GAIN Momentum episode: Flexible Accommodations at the Caribe Royale Orlando | with Amaury Piedra
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Adam Mogelonsky: Welcome to the Gain Momentum podcast, focusing on timeless lessons from senior leaders in hospitality, travel, food service, and technology. I'm joined by my co host today, Michael Cohen, how are you?
Michael Cohen: I'm awesome, Adam. Thanks as always.
Adam Mogelonsky: And our special guest today is Amari Piedra, VP, Vice President at Carib Royal Resort Orlando. Amari, how are you? Good.
Amaury Piedra: Doing great, Adam and Michael. Thank you for having me.
Adam Mogelonsky: So we structure this podcast around four key questions that we ask all guests, but first I want to lay the groundwork and have you just discuss a little bit about the Carribe, the resort, talk about what it makes it special, as well as the growth of Orlando as a destination where it's located.
Amaury Piedra: Sure, happy to do so. Uh, Caribe Royale Resort is a [00:01:00] 1337 key all suite hotel and it's really the largest convention all suite hotel in Florida. So besides our large room inventory, we've got 220, 000 square feet of meeting space, soon to be 240, 000. Eight food and beverage restaurants and bars, two pools, spa, lakes where people can go fishing here on the resort grounds, bicycles for people, I mean, it's a full, resort with some really cool amenities that we've opened up over the last couple years.
So it's been, uh, yeah, it's uniquely positioned in the marketplace. Orlando's been great, been in the market for four and a half years. Came up to work on this hotel and the repositioning and the Orlando market really has boomed even during the pandemic, Florida was one of the states that was fully open, if you will.
So the momentum really picked up post pandemic then and has continued on. And both from a leisure and from a group perspective, the growth [00:02:00] has really been, uh, that has really been positive over the last four, four and a half years.
Adam Mogelonsky: yeah, it's a great place to start and to kick things off. And part of this podcast is we're focusing on leadership. And paying things forward for aspiring hoteliers and to really bring that forward. So I'm wondering with our first question here, Amari, what is the single piece of advice you would give to vendor companies entering hospitality?
So
Amaury Piedra: I think the biggest thing is to learn to be flexible. You know, there's just because you enter in one discipline, let's say, or you enter, you know, you're focusing on one area, uh, that doesn't mean that you're limited to that one area. So it could be somebody, it could be a vendor, it could be whatever that's focused on food and beverage, but there might be opportunities for them on the recreational side.
And it's just to maintain the flexibility and know, you know, And, so, I know that there are multiple opportunities for everyone out there be it, be it someone that's just starting off in the [00:03:00] industry. I started parking cars for example, as a valet runner. you know other vendors come in you know, with one thing and we end up working with them on other, in other areas.
So it's just to maintain the flexibility and open mind and I think that's been the key to success.
Michael Cohen: I think Amari, it's interesting you mentioned that, but when I hear what you said, when I digest it, it's about hospitality is about relationships. So flexibility also means about dialogue, listening, building relationships, and then, you know, additional opportunities can present themselves because people like to work with good people.
In general, right? And the technology or the service or the product has to be great, but really, as we all know, hospitality is, the cliche is true in this case, where this is a people business.
Amaury Piedra: Well, we work in a, in a transactional world. I mean, let's be honest and, and technology has been like a, like a double edged sword because it's made things more efficient, no doubt about that. But it's also taken some of the interpersonal relationship out of it. And [00:04:00] I do believe, as you said, Michael, that.
You know, relationships are key, and no matter what, it's a people business. And you're right. People want to do business with people that they have relationships with. And that's never going to change. Doesn't matter. Just like when there was the, uh, there was the premise of, Oh, in person meetings are never going to happen again.
Everything's going to be, you know, everything's going to be virtual. The exact opposite happened, and the surge after the pandemic of in person meetings is stronger than it was even before the pandemic. So you cannot replace the relationship building and everything that comes. From one on one time and just, again, building those, uh, those bonds.
Adam Mogelonsky: what brings us here today specifically when we're recording here in November 2024 and looking into 2025 and building on your point about flexibility. and how we need to adapt and pivot to the trends and how we thought we were going to be this virtual world. Now we're coming back to really [00:05:00] wanting that great on site experience.
