Checking in on the Industry | with Chip Rogers

The Modern Hotelier - Episode #32 === Consumer demands have definitely changed and it impacts who works in a hotel and how they work in a hotel.​ Welcome to The. Modern Hotelier. I'm your host, David Millili. And I'm your co-host, Steve Carran. I'm the producer, John, I don't think our guest today needs much of an introduction, but today we're talking to Chip Rogers. chip is the CEO and President of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Throughout his time at a H L A CHIP has received numerous awards, being recognized as one of the 25 most influential by business travel news. One of the most influential people in Washington, dc. By the Washingtonian Magazine and the Top 50 most influential leaders in hospitality in the US and the Globe by 📍 Hospitality Index. We're excited to have you on. Welcome to the show, chip. Wow. Great to be with you guys. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. So Chip, we're gonna go through three sections. We're gonna get to know you a little bit better. We're gonna dive into your career a little bit, and then get your thoughts on what's going on in the industry. Sound Perfect. Let's do it. So are you a morning or a night person? Oh, that's not even close night person by far. It it, well, unless you consider early morning, like 1:00 AM morning, Right. What emoji do you use the most on your phone? I'm very boring when it comes to emoji. Just a typical smile emoji. Yeah. What's your favorite band or singer? Uh, band. No question is, um, led Zeppelin. Singer and he's, he's actually a singer performer. And the strange thing is he couldn't be called a singer anymore because he can no longer perform because he's sang so hard that he, he blew out his voice. It's a blues guitarist by the name of Johnny Lang, who, was and, and is my favorite though he hasn't been able to perform in like three years. What's the favorite place you've ever traveled to? I just, it's a fascinating place. First, it's beautiful. the history, the technology that is there is incredible. in every facet. It's the most interesting place I've ever been to. If you had your own talk show, who would your first guess be? You? No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. You don't want me. Wow, that's a really good one. this is gonna sound so cliche-ish, but I just feel like this guy is changing the world unlike anybody else we know. And that's Elon Musk. He's a hard person to interview. I've watched many of his interviews because he goes down a thousand rabbit holes. But when you think about. Everything from solar to rockets to, changing the automobile world, to drilling, to of course now social media with Twitter. No one else in our lifetime is or has done what this guy's done. If you had a time machine and you could go to the future or to the past, which way would you go and what year would you go to? Wow. That's a good question. I think I would go to the past. would love to be there at the founding of the American Revolution. I mean, you don't know at the time that you changed the world, but you had to know you were doing something really big that would've been interesting. Awesome. So now we'll uh, learn a little bit more of your background, kind of what makes you tick. you grew up around, uh, is it SA Georgia? Is that right? My high school was in a town that's called for people who know Metro Atlanta Suwanee. the, the interesting thing about Georgia, unlike most states is that because Georgia has 159 counties, people often reference what county they're from. so Swanee's in Gwinnett County. So if you grew up there, you would just say, I'm from Gwinnett County. Or some people say they're from Cobb County or Fulton County, but it's very, it's very county centric state, 159 counties. And the reason there's 159 counties is because when they created the county system, someone had to be able to ride on a horse from their property to the county seat and back in one day. And that is how you had all those small counties. True So what county did you grow up in? All over Metro Atlanta cuz there's so many small ones. Mainly Cobb and mainly Gwinnett. So Cobb and Gwinnett. Yeah. So how did growing up in Cobb and Gwinnett County shape who you are today? Look, I, I was blessed, in some ways and then had the struggles that so many kids have in other ways. So parents got divorced at an early age and that's a challenge for anybody. I was five years old. But where I grew up, was almost like a Norman Rockwell painting. If you're familiar with the metro Atlanta area to the Northwest, um, there's an area called Kennesaw Mountain. It's a Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. it's actually the most visited civil war battlefield of, of all of them because it's proximity to, to Atlanta. I grew up literally with this national. Battlefield Park in my backyard. And so it was awesome as a kid. Cause you could go out and just be outside forever and do so many. We used to find