Preserving History While Building What's Next - Chris Cline, Hotel Santa Barbara

Josiah: I'm excited to get into the story of you and this hotel. Maybe we pick up the story in early 2022. Geronimo had recently acquired this property. I wonder if you could take our listeners to that moment. You know Santa Barbara really well. You've been a hospitality leader here for some time. Take us to that moment. Why did you take this role and what did you walk into?

Chris: I think I walked into what Geronimo saw, which was an incredible amount of potential. I walked into what we still are, a historic and important hotel in Santa Barbara. It wasn't without its challenges. The condition that the hotel was in in early 2022 is the reason we spent all this time and investment to renovate it. So yeah, there were moments of "what have I gotten myself into" paired with "the potential here is amazing and it's going to be great."

Josiah: I would love to hear a little bit of that potential you saw. This is a really historic property. For our listeners, I'll include some links in the show notes where they can read more about this. But just briefly tell us about some of that history because I think that might get into some of the potential you saw.

Chris: There was an earthquake here in June of 1925. That was a significant moment for Santa Barbara. Unfortunately, certainly a lot of destruction. But there had been a hotel on this spot since 1876, and it did not survive that earthquake. Then an entrepreneur at the time by the name of Callahan created this hotel in a year and a half.

Josiah: Just a year and a half. Wow.

Chris: Because December of 1926, this hotel opened. That's amazing to me. So this hotel has been on this spot, this building's been here since 1926, and you just feel that importance of it within this community as it really grew from that point. That disaster really drove so much of the design and what Santa Barbara looks like now with its architecture. This hotel's been a part of it for that long. So I certainly felt that and saw that potential of bringing this fantastic grand dame, if you might, of a hotel back to the luster that she deserved. You could see that. The lobby has some beautiful natural light that's brought in by skylights. There are some magical parts of the day where even in its prior condition you could see that happening and you thought, wow, this is really gonna be a beautiful moment at different times of the day. For a guest to be sitting here enjoying a beautiful local wine, or just sitting and reading or chatting with friends. So you could kind of see that, even in the condition that it was in prior.

Josiah: It's also a fantastic location. I think about, we were talking a little bit off air about my personal connection to Santa Barbara, but I've had family in different parts of this area and spent a lot of time in these blocks. We got married a couple blocks away from here. I feel this location on State Street, close to the beach, you're kind of in the hub of it all. So you have this beautiful historic building and an incredible location. Is that sort of some of the potential you saw? You're like, okay, there's an opportunity here.

Chris: Yeah. You're in the middle of it. Location can't get much better. So to your point, we're on the most activated block in Santa Barbara along the several blocks of State Street, but the 500 block where we sit is the most activated. It has a vibrancy. And so for guests to be able to arrive, then encounter Santa Barbara literally right out the front door and walk to the right and enjoy State Street. And then maybe they walk down to the Dark Garden area within the Funk Zone and then Stearns Wharf. It's walkable. You turn left out the front door and you're up State Street heading towards a fantastic museum. You're heading towards the arts district, the Granada Theater. It just goes on and on.

Josiah: It's great. It's been incredible to experience the hospitality of you and your team during my stay here. I think one of the things is, I drove down from San Francisco. For me, and I imagine some of your guests might share this feeling, not having to drive somewhere is actually a relaxing feeling. I imagine many people are coming from the Los Angeles area or elsewhere and you don't need your car. You can be fine on foot or bike. It is so special. The vibrancy of this area is interesting. I'm gonna put a pin in that and come back. I want to stay with this property. It's a beautiful property, rebuilt in the 1920s. It has that 1920s aesthetic, which is great. It also, through the renovation that you've done, has a very modern California beach feel with the materials and the partnerships with local providers. You had a very interesting decision, though, to renovate while still open. Many, including many in this area, shut down completely, and it has pros and cons. But operationally it seems tough to stay open and renovate. I wonder if you could walk our listeners through what that process was like. I imagine there's some challenges of doing that, but I think one of the upsides I see is you were able to still provide hospitality to people through that journey. What was that like?