What brings us here specifically today is the 140 million dollar property reimagining and I'm wondering if you could walk us through what was involved in that. When did it start? When did it, when did it finish? How did you design and guide the overall process? planning of it and the feature specifically looking at the new one bedroom and two bedroom villa products that you've launched, and then also how did you organize the construction phases to remain open without compromising service delivery.
Amaury Piedra: Absolutely. So I started with more hair than I have now, but anyway, um, the, uh, you know, we took a holistic look at the hotel. I was, you know, I was brought in by our ownership group, Sierra Land, to execute this re imagination. So we really took a look at. were the opportunities for the hotel were in the marketplace and it was pretty evident that we had a big opportunity to [00:06:00] grow our group customer, our corporate group customer.
And so we started putting everything together with that group customer in mind, also keeping in mind the needs of the leisure customer, but everything was done with that group customer in mind. So once we kind of knew what we needed from a programming standpoint, we worked with architectural and design firms.
Okay. Now, what does it need to look like? And what are the, what are those components? How are we going to make, you know, we know, we know we need a better, the suites were nice, but they needed to be better. So what does that mean? the meeting space? Yes, we had meeting space, but we needed more. Okay. What's that going to look like?
And how do we tie the whole product together? And it took us about a year, year and a half to do that. And then at that point it was, Hey, Let's just go forward and move forward and start the project and our owners, as opposed to others during the pandemic that held back on projects, they said, no, let's go all in [00:07:00] that way when we come out on the other side, we're ready to rock.
And so project managers, myself, the team, uh, you know, we started working one tower at a time and, uh, away we went and it was really, I guess, two and a half years worth of construction work. And the good news was that, you know, we emerged on the other side and we're able to launch the new Caribe Royale if you will, very strongly.
Adam Mogelonsky: Wow. So, uh, you know, obviously that's a huge project and I think it's the perfect segue into our second question, which is, what are some of the challenges or setbacks you've experienced when rolling out a new business expansion or partnership similar to or specifically this, uh, property re imagining?
Amaury Piedra: Absolutely. I mean, there was two phases to it. So there was the, construction phase and things were ordered from, frankly, things were ordered from overseas. A lot of the furniture and whatever came from overseas. And I don't know if you remember the [00:08:00] supply chain issues that happened. So we had containers that were delayed in places like Vietnam and in places like China, and we were finally having to negotiate to be able to get them on ships.
And then we were trying to track those ships. We actually had a TV. set up that look, remember the old game Battleship, you know, and so we had, we had like this TV and we were monitoring the ships as they came across the different oceans. And it's like, why is that one stopped? Hold on, that one's going to the wrong place.
And that whole supply chain and shipping was really a challenge during the pandemic and right after it. So I think, you know, our teams did a great job, but it was just making sure that everything was here. Because it was large quantities of everything. So making sure that everything got here and because we could have, we had suites ready to go, but we had no furniture.
So then we had furniture and we had no TVs because those were on a different boat. [00:09:00] So, you know, that was probably the most stressful piece out of everything. The flip side to that was Caribe Royale was a solid three diamond hotel, but it wasn't playing in the four diamond market base, which is where we wanted to play in.
So when we started approaching, Uh, meeting planners when we started approaching, you know, potential partners to bring us business, it was a lot of education and awareness and we knew that was going to happen. So as an independent, we really had to get out there and hit the road. I can tell you that I racked up about 400,000 miles of air in a two year span, just visiting clients with our sales team, going to trade shows, uh, just really gaining the exposure that we needed.
Once we got people here. It's been great. We got people here, groups experienced it. Oh, this was great. We're coming back. And even right now, more than 50 of our group business is repeat business. And that's a fantastic number. And of that other 50%, that's not repeat, some of its one time shot groups and [00:10:00] others are ones that maybe I'll come back four or five, six years from now as they do a rotation.
But, you know, it took us a couple years to get to get the wind in our the in that. The wind sales if you will, and, uh, and really earn our place in the, uh, In the meeting marketplace, but knock on wood, it's gone well. We've gotten rave reviews and a lot easier now than it was when we first kicked it off.
Michael Cohen: Well, talk about being battle tested, right? I mean, my goodness, to have the, you know, I'll say it, you know, your owners and yourselves, somewhat it's the courage to, to move forward, you know, knowing the situation of the pandemic and rolling the dice a little bit in regards to the fact that, that if we push the buttons now, we may come out of it like in hindsight 2020, Amari, right?