Civil war muskets, bullets, all the time on, on our property. And, um, so it was a, it was, it was a great childhood in that respect. So you also graduated from Georgia Tech. Got your MBA from Georgia State. a lot of time in Georgia. What's your favorite part about Georgia? That it has everything. If you think about, um, business. All of the, the major corporations that are headquartered there now, the incredible movie and, television industry is there. But also you've got beaches, gorgeous beaches. I, I always challenge people to find me someplace more beautiful than Sea Island, Georgia. you've got the mountains at the top, the, the, with the end of the Appalachian. Of course you've got a major global city in Atlanta. You've got transportation. like nowhere else. And though I have my own unofficial rankings of who the most friendly people are from which states, and though Georgia is not at the top, they're close to the top. Uh, south Carolina's currently my number one state for friendliest people. so I think Georgia's from opportunity to landscape to people, it's got it all. Awesome. Have you ever been to Wisconsin? I've been to, uh, 47 states, Wisconsin being one of them. Yes. Do they rank in the top five for nice people? Um, Just asking. I'm from there, so it like it's in my soul a little bit. they would not be in my top five, but they would be in my top 10. We'll take it. We'll take it. All right. Awesome. Thanks for that. So, uh, now we'll get into a little bit of your career, how you got to be the president and CEO of AHLA. after college you started, well, Roger's Broadcasting, which became Roger's communication, and then, uh, you jumped into the public sector where you were for, for the next 10 years. What caused you to make that jump? I like to do a lot of different things. Uh, I had multiple distinct careers, so when I got outta school, first went into engineering slash manufacturing industry up in northwest Georgia. Most people, I. Probably don't recognize that. Uh, the Dalton, Georgia area in the way up in the northwest corner, is the hub of all carpet and flooring manufacturing really in the world as recent as the 1980s. 75% of all the flooring in the world was coming outta Dalton, Georgia. and so I got into that and realized, wow, this is not what I wanna do. So, so I got out of that quickly. back to graduate school, but at the same time started, doing broadcasting, which was something I loved. And so I, for probably a period of 20 to. 25 years. I did some form of broadcasting, but was involved in a lot of other businesses as well. Um, had my own radio station, did a lot of television work. love, love, love, love. Avid, avid, avid sports fan. So I, I know 10 times more about sports than I do at any other topic. Had always wanted to get involved in public service, was inspired by President Reagan as a, as a young person. I have a an interesting story about that if you ever wanna hear it, and then I, got into that, did it, enjoyed it, felt like I was very successful at it. I think the, the 10 years I was in office, I authored more pieces of legislation became law than any other member of our assembly, eight of those 10 years. And so it was very, very, very active, but probably reached a burnout level and, and moved on to something else. for those who don't know. So you went from House of Representatives to Senate to finally Georgia State Majority Leader. What did you learn from, from all that? Uh, you know, in being in, in the political side of things. A few things. There are, equal number of good and bad people in both major political parties. I hate when people say, oh, I don't like these guys cuz they're this party. And I'm like, let me just tell you like I align with a certain political belief. But as far as just people are concerned, Good and bad both. second, the system is becoming weaker and worse because we've allowed, the attacks, many of them just blatantly false attacks on politicians of both sides. actually sickening now to see, watch political ads because, and I challenge people to watch, find me an ad that talks about issues like, and I mean issues that impact the people that these folks are supposed to represent. They're all personal attacks it's really sad. it's very, very difficult in today's environment to be an elected official that lives by a set of very high standards that is not influenced in a certain way. And I'll, I'll, I'll give you, and I know this is going on, but this is so important. When you hear people talk that are in elected office, sometimes they'll talk about my district or my region, if they represent the county, my county, or if they represent a whole state. My state, I always reject that language. It's not theirs. It's the people that are allowing them to represent them, uh, that gave them whatever term they have. the reason I say all that is because people get an elected office and they begin to think that they are so important. No one else from that district, that region, that state