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Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. This is our first episode in 2024, recording in 2023, but really excited nonetheless. Got a great guest with me. I’m gonna introduce in a second, but this is a part of our Hospitality Trailblazers series. And if this is the first time you’re doing this, we’ve done this over a year now we are talking about the future of our industry and those individuals, hotel management companies that are really driving our industry forward. And, no better guest than I have. Charles Oswald, president, CEO of Aperture Hotels. Charles, this is your first time to the Suite Spot. Welcome in.

Charles Oswald:
Hi, it’s good to see you. Thank you.

Ryan Embree:
We’re excited to be here, Charles, we’re gonna cover a lot past, present, and future today, but let’s start in the past. You know, this is a new guest. You’re the first of the year. We work in this industry where this is, people come from all walks of life and how, and how we get into hospitality. We’re gonna talk about one of those tracks with hospitality schools a little bit later. But tell us a little bit about your background, Charles, and the journey that led you to Aperture Hotels.

Charles Oswald:
It’s been a long, it’s been a long story for sure, but, you know, I began in hospitality when I was in high school. I was a cook in freestanding restaurants, and I did that on through, uh, through college. Then moved into, uh, you know, in convention services at Hyatt. And that began my food and beverage career at some award-winning Hyatt Hotels. You know, they transferred me from, from Tampa then to Dallas, where we grew with a lot of responsibilities. And, uh, that was in the early nineties to mid nineties. Uh, and then I went on to become an, an a, uh, assistant general manager and general manager of some award-winning full service Holiday Inns, Marriots some Hilton Properties through the late nineties and early s before ultimately becoming a vice president of operations, uh, with an up and coming sophisticated private equity firm, noble Investment Group. And I would say really learned a lot there about the PE side, the investment side, uh, proper asset management and so on. And that’s really what groomed me for, uh, for my next role when, um, when Noble Investment Group sold their management company into interstate hotels and resorts. Uh, at that time, you know, the predecessor to Abridge that we know today was the largest, uh, hotel management company. That was an opportunity through that transition to step out and become a partner and CEO in my own company, uh, with HP Hotels. So I ran, uh, HP Hotels for eight years through 2019. Grew that portfolio to just shy of 50 properties. Then I transitioned into an investor role through the pandemic period planned to invest in hotels, but we know how hotels were through the Pandemic. So I had to pivot, stepped into some other industries, including managing investments for, uh, you know, some retail office development, had a charter yacht business, and several other interesting deals associated with commercial real estate. Uh, but then last year I was like, I just wanna get back to my passion. I wanna get back to hotels. This is really what I love. And so that’s when I joined Banyan Tree Management, which was a captive management company to Banyan Investment Group, which we then relaunched as Aperture Hotels to take on third party management company assignments here in, we just relaunched, in March of this year, 2023. It’s been a fast and furious ride, but operations at my roots, from the beginning and developing from Cook to CEO.

Ryan Embree:
That is certainly fast and furious, but it’s always interesting to hear these stories. It, it’s, there’s always that theme of adaptability, versatility, changing roles from departments to different states. I’d never get tired of hearing these stories, Charles, because there’s always either, you know, one mentor or you know, one group. You know, like as you were speaking about that really has like a, a really big impact on what shapes you for where you are in your career. And, and I think that’s so important, especially for our younger hotel listeners and audience to hear in this, is to really look out for those mentors along the way of your journey. ’cause it really is a journey in our industry. We have the privilege of working in hospitality where our skills are very transferrable. Uh, you can go from one state to state or country to country, brand to brand. Obviously some differences there, but a lot of similarities as well. So I love hearing your story. I do wanna fast forward to today, though, you know, here we are at the end of 2023. We’re recording, we’ve launched in 2024, but this is always a great time to kind of take a moment to reflect on the end of the year. At least. I like doing it different year for you starting a company, right. So looking back on 2023, some of your biggest accomplishments, how has it exceeded your expectations or met your expectations going in when around this time last year?