Chris: It was difficult. It had a lot of challenges. But I think early on as I was involved with Geronimo in sussing it out and coming up with a final plan of what to do, it came pretty clear, pretty early that we could do one floor at a time. Three floors, each floor has 25 guest rooms. They're nearly identical to one another. And so in order to do that and satisfy something that was important to us as well, which is community. We have our own community within these walls, which are our team. And by doing one floor at a time and then the lobby, it allowed us to maintain employment of our team. It wasn't without challenges, but we really worked hard to be really transparent and communicative to our team to set expectations. And we did that for guests as well. We had a banner at the top of our website that you couldn't miss that said, this is what's going on. We're under renovation. This is going to be different. And it was. It brought the challenges of noise and dust and construction equipment.

Josiah: I want to talk for a moment about how you mitigate some of those challenges. But spend a moment with this. You still had guests wanting to stay here for all the reasons we described. Incredible location, beautiful property. The employment piece is interesting. Beyond it being a nice thing to do to continue to offer employment, was there any strategic business benefit to that as well? Were you able to retain some good people? Was that a part of the consideration?

Chris: We were able to retain, in a sense, some institutional knowledge. One of our leaders is still with us and has now been on the property 16, 17 years. Started out as a housekeeping houseman, and he's now our guest services manager. So to maintain that institutional knowledge, I recognize that as an important thing coming through COVID. I was really fortunate to work during the pandemic. I worked for Kimpton Hotels in Palm Springs and here in Santa Barbara. So fortunate to have worked. Coming out of it, as an industry, reopening was exciting and relieving. But we lost so many people who had decided to step off the merry-go-round that they had been on for years. I respect that and understand it. We lost so much institutional knowledge in our industry because of that transition, in my opinion. And so to be able to maintain that here, I think has proven to be really important for us.

Josiah: What kept you in the business? Because that was a very hard moment for hospitality. I knew a lot of people that said, this is too much. I spent decades in this business, but I need to pursue something else. What kept you in the industry?

Chris: It's just who I am. It's just really become such a fabric of who I am as a person and what I do and what I literally like to do. I just never really thought about changing. My circumstances may have helped me not to have to make that decision. I was employed. Many of my colleagues weren't. So I respect that. But been doing it since 1988, so I must like it.

Josiah: Well, it's clear. Even just while we were having breakfast, observing you talking with your team, different roles, taking care of some operational stuff. We're recording on a Saturday, you came in, you're here on property, you're spending time. It's clear that you love what you do, which is awesome to see. I'd love to come back to the story of this hotel. There's guests that still want to stay here. How do you mitigate some of the potential downsides of a renovation while you're open? That seems hard. How did you get through that operationally?

Chris: The reality is that you're gonna have moments that don't go well. That is a truth. There are going to be, understandably, guests who, even though we've been transparent, are gonna get here and not be thrilled with the reality. Our approach was, that's okay. How can I help? There was just no point in penalizing our guest for that reality. So we were very kind and didn't hold people accountable in the normal way for that and did whatever we could to help them, even if it meant finding them another accommodation. I'd rather earn that guest's loyalty in that moment by saying, don't worry about it. I'm not offended that you don't wanna be here with dust and noise and banging. It's okay. Come back and see us in a year. The other aspect of that is, as there were moments like that, I think there were a lot of cool moments. We had to pivot and create a temporary front desk in one of our tenant spaces that faces State Street. What that practically meant was people arrive in our valet parking lot, which is behind me, and typically now as you did, walk right into the hotel. We had to escort people around the block. It's not optimal, but the unintended beautiful consequence was they got to talk with our bell staff, our valet staff during that journey over and back. Those conversations were mostly about, so how's it going? What are you doing? What's it gonna look like? When's it gonna be done? That really turned out to be a benefit rather than something that was a negative.