could possibly do the job they're doing. Therefore, they'll cut corners or they'll do things because they believe that without them being there, that the next person in line couldn't nearly do as good a good job. And so the system pulls you away from your principles in a way that I think is very unhealthy. And then, of course, now that we're such a hyper divided, Country where you can pick and choose your own news, which is nothing more than an echo chamber. it divides people in a way that politicians then use to attack each other's groups. It's, uh, as you can tell, I'm not super optimistic on where we're headed. Right. And any advice for politicians that are, or people who are thinking about getting into politics? I hate to say it because the world desperately it's good people. but I've told a lot of people don't, you're going to get attacked and people will just lie. I mean, the, the, the amount of just blatant made up stuff on both sides of the is ridiculous. so if, but I mean, think about 30 years ago and just go to the average legislative body. It could be city council, it could be county commission, it could be state legislature. It was made up of community leaders, doctors. You know, people that are retired that, held, you know, high ranking positions in, in whatever field they were in. you don't see that anymore. You, you see a ton of activists get elected. I'll never forget the story of there, there's a lady in the Virginia, I don't know if she got reelected. Hopefully she didn't. She got reelected the Virginia House of Delegates, and the only reason she got elected was cause the front page of the Washington Post printed a picture of her shooting a bird at the President as he drove by in his limo. That was her claim to fame. That's how terrible this has become. Like her qualifications didn't matter. Knowledge positions didn't matter. She just happened to hate one person, and therefore people accepted that as a valid reason to elect somebody. So it's not good. Yeah. so once you kind of, once you, you know, left the Georgia Senate Majority Leader position, you went to a HOA and you had a long relationship with them before becoming president and c e o. and after that you became the president of American Hotel and Lodging Association, where you've been for the past four years. what has been your favorite accomplishment that you've had at A H L A so far? No question that the, um, resources we were able to get during covid, uh, mostly around P P P, but a lot of other stuff as well. you know, we measured it, in excess of 50 billion. We were able to secure in, in, in some sort of federal re relief. and so at a time when many people had no idea whether whether or how the industry was going to survive, at least in the short term, had to be asking our questions, what can we possibly do to keep hoteliers in business? and so we were able to do that at, at, at some level. Most hotels, vast majority did not go out of business. And so that's probably, the accomplishment that I'm most happy with. But really, I'm still in what I hope is still the infancy stages of building and association that represents the hotel industry. Unlike any other association, represents any other industry. We're we're, we're very proud of what we've done, but we have so much further to go. Absolutely. And good transition here cuz now we'll jump into kind of industry thoughts, what you think about what's happening in the industry and. Know from having guests on our show, it was always, oh, covid is the big issue, and now it's really turned more to the staffing side of things. With the shortages that are happening right now, is this gonna be kind of the top issue we're gonna see in 2023, or are we seeing some relief come here? was probably the top one or two top issues in 2019 before covid. Depending on where you operate your hotel, it became the number one issue for you as far back as, as summer of 2020. Because think even in, during Covid, if you were in Miami or Boise, Idaho, uh, where people were coming from across the border from California be able to go outdoors and not wear masks and all that, these places started feeling this pinch early on. But in general, coming out of the full recovery, it's being felt almost everywhere now. The industry's changed. We could talk more about that. the type of traveler has certainly changed, but it's a long-term problem for which there are no good answers. And we look at it in two ways. so, take me a minute, but I think it's really important. So if you take a look at. The pie and what I call the pie, that's the existing workforce in the United States. It is stagnant or declining at best, but it's, it's, uh, we'll go with stagnant, right? So what you have is all these industries fighting over the existing pie, trying to get a larger share. We're we're doing that. We're trying to say, Hey, come into the ho hotel industry. Wages are better opportunities, better benefits are better. Flexibility is better. We can build a really