Caribe Royale's Route to a Four Diamond Experience | with Amaury Piedra

The Modern Hotelier #68: Caribe Royale's Route to a Four Diamond Experience === David Millili [00:02:40]: Steve, who do we have on the program today? Steve Carran [00:02:42]: Yeah, David. Today, we have on Amari Piedra. Amari is the managing director of Carib Royale. Amari has over 25 years of sales and operations experience leading 4 diamond lifestyle hotels, convention hotels, and multiunit complexes in the US and Caribbean, including properties for Wyndham and Starwood. Welcome to the show, Amari. Amaury Piedra [00:03:07]: Thank you, Steve and David. Pleasure being here. Thanks for taking the time to put me on. David Millili [00:03:11]: Our pleasure. So we're gonna go through 3 sections. We're gonna go through a quick lightning round, go over your your background, then get into your career, and then ask you some industry questions. Sound good? Amaury Piedra [00:03:22]: Yeah. Absolutely. David Millili [00:03:24]: Alright. Here we go. What was your first job? Amaury Piedra [00:03:26]: Ballet parking. David Millili [00:03:28]: Wow. What's your favorite city? Amaury Piedra [00:03:30]: Miami, where I grew up. David Millili [00:03:33]: Got it. What's the best piece of advice you've received? Amaury Piedra [00:03:36]: Many times, keep your mouth shut and listen, and you learn a lot that way. David Millili [00:03:40]: You could trade places with somebody for a day. Who would you trade places with? Amaury Piedra [00:03:44]: Jeff Bezos. I think it would be interesting to to just see how that whole Amazon beast was built and how it operates. David Millili [00:03:52]: What's on your bucket list? Amaury Piedra [00:03:57]: To have, to have one of our fighters. We have a little side hustle with, where we manage some fighters, some professional fighters, and to have one win a world title. We're close. David Millili [00:04:06]: That'd be cool. Do you have a secret talent that nobody knows about? Amaury Piedra [00:04:09]: At one point in my life, I played a sport called jai alai. I don't know if you remember that, but I played professional jai alai in my late teens, early twenties. David Millili [00:04:17]: If you had your own late night talk show, who would the first guest be? Amaury Piedra [00:04:23]: Oh, wow. I think at this at this point, I I, you know, I'd have to say Donald Trump right now. David Millili [00:04:30]: Yeah. I could feel that coming. Amaury Piedra [00:04:32]: Yes. David Millili [00:04:33]: Alright. Last one. If you had a time machine, you can either go into the future or in the past. Which way are you going and what year do you wanna go to? Amaury Piedra [00:04:41]: I tend to use the past just to learn from it, But, you know, I think it would be great to go out, not a long time, 5, 10 years, and to see how all this new AI and everything that's coming into our business from a technology standpoint evolves and how that how our business looks in 10 years. Steve Carran [00:05:00]: That's great. That's great. So now we're gonna go on to a little bit more about your personal background. So you were born in New Orleans, and then you were raised, like you said, in southern Florida in Miami. How did that shape you into who you are today? Amaury Piedra [00:05:16]: Miami was a really multicultural city, and my family is originally from Cuba. So I was a first generation born in the US. My father funny enough, my father was a student at Tulane. I was born in New Orleans. I left when I was a year old. I returned to manage the Sheraton New Orleans. My youngest daughter was born in New Orleans, and she left when she was 1 year old. So my my daughter and I were both born in New Orleans, and we lived there a combined, like, 3 years. Amaury Piedra [00:05:40]: Yet, both of us were born there. Steve Carran [00:05:42]: It's the Piedra life cycle. Amaury Piedra [00:05:44]: It's the Piedra. Exactly. The bayou's us. We're the Cuban Cajuns or something. Miami was a very multicultural city. And where I think it helped was you dealt with people from all over the world. It's more so now, but South Florida was diverse even when I was growing up. And, it just exposed you to many different cultures and many different people. Amaury Piedra [00:06:07]: And I think that's helped tremendously in the hospitality business. You know? And, yeah, I think that was one of the best parts of of growing up in that culture. That and I was forced to learn Spanish at a very early age. And it stuck with me. So I'm I'm perfectly bilingual, and that's also helped in the industry, especially with our associates and whatever. David Millili [00:06:26]: So you went to Miami Dade Community College. What was your background before you got into hospitality? Amaury Piedra [00:06:32]: You know, I, a friend of the family's ran the Sheraton 4 Ambassadors back in 1979. Big four story hotel big four tower hotel in Miami, and he got me my first job there parking cars. And I worked there, as a valet parker and a bellman throughout high school. And I started going to college, but I left because I was just enamored with the hotel business. And I stopped for 3 years to play professional sports. That was a long time at about £60 ago. But, anyway, and, as soon as that ended, right back into the hotel business. So I've never had a job in any industry other than hospitality. Steve Carran [00:07:15]: That's awesome. So you mentioned this earlier. You're you're big into boxing. I went on your IMDB page, and, you know, there's a couple of shows there. I also saw you I Amaury Piedra [00:07:24]: have my IMDB page. Steve Carran [00:07:26]: I believe so. I saw I found you on there. You have 2 series on there, and I also saw you've promoted over 20 fights at Creed Royale over the past 2 years. How'd you get into boxing, and what has kinda been your boxing story till now? Amaury Piedra [00:07:43]: You know what? Through a mutual friend, always liked the sport. And, even to this day, work out 2 or 3 times a week doing boxing. And, a friend of mine got me into the sport. And later on, we got into we were very fortunate to meet some good people that were family friends. And, it kind of grew. And we have some very good fighters under contract that are world ranked in their weight classes. And as it applies to Caribe, what we did was, you know, we're