Charge Confidently and Give Generously - Bill Walshe

Bill: Budgets have been done. Everybody is putting a phenomenal amount of time and effort into creating budgets that will probably be relevant for about 20 minutes after the beginning of the year. So a couple of things that I'm thinking about at the moment from a leadership perspective. Number one, I think the single most important attribute of any leader in hospitality today is the ability to pivot. And that's the ability to recognize that the best-laid plans will likely not come to fruition in the way we anticipated that they would. The budgets that you guys who are listening to this podcast are working on today, a budget is nothing more than a numerical interpretation of a set of assumptions. And not all of the assumptions will be correct. When that comes to pass, you kind of go, oops, the budget might not be as relevant as it was. So what do we do? We pivot into forecasting and we put our effort in there as well. And I think that for a leader, we also need to be able to pivot ideologically. We need to be able to understand culturally we're brilliant at understanding financially what success looks like in business. And if the path to that financial number is impeded because of circumstances, we do pivot into a forecast. We change the operational structure, but we don't lose sight of the number. Why don't we do that with culture? If we have cultural goals, and by the way, How many people listening to this podcast are going to put the same amount of time and effort into the articulation of 2024 cultural goals as you will do your financial goals? And I would argue not, but I would argue that you should. And then be prepared to pivot so that if the world changes, if the environment changes, if circumstances change, don't lose sight of your cultural goals. Just be prepared to change the way you achieve them. and to pivot into that moment. So I don't care what your title is, whoever's listening to this. You could be general manager, managing director, director, vice president, junior assistant vice president, and we've got so many titles in hospitality now. As you head into 2024, I'm going to give you two titles for everybody listening to this podcast. The very first thing you are is you are a chief pride officer. Your obligation, irrespective of functional responsibility, is to make people proud. And then the second thing I want you to think of yourself as is a chief pivot officer. And in pursuit of your first goal of making people proud, don't be rigid in your approach. Leave flexibility in order for you to react to circumstances as they appear but without losing sight of your goal. Charge confidently. I don't think we should ever be embarrassed as hoteliers to charge confidently for the experiences that we're delivering. And we're in a good place right now. Average rates are high pretty much everywhere. And we're a demand-led industry. A lot of people don't get that. And a room, a hotel room is perishable. It's as perishable as a banana. If a room is left vacant tonight, that particular room can never ever be sold again. So when demand is there, I think we should charge confidently. If we're going to charge confidently, we have an obligation to give generously. My fear is that as we head out of 2023 and into 2024, luxury hospitality guests are looking at us and saying, we see the charging confidently bit, and instead of giving generously, it's you gouge gouge. And I think that we need to reflect on and recommit to that sense of compassion and generosity in hospitality. There's never been a more important time for us to commit to random acts of kindness, and unexpected moments that we used to do as hoteliers. And then, you know, The finance teams, the asset management teams, who I respect greatly, love dearly, and who have jobs to do, created such a level of restriction in the business that people's opportunity to do something spontaneous, they got scared to do it. I'd get in trouble. Again, be a leader. Create an environment where it's okay to ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Why did you give that table a bottle of champagne last night and not charge them for it? Because they deserved it. It's their 50th year in a row coming here. I just overheard them talking about the fact that it was an anniversary dinner, 25 years married. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to send them champagne because I can. And that's how you create customers for life. And there isn't enough of that happening. Don't get me started on resort fees. There's a reason that in the State of the Union, earlier in 2023, Joe Biden talked about a number of things, and one of them was resort fees. So we made it to the State of the Union, and it wasn't a compliment. So I think, give generously. If you want to have a resort fee, have a resort fee. Call it a guest amenity. I don't care what you call it. But please, make sure it's significant. Make sure it has substance. Make sure that it's appreciated. Make sure that it's perhaps co-created with the recipient, so it's actually something that is meaningful For them saying we're going to give you access to the gym, free wifi, a bottle of water and a broken bicycle doesn't cut it anymore. So if you're a leader in hospitality, whether you're an investor, an owner, an asset manager, general manager, or rank and file. Give generously. Let's make 2024 the year where we evidence our compassion, where we evidence our generosity, our creativity, our humanity, and our humility.