Check out the latest TMG Hospitality Trailblazers episode featuring the Founder of Aligned Hospitality, Bryan Tubaugh! 

Bryan joins the podcast to discuss founding Aligned Hospitality, the meaning behind the brand, technology in hospitality, improving the guest experience, and much more. 

Tune in now.

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, with another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. This episode we head west to bring in my next guest from Aligned Hospitality, Brian Tubaugh, founder, and CEO. Thank you so much, Brian, for being on the Suite Spot.

Bryan Tubaugh:
Hey, Brian, I appreciate it and glad to be here.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, exciting. We’re gonna talk all about Aligned Hospitality. Talk about the journey where you guys are, you guys have seen some explosive growth, which we’re gonna talk about, but first, since it’s your first time, love to get people’s background stories journey. What ultimately led you to Aligned Hospitality, but founding Aligned Hospitality as well. Yeah, absolutely. I’m one of the I guess, rare breeds. I grew up in the industry. Both my parents, were both general managers. Both of them started in the hospitality industry, line level, housekeepers, bellman, and then, you know, the typical hospitality love story fell in love, one became a front office manager. The other became a GM. Then they started traveling and they had me. So, yeah, so both my parents were in the industry. I, to be honest with you, it’s all I’ve known. It’s, you know, all I choose to know. Anytime I try to take away or get away from the industry, it brought me back. So yeah, so I was born into it. And then my business partner, Helinda, my mother, she raised me, my parents divorced. She raised me in Tucson, Arizona, where, you know, our headquarters is still at Tucson and Phoenix. And so, yeah, so we just I grew up in the industry. I started off in operations with Hilton. Went that route, started in housekeeping at 14. We won’t tell people that though. So I was a houseman summer job. It was an exterior corridor hotel. So I got to feel that $120 heat. And, yeah, I mean, quickly worked my way up to the front desk. And you know, I may have had some back push on that help as my mom was the general manager at the property. And then the fun part of the whole story, the twist was when I was 18, I had an HR director at the DoubleTree that I was working at. It was a full service, DoubleTree. And the HR director called me into his office. I’ll never forget him, love him to death, Eduardo. And he said, Hey, Brian, do you like this industry? I said, well, yeah. I mean, is there anything else in the world? And he said, well, if you like it and you love it, you need to leave Hilton. And I was like, whoa, did I do something wrong? I mean, I, I love Hilton. I’m at a double tree. This is what I’ve known. I eat a cookie a day. Like, you know, what, why? And, you know, and he kind of looked at me and he said, listen, because of who your parents are, you’re never gonna be able to progress in your career. And you’re never gonna be able to take that next step because everybody will know you as Rick and Helenda’s son. And if you truly want to make your own staple in this industry, then you need to, you need to, you need to move on. And, I tell that story too, and I’ll tell you where that leads, but I tell that story because I do think that’s a gap nowadays in our industry, is that that mentorship, that line level to that middle management to management, right? We go rockstar front desk. You’re now a general manager. Figure it out. So anyway, so he shipped me out. I found Starwood at that point. The four Points by Sheraton. I became an SRSA, I don’t know if you remember that position. Sales Reporting Systems analyst. Oh boy, you talk about starwoods, hotels and reports at that time. So I got to learn the reporting side, the sales side. And then I had a director of sales and marketing at that point. Say, the day you turn 21, I wanna take a chance on you in sales. So, true to her word, Sandy Osberg, when I turned 21 and I was having a great time in life, I came back, needed a job. And I’ll tell you, it was the quickest interview I’ve ever had. And she put me in as a sales manager at a little Four Points in Tucson. And then my career kind of grew from there. I ended up being at Big Box Resorts Weston, Carolyn, Scottsdale Princess, Lowe’s, Ventana Canyon, Westin La Paloma. My last stint on property was the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson as the director of sales and marketing. So I ended up going that sales route. So anyway, that led me to, my mother was still on the other side, on the operation side with Hilton, longtime Hilton. She ended up partnering with another group out of Tucson, formed a very small management company, and they managed maybe, I think, peak six hotels. And she brought me on ’cause she wanted to grow the management company. And I was in sales. So, absolutely. So I, I ended up coming on with the company, and this was back in 2018, and I started getting a lot of leads Ryan, like, I started connecting, I started learning the real estate side, the asset side. And the group that I was with, that we were with, they didn’t wanna grow. So they were more, they brought me on to help on the operation side. I didn’t like the operation side. I love it. I know it, it’s not what my passion is. I like to get out shake hands. So anyway, 2021 COVID you’re sitting at home, your mind starts racing. And I said, you know what? Let’s try this. So that’s how we got to Aligned, and that’s where we broke off and we started our own. And like you said, the growth has just been incredible.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Well, your story has a couple, you know, narratives that we’ve heard on this podcast before. Well, first it’s, you know, that old age of hospitality being in your DNA running through your blood. I think that’s very true in your case there, Brian. But you’re right about the mentors. And that is also a common thread that we hear in a lot of these stories. And, you know, it’s so funny to hear every single one of these trailblazers that we interview. They know someone by name and they, it’s that point in their career that, where that trajectory kind of takes off. And it kind of turns from maybe that summer job, like you were talking about, we’ve heard that a lot into a career. And I think you’re absolutely right now, you know, these past couple years we’ve had this workforce problem in hospitality. And, you know, to hear stories like that, to have mentors and to be a mentor to younger hospitality professionals, it’s creating the next generation of hoteliers for us and it’s so important. And hopefully, you know, I’m here to be interviewing some of those people that the mentors right now are out there having those conversations. And maybe it is something like what happened with you, Brian, where it’s like they’re encouraging you to almost leave and get out and, you know, get outta the nest a little bit and, and spread your wings because you know, these are transferable skills. You know, you can go from one side of the country to another side of the country. Hospitality is hospitality. It’s a fantastic industry. That’s why we love it so much. So, you know, we’ve had the pleasure of speaking to a couple individuals who have founded hotel management companies. And there always seemed to be kind of either a time, a place, a conversation that really sparked the idea of, you know, maybe I can do this on my own. I’m wondering if that that ever happened with you, Brian, or was this, was this from the start? The goal and the vision?

