Scaling a Collection Within the Independent Hotel Niche | with Brent Hayhurst
GAIN Momentum episode #27 - Scaling a Collection Within the Independent Hotel Niche | with Brent Hayhurst
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Adam Mogolensky [00:00:07]:
Welcome to the GAIN momentum podcast, focusing on timeless lessons from senior leaders in hospitality, food service, travel, and technology. We are joined today by Brent Hayhurst, director of program development at Curator Hotel and Resort Collection. Brent, how are you?
Brent Hayhurst [00:00:29]:
Doing great. Thank you, Adam.
Adam Mogolensky [00:00:32]:
And our cohost today is GAIN managing partner, Michael Cohen. Michael, how are you?
Michael Cohen [00:00:39]:
Great, Adam. Great to be back. Brent, we really appreciate your time today. Thank you.
Brent Hayhurst [00:00:43]:
Pleasure to be here.
Adam Mogolensky [00:00:45]:
Great to have you. So, listeners, we focus this podcast around 4 key questions that we ask all guests who come on. So we're gonna dive into the first question, which is, Brent, what single piece of advice would you give to vendor companies entering hospitality?
Brent Hayhurst [00:01:04]:
I mean, from our perspective, you know, especially in the world of independent hotels, I think it's it's really having a defined value proposition, what you're gonna bring to the equation, how you're gonna work with with other systems that are that are in the play already. We're seeing a lot of great movement in in integrations and partnerships, you know, on the vendor side, and that's been, I I I think, a key in helping to propel technology forward in the hospitality industry.
Michael Cohen [00:01:32]:
When you think about that question as an individual, because you have a significant amount of experience, that's why we're all talking together today. You know, not, of course, to name specific vendors or anything like that or specific but, like, what sort of pitfalls have you seen in the past? What sort of things have you said? That's when maybe we gotta, you know, remind that particular company or maybe it's a teaching moment even though you're a client side of things. You know what I mean?
Brent Hayhurst [00:02:00]:
Yeah. I mean, a lot of it comes down to, you mean, the core elements of really what's what's what services they're trying to provide and and, ultimately, what problem they're trying to solve for. And so elements of support and response and, you know, strategic road mapping of understanding these and being able to adapt and pivot, those are all extremely important for really finding kind of a core partner within within a vendor for, you know, what they can ultimately deliver, you know, to you and and help to grow and be there for your business.
Adam Mogolensky [00:02:35]:
You know, just anyone who looks at the Qurate website, there's almost an announcement every week that you are partnering with another technology company and bringing them into the Curator fold. That must be busy for you.
Brent Hayhurst [00:02:51]:
Yeah. Holidays and weekends optional. Right? So, you know, we we've been extremely busy. You know, we're just getting ready to celebrate, you know, the 3rd year of Curator. And so really have built this program from the ground up. The majority of the team has been here from the beginning, and we're continuing to, you know, build upon kind of the core value proposition and of what we're trying to address, which is building scale and building opportunity for independence and, ultimately, helping the independent segment to really thrive and and survive in an ever growing competitive environment. So every vendor that we add, you know, is serving a purpose GAIN helping to build in a building block approach of the value proposition of curator, but also allowing us to really kind of be nimble enough to solve for a variety of issues that any prospective member or existing member comes to us that they need help trying to solve for.
Adam Mogolensky [00:03:53]:
I'm wondering if you could color that in terms of specific issues. And, Curator, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's described as a owner driven platform. And That's right.
Brent Hayhurst [00:04:04]:
Yeah. We ultimately you know, we have great partnerships and work very closely with both owners and operators depending on the structure of the the property and the and the team involved. You know, as as many people may you know, Curator was founded by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, really as a way to help to continue to solve and elevate, you know, some of the things that they were already doing within their their core business, kind of leveraging off of their acquisition of LaSalle, overnight becoming, you know, the largest independent owner of hotels in the US, you know, taking notes of some of those successes they had just from some of their internal processes, we were able to build Curator with the support of, who we refer to as our founding members, including Davidson Hotel Group, Viceroy, Sage Hospitality, Noble House Hotels and Resorts, and SpringBoard Hospitality. And so kind of building upon sort of, you know, having that core portfolio to kind of build upon, you know, really helped us to to figure out sort of what our what our true north was gonna be and how we were gonna continue to solve for a lot of what they were looking to accomplish.
