I just read your comments on the ESA bankruptcy, you are so right. I had the same conversation with the CEO of Lightstone, and I too couldn’t believe that he asked me. Very scary. The lesson to be learned is that the financial folks seem to denigrate those of us who have spent our entire lives, learning this business. Someone needs to understand that hotel “operators” are not dumb amateurs, but professionals who deserve respect and need to be heard. Thanks as always for your support and contributions to our industry.

During my tenure as COO of Fandango Resorts, I can’t tell you how many times I sat with prospective clients, often people of significant accomplishments and net worth, who were upside down in some hospitality project in which they had invested. Invariably the comment would come – “I figured ‘how hard could it be to run a hotel?’” One very nice gentleman who had been at the Executive Committee level at a Big Three automaker had resorted to folding towels and driving the shuttle van for his small hotel as those were the only things he was confident in doing. Despite turning the hotel around in eighteen months, he eventually lost the property to overwhelming debt levels.

While many of the tasks our teams perform on a daily basis are not complex, to orchestrate them into a flawless guest experience is complicated. Ours is a business where the laser focus should be on people and experiences, not on real estate values; the sooner the world realizes this again, the healthier our business will become.