How Sarah Dinger Helped Build My Place Hotels As Employee #1

Sarah: Growing up in a community of about 25,000 people, where Super 8 and some other hospitality-centered organizations started, really, I was influenced by the values and the integrity that really define the hospitality industry. And I think that, coupled with "Midwest nice," really inspired me to follow the path of so many successful hospitality leaders. My tenure into hospitality really started in restaurant management. And my story at my place began with a relationship with founders, Ron Rivett and his grandson, our current president and CEO, Ryan Rivett. I started with the company in 2012 as the first employee. And since inception, they not only instilled and shared their vision for My Place with me, but they kind of ignited their passion for the hospitality industry that's really been decades in the making. You know, the company and the organization has over 40 years of hospitality experience. And so, you know, really being a part of that growth from the beginning has been so rewarding. And they've really inspired me both to not only grow professionally, but personally.

Josiah: So I want to dig into one of the things that you mentioned. You said kind of the values attracted you to this business, to the industry. Tell me more about that. What specifically do you mean by kind of the values?

Sarah: So in my opinion, hospitality isn't just what you do, it's how you make people feel. And hospitality is about creating, you know, a culture and a community. And hospitality sometimes is, you know, thought of like the location or the amenities or the brand recognition. But I think a well-trained team is really probably the most powerful driver of guest satisfaction. And really how you're making your guests feel and how you're welcoming them into whether it's your brand or your individual hotel location really creates a lot of conversation. And really those positive guest experiences is what I find most rewarding in hospitality.

Josiah: I love that. I want to dig into a few elements of this. I wonder if we could speak for a little bit about becoming the first employee at My Place because MyPlace is a large and quickly growing company. Really interesting. I'll link in the show notes to some conversations I've had with some others on your team, including Ryan, about the story of it. But It's interesting when you join something in the early stages, right? Because my place then wasn't my place today. Walk me through and walk our listeners through what was going through your mind when you decided to become the first employee, because that's a bet you're making with your career.

Sarah: Right. Yeah. Well, I knew, you know, from my relationship with Ron and Ryan, I knew whatever they put their mind to, they were going to be successful at. And so I was so excited when I got the first call and they welcomed or they asked me to join the team. And I, you know, was all hands on deck. I was ready to do it. So when I joined the team in 2012, my place had a name and they were in the early phases of creating the logo. And they had a property that was under construction, had not been opened, and that was in Dickinson, North Dakota. There was another property that was going to be breaking ground in Minot, North Dakota, and another one in Cheyenne, Wyoming. And so the first few years were really designed to be a proof of concept period. You know, let's understand the product. Let's understand the demographic. Let's understand all of the things that are going to be required to successfully own and operate a My Place hotel before they went to franchising. And so a few of my early projects were to really start to create that open book of resources for our franchise owners and for their operations teams. So I spent a lot of time in the field documenting all of my experiences through the construction phase, through getting the hotel ready to open and then into operations. And so our standards manual evolved from that. We've created a lot of good tools and resources for franchise operations. You know, we like to consider at that time really a hotel in a box. You might be new to franchise operations, you might be new to the hospitality industry, but we wanted to be able to provide you everything that you would need to be a successful owner and operator.

Josiah: Well, if you look at the numbers, the results speak for themselves because the company's grown so quickly. But can you take me back to that moment of documenting this for the first time? That sounds really interesting. Few people get a chance to do that. You said you were on site in these different locations. What did that look like? How do you create something from scratch like this?

Sarah: It's really just about, I mean, again, I go back to, I entered the industry in restaurant management. So hotels was somewhat new to me. And so I really looked at it from the lens of I'm new to hotel management and what do I need to know? What don't I know? I don't know what I don't know. So I just started to write down everything, all of my experiences at the property and really to create, you know, those trainings and those tools and those resources around the things that I learned while on site. And some of it probably was just common sense, but it was like, I wanted to have that recorded so that when we came back to the office, when we started to share in conversations that we could really talk about the why, why we did what we did, why we're doing what we're doing. It's not just about creating a set of, you know, standards and rules. It's really about operations. When I think about, you asked me to like, how did that feel? Well, early on, like one of the first things that was instilled to me is our brand is only going to be as strong as the operators and the franchisees that have the MyPlace logo on them. And so we, from day one, I was, you know, reminded that our hotel owners, our hotel operators are really our partners in all of this. And our goal is to support them through their daily operations. And that's been something that I've carried with me since day one and that we continue to instill in the team here is how important that relationship with our hotel operations team is.

Josiah: It's an interesting dynamic, right? Because I, I've never done this and I'm just curious, there's maybe some listeners that may have seen this experience, but it's very rare, I think, to go through this process. It also seems extremely hard because if you're getting to the end state that you described where you're supporting, you know, all of these franchisees, all the operators, it could feel like, oh, we have to document absolutely everything in every detail. But hospitality, renting a hotel has so many things that you don't see coming. And also, if you document everything, sometimes it's so complex, like nobody looks at it. So how did you balance, I guess, enough documentation to operate well, without so much that people start ignoring it, or you know, something goes wrong?

