Smith Travel Research: Unlocking Hotel Data Power

everyone's looking at year to day but you know how's this hotel if i was doing a hotel i want to know what the trends were what was my demand like what's my occupancy and then i want to know more about the market not only necessarily the comp set i want to know more about the submarket so am i keeping up are we losing ground who are the competitors so for me it's like taking more holistic i think people can come very myopic and just looking at one number and i'm not sure one number is great because that may be what your performance clause is you have to know that but then taking that bigger view is like okay what's happening in the marketplace hi everybody welcome to the future of hospitality my name is cesar voram and i'm honored to have today isaac collazo from straight he's truly as you're going to find out shortly he is one of the most exciting if not the most exciting data guy you ever meet and yeah i'm just thrilled to be connecting you with you isaac we're going to get a little bit into it but we got to know each other pretty well especially during COVID on weekly calls or i think daily perhaps and yeah thank you thank you for joining us it's a pleasure to be here with you and good to see you as well yes yes it has been a while has been a while by the way before we officially start going into the podcast questions are you still jogging yes and no not as much as i used to but i have to get started again so my goal is to be back 100% into my runs before the end of the year in fact i'll be in dubai next week and i'll jog there and i'm going to be in london the following week and i'll be jogging and running there so yeah i took a vacation because i'm having so much fun in nashville that i was hard for me to get out of bed to go to go run so but i've got to get started again all right okay now you're on tape man i know everyone here everyone's bothering even the there's the security guard at our building every morning he asked did you run did you run and so i have been saying yes but i'm not running as much as i used to run when i used to run at least four or five times a week so right now i'm not there yet i gotta get back all right so i've gained weight that's my problem yes yes well we'll help you keep you accountable so good so you you've had a you know a very you know a really amazing hospitality career so far and you're still doing great things and we work together at ihg for a few years and prior to hg you were with marriott for also many years if i'm not mistaken and you know how was the transition coming from the hotel side right to the str side where you have all this data and i think it's like heaven for who likes data right because you see so much you play so much and but how was that and was that like did you did you was it like what you expected did you find out way more less i don't know share it was an interesting transition because i joined str in january of 2021 right so no one was in the office i was still in atlanta now str is based here in nashville so really the transition was unlike anything i've ever experienced and like many others during the COVID period where you join a company and you're you're at your house it's not you've left one company and you're in a new company but you' still in your same office right in your home office so the data itself was pretty simple because i knew the data i was a client for or with str since 1990 i think so i think i was one of the longest clients they had so i knew the data intimately the most difficult part was being able to access the data and replicate what we give to our clients right so i spend most of my transition time just learning how to get the data out not how to use it how to make sure that i got it out all the right filters all the little nuances that i didn't know happens behind the scenes and so that i could actually replicate reports now that i know that it's it's great i'm a kid in a set and a toy a candy store a kid in the candy store right because we have access to you know 90,000 hotels on a monthly basis right so i think it's 92,000 what we have now and then we our data goes back all the way to 87 on a monthly basis in the 2000 on a daily basis so you can really do a lot with it but again it took a it took me more time than i imagined to be able to extract and rebuild reports and things because again all all the little nuances of what we do here to protect data and to maintain the integrity of the data so but other than that it is also the coolest part about the transition is you know at ihg or in marriott my only client was ihg or marriott right because that's where i worked for here everyone's my client so i'm learning about i get to learn about every company and how similar and dissimilar companies are so that's a really insightful thing for a guy like me because i just meet i talk to everyone i work with all our major clients so it's it's it's different it's fun but it's very different yeah yeah i can imagine yeah and then you know one thing that has been interesting and now i'm you know i haven't been working at a hotel level for a while so i'm not as you know as in tune with the reporting but certainly str has been in a journey almost like from you know going from a push reporting to pull where it's more on demand and kind of the access i think to the hotels more real time and so how do you how do you see that changing the ability and your customers to your point these 90,000 hotels across the globe their ability to you know shift decisions or do you see any change in patterns or behavior not yet it's still early on i mean think about what we're doing is like renovations right it's like when you renovate a house or you