Charles Oswald:
First I have to say, you know, we began this journey in 2023 course in 2022. So when I joined the company a late first quarter of 2022, the idea was to upgrade what was essentially a family style management company into more of an institutional grade, third party management company that could deal with sophisticated private equity firms and REITs and so on. So this meant taking a lot of time to thoughtfully upgrade the tech stack, our systems, our processes, our risk management program, our insurance programs, and invest more into training development and, and really upgrading our strong players to our, or or adding strong players into our corporate leadership. So with that being done as we stepped in 2023, we have a really strong team built. And so this was the time now to relaunch that company as Aperture Hotels under that new profile with targeting third party management. So we began the year, year as we entered the year, you know, we had a dozen properties that were owned by the original affiliate there, formerly Banyan Investment Group, now Satori Collective. And so we then relaunched his Aperture Hotels at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in 2023. And since that time, we’ve actually added ten third party contracts into our portfolio. So we’re averaging just over one a month. And now, now it’s a really strong start for a new, essentially new company that has never really marketed itself as third party before to add that kind of have that sort of steady growth record through its first year. So we’re really excited about how quickly that’s ramped up, that’s exceeded our expectations, and that’s, again, that’s pure third party outside of any investment affiliate or anything like that, I couldn’t be more proud of, of our team and how quickly we’ve been able to adapt.

Ryan Embree:
Fast and furious, just like the, the story you said of your hospitality journey there. Certainly indeed. Now, as we prepare for the new year, you know, I know with some of the properties that you’ve already had, this could be the first new year you’re going into some of these other properties. How do you prepare going into a new year from the corporate side, and then maybe move into the more property level side for our hotel listeners that might be kind of prepping for what’s typically our slower season in the winter?

Charles Oswald:
Well, you know, I’d say first that, that, you know, our corporate team is built to support the, the property team, right? So, uh, so our goals, our objectives, our priorities are really one and the same. So for us, having a really clear set of priorities is important. Making sure that we shape all the things that we do in our business around those clear set of priorities is important and a very strong culture. Uh, so from a priority standpoint, it’s always staying focused on revenue enhancement with the primary measure being, you know, market share changes, right? Then our customer experience, our profit management, and our team member engagement. So with those four things establishes our priority. We’re looking ahead into 2024. And what are we doing? Well, I think we’re cognizant that there’s still, you know, labor pressures, inflationary pressures, brand standards creeping back into full force as we roll into 2024. And that means that we have to be really diligent about executing the fundamentals and making sure that our key priorities are always top of mind. Uh, we’re dialing in right now into productivity based labor controls, making sure that we’re not leaving any money on the table. We’re not getting fat and happy here with our business or lazy as we roll through the holidays. But really keeping profit margins in mind for the investors for whom we manage. We’re very focused on distribution strategies in. Then at the same time, as we step into 2024, we look at the beginning of the year, we wanna make sure that we’re effectively training, developing, measuring, and managing everything that we do. So we do that primarily through our balanced scorecard, which it measures all the key elements of our key priorities. And then, you know, throw in senate programs, right? I think most solid companies, you gotta prepare and anticipate, engage, evaluate, and reward. And we’re, you know, following that stream as we step into 2024,

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’s certainly a great time to do it. We’ve had a bunch of episodes kind of talking about this being the year to really take a step back, analyze what worked in the year before, make adjustments. You’re talking about productivity and, and even staffing efficiencies, because this might be somewhat of a slower time for your staff, and then all of a sudden you’re gonna get stress tested here, come spring break and, and we’ll already be in the summer. So the more work you can do kind of right now, grinding with your team, making sure that every little nook and cranny is kind of taken care of from everything from the operation side, even to the digital marketing side of things, which, you know, we love to talk about on this podcast, that’s gonna serve you during those busier times. You’ll reap the rewards come the summer and busy season.

Charles Oswald:
Absolutely.

Ryan Embree:
I love this time of year also because this is the time where everyone likes to throw out their trends, their predictions, you know, OTAs, brands, publications are always trying to guess what’s next. And, you know, some years we’ve been a little bit better than others, right. Exactly. So, you know, I wanna get your prediction on one thing because I have been hearing a lot about kind of this return of the business traveler, which we’ve started to see it a little bit more pick up, but really leaning into it into 2024. What, what’s your prediction and, and are you guys maybe targeting or marketing to business travel differently than you did previously?

