Hospitality’s Innovation Gap (And How to Close It) - Sloan Dean

Sloan: I just think the hospitality industry is a little stagnant right now. You look at RevPAR growth coming out of Q2 was flattish. For most companies, it's going to be flattish to slightly down in Q3, Q4 is going to be the same. There's really not an accelerant. STR just lowered their full year RevPAR forecast to be negative. They're holding out hope for 2026, and so we're in this weird period that US is not expanding.

Interest rates are high. I think you have to think differently and a lot of people talk about AI, but hotels are not really using it and adapting it. They're testing on their fringes. They're testing this automated recruiting software or this legal way, no one's rethinking the entire business.

And I think that's what it's going to take to win the next decade. And I just feel like things are a little stagnant. That was honestly one of the reasons I thought timing was right too, is because when I feel like I'm not learning enough. There is this curiosity that I have to feed. That was part of the, okay, it's time. It's time for you to go do the next thing. I think unfortunately the US market's going to be a little bit of this for the next 12 months, and so I think no one's talking about that.

Josiah: It's interesting you mentioned that in terms of AI adoption. I feel like there's a big opportunity ahead for some folks to make some big moves.

Sloan: Well, if you look at public boards and you look at CEOs, they're all Gen X and older. It's a generational gap problem. What's going to end up happening is there'll be a couple of well-funded businesses that are going to come in and they're going to eat the lunch of hotel operators, eat the lunch of even the OTAs, assuming they're not the players in the space, and create real problems for the C Corp brands.

And they're going to upend the industry. And if you're not part of it, I think most people think we're insulated because real estate is a fixed business. Like the hotel is insular, right? It's a fixed place. Real estate is worth millions and millions of dollars, and it insulates. But there is a lot of ways to intermediate that and disrupt, and I just think it's partly due to the fact that when you talk to a Gen X or a baby boomer that's on a board or a CEO, they don't understand it.

I've got an engineering degree and I'm the youngest millennial and I'm having to go to MIT to reteach myself because I think it's that important. And I just don't think people have a sense of urgency that they need. And I think a lot of established companies are going to lose a lot of value because they're just messing with it on the fringes. They're not thinking, how do I reinvent my company?

Josiah: Yeah. I got to ask you, Sloan, where do you learn about AI? You're going to MIT. I wish I was going, but I love that you're going. I'm curious what sources, podcasts, books. I've been reading this website newsletter called Every, every dot to, and they have a bunch of thoughtful essays around this. I find that to be an interesting source. I'm curious what you're listening to or looking at to learn about AI.

Sloan: Yeah, so I'm attending, I listen to some content that Scale puts out. They're doing like a free AI conference at the end of September, so I'm participating in that. MIT, Wharton, Stanford have all launched AI content for executives. It's not cheap, but I'm obviously doing MIT when I think it's a 12 week program. And then I have actually gone and looked up, Meta made a play for these AI professionals, the young gentleman who was like a billion and a half dollar, I forget, and I go look for them, and they don't host podcasts, but they've been on them.

One of them was on, what was, it wasn't Joe Rogan, but it was Chris, is it Williamson, I think. And so I go look up kind of the thought leaders in AI. Meta just picked off several of them. One of them is the founder of Perplexity, and then I go look for their content. You can find YouTube shorts, you can find some podcasts they've done. I watched that and it's amazing. Some of the things you'll pick up and learn.

Josiah: Interesting. I love it. I love it. Chris Williamson, maybe the Modern Wisdom. Chris Williamson. Yeah.

Sloan: Chris Williamson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just go, I mean, you could literally go look at the three or four people that Meta picked off and then the founders of a couple that, so go look at Perplexity and Ava and several of the others. And then go research those folks and find them on YouTube. And that's the best way. There's not, I looked for like a dedicated AI and some of it is too basic. Like, it's like how do you use ChatGPT, which is kind of intuitive.

Josiah: Yeah. I love how you're going to the source. You're going to the source, Sloan. There's not a lot of good books and it changes so quickly. But speaking of source, you're going to the source too. You're going to the people. The Not Done podcast coming out next week, August 19th. People got to make sure that they are subscribed. I'll include a link, but like directly to the source.

I just feel media and communication, this is more and more of an opportunity. We saw that in the last election cycle, whatever your political persuasion is, you just like, it feels like folks that are connecting with people are going to the source. They have these direct lines of communication. I just kind of feel this is a meta trend that is only accelerating. So the opportunity on the other side of that, you should go to the source and teach people, but you should also learn that way too. And I think there's incredible resources where these people that are building things, and so I'll include some links in the show notes so people can check that.

But I love how you're staying on the forefront, you just never stop learning. Sloan, that's great.

Sloan: Well, if you stop learning, you stop evolving, you stop evolving, you get left behind. I look at AI and I'm like, holy ****. A mid twenties kid who can harness this is going to be way more powerful than the ex-CEO at 44, so I better get to it.

I think if you don't have that kind of mentality and you're leading a company right now, that you're not paranoid about how AI is going to intermediate your business or disrupt your business and trying to figure out how to harness it, you are in for a rude day in the next couple years. It may not be tomorrow, it may not be next year, but in the next couple years you're going to feel the pain.

And of course, hotels are a little more protected because they're physical places, but look, you look at what the OTAs have done, you look at what Airbnb has done. This is beyond all that and we have to figure out, and I can't even think of ways that it's going to change the business world. I mean, our children will figure that out.

But there's a lot of good things that you can pick up on. And I think if you really want to create value, one of the easiest ways to go look in an industry that has adopted it sooner. And then try to figure out ways that you can reverse engineer that and apply it to hotels, which is part of what I'm doing.

With my podcast, we're going to host some AI experts from other industries. And then try and stimulate some thought process for hospitality.

Josiah: It's going to be so exciting. I'll include a link in the show notes. Sloan, always fun to talk with. You got to come back on the show as you keep building things. I want to hear the latest and greatest. But thanks for taking time to record today.

Sloan: Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you.