How StayPineapple is Redefining Hospitality with Creativity and Sustainability | with Dina Belon

The Modern Hotelier - Episode #34: How StayPineapple is Redefining Hospitality with Creativity and Sustainability | with Dina Belon === We have a lot of fun, which I think you authentically create things that people want to engage with when you are having fun doing it.​ I'm your host, David Millili. I'm your co-host, Steve Karen. Today, I'm the producer, John Bumhoffer. Steve, who do we have on the program today? Yeah, David. Today we have on Dina Bellon, the Chief Operating Officer at State Pineapple. Dina has more than 25 years of experience from working in hotels, construction, and tech, while focusing on sustainability. Dina's personal mission is to radically reorient the hospitality industry to the business value of the triple bottom line. People, planet and prosperity. Welcome to the show, Dina. Thank you. Wow. That was a mouthful. Yeah, we got it though. That was good. So we're gonna take you through three areas. Uh, we're gonna kind of get to know you better, get to know, you, know, where you grew up, and ask you some quick questions. We'll go through your career, and then we're gonna ask you some questions on the industry. I'm in. All right. So what was the worst job you've ever had? Um, my first job probably because I got fired, at 10 years old, I grew up very rural and at 10 years old, I worked at the blueberry patch down the road from my home, and I worked for three days and I got fired because I ate too many blueberries. It's amazing. We have a lot of people with blueberries and strawberries stories, and we have certain questions, but anyway. Are picking gang. are you a morning or a night person? Definitely morning. I'm up at five 30 every day by choice Ooh. Okay. So if you had to, to delete all the apps on your phone except for three, what three apps would you keep on your phone? gmail monday.com and my news app. Got it. What emoji do you use the most? Oh, definitely a pineapple. Come on. All right, gotcha. Who is your favorite band or singer? Ooh. Probably Bruce Springsteen. What's the favorite place you've ever traveled to? Mm where I'm going in October. I'm going to Tuscany for two weeks. Ooh, that's good. What's your, while you're there, what is your favorite adult beverage that you would have in Tuscany? Ooh, lemon Cello, That's good. If you had your own talk show, who would your first guest be on that show? Michelle Obama, Hmm. sheep Rocks. Come on. Yeah, it's a good choice. All right. It's the last one. If you had a time machine, And you could go into the future or the past, which way would you go and what year would you go to? I think I would go to like 2200 because I have this vision in my head of flying cars and nobody has to work anymore. It's like I live on the enterprise in Star Trek and I definitely wanna live that life. right. I love that. I'm all for that. Awesome. Those were really quick answers by the way. Well done. That was impressive. so now we're gonna kinda get to your background, kinda what shapes you and where you're from. So you were born in Bassett Army Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska. you grow up in Alaska? I grew up until I was, uh, through first grade in Alaska. We lived, way out in the country. And I'm an army brat, so. Sure, sure. Where did you move after first grade. Oregon. So when you leave Alaska, it's a federal regulation that you move to Washington or Oregon to kind of transition back into the United States. I'm just kidding. It's not I thought you were being serious for a second. I was like, Everybody just does it. Everybody that leaves Alaska moves to Washington State or Oregon, cuz it's kind of a hybrid. Yeah. Yeah. How did growing up in Alaska kinda shape who you are today? Oh, I think I'm really rooted and grounded and centered. I think both Alaska and just growing up very rural. I think it gives you a connection to the planet and kind of what our purpose is, or at least what my purpose is, what I think all of our pur, all of our purpose should be, but, Yeah, absolutely. So you end up going to fsu. What made you study interior design? I was always really artistic, so I'm an artist. and I was a theater major for four years in college prior to going to Florida State, so I was a seven year. Student, I didn't get right in and outta school. and I decided I was gonna starve to death as an actress, and I probably wasn't gonna make it as an artist either, and maybe I just wasn't totally willing enough to. Starve for my art. So design was the closest kind of, I loved architecture and buildings, but I didn't wanna become an architect. So I felt like design was kind of the happy medium where I could make a living and still be artistic. So you admire people who are. Into, or ranch or ranchers or farmers. Can you tell us why? Why that is? That you admire those, those people, Because I think it's a really hard job, right? Like, and it's the backbone of the human existence. I think those of us who, I do now who live in urban environments, are disconnected from how we eat all the stuff we get. the animals that provide us the sustenance that we have, and I think ranchers have a perspective and farmers have a perspective of, reality that most of us that buy our food in grocery stores don't. Oh, I love that. I love that. So, now we're getting to your career a little bit after you, you graduated Florida State, which I can think of worst places to be for seven years, but for seven years. It sure you had some fun there, but, uh, I've heard, I've heard, My claim to fame is that I graduated with Charlie