Like, okay.
Smart decision and a, and a troubling me. So,
Amaury Piedra: You know, our owners, I give them credit. they had the courage and the, and the foresight to do it. we had a hotel, the company had a hotel in California that we [00:11:00] sold to make sure we were able to finish the project here, but it's paid off exponentially. So, you know, again, hindsight's easy, but it was definitely the right decision.
You know, it was a, it was a team decision. It was a team effort, but I always thank them for it. It's been great.
Adam Mogelonsky: So Amari, one other question to drill in a little bit more specific, having that foresight to look ahead to the trends and to touch base, we're talking about groups and what a lot of people don't realize about groups is it's essentially it's the base. It's the base for a hotel's occupancy ahead of leisure transient and other segments.
So I'm wondering if you could. Just give us some color about this latest reimagining and talk about what specific features your team built for the one bedroom, two bedroom units to appeal to this new demand we're seeing for flexible room configurations and appealing to extended stays or bleisure, [00:12:00] blended travel, all those various room types.
What did you see on the horizon that really made you a trendsetter in these new emerging trends?
Amaury Piedra: You know, I think that one of the things that we looked at and one of the things that has now set us apart is that we're an all suite hotel. So basically for the cost of a, you know, typical 300 square foot room in a hotel, all of a sudden you end up with a 500 square foot suite. And for the group attendee.
You know, we, you know, it had to be elevated. The whole product had to be elevated, from the furnishings to the, towels, to the linen, to everything, to really appeal to that upper four diamond segment. Uh, when we went in there, we really said, okay, what do we need from a technology perspective?
What do we need from a connectivity perspective? What do we need? You know, we need the bandwidth of our broadband needed to be the best that we can. The best that it could be, and we've been able to maintain that. Not just looking at what the best would be at that moment, but [00:13:00] what's going to carry us through the next two, three, four years.
And we went in there with that mindset. And then also, one of the things in Orlando, as you mentioned Adam, is that Bleisure business. So, having all the theme parks, having all the attractions that Orlando has, a lot of times people will bring their family in a couple days pre, a couple days post, or even during their conference, and the family goes off and does whatever during the day.
So we made sure that we had sofa sleepers in the living room. For the smaller kids, but good sofa sleepers. So we tested three or four different ones before we decided, Hey, this is the best one. and, you know, we made the hotel kid friendly as well, because we know we have to appeal to different market segments.
60 of our business is group, 40 is leisure. They're equally as important to each other though. And many times, as you said, they, bleed over, um, from one segment to another. Uh, the two bedroom villas. are, are a fantastic component. Uh, they're 1200 [00:14:00] square feet, two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen.
We have 120 of those and the families that use them are just, you know, they always rave about them because mom and dad have their, uh, have their nice master bedroom and big master bathroom. The kids have their space. Three TVs in the room, plenty of space for everybody. So even a lot of times during conventions, you know, you got a, you got a wife and a couple kids or you got a partner and a couple kids, whatever the case might be, it's just a fantastic, place to stay because you have room for everybody.
You're right next to the convention center, so it truly works. But the one thing we had to make sure we did as we reimagined everything was, hey, we got that group customer in mind because we know we want it to be 60-65 of our business. However, we got to make sure that that other 35-40 of leisure and transient is covered in the restaurants and the bars and the amenities and everything that we offer.
Adam Mogelonsky: so to drill a little bit more into mice [00:15:00] travel, it being 60 percent of your overall segmentation mix, and you have now is it 240, 000 square feet
that you have to use for your meeting and convention space.
Amaury Piedra: Yeah, we're at 220. And we're adding another 20, 000 square feet that will open in Q4. of 2025, so we'll have 240, 000 at that point. luckily, we were, uh, we were blessed and we're successful enough that we find ourselves running out of space. our average group size grew. It was a little bit more than we thought it was going to be.
So we're adding the additional space to make sure that we can always have space for that 200 to 300 room on peak group. You know, we can just put them in the new ballroom that we're building and plus the breakout space that they have and that there's an impact, for example, the Palms ballroom or 50, 000 square foot ballroom that can be for larger groups.
So it's, it's really exciting that we had the demand to go ahead and build that extra space.
