Sarah Moss, Chief of Staff at Hunter Hotel Advisors, joins the Suite Spot to discuss the upcoming 36th annual Hunter Hotel Investment Conference and give hoteliers a look at what they can look forward to from the event. 

Tune in to this episode to learn more about the live sessions, panels, notable speakers, and on-site entertainment at the 2025 HHIC.

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. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you so much for joining us. Wherever you are, listening to us, or maybe watching us on our official TMG YouTube channel. Got a fantastic episode for you, kind of becoming a little bit of an annual tradition. Uh, really excited, uh, to talk about this topic, subject, and, uh, one of the most prestigious events in hospitality. Um, hopefully we’re not, uh, well, hopefully we are introducing this to our hotel audience, but you should already know about this event because it, it blows up. LinkedIn really shuts down that social media ’cause you hear everyone is there in Atlanta. I will introduce our guest, Sarah Moss, chief of staff at the Hunter Hotel Advisors. Sarah, thank you so much for joining me back here on the Suite Spot once again.

Sarah Moss:
Ryan, I’m so excited to be back and talking about one of my favorite subjects, the Hunter Conference today.

Ryan Embree:
Yes, we’re excited. It’s that time of year we’re ramping up, right? It’s everybody. There’s hotels thawing out right now, right now in the, in the winter as we get ready for that busy spring travel season. Uh, really a perfect time for, for the conference, uh, in March. But before we get into the conference, you know, last year we kind of heard a little bit about your background. Um, and your shared kind of the journey that led you to Hunter Hotel Advisors and the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference ultimately. But I wanna kick off this episode. You know, last year we did a hospitality campus cross series and we talked a lot about mentors, right? We know hospitality, still struggling with staffing a little bit, but we talked about mentors and influences in our hospitality careers and journey. Wondering if you have any, you know, major mentors that have, that have, you know, really influenced you in your career or just people in general that have, have made an impact. Well,

Sarah Moss:
Thank you for having me on again, Ryan. Sure. I love telling my story about hospitality, especially here at Hunter. And I think everyone’s journey is so unique in hospitality and the seasons that they go through in their life. I think there are many mentors that they find throughout their seasons, whether they’re in new jobs, you know, life changes, new cities, whatever it may be. And so, um, throughout my journey, I think I’ve had many mentors along the way and I’m so grateful for them. I think about my time at Sea Island with Melinda Lasky and teaching me, you know, what excellence was and how hospitality at the highest standards should be held to at a Forbes five star resort. And I think about my time back at Georgia State with, uh, Dr. Debbie Cannon and Esther E. And just their wisdom that they imparted on me and their, you know, they just believed in me when, you know, I was a student and just gave me so much courage to go out and try to pursue my dreams. Um, and the opportunities to do that. They introduced me to Hunter. And so I’m so grateful for them to provide me this job here and now. I think, you know, in, in my job now here at Hunter, I have these other influential people like Rachel Humphrey and Lisa Lombardo in my life, who, you know, whenever I have the question or the, you know, the thing I’m stuck on, I, you know, go to my circle and I can ask them what’s, um, in their infinite wisdom, what, what they would do or what advice they would have. So I’m just really grateful for the people in my life and just the time that they have given me. ’cause I think time is something that’s so, um, precious.

Ryan Embree:
It is, especially in a hospitality world, right? That is 365, 24/7. I mean, time is one of probably the most precious gift that we have in hospitality, and I love to hear that. We have hospitality leaders here all the time on the podcast, talk about the different influences, whether it be brands that they’ve learned from or grew up in, and then they and they took some of that and then went to an maybe a competitor brand and then took some ideas and philosophies from that. And it really makes for this kind of mixing pot of ideas. But it all kind of comes back to service. It all comes back to hospitality, which is what we love about our industry and why the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference is so great because you get that opportunity to get so many ideas, philosophies, brands, asset management companies, everybody all in one spot for those couple days. Um, and I wanna turn our attention to this year’s, uh, hunter Hotel Investment Conference. You know, I think we talked about it last year, how the beginning phases and the planning phases for this really happens like right after the last one in, sorry. It does, it does. So I, I really want to give our audience kind of a behind the scenes look at what goes into the planning and more importantly, the programming, because it’s very, very intentional from what I’ve seen, this being my second year. Talk to us a little bit about how that agenda is built. Yeah,