Josiah: I appreciate you taking this detour to talk for a few moments about this. The reason I wanted to get into this is, this is great hospitality leadership. It's making lemonade out of lemons. This is a tough operational, a tough leadership thing to navigate. You are upfront with your guests, you're maintaining employment for your team, and then you're making the most of the moment. It's not ideal to walk your guests around the block, but you're like, hey, let's use this moment to better understand and ultimately serve our guests. I appreciate you getting into that. I wanna talk about the renovation. Just as a guest here, I feel like it is a very modern, fresh California feel. So many amenities you have in the room. Local coffee, even just the ceramics. The ceramics maker was someone my wife went to school with. It feels so connected to this community. It's like you start to get into the details. It's amazing. I am curious because we talked a little bit about history earlier. I've been to some properties where it almost feels like they're not inauthentic, but it doesn't quite feel right. I feel like you found tastefully how to incorporate themes of this property's history into the naming of the bar, for example. How did you go through some of those decisions? What did you decide to keep and tell the story of? What parts were just trivia that you didn't need to feature? It feels like you do it but it's not in your face all the time. It's very tasteful.

Chris: Thank you. I appreciate that feedback. There were a lot of wonderful people involved in many decisions here. The property had a lot of support from great folks in Geronimo, so it took a team. But one of our initial priorities was to create more of a boutique environment. We were really a rooms-only hotel when I arrived here in early 2022 because there just wasn't anything else that we were offering. So it felt really organic to reintroduce a bar in the lobby. We think there was a bar really in the same space in the 1940s from looking at archival photography. We're pretty sure that's true.

Josiah: Where do you get those photos? That's amazing.

Chris: The Santa Barbara Historical Society has a number of them. So yeah, I think that's where we found most of them. And again, the timing of the purchase of the property and the renovation was lining up on a collision course with 2026 and the centennial, which we're celebrating this year. 1926 really just came out of that. Let's honor the past, which is a really high priority for the company that owns and runs the hotel. We don't knock buildings down, we reinvigorate them. That's really what we do and what we've done here. Then another aspect were the postcards. The postcards that look vintage, they actually aren't, but they look vintage. That was an idea of mine to use them as note cards. You may have received one last night with your welcome. Then someone else on the team said, well, why don't we create artwork of that and put it in the guest rooms? They actually found original postcards. The postcards in the rooms are reproductions of actual postcards from people that had been sent and received, that were Santa Barbara postcards. Ironically, our company's based in Wisconsin. Ironically, there's someone writing their family in Wisconsin. How does that happen? So some of it's dumb luck and fun stuff like that, and some of it is just trying to be intentional. I think 1926 just made so much sense from the beginning because of the connectivity to the centennial.

Josiah: I love the notion of honoring the place. I'm fascinated by renovations of a place like this and reinterpreting them for the next years. How do you think about what that looks like? I'm thinking about some of the collaborations with local creators as one way to do that. But how do you think about honoring the past and also presenting a fresh experience of how Santa Barbara's evolving and what it is now?

Chris: I feel pretty strongly that the traveler who chooses to stay in boutique hotels has an adventurous spirit. With all respect to the big box hotels that I stay in too, a lot of the boutique type, you find yourself exploring. You're willing to explore. You are adventurous. So you're inevitably going to find something cool about the environment that you're in, the community that you're in. We wanted to bring that from the outside in and present that to guests. Finding Sarah Clapp ceramics, and Sarah does work in Carpinteria, which is just south of Santa Barbara. Her coffee mug that evokes Figueroa Mountain was just, I saw it and I'm like, oh yeah, I need that. That's gonna be perfect. We have great connectivity to the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara always has. So to partner with Salmon Wine, a family that's been making wine in the Santa Ynez Valley for decades. To partner with Haley Firestone and her husband Dennis with Zaca Coffee. The Firestone family's been in the valley a long time. Very important. Each have beautiful products. They're wonderful to work with, but it's our extension of ourselves to the community. Trying to bring that into the guest room experience, into the experience within the walls, and then hopefully you're finding that adventure outside. There's so much to do here.