good, profitable career by coming into our industry. We're trying to get a larger share of the pie. even on our best day, we'll be marginally successful in doing that. Second part is how do we grow the pie? And that that could be done in two ways. One are temporary or guest workers, and two is immigration reform, which means people, more people coming into the United States to make this their permanent home and enlarging our workforce. Or we could just all have a much more children, but that's gonna take 20 years to, to, to do that. So, and Elon Musk, actually, I'm referenced to him earlier, he does talk a lot about that being one of the biggest challenges that advanced societies have. So as we think about the second part of that, growing the pie, which I think is the better long-term, uh, plan, we're really hyper-focused right now on. Improving, the system by which guest workers can come in because that's more politically palatable, in Washington DC these days. And so we're looking at every type of visa, perhaps even working with other, like-minded industries to create another different type of work visa. But all around the idea of saying there are a ton of jobs and there are a ton of people outside the United States who would love to come work for a temporary period of time and then go back to their home country. That is a wonderful way to address this problem in the short term because it also, e exports the goodness of America. When people come here and work and live for even a brief period of time, their view of what America is shoots through the roof and so it's a great thing for us to do. Now we just gotta get policymakers to understand. Absolutely. And I feel like that could really help, especially with the demand of travel right now. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how we think, you know, travel is gonna stack up compared to previous years, especially pre covid years. I. And you mentioned something that I'd like you to elaborate a little bit is how the traveler has changed. So I, I'd like to hear kinda how, what we're thinking, how the year is gonna be good for TRA, or how good 2023 is gonna be for travel. And then also how that traveler has changed from before Covid. So the traveler will be back, occupancy at the end of this year will be almost exactly where it was at the end of 2019. But who's traveling? So yeah, obviously you have a lot more leisure travel, but you have, and I know it's now becoming almost an overused term, but it's, appropriate bleisure travel, the mixing of business and leisure. When we, through our, polling partner at Morning Consult went out and asked business travelers, are they engaging in B Leisure, adding time on the front or the end of their stay, for leisure activities that are not directly related to the business activities. Better than 80% are. So we know people have changed the, the way in which they travel. One, there's just huge demand to do that. But, but because people enjoy the leisure on top of the business, but two, because you can work remotely and most companies, ours included, Have a generous, plan for allowing people to work remotely. This is now becoming the common practice, and so this mixing of business and leisure is, here, and it's here to stay. It has certainly changed the way that, hotels operate and how they think about the guest experience and, and think about this in, in some ways this is interesting, particularly people with families and, and especially with their young families, you're now having people travel for business purposes. That will then have the rest of their family join them at the end of that trip or the front side of that trip? Yeah, for leisure purposes, well, the demand on that hotel is much, much different for a single business traveler in a room by themselves or an entire family in a room. Yet both of those things may occur during one consistent stay. How do hotels kind of incorporate that? Like how do that, uh, that's, that's a tough situation to be in because the, the guest is the same, but at the same time, their needs are wildly different at different aspects of their trip. First and foremost, and this is gonna sound simple, the reliance on doing exactly what we're doing right now, which is communicating over the internet. Is like never before if you don't have a strong wifi signal. I know it sounds so simple in every room in your hotel, not just in the core areas, you're not going to get those guests satisfaction, levels that you see. The second part, and this has dramatically changed and it's impacted the workforce that we referenced a moment ago. Leisure travelers don't eat in banquet halls. And so when you had large events, right, I mean you had large events. Where hundreds of people are gathering together, they're going to eat in the hotel. You're gonna have a lot of f and B staff making sure that they're taken care of. You don't need that f and b staff when the guest is not necessarily eating in a banquet home. They may be