a property stick out?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): you know, the first is the expected answer, which is, you know, you hire the right people you know, independent properties need a different type of leader than brand leaders do in certain instances. The CEO of a resort for us is someone who is, you know, leading a team of a couple thousand employees using terrana, hundreds of millions of dollars on an annual basis, and has the capabilities of both intellectual capacity as well as the emotional ethos to, to lead that type of property.

And those are different characteristics of. Non-independent properties. I think the other one is more the science of the business and that's how do you compete against, you know, global brands that have distributions that are millions, tens of millions more than our database. And that really is in the, engine metaphorically of the business.

The engine is the database. How do you take your database, talk to your customers in an independent voice that doesn't. have a Loyalty program isn't, doesn't have a bonvoy, doesn't have a world of Hyatt, et cetera, and, you know, create them, as a personal relationship that evolves into repeat, frequent visits to the hotels.

That's really where our secret sauce was, the selection of the right people to run independent, and then the leverage and the use of the databases that we could collect.

over time 

David Millili: Great. And so is it true the same day that Two Roads was acquired by Hyatt, that Coral tree was formed or launched?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): it was David. we simultaneously, we're actually celebrating, uh, four years and a day old today. we, we sold, uh, two Roads, hospitality, the management contracts, about 80% of them to Hyatt Hotels. On December 1st, and a part of that strategy, and one of the reasons why we sold to Hyatt is we thought, you know, two things.

One, we thought they'd be the best stewards of those brands and their style of operations was akin to ours. And so either quality people, and they did a good job with that. And then secondly, they also allowed us to start, a new business.

And had no non-compete restraints on us. So we started coral tree hospitality.

We wouldn't have sold our two roads if we would have to abandon the entire business that is in our dna and something that we knew that we would continue to do. So that was the birth of Coral Tree hospitality on the day that we closed and 

simultaneously started a new firm.

David Millili: That's a great story.

Steve Carran: That's awesome. That's awesome. And, and one year after you guys started, you're named one of the top 20 hotel management companies. what made Coral Tree different? What set you guys apart from other management companies?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): I think it's our approach. we're certainly not the biggest, you know, I pride ourselves on being humble, so I'm certain there's others that do, you know, great jobs. I've got a lot of colleagues and friends in our industry that they just do great work. our calling for Coral Tree is, we want to customize experiences We really, come with a creative entrepreneurial point of view. We have owned and operated, we have built for ourselves and we've built for every type of owner you can think of, publicly traded institutional EB five money from international, high net worth. REITs, we've worked for them all. So we've learned a lot from the people that we've worked with over the years.

So our approach is very collaborative. We're value. based I basically say we only have six words. Not six things, but six words that we build our business on. Everything else is customized, so we are collaborative. If you don't want a collaborative operator, you wouldn't want us. If you want someone to tell you what to do and that that's the way it has to be done to be successful, we're the wrong firm.

We like to study a market. Find the sweet spot where we think the asset can evolve and outperform its competition. And then we've been doing it a long time. you know, when you've been in business for 50 years like we have, our firm is a family owned business in hospitality. We've managed through, you know, seven or eight different cycles, you know, so here we were, we were launching Coral Tree in 2018 and the beginning of 2020.

Less than 14 months later, this thing called. Hit us. Most firms would've closed that. Were startups. We were startups. The truth of the matter is we doubled the size of our company during pandemic because I think owners were looking for a fresh approach. They wanted somebody that had had experience managing through cycles and came out in a positive way.

Here we are today. We're now more than double. We're almost tripled the size of our growth before pandemic. And, got a robust, active pipeline of contracts that will be announced over the next six months. So, I think our niche is to collaborate with owners. We like the upper upscale and luxury.

we also have the ability to manage what we like to call a resort communi. There's an operating hub, like a hotel and a golf operation, a private club, but it's surrounded by horizontal residential development that uses those amenities. We term that a resort community and we've specialized in that and that part of it, the operation is vacation rentals.

when we sold to Hyatt Hotels 2018, we were managing at that time 3,600 private residences around the. country And that was one of the biggest firms. So we're back in that business again. Again today at Terrana Resort, at some River Resort, at Suncadia Resort, we're a vacation rental. So we have that diversity that we can, manage the complexity of different types of accommodations all under that operating platform.

Steve Carran: And incorporating experiences into that as well. It's not just the resort, it's not just the stay, it's about what goes into the stay, what you're doing, the experiences of memories you're making too. So 

I, I love 

that. 

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Yeah, and it's integrating. It's interesting because where we are, the residential developments, they're typically second home communities. And so if you're in that market and you have a second home, you use that as a place for. Rejuvenation, know, it's where you go to relax. It's where you go to spend time with your family and your friends.