Adam Mogolensky [00:05:18]:
I'm wondering if I could ask one more follow-up here, which is Yeah. Related to this this balance between independent hotels that are owner driven and brand standards, which is a lot of the big GAIN. How do you navigate that process?
Brent Hayhurst [00:05:36]:
Yeah. So one of the it's kind of one of the key values of Curator. So, you know, no mandates. So what we put together and how we build out our program as a preferred vendor program ultimately is at the pleasure of of each member. And so, you know, what makes sense for them, what fits within their business, what they're trying to accomplish with their their tech stack, We understand, especially in independent market, that there's flex there needs to be flexibility there. So in some of our categories, we may work with 1 vendor. We may work with 3 or more depending on how we see each value that the vendor brings to the equation, how they can support a different segment of the membership. And so it's really about, kind of leveraging and balancing, you know, that that mix of opportunity with flexibility.
Adam Mogolensky [00:06:26]:
Brent, we're gonna move into our second question here. What are some of the challenges or setbacks you've experienced when rolling out a new business expansion or partnership?
Brent Hayhurst [00:06:37]:
I guess challenges you can address, you know, a lot. You know, for us, a lot of it may be, you know, looking at, you know, kind of managing those expectations, really. So when you're managing expectations, you know, for both the vendor as well as the membership, you know, there's expectations. There's excitement coming in when you're looking to put a new partnership in place. You know, what that what that looks like from an adoption point is something that the Curator team focuses on really from the beginning and really starting back to the evaluation phase, making sure that that our vendors understand kind of where we're coming from, the role we play, how they'll be positioned, how we'll look to to help them to to get their their conversations across and really start to connect with the members. I think that's GAIN important to kind of set those expectations so that it's it's it because it's a different it's a different model than ultimately kind of what you're used to if you're if you're contracting directly with an operator or with a brand of an expectation of of having a of of really signing on and and having a core committed customer base right from the beginning. It's really about building out, you know, what ultimately, you know, your solution will help the independent software, and how Curator can help to get that messaging across.
Michael Cohen [00:08:00]:
So, even though we're nice people, we're it's not always softballs, Brent, just so you know.
Brent Hayhurst [00:08:06]:
Yeah. Of course.
Michael Cohen [00:08:07]:
Here's here's a little bit of a hard ball. And, again, please take it how you'd like, and and it's with respect. You know, you used to work at a senior level for one of the large global organizations. And there's benefits and there's challenges coming along with being executive with a large global organization. Maybe there's there's more budget, there's more impact, but there's also more bureaucracy and maybe even more politics. Compare and contrast for your career, I'm curious, in regards to what Adam said, where you were to where you are. How is your how is your day different in regards to these type of innovations or rollouts or service service enhancements? What's it like being where you are today versus where you were, which were both amazing positions?
Brent Hayhurst [00:08:51]:
Yeah. I think, you know, ultimately, you know, at the core of it all, it's hospitality. So you're trying to solve problem solve with a smile. The problems are are different for sure. You know, looking at a global scale, trying to solve for, you know, potentially nuances, you know, at one region over another, you know, versus, you know, my current role of curator, which is really, kind of digging back into kind of getting back into the, like, kind of where I started from, you know, in career of really looking at opportunities from a business perspective, and helping to, you know, develop opportunities, you know, from relationship through solution, through vetting, through ultimately execution. I think the big difference that I'm I'm seeing in Qurate is that kind of a small versus a large company is that I have more control over that process as far as how a small team can work, and, ultimately, how we manage and start that process from beginning to end.