renovate a hotel you don't know what you're going to find until you take out the drywall and then you realize that you have to replace the plumbing or you have to replace the electricals or whatever right the studs that's what it's been like here so we've been working on this journey we were purchased by costar in october of 2019 and we've been in transition mode ever since we're getting closer now that we have people on the actual online product and getting the data but it's really still early days because right now all we're doing is is giving you the same data we gave you before although you can now get more of a time span it used to be get a star report and it was for the week or you get a trend report was for five years well now you can look at all our data because if you're online you have access to our history but in the future i think what we're going to do so right now i think hoteliers are still very much using the data as they always did most of the people are still just look at the weekly star report how did i do against my comp set but i mean there's a lot more and what we hope to do in the future is to enable even deeper utilization of the data to build models and to build more put more science behind just looking at a number for the week and say oh i learned i won or i lost and so we're going to give a lot more tools we're integrating all our products because right now you know if you were a star a client you only got your star report if you were a p and l client you got the p and l but they were never combined we're combining everything and then with forward star so again the reach will be so much bigger and it'd be more inclusive and holistic versus versus the piecemeal that we had in the past but it's just we're still on a journey i say it's a couple of years away before people can utilize it fully and then then you have all the costar suites so if you're a coaster of your star customer now you have access to costar data and with costar data literally you can find out who's in the building next to your hotel things like that that no one you know people didn't so for prospecting it's great or for development hey i'm going to build a hotel here who could the clients be and so yeah it's going to be different it's just going to take a it's going to take time to educate and for people to increase their utility of the tool i think yeah yeah it's interesting you bring that up because that data yeah that data is gold because i remember when working on okay how can we resegment a hotel how can we to your point you know what what accounts we have that are there but you know the ones that we can go after and that that is really good information and especially also development of hotels the brand of the hotel right what could be a good fit and everything because yesterday i was working with a client who's trying to build a comp set because they're looking at building a new hotel in a market they see is underserved well because they have access to our data now through through the online platform they're able to they were creating a comp set of cities that were similar so they could kind of create their perform pro forma based on hey this city is a lot like the city we're going into that might be a good way to look at what's happening there and they're able to do all this they really couldn't have done they could have done it through us but they would have to call create trend reports now they can create a lot of this on the fly and just create and start thinking about it in a totally different way and so i think that was cool and these folks were developers obviously and so but they were really thinking of and they called because they wanted they they wanted to just talk about how do i do this how do i think about this and so it's awesome that is interesting and you know isaac some of the listeners of this podcast like our students or people that are just about to enter the workforce or they just began like when you look at the different type of clients you have right so to your point you said hey i was working with an owner then i know you work with asset managers then you work with companies hotel teams what can you say about like what do they look that somewhat similar and then differences on perspectives or anything that jumps at you there i mean everyone brings a little different view of our data when i think about it you know an asset manager is very much more concerned with the p l side of it right not only the revenue because they have to know about the revenue so they do want to know where revpar is but they're looking at the expense side they're looking at everything because they're trying to maximize profitability right and the same thing with management companies to a different degree so everyone uses the data differently but at the end of the day you know revpar and revenues you know rooms revenue are we getting our fair share is still the biggest you know the biggest metric that they're looking at and they're really trying to make certain or they're looking at trends are we bucking the trends of if adr is going up why isn't our adr going up do we have a different mix you know is it a mix issue is it a market issue whatever that may be but i think most people still look at those basic the very basic and then they put their other lens on it based on their what they're looking for you know owners are all about gop yeah you tell me where my profits are coming from right let me you know how do i you know what is it that my management company is not doing right or my asset manager is not doing right you know whatever and they're just looking for that little i guess that little stick so they can you know keep people alive you know like what am i what do