You go to have a good time, celebrate events, the shared amenities, but the psychology of a homeowner coming to a hotel amenity base is different than a transient guest, right? Trans guest comes once or twice a year, if you're lucky, ho a homeowner comes often. So we had to build relationships that were.

but integrate the two together. That's where the secret sauce is, is how do you take the homeowner who needs to have the name of the bartender? They need to know John is gonna be the bartender tonight. And John knows I love appeal Noar, but I may be sitting next to someone who's visiting for the first time.

And how do you manage that harmoniously? And I think over our decades we've figured out how to.

Steve Carran: and that guest experience is really gonna change because you have that guest who's been there one time, then you have a regular who, you know, this is their second house. So you know, them interacting creates a whole new experience. And you know, I

think that's awesome. 

So, you've been there for four year, four years, and a day now.

What's, what's a thing that you're most proud of over the past four years?

our lack of turnover in an industry where, Labor has been the topic dejo for the last, uh, two years where, you know, a lot of people have left our industry, you know, the entry level and the, first line management experience. People, people that have come outta college for a couple years and they're getting their first department head.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): You know, they left the industry when hotels and resorts closed around the country. We did not experience that. you know, pleased to tell you I didn't lose any of our, home office coral tree executive team. not one. During that period of time, we had no turnover there. we've added to our team immensely, but the core team that started the 25, they're all still here.

So I'm really proud of that. to me that I gauge it, I'm hopeful that that means the culture is. We treat people fairly, we're very honest. It doesn't mean everything was, you know, peachy keen, as they say. We definitely, had our issues, but they were collaborative in getting there and trusted that we could get there.

So I'm really proud of that. I'm also proud that, we could grow our company and we could deliver today. Everything has this metaphorical scoreboard, right? You know, back to my sports day, everything you do, you know, is judged and someone's keeping score. And so there are metrics.

our guest satisfaction scores are beating our competition. you know, we measure it through something called revenue and revenue's got our portfolio at 104% of index, which means that we're, 400 basis points better than our competition in our portfolio. RevPAR. Which is the best way to gauge occupancy and rate?

You know, we're outperforming at 110% of index, so we are keeping score and we're doing that so we constantly can figure out what the next play is to be better. But so far we're performing at a high level. And you add the, the cultural piece. We say that in our company, there's two things we require of you.

You need to be a high performer and you need to be a cultural ambassador. You can't be one or the other. You have to be both. And I'm proud that the organiz. That overall, that's the attributes that we bring to the table.

Steve Carran: That's awesome. All right, so now we're into the last section, the industry thoughts. So kinda where you stand on, on what's going on in the industry. So, first thing I just wanna ask you is what's your advice to somebody that's just starting out in the industry right now?

Um, you know, I can speak very, you know, acutely to that. I have three grown up children who Oddly they selected to be in hospitality business. I tried everything else I could do. You know, like medicine lawyers, uh, anyway, they're, they're, they're in the hospitality space. You know, my advice of them is, you know, do something you love.

and you know, if you don't like a business that's open 365 days of the year and you don't like working extra hours, then don't go in the hospitality. do something you love to do. I'm sincere about it. I say it all the time in our company. If you're not happy, gosh, tell me. Let me help you find another job because you're not doing me any good and I'm not doing you any good by holding you in a position of being unhappy.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): I think the second is, is to be open minded. There's so many different aspects of hospitality. The word has become so bold today and broad. you can be working in a spa, you can be working in a travel agency, you can be online services, you can be an excursion company. The hospitality isn't just hotels and restaurants.

There's so many different things. And one thing is for certain is what I thought 40 years ago I would be doing is not what I'm doing.

I thought I'd be running restaurants when I started, and here I am. And yes, restaurants are a part of it, but I'm doing something different than that. At one time I thought I'd be playing basketball somewhere, you know?

So here we are. So things are going to change, you know, your life changes and family dynamics change, et cetera, and so do your desires. So just love what you do and if you love it, you'll do.

David Millili: It's good advice. When I started out, you know, running hotels, I never thought I'd be on the technology side. And here I am 22 years later, , that's. Where I'm at. So it's, it's good advice. what would some advice as far as hotels or resorts in ways that they can increase revenue other than just, you know, getting a higher adr?

What are some thoughts there?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Oh, I love the experience of, you know, kind of creating new revenue sources. Uh,you know, my attitude, especially in the resort spaces. Where, many different things have been outsourced over the years. You know, think about the, the phrase of a dmc, a destination management company, and you go to your favorite resort and down the road is golf and down the road is an aquarium.