an independent hotel. And as we were going through our reimagination, we wanted to gain, gain publicity for the hotel and get the name out there. Amaury Piedra [00:08:21]: So we've partnered up with some very big promotional companies and such as Jake Paul's company, MVP Promotions. Jake will be here next week, in fact. No way. And, yeah. And, a Matchroom, Eddie Hearn's company, big in the UK and big in the US. And so, we've been nationally televised probably 15 of those 20 times. And not only did it bring locals into the hotel, but it put the hotel on the map from, you know, many of the hotels that do this are the bigger Las Vegas ones. So we became like the southeast version of that. Amaury Piedra [00:08:51]: And so Caribe keeps getting the name out there. So it's been really good for all of us. David Millili [00:08:55]: That's great. And you were also instrumental in bringing the Super Bowl in 2010 to South Florida. I looked it up. That was the Saints beating the Colts 31/17 Headquarters for the for that showcasing Fort Lauderdale. Tell us about that process and how you went about that. Amaury Piedra [00:09:12]: It was great. You know, the Super Bowl was coming back to South Florida, and the headquarters had always been in Dade County. And, the Broward CVB, myself, we got together, and we said, hey, why don't we why can't we have it in Broward County? And we went and we met with the NFL and we pitched them on being in Broward County. And funny enough, we had, our our Westin Hotelier was under construction at the time. It was shut down. I'm showing them what it's gonna look like, this and that. And somebody, I guess, had enough faith in us to take that leap of faith and to say, yes. We're gonna move the the headquarters to Broward County, the convention center, the Westin being the headquarters hotel. Amaury Piedra [00:09:50]: And it was a big leap of faith because we weren't even open. So we finished all the work at the Westin in, November and in came the NFL in December in January, I'm sorry, for a 2 week solid period where they took over the entire hotel. So it was a big leap of faith, but it was great for Broward County because I think it was the first time. Frankly, I think it was I'm not sure it's even happened again in the 1 or 2 Super Bowls since. But it was a it was a really great story to have. You know, we did a lot of work putting Fort Lauderdale on the map, the new Fort Lauderdale. And, yeah, it was a big win down there because, again, all the cameras, all the networks, everything was all focused on Fort Lauderdale. So it was great. Amaury Piedra [00:10:29]: That's great. It just goes to show, you know, you partner with the CVB. Everybody works together. And, you know, you can make anything happen. Steve Carran [00:10:36]: That was great. So now we're gonna go into your career a little bit, how you got to where you are today. So after the valet, you were you started out as the director of sales and marketing, then you became a general manager at the Pickwick Hotel and Loggien. From there, you moved to a Sheridan property in New Orleans, the Bahamas, then Fort Lauderdale. What did those early days teach you, And can you talk about some of the differences of managing a hotel that's branded versus now you're at Caribe, which is independent? Amaury Piedra [00:11:07]: Yeah, absolutely. Great question. So, you know, I did a lot of hourly jobs on the way up and worked the front office, worked the night audit, worked everything. You worked your way up, right? And eventually, you had some good people that gave me opportunities to slide into my first managerial roles. And many times, I think, I look back on it and I think one of the keys to success for anybody just like you all is, you know, you gotta take a little risk sometimes. Hey. Can you handle blah? You know, can you handle x project? Absolutely. No problem. Amaury Piedra [00:11:40]: I got it. No idea what I was doing. But you work your way through it and that's how you learn. And a lot of it is being involved. And when there's opportunities to get involved, put in the time to be involved. And you learn a lot that way. When I was really doing Rooms Division Management, I really thought that the future was going to be in revenue management and in sales and marketing. And I really wanted to head in that direction because I felt that it would make me a better general manager if I truly understood the revenue process and the group process and the sales and marketing process. Amaury Piedra [00:12:14]: So I got into that and I did it almost 10 years. And then I got my first GM job. Wasn't the best hotel of all time, but it was my first GM job. And from there, I went to Miami where I ran a place called Mayfair House, which was a 4 Diamond Hotel in Miami, high end luxury. I think if you extrapolate the rates from back then to now, it's like a $600 average rate. But where I really caught my break was Starwood was on a big growth mode and Starwood hired me to be the hotel manager at the Sheraton New Orleans. And that's what kind of put me on the fast track and that's where I fell in love with the larger convention hotels and larger resorts. The biggest thing between the independent world and the branded world is, you know, it's great because you learn a lot with the brands and and a lot of the training that comes with it. Amaury Piedra [00:13:04]: And it's great. But in the independent world, it's kind of you have to make it all happen on your own. So I always tell people that it's not for everybody. If you've got good experience and you've got a solid background and you have an entrepreneurial flair, if you will, and an entrepreneurial mindset, it's the best place to be. Okay. Because you're not constrained by anything that a brand has. You create your own brand and you create your own vibe and you make it what you want to make it. There's nothing being forced upon you. Amaury Piedra [00:13:35]: If it works, you did it. If it didn't, it's on you as well. And, you know, there's no lines to color within or anything. You have a broad spectrum. And Mike Dominguez from ALHAI and myself just did a podcast together talking about the benefits of working with an independent hotel. And you really we can really do, as long as it's ethical and legal, whatever the customer needs, you know, from a