Hello, everyone, and welcome to a very special edition of Hospitality Marketing, show number two hundred sixty-four with us. We have some very special co-hosts, which I already know. I’m going to have difficulty with the names, but I do want to give some credentials to them. We have Xenia Mutean.

[00:00:32.140] – Loren

Yeah. And, Mirunia. And Mirunia I’m sorry, I don’t know how to say your last name, Dragomir.

[00:00:42.400] – Loren

I’ve already tried to butcher them with my my intention of attempted Romanian translation software that didn’t work so well. I’d like to dive into a little bit of why it’s so special for us and oh yeah we have Dan everyone knows Dan.

[00:00:53.560] – Loren

OK, so we have other co-host, Join us, as we go along as well.

[00:00:59.350] – Loren & Xenia

I’d like to point out some things about the first off, which is Forbes 30 under 30, which I’m going to ask you how the heck you did that, because that’s that’s stunning for to be in that kind of category of people, thats top secret.

[00:01:13.310] – Loren

Man, that is that is that is rarefied air for people that also, I’d like to say that under Forbes, 100 women, the founders in Europe to follow on Twitter and LinkedIn, seven female women say this correctly, seven female CEOs to join the tech startup for London’s accelerator program on and on and on. But the real key element to our pleasure of having her and her cohort in crime, Mirunia, is that Xinia is the president and CEO and co-founder of a platform that I am very dear to, which is Planable.io, it’s a amazingly excellent platform.

[00:01:49.000] – Loren

I’ve used it for years. I’ve had the pleasure of using it for years, I should say.

[00:01:52.120] – Loren

And it was it was just awesome to think that I could actually bring the person that popped in their head to do this and to bring it to life and then to bring it to market. Oh, and I’m sorry. Let me introduce Mr. Robert Cole, who is also very rare to be on our show, because he has been busy. He works with JD Powers Phocuswright. And the other large names he likes floating around. He does a lot of data research and he is the person who provides our list that I quickly at the last minute sent to over to you to say, hey, these are the topics that we kind of roll over to and so forth.

[00:02:20.770] – Loren

But with all that in mind, thank you so much for being here, both of you. And I would love to open up the floor. Just say, wow, where do you want to bring us? Because I’d love to know more just from all that you’re doing. But all that came to this and where you’re going with it and all the fun things that it does. So please go right ahead. Yeah, definitely.

[00:02:37.660] – Xenia

So I’ll start with my background a bit and said why? Why I started signable in the first place. And so I want to give a bit of context to everyone. Before Planful, I had the social media marketing agency. I actually started that business during my second year of university. I was super into advertising obsessed with advertising since I was a teenager. And I was always dreaming of doing something, know, building my own venture in that space at some point in time.

[00:03:09.160] – Xenia

So I started an agency and during that agency I worked with brands and and in a different and different industries.

[00:03:18.370] – Xenia

One of my first clients back then was Coca-Cola. But I also had, you know, businesses in the hospitality industry as well as clients. And back then in my agency days, that’s when I realized the pain point that we are currently solving and flammable. And that’s the collaboration side. I realized that everything that happens before posts are actually published on social media, that all happens in spreadsheets and a lot of back and forth emails. And and it’s a very it’s a very clunky process and a very timewasting process.

[00:03:55.810] – Xenia

So I wanted to speed it up, simplify it. And that’s the main reason of why we created Financeable to just bring a bit of order to the chaos that marketing planning is sometimes. So that’s kind of how the story of Fundable got started. Coca-Cola client, Collin College.

[00:04:14.050] – Loren

Yeah, that’s no big deal. Yeah, I used to have nobody has a client in college.

[00:04:19.420] – Xenia

OK, so I luckily, to be honest, it wasn’t like, you know, the patent quarter. It’s still Coca-Cola with the great brand, the great logo to have in your portfolio.

[00:04:32.110] – Xenia

A hundred percent. But it was still a small business, quite a boutique agency.

[00:04:38.650] – Loren

Some of the things just firstly for me, for my using of your platform, I have found incredible value from an internal team perspective. I don’t know if that was a strong emphasis on when you first developed it, that you were thinking the internal team of several people contributing this would create some sort of normalized platform or whether you always envisioned it, that it would be a client gateway platform that allowed the client to moderate a little bit of what they’re doing.

[00:05:00.550] – Loren

And by all means, explain what I’m referring to, I guess, and just some sense of the functionality and usability of it. Because, like I said, I use a from a client perspective.

[00:05:07.630] – Loren & Tristan

A person from your timezone, this is Tristan Hayward with three or six agency, and he is somewhere in north New Guinea. No, I mean north. North England, close, close, so yes, but sorry, go ahead, sure.

[00:05:24.890] – Xenia

So give a bit of I’ll tell you the before a story and then the after story of like planning also before I plan on all our customers are most of the times using a spreadsheet to plan their schedule for the next week or for the next month on on social media to the spreadsheet each column represents.

[00:05:45.440] – Xenia

You have one column for like the caption, one column for the ImageWare column for the date of the publishing, one column for labels and so on and so on. So it’s a very, you know, kind of clunky spreadsheet. They have to maintain that. You have to format and invest a lot of time to keep it at least at least a bit presentable in front of your team or in front of your stakeholders. And then you send that spreadsheet to your team or to your client.

[00:06:13.400] – Xenia

And there’s a lot of back and forth discussion on that spreadsheet. So it’s not very centralized. And where you keep your posts is also not where you discuss those posts. So it’s different environments. And where you store your media is also not where you plan your posts and where you discuss those posts that usually have some kind of like Dropbox or Drive folder where you host and store your your media files. And you can imagine a lot of time can kind of fall through the cracks of this process with this very clunky process.

[00:06:46.400] – Xenia

And now it’s so much more streamlined, like with anybody can create content. It looks exactly as the final version on social media. So you can actually visualize how your posts are going to look like in the end. And you can collaborate in a very simple and streamlined way with everyone on your team or if you’re an agency with clients. And when we started the platform in the first place, we started it with the agency client relationship. But in the meanwhile, we transitioned and we have so many more brands, even in the hospitality industry that are using Planable to align themselves with their own stakeholders, either with like photographers.

[00:07:31.070] – Xenia

They’re making photo shoots of the service or the staff of the place. They collaborate with the photographers or they collaborate with their team or with the owners or everyone that needs to be involved. And everyone who is interested on how is their presence on social media are going to look like they involve them in the process. And they have one single place where everyone can see what’s going to happen on the social media channels, discuss the content for the next week or for the next month, improve it with their own opinion, contribute to feedback, and if there is an approval process in there, they can manage it.

[00:08:06.770] – Loren & Xenia

They are Planable as well. World of photography and sheer abilities, and I hadn’t even thought about his usability, because you do get this some of the things that we’ve used it for, just because I know everybody else. I mean, have you ever used Plainville or anything with that? I was sorry, I was I mean, it’s there and no, I haven’t I have not used Plainville and used the usual HootSuite and everything else that that’s out there.

[00:08:35.070] – Tristan

But it’s funny, I should seen this. I’ve just been looking at the website and we’ve just been having that discussion internally as to what we’re going to use for social. Are we going to go with it? And I’ve literally just slapped that to then and our social media person.

[00:08:51.570] – Tristan

So fantastic. I know I have no questions, but we’ll leave that at the end.

[00:08:59.070] – Loren

Just some of the part that I use, most of which also makes owners most comfortable is they understand the of social media, but they don’t know how to translate their team into putting something up that they can moderate, that they can go to and say, hey, look, post this stuff up. Tell me when you want to run it. Tell me why you’re running running it. But let me look at it and see if I like it. Wanted to run the way you expect it to run.

[00:09:23.160] – Loren

Because sometimes when I use this example with the clients, Brad Pitt walks into your hotel and you take a picture of them or your your bellman does OK. And they put they put it up and because they have access to the account and it’s not a good fit one, you don’t want to tell people that they’re stars at the hotel while they’re there because that’s a little bit of privacy.

[00:09:42.630] – Loren

And then and then the other is it doesn’t maybe fit in the storylines at the time that this is really probably the optimistic time to really reflect that you’re that kind of hotel that somebody like that would show up to. So putting that and saying, this is great, thank you so much. We got it. But we’re going to change the scheduling to fit this storyline at this time and make it so that the owner feels good, that they’re not just rampantly, you know, cute pictures of a kitty cat versus Sunset versus Brad Pitt popping up in your in your feed with no rhyme or reason to it.

[00:10:10.350] – Loren

And that’s been a real value for us. We use it.

[00:10:12.240] – Murina

So it’s very interesting because we were just talking about this and looking at, you know, talking to the customers that we do have in the hospitality industry. And I think kind of like a unique point and hospitality is that there’s such a there’s such a strong focus on the visual aspect of your presence.

[00:10:33.900] – Murina

I mean, all social is visual. But, you know, a lot of industries can kind of get away with snap picture that they just take of their backyard or whatever with their iPhone. Maybe that’s even a bit blurry.

[00:10:48.840] – Murina

Well, you know, this kind of people want to see that perfection and that beauty where they could or want to go.

[00:10:59.400] – Xenia

And so operational aspect of the industry, you want to you want to see places that inspire you or you want to. Yeah. You need to be ideal. Yeah.

[00:11:11.460] – Murina

And, you know, it reflects on everything, you know, especially on Instagram and especially on the grid. It has to kind of fit together nicely. And there are so many amazing tools for the publishing side of things, you know, just like you trust kind of mission. But you need that visual, that obsession with the with how it’s going to look like in the end and how it’s going to fit together. And the entire puzzle.

[00:11:38.220] – Dan

Yeah, I did actually create created implantable or you created an exporter and do you created implantable.

[00:11:48.510] – Murina

It goes from kind of ideation until the until the publishing side of things. So it covers everything.

[00:11:55.350] – Dan

Are you able to store any imagery in there as well? Because we were just talking about imagery and one of the things is, like you said, somebody takes a random shot and it’s not an approved shot or something that you want. If there’s a bank of photos that they’re allowed to use and you can upload them and improve on and stuff like that, be need to see.

[00:12:11.550] – Xenia

Yeah. So I actually wanted to talk about yeah. I’m sorry, I’m talking about my product is I feel like I own the very thing for several years. I’m sorry. This is for you to talk about it.

[00:12:23.900] – Tristan

Yeah.

[00:12:24.160] – Xenia

So we actually wanted to talk about media assets and how important that is. And I know you’re right, I had some ideas, some really great ideas around that same idea.

[00:12:33.100] – Murina

Yeah. So for one thing, you know, you’ve got obviously the new photo that you’re just taking now, even if it’s event wise, that’s also something you hope you have something special going on at your venue. You want that kind of it fast and picked through and sorted through maybe with some other collaborators. Then there’s Brad Pitt walked into the hotel. But there are also the photo shoots, right, that you want to store. You’re not going to use them all at once.

[00:13:03.150] – Murina

So we have the media library where you can store all these kind of pick and choose and just drag and drop into your post. And then another important aspect is that a lot of you know, I’m thinking when you take large photo shoots, you’re going to want to reuse them and repurpose them if it’s, you know, I don’t know, Christmassy theme. Maybe next year you’re going to make use of them, so nice aspect is that in Platteville you can see if that photo or media asset has been used before in any other post and you can see which post and at what times and kind of repurpose them smartly, not kind of let’s use the same asset all over the time.

[00:13:47.970] – Loren

And so if I could drop in that that that I use that a lot along with the calendar, because I find very quickly that the more people you allow engage with the clients opportunity to post stuff, sometimes they don’t know that they’re collaborating on the same stuff. And when you pop up the calendar and you realize that they multi stack one day with multiple posts because all of them thought that Tuesday at one o’clock was a great idea.

[00:14:14.190] – Loren

And so they all post and schedule their stuff. And and that’s the worst part, is that the visualization of how you are arranging your post can go into this form, calendar, form or entire form just so you can see. And it really is helpful that frequency of usage of an image that everybody has favorites and eventually the owner comes to that. I want that sunset pictures. Like we just use that last week. No, no, we’re not using that sunset picture again.

[00:14:36.120] – Loren

So it helps point that out. Like you literally can make them go log in and look and see. You’ve used that too frequently.

[00:14:43.700] – Loren

And also, I think that.

[00:14:47.970] – Xenia

Well, yeah, I think I think this this takes me to something that you mentioned, takes me to a different idea that I, I have around the way we’re using in know post Hannibal and the way we’re labeling them. It’s super important to have every business has topics that they usually talk about. Right. To let’s say, you know, if you’re if you’re a hotel, you might want to talk about maybe you’re about the family. You’re at a hotel that is oriented in that direction.

[00:15:23.340] – Xenia

You might want to talk about the staff and the service and how great it is.

[00:15:27.360] – Xenia

So there’s different or there’s different. You might want to talk about different products, the city, the environment, type about the city, the culture, the environment. There’s different what we call in the industry context pillars. And you want to label and you do have the opportunity to do that and you want to label different posts based on where you’re talking about. And you’re going to have a count implantable where you can see, you know, what label are you using the most?

[00:15:57.420] – Xenia

So you can you can see your distribution of content across those pillars that we just mentioned.

[00:16:03.390] – Xenia

And similarly with the photos, you can see if you’re abusing any specific content or if you’re talking too much about one aspect or your friend about it. If you’re talking too much about Sunset’s and maybe too little about, I don’t know, the price, maybe that’s something sensitive you should be talking about or about, you know, during the Soviet period how you’re taking care and how it’s all safe. Right. That might be a topic that you want to make you want to talk a bit more about.

[00:16:31.090] – Xenia

So it really it gives you an overview of how your content is distributed across those content filters.

[00:16:39.070] – Loren

So Tristan that’s something you have you face all the time when you walk in any place. People are taking pictures of you like your rockstar kind of thing. I mean, do you tell them not to use them or what do you do?

[00:16:47.550] – Tristan

Well, you know, it’s a tough life that has never, ever happened to me once in the history of modern psychology.