Sarah Moss:
So like you mentioned, Ryan, we start the day after the conference in planning for the next year. Um, one of the things that we value here at Hunter is the feedback that we get. We, we relish it, we welcome it. Um, so the attendee survey feedback from the prior conference goes out literally the day, uh, the conference closes. And we, you know, uh, go through all of that with a fine tooth comb, understanding the things we did well, things we didn’t. Um, one of the things we actually did this year is we sent out a survey, um, probably like August, September, October time period to our hotel owners saying, Hey, we, you are our target audience here at the Hunter Conference. We wanna know what’s top of mind for you and tell us, you know, how we can suit our programming for that this year. And so one of the things that we found was lending is a huge topic and hot button for people this year. So you’ll find, talk about it a little bit later, but you’ll find some more sessions in our programming this year tailored to that just to make sure that we’re really helping our audience understand the market and things that they can do and advice that they can get from our industry experts that are coming to the conference this year.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. So, so important right now, obviously with interest rates where they’re at a lot of uncertainty maybe in the air, you know, that super, super important and critical, especially for hotel owners that are, are looking to, uh, invest dollars. So very, very important there. But, you know, going back to the feedback, I mean, this is, I know we talk about this from a conference standpoint, but really can be drilled down to what we’re hearing from guests and hotel owners using that feedback. We talked about it last year, kind of improve as a blueprint on the guest experience. So, so critical to kind of hear and, and the timing of when that feedback is given and received is critical, right? Because those little, uh, intimate details about maybe a conversation or a feeling or sentiment that you had about a certain session over time, you know, just with our attention spans and everything that’s, and distractions being thrown at us and done, you know, that sentiment and feeling might kind of dull or you might forget some of those, uh, the pieces of your hotel experience if you’re talking about a hotel on the hotel side.

Ryan Embree:
So getting that feedback immediately, the quicker you can get that, the quicker you can respond and react to it. Very, very proactive.

Sarah Moss:
I will say there is for our team. Sometimes he backs hard to hear. Yeah. And, and that it’s not always something that you wanna hear too. Right? Our team works all year long on this one extremely large event, and, you know, you put your heart and soul into it at the end of the day. Like, if you hear something that’s negative, like it’s not always the funnest to hear, right?

Ryan Embree:
Sure. Yeah. And that, that happens in hospitality too, right?

Sarah Moss:
Absolutely. But, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s just always great to have it. I always say, Hey, it’s better for us to know this feedback than it is for someone just to sit on it.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And, and if we can, if we can really shift our mindset with feedback hotels the same way, uh, because we do take a, I mean, we’re, we’re all human. We do take that personal sometimes, especially when we do something, um, as important as host someone in our house, right? Host someone in our hotel, uh, and to hear that feedback. But if we can just shift the mindset a little bit to say this, okay, this are actually helping me to improve. And obviously, again, from a hotel all the way up to the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, that feedback very, very invaluable. And, you know, I got the opportunity to give feedback for the first time since last year was my first time attending the event. Absolutely loved the educational conference and component to this, but was really surprised with the networking opportunities. And I know that’s very intentional from your team to build that in lot of meetings being done. A lot of conversations talk to our audience about that balance between providing value with education, which everyone’s always, you know, a sponge trying to, looking to learn, but also networking with these hospitality professionals that could lead to ultimate deals down the line.