eating in the hotel restaurant at the bar. Business travelers do that a lot, but they're not putting that F&B demand on you. The third thing that has changed dramatically, and this happened during the pandemic, but is now part of normal consumer behavior. Is using apps to deliver food. And so most hotels that I know of have moved away considerably or completely from offering, room service. And instead they just allow all of these food delivery services that people have come to rely on to essentially be their room service. And so consumer demands have definitely changed and it impacts who works in a hotel and how they work in a hotel. So what technology advances or advancements have you seen that are helping the industry or you think will have the greatest impact moving forward? No question. and this is again going to sound very simple, but most answers are the ability for hotels to understand when guests are coming and going. So if you ask hotels, which we do on a quarterly basis, do you have open jobs? Back in May of last year, 97% had open jobs. Incredible. Uh, it's down to 78%, but still 78%. That's, that's amazing. And what kind of jobs are they? The vast majority are are housekeeping and front desk. So if I know when guests are coming and going, if I can incentivize guests to let me know when they're coming and going, I can better. and more efficiently used my workforce, which as we noted is already limited, not where it needs to be. And so keep in mind that, that the old adage was housekeepers work from 7:00 AM to to 3:00 PM they clean the room when somebody leaves, no matter when the next guest is coming in. The reality is, is the room just has to be cleaned before the next guest comes in, right? And so if you know when guests are coming and leaving, you can better use your workforce to address those concerns. And then you also don't have a if, if you need more housekeepers, which virtually every hotel does, and you can offer shifts that are not 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM you know, every day. You're going to, to be able to garner a larger number of people that are interested in that position. So that simple technology, uh, has really helped That's great advice. So I'm a Philly guy, longtime New Yorker, who's moved to Phoenix. and so I've been adjusting to, uh, life out here and the, the red, well, the heat and the, the red and blue, uh, dynamics of this state. So Arizona, the governor just vetoed a bill that, um, didn't really sit well with you. Can you talk a little bit about that? Pure politics. terrible decision. and actually at its core, a little scary. So there was a proposal, and is a proposal that's going to the, to the ballot to be voted on by voters in Los Angeles that would force, hotels to accept vouchers from people who are homeless to stay in the hotel alongside paying guests. homelessness is a very serious issue, one that needs to be dealt with in a serious way. Hotel workers are not prepared, trained, or skilled. To work with this population, it not only hurts the population, it not only puts at some level, probably your guests in danger, but no question. It puts your housekeepers in danger. People that are interacting with the population that has a more than the general population. And then I wanna be clear because I've been accused of saying all people that are homeless have problems. That's not true. Some are just in a situation that is just terrible luck and, and we should help those people. But there's a, an over-representation of people that have substance abuse or some sort of criminal background, and we're forcing. Hotel workers to be put into that environment every day. Incredibly dangerous. And so we had a lawmaker in Arizona, thankfully pass a bill that said hotels could never be forced to do this. Now if a hotel wants to turn their entire building into hotel, a, a homeless shelter, and bring in the people that are necessary to take care of that population the way they need to be taken care of, that's one thing. We're supportive of that, and that's the decision of the hotel owner, but to force people into hotels. Where the care is not there and creates danger for hotel workers is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea. And the governor just vetoed that and her her veto statement, which was absurd on this phase. Well, we haven't seen this become a problem yet. that's not how you legislate. You don't wait till something becomes a problem and people get hurt before you do something about it. If you see a problem or a bad idea coming your way, you put a stop to it, which the representative, Gress and Arizona attempted to do. Unfortunately, the governor just made a really bad decision. to piggyback off that, so again, I, I spent a lot of time in New York and um, you know, it was the same. And you look at Your points on government. I think it goes true to some hotel owners. There were hotel owners in New York that were just taking the money from the homeless