Charles Oswald:
Well, yeah, right. So I think when we talk about business travel and, and how we do the, you know, we, we, we like to, we think about the art and science, right? And scientifically, I think most of us historically would look at office utilization trends and air traffic trends as key indicators that we track when we’re conversing about the business traveler and when they come back, right? So looking at 2024 and where we stand right now today, you know, air traffic has, it’s recovered above 2019 levels, right? But a lot of that was, was leisure lift as well, not just really business lift. So on, on the flip side of that counterbalance to it, office utilization is hovering below 50% of 2019 levels. So below 50%. Now, lease rates might be indexed at about 96% of 2019, but the utilization is low. So what does that do? I mean, it certainly puts some pressure on hotels. You know, we’ve seen a lower index recovery and urban markets and suburban corporate office markets. But I’ll say this about that trend. You know, we have to be, careful when we’re discussing national trends. ’cause every market has its own unique thumbprint, right? For example, Miami, Phoenix, and Austin office, lease rates and utilization are largely recovered in excess of 2019. But we look at San Francisco, San Jose, Philadelphia, way behind, right? So we can’t just apply the average to every, you know, it’s, it’s like the weather every single day is anything but average. You know, it’s a little rainier here. It’s that day sunnier there on that day. It’s hotter, cooler. But what we’re seeing when it comes to travel, individual traveler is, is there is a shift that’s occurring right now. Many fortune 100 companies are calling their employees back to the office. I think in mid 2023, we saw the likes of, uh, companies like Oracle, Dell, capital One, Google, Citigroup, AT&T. They’re calling people back in the mid part of the year, late spring and through the summer to get back to three day a week patterns. Now it’s that five days a week, it’s three days a week, can be a little hard on hotels, but we’ll talk about that in a second a little bit more. And then the last trimester of 2020, uh, we saw Goldman Sachs, we saw Apple, BlackRock, uh, meta Cigna, Comcast, and, and FedEx, you know, and other more companies, um, calling people back to the office for everywhere from two to five day patterns. And in 2024, there’s a little bit more like I saw, recently that, USAA, for example, is calling people back in the office in q1. So companies are beginning to realize, and I don’t know why it took so long to realize this, but realizing that productivity fell back during this whole remote hybrid work period. And in Covid, uh, as a matter of fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I, I was looking at their, their, their numbers, productivity as a country, we fell back 1.9% during the last two years. And that is the largest decline on record. That, that, I mean, that’s shocking. I keep that in mind. We’ve progressed 2% per year for well over a century. And for us to go back in a period where we have all this added technology and communication skills in systems, and I mean, like what we’re using here, right? Video conferencing pro, you go backwards when we’re supposed to be more predictivity working from home and not sitting in community it says something about the importance of the work environment. So companies realizing that, and I think as labor conditions gradually, say normalized, but also it’s a little bit of a new normal, but we’re seeing more small corporate group meetings are occurring. Some transient and extended stay is bouncing back. But it’s, it’s slow build. It’s, it’s, it’s not a, there’s no hockey stick here. One of the things that companies are having to deal with is, is some of their workers relocated during the pandemic. And so when you relocate now, what do you do with them? Well, I think they’re going to, that’s gonna convert into what we call super commuters. And some people who have to come back and stay at a hotel maybe for two nights, for their three days in the office, two or three nights, right? To man, to work with the new company mandates. So yeah, there is some recovery, but don’t look for the hockey stick. Look for just gradual small recoveries as companies try to balance their budgets, against inflationary pressures and rising, wages, but versus the need for improved productivity and people actually being in the office.