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah. You know, it’s funny you ask that, Ryan, because again, I as in big box resorts for most of my career, and let’s be honest, those are fun. Those are fun careers. I mean, you get to explore a lot of things. I was on the sales side, so site visits, I mean, I had our whole staff singing to clients, riding in helicopters, you know, just doing extravagant things. And I’m kind of an adventure seeker by nature. So to be honest with you, I always had that drive that, you know, now I know I had an entrepreneur spirit, right? Like, I always wanted, you know, it was always, how far can I push it, right? And I think naturally salespeople are like that, let’s be honest. And, so I don’t think it was ever, you know, I’m gonna go out and start my own or our own management company. But as I progressed in my career and I started to learn more and more, there were things, there were touches that I felt I wanted to put on that I would do differently, right? You know, I’m big on what we were just talking about, mentorship, development full transparency. You know, we’re, we’re big on my biggest line to all of my management, and even people striving for management is, you know, it’s all about your bench strength. Who are you, who are you creating in your legacy, right? That’s what makes this fun. I could talk about Bill Petr, I could talk about Sandy Osberg. I could talk about, Gee Alexander, all these names of people that I got to mentor under be mentored by. That has changed my life, right? And now I tell my team and our executive team, we’ve done a great job of really putting in mentorship programs. So I always wanted to touch people. Did I think it was gonna come in this, this setting? To be honest, no. I never envisioned it this way.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And it’s funny you mentioned the bench and the team, and I think it reminds me of a quote that I saw recently of, you know, somebody can’t attributed who it’s attributed to, but talking about essentially, if I am the smartest person in the room, then I failed at building a team, a great team, right? And I think a lot of people rely heavily on the individuals around you. And each journey kind of shapes what you’re talking about there, Brian. I mean, the fact that you worked at Hilton for a number of years and then you moved over to Starwood you went to maybe some of these big box resorts like you were talking about, I’m sure each of those have kind of put a kind of stamp of the way that you manage, the way that you run your Aligned hospitality, and kind of gives you that unique flavor. And that’s what’s great about our industry again. Cause you can jump, you can go from different segments, you can go different markets and all of that kind of creates who you are not only as an individual, but surrounds you with, with a great team and management company, which we’re gonna talk about here.