Adam Mogelonsky: as a leader in MICE, a [00:16:00] leader in groups, you have hundreds of thousands of square feet to fill. What new trends are you seeing in MICE, in group travel, and how are, how is the Carib Royal Orlando really helping make meetings and events exceptional?
Amaury Piedra: Absolutely. I think the biggest thing that we're seeing right now is that meeting planners and organizations giving, you know, the meeting planners direction want something different. They don't want to be. Just stuck in a four wall room for eight hours a day. They don't want just the usual chicken dinner.
They want to create a memorable experience for their attendees. And we're seeing a lot more outs, outdoor functions. It could be during the day, or it could be at night. People want creative menus. People want things that are different. People want entertainment. People want to keep their attendees entertained.
Jazzed up and motivated. And I'm not saying that's never been [00:17:00] the case, but more, more so now than ever, what makes it different? what are you going to do to make it different? Hey, how do we partner up to make it different? Do we do a concert? Do we bring in a comedian? Do we do a comedy show? Do we do, you know, do we do a blowout night in our stadium club, which is a sports bar with a touch of nightlife?
You know, the meals, do we do something outdoors? Do we do an outdoor, evening event with entertainment? You know, there's definitely more Um, thinking outside the lines and, and coloring outside the lines than there were in, in probably prior years. And that's where I think our team excels because we have a lot of unique, opportunities within Carib to really create those experiences that separate or separate that meeting from one maybe done two years ago in a different setting. So that customization is key and growing. And I can give you examples of companies that were here, but for example, Old Navy, I don't mind saying that [00:18:00] Old Navy came in and they did their first meeting since the pandemic for all their store managers. So, I think we had, what, 2, 000 store managers here, and they really wanted to make it unique, and there were a lot of indoor functions, outdoor functions, functions in different areas of the hotel, functions in Stadium Club, which is the space I mentioned, and it was really a fun group to have, and they kept them motivated the whole time as they talked about their strategies for the next two or three years.
You know, you're sitting in a room all day, you know, sometimes a little bit harder to keep people motivated. So it was always about, you know, creating fun and interactive things for them to do.
Adam Mogelonsky: So, I think that's a good segue into our third key question, Amari, here, which we're looking ahead and you talk about experiential groups and how Orlando is growing, how your resort is being on the cusp and being a trendsetter, I'm wondering, if there's any other touch points you want to touch on for a third key question, which is, what do you see as the biggest opportunities [00:19:00] for growth in hospitality for 2025 and beyond?
Amaury Piedra: You know, I think there was a little bit of a, I think that, you know, when you look at the Orlando market, I'll start off with Orlando specifically, you know, we have a new park opening up in 2025, in May of 2025, Universal Epic. And there's a lot of buzz around Universal Epic being. The most technologically advanced park that's ever opened and the new exhibits and the new rides and everything.
So there's a lot of buzz going on about that right now. And I think there were, there's going to be a big influx. In 2025 and 2026 of visitors coming for Epic to be able to visit that new park because I think it'll be the first new park to open in like 15 years, I think, something like that. And Disney just broke ground recently on their new park.
So that'll create that excitement two or three years from now as well. So I think the great news about Orlando and this area is it keeps reinventing itself. So, you know, just when you [00:20:00] think, okay, well, we've been to Disney X times. We've been to Universal X times. Here comes some new parks and that'll drive new attendance.
And that'll give people that have been here several times, a reason to come back, especially on the leisure side. From a group perspective, and this also applies from a, from a leisure perspective, it's great to have an airport like Orlando service from all over the world where, you know, the cost of airfare is still reasonable, easy to get to.
And then again, from a group standpoint. Not only do you have the convention center and the hotels that can handle those large groups, but then there's so much to do for them, whether it's doing an outing to Disney Springs one night, or taking the team to Epcot one night, which happens quite often, or now the new Epic Resort or all this.
So there's a lot of opportunities for groups to do, you know, that customized Individualized experience for their groups that may not be somewhere else. Over the last couple of years, we've seen a lot of, uh, a lot of [00:21:00] domestic travel going to Europe, just to experience Europe because they were kind of here domestically, uh, several years during the pandemic.