And down the road, uh, you can do a group event for your. A catering event that's off property. And we used to outsource all that cuz we felt like we couldn't do that. I don't think that's the case. I want to manage everything associated with the brand of our hotel. so, we can be in that business and if we've got an infrastructure, think about all of our business.

So we have an accounting team. We have systems that talk to one another. We have a HR team that hires people. We have HR teams that train, so we can do all those things. So we've gone in the business where, before we might have outsourced, things like unique spas, like a medi spa. We were managing a medi spa at a property called the Woodmark Hotel.

And it was originally, by the founder of this, I'll call it a clinic. And in the end, we ended up taking over the manage management of it, and we could do at worst, equal to them, and at best we could control the guest experience, control the brand, and be more profitable. I also think today, the business of managing the pre-arrival and the post departure experience can be monetized.

And it can help to create loyalty. So how do we do that today? We've got, you know, platforms like Zingle and Alice and Kipsu and others that are all text formats that allows you to talk to the guest that's now evolving into can I plan and book things in advance? I'll pay a premium to get the best seat in the restaurant if I can do it in.

So learning how to use our technology to talk to our guests and get them to make commitments that otherwise they might have made spontaneously, 

but we wouldn't have captured all that revenue. So basically a pre-arrival concierge service has really done well for us. And then I think the last is the programming.

I love partnering with, uh, concert.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): You know, up at Sun River was just there for right before the Thanksgiving and they had brought in, you know, live music and they had a few thousands of people outside, in cold weather, doing, you know, things that you wouldn't expect to be doing in 35 degree weather.

But they had a great time and at the end of the day, they manage the entertainment instead of hiring it. They did the outside food and beverage operation versus a catering, they parlayed that into transportation services that got monetized. Just all those different ways, and it's one is to make more money to your question, but second is just the more you can manage that guest experience yourself, the less, risk there.

Is that a bad experience? We wanna manage that experience from the point of origin to the point of departure, and then until the next visit back,

Steve Carran: and you talked mentioned the, the guest experience and managing it. what technologies can you use to either manage that experience or maybe not even technologies? What, practices do you have in place that help increase the guest experience?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): well, it's a long, list of tools. It's like asking. How do you market? you know, well, I use digital use e-commerce. We do. So, you know, so how do we do that? We use technology. I'll use an example. our wave hotel, the wave in Lake Nona just opened up and it's been, proclaimed to be the most technically advanced hotel in the United States.

it's unbelievable as AI technology in the guest room, so that when you walk in you can, talk about what meal you want to order and just. the windows, the skin of the building. This is a, a high rise building. The skin of the building has been built with what's called view glass, v i e w, view glass, and it adjusts to the ultraviolet rays of the sun so that it manages the a temperature.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Inside the building. So it's more guest comfort. We've got rosy the robot, we're using robotics. when you check in, we have now, self check in kiosk as well. But you check in, there's a robot that greets you and asks you what kind of cocktail you'd like upon arrival and goes and gets it and brings it to you.

So clearly technology is there, but I think it's far from just technology. I think it's, having signature service. Each of our properties, every one of them, whether they're hard branded or they're independent, there's a signature service. For example, we have the Magnolia Hotels, who's founded by the Schultz family, you know, great local family in Denver.

and when they first started that hotel chain, they had milk and cookies available. And, today we brought that back in every one of the hotels. It's not the. Cookie. Each cookie's, um, made, you know, unique to its location. There's, there's one in Houston and there's one in Omaha. There's one here in Denver, et cetera.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): but that's a signature service that starts to kind of manage the guest experience, you know, what can you do there? the apps, there's great apps. You know, I'm, uh, like to work out, so like when I work out, I love to listen to the local musics. So when you come into one of our hotels, you can go online, through one of the hotel portals, listen to the local newcomers, if you will, in the music genre, and hear that you, you don't have to, you can do something else.

But those are all things that we're learning about, what the guest wants and how we can help them have the best experience, which in turn creates loyalty. you know, it's never ending, right? That's what's great about our business. The, the guest demands and the demographics change, and those that don't change and adapt, lose their customer base.

When you are small and more intimate, like our firm, we can be more nimble and agile and move quicker, and I'm really, focused in on that right now as our organiz.

David Millili: That's great to hear Steve and I, I'm sure both Steve also loves it because we, as I said, I've been selling into hotels technology, and. A lot of times it's a fight to get them to embrace it and take hold of it. Um,right now I'm doing revenue management and I'm trying to, you know, convince people that, revenue management platforms better than an Excel spreadsheet.

And it's, it can, it can difficult. So,

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Boy, that's, and there's a hot topic too, I think, I love when people talk about revenue management because they immediately go to average rate in occupancy. And you know, again, I remember I mentioned what, what irritates me, but irritates me is not broad thinking. And in our resorts, you know, what's ancillary revenue is room revenue.