Ryan Embree:
And know, the conversations I’ve had, Brian, with these individuals, it’s also, you know, building something from the ground up, founding something, everything is intentional, right? From the logo, brand colors, even the name. So I’m curious, it always, what was the message behind the Aligned hotel management? And why’d you land on that name?

Bryan Tubaugh:
You know, it’s kind of funny. I’ll be really honest, and I have to give credit where credit’s due. I was actually on a golf course with my beginning capital business partner. And him and I are going back and forth and talking about how we’re gonna start this and where we need to put capital. And, you know, I’m a sales guy, so we gotta do all this in branding, branding, branding. Like we got a brand. And, I kid you not, I’ll never forget it. Hole six. Stone Canyon. I hit one of the worst shots I’ve ever hit in my life. And, I said something about of being out of alignment, and my wife was with us as well. And she goes, there it is. And I said, there, what it, she goes, aligned, Aligned hospitality, Brian aligned. And I just kinda looked at her. So I wish there was something even more amazing about this. But then it became, you know what, you’re absolutely right. You know, we’re aligned in our faith, we’re aligned with our customers, we’re aligned with our staff, we’re aligned with our team. We are aligned in order to make this whole, you know, machine work, I guess you can say. And so that, honestly, that’s where it came. It was just like, boom, you’re absolutely right. And the only way we can succeed as partners with any of our clients, with any of our staff members, we have to be aligned. We have to be all in one. And it just and then it took it, you know, everything just went from there.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of what you said, I think anything with a strong North star, a strong compass, you know, that you can get people, your employees, owners, and partners behind is really gonna help you see that success. Right? And you’ve seen a lot of it, I mean, two from two to 20 plus hotels since 2021. Can you share with our Sweet Spot hotel, your audience, you know, maybe a few examples of that growing portfolio and some property transformation and success stories you’ve seen along the way?

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah. I mean, so 2021 we left our previous company, Helenda and we started our own, I’ll never forget it, October 27th. And kind of funny story found out I had COVID when I was down in Cabo. I’m getting asked to leave the resort in Cabo. My mom calls me crying, never cries. We were being handled a handed a lawsuit on the day we started. So I’m getting to somewhere with this, right? So this is, I call that the birthday of Aligned, right? Because that’s when it was real. That’s where here we go. We have no, they’re, the boats are burned. And so anyway, so this happens, right? Well, fast forward about four hours from all this, like just the world’s falling apart kind of thing. Received a phone call from two of our clients. One was a large DoubleTree and one was Tuxin, which is kind of our flagship boutique hotel. And both of them agreed to come on right away, right? And the reason I bring those up, that DoubleTree was losing close to about $12,000 a month when we took it over 12 grand a month. And so at that point, Hilton had kind of told them they need to get a management company, the ownership group. And fast forward to today, which, you know, even when we were at the old company, we managed them for a few years. They’re doing pretty well making money. The gentleman has now started his own management company and still will not take that property from us because we’re his north star, right? He’s aligned with it. So there’s a success story that really, I mean, again, when you have those kind of stories, it’s easy to sell. We have taken over a few boutiques, you know, we went outta state, we’ve now repositioned rebranded, we went from a design to an IHG voco, so we rebranded that. So that’s been a great success story as well. So yeah, I mean, there’s a number of these small success stories. For me, the biggest ones are every time we bring on a new hotel, I haven’t really had to go outside of Aligned to find that new leadership. So we’ve really promoted from within. So that’s always been a vision and a mission of ours. And to see that we’ve stayed true to that is really near and dear to my heart. So you know, I tell my executive team, a lot of people, they train and they work, and with general managers or middle management, and they don’t wanna lose them. I’m like, no, I wanna be the company that they come and they learn and then they go off and they blow up like that. I want to be that company. And I think we’ve been really true to that. So when you say success stories, those are the stories I really hang my head on, Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
It’s cool to see also when an employee that maybe you gave that opportunity to leave, or they took that next opportunity and then they come back, you know, and in a year or several years down the line and they’re just a different employee. They’re a better employee because of that opportunity. And, you know, again, it is. Hospitality is huge, but as we’ve talked about on this podcast before, it’s also a very small, yeah, very small network of people who, you know, so all of those young hospitality professionals listening, never burn a bridge. You know, because you never know where you’re gonna end up. You never know where your path’s gonna lead. So that would certainly be my advice. I do wanna talk, you mentioned a boutique, you mentioned some brands. I wanna talk some hospitality trends. You got a great portfolio, and branded and independent boutique hotels. You know, obviously there’s a lot of uncertainty and uneasiness right now. You know, macro factors, we won’t get into all of them, but I wanna give our audience maybe Brian, one reason for each why you’re kind of bullish for independence and branded hotels to potentially weather maybe some of this storm’s.