Ryan Embree:
I completely agree with you there, Charles. And it’s interesting because both of us found ourselves at the hospitality show, the inaugural hospitality show in, in Las Vegas this year. And, and one of the things we, or, at least I, I thought when I was there was just how much it felt different when we were physically there. And I think that is gonna happen with people coming back to the office or even traveling for business. And especially for maybe a younger generation that wants to get out and have experiences. They might be the ones raising their hands saying, oh, I’ve gotta travel for business. I’ll go ahead and do that. I’ve been cooped up in here and now companies making me come back into the office. I am having a little bit more face-to-face interaction. I’m feeling a little bit more comfortable. And now they wanna do some more jet setting. Who doesn’t like a good business trip? You know, especially when you’re younger, you don’t have families or anything like that. But it’s interesting to see those trends because that’s, that’s obviously targeting a different type of traveler as well. And maybe having those shoulder nights attached to that business trip saying, Hey, I’m gonna go ahead and extend this business trip into a little bit of a leisure vacation. So, super, super interesting. I’m curious to kind of see where it heads in 2024, but as we predicted before, sometime these trends and predictions don’t always go the way that we want them to. So, but, I wanna switch to staffing. You brought it up before we had Chip Rogers on a couple episodes ago. He noticed some sentiment about, you know, staffing finally starting to feel like the tide is changing a little bit, which is, is a welcome change. ’cause it has just been such a headwind and a challenge for our industry. Any creative things that you’re putting in place, I’ve, I’ve heard some really, really creative ideas out there for Aperture Hotels to retain and recruit talent?

Charles Oswald:
First, just kind of piggyback on what you said about, about the hospitality show, which is put on by AHLA and Chip Rodgers, of course, CEO fantastic job there that he’s doing there. And so as CEO of Aperture Hotels, I sit on the AHLA management company committee as well, where they have, a lot of the, the stronger management companies in the industry are represented there. And there are some highlights from a recent study that we did in the management company, you know, I’ll share with you about turnover in the labor market conditions, as a whole, we’re able to get some numbers through hotel effectiveness, which is the largest, you know, labor software in the, you know, in the industry as well, you know, some payroll records and looking at what turnover rates are, we’re challenged by and what wage increases have been. And, and just, just some quick things to think about is, is it turned out that there is a 35% increase in general manager turnover versus 2019 still. Yeah, up 300 dips, from 2022, that’s a hardest to fill role, uh, where you need talented people. And there was actually still climbing turnover. And so we have to counter that as a company and we’ll talk about that in a second. And then there’s the high turnover of the, what’s the highest turnover role? Well, I was just sitting there talking to you about, you know, 35% increase to 35% turnover of the general manager role annually. But at the housekeeping, you know, room attendant role, would you believe that 34% of all room attendants turnover in the first 30 days? Just think about that. So, so if you’re a, you know, a small hotel with 10 or a bigger hotel with 20, you know, room 10, you can count on three of your employees not making it to the 30 day anniversary if you’re average in the industry, that is just remarkable. But I think expresses the challenge we have of dealing with turnover and, you know, the current labor conditions. And, and so how do we navigate the challenge? There’s, there’s probably three things I put out there, right? First you have flexibility about four hour shifts, hour for, for some people that, you know, whether they have, maybe they have two jobs, they have to deal with kids coming home from school or think about four 10 hour shifts. You know, think about shifts at I regular times, you know, I walked into one of my hotels, I was actually about to leave to go catch a flight, as I was leaving that hotel, it was, it was four o’clock and they were doing a pre-shift with three housekeepers that were coming in the afternoon. I was like, you know, I said, how did this come to be and tell me? And they said, well, we’re, we’re being flexible, right? We don’t always need every room. You know, it’s not always a hundred percent, uh, sell out. And so we can clean in the afternoon into the early evening, give people extra, uh, hours or, or, and she pointed out, said, this girl over here has a, this young woman has a, a full-time job during the day. She gets off at three o’clock, comes over here. She mentioned another person picks up the kids from school, drops them off for the daycare, you know, and they come over and work a, a short shift and so on. So, so being, uh, I think being flexible with some of those times. In some cases, we’ve allowed a little remote hybrid work actually with sales managers. Uh, and that’s worked out okay for us. And then we have the ability for employees to use an app to select available shifts. So there’s a, there’s a workplace app that they, they, they see, um, what shifts are open there. The manager puts open shifts, schedules, people, uh, and then whatever the open shifts, other people can pick them up. And I, and I think using technology to allow people, enable them to work the shift, they really wanna, i, I think can be helpful. So, so flexibility, adaptability, um, you know, we can use contract labor to fill in some holes, though. Evidence suggests that, uh, contract labor doesn’t, uh, always embrace the same, uh, brand culture, drive the customer experience or deliver the same productivity and consistency of our own long-term employees. Uh, so you gotta be careful not to become reliant on it, but that can give you a hedge at least to, to help during maybe some of those markets where you have higher, you know, peaks and valleys, right? And then I’d say third is culture and engagement. We gotta think about skills and career development. We have to think about employee wellbeing. So we’re i those three things, flexibility, adaptability, culture, engagement, and you know, skills, career development, all that stuff. It is really important for companies to think about as they navigate the challenge.