i want out of this so but most people again are still revpar is the biggest thing people that's the first thing i get asked about so yeah that's yeah same here right i mean being in this revenue generation arena for i don't know 25 yeah 25 years basically and yeah it hasn't changed right nothing's changed yeah yeah nothing's really changed yeah yeah and then like when you look at you know certain not asking for any secrets here anything proprietary but when you look at the properties or portfolios that tend to be successful right that like do really well what are some of the the similarities you find that you know people can try to think or consider as they always look to evolve and become better what they do are there any any trends any anything or it's just vary a lot it varies a lot i think ultimately what i do see is location still is a key driver right so finding that right location which we've always known location location loc so that's not new but then also just knowing your customer and some of that is the brand side some of that's the loyalty side so there's but i don't think it's anything new without i mean it's what you think it is and that's what it is right and so brands do perform differently i mean they just like any other brand that doesn't clothing they're just different and there and you have to understand that and based on the and a lot of it has to do with the location certain brands do better in location a versus some others do better in b c d it just really depends so knowing the strengths of the brand you have and then knowing what the needs of that location or that market whatever you want to call it are and matching that up and i think that's what successful developers and owners do they match up the right brand with the right market at the right location right so they're just and so it is again having all the data in front of you and just really understanding it got it yeah and that's that brings an interesting point so i think one thing that has changed and i don't know if you agree with me but especially you know if you look a couple of decades ago i think hotels used to be fairly what's the word homogeneous in a way right you had the traditional hotel standalone building you know whatever city center resort but then now and the brands right and now there's of course certainly the niche brands you know a lot of more independence but also mixed use developments right where you just don't have a hotel you do have some office space some people leaving retail so you know and brand fragmentation as well so when you look at from that perspective does that change like fundamentally a way to compare things or what's your take on that not to compare things per se i think every brand that's designed is trying to serve a different need i think the biggest issue on you know young brands is lack of awareness but you know and we you know you and i were at ihg we had brands that just started up and it just takes time to create that awareness but fundamentally they're designed to meet a specific consumer need right it's like someone who wants a a great fnb experience and so this is a foodie brand not that i don't think that foodie brand exists but i'm gonna pick on something like that so i don't get in trouble but you know say there was a brand that it was just about familiar food and but they're looking for people who are foodies and that's going to be their thing right and so but understanding the depth of that market understanding what you know what you can do how different does it have to be because at the end of the day it is just a room with four walls maybe more than four walls but at least four walls right and so but the people just trying to frag try to not fragment but segment and define that right consumer and they're also looking for a consumer that has longevity right that this would be the person who will come to this hotel because of this over and over and over again and so but i don't think it's changed very much i don't think even going back to the kim and wilson's day when he identified a need that people were driving and they needed to be able to stop i mean it was as simple as that right on the interstate they get holiday inn it was that simple and he was right and people are still chasing that trying to find that one thing that will be that appeal and that will continue to have people come back yeah yeah and that's the thing right a lot of times simple works extremely well right and or just you know something different i mean we've all worked again having our both our backgrounds and hotels we know that some things just hit it just dead on they're just dead on some of them are simple some of them maybe not as simple but still they meet the need the thing is you know the mentality right now is that you need lots of you know you want to just you want to develop everywhere with some brands have just limited reach right only because you can only have these kind of brands and x y and z so it's just different so i think i think we'll continue to see brand development i think we'll still continue there's every there's so many different needs out there i'm waiting for the music hotel when the music hotel gets then i'll go then you go that's funny and you know you in the beginning of the conversation you said you're going to be traveling gonna do some presentations and you do that often right i i don't know how many how many presentations or or you know conferences and all that you do but i know it's a lot and what are the things that you kind of really enjoy about it and what are some things that may not be like amazing now the thing i enjoy about is meeting people and getting to know the different companies so again being with str now