[00:16:54.360] – Loren & Tristan

So I honestly can’t comment that, you know, you just said that you just brought something really. I never use the tags like the labels did before. I use the labels to identify the product type. So I knew whether I was having a frequency issue with video versus image versus link versus text combinations.

[00:17:11.760] – Loren

And until you said, oh, you’re about storyline’s, because for us we tend to run from again, it’s like, wow, never thought about that.

[00:17:18.810] – Loren

It’s like when you watch somebody using ECEL you don’t you’re watching them and they’re pushing buttons and shortcuts you don’t usually like that works like that of different.

[00:17:27.660] – Loren

It’s like really weird, you know, it’s like, well I know they could do that. So I’d look at it like I’d break that up into. I tend to run with story lines and then we timed those out according to events or business cycles or whatever, and it’s usually self defense. Your family off the beaten path, local, culinary, romantic are the ones we run and then we run those in cycles or event driven and things like that.

[00:17:47.790]

And I never I never thought about classifying the labels as, oh, this is that storyline versus it’s a video with a link and text.

[00:17:55.470]

You know, it’s we we discover a lot of scenarios too, honestly, when we talk with our customers and they tell us how they use Financeable, we’re like never to control that.

[00:18:08.850]

One such aspect is that a few of our customers I discovered they use labels also for kind of inspiration. So they have a label, for example, for Christmas.

[00:18:19.980]

And then every year they kind of filter for that label and then look what they talk about, you know, last year or when this happened before, just so they can repurpose or just get inspired by themselves.

[00:18:34.140]

We’ve also seen you have also seen some of our customers using labels to like tag target specific those that it’s going to be a paid one that is going to sponsor it.

[00:18:45.420]

So that’s an interesting multiple ways of doing it.

[00:18:49.440]

So can you have multiple taps or can you have it so you could do? All right. So we just talked about three or four different ways to do that. So could you actually have three or four different?

[00:18:57.900]

You can combine them one hundred percent. Combine that with the and with the content channels that you actually post.

[00:19:04.800]

Obviously you’ve got that the the big full face the for this. Yeah. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. And when if I’m curating and writing a post in Platteville, if I, if I’m doing that do, do I have to or can I just do one post and it will also like format and send it out to every single channel. You’ll definitely do that. And so you’ve got some of the images on Facebook and then you’ll give it over to Instagram work.

[00:19:34.610]

Oh yeah. Same goes for Twitter. And hopefully I’ll just tell you before you answer that question.

[00:19:41.190]

I love it. I love your question. So I got to give Cretien. So you are totally 100 percent right. Something that looks good on Facebook. It might not look good on Twitter or on LinkedIn, and that is extremely important. And if you’re planning it, if you’re planning your posts in a spreadsheet, you’re never going to know until it’s published. You know, how it’s actually going to look like in the end. Or if you use a tool like scheduling tools such as Balf or Huta.

[00:20:11.130]

And again, it doesn’t show you a live preview of the Post. So you’re also going to find out once it’s published. How does a look at implantable when you’re composing a post and you can obviously set multiple platforms you might want to post to go to three out of those four platforms are all of them. And then you can switch tabs between between them and see the post while you’re creating it. You can see how it’s going to look like on each different platform to change.

[00:20:44.050]

But basically you change the tabs and the composer and you get a preview of the posts in different platforms.

[00:20:51.510]

So that actually gives you the opportunity to tweak it even before scheduling it, even before planning it while you’re creating it. Did the opportunity to tweak it so that it looks good on all platforms.

[00:21:04.320]

Yeah. So we have this kind of go ahead.

[00:21:09.030]

And so we have this kind of hidden gem we like to call it, because it’s not very into your face. It’s it’s a think off button. And yes, it is exactly what you said. And so you start by creating the draft post for all the for all the channels and then you think off and then you start tweaking, adding hashtags where Instagram and Twitter, tagging people on Twitter and LinkedIn or Facebook and they have different handles. The changing the images that, you know, if you have meta description that you want to change, to start kind of like tweaking it for each platform.

[00:21:42.390]

And it’s so it’s perfect as a group in the end.

[00:21:46.170]

And it will keep people like me from screwing up on Twitter words as character limit has been exceeded. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:21:54.600]

Because you thinking how do I need to write this? And it’s easy enough when you’ve got to write it with a character limit for one particular set or Facebook is not necessarily too much from the character. It’s making sure that it’s it’s digestible. You want you want to post a big impact and punchy dropsondes attention. So they actually deliver the message that you want to do and you think you’ve got a bit of creative license with that. And then you then you just don’t know about you guys.

[00:22:20.700]

But I always start with Facebook, you know, probably in the app, but it’s start with Facebook and then all the requisite. Oh my God, how do I get that into that. So what hope? And it’s like, no, I’m going to go away. I’m gonna have to go have a drink, come back and not still do it. So they don’t see it. Life, while still watching it in the Facebook planning phase is probably pretty cool.

[00:22:44.150]

I have tried to play in this media.

[00:22:48.050]

I’ll you look at my account if you want to peek at it. But I’ve learned now we’re just recently using that and I’ve been underutilizing the LinkedIn aspect of tagging people or tagging businesses in that. So literally, I’ve been spending more time editing my LinkedIn push than some of the others because the hash tags are different on Facebook or Twitter anyway. So that’s kind of like a quick, easy one. And you already have character limits, so you don’t really go crazy.

[00:23:09.210]

But I LinkedIn page tags on them.

[00:23:12.060]

So that’s why you keep tagging me in unlimited, right. Yeah. Yeah. Three six. And I’m the nine. Yep.

[00:23:25.770]

I thought I was just feeling special then but no it’s actually a clever tool that you’ve got. Right. I know that. I know.

[00:23:33.300]

Lauren, I’m surprised you didn’t find the two thousand character limit on LinkedIn. I thought you would have run into that first.

[00:23:39.600]

Did I push it? I’m sure no.

[00:23:44.670]

I’m sorry I interrupted you. But when you’re about to say I’m sorry.

[00:23:49.680]

Yeah.

[00:23:51.140]

Nothing wrong with our train of thought. I’ve got a question. If you guys thought of doing anything with WordPress, I like to do a you know, to to also integrate that. My daughter does a lot of work with the fashion influencers. And so they’re primarily focused on Instagram. But because they use like to know it restyled me and some of these great platforms that the monetize. Unbelievably, these fashion posts, they also wind up putting it back on the back of the WordPress as well, where it’s kind of the archive of everything kind of centrally, you know, essentially there as well.

[00:24:33.980]

Right.

[00:24:34.520]

So we’ve actually had requests from customers to integrate WordPress because the same workflow issues, you similar workflow issues you had, you have posts for social approval, silos, feedback. So you do have a web of articles and pages and whatever, you know, you’re building on WordPress, something we’re looking into. It is definitely on our future roadmap. I think the more a closer road map is integrating, the more platforms, you know, besides the big four that we already have, we’re looking into YouTube, which is the most huge one.

[00:25:15.270]

And yeah, and Google my business again, is something that we’ve had quite a lot of requests, specially from local small businesses, hospitality space as well to that. But WordPress has been on our radar for a while now, especially for travel blogger, travel bloggers, influencers, things like that.

[00:25:38.720]

That would be a godsend for them because again, that’s exactly what they’re and, you know, they’ll be a destination. They may be doing things for a hotel. They may be doing things for the station manager, lots of different groups.

[00:25:51.960]

So it’s funny that you mentioned it’s funny that you mentioned influencers. And we were just talking to me right now about innocence, as we mentioned, interesting use cases of how planning is being used. I know when I had one to share on that platform. Yeah.

[00:26:08.300]

So, you know, influencers kind of usually either work through an agency or dig through the content directly for the brand that they’re working with. But we’ve seen often cases in which they kind of require usually approval from the brand that it’s at least, you know, it kind of respects the older main guidelines.

[00:26:30.050]

So we’ve seen a few of these use cases on clinical one with an agency of influencers that kind of chose cleanable to unite everyone, both the influencers and the brand. So they would ask the influencers that are working for a particular campaign to connect their Instagram pages on cleanable, create their posts, and then invite the client and ask them to kind of give feedback directly, leave comments there, and then they would be able to publish it to their networks. So that’s kind of taking on a lot because, again, you know, it’s a lot of tweaking there and they need to get a clear realized before actually going live.

[00:27:16.700]

Now, I guess the bottom line on this is that, you know, could work for any type of collaboration on social media posts, really, even if it’s an in-house team, if it’s a social media agency with a client or if it’s the influencer use case, so long as someone is collaborating on social media both in any way who can be adjusted to that.

[00:27:39.830]

So it’s a very flexible tool.

[00:27:42.050]

And I can see how that can solo and I can see how that could work even with smaller hotels, not just the large ones. Typically, you’ve got one person who has been given the responsibility to be the social media guru within the organization, and usually they have very limited experience with social media, especially now with covid-19 and what losing lots of positions and lots of skills inside hotels. I can see how Cleanable could actually benefit that individual because, you know, I don’t know about you guys, but for me, the hardest part of any social media strategy is the creativity.

[00:28:25.700]

What what am I actually going to post? How am I going to do something that’s this creative? How am I going to create something that’s going to capture capture the imagination? When that’s left up to one person? You can get out, you can get a bit burnt out, you get a bit tired. So I like the idea when you’ve got the the Calanda, the ability to put images in there, you could get anybody in the organization to just, hey, if you’ve got a pitch, you just drop it.

[00:28:49.670]

And you don’t necessarily have to create the post, just drop it in there. And that might give me inspiration to do it. If that’s the case. Again, these people I was speaking with one hotel just this week and the lady I was speaking to that she’s the digital marketer. She’s the social media guru. She was also a duty manager that day that I was speaking to her as well. I’m like, jeez, are you actually going to go down, go downstairs and be the sous chef next to the sous chef called in sick?

[00:29:19.520]

Yeah, I’ve got to go. And, you know, and she was saying she was going to go and speak to she actually that she left said I am actually speaking to the chef next because we’re putting on an afternoon tea menu and I’m having input on that and thinking, my goodness, how many rules do you have? Something like is going to be perfect for her. I said, that’s such a good cook.

[00:29:41.150]

That’s such a good point. Yeah. It kind of helps democratize the content process and the content creation. Right. And opens it up to everyone in the organization. And I mean it all. You know, it always starts with the culture of the organization and they’re going to do that, of course. But if they are, they can totally use platform like that. They can give the power to everyone who has ideas to create content to actually contribute.

[00:30:04.850]

They can obviously be an approval process and there are some safety mechanisms. So it’s not you can’t actually publish it. Someone needs to oversee it and approve it and schedule it. But everyone can chime in with ideas and write drafts of posts. And that’s a great source of inspiration for whoever is in charge of the social page.

[00:30:25.880]

From a realistic point of view, you know, we talk about social media and it’s like, first off, people think that they have to be up at 5:00 a.m. to post the 5:00 a.m. post and then they learn and educate that there’s places like Buffer that you don’t know.

[00:30:39.920]

Oh, my goodness.

[00:30:40.610]

You’re just bursting all the I’m not even hitting coffee until 10:00 a.m., so. No, but there’s a certain realistic logistics to all of these things. There’s the first level of understanding where there’s a schedule for things like the buffer’s of the world and so forth. But the point is that the sizing and so forth is different. The platforms are different. So then you look at something like a HootSuite, like the centrist that you know, then you start to start putting into bulk uploads.

[00:31:04.250]

But then the bulk of Plesac, you get the scheduling aspect of it. But then if there’s a reporting process, like what do you have planned or there’s plenty of organizations out there, the thing, oh, here’s a calendar builder. You’re still going to take what’s on the calendar and put it into the platform for to launch.

[00:31:19.160]

And you’re still going to edit it and somebody’s got to look at it so that you didn’t misspell names or words and things like this.

[00:31:26.990]

But, Warren, thank God I have family. So you have this whole process. And then the worst thing in the world happens is all something got missed.

[00:31:36.230]

And the owner or the GM or somebody of importance above you sees it comes down like a ton of bricks because it reflects against them because one of their friends said, look what you guys posted, and it’s this turmoil all the time and nobody wants to touch that stuff. Then you said there’s there’s burnout about what? Creativity. There’s no place to Harvard. Oh, we’re going to a shared file through a picture. And that doesn’t know. So you’re really answering a lot of the intricacies of saying here’s a calendar it’s already scheduled.

[00:32:01.420]

It doesn’t mean it’s got to run until it gets approved. Any comments? We make changes and links we want to add or hey, why don’t we have this hash tag so that this was floating out? You know, that all comes around.

[00:32:11.240]

So by what I do with my clients, we try to get at least two weeks ahead, then four weeks ahead for the evergreen stuff. Which brings me to a point that I’d like to ask about whether you haven’t and I don’t know it or I’m just at another level to have it or it’s in your roadmap, I’d love to be able to multi date post some evergreen posts.

[00:32:29.210]

I’d love to be able to say I love this one. I’d love to run it another month from now.

[00:32:34.140]

You know, and just have to go back and redo it, which is not hard to do, it’s just I love to think I could do more to date. Yes.

[00:32:40.250]

So what you can do is duplicate a poster like if you have a poster that you really loved and, you know, they actually went, well, you can go back to Cleanable and choose the repost button and it’s going to basically going to complicate it. And you can do that 10 times and schedule them all with different dates. It is possible, but it’s not like, you know, it’s it’s a bit more manual.

[00:33:01.790]

It’s not like the evergreen feature that you see in some platforms, like, you know, the person you say that every two weeks it publishes. Again, you have to do that. And that’s I think we didn’t want to build it like Evergreen.

[00:33:15.860]

So you can, you know, repost it every two days because we don’t want to go that road where we use that content forever and ever. So we actually made it a bit difficult by design because we wanted, you know, people we knew that the best way to go is, you obviously know, someplace you might want to mention as much as you can because, you know, it’s a good one. But you probably don’t want to republish it 10 times a year or more than 10 times a year, I think once a month.

[00:33:46.870]

So, yeah, that’s kind of the reason why we did it like we did.