group perspective or whatever. Whatever you want, we can do it for you. And we have a lot of You know, let's say a Let's say a branded hotel might get 10 leads through their global sales offices and we may get 8 through our representation firms. Amaury Piedra [00:14:21]: So we have to make each one of them count. So, we have to work a little bit harder. But if you have, again, if you're entrepreneurial and you like that, that vibe where you get to do your own thing, it's a great place to be. Now I wouldn't trade it. David Millili [00:14:36]: Yeah. I'd love to hear that. I'm a I was an independent guy before I, you know, got into technology, you know, in New York City independent Hotelier love love to hear that. So you've GM some some really big properties with a lot of amenities. What are some of the qualities you think for somebody to be able to to manage those type of properties, the the big boxes? Amaury Piedra [00:14:58]: You gotta have the right people. I think the biggest difference between, you know, call it a 200 room motel and a 1,000 or plus whatever, is you're involved, but you do not have the same amount of time to be involved in the minutiae or the smaller details. So, you have to you're supervising and providing leadership and really looking further out than you typically do. And having the right team, having the right executive team is the key to success. And I learned that a little bit when I made my first jump into the 1,000 plus room category. You manage a little bit differently. And it's it's all about making sure that those big ships don't deviate from the strategic direction because a lot of times what happens is if you deviate, it takes a long time to get that ship going in the right direction again. So, you have to make sure that the vision is there, that everybody buys in and that you maintain it. Amaury Piedra [00:15:55]: Like right now, Caribou Real is, we're on a great roll. And our growth has been exponential and we don't see it stopping. But that's because we're always monitoring where we are. Are we, DB? Is there anything we need to do different looking 6 months, a year, 2, 3 years out? And I think that's the biggest thing. You have to be a little bit more of a visionary looking out and also working hard to maintain the culture among the associates. David Millili [00:16:22]: You were specifically tapped to lead the major property transformation at Caribou Real in Orlando. It was a 140,000,000 transformation. What excited you about this this job and how did you approach it? Amaury Piedra [00:16:36]: I was working with a great group called Tavistock and, Joe Lewis' group. And we were we were developing a a series of Hotelier, And I was in charge of developing the Pier 66 project down in Fort Lauderdale. And the pandemic hit, and they decided to, to put a little bit of a hold on that property. I think it's gonna later this year. And I was fine. I was doing some other work for them. This opportunity came up. And when I drove up to Caribe, I'll be honest. Amaury Piedra [00:17:02]: I had never been to Caribe Real. And I drove up to Caribe and I looked at everything. And I knew people in the Orlando market. And as soon as I looked at it and as soon as I saw what was going on, I saw the potential. To me, it was like, oh my god, this is great. I saw the potential. And our ownership group, Sierra Land, led by Dan Kaplan and Dan Friberg, we got together and I guess I kind of laid out a game plan. This is what I think we need to do or this is what I know we need to do and this is what I believe we're going to be able to become if we do the following. Amaury Piedra [00:17:34]: And they agreed and we took off. And in 2020, we started the work and it was originally supposed to be about a 100,000,000, then it became a 120, then it became a 140, And we're gonna be at about a 160 by the time we finished expanding our convention center. And these are not cost overruns. These are just we kept adding a little bit more to it. And this has been the most fulfilling job I've ever had. We had about 40, 50 associates max when I got here in July of 2020. We now have 1,000. And I've never been prouder of a team because we were able to reposition the Hotelier. Amaury Piedra [00:18:12]: And we got our 4 Diamond 2 years ahead of schedule. And we've really taken off on the group side. And we all worked on putting kind of the formula, if you will, together. And it's all worked. And it's been the most exciting and emotionally fulfilling job ever because, again, you as you mentioned, David, you open up stuff with the brands and nothing against the brands, but you have a lot of people helping you. We did this on our own. The team, the team and the company did this on our own. And that's why it's been so fulfilling. David Millili [00:18:41]: Yeah. I told I was telling the guys before we started, I stayed, she was my girlfriend at the time. Now she's my wife, but I stayed at the Cabrio, I think, in 1998. Amaury Piedra [00:18:52]: We're a very good old designer. David Millili [00:18:54]: Yeah. I yeah. Just I've I've gathered that without even, you know, without even being there. But, that's Amaury Piedra [00:19:00]: We kinda we kinda called the project internally Carib 4.0 as we were our our president actually came up with that Carib 4.0 as we were aiming for our 4 diamond. And it's you know, we've had it 3 years in a row now. We'll continue to have it. We continue to improve. But it's been it's been just a very fulfilling fulfilling journey. Steve Carran [00:19:19]: That's awesome. And what type of benefits do you see moving up from a 3 diamond to a 4 diamond? Amaury Piedra [00:19:25]: It's it's just a it's a world of difference. You know, we the hotel used to be 35% group, 60 65% leisure. And we saw the opportunity to be able to position ourselves against a much higher comp set and flip that to 65%, almost 70% group, 30%, 35% leisure. But the only way we're going to be able to do that and get those corporate customers and some of the associations in was to get the 4 Diamond because that's really what they're shooting for. It's a different it's just an upper upper echelon meeting. And with that comes increases in food and beverage. With that comes increases in the banquet spend and just in the ancillary spend around the hotel. And everything that