Josiah: There really is. It's about the power of independent hospitality. You and I both serve the broader hospitality ecosystem. You in your capacity in leadership for tourism and hospitality here in the Santa Barbara area and me through doing this show. It's no disrespect for those who are working and leading in branded environments. But I do think there's something special with independent hospitality. I'm really interested, you talked about the vibrancy of Santa Barbara, especially this part of Santa Barbara. It wasn't always a buzzing location. It wasn't always the part of this area that people were coming to. That has been the result of a lot of work from a lot of people. You've had a leadership role in tourism and hospitality broadly beyond this hotel over the years. I wonder if you could share with our listeners, why do you do this? It's more than a full-time job to do something like this. Why do you invest time into serving the broader travel and hospitality community, and what does some of that engagement look like?

Chris: On a personal level, I think that I choose that responsibility. I think it's important to me. Community is important to me as a person and I found a company in working with Geronimo that also espouses that same view. Community matters is one of our sayings, and it does. Involvement in Visit Santa Barbara, being on some committees of the city, and the other things that I involve myself with certainly help me to understand what's happening in the community. It informs me, gives me that insight, and it inevitably helps my hotel and the team in my hotel. But I learned so much. I gained so much from those relationships that are built, talking with other leaders in hotels or attractions or restaurants that have a different perspective. They're doing things differently. That's all important too. But giving back is just incredibly important to me and it's important to the company for which I work. I just think it brings so much value. As we talk about this hotel being a hundred years old, it's been a part of the community for that long. We need to continue to be engaged and be a great partner.

Josiah: I wonder if, just to bring this idea to life, we could talk a little bit about what you've observed unfold here with State Street or the Funk Zone, some of the immediate surroundings of this hotel. It does feel like there's a lot changing and growing just even in the past couple of years. What's behind that? Because obviously Santa Barbara is a great experience for visitors with that vibrancy. What's behind the scenes that leads to that?

Chris: Well, part of it goes back to the decision during COVID to close State Street to vehicles and allow that vibrancy to continue outside. I think that's been important to hotels and restaurants and retail on State Street. The redevelopment of the Funk Zone has been incredibly successful. All of those things help to inform someone who's considering coming here about what they're gonna experience. Behind the scenes, I think there's a lot of energy. It's not without challenge. We need to find what's next for Santa Barbara. We need to define what we're going to do with State Street, how that's going to evolve with or without vehicles, with zones such as an arts district and an entertainment district. How do we connect that with the Funk Zone? How do we stay vibrant and interesting so that our feeder market of Los Angeles primarily has a compelling reason to get in their car, which they spend a lot of time in, to come up and enjoy Santa Barbara consistently? So those are all challenges, and I think that's certainly what is happening and we're all working on behind the scenes to try to create a future where that stays vibrant and exciting.

Josiah: I love it. Speaking about the future, maybe we can close by talking a little bit about this being a big year for this hotel. Whether it's this year or in the years to come, what are you excited about? What's on your mind as you think about this property in the context of this beautiful area? What makes you excited as you think about the rest of this year and beyond?

Chris: It's just so satisfying to now be working in a hotel that we started to conceptualize four years ago or more, and went through a challenging renovation because all of them are, and come out the other side. The satisfaction comes from, I meet so many guests throughout the week who stop me and say, I haven't been here in a while. I used to stay here a lot. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. They're so pleased with the choices that we've made and the environment, the level of service that our great team provides. So that's really satisfying. What I think is important for us is to be a steward of that. We need to leverage all of this investment, and it's not just financial investment. It's blood, sweat, tears, effort. And create an environment that is sustainable. That year after year after year, we're going to have teams that go out of their way to take care of great people and take care of guests. That the product's gonna continue to look fantastic, that we're gonna be creative in what it is that we're offering guests and meeting where they are. Selfishly, in Geronimo Hotels, there are several of our hotels who have earned a Michelin key. I'm a very competitive person, so I would very much like to attain and earn a Michelin key for this hotel. I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to do that. But there might be some people who are friends of mine in this company who might be lording that over me.

Josiah: I'm assuming this is coming very soon.

Chris: I would like to at least come even.

Josiah: I have no doubt this is coming very soon because this is really amazing. Hearing the story of this property, thanks for walking me through it.

Chris: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to spend some time with you this morning.