Frontline First: How We Built a Strong Hospitality Brand Through Operational Culture - Sarah Dinger, My Place Hotels

Sarah: For those that know me, I really kind of like to lead from the back, right? I really empower my team to make decisions and to elevate their own experiences. And I think that's really helped me personally feel fulfilled within my role, is really kind of bringing alongside all of these team members. Because without everybody's contributions, we would never be where we are today. And so I never like to be the person that's on top of the podium speaking down on people. I want to embrace all of our team members and I want to empower them to have that same relationship with their team members and continue that forward into the interactions with our owners and with our general managers and with the operations teams, you know, whether that's a front desk agent, But it's really about building a brand together. It can't fall on the shoulders of one individual. So that's been so rewarding in my career is yes, as a first employee, I have a lot to be proud of. I can speak to a lot of things, but I've got a great team. We've got a great organization. We've got, you know, tremendous amount of support. I think that ability to just carry that forward. I mean, I was reminded since day one. the way that the importance of establishing these relationships with our hotel owners and their operations teams can never be lost. And so I think that's really been what's kind of set us apart is that mindset. And that was Ron's philosophy when he started Super 8, you know, and so he's carried that forward. He's been very successful in making sure that hospitality is focused around the people.

Josiah: You mentioned something that caught my attention around the brand is built through these sort of activities. I've worked in marketing for a long time. A lot of times marketers think that they are the sole person or team that builds the brand. You have a very different approach and it seems to be working quite well. I wonder if you could speak a little bit more to what is that connection between brand, which some see as just a marketing activity, and you're leading operations and you're saying, okay, actually all that we're doing with people and culture and hospitality and all the interactions with all of our stakeholders, that becomes the brand. Why is that?

Sarah: Yeah, it's very interesting. And I love that you tied marketing into operations because my first title was the director of marketing for my place. And so I think the approach of creating an environment that is collaborative and that is built on the foundation of do good, basically, has been what's really kind of elevated all of the hotel owners and operators experience with the brand. You know, I think back to when we talked about what is my place. And My Place is much like other industry brands. And MyPlace is a simple concept, right? It's about clean and comfortable rooms. It's about a great guest experience. And if you can continue to build experiences on those three elements, clean, comfortable, and good guest experience, I think, you know, that's all that hospitality needs to be. You can market, you can market your brand and it's good colors and it's good taglines and all of the things. If you walk into the hotel and your experience is anything less than what's been marketed to you, you're disappointed from the beginning. And so if you're focusing on the key components of what really a guest is entering a hotel for, I think that's the way that we need to approach hospitality.