Ward too, so anybody who are sports fans Yeah, we big fan. Basketball He was, he was, uh, football at Florida State and he played basketball. And he played baseball. Okay, there we go. So here's a three sport athlete. That's awesome. So, after graduation you were a project manager for Pamela Temple's Interiors, and while you were there, it seems like you worked with a lot of large hotel groups, and then you later moved to Marriott to be a project manager. Was that your first introduction to hotels and working with hotels, or were you involved another way before that? Yeah, no, it absolutely was my very first job out of college. I designed parking lots, which wasn't super exciting. I did that for about six months. I worked for a civil engineer, believe it or not, right outta design school cuz I knew AutoCAD and I could draw. So, um, I drew a lot of parking lots. when I was hired at P T I, Pamela Temple's Interiors, they did primarily, hospitality work. And I fell in love. It was amazing. It was so creative and, the ability to impact people through the environment that you can create, right? Trying to understand what a Hotelier was trying to create as an atmosphere, and then having the building support that, Production. What I, I always like to, again, a theater major, right? I, I always like to equate it back to the theater and the hotel was the stage and the team were the actors, right? And so that was amazing to me. I loved that. But design was tough. There's a lot of opinion in interior design. Um, which is why I left it. It was, it was frustrating cuz it was like, you hired me as a professional to tell you the best way to do it. And then, you know, you'd get, well, I don't like plaid. Okay. Why? Well, it reminds me of these pants I had in 1972. I'm like, okay, well that's not a good reason for us to not use it. So, Right. That's so funny. I, I gotta ask, I maybe somebody out there is planning a parking lot right now. What are some best practices for designing a parking lot? Oh, there are, there are. Yeah. Seriously. Um, yeah, really radius is one of the number one things that you do. You calculate radius a lot when you're designing parking lots because the size of the l the size of the spaces are pretty standardized, but the, the creativity is in moving people around the parking lot. So there's creativity there. I love it. I love it. Well, and from our earlier podcast, whenever we talk about parking, I always think of Judy from Dream Hotels because she, her secret talent was that she's an excellent. Parker. Parallel, lots. Maybe she and I should get together and talk barking Good mate. So, Parallel parking Competition. We'll see how it that's funny. my car parks itself, so I'm good. that's good. So from Marriott, you went to Wyndham, you end up being VP of Product Enhancement, uh, then you went on to co-owning a construction company. How did those things influence you and kind of your passion for sustainability? Yeah. So, I was in real estate development, particularly on the resort side, and there was a moment in time when I realized that maybe the thing I was doing and my personal ethos was disconnected. I won't name the company, but at the time we were, plotting to lop the top of the mountain off to put a resort on top of it. And I remember sitting there thinking, That doesn't seem ecologically like a good idea. I wasn't the civil engineer though. so I raised my hand. I think I was 25 years old sitting in one of those big corporate boardrooms and everybody thought I had lost my mind when I opened my mouth and had gave my opinion about it. that was really the, impetus. To the beginning of my, personal education, I really didn't know a lot about sustainable development. but I decided that I wanted to learn and so I spent, you know, years educating myself around how you can still accomplish the same thing. You can still build the resort up on the top of the mountain, but I. Tear the structures and, and, make sure that you have lots of trees and, you know, couldn't be concerned about runoff and, you know, all of those things. And so, it was an exciting time during my years at Marriot and Wyndham cuz I think they, both companies were open to the idea. That was a long time ago. It just was new. Right. We still were calling them green buildings, and I would have people ask me, they were like, why are you painting all the buildings green? And I'm like, no, that's, that's not what I mean. So, was a fun time and I think. I was very lucky to work in organizations that let me learn and teach them along the way and kind of spread my wings and make some mistakes and figure out, what is really the best methodology behind sustainability. I remember telling designers and architects, cuz I worked for the owner at the time, and they would come to me and they'd go, well, How do you get the owner to agree to do sustainability? And I said, stop asking. Just do it. it. doesn't have to. It doesn't have to cost more. It takes more energy and time and thought and thoughtfulness and intention to develop from a sustainability perspective, but it doesn't have to cost more if you're smart about it. So just do it. I hate to use Nike's. Sorry, I probably shouldn't I, that, that might be a trademark. I don't know. That's all right. You're, you're both in Oregon, right? So you're in state, doesn't matter. You're fine. So then you went to, after that, you went to Peabody Resort, and then you kind of were in the tech space for a little bit and during this time you moved from Florida to the west coast. Spent some time in Seattle, I believe, and now in Oregon. So can you finally settle it