situation and not taking the whole hotel. Some did, but some just had sections and I had GM friends who really said it, the stress on their staff and just them as g not only just, you know, the housekeeping departments, the, the, the, the bellman, the front desk, but as just as the gm, the stress had put on him, worrying about. the safety of his employees. Um, you know, so it was really, you know, it was a money decision. Not really a, a smart decision. Now, like to your point, I agree a hundred percent take the whole hotel and a lot of hotels in New York did that. That makes sense. But to take a section, they're just not prepared, They're not, and it's, uh, it's dangerous. I mean, you, you, you, you hit the nail in the head. Your GMs lived through it. The, the ones you were talking to, they saw it. In practice, it doesn't work. All right, let's turn to something a little bit more positive here. Let's talk about the hospitality show that's coming up in a, in a couple months here. Uh, that's gonna be at the Venetian in, in Las Vegas. so let's hear about this. What, what new things are coming with the hospitality show and, uh, what can attendees expect when they get there? A lot. first of all, the wonderful resort, the Venetian. if you haven't been back to Vegas since the pandemic, uh, it's still a wonderful, fun, fun, fun city. look, we wanna make this show for, for everyone. The focus is on technology and operations and how those two things can come together to, to make a more profitable hotel. So at the core of the programming, that's what you're going to see. But we've gone much beyond that with any of these type of shows. You want the ability to inform people, entertain people, and bring people together. Networking is always one of the most prominent factors in any of these type shows. We will have and that we'll be announcing in the next few days. The long list of hotel related parties and events that are, that are, are tied to any major conference. But we've also got incredible, inspirational speakers like, uh, Admiral William McCraven. He's famous for the speech about Make your bed and you can change the world. He'll be there speaking for us. we've got Kat Cole, who has named the top business leader, 40 under 40, who now leads, athletic Greens. we've got Tony Capano, the c e of Marriott, mark Hoplamazian, the c e O of of Hyatt. My dear friend and our chair, Leslie, Leslie Hale, who's the CEO of r lj. just a whole host of, of, of wonderful speakers. but at the end of the day, it's going to be an experience and we're trying to create a, a kind of a different feel. Lot of breakouts, a lot of individualized meetings and smaller group events that you don't see in a lot of places. I'm gonna be honest, this is the first year we're doing it. We wanna make it the best experience we possibly can. We're putting a lot into it, bringing incredible speakers. Getting industry leadership there, but we want people to experience and tell us how we can keep improving on it year after year. So we have a mutual friend who Anthony Mulch loves to give advice to hoteliers. Uh, so what advi. Yep. He'll be there as well. I I know him and Glen will be there. So what advice, uh, what advice would you give, a Hotelier today at any level on how to succeed in this current market? To listen to Anthony, of course. Um, but in, in addition to, to listening to Anthony, maybe a little less to Glen, I'm just kidding. Love Glen. Um, it's still, and for the foreseeable future is going to be an industry driven by the employees. Uh, and, and, and I mean that in a positive way. In that if you can invest in your employees, and this sounds so cliche-ish, but it is so true in a way that will keep them there and that they will then have that positive attitude and experience with your guest. You're gonna create better guest reviews, you're gonna create a better business. You're gonna make more money at the end of the day, you know, the turnover rate. Once you lose somebody. In our industry, it's about 30% that you're gonna lose if you have to rehire that same position. And yet we know that we have the, the highest quit rate of any industry in America. And when we interview people that have left the industry, and we've done this and asked them, why did you leave? What? What happened? Burnout was one thing if they were long-term employees, but those, those that are, are coming in and leaving quickly, they're like, look, I just got thrown in there. Uh, I wasn't given proper training. I wasn't being communicated with on a regular basis. I didn't have a relationship with the person I report to in a way that I could rely on them consistently day after day. And so, if you're reacting to, occupancy demand by hiring somebody and putting them in a position they're not trained for, not ready for, and don't have a support system for, don't be surprised that they're going to leave. And when they leave again, it's gonna cost you 30% more to go through that entire process again. And so, um, it's