Sarah: Right, yeah, I think that kind of goes back to what hospitality is. Hospitality cannot be defined by a set of rules. It can't be defined by standards because hospitality has to, you have to be able to pivot in those moments. And so really just kind of outlining best practices maybe is a better way to kind of explain what we did. Now, this is the best practice on how to do it, but it's important that you take care of your guest at your property. Your market might be different, So, you know, there is going to be some fluctuation in how one management company manages over another, but for the most part, it's just really creating those best practices. And a lot of what we were developing early on was really from an owner's or an operations lens. But I think of where it's evolved to really speaks to our goal of becoming and continuing to just provide such exceptional service. The individuals that you really need to connect with are those frontline employees. It's your front desk agents. It's your housekeepers. It's the maintenance staff on site. You know, we really kind of refer to all of those individuals as the directors of first impressions. Because they are the people that are, you know, every day interacting with the guest, making sure that their experience at our hotels and at our brand is, you know, top notch. And so really being able to connect with them has been a really crucial moment for us. And I think, you know, over the last few years, we've spent a lot of time developing training, you know, some educational materials that can speak to those front desk agents because the roles that they play within the organization are some of the most important roles.

Josiah: That's amazing.

Sarah: And really empowering them to know that, you know, and sometimes that's difficult to do because those front desk agents, you know, they don't always hear from the brand representatives. So our ability to get out and to be present in their properties is so important.

Josiah: So that's great. There's a million things I want to follow up with related to this, but I do want to take a moment to step back and talk about hospitality at large, because you're getting at something I find interesting, that director of first impressions sort of mentality. I'm going to ask a very high level question. What is hospitality at its core to you? You know, in our interactions before this, you talked about serving with intention. I don't know if you kind of want to get into that, but I'd be really curious, you know, if you think about hospitality, what does hospitality mean to you?

Sarah: Yeah, I think I kind of mentioned it earlier, but I think hospitality is more than just what you do. It's more than just a brand. It's more than just a hotel location. It's really about, you know, welcoming people into the organization, whether that's we're welcoming our franchisees into our My Place family, or we're welcoming our guests into our hotels. It's really that feeling of embracing every interaction and truly connecting. It's about building relationships. I think it's all about the people. And there's a lot of different people that you interact with and there's a lot of different reasons that you interact with those people. But if you, if you approach every interaction as an opportunity to build a relationship, I think you're going to come out on the other end a lot stronger as a result of that. And that's really been my focus and our focus at my place is to welcome people. I mean, we have a mission statement and that's really pillared on welcome, build and serve. And those three principles, I think it's really what kind of continues to drive us forward.

Josiah: I'd love to bring that to life of the story if we could. Is there something that you've seen or heard recently where you saw somebody living and operating this way?

Sarah: Yeah, I mean, and that's really our goal with all of our hotels. I mean, our mission statement is placed in the lobby of every My Place hotel. So as a guest or as an employee, you're reminded daily of the opportunity that you have to really continue to welcome, build, and serve the guests that are staying at your hotel location. You know, one example, and this is to me what hospitality is. I think a lot of times there's some idea of technology is going to replace that human element. And I'm really hoping that the industry doesn't go that way because I think hospitality is all about the people. And I went to a conference a few months ago and I was going to be arriving over the weekend and I had to speak on a Monday. And so I knew that I was going to need laundry service because I need to have a few garments, um, steamed, pressed. So I called early and just confirmed that they would be able to take care of that. Yes, they said that they'd be able to do that on the weekend. Fast forward, I arrived. It was a Sunday. I was making plans to get my garments steamed and something happened where they weren't going to be available. And the lady that I spoke with, she's like, let me look into it. You know, I'm really sorry. Let me see what I can do. And she said, we have a few steamers here at the hotel. And so I could maybe bring one up to your room. And so as you know, I'm in the industry. Thank you. And I know this is, this is something that's probably difficult for you to have to tell a guest, but I'm going to, I'm going to appreciate your transparency. And the next thing I know I get a knock on the door. So I was expecting that the steamer was going to arrive. And what happened is, again, I guess the steamer went missing. And so she was really apologetic. And she said, I could have picked up the phone and called you, but I really just wanted to visit with you in person and to tell you how sorry that I am that this happened. And I've made arrangements for tomorrow morning for your garments to be taken to the steamer and they will have them back in time for your meeting. And in that moment, I was just like, that is what hospitality is. Hospitality is solving sometimes for problems that are unplanned. And if issues arise, it's making sure that there's a, the way that you can correct that issue. And that really touched me. I just, I remembered back on that and I kind of reflect on that every time we think about what hospitality is, but it's just that personal connection. It's, you know, taking care of guests and, and making people feel welcome.

Josiah: I love that story. There's kind of two things that come to mind with you sharing that. I think one is the importance of all the details, right? I think when you're operating a hotel, there's so many things flying around, right? You're just track of so much and you're like, okay, well, the steamer's here. They're hearing you tell that story. There's so much behind it. The steamer was for your clothes, was for presentation. That presentation was a key moment for you and your career for the company. You know, there's all these things kind of ladder back. So it's like it's never just a steamer, right? It's never just that. So I think like there's an attention to detail that I hear kind of behind that story. But I think the bigger point you're making that really resonates with me is the way that you're communicating matters a lot. It's not just what you're saying. It's not just what you're doing. It's how you do it. And I think there's that intangible where even if we live in a world in whether it's two years or two decades or 200 years that there's robots that could do all these things, it's different because it's not so much the thing being done, it's that interaction you had behind it. And that's the magic and that's the opportunity, I think.

Sarah: Yeah, I completely echo that. And I think that's the opportunity, too. There's a lot of things that are taking place every single day. And I think life's really just too short. Just be kind, be genuine, embrace everybody. You know, I mean, it seems really simple. And I think hospitality can be simple. And sometimes we overly complicate it.