Sarah Moss:
Uh, you hit the nail on the head with us. Intentionality is the word there for us. We take a really hard look at our programming every year, making sure that we’re balancing, you know, breakout sessions with networking breaks and interactive, uh, sessions as well. Ryan, I don’t know if you made it to the table last year, um, one of our sessions that we had, the round tables that we hosted, really intimate setting to foster conversations. Um, this year we actually are bringing in a new session called Coffee with the Bosses at another kind of form of the table where there will be industry experts at different tables and different topics that you can go, can go and sit with and just learn from them, ask them questions, pick their brain. So we try to, like you said, be super intentional about the timing there at the conference. One of the unique things that Hunter also does is we record all of our sessions and we also stream them throughout the conference. So say that you’re in a meeting and you miss a session, you can go back later and watch it, which is something that’s very unique to Hunter. So we, we, we know that sometimes it’s not always the most opportune thing to sit in a session for, you know, five or six hours a day when it, you’re there to meet people and there to do business. And so we provide that opportunity to our attendees either, you know, during the conference, you can watch it post-conference whenever it is five months later.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Yeah. It was so smart. ’cause you know, you could be caught up in a conversation right. With somebody that you’re having. You’re, you’re, we’ve all been in those situations where time gets away from you and then all of a sudden you, oh my goodness, looking at the agenda, I’ve already missed a session. Then it’s right there on demand for you. So, super smart. This is the 36 annual, uh, hunter Hotel Investment Conference after 36 years. It’s tough sometimes to kind of find ways to be innovative and new and not, and not stale, but been so impressed by your team. ’cause you just mentioned something new for 2025, you know, how do you, how do you and your team really brainstorm about keeping things fresh to make sure it upholds to the standard at which the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference is known for in the industry?

Sarah Moss:
Yeah, I think you talked about this a little bit last year. You know, introducing some fun into the programming is always sure something for Hunter. It’s great to hear from industry experts who sometimes you just need a little bit of a mental break. And so I think that’s really where we are able to, you know, add those fun and fresh ideas into the programming every year with maybe even outside the industry people, you know, I men I mentioned the Coffee with the Bosses earlier, which is inside the industry and something uni unique, but this year we have, um, two new keynotes for us, which is Molly Bloom and Jesse Cole coming in. I am so excited for both of them. I think they’re going to be amazing. They’re very different stories, very different business models, but you know, they have a really unique entrepreneurial spirit to both of them. And I think there’s something to be learned from our audience there.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. I’m excited, very excited for those, uh, those keynotes. Saw Molly’s game, uh, recently. Yeah. Uh, very, very excited about that. But I do think there’s a lot of application to what hotel owners and entrepreneurs can, can kind of bring to the spirit of hospitality, right? I mean, this is the oldest industry, um, that we al that’s what we always claim, right? Uh, so there’s, there’s always something that can apply to, to what we’re doing, how we’re hosting our guests. One of the things I, I really loved most on my first time attending this, Sarah, was that this event really is for everybody, right? I ran into, uh, multiple brands that were having some really cool brand announcements. Uh, third party management companies, asset owners, developers, and then even indivi when went even as far down as just individual hoteliers looking to be there and, and connect with people. What you think makes Hunter kind of that perfect. Uh, we talked about a melting pot for all of these different industry professionals to, to gather in March.

Sarah Moss:
Melting pot’s a great analogy for us. Um, we here at Hunter know who we are and who we cater to, and that’s hotel owners and whomever is in the hotel owner ecosystem is more than welcome to join us at Hunter every year. And like you just mentioned, it’s the brands, it’s asset managers, it’s lawyers, it’s architects, it’s whomever is in their ecosystem to develop, own and manage their properties on a daily basis. And so we are grateful for all of our partners that we have and grateful for all of our hotel owners who attend and are very loyal to us every year because we wanna make sure that we retain them. ’cause that’s really who, like their ecosystems, who comes to the conference as well.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Well it’s, you know, it is a large industry, but it’s also kind of a small network o of people. Sometimes it’s niche if it, it’s big, but feels very tight and and small and you don’t really get that feeling until you go to multiple of these events and you start recognizing people mm-hmm <affirmative>. From conversations that you had. So Hunter Hotel Investment Conference is a great place for that. Also known for its recognition. Right. Uh, another big piece, specifically the Hunter Conference award for excellence and inspiration, this year’s, uh, recipient is John McKibbon iii. Talk to us a little bit about his impact on hospitality and why he was chosen this year.