[00:33:50.510]

I’m thinking more about Twitter just because there’s sometimes there’s this thing that you look to an event driven thing or something like this, you want to create the frequency. Better not. Do you want a carbon copy of the Post? I’m just from the frequency point of view, it gets a little you five or ten plus variations you want to do, and you’re literally plugging in time variations to each one of them over a five day roll or something kind of stuff where, you know, that’s where the bulk loading does help because it’s always formatted.

[00:34:17.570]

But it’s just one of those. It’s like now that you explained it, the lesser of two evils.

[00:34:21.650]

Really quick question for you guys. So do you have an analytics tool or do you integrate with analytics tools so it can be looked at in the same dashboard now so we don’t do anything analytics wise?

[00:34:34.130]

We knew that there are other great tools in the analytics space out there. So we didn’t want to we wanted to do a really great job of the planning, collaboration and workflow side.

[00:34:44.330]

And we you know, you started with the great tool and then you have a lot of features and then you become able to find is a lot of companies try to be everything to everyone.

[00:34:57.260]

And then the next thing, if you’re focused on the core, I think that’s great. Just out of curiosity, do you have any social analytics tool that that you guys like to or that you recommend to clients? Yes, so actually, no, another startup called Social Insider that is doing some really great jobs and a really great job in the analytics. So you know them as well.

[00:35:20.880]

You seem to want no insider and secret sauce for doing poaching. I mean, I can look at any competitor I can look at and see other comparing look at their time rates, look at their best posts, look at their growth of audience. Oh, yeah, I love that thing.

[00:35:41.540]

Yes, we actually partner up with them and we we bundle up with the clients like needs both. You know, if a client says, well, you know, you guys are great at collaboration and planning, it seems like such a great tool. But we really need analytics. We usually bundle up with an insider and we go, you know, as a team together and we’re like, you know, don’t go with who should just go with us to great tools.

[00:36:07.570]

You’re not missing out on anything. There is nothing special, you know, in the integration between those two, because social insider gets their data from Facebook directly. There’s no point for us to to integrate so that they can get it from us somehow. So they get double the value because we’re super focused on that. And Social Insider is also super focused on that. And we get to tools that are doing the best, you know, in in their specific category, rather than by going with a jack of all trades that might not be doing that might be superficial and all side.

[00:36:43.520]

It’s great. I tend to be a sumo fiend. Yes.

[00:36:50.390]

The fact that he said that in knows social insider, he’s not really surprised because he probably has got every single analytics to it ever.

[00:36:58.280]

And what did you get, Lauren? Unlimited subscription for it for for a lifetime subscription for like two?

[00:37:07.410]

I’ve got to be honest, that’s what my job was nopsema it was like, this is really great. Let me try and I regret not having like I don’t even know if that because I’ve had it for so many years. Back in the day I used to have like buy it and that was it. And now they have this code thing going where you can stack codes and stuff. So I don’t know if I missed an opportunity, be able to stack and expand my account or not do it right now.

[00:37:28.220]

And I have a great deal compared to your pricing models like, look, I got five workspaces, which I guess we should also talk about different workspaces, users and stuff like that. I have five workspaces. I can put five users on each workspace and they can all be different, which is pretty cool and unlimited posting, which is really neat. So yeah, I so that changed my life.

[00:37:50.110]

I have to say, you’ve got a very good deal. That’s what God what a great deal. A great deal. Back then we were very small back then. I kind of made sense. Now the way it works right now as you have users, which is obviously everyone you need to collaborate with, agency or client. Everyone is like a user. Everyone needs to be on the platform with you together. You have a company account, so everyone to be invited.

[00:38:17.600]

So it’s not for workspace anymore. It’s like on the company basis because we introduced a company level, which we didn’t have before. It was just like workspaces. Now we have the company concept. So everyone, you know, you can have multiple workspaces in one company account.

[00:38:34.460]

And what we call a workspace is basically a brand or a project.

[00:38:40.040]

It really depends how you structure it. So if you have, you know, maybe you want to structure it and you want we might have two different brands in your group.

[00:38:50.330]

So you going to have two different workspaces just for the purposes of organizing everything very neatly and have everything well separated and have two different calendars because you’re talking about very different things, you know, very different brands for the agency client relationship. It’s more straightforward. You just have one more space for every client. But if you’re a brand, you can have a workspace where if you’re a company, you can have a word for different brands.

[00:39:17.940]

So I think the best use case in the hospitality industry is if you have like a chain of hotels, for example, you know, you have the local hotel, hotels or country or you have Hilton, for example, that has so many different brands, you know, Doubletree or other, I’m not that familiar with their different types of brands.

[00:39:42.350]

So what you can do is kind of have one workspace for each. You can have individual contributors for each of those brands. And you can also have, you know, like the internal team that is global and handles everything. And what’s interesting is that you can you have a relationship between these workspaces. So if a person has access to multiple workspaces, they can go into like the main brand and duplicate the calendars into their own workspace to kind of like, OK, you have the global brand, but you might want to use those posts in your local on your local hotel page or something like that.

[00:40:18.890]

So that’s kind of, I think, an example of youth and hospitality.

[00:40:24.860]

I don’t know how this is looking on the screen. Let me see how this looks. I’m going to pull up my camera just because we’re talking around it and I don’t want people away from it.

[00:40:31.940]

And I don’t mind sharing my stuff because, like I said, I’m a I’m a fan boy, this thing. So I’m I’m all happy to go watch your screen for this. This is my works. This is my workspace sports. So if you want to tell me where to poke and push and point out what it is that we can do, I’ll be happy to do that. So go ahead.

[00:40:44.690]

Yeah. So all of those little rectangles, all of those squares are basically one workspace to. Can you explain how you decided, Lauren, how did you decide to like, walk us through the logic of separating them from me?

[00:41:01.400]

I handle the marketing for variations of an organization within our industry called Hospitality Sales Marketing Associates International. So I created workspaces for each of them. Speak obviously for Asia Pacific EU and then Asia Smurf, North America Mine, the FDN, which is mine.

[00:41:16.610]

I have a lot of my clients in because the joy that you’ve given me on this is I can add kind of many pages and I can add whatever I want to with it.

[00:41:27.090]

So this one reflects an organization of ten hotels and cluster that I have, but different brands.

[00:41:32.300]

Fortunately, right now they only have a few social platforms are mainly Facebook and Instagram and only a few on LinkedIn.

[00:41:39.260]

So I select which ones I want to cluster to because some of these. Geographically connected, so I can put the same posts with different content to multiple hotels, with different brands and so forth, so I can cluster things a little bit easier. But this is my list view. This is my feed view. Which is just the time sequence one and I can and that goes to individual ones, and then I have my counterview. Which I love showing to the client, which I don’t have anything going on this week right now.

[00:42:09.720]

I mean, there’s not much latency given the two thousand five and I have heard of you, let’s review, shall we give you this for Instagram.

[00:42:22.570]

So if you could show an Instagram page here. Oh, yeah. Let’s see what we got here. Nothing going on recently on Instagram, so. Oh, here we go. I’ll just grab this one. This is an Instagram posting I was doing earlier, so. OK, but yeah, it’s what I was doing with this only 3D launched. Yeah.

[00:42:38.970]

I didn’t push them through on those. Sorry, just lot since I put stuff up and then decided not to run it for that time sequence or something but.

[00:42:46.140]

So the workspace thing is designed to exactly structure to we should shut him off.

[00:42:57.510]

That’s where all the server space is going down.

[00:43:00.920]

Now we know where the big issue is, asked Lauren to explain his logic. So that was that was a mistake.

[00:43:08.580]

There is no but I think I think it’d be a good moment to mention that this is not exactly what we had in mind when we space facing.

[00:43:19.590]

What we hoped for is a top of four or five pages per workspace where you can organize. Yeah, this is what we had in mind.

[00:43:33.360]

And yeah, kind of the the we’re trying to make it a bit better for those kinds of use cases. But the idea is that, you know, it obviously becomes everything is so visual that the kind of publishing for so many pages that once isn’t necessarily that accessible or fast or efficient.

[00:43:53.410]

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But this is ideal, what you’re showing to us, this idea of just how big this is, how it normally is run.

[00:44:01.350]

And please understand, my other one is only user segments of it, but there’s a nice catch all. In other words, I put ten pounds or something in a five pound bag because I can use it at certain segments. So I just try to access to all the accounts so we’re not going to ban you.

[00:44:13.620]

That’s OK. So this is a good thing.

[00:44:18.210]

You’ve now got a use case. You said you are finding different ways that people here you go now use case on how not to use it.

[00:44:27.200]

This is how I was using the tags or identifying what it was in particular. And then I love to point out the fact see, like the five means I posted on five different Facebook places at the same time, plus LinkedIn and these were Facebook, five plus one LinkedIn plus one Twitter. And then when you click into it, depending upon where you want and it shows you to this point, it shows those approved shows that it was scheduled on what platform?

[00:44:50.100]

Here’s where you put the drop in the comments and people that can put comments in. This is the mobile version of it. So you can tell if it really you screwed it, you messed it up or something.

[00:44:58.830]

So that’s what I love about it. That’s a good demo. I love it. And the quick question, when we go back to the the way things are set up in the pricing and what you get and what you don’t get, and you’ve mentioned I’m looking at your website now and it says that there’s a free trial.

[00:45:15.830]

Always, always, always welcome for anybody in the in the hospitality industry. So you’ve got a free trial that says it’s unlimited workspaces and unlimited uses its self-service, but it then says first 50. So take it. You can post 50 times in as many limited workspaces and with as many people as you wanted. And then after that, the trial ends and you move into the paper.

[00:45:40.070]

Yes, that is correct. Yes. That’s how it works. Good stuff.

[00:45:43.920]

So it’s not actually a time limited trial like a lot of trials are out there. It’s based on your post. So if I want to say one post a week for 50 weeks. Yeah, I get free trial with it. Yeah. Yeah, that is correct. Yes, yeah, I do. Every time or one post a year. And you get 50 years ago.

[00:46:03.320]

There you go. That’s that’s about as much as I go to Facebook personally when I’m not working. That could work for me. That’s fine.

[00:46:13.520]

So the idea behind that was kind of to we we used to have a free time trial, but then we realized, you know, why limit people on time when we want to bring them to actually understand if it’s a good platform for them to use or not, you know, not kind of make them ressurection through these 14 days. You have this all.

[00:46:34.070]

And we looked we looked into our data. We talked to some of our users, and we tried to realize when our people, you know, figuring out cleanable finally like, what’s the point? What’s what’s the moment when they’re like, oh, I get it. I love it. That actually brings a lot of value to me. I mean, I’m hooked. You know, I want to use it for life forever. So we ask them and, you know, we realize that it’s around 50 bucks.

[00:46:58.000]

That’s when the majority of people are like, yeah, you know, I get it. That’s pretty cool. I want to keep it up.

[00:47:03.780]

No, no, no, no, no. Please, go ahead. Not that difficult to understand.

[00:47:10.370]

You don’t necessarily need to get what it does, but you need maybe it’s supposed to fall in love with it does not make that it’s any software is when it’s new.

[00:47:23.990]

It’s always difficult. It doesn’t matter where it’s the simplest thing to use. And not because you’ve got to understand. You’ve got to learn and you’ve got to find the use case. And I absolutely agree with you. I hit the time limit once, especially when it’s only two or three days. So what I am I am that busy. I might only have a few moments in two or three days where I can actually give this my undivided attention. So you might think that I can give it a shot burst of attention, but very infrequently.

[00:47:52.040]

So if you do it, if you limit it to three days, I’m not going to get the benefit of the platform. Yeah.

[00:47:56.780]

What is with such a great point? That’s such a great point. You know, giving people the time to test it on their own schedule. That’s exactly what we had in mind.

[00:48:06.530]

Yes. Yeah. And I’ve not seen many software services such as this or even it’s not like this.

[00:48:14.120]

But you software in general, whether offering that type of child, it’s normally is it’s normally all time time sensitive, I’m sure, Lord, to put me right on that because you’ve tried every software ever and I may be talking out of service, but, you know, but yeah, I do like that. I’ll definitely be giving that go.

[00:48:35.110]

But also a test question when you talk about interest, brought this up earlier about the creativity, still stagnation and so forth. There is a platform that I do also use, but for large scale clients that have a really massive amount of input and there’s going to reward system and so forth, built in as to whose post actually got the most engagement and so forth. And it has this ability to identify RSS feeds, local hashtag tracking and so forth and brings in content.

[00:48:59.540]

And that content can be to be used or not used or modified, obviously, and then used for that purpose and schedule, very similar in some circumstances to what’s called social HP.

[00:49:09.590]

I don’t know whether you see yourself trying to create some sort of content generator as well, or just strictly stick to here’s the platform that you put your stuff into. You collaborate with and you distribute with. That’s your core. That’s your lane. I appreciate it, because that’s the statement. Hospitality, don’t try to venture too far out.

[00:49:25.640]

And so, yeah, so we my branch sometimes in the future into different things, but we want to be in the operational system, the OS of social media teams and potentially in the future of content marketing teams. So we want to be the platform where you run things. So we don’t want to go into discovery of content or analytics or listening or monitoring or any anything else. We’re like a platform where you go and you run your stuff and you cooperate and, you know, workflow, the workflow system, that’s what we want to be.

[00:49:59.120]

So. So what does a usual customer look? A usual user of flammable look like me, is that is that an agency do you find typically agencies that are up for you or is it your business or social media teams within a business, single, single people responsibility? Give us a bit of an idea of what your customer base looks like, if you the mind. Sure.

[00:50:25.020]

So it’s I would say half of our customer base is agencies. Definitely. It does make sense. You know, collaboration is by default. They need. They have.

[00:50:34.380]

And then on the other side, we have lots and lots and lots of small businesses that are using us three to five people, not all of them social media managers, but three to five people that are involved in the process of creating content for social using us. Small businesses are a big a big chunk of our our business. We do also have freelancers that I still considered. I mean, the agency is like offering services. And so, yeah, I’d say, you know, agencies and small businesses.

[00:51:06.900]

Am I correct, Madrona?