and in the past when i was with ihg marriott and did my other companies you only you met your gms you met your sales folks you met the people in the company right well with this job i'm meeting just you know the same thing but now it's a much wider net and so i really do like that so i in fact you'll be you're seeing me check my phone because i told you i'm going to to visit to to an event this evening and that's from a person i met at a hotel conference and she works for a major brand and and that's i would never have met this person other than presenting at their conference right and that's what i really really love is the people side of it learning about the brands because then it gives me context when we're doing analysis and or and then not only learning about the brand but learning about what they're hearing what they're seeing and as an analyst and as a in leading up this analytic organization we need input we need to know what you guys what everyone is seeing feeling are we so when we interpret the data are we interpreting the same way with your lens right are you thinking the same thing or are we completely off base and so when i say hey demand is is is declining because lower income people are not traveling as much because of higher cost of living well i wonder if that's true or not and someone who has brands that appeals to those to that individual say yeah that's true or no that's not true you're completely missing it here it is that's what being out there gives me the insight that i just don't get from the data what i don't like about it essentially some of it is just the it's not even the travel it's the stress that comes together trying to get everything put together like right now i'm kind of behind the gun putting together a presentation for next week even though it's next week everyone especially when it's a big event they want the presentation ahead of time right at least a week and we are i'm a just in time kind of guy really because we have so much going on and sometimes i don't have time to sit down to put the presentation together even though i know the data but i tailor i try to tailor every presentation to the audience and again this event that i'm going to overseas has two audiences a hotel audience and a buyer audience people who contract for hotels totally different audience and you have to have you got to really think it through the hotel side's easy because that's what we do i can talk to that but the non hotel side you've got it what are they looking for what do they want to hear what's going to interest them and so that's harder and that take those take that takes a lot of time so i spend a lot of time working that's the stressful part and every presentation is bespoke even though there's commonality they're all bespoke based on who we're presenting to and so but once i'm on stage is fun that that's the fun part that's the easy part yeah no you're you're a natural and i remember when you first got this role you know a few years back i was like man that is like that is perfect for him because you know like you you you make data exciting and you you know you like speak common you know common language where people really relate to is not so much just even though you're sharing so much data is not like boring or overloading right you're translating to kind of day to day and it's easy to to capture so it's telling the story and sometimes i feel i'm a simpleton because i just try to break it down so much but at the end of the day it's telling the story and people want confirmation that what they're seeing everyone else is seeing there's you know it's misery likes company right especially right now where things are a little soft people want to know hey we're not the only ones str seeing this and this is what they're thinking right and it really people want that confirmation and they or or they want to know or they're doing better they want to know great and we're doing better because of this i mean so it is just trying to break that down and just tell that story and this is what we're seeing and then as i was telling a new employee this morning people just want our opinions and thoughts what are we thinking about what you know and again if we're wrong at least people will tell us hey i wouldn't think about it that way or have you thought about this and that's again that's that's valuable to people like us who just work with data we need that we need again feedback feedback is truly a gift as our friend kirk concel used to say and so you you need it otherwise you're just blind yeah yeah and if you had to give like you know a quick overview as where you see what you see today the industry what you think it's you know kind of relatively short term or midterm trends and what's more kind of you know is likely to stay or linger for a little bit you know what would you share about that i would say right now it's more of the same for the next 18 months if not longer we do not see any real catalyst of change at this point we are really bumping along in in demand growth certain like higher higher tier hotels are doing better luxury even up or upscale to a certain extent are seeing demand growth everyone else has been flat to down we do think that is economically driven that there we've lost a portion of consumers that were the not that the cost of living is so high now that they just don't have the extra funds for travel and if they do they're going to either do a cruise or something or short term rental where they can share costs or it's spread out whatever you want to call it but it's it's just different i think the adr side still going to be an issue in in the us particularly where adr is growing below the rate of inflation again we don't want the