we did, we took our time and we made sure that we could fulfill aspiring to. Amaury Piedra [00:20:19]: So, it took a lot of planning. We got a lot of feedback from potential stakeholders, such as our representation firms, AlHy, Teneo, and DMI, make sure that what the customers were looking for is what we were gonna put out and put together, not just what we thought. And it's all, it's all worked out very well. But the difference is we could not be able to go after some of the groups that we go after, and a lot of the groups that currently work with us if we didn't have that designation. Steve Carran [00:20:43]: Absolutely. And you opened, a stadium club early this year. Tell us more. It it sounds pretty awesome. So, David and I are both sports guys, so this sounds like a place we gotta go, David. But tell us more about the stadium club and what else you have planned for the rest of the renovations. Amaury Piedra [00:21:02]: Yeah. The stadium club's our baby. You know, we, we knew we needed an additional fun place for people to gather. And one of the things that occurred is that we thought our average group size would be about 500. And it's turned out that our average group size is about 7, 800. And, you know, we didn't while we had a great pool bar and grill, seats about 120. And then we have a great rum bar. We call it the, the rum bar by Bacardi. Amaury Piedra [00:21:33]: That seats about a 100. So, I saw an opportunity because we were losing some of these folks off property. And we didn't have this fun place that could become the social center or the nightlife center of the hotel. So, you know, we wanted to do a sports bar, but we didn't want to do a regular sports bar. We wanted to do something completely different. It's 80% sports bar. Well, it's about it's about yeah. It's about 80% sports bar, 10% Dave and Buster's, and 10% nightclub. Amaury Piedra [00:22:03]: So we did a different sportspar. Worked with a a company I've worked with before called Street Sense. We started putting it together. It took us about a year and a half to put this together. Even then, you know, it's I mean, we went through a lot of different iterations of it until we hit upon what we have. It was designed where, if you look at SoFi Stadium in California, so the center is a is a big oval with massive TV monitors, the latest technology. We spent 3,000,000 just on the audiovisual. So the sound system is is amazing. Amaury Piedra [00:22:36]: Like, when we played the halftime show at the Super Bowl and we were full with 500 people in there, it's like you were there. So it's got it's got the sound system of a nightclub with the latest. And there is nothing more advanced than the, visual system that we have in there right now. And then we put in simulators because we wanted it to be fun. So we've got 8 state of the art golf simulators that can also do, do, baseball, football, hockey, basketball, zombie dodgeball for those kids that wanna play zombie dodgeball. But we wanted to elevate it. Oh, by the way, great light show. Somebody scores a touchdown, like during the Super Bowl, Chiefs scored a touchdown. Amaury Piedra [00:23:13]: Here come the red lights with the sound, you know, blah blah. And, we wanted to elevate it. So worked with a couple of, chefs that I've worked with before, Chef Janine Booth and Chef Jeff McGinnis, Top Chef alumni. And I said, hey, create an elevated chef driven sports bar menu. And that's exactly what they did. So people give us rave reviews. Let's put it this way. We opened up January 9th, and we're well ahead of expectations. Amaury Piedra [00:23:40]: Not only financial expectations, but just expectations in general. Young, energetic associate base, You know, we've positioned it, hey. This is we have to position this like an independent that just happens to be in the hotel. And that's a vibe in there. You know, people go don't even feel like you're in the hotel anymore. You walked into something else. And that's kinda what we wanted to achieve, and the groups love it. You know, they they love to buy out the space. Amaury Piedra [00:24:05]: It's 2 stories. They love to buy out the space and do events, and we're actually gonna expand it. Now we're gonna add an outdoor area, which will seat another 120. So it'll have capacity for 600. Of course, every time I say that the chefs, they roll, they go, oh my god. What is he doing to us? But, yeah. So it's it's been a lot a lot of fun. And it's funny because over a dozen inquiries have come in from people wanting to franchise. Amaury Piedra [00:24:29]: Are you gonna open up more of these? Are there franchising opportunities? Hey. I was there. I'm from Indianapolis. I was there with a group. Are there franchising opportunities? So it's really amazing. That that's something we may explore in the future. You know, we're still getting the the whole formula down, but it's been a ton of fun and there's nothing like it in Orlando. And we've had groups from other hotels where the DMCs have brought them over as part of off-site activities. Amaury Piedra [00:24:54]: And it's really new revenue for the hotel because a lot of these folks were going off-site or they were do you know, they were doing something else, and now we're keeping them in. So it's been really fun. Steve Carran [00:25:04]: Alright. Well, you sold us. We'll be there. Well, that was great. Now we're going to go into more industry thoughts. You've went through quite a few changes at Caribe Royale, so you went into the pandemic as one property and pretty much emerged as a different property. You know, we've talked about the renovation, but can you tell us the story and any advice you have for hoteliers that might be going through a heavy heavy lift of a transformation or or renovation? Amaury Piedra [00:25:36]: First of all, I have to I wanna thank our owners because they believed in the vision. And, you know, I saw an opportunity. You know, unfortunately, a lot of people got furloughed. That was the term back then. A lot of people got furloughed. A lot of great people got furloughed. And frankly, it gave us an opportunity to handpick and put together what is I consider the best team in Central Florida. From culinary to our event management team to, you know, anywhere in the hotel. Amaury Piedra [00:26:08]: And we hired people probably before