[00:51:08.910]

Yeah. Yeah. We have a few enterprises as well usually that have kind of large social media teams in-house.

[00:51:16.710]

But yeah, we have kind of a small chain of coffee shops and actually that is, you know, has this kind of workflow. They have someone doing helping them with their marketing. And it’s a lot about them trying to find real time common content. They take photos, they go to the locations, they get help from, you know, the the people in the team that are on site.

[00:51:48.720]

Whenever stuff happens and they get approval usually from the owner or someone else on the team, that kind of has time to look at it.

[00:51:58.410]

And it’s just kind of on the go. Helps a lot. The small teams.

[00:52:05.610]

Excellent stuff. Yeah, I love it. Well, I mean, I asked all the questions I wanted to ask about and I’m ashamed because I got to show my love.

[00:52:15.800]

No, that’s it’s also perfect timing. We got to run to our next meeting. Busy, busy Fridays, but was so, so great to talk with you everyone. And so really great meeting you. And Tristan, we expect to see you on the platform working your account.

[00:52:32.820]

No problem. Then let me get you to the mike.

[00:52:37.590]

And that was will you will talk to him.

[00:52:45.070]

I am scared enough to lose you. We know that we do a podcast as well. Yeah. Where to find that as well.

[00:52:54.900]

Yes. It’s called People of Marketing. And everyone I talk to very inspiring marketers in different industries.

[00:53:03.360]

We’ve had people from a logo. We had marketers from Visa, from very different industries, and we talked to them about their career path and how they got where they are. So if anyone’s interested in that topic and wants to learn from, you know, heads of marketing and CMS and that kind of stuff, we’d love to have you in our audience.

[00:53:26.730]

I’ll take the link from your LinkedIn, because that’s why I found that into the show. Notes for those revoted that they were going to take a look at that as well. I apologize for those. We actually had a few questions coming from Indonesia that most of it was going to be answered in our dialogue. So I didn’t bring them into the conversation, pricing workspaces and things like this. So we kind of work through a lot of that. But just know that there was some other things that people that just ignored.

[00:53:49.080]

And I’m sorry for that. The the other is, is that in honor of you, I try to do it. By the way, I tried to impress them with my automated Romanian software did not work, so it started Spanish, Italian gibberish.

[00:54:05.070]

So skip that one.

[00:54:07.170]

But in honor of in honor of and this is not the same software, different software, we will be a closed captioning, the replay of the show and we’re going to add Romanian into it.

[00:54:16.500]

We’re going to take oh, we appreciate the effort Romanian and for our one of our subtitled languages for this this week. And if we get the audience that we will keep it in, I mean, we do we can do up to ten languages, eleven total, really. We include English. So we’ll put more money in them for now. Yeah.

[00:54:37.030]

And maybe you could tell us how it works in your language.

[00:54:44.160]

No. For for the translation when Lauren doesn’t want it. Yeah. Oh no.

[00:54:49.560]

Because she’s probably looking. Please don’t ever do that again because it be right.

[00:54:54.040]

But it is a different software and it is a much more accurate software. This one was the software I try to use, tried to do it verbally. Audibly, and it didn’t sound good, it sounded bad if they want to get in contact with you or learn more about Cleanable, where is it that they can go?

[00:55:12.090]

Yeah, LinkedIn is the best way or on our website, climbable dot iyo. So, yeah, we’re looking forward to connect with everyone that’s interested in the tool.

[00:55:22.290]

Thank you.

[00:55:22.890]

Thank you for the time. And like I said, I have no interest in this platform. We’re really just those kind of casual like whatever.

[00:55:28.740]

You know, if it’s nothing like my account of when you saw how I’m using it, please don’t do that. No worries at all.

[00:55:37.320]

No worries at all. Thank you so much, Lauren. And it was really great. Great meeting you, too. And then Robert. Really nice connecting. Yeah. Thanks a lot for doing this and have fun. Thank you.

[00:55:49.290]

Thank you. We are looking right now to step out. We just shot off the laptop, hit the red button, do not turn off the Internet.

[00:55:59.550]

You want to remember that button when the buttons up, there’s like you want to hit it. It’s like this blowy little button. You do not know how much I’ve had to resist. You do not you don’t hit the stop, guys.

[00:56:12.870]

But I great to me, Robert dän damn. It’s amazing that you’re here. It is.

[00:56:22.200]

This is like and I see there’s a small group here so I’m guessing people somehow figured out I was going to join and decided that’s what I was, I was thinking it was me.

[00:56:30.990]

So other people can take credit for both of it.

[00:56:34.920]

It’s quite all right. It’s I’m not in the kill because it didn’t tell me either. So I just know, you know all in all, I know it’s one that sent the invitation out.

[00:56:43.660]

And I was all stoked, as you could tell the plan, what was going to be on them, like, you know, and then all of a sudden, like, flies, you know, I don’t know. Tim was the last one says, dude, sorry, can’t make it that it got its own pull a Jimmy Fallon. Just one interview. One of you. I’m good. I do that.

[00:57:03.120]

So you keep showing up. Dan surprised the heck out of me.

[00:57:06.480]

So, Dan, are you and Brooke, you’re in Brooklyn. I’m in quarantine.

[00:57:10.710]

So I got nothing else to do here. So that’s why I am I’m in Brooklyn. I grew up in college, but yes, to quarantine for the under the New York regulations that we’re right now.

[00:57:25.110]

So, Robert, not only are you here, but we actually have your list in hand, which I know I’m not trying to bash out and be negative, but there has been some time sequence issues here.

[00:57:34.770]

Words like list shows up.

[00:57:39.570]

Normally it’s I don’t think I’ve ever been later than two minutes after the show starts and nobody and nobody reads it anyway. So we do what we can do.

[00:57:53.370]

I even used that last week, did I not, to back me up, please.

[00:57:58.020]

I don’t want to get in the middle of this and only in a fight, and I’m just going to go hide in my room.

[00:58:07.500]

So with that in mind and that we have the author with us. Mr. Robert, please, what would you like to bring to the table today? Wonderful history.

[00:58:16.800]

I aggregate them and then you guys need to pick what what you what you like. No, I thought I thought the well, the top story I had was basically Sonesta has picked up one hundred and three properties from Intercontinental Hotels because the Service Properties Trust, who’s the owner, ran into a little problem because they basically had guarantees from Intercontinental Hotels Group that, OK, we do this, you send the money, we go, I’m not sure it was monthly or quarterly, but IHG because of, you know, covid was late on one.

[00:59:00.780]

And it’s like, hey, hey, guys, you can’t be late. And then they missed one again. And they said, we’re taking our our properties and and going home. Now, I actually it’s funny on some of the other, you know, industry publications, they just kind of took the press release. But the one mile at a time, which is the length that I used, had kind of the inside story on it, because Service Properties Trust actually owns about a third of Sonesta.

[00:59:30.750]

Right. So when they pulled it over, it’s like, well, we’ll just take it to our to ourselves. So what they wound up getting were three intercontinental, three Holiday Inns, five captains, eleven crown plazas, twenty Stanbridge Suites and sixty one Candlewood Suites. So they’ve got long term stay properties. They’ve got Intercontinental and I mean, that’s. That’s not vanilla. Yeah, no, that’s, you know, no generic holiday. Well, three Holiday Inns, you know, not like you’d say.

[01:00:04.130]

One hundred and three, you go, well, how many holiday Expedia.

[01:00:06.530]

They got 70 Holiday and Express’s or something like that, just scattered around highways, but pretty impressive little portfolio. And Boice, Sonesta made out like a bandit on that.

[01:00:16.940]

So if article, is that a done deal? Is there any legal ramifications of that? Oh, no, it is done. They miss it. Yeah, I missed it.

[01:00:28.590]

It does sound very much like somebody else’s property trusts have been going. Hang on, guys. Our contract says we will have some big promotion off the back of that one. Yeah. Oh yeah.

[01:00:39.890]

They said they sent termination notices over failure to pay minimum returns. And rent’s due for July and August, which amounts to twenty six million dollars plus accrued interest. So it’s not you know, small loss is not peanuts. Yeah. So they’re like, hey, this is this is real. We’re taking our stuff and going. And now so we’ll see. And then, yeah, last week was Intercontinental and yeah. Arcore right. With the core maybe picking them up.

[01:01:07.400]

So yeah, I’m thinking IHG is having issues so one to two of twenty six point four million issues to be. Oh well.

[01:01:16.910]

And even the property. So I mean the Intercontinental. So you’ve got Austin, Toronto and San Juan which are again great properties, great destination. The Kimpton serves. It’s Palomar in DC, Alliegro and Pellmann, Chicago, Monaco and Portland, and the Alexis in Seattle, which are all great hotels. Right. So, you know, those are the that’s that hurts for I know she has, you know, whatever, five or six thousand hotels. But these are nice ones.

[01:01:49.160]

You know, these are at least the, you know, some some pretty nice gems in there, plus all those Candlewood and Stabilities four, which should be doing great during a during covid times. Those are long term steps. So, yeah, I’m just going to comment on that as well.

[01:02:04.080]

And it’s also very interesting, God knows, because if I was coming in there saying that most of the properties are extended stay, which is the market that’s doing best right now as well. So it’s like a double whammy for me, achieve the financial issues of which clearly something going on there that to lose a big chunk of properties are actually doing pretty well. It’s almost like a double hit from.

[01:02:29.090]

Oh, yeah. Well, I got to come and I’ll say this in terms not just towards IHG, but when brands push their new found promotion on GD’s. To secondary markets, you’ve got to wonder why, what is what is what kind of good advice is that?

[01:02:47.660]

It sounded like sponsored advice because a lot of the brands are saying, look, we’ve got a new gas rollout program.

[01:02:52.850]

Wait a minute, there’s no international travel.

[01:02:55.010]

Yeah, well, it’s is still predominantly corporate.

[01:02:59.400]

I mean, you know, corporate travel that’s going to make with is like so you’re bringing kind of a sway back horse to a horse race.

[01:03:08.540]

Don’t think it’s going to really finish the run. Well, that’s a bar. You how adapted are you to what we are dealing with in a market circumstance?

[01:03:15.770]

It was very interesting. Focus wire at a, oh, webinar sponsored thing with Sabre. Right. And Expedia. And basically Sabre was pushing Expedia. Right. I mean, heavily, heavily for it. And, you know, I’m just kind of looking at going, wow, you know, times of times have changed here.

[01:03:38.600]

My second example, because they did the same thing on the brand side, we have an amazing boost deal that we can do now with our partners. And like, you want me to ride the horse that I got to pay the most money on right now.

[01:03:53.020]

And so they they just did a quick search here. So they have about 80 properties. So they’ve more than doubled the size of that brand.

[01:04:02.810]

Wait a minute, Robert, you brought Ballymun and if you weren’t here, she wouldn’t show up. I tell you that you are her favorite.

[01:04:12.130]

Well, I thought I thought I was everyone’s favorite line. I don’t know. I guess I don’t know that I go that far.

[01:04:19.360]

Lauren, you look so lonely. There’s so few of you.

[01:04:22.040]

And my meeting was over like and there certainly was not enough ladies after the ladies from the left.

[01:04:28.700]

So it’s great to have a serious lack of intellectual curve. Minus, of course.

[01:04:41.150]

It’s great to see you. Great to see you.

[01:04:42.980]

Thank you. It’s nice to be here. I was sure I wasn’t going to be able to come, but I’m happy to be able to always enjoy.

[01:04:50.210]

So we’re getting information on Brand these days.

[01:04:55.940]

Well, you saw the comment I put in the in the in the list that those Sebesta the properties that are going to celesta because because of full disclosure, many of those hotels that were in that group are our customers. And so so we were in the middle of working with us to do the try to do the transition.

[01:05:15.890]

But there are there are so many extended days, both Candlewood and Stanbridge, in that group of properties. I mean, far that is that is the big majority of those hundred and three properties. But there is a nice ones. The Toronto Yorkville is a very nice property. So they and they use those.

[01:05:35.240]

Kimpton says the Pelambres and they got a Lexus up in Seattle and the randomly scenesters or they’re going to come over the brand.

[01:05:46.310]

They’re going to be there. I think they’re going to be sinister, sinister. The Sonesta Esperanza’s the extended stay. So I think I don’t know if all the I guess all the candlewood and stabilities it all go go in together into that.

[01:06:01.820]

I’m not exactly sure those facilities are so, you know, those extended stay buildings are so they’re so typical. Right. They’re hard to turn into something else. Yeah.

[01:06:13.820]

You know, until you brought it up, Robert, I didn’t really. And that’s my bad. I just assumed and it was bad. That’s the worst part about assumption. It was just Deadwood hotels that had gotten into a mixed company. You know, the lack of productivity and the ownership wanted to take it back. And we do something. Oh, no, no, no.

[01:06:29.990]

They were like, oh, no, heck no. That’s that’s painful. That’s that’s a hurt. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we tried replacing replacing one hundred and three hotels ain’t easy.

[01:06:42.590]

Oh, you’re talking about SBC moving there to Senesco.

[01:06:46.760]

We are. Right. Well, because DC owns a third of Sebesta too. So that’s a that’s a great it’s a win win for us.

[01:06:53.780]

This is my team and we’re talking about it on Monday because it’s crazy. So SVC is fifty one of the current eighty scenesters already. So now they’re adding one hundred and three to that. I mean since that is basically SBC.

[01:07:10.460]

Yeah. Yeah yeah. Big.

[01:07:13.190]

Yeah it’s got a that’s got to hurt Kimpton. Did you look at the Clintons. They are losing. Oh yeah. A couple of more important ones. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[01:07:21.650]

The DC ones and Chicago. Chicago. Yep. Yeah yeah.

[01:07:26.390]

This just added two new properties just in the last month. So I think so cantell has been a brand in transition since I took them on. There’s been a fair amount of churn in the Kimpton portfolio, the two new ones. In Bozeman, which looks great, Bozeman is awesome. It really looks like a really swank little hotel, and then they took over an old hotel and that pitmen, which is an old hotel that’s been renovated in Pittsburgh, maybe somewhere in the Midwest, sorry, anything in the Midwest out there.