for us? What coast is better? The east coast or the west coast? Definitely the west coast. I'm a west coaster, so I grew up in Oregon, in my like early high school years. I love Oregon. I actually live, you got, you got it backwards, Steve. I moved from Oregon to Washington. So I live in Washington now. Um, Mixing up my states. That's all right. It Oregon, Washington. It's kind of the same thing. people from the East Coast are always like, oh, it's that northern west area. I'm, I'm not really sure what that's all about, but it's Southern Canada. So, hey, I'm from Wisconsin. I, I, I, I can relate to that too. So yeah, I'm definitely, I'm definitely a West Coast girl. I love it out here. So in 2016, uh, you started StayPineapple, uh, you moved to VP of Real Estate assets and then VP operations, real Estate assets, and most recently c o O. Uh, what has that journey been like for you at State Pineapple? Yeah, it was amazing when I got hired here, I actually had been doing some consulting and working in tech. I pretty quickly learned that tech wasn't my space. That's the only time I left the technical hospitality industry, although it was still hospitality adjacent. the, phonetic nature of tech was not my. It was not my cup of tea. So, um, they had a position posted. Oddly, I thought I'd have to leave the Pacific Northwest cuz there's not a lot of big hotel owners based up here. So, um, when I saw the position posted, I was like, oh my God, it's perfect for me. so when I came and interviewed three days later, they offered me the job, which was. Beyond exciting cuz I was, really jonesing to get back in hospitality, you know, directly for an owner. and it has been a absolute amazing journey. So I started with a very, focused job description. My job was to look out for Michelle, our owners assets. I was in charge of making sure the buildings appreciated in value. I always used to say, I was looking out for her son Max's inheritance, right? Like my job was to make sure that they continued to appreciate value and, the family got out of it, what their intention was. So it was super focused and pretty quickly, oh, Dina, can, can you do this too? Oh, can we add this? Oh, can you do this one more thing? Can I know you've done renovations in the past, and particularly when I started, they were like, you're not gonna have to do any design work, any renovation work. No con, you know, construction, we've got other people for that, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, I think I hadn't been here a year when I got the first. Project management job handed to me and I was like, okay, here we go. oh, wait. I was super excited about it though. I, I love renovating hotels even more than I enjoy building. I really like going into an existing building and improving it. It's, always been, a passion of mine. So, I started doing renovation work and fixing some things and hiring designers and doing that, um, was promoted I guess, because I was doing a great job. and then during Covid, we lost our vice president of operations and our, president at the time asked me if I would, Take on the operations department temporarily until we could find a new VP of ops. And I said, of course I would. This was a Friday I think, and I went home and I thought about it and I came back on Monday and I said, you know what? I'll do it, but only if I can do it permanently. And he was shocked. He was like, why do you wanna take that on? Are you sure about that? cuz operations is the, I mean, really coming from real estate, which is again, it's just. Buildings don't talk back. Right. it's a very focused, job where you know what you're gonna do. You start and you finish. The thing about operations is there's no start and finish every day. Right. It's constant. It's 24 7. It never stops. There's no end. I try to infuse some forced deadlines on things inside of our operations just so that people can check things off their list and feel like they've accomplished something and we're able to move on even if they have to just move on and do it all over again tomorrow. So I was really excited about taking on operations. I certainly had worked and when I was at the Peabody, I worked in operations. I was in engineering, um, obviously on the building side. Um, and I did in college, I worked, front desk at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando. I did have a little bit of operations experience. But I was really able to bring a more systems oriented process to operations. And we have, now, uh, a really great vice president of operations as well, who has 25 years at Marriott of traditional operations experience. So he and I are a good match together. And I think sometimes I bring the perspective of, well, how can we do it better? How can we improve? what can we do to make the process more efficient? And, he brings the Wal Dina. That doesn't make sense. So, More the traditional approach maybe. That's funny. But you're right, you're right. The, uh, there's this kind of like, I think operations get, there's like a, this false glamor around it. So I lived on property, I ran hotels in New York, and you said it perfect. I mean, when you open a hotel, you throw away the key. It's open 24 7 and it is hard. I mean, It will wear you down because there's stuff going on Saturday night at 11 o'clock that you have to deal with. And that's, that's tough. people think it's like this beautiful building and it's all glamorous and all these things and it, it becomes it. You said it great. It's tough. It's really tough. it's a duck. I always, it's like a duck in the water, right? It looks beautiful. Or swan