Ryan Embree:
Today, as I interview more and more industry leaders, Charles, I love to hear, and even Chip, you know, really embracing technology in our industry, which typically is slow to kind of get to there, right? Sometimes we’re still filling out the dry cleaning cards and putting them on the outside of our doors. So to hear that we’ve had to make this and, and it’s kind of had to be kind of an adapt or die situation where it’s, we’ve had to adapt this technology, but I think it’s gonna serve our industry so well into the future because this is what the modern workforce wants, is open to, they know how to communicate. I love the idea of an app and being able to kind of pick shifts and, you know, obviously we’re at 365 24/7, so there’s only so much flexibility that we can lend there, but finding these places of efficiencies I think is gonna go a long way. Really, really cool to hear you embracing that over that you and your team embracing that over there. And one of the things you guys do, a fantastic job of, you know, doing research for this episode. I love your website. I love everything about it. I love the vibe of the website as a digital marketing podcast, you know, really admired it. One of the coolest features, if you haven’t been over to aperture hotels.com, check it out. ’cause they’ve got a built-in LinkedIn feed on their, their site. And I think that is brilliant. I mean, as, as someone that preaches the hotels all the time about the importance of using LinkedIn as an occupancy driver for groups and corporate travel, can you speak a little bit about why that was a priority to kind of embrace LinkedIn on your website and what that means to you?

Charles Oswald:
It was Brighter Minds, marketing minds than mine. Uh, Lyft suggested that. So I think what I presented as the challenge is pointing out that I think corporate websites become really stale. You know, people work really hard at first to build it. And we did as we were, as we were trying to establish our, our initial identity as Aperture Hotels, uh, earlier this year. And Golly, it was, it’s a lot of work and a lot of time to pick and choose every word and number you’re gonna put up there. But then most people, I think they, like, initially, they go into it and they, they put up a couple of maybe a newsletter here or there, and then they just kind of forget about it. And so, and then this number of corporate websites to me, are stale, they’ve got some news and updates the first two or three months, and then enough for years. So I was thinking, what are our competitors? I think the last update I saw on there was, you know, like 2015 and like, geez, it’s, it’s okay. We don’t wanna be like that. Um, so LinkedIn is, frankly, it’s, it’s, it’s the, uh, you know, it’s the best, uh, social media tool. I think for business. It’s easy, uh, to post on the go. And, and I think I’m just probably more likely to put something up on LinkedIn. We did engage a party to, uh, to help us manage that and make it more of a tidy graphic presentation and to encourage us to, to post more frequently. And so linking that over to the website just seemed like a natural solution to solve the stale issue and make sure that, that we were really posting by having it seamless. You know, that’s part of what we teach, you know, taking that industrial engineering mindset to our business. How can I, you know, put something in one place, do it one time, and, and maybe then broadcast it to more audiences, have more people see it and it doesn’t require an extra step or maneuver, but, but automation. So I think, uh, that was an efficiency that we really liked, and it helps keep our customers up to date on what’s happening with our company.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s so smart because it, obviously, if we have any members of our audience who work at a management company level, it’s, it’s fantastic because that’s where you wanna push potential owners to is, is your website. But even going down to the property level, right? We’re trying to do is create channels and highways to our website. And social media is such a clever way to get people to your website. So that’s why I think it, it was, it was such a unique idea that I hadn’t thought about before. And you’re right, there’s always that PR and news feed on a management company website that sometimes might be a little bit hard to fill, but you’re always updating your LinkedIn that pushes kind of traffic both ways. So someone finds you via your LinkedIn, they’re gonna make it to your website and vice versa. And, and all of a sudden you become kind of a part of their, their living in your feed. Just excellent work. So as you could tell, I’m very excited about it though. I wanna keep this episode civil. We talked about this off screen, how we’re kind of rivals in a sense. It’s no, it’s no Michigan or, or Ohio State, but I attended the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality. Uh, you attended the University of South Florida and Tampa. You know, I’ve seen that you, we, we were talking, you know, off mic about how some of the tremendous work you’re doing. You know, we won’t compare records or anything, Charles, but let’s talk a little bit about just the importance of these hospitality tracks, because, you know, we just talked about staffing and getting people into our industry.

