Author Series: "Indie Hotel" | with Jeremy Wells

The Modern Hotelier #52: Author Series: "Indie Hotel" with Jeremy Wells === [00:00:00] I think you can overcome a lot of those challenges and I think people just haven't had confidence in that or maybe they're too unfamiliar with Independent hotels and it kind of scares them and I get that, but kind of, again, that's what indie hotel is about is just trying to give people confidence and trying to stoke that fire of indie hotel mindset and let's do it and let's do more of these, Welcome to The Modern Hotelier. I'm your host, David Millili. [00:00:49] I'm your co host Steve Carran. [00:00:50] And I'm the producer, Jon Bumhoffer... [00:00:52] Steve, who do we have on the program today? [00:00:54] Yeah, David, today we have on Jeremy Wells. Jeremy is an owner and a partner for the Ozarker Lodge. He's also a partner at Longitude, a hospitality branding and design agency, and co founder and partner at Flyover Development. Jeremy's written two books. His First one is Future Hospitality in 2022 and most recently came out with Indy Hotels in mid September. Welcome to the show, Jeremy. [00:01:21] Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. [00:01:23] Awesome. So we're just going to ask you a quick few questions about your book here. But what inspired you to write Indy Hotel and what was that process like? [00:01:33] Yeah, I think the thing that inspired me, you know, going through the development and acquisition and renovation of the Ozarker Lodge You know sometimes as I'm learning things quickly best way for me to kind of hold that knowledge in is for me to write about it and to kind of Regurgitated almost for lack of a better term, but you know, I, took a lot of notes. [00:01:57] I wrote down a lot of things along the way and, it just really sparked in my mind. A lot of conversations we were having going through that process. there's probably other people, you know, asking these questions or thinking these things. And, you know, the book was, is equal parts. Kind of a love letter to indie hotels, but also just practical, advice, take it or leave it. [00:02:20] But, you know, I've only have one development under my belt, but I just wanted to share what I was learning and what I've learned along the way a little bit, and also share insights from other people and colleagues and friends that I have. so I hope people, you know, that read it find value in it, but, uh, it kind of a labor of love, like anything, like my first book. [00:02:39] And I just love sharing the insights that I do have and hope that they can help someone. [00:02:44] That's great. So my background is all independent hotels and it seems like for a while, you know, maybe in the 2000s that everything, especially places like New York were becoming heavily branded. Why do you think I feel this? I don't know if you feel there's kind of this resurgence of independent hotels and this excitement around having more unique type of properties. [00:03:05] Why do you think that is right now? [00:03:06] I think in any market and in any industry, you see kind of a pendulum swing. When, a trend goes too far in one direction, it almost course corrects. And so I think you're seeing a little bit, and I actually touched on this a little bit in Indie Hotel, is you're seeing a little bit of like, so, like, over the last decade, we've all seen the rise of so many soft brands and so many collections and so many, acquisitions too of Indie Hotels and just mergers there's reasons for doing that, and there's obviously benefits in some ways for doing that. [00:03:37] But I think in tandem with that, you're starting to see a type of traveler who is, more aware of their surroundings or wants to be more aware of their surroundings when they're traveling. And you're starting to see this was like transformative travel or whatever you want to call it of going a place and really to know it and really feeling like you're living there and you're a local and independent hotels have done that the best in my opinion and I think that that type of traveler is looking for more of that. [00:04:08] And that's probably the reason why the soft brands have grown so much too Or at least one of the reasons is they're trying to tap into that you know, independent, brand and independent. category so all that to say, I think the, thing that's kind of held back independents from really going forward is that confidence of it's, it is hard to get, lenders excited about an independent hotel cause you don't have all the distribution, you don't have all the support, you don't have the brand to back you up. [00:04:33] but. That can be overcome if you put together a deal in the right way and you put together a brand and you're thinking about it in the right way and it's the right property, I think you can overcome a lot of those challenges and I think people just haven't had confidence in that or maybe they're too unfamiliar with Independent hotels and it kind of scares them and I get that, but kind of, again, that's what indie hotel is about a little bit is just trying to give people confidence and trying to stoke that fire of indie hotel mindset and let's do it and let's do more of these, so. [00:05:06] yeah, that makes sense. So what, if you were talking to somebody, especially somebody who maybe wasn't in the industry but was a traveler, what are some of the unique characteristics that you would like to highlight about independent hotels versus what they get when they go to a branded property? [00:05:21] I think there, this is a positive and a negative for branded properties is, you know, you know what you're going to get, if you go to a soft brand property in St. Louis, and then you go to another one in Kansas City and, you know what you're going to get, you know what to expect, you know, the check in process, you know, the amenities you're going to get