right on the top of the water, swimming along and underneath. We're going Yeah. Yeah, trying to keep it all together. exactly. Oh, I love that. I love that. And kind of talking about keeping it all together, you state Pineapple is, is home to the Naked experience. So first of all, I wanna know what that means and, you know, how does Stay Pineapple create this unique guest experience? so early on, our founder Michelle, had a vision and her vision, she was very clear on what she wanted to create. I think the. Fascinating thing to me when I joined the organization coming from Marriott, Wyndham, you know, two big organizations that have a brand for literally every human being on the planet. she said, everybody isn't gonna like us, Dina, and that's okay. I was like, what? I don't understand what you mean. and so, you know, the Naked Experience is a unique sleep system. That's a double duvet. So each person in bed has their own duvet. It's a real duvet as well. Um, it's not a mock duvet. and so our bedding package is expensive and it takes a lot of laundry. but guests are evangelists for it. They love it because you have to imagine yourself sleeping next to your wife and not fighting over the blanket. And the covers and rolling and tugging and pulling. so that's kind of the beginning of it. And then the next level of it is that it's just so cozy and soft and lovely that you will sleep so well that you won't remember it. now I gotta go. so it's funny, people laugh at me, but I tell people, my trick is, what I like to do is when I go to a hotel, I like to pull the, comforter or duvet down, and then, so that way the air conditioning cools the whole bed so that we get in it. The sheets are nice and cool. and so you, I like to take a hot shower, then get in. So anyway, You would love our bedding. Yeah, cuz actually the two duvets are lengthwise, kind of triple folded, and sitting on the bed. So the sheet on the bottom, a good part of it is, open to the air. So it would naturally do exactly what you want. And then of course our Terry is amazing and we have big, cozy, yummy robes and, we provide really yummy robes so that you. Don't go to the door naked. The naked experience is meant to be in your room. Right. There we go. That's what it is. so, when you launched, you know, StayPineapple Hotels, You know, that was, that was recently in the news. Tell us more about StayPineapple Hotels. Yeah, so, we have 10 hotels around the country, in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego. Portland, Chicago, Boston, and New York. All urban city center. really coveted locations where you want to be. Gas lamp district in San Diego. The loop in Chicago, right downtown Manhattan in New York. that is a key pillar for us cuz we actually come from a real estate company. Michelle's family was in real estate, so really location, location, location is kind of, Really central to who we are as a company. and then the naked experience is a huge part of our pillar really providing, and that's, that's all about value, right? we're 4-Star hotels, but we have 5-star elements where you touch the guest, right? So where it's really important, the guest feels that extra level of luxury. And then, we have an, uh, program for Eat, drink pineapple, which is really focused around ordinary food, done extraordinarily well, and an amazing bar program. Again, I, we go after the things that are really important to guests. They We're an amazing location, so they wanna sit and have a great cocktail before they go to the theater, right? so We're really focused on personalized service for what our guests want. I go back to what Michelle said to me. we're not a hotel for everybody, but. The people that, like our hotels, love our hotels. I cannot tell you the amount of times when I'm flying and I have a Staypineapple jacket on. People grab, like literally grab me and go, do you work for StayPineapple And I'm like, did you have a good experience? And, they're like, yes, I love that brand. I'm like, how? We have 1,055 rooms in our entire portfolio. So when I worked at the Peabody, that was a 1500 room hotel in Orlando. Our entire portfolio across the US what is that? Two thirds of. That one hotel, but we have that much of an impact as a brand on the consumer. It amazes me. It's, and that's why our intention is to grow. We're gonna be growing over the next few years. We announced in January, growth strategy, working with third party owners, and really kind of opening our brand up to others other than Michelle. And allowing others to kind of join the evangelists with the rest of us Yeah. and can you tell us about this, because that's like your third party property management is, is. StayPineapple Hotels Incorporated. Can you tell us a little bit more about that idea, how that came to be and kinda some of the, the benefits for owners in hotels and also for StayPineapple? Yeah, so we started having, other owners asking us about branding their hotel as a state pineapple, and it. In four or five years ago, we weren't really thinking of doing this. honestly, we were a pretty insular company. you know, we did what we did the way we wanted to do it. And it was really nice cuz, Michelle decided and we went and did it. But we realized that we had done something special, I think because we didn't have a board of directors telling us that we couldn't do this or couldn't do that. Right? Who Who would've allowed us to call our bedding program The Naked Experience? My, my favorite to this day, food and beverage program that we ever had, our marketing campaign we ever had was Kick Ass Cocktails and big Ass Cakes. I mean, who