pricing power is not there now luxury pricing power is there no problem totally different customer but we see that staying the same so we don't again for our my standpoint is nothing's going to change at this there's the uncertainty in the country will remain and that will continue to also breed some inaction by folks and then also but it really goes back to inflation i'm less and less thinking that's uncertainty and more and more about just the cost of living where people are being stretched especially on the middle to lower income spectrum right they just i mean they just got to live they just got to pay for things not they just don't have those extra funds for hotel stays like they did before the pandemic and even during the pandemic so i think that's so i think it's going to be bumpy that's what we keep saying that's our word it's going to be bumpy for a while yeah yeah and that and that is true it's interesting because we see you know and how high a lot of the you know of course the area of focus is the luxury market and we see that right a little bit more resilience on that segment given the buying power but yeah certainly looking at the other brand scales and certainly see that a lot one question now is budget season a lot of hotels diving like crazy on data what are some tips that you may have for people whenever they're talking to you know management you know more asset management or owners about data what are some things that you see based on your experience that really will resonate and things that may be amiss you know sometimes when people share this type of data with with ownership group and people really focus on to your point on the you know overall profitability and overall performance of the asset i think to me a lot of it you it's taking a longer view so taking you know everyone's looking at year to day but you know how's this hotel if i was doing a hotel i want to know what the trends were what was my demand like what's my occupancy and then i want to know more about the market not only necessarily the comp set i want to know more about the submarket so am i keeping up are we losing ground who are the competitors so for me it's like taking more holistic i think people can come very myopic and just looking at one number and i'm not sure one number is great because that may be what your performance clause is you have to know that but then take that bigger view is like okay what's happening in the marketplace and is it is it because there's like if you're in a market like nashville you know maybe growing half a point in occupancy is really good because there's so much new supply and putting that context right of really understanding hey wait a minute mr. owner remember when we first started this hotel there was only five hotels now there's 25 so we're still growing or maybe we're holding our own and that's okay and that's and then once you get that in fact that's the baseline but then the other thing that people miss and this is not even the data this is just understanding who your customers are know why they why will it why are they staying with you be in the lobby listen to people what is it because the only to stay competitive you've got to understand what is it that's bringing people there and what is it that's going to keep people there because again in these marketplaces especially like a market like nashville it's really easy to lose your customer if you don't pay attention to your customer so get away from the data a bit and try to see you know what you know instead of the just the number what makes up those numbers i e the consumer why are they there with you and i think i learned that early on when i was a young marketing guy just to sit in the lobby and listen to people you learn a lot about your hotel if you just listen and don't tell anyone who you are just listen to what people are saying about the hotel and then you figured it out that is you know a great great great suggestion from a data guy right that is great but not everything so make sure that you spend some time with people focus on you know the the the the foundational aspects the culture so that is that is a great one and know the market just don't don't ever forget about the market is lifting increasing or decreasing you know do your customers come by plane or do they drive you gotta know this and i think sometimes people forget and they just forget they just get stuck in the data and they they get very myopic in the data which again i love it we need the data but again you gotta understand it has to have some context to that data of why are things happening in that marketplace and one of the drivers of that so yeah okay and then listen just to kind of close out i have a question about talking about the future right and especially in your space i think gotta be very very exciting and also i think sometimes uneasy just because of the you know like how ai machine learning changing so fast right i think it presents an amazing opportunity but also like you know how where is this going to land how is that going to help us adapt to business so i don't know any thoughts about like i don't know five years or a few years from now like you know how this will continue to evolve and what possible changes you may see on how hotels may operate or may look at data perhaps differently than today yeah again the ai will give the ability to look at even greater amounts of data right so it can digest and provide insight faster than you and i there's no doubt but again it's not going to replace us completely because it's the ingenuity it's the creativity because remember everything that's what we think about is how we start looking at data but it will allow us to give us insight into query