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah I mean, I think for the branded ones, you know, particularly the strong branded, right? IHG, Hilton Hyatt, you know, those type of brands, their advantage is always gonna be that distribution network, right? And the loyalty programs, their reservation system, you’ve just got so many in there, right? Their loyalty programs, the traveler knows the brand, they trust the brand. So in, in certain times, they still know that there’s gonna be a level of consistency. So I really think that’s the brand’s major advantage and always will be. And that, you know, why you pay the fees that you pay for those things, right? Now on the other side of that, and especially in the boutiques that we’re in, we’re very fortunate. They’re in great leisure markets. They’re, you know, they’re tied into their market. You, you can pivot much more quickly in a boutique. I’m not tied down by rules or parodies or the channels I can distribute from. So I do think both have advantages, the boutique side, you know, while the brands are getting there, right? They’re understanding what’s happening with these lifestyle and these boutique hotels. I mean, I personally am a big believer that the wave of travel is going to that boutique, authentic, memorable, stay luxury is now gonna be service. So the brands are trying to catch up to that now, but I don’t have red tape. I can go on Airbnb, I can go on VRBO, I can sell it however I wanna sell it with a boutique hotel. And I think that’s the advantage that they have.

Ryan Embree:
For your point about the branded hotels, you know, they’re really leaning into soft brands, experiential travel, just based off, you know, recent acquisitions and things of that nature. I think you’re right. They’re, they’re starting to see the tea leaves. They’re starting to read guest sentiment, going back to local flavor, local roots. But you’re right, the ability to pivot, be flexible, get creative with your independent, tell your story, which we’re gonna talk about here in a minute with through digital marketing, you know, the better you can tell that story with an independent hotel, sky’s the limit, you know, as far as rates, you know, the type of segment that you want. But you’re right, the branded hotels do have that huge distribution network that let passionate loyalty, you’ve got travelers moving up and down segments. So you really can rely on that business. You know, even times of like we said with uncertainty. Now aligned hospitality, strong footprint in the Southwest. You got properties, Arizona, California, all the way up to Oregon. Brian, what markets right now are you bullish on? And what are you and your team anticipating for this summer season?

Bryan Tubaugh:
You know summer in Arizona is obviously a little slower than most places. Nobody wants to hang out in the heat. But, you know, I think obviously summers we’re feeling really good. The Oregon market we’re in Astoria in particular, California, you know, right? Just near Santa Barbara looking really strong. The leisure travel is there, it’s drive market. So it’s great. We’re still catching that. So we’re feeling really good. Arizona as a whole, I think it’s been a bit of a dip. Like you said, there’s some uncertain times, but what I’ve seen is, you know, like our Tucson markets, right? The, the hotels where, and even, I’ll even say even like a tombstone, a really small market but that’s inspired by the local community, the culture, those properties are really still staying strong, even while we’re seeing a dip, a little bit of a dip in, in the market itself. You know, we just transformed an old motel into the Kennedy Hotel down in Tucson in an airport market, but we brought this boutique lifestyle type of brand there. And I’m gonna tell you what, you know, we’ve been open three months and we’re already running in our 90% RevPAR index, which again, that’s pretty strong for only being open three months. But we embrace Tucson, right? You know, you got that Southwest culture, the food and beverage, really in embedded ourselves into the community, like we do with all of our hotels, even even branded ones, we do the same thing. So I still feel the leisure is pretty strong where we’re at. Corporate obviously is I would say slowed down quite a bit. But again, that’s kinda the markets that we are currently in. So we’re still getting a lot of that leisure market. The leisure kind of blended happens as well. But yes, I still think we’re finding that the experiential traveler is really what we’re seeing a lot of at this point.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, absolutely. People want experiences for sure. You know, locals are, I think, looking at their area hotels a little bit differently too, you know travel costs are also rising. So maybe something where they were going out of state last summer, maybe they’re saying, Hey, let’s, let’s check out some of our local staycation, see if we can hang out by the pool and, and beat the heat at one of the resorts, you know, in that area. So again, it’s just, it’s different segments. You gotta make sure that you’re obviously marketing to the right people. You have to be asking your guests, you know, why they’re visiting, where they’re coming from, capitalize on some of those trends. You’ve got some exciting developments over there on the horizon including a newly launched strategic direction. Share with our audience a little bit about those details.