Michael Cohen [00:09:48]:
So it is it more entrepreneurial in some ways or entrepreneurial maybe is a better way of putting it?
Brent Hayhurst [00:09:54]:
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, again, like, as we mentioned, you know, Curator kind of started from an idea and and kinda build upon it as we go. We're continuing to adjust and evolve, you know, as we come across new challenges. And, ultimately, as we grow and and reach, you know, different members, you know, our we're continuing to evolve from that point too because, you know, the way that we've structured our preferred vendor program is meant to evolve with the membership because as we stated, you know, there's not a one size fits all. The needs are gonna continue to change. The problems are gonna get different. You're encountering, you know, new new concepts and ideas every day with with how technology is especially emerging and really coming into its own from the within the hospitality market.
Brent Hayhurst [00:10:40]:
And so there is always something new to address and and a fresh take on something that needs to be looked at more closely.
Adam Mogolensky [00:10:47]:
You know, it's it's interesting because, a lot of times the independents, they don't really have nearly as big of a voice in the industry versus the big chains, and yet there's so many independent hotels around the world that serve this dire market need, or I don't wanna use the word dire. They they serve a profound market need where a lot of people want to go with independent hotels. And I'm wondering, on the vendor platform side, that does require a lot of flexibility. How do you go about solving these challenges for them? How how because you can easily be divided. Your time can be divided so many different ways, particularly with the hospitality technology landscape as it is. How do you pick and choose these battles and serve hotels that have wildly different tech stacks at the independent level?
Brent Hayhurst [00:11:45]:
Yeah. Really, one at a time. You know, to be candid, you know, every member, you know, as part of their onboarding, we look to understand who they are, what they are, what their problems look like, each hotel, and, you know, ultimately, you know, portfolio of hotels, the way it may be, how they come into the program, is assigned a curator account manager. That account manager is ultimately, like, their voice and, you know, the feedback that comes back through me and through curator leadership as far as, you know, what what we're hearing, where we need to go, what we should be looking at next. And that's really important to us. We want each member to have that voice because, ultimately, I think that's where Curator is playing an important role in really helping the voice of each of those properties to come together at a higher level for what we can bring to them, you know, to each and every, you know, vendor and opportunity. What we've been able to do and how we're positioning ourselves with a lot of our key vendors isn't merely just, you know, a, hey. We're gonna we're gonna introduce you to hotel a, you know, exchange for, you know, a deeper discount.
Brent Hayhurst [00:12:50]:
It's really talking about understanding their strategic road map, understanding where they're going, providing them with candid feedback, you know, when we hear it, helping to bridge communication gaps where we see it happening, whether it be an implementation that maybe isn't going as well. Is it a service issue that continues to be sort of that, you know, a a bee's nest, you know, for the hotel team? We can help to elevate that and and really be ultimately that higher voice, you know, for the member hotels, which they potentially, you know, didn't have before, you know, or didn't feel like they had before and when they were just operating as a solo solo entity.
Michael Cohen [00:13:28]:
And, also, what's interesting is, you know, you develop frameworks, which is a term that a lot of people in GAIN know that I use 3 times a day. But, frameworks so that we could because hotels are busy. Independent hotels are busy. They're servicing their clients. They're growing their business. And sometimes they don't have many times they don't have the, almost like the intellectual capacity. I don't say that it's not that they're not smart. They just don't have the bandwidth intellectually to be able to understand what is best practice on back of the house.
Michael Cohen [00:13:58]:
They have general. Of course, they're professionals. They execute beautifully. But from a macro perspective, you have far more information and data that you can translate. Right? So one thing that I I always find when I we, as an organization, work with independent hotels or independent hotel, groups, you know, every hotel is a snowflake. People say, oh, we have 300 hotels. Great. But especially in your every hotel is a little bit different, maybe majorly different, and they need to be treated as such.