Sarah Moss:
So the Hunter Award, uh, is we value a hotelier every year who kind of hits the three main criteria for us, which is leadership, uh, citizenship and innovation. And in those three, I think John embodies them perfectly, and I’m gonna walk you through each of them if you like, but for leadership, he has McKibbon, uh, hospitality, McKibbon places. He’s a third generational entrepreneur, um, starting his businesses from a citizenship, uh, standpoint. He has a very large family trust, McKibbon Family Trust that gives back to the community and is a very large, uh, sponsor of FIU University and does a lot of what their hospitality program there. And, uh, on the innovation standpoint, which I think is so interesting, especially where we are right now in the hospitality industry. He founded M three, which is the first hotel only accounting platform, um, which has now, you know, grown so large and was acquired by Blackstone, uh, most recently. So we are just so excited to honor him this year. I think he’s done so much for the industry and we are, uh, grateful to have him with us.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool to hear the background and stories of, in some of these hoteliers, again, in its legacies. Um, you know, like John McKibben, uh, and the philanthropy and, and support of the hospitality industry. We were down at FIU last year for our hospitality campus crawl, and I got the opportunity to meet with Dr. Chang, the dean, and he was talking specifically about John McKibbon, uh, and the generous contributions that he did and the support that he had for, uh, the Chaplain School of Hospitality down there. So, uh, well deserved, really excited to see that recognition for him. Sarah, last year we talked about, and, and really I was frankly impressed with the importance of the conference theme and how much just is behind that and how you get your team kind of motivated and bought in and really theme everything around this, this conference slogan right last year was No, no Limits this year. Elevate your game. Give us some background on this theme and, uh, why you think it was chosen for 2025 and what do you want it to embody?

Sarah Moss:
Uh, so for us, elevate your game. We, I think as an industry, we can always challenge ourselves no matter where you are, what, what level you’re at. I think there’s always some innovation that needs to be happening. And so we always wanna send out a challenge or a call to action to our attendees every year. And so that’s where this elevate your game came from. Like you mentioned for us, this, uh, this theme really goes into every aspect of the conference, whether it’s like sponsor activations to, like our keynote speakers, like both of them have to do with some type of like gaming or sports this year. And so it gets intertwined into everything for us, and I think it actually brings some cohesion to the event in a lot of ways, which helps us, you know, unify our messaging and unify really what we’re trying to achieve and accomplish.

Ryan Embree:
Well, I I, I absolutely love that and see how it’s all tied in as hospitality people, we love our themes, right? Uh, whether it’s designing a, a new hotel, you know, or throwing a conference or event, you know, it’s very, very cool to see, again, the intentionality, uh, behind a theme like this. And you can get really everybody on board and, you know, even, you know, we’re talking about a con a a hotel investment conference here, but even from a, an individual hotel standpoint, doing something like this to get your team to rally behind, get competitive over whether it’s reviews, whether it’s room revenue, occupancy, or just any sort of goals for the new year. Absolutely love this idea. So elevate your game for 2025. Challenge accepted there. Uh, Sarah, now on the marketing side, you have Teague Talks and Teague Walks, you actually spoke about that. Uh, that was really kind of born from, from some, from Covid, right from the pandemic. And that kind of came, came out, ended up being a silver lining there for you. And it’s been really, really successful. I watch each and every episode, uh, dialed in there. How have these kind of help grow the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference and grow the brand of un of Hunter Hotel advisors,

Sarah Moss:
Like you mentioned. Um, our inception story was born out of Covid and was born out of, um, unfortunately having to cancel the conference in 2020. Um, and so we like to think of tiktoks and Teak Box. It’s like the perfect brand, or excuse me, bridge between the advisors and the conference, uh, brand for us. You know, we have, we have our two companies here at Hunter, um, and tiktoks really bridges those. It provides the networking and provides the insight and advice to people on a was weekly basis, now monthly basis here in 2025. So we have just really enjoyed them. I think that they have been more fruitful than we ever imagined, which is something, you know, really unique for us to see. Um, blossom over time.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I mean, it shows the power of awareness and, and really, I mean, this Hunter Hotel investment conference happens one time a year, but there is something always connecting back to that, right? And I think there’s a lesson there with digital marketing about being consistent in what you’re doing just because it’s a slower season and you don’t get a lot of your occupancy maybe to the spring or summer. This is the time to kind of build audience, build brand awareness and keep pointing back to the value proposition of ultimately your hotel or, or portfolio of hotels, of your management company there. But all about consistency, whether it’s things like social media, whether it’s your service that you’re providing, you know, super, super important. And I think the series that you have with Teague Talks and Teague walks through fantastic job of, of kind of a, as a great reminder for that. We’re wrapping up here a a as we wrap up, you know, I really want to w with this being my second time, uh, how many, how many years Sarah, uh, have you been involved with this conference? I think you had mentioned it last year.