about the, the employees. Make sure they're properly trained. They have a sense of belonging. It's interesting, we work with a company that tells us, for housekeepers, the most common time for them to quit is after three weeks, right? After that three week period. So just as one tidbit of, of, of advice, anywhere from two weeks to four weeks really focus on those housekeepers. great advice. Awesome. Well, we really appreciate the time Chip, uh, our producer, John has been sitting here, uh, listening in this whole time. So for the last question, we're gonna kick it over to him and, uh, I, I'll leave it up to you, John. So Chip at the top. You said you probably know more about sports than any other topic. So what what do you like to watch as far as sports? And then what's your team? So, well, I have team in, in every sport, but, um, Pick, pick your top, like what's your favorite of all the yeah. So favorite sport to watch is football. Favorite team by far, hands down as the Miami Dolphins. but I think the most beautiful sport, the one that I just from a sports standpoint is basketball. and I played that, coached that refer, read that, did all that in the basketball world for a long time. So, really enjoy it. But if I just gotta watch one big game, like one consequential sporting event, uh, it, it would be football, whether it be the Super Bowl or or the NCAA football Championship. Now, the Dolphins haven't been in the Super Bowl since Dan Marino, but, it's been a while. But, um, yeah. are you, are you college or nfl? What? Do you have a preference or both? Both. Good. Both my friend, I'll go all the way down to, Pop Warner and, and, and high school if you want. Uh, but, but yeah, I, uh, b both, but the dolphins are, are, are my favorite team, no question. prediction for the N B A finals. Wow. It's so tough. Look, if the bucks are healthy, rephrase that. If Giannis is healthy and the bucks are clicking, I, I think. They're the most talented team, Celick a close second. it remains to be seen if the Warriors can somehow put it together, but when you lose the first two games on the road of Sacramento, nobody does that. So, I don't know how they get back. If KD rises to the top, you can make an argument for Phoenix. it, it's not gonna be Denver. it's not gonna be the Lakers, so I it's gonna come out of the east and, Philadelphia EB could carry this team to a championship. He's that good. So it's gonna be one of the three teams out of the east, but right now, I go with the bucks if they're healthy. That's what I like to hear. All right. You're, you're playing both sides with the Wisconsin and Philadelphia guys right here. yeah, Look, I'm a Celtics, I'm a Celtics fan, so I ha, it pains me to say that, but yeah. I like Rich Eisen and the big rumor is that if something happens with Tua, that Tom Brady will step in and, uh, go to the Dolphins. So that's the big rumor. That was a rumor coming outta, I guess, the owner's meetings. And then because he is in South Florida and all those things because Miami lost their first round pick because of the tampering with Brady. So anyway, so that would, I would, as a Eagles fan, I would like to see it cuz I like, the Brady Story post, new England. Well, I, I, I think two is a wonderful human being, so I hope he doesn't get hurt again. But I'll just say this, if I, and I know he's had the same advice from others, learn how to fall. I mean, you're gonna get hit in the quarterback. He takes the most awkward falls that usually result I'm hitting his head and you feel bad cause he's, by all accounts, as a superhuman being, I want him to be my great quarterback. But he is gotta be able to place 17 games during the regular season. So we're at the end. Um, before we wrap everything up, tell us, uh, how Hotelier can get more involved with AHLA and, uh, outside of the hotel show. How can hoteliers get more involved? Appreciate that. ahla.com obviously our website, at our core are an advocacy group. In other words, we are charged with the only group that that does this nationally for the entire industry. To protect and promote the industry with policy makers. In addition to that, our foundation is really charged with this idea of recruiting, retaining, and lifting up our workforce. And so whether it's workforce training and certification, even recruiting. Apprenticeship programs, we do that, but we are also the advocacy voice, and I'll say this last, but advocacy. If we're not all together, if we're not all united behind one horse voice, that's when we get run over. So it costs you nothing to be actively engaged with A H L A as part of a supporter of our industry. We certainly appreciate that. We need those additional voices cuz the louder and more concise they are better chance we have to succeed. thank you so much, chip. That does it for another episode of The Modern. Hotelier. We really appreciate your time and thank you for being here. Thanks gentlemen. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, chip.