we needed to hire them by a good 6, 7, 8 months. But that investment paid off because we were able to be in a great position when we came out of the pandemic to hit the ground running. So, you know, never forget to invest in human capital. People talk about the renovation aspect and the physical aspect. But the human capital is just as important as as the physical aspect. And, you know, we just factored it into the overall cost. And, you know, funny, they would get calls back from their former employers. Not that I'm gonna name them. Amaury Piedra [00:26:44]: Hey. Listen. We want you to come back now. I know I know you. You let me go if you remember. You know? Now it's a year and a half later. And I like and I like it here. So it's interesting. Amaury Piedra [00:26:54]: You gotta stay the course. Right? And if you believe in what you're doing, you got to stay the course and not deviate. And our company sold a hotel in California to be able to finish the work here. And that's why we were ready when the pandemic ended. We were in a great position to hit the ground running and just we got a faster head start than if we would have started the work towards the end of the pandemic, like many did, and then tried to move forward. So it's been, it's been great from that perspective. But the biggest thing is, you know, you got to keep your eye. I mean, we had project managers here working with us for us. Amaury Piedra [00:27:33]: You know, you gotta keep your eye on making sure that those cost overruns, don't happen, you know, and not deviate from from your original vision. And, you know, you got to prioritize. And that's the reality. And what needs to happen when and and prioritize. There's always things that need to happen. And everybody's, oh, we need this. We need this. We need this. Amaury Piedra [00:27:54]: Okay. But how does that impact our original vision of what we're trying to get to? And is it really a need or is it a want and how that's going to impact either the customer or the guest experience? And, you know, there was a lot of things that we said, hey, we'll focus on that later. Let's get this done now because this is more important and we've come back and done some of that. But you've gotta keep an intense eye and intense focus on on the vision and making sure you get there. David Millili [00:28:17]: That's great. So as you shifted from more group from leisure, what were some of the aspects that factored into how you approach the kind of reimagination of your meeting spaces as you transformed in into the Morvo Group Hotel? Amaury Piedra [00:28:34]: Well, we needed more space, number 1, because, now we had, we had about 170,000 square feet. And, that's great. But we have 1337 keys. And without, you know, a brand that puts in, call it, 20% of your leisure rooms, you know, we needed more. So, we went for a 50,000 square foot ballroom that we built, which is the Palms Ballroom. We felt that was the right size to be able to capture these larger groups. And we kind of laid out the space. Okay. Amaury Piedra [00:29:02]: If we have a group of 1,000, hey, meet, feed, breakouts, we kind of had to put the puzzle together, if you will, and get some stakeholder input. And, that's how we move forward in that. In addition, one of the biggest pieces was the IT piece. Because all of a sudden you have these higher end groups coming in and their demand on the bandwidth on everything audio visual related is on a whole another level. And so, we spend 1,000,000 on the infrastructure that people will never see, but we will never be able to we would have never have been able to handle the groups that we have in now if we did not invest in that infrastructure of IT and then the cabling. And we almost had to start from scratch in them. And, you know, it's always something that everybody's always behind the 8 ball on because technology changes so fast. But that was just as important as, you know, you can have this ballroom, but if you can't if you can't have a 1,000 people in there using multiple devices and the presentations and the audio visual and all that, it's not gonna do you any good. Amaury Piedra [00:30:03]: So there was a lot of work done on that as well and also on, on the culinary aspect. Know, one thing that we wanted to do was set ourselves apart in the culinary aspect. And we wanted to serve restaurant quality food in a banquet setting. And that's what our executive chef and our, our banquet sous chef were tasked with creating. And they've done a phenomenal job, I gotta say. Really humbled by, by David Hackett and Michael Sanacroache and what they've been able to accomplish. And that also put us on the map with our rep firms where they're, hey, we get great reviews on your food. It's amazing. Amaury Piedra [00:30:40]: People say it's great. And, of course, that builds the confidence because that's one of the big things that people remember. You know, assuming everybody has great rooms, we have great suites, so it's already a differentiator. But that food and beverage experience, whatever, really sets you apart. Steve Carran [00:30:54]: I love that. And you mentioned this already about how, you know, as you went through COVID, you were hiring and not laying off. And, I feel like that has to build a a good good foundation for culture since, you know, that plays such an important role in not only Hotelier, but any other business. Can you tell us about the culture at Caribe Royale and, you know, how you've worked to establish such a such great culture? Amaury Piedra [00:31:20]: Yeah. You know, everybody always says we try to create a family atmosphere, but sometimes you say it, sometimes you do it, sometimes you don't. I was very fortunate that a couple of folks that we've known each other for more than 20 years and worked together for more than 12 of those 20 We're here at one of the top performing hotels for one of the branded companies in Orlando. And, you know, we always had a great rapport and we were very close and we saw each other's kids grow up. And I brought those 2 individual and we brought those 2 individuals on in revenue management and sales and director of sales. And they're familiar with each other and they're familiar with me and whatnot. Same thing with our director of finance that came from South Florida. Same thing with our director of security. Amaury Piedra [00:31:59]: Same thing with our Executive Chef. So we had this familiarity. And I think that helped us hit the ground running because the team knew each other. Now, they also know the culture that we try to create a culture of inclusion and a culture where everybody's important. That filtered down because I think the executive committee, what? 7 of our of the 12? 