Sarah Moss:
This’ll be my eighth year.

Ryan Embree:
Eighth year, okay. So we got a second timer and an eighth timer here. You know, I think for those people, and ..

Sarah Moss:
I feel young, there are people that have been in the conference for 30, 60 plus years, I know 20 plus years. It always, uh, it’s, it’s an honor to have them with us, but it always just makes me feel so young in my conference age,

Ryan Embree:
Sure. So I, I want to talk to maybe those, our, our hotel audience that haven’t ever been to the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference. Paint us a picture of, you know, what that feeling’s like walking through those lobby doors of the Marriott Marquee in March and what they can ultimately expect to get out of this event.

Sarah Moss:
Yeah. Like you mentioned, we’re here in Atlanta at the Marriott Marquee. Um, it’s been our home for the past 17 plus years. Uh, and I, and I call it a home because I think that’s truly what it has been for us. Um, it is southern hospitality too. Its epitome. And I hope that people feel that when they walk in the door. I hope they feel the energy of people buzzing around and networking and getting deals done. You know, here in, in our office, uh, we have like a funny saying, it’s like 23, it’s like gathering our 23, uh, hundred of our closest friends in a party in our backyard. ’cause we’re based here in Atlanta. And I hope, I hope people feel that. I hope they feel that the family aspect of the Hunter family there, I hope they feel the intimacy of being able to have like those connections and conversations with people and not feeling so large that they’re like wandering around like, <laugh>, where am I? What should I be doing next? Um, like bumping people in, bumping PE into people in the hallways. I think it’s just something that is unique to Hunter and we, uh, we like to lean into that.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, uh, again, it’s last year being my first time. I, I think you really nailed it with, I felt an energy kind of walking in through those doors, right? Like a buzz. But it was my first time. And I will say that, uh, after a couple hours of being there, hearing that opening, I’d felt like I’d, I’d already been there for, for a couple years, right? And, and it was so great to see what jumped out to me with my first year is I think I had the, had the CEO of a major hotel brand checking in before me and a management CEO of a management company right behind. So that was, that was the audience there that was checking into the marquee when we were checking in for, for three days of awesome educational content, you know, networking, a lot of fun as you mentioned, you know, us hospitality people also love our after hour events and, and being able to network that way. But it was just so great and really encourage anybody listening to this that’s considering to, to check it out because again, it was my first time last year and it, it just took a couple hours to feel like I, I I’d been here for a while. So Sarah, thank you, um, for, for you and your team putting on, we know the hard work that’s behind this. We, we’ve heard that today. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?

Sarah Moss:
My team would be remiss if I didn’t say you should follow us on social media, check out the website and register for the conference coming up. Uh, we’d love to have, you’d love to host you. So, um, we look forward to seeing you in March.

Ryan Embree:
Yes, we love a good, uh, social media plug on, on the sweet spot for our digital marketers out there. So thank you Sarah. We know you are super, super busy gearing up for this incredible event. So thank you for taking the time outta your schedule to talk with me today. And, um, if it’s not already clear, the sweet spot will be at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in March. We are so excited to announce that our second time. So if you are headed out there, give us a shout, give us a follow, give us a message. We’ll meet you out there, we’ll do some interviews out there. We’ll, we’ll bring it all to you live from the sweet spot, so make sure you subscribe and follow us. Sarah, thank you so much for joining me.

Sarah Moss:
Well thank you Ryan for having me. We’ll see you in March.

Ryan Embree:
Alright, and we’ll 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 Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.