But I think now with Epic and, and Disney rolling out their new resort a couple of years down the road, you're going to see a lot of that. Yeah, we went to Europe a couple times, that's great, now we're going to come back and visit some of the new attractions in the Orlando area. So we're bullish, the market keeps growing and you see hotels either renovating or reimagining themselves or expanding, what have you, and uh, exactly like what we're doing, and I think it's a great, it's a good thing to see.
You know, at the end of the day, yes, while we all compete with each other, the more business that comes into the market, the better.
Michael Cohen: Adam, I, I have a, a, a kind of a segue related ish Ammar, you have a very complex, campus. There's lots going on. what tools do you guys use to manage like, uh, Hospitality, intelligence tools, data. Do you have like master control of your guest room [00:22:00] systems, lighting? I'm curious, because I imagine, I imagine, because I've been doing, we've been doing this a long time, all of us, you have great vendors or great technology, but there may be in silos sometimes now, it's kind of hard to, to have, you know, the size of your property and the complexity of your property, which is a wonderful thing also can build some challenges into managing it efficiently.
Is that fair?
Amaury Piedra: Yeah, that's fair. I mean, we definitely had to upgrade everything we had because as the business grew, the former systems that we had and technology that we had couldn't handle the new volume. So I'll give a shout out to some of our vendors. Opera, from a property management standpoint has done fantastic.
Uh, we've been able to utilize a system called Kibsu. I don't know if you're familiar with Kibsu or not to communicate with our customers. So, once they're here, I think last month, uh, we had over 20, 000 interactions with customers through Kibsu. Either checking on how their stay was going, they're telling us, hey, you know, this is great.
[00:23:00] What can we do for you? We could get more towels, whatever the case might be. So it was about 18, 19, 000, uh, touch points or communication points with customers. You know, we also have a, uh, A great system to just help us with our labor and making sure that we schedule the right amount of people at the right time, hotel intelligence.
And, uh, it's, uh, we've come a long way. So, you know, we definitely work with our customers. We, I mean, our vendors, you know, we present, Hey, this is what we need. What do you have that can help us? And really what we're looking for them is. You know, help us with a solution. What is that solution that you can help us with?
And yeah, that's how, and how that's how the relationships form. And, uh, we get information from various places, but yet it all kind of ties in together to make sure the guest day is the best it can be. But at the same time, making sure we have the information that we need to be able to market to our customers and to be able to, uh, to make sure [00:24:00] we continue to build our database.
Which is very important. Hopefully that answers your question,
Adam Mogelonsky: so sticking with the topic of,
Michael Cohen: Yeah. Perfect. I have some ideas for you for a conversation later, but that's another
time.
So
Adam Mogelonsky: yeah, I mean uh, you know, we are Lots of ideas. And of course, um, you know, Amari, it's, it's so good to hear you talk about, openly about your, your technology architecture that you have, because going forward, it's only going to be more and more technology that's required to diligently manage rooms, particularly with, uh, uh, you know, without speaking specifically to the Florida market, but, you know, labor overall is going to be in a pinch in various ways.
And that will dictate that we need more and more technology. So, with the theme of looking forward and knowing what your existing technology vendors are, are there any particular areas in hardware or software that really pique your interest, get you excited going forward?
Amaury Piedra: You know, I think the next evolution for us and being an [00:25:00] independent, we kind of have to make this happen for ourselves, is the keyless check in, the check in from your phone. And that's something that we have on, on the horizon for next year. So that's something that we want to do. So, you know, we have an app.
we developed an app with one of our software vendors and you can do everything with it that you can. Compared to a Marriott, let's say, except we're not to the point yet that you can check in via your phone. However, we are going to get there by next year. We wanted to make sure we took baby steps and that everything was working properly before we went to the next level.
But that's the kind of stuff that, you know, how do we execute that? Many times. You know, frankly, in a 200 room hotel, it's a lot easier to execute it than in a 1300 room hotel because of what the volume is. So that's why we wanted to make sure we're beta testing a couple of different systems that can do it.
And we're going to get to that probably in 2025. So that's probably the next iteration of the technology on site at Kareem Royale. [00:26:00] We've already implemented, you know, again, our, our everything from the app to the, uh, to the guest communication piece to the pre and post day messaging to everything in between is really solid, really there.
We've built our database, we really started from almost zero, built our database into the hundreds of thousands of names and we'll continue to do so. And we have a great marketing team that does great, great job marketing to them. But, uh, you know, just now's the next iteration of the app. How do we take it to the next level to be able to check in, check out with it, all of that?