8 of the 12. We've known each other or worked together before or know each other from from what have you. So that then helps filter it down to the department heads and filter it down to the associates. And we're all very involved. Amaury Piedra [00:32:34]: Okay. So that's the key. You know, you have to stay involved. You have to spend time with the teams. You have to spend time with the associates. You can't forget. We were just did an orientation today, for example. And, you know, it's you gotta let us know. Amaury Piedra [00:32:47]: If you don't have the tools to do your job, we cannot expect you to take care of the customer. That's on us. So please let us know. You know, and I share my cell number with everybody, all the associates. It's important to me. And actually, that's one of the most fun parts of the job, you know, spending time with them. Because I remember when I was there, general manager never spent any time with me back then. He was too busy doing whatever it is he was doing. Amaury Piedra [00:33:09]: So it's important, you know, and and just a simple, hi. How are you? How's it going for you today? That 32nd interaction means a lot. And the other thing is, you know, we spend a lot on recognition. We do a lot on the recognition piece. And we do the right thing for our associates. And sometimes we go beyond. We know that if sometimes things happen and they need help and it could be a personal issue. And as opposed to other companies that ones have worked with that you can't do something because it sets a precedent for a 1000 Hotelier, you know, we will do the right thing and help the associate as we can. Amaury Piedra [00:33:46]: And they're very appreciative, and that word spreads. And it also helps that when we talked to the team 3 years ago and we said, hey, this is exactly what's going to happen. We're no longer going to be an overflow hotel. We're gonna be the hotel that overflows to others. And 3 years later, that's exactly what's happened. And then, you know, they're like, hey, it's incredible. You know, this week it's exactly what happened. And this is great. Amaury Piedra [00:34:11]: And they you know, our banquet team and I'll just tell you, they made double what they used to make. And it's life changing for them. You know, in our fine dining in our fine dining restaurant, Venetian, those folks make double what they used to make. And it's life changing for them. And, you know, that combined with making sure that we treat them the right way, we have under 20% turnover. Let's put it that way. I can tell you that. We have under 20% turnover last year, which is great. Amaury Piedra [00:34:38]: And, you know, the big one of the biggest things people always ask me, what worries you going forward? Or not worries me. What's one of the things? Maintaining the culture as we continue to go forward. And I'm big on that. So, we need to maintain that because many times, David, I'm sure you've seen it, where you lose that. And if we have an opportunity to save $1,000 or spend a 1,000 and do the right thing for somebody, we'll spend a 1,000. And that comes from the top down. Our corporate team, hey, by the way, we did our ownership team. By the way, there's an associate with this problem. Amaury Piedra [00:35:09]: We took care of them. Oh my god. That's the right thing to do. Great. I'm glad you did. Because that family atmosphere starts from the top down as well. David Millili [00:35:16]: So, yes, right now, we I wanna get some of your advice. So guest needs, their preferences, technology, everything's changing. You personally or the hotel, how do you guys stay ahead of the curves and try to identify what's coming and what you need to do on property? Amaury Piedra [00:35:31]: Yeah. You know, it's number 1. I think that no matter what technology does, there's always a human element. And, you know, in some places, an automatic check-in where you don't see anybody and you go straight to a room. And then you check out and you've yet to have one human interaction. That can work in a lot of places, I guess, depending. But I'm a big believer in human interaction and that a smile and a and a hello goes a long way. So I don't think you'll ever see that here. Amaury Piedra [00:36:04]: You know, we stay on top of trends from many different areas. Each member of the EC really stays on top of trends in their area. Like, you know, we know we needed to do an app. So we needed to do a property app because it's a big place. We got to get information in customers' hands. And what's the best way to get information in customers' hands? Well, they're here. They have the app. They have the the property map. Amaury Piedra [00:36:27]: They can request whatever they want through the app. They can make dinner reservations. They can do all sorts of stuff. So we spent about a year and a half working on that and and rolled it out. And that was something important because how do we communicate with the customers once they're here? And our IT director is is really good at kind of being a dreamer at times and and staying well ahead of the of the curve. We're always listening to the guest. You know, we ask from a from a group perspective. I I get together with every meeting planner that comes on the property. Amaury Piedra [00:36:57]: And either during a site inspection and during the time they're here. What can we do different? What are we missing? Is there anything that can work for you? Is there anything that you need to see? And we got you know, that's where the a lot of the a lot of the info comes from. Luckily, you know, it's hasn't been oh my god. You're missing this, this, and that. It's it's it's all been positive with some tweaks here or there. We needed a different way of of handling packages, for example. That came from a meeting planner. We took the ball, ran with it, and and corrected that. Amaury Piedra [00:37:26]: I think the biggest thing is staying on top