Our Vision: Hospitality Can Be More - Dina Belon, Staypineapple Hotels

Josiah: Today we continue our series with Staypineapple Hotels, the company that is loved by hospitality professionals and guests alike, earning recognition and accolades as both the best employer, the best place to work, and the best place for guests. They consistently top TripAdvisor rankings and among other accolades. And so in this episode, we're going to dive deep into their unique vision for hospitality and what's behind them operating the way that they do with the company's president, Dina Belon.

Dina: Michelle really taught me that her vision was to teach the why. Simon Sinek, if you've ever seen his TED Talk or read his book, she very much believes in that philosophy. If you teach the why to people, then they can use critical thinking to solve any problem. It's the old Bible verse, right? Teach people to fish; don't give them fish. I have a great example recently, we had a staff member at the front desk, we had a complaint from a guest, or actually it was a review, we had a review and Michelle and I both read all of our reviews and anyone that needs recovery, I dig in with the regional directors and our VP of Ops and the general manager and we make sure that both we learn from it from a team member perspective and we do recovery with the guest fully. But in this particular case, the team member made a mistake. And we do that. We're not perfect. And so they weren't as just open and hospitable to the guest and what their problem was as we expect. And so our general manager was like, I will get right with the front desk person and make sure that they understand what the right procedure would be in this circumstance. And I said, OK, great idea. stop and maybe step back for a minute and think about how we could use this as an example to explain a broader concept of your position is always to make sure the guest is happy. If you come from the perspective that the guest is happy at the end of an interaction, then you will interact the way you should, right? So instead of going in and saying, in this exact circumstance, this is what I would have done, let's talk about philosophy or the why. Why do we want the guest to feel a certain way at the end of an interaction? We talk about friend-style service, and we really mean that in its literal sense. We aspire for guests to be our friends. We want them coming back again and again because they love Darnell in Chicago, or they love Bonnie at the Maxwell, or whoever their team member is, or they know the general manager and they ask for Rye at Watertown every time they're there. You mentioned to me somebody today, you knew somebody at the front desk, right? And hopefully you retain that feeling. Michelle also talks about, and I think I had heard the concept philosophically, but she just has such a way of articulating it. that our goal is really to create memories. It's not about the building. It's not about the people. It's not about our brand. It's not about any of those things. All of those things will fall in place if we focus on creating memories. So most people get into the hospitality industry for the purpose of being of service, right? Or they like to make people happy.

Josiah: That's a little bit high level. It's a little bit.

Dina: Yeah, it is. But that's why they're generally attracted, right? So if your job every day is to make people happy and we actually empower you to do that, then you're happy as an employee. So it's all a big circle. It's a circle. Nothing starts in one place, right?

Josiah: That makes a lot of sense. How did Michelle describe the why behind the original vision of Staypineapple to you? What was it?

Dina: Yeah, I think it goes back to really that concept of creating memories. we hope that people walk away from an interaction with our brand having felt like it was something unique and special. Whether it's you had an amazing night's sleep because of the naked experience, or you had an amazing interaction, you had a surprise and delight experience, you had a wonderful day you spent at a conference or a meeting at one of our hotels, whatever the interaction is that you're able to walk away and there's really a memory point that holds true for you for years to come and makes you want to come back and engage again.

Josiah: That's interesting. So I'm curious, why memories? Of all the things to focus on, why memories? Is it something about how humans are hardwired? Is it the memory that is the differentiator? Why focus specifically on memories?

Dina: Yeah, 100%. Michelle uses Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to build the entire concept of our brand. In fact, we have a graphic in our training program that is our pineapple basically recreated as Maslow's Hierarchy of Need and figuring out how do we get to that top level where the human really feels connected and a sense of belonging and all of those things that are the ultimate desire of a human being. That's basic psychology.

Josiah: I find this stuff fascinating because it manifests in very specific ways. I think as we were preparing for this recording, you were talking about what excites you most right now and health and wellness was that you're breaking it down into specific components that are laddering up to this in a way.

Dina: Yeah, you're right. You know, I honestly I hadn't even connected the mesos hierarchy of need that we kind of base everything on with our health and wellness program. That's a great connection. We really feel like there are three elements that are super important to health and wellness. And when I talk about health and wellness, it's not a program. It's not a spa. It's not for us. It is very much about basic need that guests have that will leave them feeling well after their visit with us. So that is sleep, the naked experience, hydration. We utilize our water bars and we have reusable aluminum bottles that are complementary to gas in our hotel. It creates a quick, easy, accessible way to stay hydrated, healthy eating, and then move. So we provide free bicycles to guests. And then we have lots of walking maps. And as you also know, we're dog-obsessed. So we have a lot of guests with dogs. And so we have dog tour maps. We have cycling maps. We very much encourage guests to get out. We're in major cities. So get out in the city, enjoy the city and move. You'll feel better for it.

Josiah: Well, and I was talking to someone on your team before this, where he was describing this is a pervasive way of you operating strategically, where it is affecting everything from locations to then once you're in a location, how do you maximize someone's experience in that location to ideally not drive everywhere, but experience some of that on foot. And I did that last night, staying at one of your hotels. I spent about an hour just walking around, and there's so much to see, but you're focused on this as a strategically important differentiator.

Dina: Yeah, absolutely. When we identify the locations of our hotels, we try to find them within public transit, quick walking location to public transit, so guests don't have to drive a car. We provide a lot of alternative transportation. We have even piloted a couple of different programs around having electric cars at our hotels and providing alternative ways to move around a city without having to rent a car. It also helps with the cost of your trip. You can allocate more money to fun things instead of a car rental. Then, we can really utilize our curated experiences, which we get really excited about and our guests love, to help guests really enjoy the cities.

Josiah: Amazing. I wonder for maybe someone who has been living under a rock has no clue what Stay Pineapple is. How do you describe it? And then let's get into how you run the place.

Dina: Yeah, sure. State Pineapple is currently a collection of 10 hotels. We talk about ourselves as a collection of hotels because each of them is unique. And as we grow, they will continue to be that way. Any building can be a Staypineapple. It can be an exterior entrance, it can be a high-rise, it can be a low-rise building, it can be historic, it can be brand new. The actual physical building isn't the key feature. How can we make the experience unique? So that's really, really core to what we're trying to accomplish.

Josiah: And just if I could jump in there in terms of a, um, this may be sort of a newbie observation, but I saw some stat yesterday where the vast majority of hotels that become a new concept are actually already exist. They're not new. New builds are like a little sliver. Is that your experience and what you've seen?

Dina: Oh, 100%. We have one new build in our portfolio and I think it will be unlikely that we'll add a lot of new builds.

Josiah: So the way that you've structured this is adaptable. It's ready to work with a real estate owner-investor who says, hey, we need to make a change here because the way that we're doing things isn't working. The way that you've built this company is adaptable to a bunch of different people.

Dina: Yeah, 100%. Very adaptable and agile to different circumstances, different locations, and different building types. The current portfolio already looks like that. It's not a new concept. It's a proven concept. It's really important that We are able to, for us, able to help independent hotel owners that want to stay that way and want to keep the unique character of their hotel and not have a brand come in over top of it and squash it. We talk about how we're the wind beneath a hotel's wings, which may sound a little corny, but we come in underneath, and we kind of lift the hotel up from the bottom and just empower it to be a little bit more. Through our distribution models, through our booking engines, through our delivery of guest service, everything that we're doing helps the hotel, but it doesn't change the hotel.