would, who would let you do that? Right. we are, we are whimsical and, irreverent at times, you know, kind of right on the edge and people love it. And I think that freedom allowed us to create something that is truly unique in the market, and owners want to be part of it. I think. Particularly independent owners that really have a passion for being a Hotelier. We talk about all the time friend style service. That's, that is who we are as a company. When you come into our hotel, You're gonna get personalized service that's unique to you. that's what boutique hotels are about, right? I if you don't wanna do that, if you're not into that kind of level of, I say building a relationship, I talk to our teams all the time. This is not a one and done experience with a guest that walks in the front door. We wanna make them our friend. We want them to come back and come back and come back and tell their friends about us. Cuz the community of StayPineapple isn't just us. It's not the leadership team and all the employees. It is our owners. I mean, our. And our gas, right? Like it's all of those people that make state pineapple unique and exciting and fun. If you've ever been to a hotel bar that's empty, you know that guests make your hotel as much as the employees do, right? Guests don't go to the bar because there's nobody in there. It's like you gotta pay somebody to go sit in there so that somebody else will come. Right. So like we realize, Michelle says all the time that our guests are our board of directors. So we get a ton of feedback. Michelle reads every single review we get. Across our entire portfolio herself. She and I talk about it every week. we really take that feedback and that's where we make adjustments and. Improve things and we're constantly iterating and, finding new, exciting ways to do things. We have a big ideas meeting, once a month, uh, here at phq. and we throw anything. It's no holds bar. You can imagine that from right. Big ass cakes and kick ass cocktails. There is no line that is too far. You can cross it. Go ahead. we have a lot of fun, which I think you authentically create things that people want to engage with when you are having fun doing it. I love that. And it seems like you have, at StayPineapple at least you've really built a, a culture and like your personality with your creative background, your theater background, it seems to fit perfectly within StayPineapple. Like, I mean, talk about finding the right fit. I mean, it's unbelievable. So I guess, can you talk about this, I'm going off script a little bit, but I wanna talk about how you've built this culture in state or not you specifically about how State Pineapple has built this culture Yeah, I mean, I just got back from Chicago. We had our regional, operations, leadership, meeting and I think we were sitting around just patting ourselves on the back about, wow. Great. We are, we, we love. I know we love what we've done so much, and again, I say we, I know everybody always says we and blah, blah, blah, but it like, literally, we encourage our employees, all employees, all team members to be their authentic self. So we don't have, hair color regulations. We don't have piercings or tattoo regulations like And we don't have scripts like every hotel company on the planet has a script on how do you check somebody in? What do you say when they show up? How do you answer the phone? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We have what we call unscripts They are literally not quoted statements. They're here is the philosophy behind like our welcome beverage. When somebody comes to the hotel, we think, what is the first thing you do when somebody comes to your house? You offer them a drink, right? So guests are coming to our home and we want them to feel like family. So we offer them a drink. And so we have a document that explains the purpose of the welcome beverage, and we encourage each and every front desk agent to find the way that they say that. Their authentic way. Right. Marriott's head would explode, I think. Right? And, and I, I worked at Marriott and I love Marriott. I really do. But that's just not their model. It's a model that is so totally, it's the antithesis of what the typical hotel model is, I think. Um, and that's how we create that culture. The culture is literally created from every team member inside the company, being able to be who they are. And not only encouraging it, but engaging with it. Right. And it's fun. Like we have a program that's called Surprise and Delight. It's, it is my favorite thing. We have, surprise and delight is all about the team members being 100% empowered to surprise and delight a guest anyway, in. Anything they can think of. And we actually encourage creativity in this space, right? So, we ask team members to listen for trigger words. we kind of joke overhear what's going on without being spooky about it. Right? Don't be weird, but. Try to overhear stuff that people are up to. So somebody has a job interview and you know they've got a job interview the next day. Um, recently I heard a story THE team members ran out and got balloons and, a card and some other stuff and put it in the room so that when the guests got back from their job interview, it, was, we hope you had a great interview. And there was a banner. They put a banner up in their room and just totally over the top. Fun, fun things I always say. And, and everybody always asks me, well, you know, what's the financial, how do you budget that? I'm like, we don't, we don't have a budget for surprise and delight. This is my methodology behind it. Be fiscally