Michael Cohen [00:14:30]:
You know? And that's where, obviously, the gap in the market and yourselves and others like Leading and some other companies have done a really good job of building this opportunity for independent hoteliers to be part of a family and have some consistency on things that aren't mission critical maybe to their day to day, but are very mission critical to the ongoing growth or systematic execution of hospitality, which not a lot of the general managers or even owners have time to think about sometimes.
Brent Hayhurst [00:14:58]:
Yeah. That's right. And and I think that's a, you know, a really important, you know, aspect of how we approach each and every member. We kind of refer to each hotel, you know, each member with our collection. You know, we're very careful, you know, we're or or we're we're extremely proud and careful of, you know, how we talk about our numbers because, you know, that's the way that the industry is structured. Numbers are important. You know? A 100 hotels, you know, speaks, you know, larger larger than than 30 hotels, and and that's important for what we're trying to accomplish ultimately in in growing scale and and how we we GAIN serve new members, we can attract new vendors, and we can continue to to to provide, you know, more leverage and and opportunity where we can. And I think from each hotel's perspective, you know, that's where, you know, as we've grown grown out our program, which consists of over also over a 100 different, you know, vendor master service agreements at this point in the GAIN.
Brent Hayhurst [00:15:55]:
It's some of those have come because, you know, at the beginning stage, we needed to fill in and solve for a category. We need a PMS. We need a POS. We need to understand who we're gonna use for revenue management, how we're gonna solve for for a booking engine. And then over time, a lot of that has come through, somewhat organically as well as far as how we're partnering and understanding the needs of what Sage as an organization, for example, is trying to address. Or hearing from a GM that's, you know, I'm really looking for a better way to engage my guests and and make sure they're aware of all of the different activities that we have on property and how we're, you know, how we're we're trying to support their needs and really enrich their experience. And so, you know, what's a lot of curators day to day and especially mine and my role is somewhat, you know, having your conversations, continuing to reevaluate products, understanding new positioning, addressing and going through demos of new vendors of all sorts in order to really make sure that we have that that global look as as to kind of what what is out there and what may be coming, what's emerging, what's already there and ready fully baked and ready to solve for any issue that comes up.
Adam Mogolensky [00:17:10]:
Brent, that's almost the perfect lead in to our third question. You know, you're talking about scaling past a 100 hotels as well as having a 100 MSAs, master service agreements. So, Brent, what do you see as the biggest opportunities for growth in hospitality for 2024 and beyond?
Brent Hayhurst [00:17:34]:
Yes. Good question. I think a lot of it is, prime for the disruptors. You're seeing ads and a lot of, you know, what's coming to light, from everything from how you're managing, you know, service requests and tickets to, looking at new ways to facilitate, you know, booking and and cut out, you know, some of the the nuances of the process. I think also guest engagement is gonna continue to be huge, especially for the independents. You know, with the independents, you know, as far as the way that guest engagement is really measured, the brands, you don't have, you know, the a large loyalty program, you know, which ultimately drives a lot of the marketing and the collaboration as to how they kind of fall within that portfolio and and service and attract their guests. And so looking for ways that that that then solutions that are nimble enough to really care for, you know, what it might mean for a guest who's coming on property and maybe just a one time guest or, you know, how you turn that one time guest through that experience into a repeat clients or, you know, help to facilitate and sort of a a cross promotional approach between one hotel, you know, in a in a market or a completely different market that are affiliated through Curator or, hopefully, the management company or a portfolio of brand?
Michael Cohen [00:18:59]:
So it's interesting because the challenge, you know, your type of organization has is that GAIN many ways, you're you're middling. And I don't say that's a negative. It's just it's where you are. You're a middling organization because you're not 3 hotels with a very vibrant owner who's willing to take risks, and you're not part of a 2,000 or 3,000 hotel portfolio company where it's a gover it's literally a government and it has to go through subcommittees and, you know, I'm getting I'm exaggerating, of course.
Brent Hayhurst [00:19:32]:
Yeah.