[01:07:59.200]

But I don’t think this is going to be the end of it, as clearly we were talking about last week as well. This is just the covid shuffle, isn’t it? I’m guessing there’s going to be more, especially as we get towards the end of the year. And I suppose what we’re kind of still in vacation, staycation time now as we get into the wrong type of months for certain markets. I think you’re just going to see more and more.

[01:08:22.750]

And, you know, we don’t we don’t know the full global impact of what’s going to happen that you’re going to see you’re going to see outside of the US. You’re going to see all sorts of stuff happening.

[01:08:31.750]

Yeah, well, I put in the show notes the term covered subprime shuffle. You heard it here first, the term KOPECEK.

[01:08:40.560]

Well, but you look at the you know, basically occupancy is now plateauing, started to go down because everybody was very excited, like around week 30 of the year. And, hey, everything’s great. Well, that’s always the peak week for the for the industry. So it’s like, OK, and it’s going to drop. And without corporate to fill in, group to fill, it’s going to it’s because it took winter.

[01:09:05.170]

A tough winter. Winter is coming winter.

[01:09:10.090]

So when you say it, we’re hearing from some of our customers where their properties in the state mostly haven’t reopened. And we’re starting to hear that they’re not going to for 20, 20, because the because the peak times they believe have passed or are thing. And so there’s no point in opening for a really what’s what looks to be a really especially, you know, the sort of four star upscale properties, what looks to be almost a no demand winter.

[01:09:41.770]

Why even bother? Right. Right.

[01:09:43.660]

I have a question that came up on the dialogue with a group of Schenectady. And, you know, you have these seasonal places in the northeast that closed during winter, OK? And a lot of them are very nice and they just simply closed because there’s just not the there was never the need and or the demand or whatever. Do you think that might be a shift that they might to see what we can get? And if we just put the effort into staying open and going to it depends on where they are, what they’re what they’re doing.

[01:10:12.310]

I mean, they might be able to extend deeper into the into the season, into the shoulder or something like that.

[01:10:19.030]

But at a resort in upstate New York, Mohonk, I think it is. Yeah.

[01:10:24.820]

They did a really cool presentation on how to change the off season.

[01:10:28.390]

In the meantime, people want to escape New York. They drove up there. And I think, you know, normally the winter season to get for them and would pick up. So so I think there may be something to it depending on where you’re located. Right.

[01:10:44.630]

I think because in Maine, for example, where there we’re going up to Maine in a couple of weeks. And like we’re hearing from the tourism, which I talked to the tourism people earlier this week, last week. And there are there’s a lot of stuff that will shut down as usual, because it’s Maine. Right. So and it’s too far away, for example, for New Yorkers or are people from New Jersey to get to and out the Cape.

[01:11:07.180]

So out of Provincetown, which is out the tip of the of Cape Cod, they’re also going to be closing, as usual.

[01:11:14.950]

Yeah.

[01:11:15.430]

Only because, like, so down closer in like towards the elbow of the Cape Dennis and the part of the cape that’s closer to the mainland, as it were, they’ll stay open longer because I have a friend who runs it for the Chatham Berzon, which is in Venice, and they’re going to stay open longer than usual because they just see the demand. But she expects they’ll close at some point, maybe later.

[01:11:42.160]

And it’s and it’s more than just the property stayed open as well. It’s the you know, the additional services, the attractions, everything else that’s going on. That is if they if they’re not going to stay open or they’re not going to be, you’re going to people tend not to go to a hotel and have nothing to do that will not if we don’t just go on vacation to go and see a nice hotel and stay in the hotel all the time.

[01:12:05.410]

If you want to go out of that shop, typically and I live in a location in the U.K. that I personally think is very similar to what may you know, it’s it’s a very seasonal and holiday destination. We’ve got mountains with a beautiful scenery, amazing, amazing lakes. It’s absolutely fantastic.

[01:12:24.180]

Well, why are you so Scottish?

[01:12:27.130]

You have to go there.

[01:12:29.860]

Yeah, I was just curious.

[01:12:31.370]

Yeah, well, see, I was just going to go and say that what Val was talking about was close to a little place with your tea in the water. But I didn’t even do that.

[01:12:38.530]

I didn’t know. So why shows up and he’s been here, he’s been having a good pushing too hard, you know, you getting some New Guinea like our other friend.

[01:12:48.340]

And I just want to make sure, you know, proper crap is given to everyone. Yeah, we got the and dad, you know, with Dan in Brooklyn, you know, the world’s upside down to this and Robert interest. And I thought you were South African.

[01:13:06.090]

I thought I thought he was Australian.

[01:13:13.060]

No, no, no. Come on. Come on. I don’t work for another company, you know, the fuel cell.

[01:13:21.550]

And so the rumors begin and they pick a day off.

[01:13:31.480]

And the reason being, the reason being is Murka Nerka.

[01:13:36.820]

Erica, if only they took you seriously and said a few more troops over. So a lot of people said sort of George. The third was your Donald Trump, right?

[01:13:47.750]

I think all races at the moment, he supports horses hanging in there for three or four days.

[01:13:55.630]

He said this is I don’t know, I’ll send it to all of you afterwards. But just I might have seen it the the little speech Boris gave to the kids at the school.

[01:14:04.490]

Oh, no. I said, oh, man.

[01:14:06.720]

And he made no sense whatsoever.

[01:14:09.580]

Like any speech he makes about what was great as they show the kids faces. And, you know, these were these are kids out of school, all in their uniforms.

[01:14:18.340]

And they were all were looking like this.

[01:14:20.860]

What is this guy?

[01:14:24.350]

You can vote. How can they?

[01:14:30.470]

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll definitely say it again. But Boris is genuinely something that you normally keep hidden in the attic and running the country.

[01:14:41.560]

I have no idea the crazy uncle sort of thing, you know, that I want to throw in something that’s very dear to my heart, because tomorrow, literally, when they are packing up and we’re driving up to Treasure Island and we picked up a Barbeau and want to spend a few days on the beach, and I am a hotelier through and through, and I very rarely have used Airbnb for anything.

[01:15:07.300]

Verber for Obama. Well, whatever your names, and it’s weird because you have an article about him and rub it in. Why? Because I told you I had brought this up on the show before. I totally misjudged. I thought really Airbnb, Yarbo and vacation travel were really going to be crunched down with this. How can you compete with.

[01:15:26.470]

We had that conversation with Chip and Cecil and Bob in March saying you have this huge opportunity, don’t blow it right. And here we blow it up.

[01:15:44.470]

What do you think? Cleaning products? Yeah, well, we’ve decided to start cleaning the rooms. Yeah.

[01:15:52.030]

Yeah, that’s actually off because if you read the side of a Lysol, can the point of one percent it doesn’t kill.

[01:16:00.640]

Yeah, it’s coronaviruses.

[01:16:03.310]

But but then that we shoot ourselves in the foot because we don’t have any messaging that’s consistent or we say we do this, but then we have all the evidence in the world that we don’t want to listen to us do.

[01:16:14.950]

Right.

[01:16:15.700]

And then and then the brands are shredded dark. We you can’t even control the message. So hotels can’t even reflect what they’re doing individually unless they get out from underneath the brand, come to conversation and go lateral into social, which is their only venue to really say, hey, this is what we’re doing, we’re going to show it to you. Don’t don’t just trust the fact the brand saying it and blaming them for it doesn’t happen.

[01:16:35.350]

I don’t I don’t think I was on the show. I was doing these things for focus. Right. These kind of like market market overview, market by market. We did Key West and the Marriott Key West. You went onto their website. Right. And they’re selling rooms. Right. They’ve got rooms for sale. You can get a moderate or deluxe or all this sort of stuff. There’s a little thing at the top that says link here for coronavirus, you know, just kind of a general blurb and you click on it and you get a list of like the states.

[01:17:05.050]

It’s not for Key West or anything like that. Well, at that time, they had a barricade up, but I can’t remember whatever.

[01:17:13.210]

Yeah, but the market was. Yeah.

[01:17:16.900]

This is what, thirteen years you’re out there and I mean, you’re two hundred miles away from the hotel. Right. You aren’t even close. And so, you know, I looked and thought, wait a second, they can’t be open. How are they, how are you guys doing this. And he’s like, oh, I’m talking to the hotel. They’re blaming the hotties. Oh the coaches keep opening this up. And we have people who are pissed off and it’s like it’s not the OTUS, it’s Dotcom, who is giving that total considers them Anota.

[01:17:51.920]

Yeah, that was great because it was so generic.

[01:17:57.260]

And everywhere around Lorne and I had a very upmarket Marriott marquee in New York, opened no food and beverage outlets.

[01:18:07.140]

No.

[01:18:08.330]

Yeah, I think you why the Key West Wing extremist is so clean now, because no one can actually get to them that there was no cleaning policy because nobody said it.

[01:18:20.610]

And I Lord and I presented to Montreal and Quebec HSM I where we were talking about this exact thing. You know, Robert, you’re kind of poking at even the very basics where we were actually talking about not just, hey, here’s what you know. What we’re doing to keep you safe and here’s what’s expected of you, but also talking about what is there to do, why even come and go? Are things different? Now, what’s what’s the the reason to go and we actually went and dug in pretty deep to one hotel, one of Lawrence hotels, that does it really well, you know, does a really good job of keeping kind of the stream of here are the things that are open here is like what’s different about them?

[01:19:11.540]

Like, really just well done. So hopefully, at least now Quebec and Montreal will start doing that. And now one floor in and I kind of got through the rest of every single other chapter, maybe at one point North America will we’ll be doing it.

[01:19:27.950]

We haven’t talked about it yet. So, I mean, I give him a pass.

[01:19:31.520]

I mean, part of it is part of it is food and beverage. Right. So if you’re staying in a hotel that doesn’t have any outlets open and you’re in a location, if it’s downtown location where there’s nothing around you, I mean, without a like even without a fridge in the room, why would you do that? Right. It’s called prison.

[01:19:52.190]

That’s where Dan is right now. But yeah, we like we recently spent two nights in a hotel out in western Massachusetts. And I called the hotel and said, do you have a fridge in the room? And they said, we do now. All right, great. That’s the right answer. But we’re going also we like Lauren. We we got to Maine and a couple of weeks we’ve rented a house for two weeks.

[01:20:14.630]

So, you know, like Arcadia or whatever. We’re staying we’re actually we rented two houses, one one each for two weeks and we’re going down pemmican point.

[01:20:25.100]

So down some of the peninsulas that are south of Arcadia. So we’ll stay a week at one house. And then we rented another house. We would have stayed at the same house for two weeks, but we couldn’t find it. Yeah, it’s very interesting. There’s a lot of supply up there is closed. So a lot of the vacation rentals supply in Maine didn’t even open up. Really? Yeah. So we there are a lot of a lot of people who couldn’t figure out how to manage their Vrba listing.

[01:20:49.640]

And so instead of sort of taking the house off, they you would click through to it and it would say there would be a note from the owner saying we can’t figure out how to take our house off, but we’re closed.

[01:21:01.910]

That’s probably a new enhancement to it.

[01:21:05.420]

Or either that or maybe the RV charges the owners take them on.

[01:21:10.520]

Well, I guess it would be I preferred we did actually. We did this.

[01:21:14.840]

We we went around Vario and contacted the property management group that was running this particular property because we are both cancellation policy sucks and and the service fee is like the online booking fees are really steep and 50 percent deposit loss for no reason.

[01:21:31.280]

No, you can’t there’s you could have the building burned down and you still got to pay.

[01:21:37.220]

Yeah, it’s it’s amazing the qualifiers for all of that. And so it’s it’s it’s actually beneficial if you can find out who’s actually running the property. You talk to the property owner himself directly because they’ll work out a deal for you or whatever have you to it. But yeah. And they don’t take advantage. You don’t exploit this opportunity, Vigário. And I just come from a hotel perspective. You really do do better business, a little bit more tolerant of flexibility.

[01:22:01.460]

You know, I was not really you should do when people are hurting, is being tolerant as to how much supply was offline. I mean. I mean, but it is main. Right. So it is is the far end of the um. Yeah.

[01:22:16.220]

But they are coming into your in foliage right now. So right next couple of weeks now it’s a little early.

[01:22:23.840]

So I’ve also got a mixture of, of issues of people who perhaps gone bought as an investment. And then when the money dries up with covid, people aren’t going. I’m thinking. So that’s what happened over in the UK. You’ve got people who are left with B and B, but they’ve got lots of of properties. The left with it. They’ve still got mortgages to pay on these because that way it’s left them in trouble. So it’s not necessarily that they they they chose not to open up again.

[01:22:54.230]

It’s some of them are actually.

[01:22:55.350]

These are businesses not just like me now or even if it’s just me doing the whole going to go without being stoic.

[01:23:05.000]

He’s just I have to ask Lauren if my mic was on because it was I just couldn’t figure out how to get into this conversation, but then puts his hand up.

[01:23:20.000]

Now, that’s what I’ve been on these calls.

[01:23:24.050]

So I go to sharpen that point and I’ll go back into my corner. I’m dying to talk about it.

[01:23:34.120]

So the one that in New York or maybe it’s the Hawaii and now that I grew up a little bit, but now that I’m in Brooklyn, maybe I should I should work on that. But one of the things I think that might be going on with the. Airbnb and the proposed owner, well, now is listening to an interesting interview with Brian Chesky, and he was talking about how now you’re going to see this movement to these radio stations or local places that you can drive to that don’t necessarily have a lot of hotel inventory.

[01:24:06.560]

So New York, Airbnb is dying in the Poconos and the Catskills are doing great, though. So they’re seeing a shift in where their business is going. So it’s not necessarily that we did things wrong, which we did, but where we have our inventory and might not be where the demand is now.

[01:24:25.070]

Yes, that’s a really good point, because we were out at the Berkshires when we were in Worcester, Mass. And and there was a lot of Airbnb inventory, but also all the hotels were open. So I think there was just demand for all sorts of accommodations out there where, you know, so like the hotels, you know, there are a lot of New York City hotels, for example, that aren’t open, just like Airbnb is. An Airbnb isn’t doing big business in city centers either, because there’s just not much in the way of demand for those locations right now.