responsible and really smart about your money 95% of the time. So 5% of the time you can splurge. I love that. And you know, you talking about finances, I just have to bring up this last point and then we'll move on. But you know, it sounds like not only StayPineapple has a culture, but it also seems like very financially responsible. Like you guys have the lowest capital invested. Investment requirements in the industry, and you're growing your profitability by, I think I saw 35% in your portfolio. Like any secrets you want to give away there. Sure it, it's actually fairly straightforward. The boutique space is difficult because if you have under 200 rooms, our hotels range between 56 rooms and 142 rooms. It is really difficult to carry the overhead on a hotel that size to properly run it. Right. So we've centralized all of our services at our headquarters. So there's no accountants, no HR people, no sales people. There's no administration going on in the field, right? Everybody that is at a hotel is focused on team member experience and guest experience. Those are the two things that they're responsible for, and all the other stuff happens here, headquarters acts as like a mother hotel, a mothership, right? That's able to really spread that overhead across the entire portfolio, so it makes it super economic for third party owners to join our brand because we can reduce their overhead at their hotels, put them into the system, and allow better profits, right? Drop. Drop the money to the bottom line instead of using it in ways that are not as efficient. I love that. Awesome. Awesome. Well that was great. Thank you so much for that kind of overview of State Pineapple and how, how y'all have moved to this third party management company and it, it just seems, seems great. Now we'll move on kind of the industry thoughts. So what do you think right now are some of the biggest challenges that our industry is facing? And how is StayPineapple kind of working on those challenges or getting ahead of them? Yeah. So, labor's still an issue, I should say. We're not having problems hiring people. we have enough staff and we have good team members. I think overall the challenge is, Hanging on to our team members and making sure that they stay happy in hospitality. I think hospitality took a hit during the pandemic and It became a less sexy job, right? Like people looked up to hotels before and it was like, ooh, that's a really fun, engaging, job to have. And I think we're having to overcome that as an industry. The economics of the labor market. Also, I mean, we have increased our, salaries significantly at all of our hotels. And again, of course we're in central urban markets that are very expensive anyway, so, even comparative to big resorts in areas that, you know, may be able to pay a housekeeper 12 or $15 an hour. Ours are getting significantly more than that because of the markets that we're in. so, that's a challenge economically for the hotels, but we have been able to absorb all of that and still continue to grow the bottom line. how we've done that is really work on efficiency and effectiveness and the stuff that doesn't matter and really focus on where we're gonna make impact. many people have said this in, quiet times. There are some really good parts that have come out of the pandemic. We've gotten a lot smarter, we're a lot better, there's a lot less waste, than pre pandemic. Yeah. No, that's great. And so sustainability is something, you know, obviously you're very passionate about. what are you doing at StayPineapple and where are you seeing kind of the trends go in the industry of what. hotel groups, ownership management companies are doing Yeah, I, I think the biggest trend is that the Fortune 500 is having to report on their sustainability, benchmarks. And the hotel industry is part of the supply chain, right to the Fortune 500. So We provide a lot of the data that they're needing to report. So Hotelier are having to get a lot more sophisticated around this topic. I have an extensive background in it. We're just lucky at our size that I happen to know how to calculate carbon footprint. Right. I feel bad for a lot of hotel companies that, if you're. Big client, Microsoft or Amazon or somebody, you know, one of the big, big guys go, Hey, I need to know what the carbon footprint is for my event, or our, uh, stay at your hotel is I their heads must wanna explode, right? How do I do that? transparency around really where you're at as a company and where you're going, what your goals are, I think is also, A positive trend, one that will allow us all to raise the bar more quickly. And then I think there's really tactical stuff too, right? Like we worked really hard for the last three years to figure out a solution to get rid of single use plastic water bottles in our hotels. So one of the real values and signature elements of our brand was free bottled water. We were going through about 630,000 bottles of water a year across our portfolio. That's a lot of bottles of water, and I can tell you they're not all getting recycled. So it was a real problem. I mean, it, it. Literally kept me up at night. And so we finally were able to find a solution with Path Water, a partnership with them that we're doing a customized, stay pineapple bottle. So it's gonna have all of our really cute, fun, color and marketing on it. And then I'm gonna have, you know, 600,000 bottles of state pineapple bottles walking around the airport. People going, who's that? Who's that? Is that a water company? So I think being creative, looking, again, you don't have, we're not spending more money