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah, and I think, you know, we can credit our growth to being very diverse in our portfolio. You know, we had economy, upper mid scale, boutique lifestyle, independent. And, you know, while that helped us to get to where we were, we couldn’t be an expert in one field, right? So we’ve began to shift our focus to more of that boutique and lifestyle branded hotel. And that’s really the target audience that we’re going after. That’s the target audience we’re starting to attract. Naturally my, so my whole team combined is 150 plus years of Hilton.So I won’t tell you who’s making up most of those years, but you know, so we’ve kind of just shifted our focus more on rebranding, repositioning, and really going after that lifestyle type of property. You know, selfishly coming from the resort world without having a resort, I believe these lifestyle and boutique hotels allow me to program or allow us to program and really give those experiences that resorts typically give on a smaller scale. And so we’ve just really been reshifting our focus that direction. We are also focusing a little bit more on getting onto the ownership side. So I’ve got some big news probably being announced here in the next few months. We’re gonna knock on wood so we don’t jinx it. So yeah, I think there’s a lot of big things coming in 25, 26 for us and while the scaling, you know, again, I didn’t have gray hair at one point. It was exciting. It’s been great. We’re just starting to hone in a little bit more on that area of expertise and we owe that to our clients.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And going right after that trend that we talked about you know, that lifestyle, personalization, experiential travel, where you can do programming. And you can, you know, coming from those big resorts, be able to offer that, but at a very much more personalized experience. And, and those are the type of experiences hopefully that, that stay with you make it an annual tradition, family tradition, coming to the same resorts, we’re spreading word of mouth, all that good stuff. So I wanna shift gears to technology about hospitality within hospitality, typically we’re known for our industry taking a little bit of time adopting new technology. That’s kind of sped up, I would imagine, over these last couple years. What’s your philosophy, Brian you know, implementing new technology into your portfolio, and where do you kind of see technology evolving, the hotel guest experience in the next five years or so?