[01:24:54.380]

Well, we look at them just a little bit, reflecting what we’re doing for just we picked it because of the density that the hotels represent, running across people in elevators, hallways, common areas. We didn’t want that. We wanted to be able to go to a place that we could keep separate, that had a kitchen, that we could do our own cooking. Not that we don’t want to enjoy local food or anything which to get picked up or delivered.

[01:25:14.030]

We’re not going to go out. We’re at that next level. It has to be this safe for us. I mean, we’re not the I don’t care. This is a hoax. The Earth is flat. I’m going to go out and do whatever I want. You people. I’m the you know what? When we go, we we’re going to pull the linen wash because we when we chose washer dryer, we’re going to wash the linen before we even use it.

[01:25:30.140]

You know, we’re going to work things down before we use them. And then once they’re done, we know they’re going to be there for a few days. We’ll have to keep doing that. But I’m just saying we’re going to do our own cleaning and process because we want to be that much more safe. If we’re going to do this for three or four or five days someplace, we want to make sure that we’ve done extra precautions as well.

[01:25:46.220]

So I think there’s some of us like that that are going into the market now. And these destinations, you say, are better choices for us. We’re not looking for the engagement of a downtown area. We’re looking for getting away from where we are to a place that would be fun to be, in this case, a beach for us.

[01:26:00.260]

So, yeah, I think what will be really interesting on that loan you mentioned about you’ve picked the bill because obviously it’s got the extra facilities you can cook it in and not that you didn’t want to go with the local restaurant. And it’s how I think a lot of it is. What I found quite interesting is the different takes between the US and the UK. So we’ve obviously realized that staycation is going to happen when chances are that there’s not going to be as many people leaving the country.

[01:26:32.840]

But we’ve still got people locked down in their own homes. And so in order to kick start the hospitality, the FNB side of the hospitality industry, we create the eat out to help out scheme, which it’s only Rateliff, it’s only room for the month of August. But basically they give the 50 percent discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks up to a maximum of ten pounds per per head on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, midweek.

[01:26:59.720]

So the idea was to try and promote the FMV. And also, you know, if you if you go to it, what I found really interesting is I’ve actually done a couple of times with the not big family get togethers, but with a couple of family members and things like that. And I’ve been surprised at just how busy the restaurant’s been on a Monday evening or a Tuesday evening.

[01:27:23.150]

And if this is really, really worked and I wonder how much that would actually help the Marijke help us, especially in these destinations where you’re going. I wonder if that’s it that would ultimately help out. But then again, given the amount of debt that’s probably going to be wrapped up, you know, the government picking up that tab, we’re going to pay for it with that time. My kids are going to pay for it.

[01:27:45.180]

But we have to get you guys, get you guys get the government’s paying for like, what, ten pound ten pounds of a meal on certain days of the week?

[01:27:55.070]

Yeah, that’s the eight to help. So it’s up to ten pound per person. Right. And it’s 60 percent of your meal, which actually I didn’t realize was was no alcoholic drinks until the first time. The second time didn’t make that mistake.

[01:28:11.840]

Yeah. Yeah.

[01:28:13.500]

But you’ve got to have a more consistency of perspective of safety with masks and things like that. Right. It’s more even keel across the country. Or is it is it regionalist to people blowing it off versus people taking a serious. How does that look for for England in particular?

[01:28:28.640]

It’s well, England, it’s definitely country based. So Scotland are operating slightly different rules as as Wales and Ireland. But, yeah, the rules have been broken consistently across the UK. What kind of mirroring each other, but just slightly off in terms of when things are happening. So, for example, schools are going back in September and Scotland came out and said. All schoolchildren have to wear masks in communal areas, literally within about 48 hours later, borage comes out, says, are we going to do the same?

[01:28:59.020]

Yes. And so that’s a terrible Boris impression that know. So now England is out of that. So the schoolchildren, when the walking corridor is going between that not actually in the class, but when you on site and particularly West, where space is a bit narrow and lots of people are, we’re going to have to wear masks and that will be enforced. That’s going to be because we have places for us.

[01:29:23.380]

I think for it to work well would be like taking the example of the keys that we were talking about earlier, you know, down there, massive, mandatory. And you walk over to Miami and not even close.

[01:29:34.950]

No, there’s no standardization in the making so that the White House lawn, you don’t need it either. Oh, no, no.

[01:29:45.430]

You having guests and everything else. It’s a magical place.

[01:29:48.940]

The clothing knows not to go on to the White House. You know, it’s it’s an intelligent book. It really is. Yes, yes.

[01:29:55.740]

Yes. Yes, very much so. No, no. In Texas, the the brilliant move by the governor at the beginning of the pandemic was it is not the state’s role to tell any of these cities what they should be doing. That is a local decision. They will make their own. So, of course, in Dallas, they were very kind of strict. They have a judge who’s the highest ranking elected official. He’s a Democrat doing everything right, right next door.

[01:30:24.130]

And you know where there’s Plano, Lauran, up in your your old neck of the woods. Alan, Alan, the county, the top ranking county person there, decided that every business was an essential business and that there weren’t going to be masks or anything like that. Right. And I mean, it’s like, you know, people are driving down this highway and going back. This is not going to work out well. Right. So then it moves on and things now start start happening.

[01:30:57.550]

And they they want to start opening up because there’s pressure from Trump to open up. The governor reacts to that is a Republican and he basically makes an executive order that says you will open up and you will do these things. And no local jurisdiction can have more strict requirements like wearing a mask or anything versus what the you know, the governor has has declared as an edict. And you’re like. You know, 60, 40, five days ago, I think you were on the opposite end of that one.

[01:31:35.100]

That’s very much like our politics is, you know, you can do what you want until it disagrees with what I want you to do. And then you need to do what I want you to do.

[01:31:43.350]

And then then you saw what happened in Texas. I mean, just through the roof where the governor did finally have to capitulate to some reason and keep people from dying.

[01:31:55.440]

But we’re still having 200 people die today.

[01:31:57.910]

And that brings to a point on some of the stuff that we are talking about is this false starting that has happened has put some companies in very serious jeopardy of not being able to restart again. They kind of spend a good amount of money to try to restart that. They got shut down and now we’re faced with trying to restart again.

[01:32:16.950]

And there’s a lot of hotels where we’re beginning to see a growing obituary list of companies, hotels that are just we tried and it didn’t work and we don’t have anything left and nothing’s coming over the horizon to help us with this.

[01:32:29.190]

We’re we can’t work now. Look at what? Look at what the airline industry is doing. Obviously, much more consolidated the hotels. You’ve got American going, hey, guys, the money runs out in October. We got nineteen thousand people who are going to get furloughed. You don’t want that to happen. Send yeah. We need our beeks. What what again? And United just United took a slightly different approach. I was American with nineteen thousand everybody united goes, oh we have twenty seven hundred pilots who are going to lose their jobs.

[01:32:59.580]

Right. And yeah. So it’s going to get interesting.

[01:33:03.810]

It’s quite interesting you say that as well Robert, because this is a local business forum that I go to here, here in my hometown. And we actually had and our local MP who came and actually spoke to us for a brief period. And I know I’m quite critical of him, but he was actually he actually spoke quite a lot of sense. At one point. He was he was leader of one of the opposition parties in the U.K. And so to actually listen to them and get some insights from what was quite interesting and he took an approach here that was saying it doesn’t matter what we do here in the U.K. and probably elsewhere in other countries, we’re going to pay as a as a government and as a nation one way or another, that we either extend Feltl and help people and foot the bill for that or we’re going to end up picking it up in unemployment.

[01:33:58.320]

And so whether there’s going to be benefits there or whether know just General Jumbo’s one way or another, we’re going to pay. So why don’t we actually try and be a little bit more proactive, keep the fellow going a little longer. That means that businesses can still actually survive, that if we can weather this storm, that’s going to be something to go back to. Whereas if we just say no, it’s ended and everybody’s unemployed, there isn’t going to be any more businesses, there’s not gonna be any more hotels.

[01:34:22.650]

All there’s going to be a lot less hotels to be able to go back. And I thought that was incredibly insightful, just actually looking at the problem and saying, well, you know, we’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Let’s go with the let’s go. Let’s go with the lesser of two evils. Well, yeah. Let’s get into the politics and then go on to Boufal that it’s just crazy. Oh, yeah.

[01:34:41.490]

And the politics and the politics are what’s screwing it up. I mean, because everybody is pretty much I mean, you go McKinsey is not the most liberal group that I’ve run into.

[01:34:52.380]

They’re pretty conservative, pretty conservative folks there.

[01:34:56.520]

You’ve got to deal with the health the public health situation first or you can’t you can’t fix the economy. The economy is the output. Right. The input is doing all these things of what are you doing to keep people safe and give customers consumers confidence that they can do this? And will they have disposable income and all those reassurances and then the economy gets going when everybody feels, OK, we can do this instead of just damn. Now turn on the economy.

[01:35:27.690]

And it’s like it’s not how not how it goes. OK, so.

[01:35:32.880]

Oh, just one last thing on the airlines. Bob Crandall. Right. Former chairman of American Airlines. His prediction, The Wall Street Journal, that post covid business travel will be off. This is like a permanent reset, a third to half. Forever, forever, right? Yep, well, now there’s New Jersey and Arizona, the expanded airplane graveyard.

[01:36:00.810]

Let me tell you.

[01:36:02.430]

So I thought you put this one in fortressed or should they show up? And that is the other helpful, ever participating, ever committed, ever supportive OTAs in the U.K. market?

[01:36:14.150]

Oh, yes, I did. I did.

[01:36:17.550]

That was something that shows something directly about the fact that Kleinwort opens.

[01:36:23.120]

They have been noticeably silent in your face or I’m sorry, your from South Africa.

[01:36:28.550]

We shouldn’t have New Caledonia one day.

[01:36:39.770]

And that doesn’t surprise me because I don’t think there is and I don’t think there’s much of an appetite for the uta’s over here with the U.K. market as there is perhaps in other areas, which I’m surprised that because certainly a lot of people I’m speaking to, I do the whole staycation thing. So we are seeing a great deal more. I just don’t I don’t get why. I don’t get why the otters are not jumping all over that here in the UK like they have been in other areas.

[01:37:12.930]

Maybe it’s I don’t know, maybe it’s a to that British people are looking to come around and maybe would just be more British about it. I don’t know.

[01:37:22.540]

But don’t worry, everyone will sort it out together.

[01:37:26.510]

We’ll see.

[01:37:30.180]

Hey, since we do have the pleasure of them being with us, how is Hawaii doing with all the restrictions that they had, the closures that they had some quarantines, one of the very few things that made it out of news and this goes back a few weeks, obviously, was that somebody actually did get fined because they ignored the quarantine and they did get that five thousand dollar fine or whatever it was, because they’re out and about.

[01:37:49.470]

I mean, lots of things.

[01:37:51.390]

Nothing does good for tourism, like having your tourists and mug shots, you know, looking.

[01:38:04.270]

It does that all the time. That’s the that’s the best. A travel card, you know, come to a Visa Moksha.

[01:38:10.360]

We’re giving you you have a choice of the orange or the striped kind of beach pullover type.

[01:38:17.860]

So just yesterday, Hawaii went into lockdown again. Right. So, you know, we were in lockdown for for a few weeks and we had one or two cases a day, and that was it. And then we opened up and everybody went back to the beach and had their baby Lou out and got together. And then we saw an explosion of cases. So they’re back on lockdown. We’ve been on a 14 day quarantine now since essentially, Mark.

[01:38:43.020]

So it’s almost six months, however many months it is now that we’ve essentially had no tourists. We’ve gone from thirty thousand tourists a day to a few hundred. Maybe those ones were just put it in jail.

[01:39:01.020]

So, I mean, how many how many hotels are are closed completely like the Hilton Hawaiian Village, I believe Hilton one.

[01:39:09.570]

I think it’s I think it’s still closed like hotel about Waikoloa, 80 percent of the hotels are closed and they’re operating at very low occupancy, which essentially only local visitors, which we call Carmelina or with essential workers or or things like that. But military. But, yeah, it is it is a mess. And I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I’m not sure how these guys are going to be servicing their debt.

[01:39:40.410]

And we’ll even even Disney violated when they closed, they said we don’t have an opening date and they just never even set one. Right. It was just like you think Disney. OK, well, you know, they’re doing you know, Disney World is open and they like they aren’t that they didn’t do California and stuff like that, but you’d think they’d try to maybe do so. They’re just like, screw it. Right. That’s shutting down.

[01:40:05.940]

So initially they were going to do a negative test.

[01:40:09.570]

Allows you not to quarantine, to try to do bubbles. Right? Right. They stop that. So you have to quarantine. So essentially, you’re blocked off travel. Now they’re talking about resource bubbles if you stay on the resort, potentially. But, yeah, I mean, the hope was that they would have these negative tests coming in, which makes sense. You had negative test. You don’t have to quarantine and then you start to prime the pump a little bit.

[01:40:36.510]

Right. Learn to learn about what works, what doesn’t work. Well, sort of just slowly, you’re not going to see a huge flow of people, right? Yes.

[01:40:44.430]

No, it starts moving really good contact tracing, everything like that. Yeah. And then you can you can start ramping up, ramping up gradually.

[01:40:52.920]

So, Dan, you’re in you’re in New York now and you’re quarantining you and your son are quarantining.

[01:40:59.940]

And is that because. So so we go to Maine and a couple of weeks where from the state of Massachusetts and Maine does it like Massachusetts. So we have to so we as Massachusetts residents have to go to Maine and quarantine for 14 days, or if we have a negative covid test and the test is no older than seventy two hours, we can that’s our sort of get out of quarantine free card. Did New York offer anything like that.

[01:41:25.710]

Does not have that. Hawaii doesn’t have that. Oh. Or you’re required for the fourteen days which makes absolutely no sense.

[01:41:31.830]

Some of the, the quick tests, the reliability is not good.