Michael Cohen [00:19:33]:
That's a a really I wouldn't say, like, it's a gray area, but I say it's somewhat uncharted because there are not a lot of standards or a lot of history. I would of course, there's other organizations over the years that have done things somewhat similar, very successfully. But it's still influx is what I feel. Like, when when I think about your type of organization, there's a lot of movement and flux. Because there's all these inputs coming from different parts of the industry, and you guys are a hub, you know, filtering, managing, directing perhaps, advising, etcetera. So I I really I mean, you never have a boring day, I can imagine.
Brent Hayhurst [00:20:13]:
No. And I and I I would say that, you know, that that term middling is is an interesting way to to kinda look at it. And on some days, I'm sure we have stakeholders that would call that, you know, that that tends more into meddling. But it's where we, you know, are in that position where in some ways, you know, we insert ourselves. Sometimes, we're invited GAIN to help, you know, as a as a core member to try to solve that problem. But, you know, ultimately, you know, our goal is to make sure that everything is working as smoothly as possible, kind of given, you know, that looking at that core value of that you need to to position that staff at property who we know is already over overworked, understaffed, you know, managing, you know, their own day to day. Their goal is to service that guest and whatever that guest needs. And we wanna be kind of on the back end, just making sure that they have what they need, that we're helping to support, you know, the back end, the core infrastructure of what they're doing, and that we can be a resource for them when they are are looking for something new, something different, or really just need to to try to break through a roadblock that they're facing, you know, from just to get them through their day to day.
Adam Mogolensky [00:21:24]:
I wanna circle back to this whole idea of loyalty because that is rife for gains within hospitality. And I'm wondering, from a technology perspective, what can hotels do to improve their loyalty?
Brent Hayhurst [00:21:44]:
Yeah. I think there is a and it's an interesting balance in my perspective of technology and still service because, you know, a lot of hotels, you know, for purpose that's sort of the the core aspect of the of what they're trying to build and the experience, You know, you're you're focused on mobile kiosks. You're you're getting rid of your desk. You're there's a staffing there's a staffing component to that, you know, and and also, you know, how you're looking to structure your business. That doesn't work for every property. Some, you know, there are still properties within our portfolio that that service our customers on a very high touch. And so how technology can solve for that GAIN a variety of problem where you GAIN, you know, based on your location, you're gonna have a rush of people that all get in and are ready to check-in at 5 o'clock. And that kiosk can really help to resolve some of those friction points that someone's gonna get from standing in line and really starting their stay.
Brent Hayhurst [00:22:42]:
And that that has an impact, you know, with our human behavior is how we're gonna view a room. If I'm frustrated at the front desk, I could get to a room, and I'm gonna be frustrated with that room, or I'm gonna find something wrong with that room that I may not have found before. And I've been able to, you know, kind of walk in and had a kind of refreshing state of mind of, here I am, and I'm ready to get going. And so trying to balance that service and that technology is really something that each of our hotel partners are working on day in and day out and are making great headway GAIN figuring out what works and what makes the most sense for them.
Michael Cohen [00:23:18]:
So what what's interesting is in your career, from what I understand, you know, you had a major focus on digital marketing, Emanis gen, etcetera, with Filton perhaps. And that was about getting beds sorry, heads and beds. Your job was to help feed the machine that got heads and beds. And now it sounds like and obviously, because I know who you are, and we know who you are, and we have some idea who we're talking to. You know, you have a wider mandate now. How do you think you've changed in your thought processes? What have you used from your telecommunications background in the past that you think has been interesting or applicable to the hospitality industry? Just more about you, Brent, for a second, if you don't mind.
Brent Hayhurst [00:23:59]:
Yeah. I mean, it's been a it's been an interesting, you know, kind of career progression for me. You know, ultimately, I I kinda say that I've always been in business development. You know, I started my career in in energy and was kinda doing more client support and and working with one of, you know, the largest aluminum, you know, smelter, you know, and provider in the US to help, you know, lifelong engineers, you know, manage their their electricity and and natural gas then. And, you know, when that's, like, sort of coming in there, you know, someone out of college and, you know, telling the seasoned professional how you think, you know, you could change stuff in order to, you know, save money on your energy. And that's, you know, that kind of built into, you know, helping to drive sales opportunities through telecommunications. And, ultimately, you know, it was about serving the customer, understanding the stakeholders, and the role that that I was playing in that process. So whether it was working, you know, trying to to help a salesperson meet their month end goal by doing what we could to streamline, you know, our process and and reviews and and and helping to to to align legal resources to get that contract out the door for them.