Charles Oswald:
Yeah. Listen, uh, you know, it’s been fun, uh, being a part of this journey as this school has risen 72 spots in their national rankings here over the course of the last 10 years. So really excited to see that progress. But, you know, why are we there? What is this all about? Look, we gotta help people. Hospitality is a little legitimate career. You can go from housekeeper to general manager. You can go from blue collar to white collar. You know, I went from being a, a cook in the kitchen to being a CEO. And if I can do it, anybody can do it. I mean, I’m just saying like, it, you know, it, there is a career progression that can happen and what other industry can claim that. I mean, it’s, it’s, we’re talking, it’s amazing what, what the potential can be tapped in. People. A lot of times people’s future is, is, well, I’ll just say that their, their education is highly predictive of their, of their future life circumstance, right? And there’s a lot of people in hospitality that maybe didn’t get a formal education, but through our industry, they can learn on the job. Education isn’t always necessarily a certificate, a degree, something hanging on your wall there. But it can be that on job learning, it can be career progression, it can be cross training among different departments. You know, I mean, when we talked about my past earlier, the fact that I was able to, the opportunity to refine food and beverage skills with, uh, with Hyatt Hotels. And now when I was with Weingart and Hammonds, I think I, we really, uh, focus on the operational fundamentals. And I learned, you know, a lot of my rooms and labor management as I got into, you know, with Noble Investment Group, I learned about the deal and what makes that work and what private equity expectations are. And you learn all these different areas, right? And you, and you eventually begin to apply it. So, so I’m really excited about the, you know, the work we’ve gotten to be able to do over there and help develop young people. For me, I’ve had an opportunity to be a part of the, the curricular curriculum development there as well here as we continue to refine that, it’s the fastest growing school at the university, which already has over 50,000 students. This, this is a big important distinction for you know, for a mature university to have this fastest growing school, but we need people to realize what the potential is out there. This is a great industry. It can be a good time, it can be hard work, but what a great career progression opportunity it presents.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, that’s why I love sharing these stories, Charles. ’cause I think years ago it was, I fell into hospitality and now we’re hearing a lot more people say, I went to school for hospitality. And, and it’s sharing stories like yours, Charles, like some of the other leaders, I I started as, as a bellman at a property, kind of moved around in, in operations before here at Travel Media Group. And that still has a, as a reach into our industry, there are just so many pathways, like you said, and we get to be a part of experiences, which very few industries can claim that they do. So hearing more stories, more hospitality tracks, more rivalries in state rivalries, like we’re talking about today, those are gonna be the things that really drive more people and, and help with this staffing headwind that hopefully, like I said, is at least getting a little bit better right now. So let’s talk about shift your perspective. I guess we, we’ll call it shift gears to shift your perspective. I see it all over the website featured the header of your LinkedIn profile. I always find it fascinating to see how companies land on a mantra slogan, a motto like this. Tell us a little bit about shift your perspective, how you landed on that and what, and what that means to hotel listeners?