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah, I mean, I think we’re, and I, you know, I hate to quote anybody else, but this, this truly is a golden age. I mean, this is, we are that finding a new tool, it seems like every week, right? Which you all do at TMG with the reviews, and I mean, that wasn’t around just what maybe 10, 12 years ago as predominant as it is now. So here’s the deal. Technology’s here, it’s going to be here, it’s going to keep leveling up. Eventually, you’re gonna be checking in through a kiosk, or you may not check in at all. It’s gonna be all done on these little machines. And that’s gonna be the norm. I would say a lot of places it’s starting to become the norm, and we expect it to be that way. Correct? I feel me personally, I feel luxury in what you’re truly going to pay for in the future is going to be the face-to-face interactions, is going to be that you know, the fire pit lit by a human being, telling stories by the lake, that’s going to be the new luxury. I truly believe that. Now, as far as some of the technology, I think it’s great. I shouldn’t be checking people in on a DOS program in 2025. We should be moving to point and click not to call out anything. So, you know, and for us at the management level, you know, there’s no way we could manage in multiple states unless we had the proper BI systems in place that we can watch and control costs from this, from this level and really support our management teams and boots on the ground. So for me, I think ai, and that’s another one, right? I mean, we don’t even know who we’re talking to anymore. Is it a true person or is it a bot? You know? And it’s getting smarter and it’s getting smarter. And by the way, if you’re gonna go and attract talent, you better adapt to what these guys are used to using. So I can speak from personal experience, I think we’re a little bit behind, but we’re trying to quickly catch up to utilizing ai. I mean, Ryan, I’ll tell you this right now. I was just talking to our COO and we just did a full SWOT analysis on a market that we’re looking at, and we spent, you know, a week in market doing what we typically do, knock on doors, talk to everybody, which I still think there’s a place for that. I went into an AI program, I typed in exactly what I was looking for, what took me a week to do, took me 45 minutes to write up. I went back and forth with the data, not a hundred percent perfect to what I found, but close enough that you could really make an impact. So again, I’m a big believer. I don’t, I think it will unfortunately replace some positions, but I also think it’s gonna enhance the output of people. And if it’s used as a tool properly, I think it can elevate a lot of careers very quickly.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I absolutely agree. Brian and I will go, go back to a point where that, that you made which I a hundred percent agree with is that face-to-face interaction will become the luxury. And it’s all, everything is very cyclical. And you think about right now what is, what is really taking off right now is the no technology hotels, right? The experience of locking your phone, you know, if you’ve watched White Lotus you know, the, the previous season, everybody locking their phones, giving yourself a technology break, but at the same time, we’re at the precipice of the most technologically advanced place that we’ve ever been in. So, but I think you had give a great example of using the data that AI can provide to make yourself more efficient. Because I think sometimes we get caught in the minutia of being like, okay, how can I get a robot to take my towels to my guests, right? And and we start to think a little bit too big. And instead of those little efficiencies of how will this help me with recruiting, how will this help my staff become more efficient in what they can do? And those quick little wins are gonna pile up over time. And before you know it, you’re saying, well, I’ve implemented about 15 to 16 new initiatives with either AI or new technology that I didn’t know, that I didn’t even know it. But we tend to focus sometimes on the big picture stuff, the next generation of, of hardware and technology. I would just say take those baby steps first, and before you know it, in six months, you’re gonna look back and say, I’m doing things a lot differently than I was doing six months.

Bryan Tubaugh:
Well, and to that point, right? I think you always have to be prepared for the big picture, but to your point, when you start getting paralyzed by data, which I also think some of the technology has done as well, right? Is you get so much data now, you just look at everything and, and sometimes you just need to take five steps back and go, whoa, I’m in a people business. Let’s get back to the people and, and then let’s start from there and build up. But you know, what I was gonna say is we’re even starting to implement it in some of our smaller hotels. Use the AI to know your guest a little bit better. Hey, this person’s coming in from, you know, New Jersey. Well, not a lot of people in Phoenix, Arizona know much about New Jersey. Hey, you know that one of your guests is coming in. You’re a 24 room hotel. You probably have time to research a little bit about the guest that’s coming in, make ’em feel at home, talk to them about something in their town. You can learn a lot and think about the impact that has when you’re checking into a hotel and somebody can name something, or, Hey, you know, we saw you have a really neat balloon festival in New Mexico. Did you go this year? Oh my God. You know, you know, and it, so instead of being so afraid of it, let’s embrace it and use it and help create our culture with it. So that’s what we’ve really been challenging our management teams with. And you know, again, at the end of the day, it’s the big new scary thing. So people are gonna use it how they want, but I do see it as more being a tool versus being afraid of it.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, yeah. No, love that. Those tools and tips, personalization, obviously huge word we’ve heard in our industry over the years. But any way that you can and can do that, improve that the yes. Experience those wow moments that you end up talking about, you end up sharing with, with family and friends after the trip. So we mentioned this before on the podcast, but our origin story, the Sweet Spot podcast, we started digital marketing podcasts, sharing tips and, and tricks on, you know, things like social media, reputation management, what do these kind of roles play, especially going into lifestyle, right? Where it’s a lot about storytelling, a lot of programming out there. Where does those strategies play at the corporate level at Aligned Hospitality, and maybe more on the individual level, and how has it contributed to your growth and success?