of trends that are valuable. Because a lot of times people are rolling out stuff. And is it truly valuable to the customer? Right? Is it truly bringing a value to the customer? Is it just to put a PR piece out? Hey. We've now unveiled the following. Right? Hey. It happens. Right? So I think that's one of the big things. The voice of the customer. Amaury Piedra [00:37:48]: The voice of the customer. The voice of the customer. Do we really think that's an issue? And does the guest think that's an issue? Because if the guest is saying one thing, that's that's who we gotta listen to. That's the customer. So it's you know, that not only influences our tech decisions as we go forward, but a lot of times our menus, our offerings in the guest rooms. You know, I remember when we first started, we still had the individual amenities. And people started talking more about the bulk amenities. Hey, we like the book. Amaury Piedra [00:38:16]: We changed the whole thing. Bulk amenities. Now we don't hear about it anymore because it's what guests wanted. That's kinda how we do it. Steve Carran [00:38:23]: That's awesome. So we have been question since we've been asking you the whole time. Amaury Piedra [00:38:36]: Well, David, what trends are you seeing in the hotel industry? I mean, what do you, what do you see in the next 2 or 3 years? Could be in any area. I mean, you wanna you know, it could be anything from revenue management, which has become as complex as ever. You need an MIT degree. But, yeah, it's any any area. David Millili [00:38:51]: Yeah. So we're so right now, for me, on a a personal note and, you know, the company I'm running, we've transitioned from a revenue management platform to a commercial strategy platform. And we I believe we're the only company that's really making that effort rather than just talking about it. And what I mean by commercial strategy platform is that we're leveraging all this great data and AI that flows through a road to management platform and serving it up to sales and marketing in a way that they can digest platform and serving it up to sales and marketing in a way that they can digest it and use it. Because a lot of times, you know, the revenue managers are in a silo. They're the numbers guys. They wanna look at it a certain way. Marketing wants to look at it a certain way, and sales wants to look at it. David Millili [00:39:26]: It a certain way. Marketing wants to look at it a certain way, and sales wants to look at it a certain way. So that's where I see things are heading. And then, you know, this you know, you you brought it up. I had run an several years ago, run an app company. You know, I think the you said it perfectly. And I'm not saying that because you're on the show, but giving the guest what they want. So this notion of a guest uses Uber, you know, to get to the airport, their American Airlines or Delta, whatever app, and and then they get to a Hotelier all of a sudden they're allergic to apps, and they don't wanna use it. David Millili [00:39:58]: And that's just not true. And I think a lot of times you said it great. If you can combine the technology with the personal side, that's what's gonna be key. Amaury Piedra [00:40:05]: We get over 3,000, what's the term I'm looking for? Interactions. Download. Download. Well, yeah. But even interactions of either asking for, hey, can I get an extra pillow? Or making a dining reservation or whatever. I think the last time I looked, it was 31100 transactions or interactions, whatever you want to call it, last month, in the month of in the month of March. So it's great. Steve, what are you hearing from a food and beverage perspective? I mean, where do you see you know, you talk to a lot of people. Amaury Piedra [00:40:33]: Where do you see food and beverage and Hotelier heading? Steve Carran [00:40:35]: That's kind of what I was thinking about when I talked to your hotel. I think guests now, they're not just booking hotel rooms. Right? Like, to to your point, they were coming on-site and then they were leaving because they wanted to go do, whether that's activities, dining, somewhere else. People want to book an experience now. They want to come to a hotel and stay there and go to that, you know, sports bar, but it has great food. Right? And I think food and beverage food is the universal language that everybody speaks. Right? So I think more people are diving into exactly what you're doing, increasing their food and beverage, making it a unique experience. So when you ask somebody, hey, how is Caribou Royale? Oh, the hotel rooms are great, but you know what was awesome? The restaurant and the food there. Steve Carran [00:41:21]: It blew me away that a hotel in Orlando would have this great of food. So I think the food and beverage is incorporated into the full guest experience now of staying on premise or, you know, having these great restaurants right where you're staying. So Amaury Piedra [00:41:38]: Yeah. I agree with your point in the experiences. People wanna have fun. They wanna they wanna they want something different. And if you can provide that, I think you're I think you're in a good place. And, you know, people forget sometimes in a in a transactional world, you know, we're here to provide experiences for them. And if you can do that, I think you come out on the winning side. Steve Carran [00:41:57]: Absolutely. Well, that was great. Good questions. Our producer, John, has been listening the whole time. So to end, this episode, he's gonna ask you one final question before we sign off here. David Millili [00:42:09]: Alright. It was really here about you taking the property to, like, the next level and having the vision to be the 4 diamond and you said you had to get a lot of like stakeholder input and do all that and I I imagine it's not just property and the amenities that go into that status, but it's also the staff and the service that that is provided. So I'm curious about, like, how do you instill that vision of, hey, we're we're here and we're gonna be here instilling that vision with the staff. You talked about the great culture, but I'm curious about that transition and vision with, your team and the staff. Amaury Piedra [00:42:43]: Sure. You know, I'm a I'm a big sports fan just like the gentleman, and, you know, you look at it almost