Brent Hayhurst [00:25:10]:
A lot of what I was doing in those in those other industries really kind of prepared me for feeling like, you know, hospitality is is is the industry that was sort of the best fit for what, you know, I was looking to accomplish with my career as well as, you know, with how my personality fit. And and what I was doing at, at at Hilton was was a lot of of bringing those stakeholders together. I was ultimately working with had the opportunity to work with a lot of different groups within the organization, everything from digital marketing, to guest assistance, to global sales. And so I was in a position to where to kind of look past silos and understand what was happening one side or another. And I was doing that from the prospect of working on the legal side as part of that legal team and really helping to negotiate contracts and and work through, you know, problems and and and help them to craft the right structure for commercial terms as well as managing, the resources from the attorneys in order to to guide the legal risk. And so kind of that everything kind of building up to that has really gonna put me in a unique position of kind of everything that we encounter and what we're we're building at Qurate as far as, you know, looking at things from different lenses, understanding, you know, who you're trying to solve for, who else is impacted or a part of that process that you need to bring into the fold, and and how you're ultimately going to to reach that reach that end goal with based on whatever you're trying to accomplish.
Michael Cohen [00:26:40]:
What I heard a lot of was technology here, innovation there, but everything was about people and dialogue and communication. And that's what, you know, people say a lot in our industry. Well, obviously, we're it's a industry about people because we have patrons and guests and passengers. But what we always say, and maybe you too, Brent, is, you know, it's actually entirely about people. It's entirely about communications and dialogues. And so are many other industries, but some industries are more finance is finance. Yes. There's inter but it's more about numbers or some it's more about pure results or scientific or etcetera.
Michael Cohen [00:27:19]:
We all work this whole global industry that all of us are in and and people within the GAIN organization, yourself, and other senior executives. This is a internally flowing world of information, experiences, and dialogue. And guest satisfaction is a term that we all wrap things up GAIN. But, really, what it means is that there is a active, positive, healthy dialogue that you are now one of the leaders of a hub of that. Right? Whereas before you were facilitating and maybe building, and now you're, like, in the maelstrom of it all, you know, navigating through and trying to maximize for your stakeholders and your guests. And that's the beauty of what we do. So I I I don't always interject this much in a in in a pod, but I thought, you know, where you are and what you guys are doing is really kinda like a wonderful snapshot of the essence of this industry.
Brent Hayhurst [00:28:11]:
Yeah. I appreciate that. I mean, it's all about I mean, ultimately, you know, how we're driving success, you know, within curators that we have to be positioned as as that trusted adviser. You know, we aren't gonna have all the answers all the time, but we're going to, you know, be there, you know, as a partner to work towards, you know, the the common solution and find that find and and really fit that fit that need of what we what we're looking to accomplish.
Adam Mogolensky [00:28:34]:
Yep. Perfect. And, yeah, it it speaks for itself. I mean, over a 100 hotels in 3 years and launching within those 3 years, let's let's just we forget that the 1st year was during the pandemic year, which just adds the challenges. And, I wanted to ask you about that, and I think this is a good point too, about what it was like to launch a new hospitality brand during the pandemic.