for the most part, they're all very similar. [00:05:44] but at an independent hotel, So a lot of independent hotels, you know, you're, you don't know what to expect almost. And that can be, I think that's a good thing. it can be a good thing for the right type of traveler. So, what that usually looks like is you get a different taste of the neighborhood. [00:05:59] You get a different taste of the culture of the area, the arts and the art scene in the area, the music scene, you know, even with like brands like graduate hotels, you get to see kind of the college scene and kind of get to live that out a little bit. so there's lots of. ways to kind of experience a locale and a destination and really feel it a little bit more than you would at a soft brand hotel and kind of for some travelers, they don't care about that, especially, you know, like a business traveler, like they're just there for the points and the, loyalty program and, you know, they want to get in and out, but especially, you know, in the leisure market, if you really want to enjoy a place and feel like you're part of something, independent hotels are the best way to do that oftentimes, in my opinion. [00:06:42] And how did opening your property play into you writing the Indy Hotel book? [00:06:47] Yeah, it's, uh, like I've told other people before this, process of, you know, our first hotel development was. Uh, like a masterclass in hotel development, acquisitions. You know, everything. so going through that, there was a lot of questions I asked. We had great partners involved in that, Eagle Point Hotel partners. [00:07:08] Stephen Chan basically took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. And I probably annoyed him more than I could have. But I, just asked a lot of questions along the way. And just like, you know, why did we do this? Or what, you know. what was the thinking behind this? And, he was super, super gracious and helpful. [00:07:22] And, that just kind of inspired me going through that and meeting the people that I met through that whole process. I just want to, you know, I to encourage other like you can do it too, like you can go this, if I can do it, anybody can do it. And, that was Modern Hotelier, David Millili, Steve Carran, opening a hotel and renovating a hotel and then writing a book, but, uh, it worked out CEO, LodgIQ, [00:07:47] yeah. [00:07:48] That's awesome, and what advice would you give to anybody that's, you know, maybe not thinking about writing a book and opening a hotel at the same time, maybe separate times, but what advice would you have to those folks? [00:07:59] Yeah, it's, you know, just find, like, on the book side, you know, find a topic that you, love, that you're interested in, Dr. Elizabeth You have a perspective on and then start framing your thoughts around it, write out an outline about it, you know, put together, kind of the bullet points of each section and start kind of thinking through how you're going to, the narrative you want to, you know, weave in and out of the book, the whole, you know, throughout the whole thing and, really your unique perspective is really the, one of the most important parts. [00:08:30] for me, that's, you know, branding and design and concepting. And that's really where my, expertise lies. So both of my books kind of, you know, focus in on that from my unique perspective there. and then on the hotel side, if, you know, someone that's just wants to, test the waters and go become a hotelier and go through that, Godspeed to you. [00:08:50] It's a, it's definitely a, a, it's one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done, but also one of the most challenging things I've ever done. and you know, I think sometimes you just have to. surround yourself with people that are more knowledgeable than you, that can help you along the way. [00:09:04] Not be afraid to ask questions. Be vulnerable sometimes in that regard and uh, you know people more often than not are gracious and super helpful if you're just willing to kind of lay aside your pride and look dumb for a minute, and I do that a lot and it works out. [00:09:21] Absolutely, that's awesome, and you know, Jon, our producer, has been listening this whole time, so we're going to let him wrap up this episode with one final question here. [00:09:31] okay, so when, you're going about and you're writing this in tandem with building and developing the hotel. Are there things that maybe you started to write about because you thought you knew them and then things happened that made you go back and edit or rethink your position or your own thoughts on a certain area or topic? [00:09:52] Yeah, definitely. And that's probably why it took. Because I've went through several, way more drafts on the Indie Hotel than I did with Future Hospitality. And part of that is because it was an ever evolving scenario as I'm writing this book. And then I'm looking through it and I'm like, wait, you know, we actually value engineered this thing. [00:10:12] We don't have this anymore. We did, we redid this. You know, there's like things that aren't accurate anymore, so it's like writing a book in real time and then trying to edit it and make sure all the, everything's accurate in it. but yeah, there was several things. Like that with my editor, my editor was actually my wife. [00:10:28] She's a, she helped a lot with that. but you know, there were several things, you know, where I had to add some pieces that weren't making sense or, you know, like that. But yeah, it was a, fun process, but it definitely took longer than probably it should have. But, yeah, it worked out. [00:10:44] that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. Thank you, Jeremy. Congratulations on the book and the launch of your property and we wish you all the future success. [00:10:56] Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. [00:10:58]