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah, I will tell you, I think while our growth and success has been great, I think we could have even maybe enhanced it a bit more. We’ve been very fortunate because it’s been a lot of word of mouth, it’s been a lot, you know, we, we got into the right, I guess, circles and again, there has to be success, right? I think something that we are now embracing and we’re still not there yet where I would like to be and is a big focus for us moving forward. Digital marketing’s everything. I and, I look at myself, right? I don’t check in. I don’t care what brand, I don’t care what hotel it is. I’m going to Instagram, I’m going to Google, and I’m gonna check the reviews, and I’m gonna check your story and see if it’s cool. And again, I know my kids, my 13-year-old, he hardly knows what Google is. It’s off of social media platforms. So I have to be honest and look in the mirror and say that’s an area that that’s our next step in enhancement. And we’re starting to make that, those steps. Is really, it’s everything now, I think that’s the biggest key of success, or future success, is how much you’re putting into that digital marketing. To your point, the reputation management, you don’t reply right to those reviews. People are gonna see right through that. You use AI too much to reply to those reviews, and you lose that personable touch. People are gonna see right through that. And this new wave of traveler, we want our personal experience to outweigh. Cause now there’s a hotel on every street, and there’s a brand for every type of traveler. I want the personal touch, I want the experience. Travelers want that. So I think if you’re missing that piece, you’re missing you, you’re missing. And us as a company, that’s the area where, you know, we’re sitting there with two strikes and we better hit, you know, hit a home run soon. So, and we are, we’re working towards that.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I mean, to your point, Brian, these travelers, consumers, guests, they are going to start speaking fluent ai, very, very soon. They’re gonna be able to see, just like how we’re able to kind of see images right now and spot what, what ai generated images. Now, it could get a little bit tougher, right? Yeah. We’ve seen some really good AI images, but at the same time, you know, it’s kind of that same learning curve when review responses first started with templates, you know, and, and you could start to spot a template and say, well, I know they just kind of that not really feeling personal. And you know, that is a huge competitive advantages for hotels, social media, obviously, like you were talking about. That younger generation, especially, they’re pulling up the Instagram, they’re pulling up TikTok, they’re pulling up Chat GPT, right? We’re gonna stop talking about SEO here and start talking about more a IO and how, what results are your hotels, or what results are coming up from Chat GPT or other AI engines about your market, about your hotel, and what it’s, you know, giving you an overview of what your competitive advantages are, some of that data you were talking about.

Bryan Tubaugh:
You’re absolutely correct.

Ryan Embree:
So as we wrap up, Brian always like to kind of look into the future, our crystal ball, so to speak, as CEO. What’s your vision and future for aligned hospitality?

Bryan Tubaugh:
Yeah, I, you know, again, we want to continue our growth, be more thoughtful, be more strategic in our growth. We really wanna be innovative in the boutique and lifestyle space. And really we wanna create this lasting value, not only for the guests, but also for our stakeholders, our partners, our clients, right? What we’re finding more coming into the market, our clients that wanna be proud of what they build, which is why these soft brands are becoming such a boom. You know, I personally, when I start developing hotels, I want my touch on it. Hilton, thank you for the flag, but I don’t want your HI want Brian’s touch on my property. So we’re really, we’re partnering, we’re being more strategic on who we partner with. We’re ensuring that we’re aligned with our partners moving forward. And then as far as internally, we wanna continue being the company that builds, right? We want to make our future leaders. I want, you know, we’re in an internship program with Arizona State University here in Phoenix. And I wanna continue being part of that culture that’s developing the future. I had great leaders that helped shape my life, and I wanna give back. I have an executive team that wants to give back. So really that, that’s our future man, is to keep growing strategically, making a footprint in the industry, not just for us, but for the entire industry. And hopefully continue to see us pushing out future leaders that you’re, you know, you’re interviewing here five to 10 years from now talking about this.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’s a great story, Brian. We appreciate it. And thank you for sharing it with our Sweet Spot audience today. And you’re absolutely right. I mean, the personalization now we talked about it on the guest perspective, but also on the owner perspective and side, right? You know, how many times we’ve come on this podcast, we’ve talked in our spotlight series, talking about a specific hotel or property and them giving us some incredible insight into the history of that building, the transformation of that building the designs from local inspired by local artists all the way to its f and b experiences. Each property like that has a story that should be shared and celebrated. And if you’re doing that with the right management company and ownership, it’s a beautiful thing. And you know, we wish you all the success in the future with. Aligned hospitality. Brian, thank you so much for joining me here on the sweet spot.

Bryan Tubaugh:
Ryan, I appreciate the time, man.

Ryan Embree:
Thank you so much. Alright, we’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. Thanks for joining. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Sweet 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.