[01:41:36.550]

So we’re, we’re, we’re doing the test at our local hospital. So, so basically our primary care physicians gave us a prescription which allowed us to get into the hospital, which is a they’re a it’s a twenty four hour return. But but it’s early. Yeah. But it could be as long as forty eight hours just because of volume. Right. That’s good.

[01:41:54.720]

That’s forty eight hours. That’s good. Yeah.

[01:41:57.020]

And that’s, I mean that’s the only way that allows us to do this. Right. Because otherwise if we hadn’t found a way to do it, I mean we could have lied. Right, because it’s. Self certification, so there’s a form you have to download from the main main website and then and you basically are self certifying, right. But you have to provide it if you get stopped for any reason. But you don’t have to like to hand it in as I go over the border.

[01:42:19.730]

But but yeah. So so, Dan, you’ve got a you’ve got a quarantine for 14 days in New York. And then when you go back to Hawaii, you’ve got a quarantine for another 40 days. That’s correct.

[01:42:31.280]

So the question of the interview is always a point in Hawaii because of the diminished local inventory, because of the demand for Airbnb and so forth. Has it gone up or down because of this self quarantine requirement? Because obviously a hotel with a room without food, even if it’s delivered, is still a jail, as you know, a place that has facilities that you can stay 14 days before staying longer, hopefully. I mean, it has to change the spectrum for Airbnb within the market itself.

[01:42:58.740]

I mean, a lot of counties have actually stopped vacation rentals. So Maui and Hawaii, stop it. I think Honolulu still allows it. But I mean, you just don’t you just have so few people coming in and the ones that are are usually pretty.

[01:43:18.830]

Well, you know, five thousand is nothing compared to the American who went up to Canada and apparently is facing a half a million dollar fine.

[01:43:26.930]

My God, patient zero for Canada.

[01:43:30.290]

So so the Canadians are serious. So apparently he just went up there, right? I don’t know his whole story, but he went up there, checked in, didn’t declare, didn’t take a test, didn’t quarantine. So they they gave him one ticket and then the hotel where he was staying knew that he was out and about. So the hotel called the tip line and it basically blew the whistle on the guy. So they arrested him again. And yeah.

[01:43:54.980]

And apparently he can face up to a half million dollar fine because he didn’t get the first time.

[01:44:01.340]

I can tell you from from actually it’s a business model for us right now for the hotel I have up in Vancouver as a client. They they’re very serious about the certification program. I mean, fortunately for us, the hotel, why we went for these is the people that do have to quarantine for essential services and travel and so forth. They come in and we’re all suites so they can stay for 14 days. But the hotel is connected to the verification process.

[01:44:22.250]

They verify that that person is not leaving their room. There are times that they are allowed out if they need to smoke or go out, they just want to get outside. There’s an area that they go to and the hotel monitors and certifies that that person fulfilled the quarantine requirement of staying within their room. We have certain enforce that zone and that’s what they monitor. We monitor the elevator usage. We monitor the stair users. It’s amazing. But it’s a it’s a business, but it’s been productive because we keep occupancy in there.

[01:44:48.740]

But they’re serious. They look for license plates on cars. They look for I mean, they’re they don’t want us there.

[01:44:54.560]

They they don’t they don’t want they don’t want us bringing in the virus. Right. So this guy was apparently just like, I don’t know, we thought he was going to Texas or something. Right.

[01:45:02.690]

So he just treated it like like he was going somewhere else in the States. So that’s it was the lieutenant governor of Texas because he loves is the same.

[01:45:11.660]

They let the old people die. We were good.

[01:45:13.640]

Whatever sort business it is, what it is. Right. It’s the Canadian the you know, it’s a it’s a small country up there. They they figure it out. They don’t need to actually build the wall to keep America. They just find you half a million dollars.

[01:45:26.060]

No one is ever going to go to Australia.

[01:45:34.280]

We’ve lost all sense of it if you’re talking. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:45:38.430]

No, Robert has gone silent for us since then.

[01:45:45.680]

Do you want to say something? Now’s the time. And there’s a chance that the world is talking about and kind of the way they wear their watch you about the hotels in New York where they’re quarantining the homeless.

[01:46:01.430]

They just let you go out in order to get your heroin, fix and harass people, then go right back there. What is that?

[01:46:12.320]

Why are you speaking from experience news? Get up. Never go out for a couple of minutes.

[01:46:21.140]

Now you got to argue back. And that’s right.

[01:46:25.310]

You’ve got a long sleeve shirt on from the impact of marketing perspective, literally. It’s a multifaceted what targets we do we are doing and what contingencies. If that market turns into a hot spot and whether we want the business from there. You know, we have our feeder market cycles which are all off whack right now anyway. We’re going into a fall season. I mean, I know that when Ed asked you about the leaf season is like no goes to the Tennessee Valley first works its way up.

[01:46:56.690]

You’re on the latter side of the season, the early side of it. But all said the same. Right now there’s there’s a lot of interest in doing that. Drive travel. But isolated some of the hotels that are in the belt that I know about and deal with, they’re not getting the demand cycle, but sure as heck the Airbnb and vacation rental market in that area is doing very well.

[01:47:18.670]

Well, the leaf peepers and so it’s actually the other way around. So it starts first up here and works its way.

[01:47:24.250]

You’re absolutely right. Oh, gosh. From this market.

[01:47:29.740]

But actually, the leaf peeping market up here is huge up here in New England, but it’s bus driven. So you cannot you cannot like locals. Like, we would never I would never go to Vermont on an October weekend or a late September weekend because it’s just a congestion of coaches, right? Yes. Big buses full of tourists.

[01:47:52.210]

You know, not mostly not American, although some but a lot of people from overseas who want to see the New England fall. So. So, yeah, I mean, locals would just would never go up to go up there on a weekend. But those people aren’t going to be here. Right. There’s you can’t get in a coach. Right.

[01:48:12.250]

You’re not even even with masks on. You’re not going to sit. Nobody nobody smart is going to sit in a bus for six hours driving through whatever with people all around you. So there’s not going to be much in the way of leaf peeping or fall foliage season up here. Down there more sorry.

[01:48:33.610]

In the south, it might be different. I mean, having grown up there, used to just get in your car and go ride up to the Smokies and see what you could see or even North Georgia where I’m from, you could just you just get in a car and go up there. I don’t know if maybe since then it’s turned into something bigger.

[01:48:51.010]

No, no. It’s just it engines to a lot of trends that I didn’t expect and actually would have said opposite thereof, like auto sales are up. I would have thought with unemployment figures and uncertainty of finances, that people would be less like the vehicles. But what they’re saying is, is that a lot of people have never had cars that are inflammatories or they’re actually getting cars used or new to build, to drive and go places in the safety of them being in their own vehicle in some senses.

[01:49:19.490]

And then also down here, our housing market prices are going up.

[01:49:25.010]

And that’s because people are leaving city center. So there was there was an article in time somewhere this last couple of weeks about rents are dropping in New York City and San Francisco. What happened ever again? And it’s because people are leaving. They’re leaving the metropolitan areas.

[01:49:42.440]

We’ve seen something similar. If somebody said, no, no, please, go ahead. Over here in the U.K., and I imagine it’s probably the similar in the US as well, because I’m just selling a house right now. As soon as that was kind of lifted, we get our house on the market. And I was just surprised at just how buoyant the house market has it, even though from a mortgage point of view and the lenders that are out there, they’re not really giving fantastic deals at the moment.

[01:50:10.980]

You need a much bigger deposit than you would have done, you know, only four or five months ago. But the housing market is going absolutely crazy. I think what speaking to the relatives of of here in the U.K., obviously estate agents, as we call them, they’re saying when what they’re surmising people get stuck indoors in lockdown for such a long period of time, they suddenly realize, actually, this house isn’t the right house for me anymore.

[01:50:37.010]

So I want to make a garden or I want to leave the country or whatever I want to do. So we’ve seen a huge a huge turnover in sales of properties. And one of the point you mentioned about car sales as well, we actually work with a car rental firm and there are global car rental firm and there are certain countries. So it’s quite interesting. We’re seeing pockets of like boom car rentals. Again, it’s the staycation. Normally, I’d be jumping in a big steel tin can and flying off to somewhere else.

[01:51:14.690]

Can’t do that anymore. The Cadillac outside. Do I really want to be stuck in a couple of thousand miles of my own vehicle when the price of what I was going to pay for my holiday in an airplane, I can get a bigger vehicle, put put mileage of somebody else’s vehicle. I’m all mod cons in there, preferably shielded glass for the kids so I can give them behind me.

[01:51:37.250]

I say so I mean just to just to see these little things that are coming up. The flip side of hospitality. Yeah. 19, yeah. We live in we live in the suburbs of Boston and I’ve had over the last three weeks I guess I’ve had three real estate agents call me unsolicited, asking if we were interested in putting our pocket. I mean, no thanks for asking. I mean, we do have a my husband and I came up with a number.

[01:52:08.150]

Right. So if we if somebody calls up and offers us that number, sure.

[01:52:13.090]

We know what platform we did that I think was Zillow or something else, maybe number something that you give it a number. Sure. You buy the house for it.

[01:52:22.550]

But over here we’re looking at houses just because I’ll tell you one to segment the the market value prices are going up because we’re finding a lot of people from the East Coast and from Tennessee, Pittsburgher. Like, I don’t have to stay here to work anymore. I can be someplace else.

[01:52:38.280]

That’s a lot more comfortable. I need a larger house better priced out of that. And we’re happy to be that market for a lot of the Florida market right now. It’s coming down here. So we have that.

[01:52:46.940]

But we’re also we have a lot of friends, a retirement age down here. And one of our dear friends is actually putting a pool in where they had never thought about putting a pool in before. Why? Because they’re they feel themselves at high risk. They used to go out a lot like, do they have an RV, they have a boat and so forth. But in order to really enjoy them, you’re around other people at points. So their travel has been greatly reduced and they’re more at home now than they ever have.

[01:53:08.630]

And they’re like, screw, let’s just make this place better and let’s enjoy it more. And right now, pool sales down here are on a massive waiting list to put in.

[01:53:18.830]

And there’s no discounting. Or if you buy now, stuff is like, here’s the price. If this is what you want bomas done because people are doing the same thing.

[01:53:26.630]

They’re saying, if I’m going to be at home, it’s going to be a home, it’s going to be whatever we can make it to be, which we found as well has been people forget whether it was mentioned on this show or whether I’ve seen it somewhere else. But the same note. In fact, it was in the in the group, the business groups I mentioned earlier on, and people having domestic work. And so like new kitchens and various other things, they’re surmising that the money that was meant to be the vacation money that would be spending on air flight and all the rest of it.

[01:53:57.680]

OK, let’s let’s renovate the house. Let’s. Through this list, the other so put in a pool, it doesn’t surprise me because we were thinking about in the same way we’re going to put pool in the air. It’s going to be an ice skating rink because it’s that cold. And then the other 50 percent of the it’s probably still going to be too cold to use it. So we decided against it.

[01:54:16.980]

Should be OK.

[01:54:18.240]

We need to put we wouldn’t need to put water in it. Just range that much it fill up.

[01:54:23.600]

That was actually a bit of a logic of doing this rental that we’re doing over the weekend and into next week is where I had business travel.

[01:54:30.570]

I don’t know. All of you probably have the same thing. You probably had a half a dozen or more travel cancellations of. What we’re going to be doing is some of those were going to be combined with bringing my wife with me and we go spend a few extra days and so forth of some nice places. All that money got parked, obviously. And so we’re looking just like whatever. We weren’t even price sensitive. We’re like, this is what we want.

[01:54:51.240]

It’s about whether it has what we want, does it, and the things it really wasn’t. A price sensitive issue which mindfully hoteliers should be looking at is if they can answer that stuff correctly and put into context what people can do around them and what’s available for them and so forth, then they can optimize in the fact that their people are wanting to make a trip if they feel that the safety thresholds that are to them are met.

[01:55:15.330]

And if you go down first, thank you.

[01:55:24.000]

Is much nicer than the usual elbows.

[01:55:30.240]

It just had a conversation with the client on the same thing, that it’s not a great issue really. Now it’s about insuring them that they’re going to be safe, that their booking is flexible, that that there are things to do that that just make them comfortable decision to book their as opposed to playing it as a great game. So it’s it’s just interesting how you would think you might think the opposite, but it’s really all about delivering. It’s not only about delivering the message, it’s also about operationally delivering at once.

[01:56:03.060]

The person gets that right.

[01:56:06.080]

Yeah. And I think we’ve seen it. Nor one is that our numbers of people, so guests. So we track, of course, loads of data. So we look at for some some primary data point. So one of them is demand. Right. So click through on the call to action on the call to action and then conversion. How many once the guest clicks through, how many times do they actually request an upgrade? And what we’re seeing is that the demand is actually higher now than it was in January, February or even the same time last year.

[01:56:38.580]

And our theory, so the demand rate is higher and for the basically the same product types. So we also look at other types. Right. So what are our guests asking for it? It’s still primarily room configured room upgrades, you know, from the standard came to the Deluxe King as an example. But our theory is that guests are paying lower rates. Right? They’re just they’re just booking at lower rates because rates are just lower than they were this time last year.

[01:57:06.660]

But that also they want what they want. Right. So they want to feel safe. They want to feel comfortable. So if they feel comfortable with a bigger room and that big room is being offered Friday now. Twenty five dollars a night, they’ll take it. And so we’re seeing demand higher and and conversion higher. And that’s our theory, is that is that guess what they want. They want to. They want to. They want what they want.

[01:57:31.530]

Right. And they’re willing to pay for it because the rates are a little bit lower at the point of booking.

[01:57:36.870]

The demand in some places is is so much lower. So I think it’s a mentality of the type of person that is traveling. If they’re if they’re a little bit you know, if you’ve got full demand prick of it, then it’s price because it’s it’s that cultural market, as it always has been. But when I’ve not traveled anywhere near as much as I did pre college and certainly not staying at hotels already or anything like that whatsoever. But if if I have to, it’s now going to be for a net and then for a necessity, there’s going to be a real reason for to have to do it.