Adam Mogelonsky: That's a very powerful database to build off of and You know, dare I say, but there's now some machines that would like to learn off that database.
Uh, have you, have you looked at artificial intelligence, uh, for commercialization at all?
Amaury Piedra: You know, we're just starting to really dig into it now. I know some of our, some of our managers have been [00:27:00] using it from a standpoint, like on, on chat GPT. You know, to create some documents and what have you, We've tested where it gives an automatic response to guest needs, but we haven't gotten to the point where we want to give up the human interaction.
Now that may happen at some point, you know, so it might be that through KibSue or through the app, hey, would it be possible to have another pillow? And AI takes care of that for us. We're not quite there yet. We haven't given up on, we have not given up, but we haven't transitioned over from the human touch yet, but that's things we have a very creative director of IT, who's always on the cutting edge and that's one of the things that he's looking at as we go forward into the next year or two.
Adam Mogelonsky: So, there's one other aspect to technology, uh, aside from the systems, the software systems. You mentioned we were talking about groups, the Stadium Club, as one amenity you have on site, which. Offers immersive [00:28:00] entertainment. you know, for sports lovers, for people that are looking to do some on site gaming, and just have a more dynamic meeting space, whether for groups, uh, events, as a venue you can sell, or for leisure.
But you've installed a component, you and your team have installed a lot of new technology in there, including virtual reality, and we have Michael here, who is a VRXR expert. And I'm wondering if you could talk about what those technologies are that you've installed at the Stadium Club, how they add value to the guest experience, and really your thinking behind them and your vision going forward for that amenity.
Amaury Piedra: Well, the one thing that we knew ever since going back four years was we needed a place where either a leisure guest or a group guest doesn't really matter could go hang out a true, you know, somewhere where they could go watch games somewhere that could be a late night Hangout spot. We didn't want a nightclub.
That's not what we needed. But how do we create something to keep [00:29:00] this audience captive and to provide them with a good time? So we worked with a, uh, with design company, Streetsense. And we, for a year and a half, we worked together on this. let's just call it an eater tainment concept. It's really a sports bar on steroids.
So it's a sports bar that becomes a little clubby at night, but that has many interactive features. So if you're interested in the games, that's great. But if you're not interested in football and, you know, you're whatever, we've got all these, all these other activities for you. So it took a year and a half to concept and, uh, it took about a year and a half to build.
So it opened up January 9th of this year. And it's a really immersive experience. So we probably overspent, but we have the latest HD large screens available. These are 20 foot screens and
they're the large, I mean, they're, they're as clear as can be. You're like, wow, when we first saw them, then you couple that.
So, [00:30:00] you're going to start with state of the art nightclub level audio. Then you couple that with a state of the art lighting system that one can change and adapt to what's going on around you. So, for example, when the Super Bowl happened this year in February and you were in there, It was like if you were at the stadium, literally, and between the sounds going on and the lights going off and everything happening, uh, it was a very immersive experience.
In halftime, which I remember correctly was Usher, everybody was up dancing. There were about 500 people in the place. Everybody's up dancing because it almost felt like you were there. We took the lights down. Here come the massive screens. It almost felt like you were there and the sound system was incredible.
Uh, you know, I'm here on my phone filming it because I was there. My wife is dancing with the rest of the people somewhere, but it was fantastic. Then what happens is we have the latest state of the art simulators. Um, if you're a golf fan, they're actually endorsed by the PGA Tour.
Uh, [00:31:00] you pick different courses and I mean, it's a very realistic game. It's really amazing how realistic it is. It's not like somebody can just go up there and hit the ball. Yeah, you can, but people really get into this and they're competing with each other because of the, of how real it is. And then for those that don't want to play golf, there's a myriad of other games, baseball, football, you know.
Soccer, uh, zombie dodgeball for the kids, but the real, the real blowout one is, is the VR of, of the golf. It's really amazing. And even football, same thing. You're a quarterback, you're throwing the ball. If you're aiming for somebody 40 yards downfield, you better throw the ball because it's judging, you know, how hard you're throwing it to get it 40 yards downfield.
And it's been fantastic for leisure. Families come in, they take over a simulator bay. For six or eight people for several hours, birthday parties, the groups buy out the whole two story space and do their thing. So, it's really become the [00:32:00] energy and the entertainment hub for the hotel, uh, in the evenings.