That's ancillary. We do more in f and b and spa and golf than we do in Rem. So revenue management sophistication on how do you have total revenue management with dynamic pricing is certainly, from a managerial standpoint, the biggest trend in our industry that's changed over the last couple of decades, and it's continuing to evolve.

David Millili: So outside of the labor issue, what do you think's the biggest challenge our industry is facing right now?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Well, clearly you cut off the labor answers, so, um, that's, that was the low hanging fruit for sure.know, I think there's a, I'll call it brand.

global brands, under one owner can have up to 35 different brands. And some of them are lifestyle brands, some of 'em are select service, some are limited service, some are resort.

And,in theory, a brand is supposed to have, you know, differentiation so that when the guest walks in, they understand the difference that this brand brings to your hotel. That's, um, in my view, been. The beneficiary of that is the independent, our space, the independent space has been, growing exponentially.

And I think that's because we don't talk about guest service anymore. Steve asked the question, tell me about the guest experiences, their experiences now, it's not just service. Service is a, a byproduct of great experiences, right? so I think the brand blur, is gonna get rectified, I think, uh, Hotel leaders of big companies understand that, and they're learning how to, condense and compress their offerings so that they're more unique.

Right now, service isn't very differentiated. you know, you can find a limited service hotel room, a guest room almost built equally or. Than something that sells for five times more in the average rate. And again, it's not specialized, it's still a three fixture bathroom, it's still triple sheeted. Um, it's still got a, you know, a 52 inch television, but one's charging one 40 and the other one's charging 700.

So the real differentiation's been lost. So I think it's, you know, kind of appealing to the explorer mentality. And how do you c.

Steve Carran: independent space is so exciting right now. I, I think it's, you know with the technology, they have to choose from all the experiences, hyper-local, you know, building those experiences. I think it's, it's really awesome. So, last question here before we let you go here, Tom. how is the metaverse gonna affect hospitality?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Huh? 

Steve Carran: Ha.

David Millili: we get, we always get that response.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): You're gonna end on that question. 

Steve Carran: what we're doing. 

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Yeah, there's no, no short answer. I don't think, you know, I, I don't pretend to, I guess, um,foreshadow what that looks like. But it's already changing, right? I mean, You can see it in ownership mentality, you can see it in the guest experience, you can see it in the labor market that we just touched on.

but what do they say that more things seem to change, the less they really do. I still think that our business goes back to this thing we used to be called an inkeeper, right? And the simplicity of an inkeeper was, we're gonna find you a place where you can sleep well at night. We're gonna provide you a safe and comfortable environ.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): We're gonna provide you with service that you want. I think we can shut out all the white noise around the universe of issues, right? if you stay focused on that in basketball talk, it's stay focused on the layup and not the pointer. however, what's fun to talk about is the court that the shot that was made.

Half court, but the real fundamental is the layup. And that's when I think about our business. So I'll let the white noises go on. I'll think about the social unrest of the world. But at the end of the day, if we can go back to the Inkeeper mindset, I think we'll all survive quite well.

David Millili: That's great. So was there a question we didn't ask you that you think we should have?

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Gosh, I mean, you should have asked me why did I join this business'?

David Millili: we, we all think that, so we, 

we we all know we're crazy, so that's why we didn't ask you

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Good. Easy answer there is because we love what we do.

Right. You know, so I don't think so. Uh, Dave, Steve, you guys are great and thanks for the questions and for the opportunity just to talk and catch up. It's, uh, fun to talk with people who care about what you do.

David Millili: tell us, uh, where we can find out more about your properties, websites, anything plug away.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Yeah, no, feel free to go onto our website. It's uh,coral Tree Hospitality. As the name of the company and we've got a, I think, an interesting, site where you see our properties, but you can also hear from the people that work at our properties, the housekeepers. And we have some video vignettes that tell us about the experience.

Cuz I still believe at the end of the day, it's all about the people. And then, you know, reach out. We're a growing company. We're very selective on what we're doing. We want to be in this space, but if anything I speak about today resonates with somebody, pick up a phone and call me. You know, it's a, world of connection points.

So I'm happy to learn and happy to contribute where I can.

David Millili: really appreciate your time, uh, for someone like myself who chose the independent path and then chose the technology into independent hotels path. I really appreciate the conversation and thank you for your time. So that does it for another episode of the Modern Hotelier. You're presented by Stayflexi.

Thank you for your time.

Tom Luersen (Studio Sound): Thanks, David. Thanks Steven. Thanks for having

Steve Carran: Thanks to.

David Millili: You're. Thanks, Don.

Steve Carran: Oh, that was