[01:58:13.890]

So then it’s not really going to be so much about price. It’s going to be, as you say. And I think, you know, what are all the other factors that make me feel comfortable? And if I if I have to pay a little bit more for that, then I’m going to do it because again, I don’t want to go to a hotel and find an apartment block shots behind the door, as I did when I went to Liverpool about a month ago.

[01:58:37.440]

I think I think you answered your question you said was in Liverpool, but that’s just suffice to say that they were not mine. Yeah, that was that the what questions asked of the management of that policy, let’s put it that way.

[01:58:52.260]

Well, it’s an interesting point you make about the type of person who’s traveling, because we do get so from some of our customers when we we call them. People who have our product rights, we’ve been spending most of our time counseling our our customers on how to manage, and we do get pushback from some hotels saying I’m just so grateful for a warm body to come through the front door that I don’t want to bother them with an upgrade and our and our responses.

[01:59:17.670]

That’s not the way to think about things, because a guest now is even more important that the that you offer the guest what they what it could be, whatever it is in your building that is attractive to those guests so that they have exactly the stay they want. So they’re as comfortable as they can possibly be. And the types of people who are traveling tend to be people who do not just have anything to do with their risk. It has everything to do with economics.

[01:59:43.830]

Right. Because people have lost their job and who who are struggling financially, they’re not going to travel anyway. Right. The last thing that they don’t have the disposable income to travel, people who do travel do have that income. And so this is the right time to make those.

[02:00:00.600]

And it’s a better time even before the income level or the credit card levels go go big.

[02:00:12.310]

Right. There’s two platforms I’d like to add into this dialogue that have been extremely helpful, especially for brand properties right now, as because Brand is so much of a zombie. It’s just a walking. It’s it’s there, but it’s not there. And you can’t really modify level your content is there’s so many brand hotels that are the website doesn’t fulfill any of this at all. They have a covid-19 statement than that. And you pointed eloquently out is inadequate at best.

[02:00:37.920]

One is I found that and I found this out by using it for a client that has restaurants, Waze has a really expanded opportunity on their platform to identify more content about what you’re doing for covid. And I find first for the restaurants as to pick up and delivery options and the capabilities of getting through with no contact. And that was the first starting point. But then the hotels, you can add that type of context into a two as two if they’re driving down the road and you’re saying we are completely safe, this is our service record.

[02:01:07.380]

This is our our policies. This is our procedures. This is our mandate to serve our guests and so forth. You actually have room and space for it on there. That also goes for Google my business. You have now an expanded of content on there that you can put a lot more information because if your website can answer the questions and they really are still considering even with that obstacle to know more about what you are doing, at least you have some voice somewhere other than.

[02:01:30.780]

So that’s still a given, but at least here also that says these are things that we’re doing and you can for videos in this stuff to show what you’re doing on those platforms, which makes it even nicer. You know, so there is tools. I mean, you would wish the brand would pony up and allow these things to be used in functions and create I mean, what Maria took five months before they gave you a covid module that you could modify.

[02:01:56.130]

Thank you.

[02:01:57.900]

To the party. And they’re furloughed. Right.

[02:02:00.330]

So they don’t even have the staff there to do that. They’ve got rid of them. One of the ten, right? Yeah. Yeah. Layoffs as well as the industries lives and good people. But the industry is really good people and talented people at that as well.

[02:02:16.350]

And you would think that they would at least allow the keys to go back to the owners of the management companies, say, look, we don’t have to do on our side, but we can give you access to things that will allow you to if you need to do it yourself or hire the people we let go but know how to do it. You can come in and actually add this stuff to your content on the site so you’re not at a total zero.

[02:02:34.320]

They’re not even doing that. They’re just saying doors closed, we’re locked. We’re of we’re nobody’s on the side. Wait until we’re done. We’ll give you the answers. It’s kill them. Yeah.

[02:02:44.070]

All right. Well, on that happy note, I have to go. Right. OK, balance that.

[02:02:50.940]

You are the last remaining vestige of civility that we have in our organization.

[02:02:55.020]

Hey, how about you?

[02:02:59.910]

No one does, whereas if they can find you so you can find me, I’ll end up perini on LinkedIn or Twitter and no one is nor one dotcom.

[02:03:09.780]

Mr. Cool, thank you as always for your well curated list. We, as you see, hit highlights of it, not all of it by any means and by. And let me go and say that if anybody wants to sign up to an amazingly well in this way, Mr. Cole, they are easily able to go to Bitly betrayal. Why Ford slash Rakita lower case, no space. I’ve said that every show mcrobert even while you weren’t here. OK, I just want to know you were you and your executive producer and.

[02:03:36.540]

That’s right. It’s right here. He’s checking in. He’s wanted to know if we’ve covered the poop in the row.

[02:03:44.070]

What can they find you, Mr. Cole, rock shooter, dot com or at Robert Cakehole on social media.

[02:03:50.250]

Is this a beginning of a good trend like you’re going to be able to pop in? Or was this just a once in the moment? Is probably a once in a moment. So you see you immediately.

[02:03:57.810]

It’s going to land just before. Election Day, you’re just this one shot deal, right? Exactly. So before Godzilla pops out of the show, can I add the poop? This week was talking about travel, NASA talking about what happens when you travel at the speed of light, which I thought was pretty, pretty good. You’ve got something with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos fighting it out to see who can try to get to Mars and beyond. And then the role is a real retro, which is this is from Travel Weekly.

[02:04:32.740]

Apparently there’s now travel. Shameen So if you travel, you’re getting shamed for like, hey, either it’s not safe because of covid or you’re a white person taking advantage of a you know, a brown country or whatever the case may be.

[02:04:49.330]

So that’s good.

[02:04:52.330]

So this is over. Next time I want to shove them at the tail and maybe do the retro and then leave on the pooper.

[02:04:57.070]

So, you know, I agree with that. I agree with that. Yeah.

[02:05:04.750]

And the mysteriously never elusive Mr. Dan Waxman, the privilege of having you hopefully for next week as well. Right.

[02:05:11.600]

He’s going to be contained because where is it going to go? I’ll take it. I’ll take it. Wait till I call it the New York City and talk about how you’ve been violating that, that they’re going to get to keep you for another 40 or so, call it from from county.

[02:05:30.040]

Are you in?

[02:05:30.730]

And I’m sure right here I want to out of a special guest from Rikers. Right.

[02:05:37.900]

So they’re wondering where you were to find you, what it is that you do. Where can people go? Go to LinkedIn. And I am there then Waxman and then my website is Sarto dot com, which is s.A 80 dotcom.

[02:05:55.360]

And last but by far the least nice resident South African.

[02:06:03.710]

That’s how I see the day then. I love it when you’re always here then.

[02:06:11.380]

But you’re my favorite New Zealand Lanzetta.

[02:06:16.570]

Indeed, absolutely.

[02:06:18.610]

But I was there obviously before trip into that one. This is my first show with Robert Dunn and it’s been an absolutely miserable experience.

[02:06:32.020]

I was very sad at the end of my webcam with that, with you guys very much and curating all of the stuff on the on the newsletter. But if you want to contact me, it’s Tristant Haywood’s three and six. The agency that’s three and six is letters. No numbers. I’ll get me on LinkedIn. My name is Hajjah W.O.. It’s a bit unique. There are only about 40 of us in the world and I’m the only one with the phone.

[02:07:05.620]

And so you can’t really not find me there. You know that. Nobody wants that. So that’s true.

[02:07:11.860]

And I would be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to Mr Assange, who popped in with Flip to you find him. I flipped out or would say knowledge on LinkedIn as well. And also to our earlier guests from Cleanable, whose names I will not try to repeat because you know me a names I can not can’t remember the name either.

[02:07:29.980]

I have problems with names that’s been in them and plus there were Romanian based. So I was then challenged the very beginning. I kind of like every time I tried to.

[02:07:38.380]

But part zinnias. Not that hard. Yes, but cats is cool.

[02:07:44.880]

But they can’t. Mohammod, I can’t even say right. It took me two years to get. It’s plain to see you say it makes sense, but then five minutes and I’ll be like cat.

[02:07:56.710]

Yeah. Once you get up to three syllables that gets really not so just I just like names.

[02:08:05.020]

I welcome to pub too.

[02:08:11.500]

So if somebody wants to get in contact with you, how are they going to get in contact with just don’t use your name, just reach out to me.

[02:08:17.860]

Just say your name is Bob. We’re good for this show and other shows you can go to hospitality, digital marketing, dot com forward slash live look for show number two hundred and sixty four and you’ll see all the three episodes there as well. We’re in our seventh season now. I think something like that by the way.

[02:08:34.150]

So every three months that’s another year. That’s for every year.

[02:08:38.950]

Twenty years by next week. You know that right. Twenty years today.

[02:08:42.460]

By the way Robert, I have found videos from twenty fourteen.

[02:08:45.760]

So you found the blab about twenty fourteen twenty photos. I thought all those disappeared.

[02:08:54.310]

I had copied a lot of them so I actually have evidence of a twenty fourteen.

[02:08:57.550]

Actually this may be the. Twenty eighth of August, I think, yeah, this may be the sixth anniversary, but we were past it two weeks ago, but you weren’t here, but that’s OK. No, no, no, no. When I started, I didn’t know we were just I was and stuff.

[02:09:15.340]

Oh, not that we actually had the marking the place. Yeah. My participation started, I think, at the end of August or beginning of September. So.

[02:09:23.100]

Yeah. Well you have been a missed component as has been. Darn it.

[02:09:26.250]

Sincerely so you got 20, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, six. Lauren.

[02:09:34.170]

And we’re now because of two weeks ago here in our.

[02:09:38.910]

OK, if you feel better, it’s OK.

[02:09:46.380]

The fact that we don’t run that long is already too long, right? No. Thank you very much, as always. Thank you, everyone. That was on the circus and all the other platforms. Just as a reminder to everyone, we do translate this into ten of the languages remaining will be one of them this week because of our guest co-host. We also rebroadcast this and Sydney time at eleven thirty Wednesday mornings and also recast this UK time, which is somewhere close to South African time on Wednesdays for the EU as well.

[02:10:14.480]

And we do have also a podcast that we do, which we also some weeks back at the same time right after the shows as well.

[02:10:21.060]

So I have I have a question. These are the translations subs. Are they dubbed or subtitled?

[02:10:28.060]

Subtitled. I don’t even try to do the dub and. No, no, I do.

[02:10:31.800]

I do with subtitles, which I did. Yes, I did my podcast where I did do the audio over in Spanish. It was a girl voice that I used and I did really well actually.

[02:10:43.290]

I got a compliment for it. But that work is so much of a pain in the butt. Oh my God. Because you know what? I tend to talk a lot even in twenty minutes. I talk a lot. And if I only had to do it in blocks of five hundred words, it took me like ten downloads before I could actually get all the words translated to the right language.

[02:10:59.160]

Then I had to edit that stuff. Then I had to put it into the language, then I had to read it. I’m like, yeah, it’s not worth the extra audience to do that when it comes to me.

[02:11:08.160]

And then any translation just doesn’t understand the accent just so terrible.

[02:11:12.690]

I won’t let you know when I do the transcripts for the whole show.

[02:11:15.600]

I have to look you out and you actually go in and go, no, he didn’t say I know. Dead lovely tribute to the queen.

[02:11:25.520]

Yeah, no, I mean, some of the stuff that comes out of translation too is like, how did you get that from that?

[02:11:31.200]

I mean, what I’ve told you, I thought I thought I have my best four, five vehicles involved been faults. But I have to put on my fake American voice to use the voice control so I can call my wife when I’m in the car. So if I if I call and after that it goes. You want to play David Bowie?

[02:11:53.090]

No, I do not want to make a phone call.

[02:11:57.960]

So I have to put my my poshest fake American voice on. It sounds terrible, but I want to know and I’ll save that one for next week on the next time.

[02:12:09.210]

You know, I had to fix Ben’s voice when he jumped on the show last week.

[02:12:16.830]

It literally said Obama sucks because he said Edward St. Onge, but for some reason go to Obama. And I’m like, oh, oh, oh, that’s that’s brilliant. In fact, I’m going to I’m going to hack. It was linked to and I’m going to make that a little tight. Obama So tell me which I never said this. The last thing for me, kind of boring and then it’s going to kick my ass for saying it. But he he’s been using and I know that competition is applicable to where to put these old links in posts.

[02:12:52.320]

And when he first did it, a put in a test post that just literally said text post but forgot to turn it off and that what life yesterday on his paper. So I couldn’t into it yet. Dude, did you mean to send that because I’m about to make it so everyone in my social circle, he quickly deleted it before I could get to it all day.

[02:13:16.800]

That’s going to go like it. Give me my full attention. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[02:13:23.680]

I’ll just a test post. Yeah.

[02:13:26.610]

So then I hope that you get to join us next week.

[02:13:28.500]

Robert, maybe I’m not wishing you that you don’t have the work, but I hope and thank you all interest. I got to tell you guys to catch up with you guys. Just an email format. If you wanted to simulcast this on your Facebook page, now that you have it up and going, we can set that up for you. If you want another link to Facebook and stuff like that, we can just do some simulcast for it.

[02:13:47.820]

So I did see that I got dropped off the host list completely, though so far I mean it.

[02:13:54.660]

I’ve never missed the number of. How are you doing? You’re in the top of the list. If I hit the little information button here within your what you would call lifework, oh, no, you’re not in the list anymore.

[02:14:12.480]

That list. Yeah, I put interest in, you know, because I only have 10 spots, but then I have to go over and put out 20 invites. So you said you were going to be around for a while, so. Yeah.

[02:14:24.170]

Oh, guys, I got in a fight down again.

[02:14:33.600]

I want go to my room. I’ll see what I can.

Loren Gray

Founder / CEO of Hospitality Digital Marketing

aahoa, ahla, hospitality, hospitalitymarketing, hsmai

About us and this blog

We are a digital marketing company with a focus on helping our customers achieve great results across several key areas.