on that program. We found a way to do it. We worked at it. It took a lot of time, it took a lot of ingenuity, it took a lot of negotiating. Right. But we got there. We got to a place where it's, I'm having to do a little capital improvement to put in water stations, but other than that, like the program on a year over year basis will be a net neutral program. so you can do it. don't think you can't. if. If you were talking to a hotel group, giving them advice, and they have nobody, they don't have a green team. They, they haven't addressed sustainability. What's the first thing they should, should really do? Waste. They should work on their waste stream. It's the most tangible, both for the team members. So you, and that's the other thing you always have to think about. Sustainability, I think is most successful when you focus a program around. making the guests feel like they're doing good by staying at your hotel, number one. Number two is make your team feel good about working for you. Those are the two biggest benefits to a sustainability program, and find the things that are super tactile and tangible to those two constituencies, and you will be successful. Awesome. any tips for, you know, if you're looking to hire more of a green team, you're looking to focus on that? Any suggestions for what to look for when you're hiring that team? You don't need to hire them. they're out there. Trust me, you have team members, employees inside of your organization that are passionate about this. There is a lot of people out there, and in fact, you're probably gonna lose them. If you're not doing something, cuz they're gonna go work for somebody. If they care enough about it, they're gonna go work for somebody else. That cares too. People want to work for companies that they admire. People want to stay at hotels, they admire. It's that simple, right? So go out and ask who's passionate about this? Who wants to be on the green team? You will have a ton of volunteers. And then like I did early in my career when I didn't know a lot yet. Let them learn, give the gift of education to those team members, whether it's paying for some classes or just giving them time, like giving 'em five hours a month to Go online and do research around sustainability and bring new ideas to the green team, right? Give them that opportunity and you will get paid back immensely. What are some good first maybe projects to start working on for this team? Or, or where's a good place to start for the, for a new green team out there? Yeah. Uh, waste to start. And then water. water is another really easy one to, um, attack, an air rate on a faucet. Is about two 50 and is a super quick, easy way to reduce your water consumption. The kitchen, a lot of restaurants are super inefficient, uh, What they do. Composting is again, a super easy way to start feeling like you're making an impact. looking at the things you're purchasing, purchasing is a great area to make an impact cuz you can do it at no cost and really show a big difference. And again, it's tangible, it's very tactile. everybody goes after energy, and energy is a great place to go. I can tell you our, portfolio, we. You know, we've got all kinds of energy efficiency projects going on. I just, the GM in Boston just emailed me this morning that she's so excited. She got, cuz she got a $5,000 grant to do some lighting retrofitting, uh, in Boston, right? And that's what you need to do is create people that are excited about it and we'll go do the work to get it done. 70% of our existing portfolio runs on renewable energy. Now that was me being very, thoughtful and bullheaded. Maybe some would say about finding a way. Again, it's a very, we don't spend a lot more money. We spend two or $3,000 more per property, to buy renewable energy than we would for. And that's a year, sorry, annually. so it's less than 1% of our energy costs, but It really makes a big difference. We have a number of historic buildings, very old buildings that are not terribly efficient and they're really difficult to retrofit. Very expensive. So that's another option, right? So we go by renewable energy so that at least we are supporting the renewable energy market, with our money. So there's so many ways. Like there's not a topic that you can discuss that I can't find a sustainability, lens on. So Yeah, that's funny. So Steve writes the question, so he doesn't know what I'm about to say. so I'm involved, I'm chairman of an organization called Gain. as you know, I asked, you know, for some help there. We, you know, enterprise Ireland is doing a sustainability study. gain also is the, uh, is partnered with, uh, Montgomery County in Maryland. They, they've created an accelerator and their, incubator is, is about sustainability. This, this quarter, um, I'm partnered with a company that monitors toilet flushes. So tell us your toilet story when it comes to sustainability. Oh dear. Toilets are one of my favorite topics. Um, me too now. they really are. I, you lose so much water through your toilets and you, you are not going to get anywhere by asking your housekeeping team to notify you when the toilet's running, cuz it's just not gonna happen. And they might be wearing earbuds. They might be wearing headphones. Some people They can't hear it. Yeah. that's, I'm, I'm learning all these things, Yeah. It's crazy. And we've spent a reasonable amount of money along with um, some really great incentives replacing toilets and putting in high efficiency toilets and dual flush toilets and doing everything we can to reduce the water consumption. I mean, you think about it from a pure real