Charles Oswald:
So a aperture, right, the, the term refers to, uh, its camera lens. You know, think about that on your digital camera or the old school cameras, but that’s the light, uh, or the lens through which light travels and, and the focus really occurs, right? And I think that says a little bit about us. You know, you know, our goal and our mantra, we wanna shine light on the opportunity, unlock the hidden business, uh, opportunity that, that, that, that may exist. And then, you know, focus on the priorities and focus on, on results and, and turnaround and how we can do better. At the end of the day, we have to deliver the highest and return on invested capital for our owners that, that we manage for. So our name, I think conveys a little bit about how we blend some art and science in our industry. You know, from a science standpoint, we use our, you know, dynamic tech stack proprietary solutions and advanced statistical methods, uh, right to shine the light and uncover the, the, the hidden business potential and focus our attention on the right thing. And then from an art standpoint, right back to we’re talking about pictures and temperature, it’s deploying, um, you know, a team of experienced executives to go and go execute those priorities and implement and deliver the art of hospitality. And so imagine a picture, a perfect stay, that that’s what we wanna deliver to our guests.

Ryan Embree:
Love that, love the parallels there. And, and you’re right, it is an art in a science, you know, our industry and shift your perspective. That’s a fantastic mantra. We’re gonna shift our focus to the future now. And, as we enter 2024, you know, what’s your, what’s your vision for Aperture Hotels, this being technically what this would be your second full year? Any goals and objectives for either next year or the coming years?

Charles Oswald:
Yeah, I’ll say this. So when I started last year, uh, really established four objectives that we, we really wanna achieve here. And it’s around, you know, national recognition and being a best in class operator, a go-to operator and, uh, you know, and, and then leadership, right? So I think when we talk about nationally recognized, uh, we wanna rank among the top 25 largest operators in less than three years, you know, managing 40 plus hotels, third party would get us there. But we’ve seen a lot of consolidation at the, we’re not necessarily interested in having hotels. We think that we can build on this foundation we’ve laid and that there are some efficiencies and subject matter expertise that we can bring to the, to the table there as we get, you know, into the 40, 50, 60 hotels. Uh, in the near future, we wanna be a best in class operator. I mean, for that, for us, that means strong operational framework that earns aperture hotels, you know, all the key brand approvals that we need, uh, allows us to work our way up the chain scale to manage higher quality asset, more complex assets. So, uh, you know, we measure that best in class, uh, operations by where we stand with the brands, as well as our balanced scorecard approach and the returns that we can help deliver to our investors. Three, you know, I talk about being a go-to operator. I’m talking about leveraging relationships that we have in our industry from the past, uh, and forging new company relationship that would help us, you know, investor relations. It helps us to become the operator of choice for a short list of select clients that are actively placing investment capital and need third party management services. Uh, and fourth, I’d say it’s, uh, you know, it’s about leadership. So wanna elevate Aperture hotels to be viewed as a trusted advisor and a thought leader in the industry as it relates to, you know, innovation strategy and operational execution. So that’s something we’ve been working on and I think, you know, as we were talking about LinkedIn earlier, you’ll notice that, that we might put in key takeaways from a brand conference might be there. You’ll see articles, uh, whether it’s from me, our SVP of commercial strategy or SVP of human resources and speaking at different parties. You see that sprinkled out through, uh, LinkedIn and up there also on our website. And that sort of leadership is what I think the industry needs, uh, more of people who are making, you know, reacting to some of the, uh, well see what’s coming, reacting to some of the things we didn’t see coming and kind of weighing in taking a proactive approach to the business, uh, where others don’t.

Ryan Embree:
No, absolutely. And we’ve talked about this before, just providing, when we’re talking about hotel management companies providing value to your owners in those capacities, right? Whether it be blogs, insights, data, you know, we, you gave some tremendous data today in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I think fascinating when it comes to business travel and, and what that means. But yeah, more thought leaders in, in this arena, kind of talking about the trends, what we’re seeing, but also being very cerebral with your strategy, knowing your market. And it doesn’t just apply to everything. Like we talked about Charles, so well, you, you certainly got the game plan. You’re off to a fast start. You are off to a fast start in 2023. Wish you nothing but success in 2024. Thank you so much, Charles. Thank you to all of our hotel listeners. Wishing you happy New Year. We are gonna come to you all 2024. New guest, new series. Stay tuned. Thank you so much for Charles for joining me today, and we will talk to you next time on the Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Barry Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embry, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.