Brent Hayhurst [00:29:04]:
Yeah. It was, to say it was challenging, you know, would be an understatement at the time. Even the committed hotels, you know, within the Pebblebrook portfolio and some of our founding members were still closed or, you know, trying to determine, like, how they're gonna reopen. And so, you know, you're you're kind of at a stage where you question, you know, is this the right time? Is this what hotel needs? Ultimately, we sort of came to the realization that this was the best time to do it because they're gonna need what they need is even and GAIN be greater than potentially, you know, what they were doing pre pandemic. So understanding, you know, how they're gonna come back online, how they're gonna manage, you know, that's you know, that, you know, phased opening approach and and and work through that staffing model problem and and how technology Jason their tech stack and all you know, and potentially the partners they were working with were helping them to address the the financial strain of of what that was doing to their business, was really sort of the catapult into to what was driving a lot of the early negotiations and vendor relationships that we that we ultimately brought into the program, you know, to help consolidate for that and and to start to build that curator journey.
Adam Mogolensky [00:30:22]:
So you you took a huge obstacle and turned it into an opportunity is what you're saying?
Brent Hayhurst [00:30:28]:
Yeah. Sure. I'll take your words. Yeah.
Adam Mogolensky [00:30:32]:
Brent, we're gonna move on to the 4th and final question here. What problems would you advise entrepreneurs to focus on solving in order to quickly scale within the hotel industry?
Brent Hayhurst [00:30:45]:
Yeah. I I mean, ultimately, I think it's a understanding your core value proposition. What what are you trying to solve for? Knowing that and I think also caring for it and balancing that with with being flexible because, you know, sort of I think a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, it's worked in in some cases where you're kinda positioned to be the disruptor. You're gonna launch something that's brand new that that no one's come out you've come across for. Or if you're trying to slip it, if you're trying to solve for a particular problem that's already existing, making sure you sort of are open to to listening and understanding and learning about that problem potentially could have, you know, sizable returns GAIN in what you're able to accomplish and GAIN the time frame of of not building sort of the better trap, you know, within a shorter time frame.
Adam Mogolensky [00:31:37]:
I think that that is a great point to end it on the whole idea of building a better mousetrap because there is so much we could dive into in terms of finding those specific problems, and there are numerous ones within the hotel industry that need strong technology providers to help solve. Michael, did you have any final questions?
Michael Cohen [00:32:00]:
Maybe just one question. You know, do you find your organization can take risks because of your state of where you're at versus maybe it's a leading question. I don't know, Brent. But, like, can you take more risks and you'd be more creative perhaps because of where you are right now GAIN your growth?
Brent Hayhurst [00:32:17]:
Yeah. I think we I think we can. And we look at that from, you know, two perspectives of how we kind of look to build out our our program. We do a lot of pilots, you know, to where if we wanna approve something out, you know, that's one of the, kind of you know, another core value of Curator is that we wanna understand what's next. We can be sort of out there, you know, ahead of the curve because, ultimately, we are dealing with independence, and independence can also be a little bit more nimble as far as, you know, what their appetite is for for taking on and trialing new products. And so we kind of looked, to play matchmaker there a lot of times and trying to understand how we potentially can take a newer product or an innovative approach and incorporate that into, an hotel environment that can be tested, embedded, and ultimately proved out to where it becomes a a larger rollout within the program.
Michael Cohen [00:33:11]:
Great answer.
Adam Mogolensky [00:33:13]:
Yeah. I think that's important for technology companies to know about in terms of the piloting, the pilot process, and going through and really working with within companies such as Qurate to then work towards a master service agreement. So it's very important to understand that staged approach to rolling everything out. So, Brent, can't thank you enough for coming on. This has been a fantastic power half hour to really understand, curator, your role, and also some just great advice for any vendor to the industry and also other hotel brands, looking to do what Curator does. Or join Curator if you're a independent hotelier listening to this.
Brent Hayhurst [00:33:58]:
Yeah. My pleasure. Thank you so much for the invitation, and enjoyed spending time with you guys.
Adam Mogolensky [00:34:03]:
Awesome. Thanks, Brent. Thanks, Brent.
Speaker D [00:34:05]:
Thanks for listening to the GAIN Momentum podcast. To stay up to date, make sure to follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For more information about GAIN Advisors, head to gain Advisors.