Our DJs, we have DJs in there, our DJs had to go to some serious training to be able to learn how to use all the technology that's in there. So, it's, uh, yeah, I'm not going to say you need an MIT degree, but, you know. Probably if you're, it's, if you're a gamer and all that, it probably helps, but it's been really cool.
It's been really cool, very well received and nothing like it in Orlando.
Michael Cohen: in 27 years of doing this, being on, you know, the leading edge of technology within hospitality, I've never heard a hotelier ever say these two words, simulator bay.
Amaury Piedra: Yeah. There's
Michael Cohen: I've never heard that out of a hotelier's mouth,
Amaury Piedra: Yeah. Yeah. No, there there's simulator bays. It's great. And, uh, you know, I passed by there last night and. And, uh, there was a, company that's here at the hotel with a small group, had organized a golf tournament. So they were doing a golf tournament in the six simulator base.
And, yeah, I mean, they were going at [00:33:00] it. They had trophies, they had prizes, they had everything. So it was, uh, yeah, it was fun to watch. Each, they had
about six people at each simulator bay, and yeah, they were going at it.
Adam Mogelonsky: there's so much to, to add here as color commentary, just the growth of, needing interactive spaces, incorporating the latest technology, and then, you know, without even getting into any specific dollar figures, I'm just thinking, okay, you have, they're renting it out for an evening, they're renting out multiple simulator bays, they're all getting F& B while that happens, and that also, ultimately, is also going to increase your length of stay, because People are going to want to spend just one night there for whether it's a group or a leisure programming.
this whole holistic picture of adding value to the guest experience, which then has a positive, uh, positive, uh, financial repercussions for the
Amaury Piedra: yeah, we wanted to make sure every segment was covered, and this particular, this particular venue, Stadium Club, really appeals to all segments. So, whether you're there with your family at [00:34:00] six o'clock, you know, having pizza and sliders. It's a very chef driven bar menu, the great pizzas and sliders, or you're there at 11 o'clock at night with, you know, with a group of friends in the simulator base having, you know, cocktails and whatever, it really appeals to all segments, and, you know, we've been, this is our first true football season, by the way, because we opened up right at the end of the last football season, there's like 600 people that come in every Friday, I'm sorry, every Saturday and Sunday, for either college football, college games at night or or sunday football during the day so it's it's very cool to see a lot of locals too right now it's been like 50 percent local 50 percent from within the hotel on the weekends so it's been well received in the marketplace
Adam Mogelonsky: So, Amari, we'll move into our final question here, less so about features looking forward and more so going back to your advice for people entering the industry. And Amari, what problems would you advise [00:35:00] entrepreneurs to focus on solving in order to quickly scale within the hotel industry?
Amaury Piedra: you're talking about a new a new potential vendor coming in or a new a new employee entering the industry what you're referring to what
Adam Mogelonsky: let's lens this on, on employees coming in, aspiring hoteliers that really were looking ahead at, at leadership, for the next generation of hotel executives.
Amaury Piedra: you know i always tell everybody and i i start off telling them that this is an industry where you can go as far as you want And I always give them the example. I was 15 years old and I started parking cars. it was a different era back then. The key to that was 15. I had a restricted driver's license.
But back then it was, oh, you'll be fine. Don't worry. You're turning 16 soon. You'll be fine. But, um, so I learned how to, I learned how to drive from the other valet runners that taught me how to drive because I didn't know how to drive. So that was funny. They they taught me how to drive doing valet parking.
But the really the genesis of that story is you can go as far as you [00:36:00] want if you apply yourself. And you have to make it known that, hey, I want to do more and I want to learn more. And when managers or senior managers know that you want to do more, I truly feel it's our responsibility. To develop training programs for those individuals to really get them going.
Nobody starts at the top. It doesn't matter if you graduated from Cornell Hospitality or not. Nobody starts at the top, you know, so everybody's got to earn their stripes because there's a lot to learn and it's an ever changing industry. there's a lot of gray because of the things that happen every day and, and it's not boring by any means, but people need to stay flexible.
As I said, and they need to be willing to. Sometimes take a step backwards to take a step forwards or take a lateral step to take a step forward, you know, so it's, it's having that flexibility and finding the right, the right mentors and making it known [00:37:00] that you want to learn and making sure that you put in that effort.