estate perspective, hotels. Our water hogs every three to 400 square feet, there's a freaking bathroom. I mean, come on. Compared to a commercial office building, it's like you're sucking water out of the building. so everything we can do to reduce that water consumption, you know, put in high efficiency toilets, but even high efficiency toilets leak. You have got to stop that just constant leaking. And I can guarantee any Hotelier, any GM could walk into a hundred room hotel today and find 20% of their toilets are leaking. I think I'm gonna make a connection. No, the, no, the co. I think this company I'm dealing with, they actually put a device in the tank and it tells you the efficiency of the flush. If the toilet is running, if the toilet's overflowed, it's not that expensive. And I actually asked to be partnered with that company cuz part of the process, and this is all volunteer work, but we, we, you basically talked to all these different sustainability companies and there was installation and there was another guy who was turning salt water into regular water. And this company, which happened to be outside of Philadelphia, um, the toilets. And I was like, yeah, I wanna be partnered with them because, It was amazing. Cause I'd never thought about this idea that you could, they have a dashboard that tells you what's going on with your toilets. your engineers will be so excited about it. I can tell you cuz not only does it help save water, but it also lets them know when there's a problem. Right? So you don't need, you can be proactive. You don't need the guests to tell you that there's a problem with the toilet Anyway, it's very interesting stuff. I didn't know that I'd be talking about, yeah, I didn't know we'd be talking about toilets. We need something like a badass or big ass toilet thing. Something you gotta come up with oh. Big idea meeting. Yeah. I'll, let me, let me join that meeting. For any toilet consultant, CC, David Millili. Yeah, exactly. Amazing. title. Just take a note about that. Toilet guru, toilet So I love it. So, last question from from us here. Um, you know, I believe you're self-taught in sustainability. Is that right? So, uh, now I know there's so many resources out there, groups, you know, learning opportunities. you have any advice for somebody who wants to get involved in sustainability? Where they should go, how they can learn, or, or anything like that? Yeah, I would suggest the American Hotel Lodging Association, responsible Stay is a program that I'm involved in and, um, It's really, thoughtful and easy, approachable program. It's not overly technical. I think that's the biggest challenge a lot of people have in sustainability is it's complicated, right? It, it's a complicated topic. so they really. dial it down to, a simplistic way to focus on the things again that have the biggest impact. Our, in fact, our sustainability program is very purposefully called an impact program, not sustainability, because it's about finding the places that make the greatest impact, both our guests, the environment, and our team members. And that's, I think, A S L A has done a really good job in doing that. Great to hear. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks so much, uh, our producer John here, he's, he's been listening in the background this whole time. I'm gonna let hit chime him on right now and, uh, let him ask a final question for you here. So at the beginning you mentioned that you studied theater. Yeah. So my question is, what was your favorite role that you ever got to play? Or you could answer what was like your dream role? So, let's see. My favorite role was I did a one woman show down in what was called the studio. It was under the theater. There was a basement area that was conferred. Converted in, it was storage. You had to go around the, it was kind of like a speakeasy theater almost. You had to go round the back of the theater and go in kind of a back door to get to the studio theater. and it only sat 50 people and the audience was on the same level as the actors and actresses, so there was no raised stage. and I did a one woman show. Down there, which is incredibly difficult to have nobody to bounce off of. and you're just talking. And the most difficult thing for me, um, being an actress was always looking at the audience. In fact, I had my biggest flub, I'll never forget the line. Hello, I'm Betty. And who are you? Cuz I looked out in the audience on this production and saw my mom in the audience and completely lost my line and couldn't remember what I was supposed to say that was on the main stage. So I, this one woman show that I did, I had to look at the audience and they were five feet away from me, right? They were right there. I had to look 'em in the eye and talk to them. So that was probably my, my favorite. It was fun. I, I miss being, I, I keep saying I'm gonna go back and do community theater, just volunteer and have fun with it. That's awesome. All right, so that brings us to the end. Before we flush this episode, we'd like to ask you if you could, if you could, uh, share with us how we can find out more about StayPineapple. Plug away please. Yeah, absolutely. Go www.staypineapple.com. Um, that is our, uh, consumer website. And then staypineapple-hotels.com is our, third party owner, uh, licensing and management, uh, site. So if you're interested in joining our crazy family, then go there and get in touch with us. Great. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate it. That does it for another episode of the Modern Hotelier. We had a great time. Thank you. Thank you guys. It was fun.