like a football team. And and, you know, you're you're I'm not gonna say the hotel was losing for the football team, but let's say you were an 8 and 18 Okay, so this is great. We're gonna take this 8 and a team and this is what we're gonna do. These are the steps and we laid it out These are the steps that we have to take in each of the areas to be able to become A 7 what's a 17 game season now? So a 12 and 5 a 12 and 5 or a 14 and 3 team And the first thing was getting alignment with our ownership group. They were great They were great about it and we love the vision go for it. Right? And then they just turned us loose. So executive committee came first. Amaury Piedra [00:43:27]: This is what we're gonna do. And everybody agree? Yeah. Great. Now we come down, and we rolled it all out. I mean, we literally told the hourly staff, farm and heads, hey, these are gonna be the steps, and this is the work that we're gonna have to do to get there. Because we had to write grand standards. We had to write all new service standards, not just for for every area. We had to write service standards for arrival. Amaury Piedra [00:43:52]: We had to write service standards for check-in. We had to write service standards for the restaurants. We had to and then not just write it and create them, but implement them and a whole a whole new service culture train And we had some people that helped us with it. There's some people from our past that that helped us with it And then we had to roll it out to at the time. I think we rolled it out in about 500 associates the first time we rolled out 2 weeks of service culture training to everybody. But I'm a big believer in, in sharing information because if people know and feel that they're part of I know it may sound hokey, but if they feel that they're part of it and that they're in the know and that they understand what's going on, they're more apt to buy into it. And, that's exactly what we did. But there was a lot of heavy lifting. Amaury Piedra [00:44:37]: I mean, that whole service culture piece rolling that out, every guest contact associate went through 2 weeks of training, you know, before we really debuted as the new career royale. And it was every touchpoint Anywhere in the hotel nobody got less than 1 week even if you were in the back of house because you never know when that person's gonna run into a guest. And then it was everything from every uniform in every area to every touch point. So, you know, I look back on it. Maybe I minimize it a little bit. But I tell you, there was 3 years I went by like a blur as construction's happening at the same time and everything. But the biggest thing is to keep the staff employ informed. And we do we spend a lot of time. Amaury Piedra [00:45:20]: That's a biggie for me. I'm probably pretty much of a pain in the rear with that. But keeping them informed and making sure that they know what's going on And we bring in interpreters and we do all our all associate rallies. We have a large hispanic I mean I could do it in Spanish, but that's not fair to everybody So we bring in a a translator and we get headphones and they can all listen to it in Spanish on headphones We do the same thing for our creole speaking Haitian associates, You know, we bring in an interpreter and they're listening to it on headphones. And you know they're getting it because as I'm talking and it's being interpreted, you you look out in the crowd and you see the nods up and down. And, again, I think that the more we keep them informed and, you know, the more that way when we ask them to, hey. Make sure you do this a certain way, that it happens because they understand the why. And it's not just somebody's idea. Amaury Piedra [00:46:06]: It's why we're doing and how everyone, including them, benefits from. And it takes work. I'm not gonna lie. It takes work. You know? You gotta put you gotta put time into it. It takes work. I'm not gonna sit here and say, it's easy. It takes work. Amaury Piedra [00:46:18]: But, you know, these big hotels, especially it's like a little city of 1,000 plus people and, you know, you really want to do it right? You got to put in the work and the passion behind it. David Millili [00:46:27]: That was great. Thank you. So that does it for another episode of the Modern Hotelier. This is where you get the plug away, let people know how they can find out more about the Creed Royale, how they can connect with you. So go ahead and plug away. Amaury Piedra [00:46:41]: Carib, www.careeroyal.com. You can also find us on social media. You know, we've really positioned the hotel as one of the top hotels in Orlando and Central Florida, one of the top convention hotels in the state. And it's, you know, not only that it's, you know, from a leisure standpoint, we've got a great location, a lot of great amenities on-site from from fishing in our lakes that we stock to bicycling to our water slides to everything going on. Great fitness facility so there's a lot of fun things to do on-site always great to see the families fishing in the lake you know, especially mothers and daughters or fathers and sons. So it's really, it it's really cool, and you'll be taken care of by a great group of associates, as we call them, that always have a smile on their face and really are are very genuine in the service they provide. And you guys gotta come down for one of the events, either one of the boxing events, or we're gonna be starting a musical series next year. So let me know when you wanna come, and, you will be taken care of here. David Millili [00:47:41]: No. We will we will be there. It's a deal. Alright. Well, thank you so much. That does it for another episode of the Modern Hotelier. Whether you're watching or listening, we thank you. Amaury Piedra [00:47:51]: No. Thank you all. Steve Carran [00:47:54]: You made it to the end of the Modern Hotelier. Thanks for listening. The Modern Hotelier is produced by Make More Media. Make sure to like and subscribe if you're listening on YouTube or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. If you know a guest or sponsor that would be a good fit, feel free to email us at hello at the modern Hotelier. If you'd like to get some modern hotelier merch, click the merch button on modernhotelier.com or click the link below. Thanks, and have a great day.