That goes beyond just your job to learn more is very important. And you also need to find an organization that's willing to invest in you. Uh, we just took our, our key high potential department heads and put them through a two day elevating your leadership, uh, class. And we brought in some folks from the outside, some trainers that did it, and we received great feedback from those individuals thanking us for investing in them.
But, you know, they're thanking us, but really, you know, by us investing in them, it's better for Kareem Royale, it's better for our associates, and it shows them And the associates that we're going to invest in them and that there's future growth available for them. So I think that's key, you know, getting yourself in the right place where there's growth opportunities, where number one, where there's training that can help you achieve those growth opportunities and finding a place where people are willing to take the time to mentor you a [00:38:00] little bit, as long as you're willing to put in the time, uh, as well to get you to where you want to be.
Adam Mogelonsky: well, on the note of training, this is one thing that, um, we are looking to leaders like. Like the Carribe Royale, because one aspect that I've seen is that a lot of companies have trimmed back on training, uh, and from what I understand that you're saying is that diving in and deepening your investment in training is really the way to go to foster a career.
The next generation and really build strong teams that you can trust to shepherd both the next generation of hoteliers but also a property of your scale. Is that what you're saying?
Amaury Piedra: Absolutely. I mean, we were just working on our budgets for 2025. And we have training in there, and our ownership group is, is a big believer in it as well. And I think that's where we're fortunate being an independent hotel. I think it's fortunate that we're privately owned by a [00:39:00] group that's very supportive of these initiatives.
Because, yes, you're right, Adam, in some places that's been Reduce, let's just say. But in our case, you know, we want to make sure that should there be a departure, which knock on wood, we're very stable. We have very low turnover. If somebody leaves, we want to make sure we have the bench strength trained to be able to promote from within.
And I think that, you know, the vast majority of our openings, not that there was a lot in the managerial ranks, we were able to promote from within. But we're only able to do that if we have the people ready to assume those roles. And mind you, it helps them, but it helps us as well. Okay, because it's less, you know, it's much more effective to promote somebody from within than it is to find somebody, recruit someone, find someone from the outside to come in.
So, you know, if you look at it in the long run, you actually save money by investing up front.
Adam Mogelonsky: Yeah, I mean that's a sort, it's, it's a little bit hard to [00:40:00] see but when you explain it that way the investment up front pays it pays dividends in the end and
That's, it's tough to see when you just look at a P& L and you're trying to really get that margin, but over time it's, it's almost it's research and development in terms of how you have to think about in terms of Having leadership from ownership, as well as from, uh, from the senior team and the, the whole C-suite.
To see that and to understand the next generation really needs the support to come up and how that's gonna pay dividends going forward.
perfect timeless lesson.
Amaury Piedra: Adam, we have a little bit over a thousand associates, as we call them, and about, call it a hundred managers, or salaried personnel, if you will, and I think the turnover in salaried personnel was less than four this year, the whole year, you know, and I think that's really, I think that's really remarkable. [00:41:00] Uh, overall, overall, out of the thousand plus, our turnover was about 14%, Which is phenomenal in the industry. So I think we're doing something right from that perspective. And that continuity bleeds into the guests. And that continuity bleeds into the corporate clients. Because those meeting planners, the person that, you know, I always tell them, I, listen, I can't guarantee it, but I can almost guarantee that the people you're meeting today will be here for your group two years from now to service your group.
You're not going to meet a whole new group of people a couple
years from now. And I think that's really important.
Adam Mogelonsky: Yeah, it's, it's a very important lesson to understand, but that's, those are phenomenal numbers from a turnover perspective, well below industry benchmarks. So, you know, it's, it's really as an example to follow. Amaury,
uh, been a fantastic conversation, particularly, and ending it off with just the timeless lesson that you shared about investing in your teams and really understanding that we talked about technology, we talked [00:42:00] about the new rooms product, the property improvement plan, but it still is always, always about teams.
Amaury Piedra: Yeah, absolutely. No, thank you, both of you, for having me on and, uh, I appreciate your time and anything you ever need, please let me know. Here to serve.
Adam Mogelonsky: Of course.
Amaury Piedra: Thank you both.
Adam Mogelonsky: Thanks, Amaury.