anything and i think that's the ability because even today i'm using it to say hey what happened in this marketplace or what's going on here and it's great because it can search faster than i can and that helps me i do think it just will give it's another tool i think again for those of us that are old like i am i mean you remember there were before there used to be no computers now look how we use computers they used to you had a calculator when the first calculators came out people were excited right and so it's a tool that we've all used this is again different because this has the ability at least what we're thinking of to learn and to be a little bit more human like versus the machine machines that we had before but at the end of the day you still have to feed it you still have to nurture it you still have to kind of guide it and that's what we're going to come in so i don't think it replaces us just yet maybe for simple reports for sort or not even maybe even somewhat complex reports but i think that's then what will hopefully gives us the ability to do more value add instead of just doing the mundane so maybe in the future someone like me he will just or she will just say hey i need a i need a presentation for this type of audience and it will take my data our data and put it together and then i just have to tweak it versus me putting it together today cutting pasting doing all the work that i do so i think there is some it will be easier in the future to do what we do but then also again to add something completely different to the equation yeah agreed yeah yeah i think there's going to be a lot of positives and i think that's what i tell you know all the youngsters even my daughter is like listen embrace because the the people that are going to shine is the ones that are know how to optimize ai right because listen no one can stop this anymore no one knows where it's gonna go but to your point there's so much opportunity and there's never there's a new innovation there's a lot of fear because a lot of unknown but to your point right the calculator it didn't replace people didn't replace the need to learn processes on solving equations right it help you it facilitates but and the same thing here okay imagine and just again with ai just the thing is don't be over reliant on it right at this point so too many people are just using it even to create resumes which is unbelievable it's okay to clean up your resume but not you know you should read everything you put it spits out and all the numbers because even i was working yes on this weekend looking for some data it found it but then i had to spend a few minutes to make certain that it was data i could use because it was not one of our data sets it was some other data i was looking for but making sure i could i check the source is this truly right is this the right year before i put it into any kind of presentation so it helps but again just don't let it don't just put something in it and let it spit it out and think you're done yeah that's the hard part yeah indeed and last question what is the professional journey accomplishment that you're most proud of wow that's a hard question that's a and that is not even ai isaac you know there's so many that i am most proud of i oddly enough not oddly i think that sounds bad i am most proud of the folks that that i hope i helped develop a bit right so people and i find it amazing that people who worked for me still seek me out and are friends now that i can call them friends and so i think okay i must have done something right i don't think i was the greatest boss i don't think i knew everything there's so many mistakes i made being a boss i still think about it every day i've held the story stupid stuff i made and some of the things i worried about but i think it what what my mentor once told me is we're just people and you treat people like you want to be treated i think that's probably where i fit in where i found that hey i had something to do with that guy becoming a vp and so that was good again maybe a little bit maybe not a lot but at least i had something to do with it and so and i guess that's what i'm most proud of and then just then for me that hey i had a great journey this has been amazing as a kid growing up in the south side of san antonio never imagined any of this just never imagined a life like this because there was there was not even data you think about that back in the day there was no data digital no so and then you go wow this has been pretty fun so yeah no that's amazing and yes i mean just from knowing watching you i can see why you know many people still reach out just like i do and i have and thanks for saying yes and yeah and thank you for everything you do right i think that everybody that engages with you that hears you speak you know you you do a lot for our industry so thank you for that and thanks for doing with passion with care and for always making us better so it's fun again at the end of the day i tell people this is fun yes it's stressful at times and but it's fun at the end of the day find a job that you have fun at because if you have fun then it's not really a job you know maybe every once in a while you get stressed but other than that it's just fun i mean you get to play with stuff and see toy i mean like i call everything toys data it's great i can you know i just have to sit here and think about it and i can look at it so it's like this is fun awesome well thank you thank you appreciate it i hope everyone tune in and you know and enjoy this conversation and thanks again for saying yes and safe travels i'm sure you're going to crush next week oh thanks if i finish the presentation thanks again caesar thank you thank you