You have to admit, there’s something special about ending up in the hotel business.
Ask anyone how they got here, and you’ll usually hear a story that starts with, “Funny you should ask…”
I have a friend who grew up with parents in the hotel business. He left home to study pre-med at Duke and aced the MCATs, only to realize too late the sight of blood made him queasy. He got an MBA and worked as a consultant at a top firm for a while, but couldn’t resist the pull of hospitality.
He’s a hotel owner now.
Even though the hotel business isn’t the job most plan for, when the good ones find it, they don’t ever leave. It’s like a calling from above that finds you.
How did I get here?
I grew up as the son of a pastor. As a kid, I even thought I’d become a pastor one day. I went to college, studied theology, became the president of our student body and graduated at the top of my class.
I had a problem though… on graduation day, I didn’t feel like a good fit for the job. I wasn’t up for the calling. So I walked away from it.
I then stumbled through banking and an MBA, to find myself in a grey cubicle at the Hilton office in Dallas. During orientation, I heard a recording of Conrad Hilton’s speech about “spreading the light and warmth of hospitality.”
I didn’t think it was significant at the time, but I now see that a light switched on inside of me. I wanted to live out this concept of hospitality.
If you don’t know, the word hospitality comes from Latin “hospes” which means both host and guest… On this one ancient word, principles have been built for thousands of years on how to welcome guests. How to treat the traveler coming through town. How to take care of others.
What a fascinating thing. An industry that’s optimized entirely around the concept of caring well for others.
Looking back on the last 16 years of my life, I can see I’ve been building my life and business on this core principle of taking care of others.
I found my higher calling.
Where it’s taken me
A few years after hearing Conrad’s speech, I found myself responsible for a couple hundred Revenue Managers at Hilton. My friend Chris and I built this business from the ground up in just a few short years. We’d all cram into a small conference room every Friday, and I’d use my pastoral training to give a little talk on the important work we were doing, and how it was making an impact in real people’s lives.
Those years were incredibly special. We became one of the largest and most engaged teams in the company. I was even honored to officiate two different weddings of Directors on my team.
In 2017, I then had the chance to be responsible for the customer service team of over 1,500 people. As I walk in on day one, I’m ushered into a dimly lit U-shaped conference room for a detailed two-hour meeting that happens every week.
We’d review the critical metrics required to run that business effectively. I began to carve out fifteen minutes in the beginning of that meeting to talk about customer stories from the week before. To connect the metrics to the customer. To keep us connected with our purpose.
And then in 2020, the world fell apart in our industry. I’ve heard it estimated that over 4 million people lost their jobs in the hospitality sector that year in the US alone.
As I pull into my driveway with a week’s worth of groceries, my friend Chris calls me. We talk about how many amazing people that have dedicated decades toward caring for hotels just lost their jobs overnight.
And we decide to pull folks together and start a hotel revenue management company in the worst possible time the industry has ever seen.
We founded a hotel revenue management company when there was no revenue to manage. Fast forward 4 years and we have 24 team members supporting over 400 hotels across the world. Our key underlying value for our company
Take care of each other.
This principle of “taking care” has been integral to our success during a challenging time that broke many other brands. We are grateful to be here and working in our calling.
What’s your calling?
Your story is how you share your purpose with others, especially your team. When you understand the importance of your story, you’re better able to grasp and authentically hear your people’s stories.
So, I’m curious…
Stop, take a second, and think about your calling. What got you into your first hospitality job? What is it that keeps you here? And why do you keep coming back each week?
Reply and let me know.
Take care,
-Josh