From fry cook to Four-Star GM—Jeff Keeley’s hospitality journey is as inspiring as it is insightful. In this episode of The Room Key, Jeff takes us behind the scenes of luxury hotel management at the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza, where he’s led the team for nearly five years.

What You’ll Learn:

✔ The career path from entry-level hotel jobs to luxury leadership

✔ How to foster guest loyalty in an increasingly competitive market

✔ The importance of empathy and empowerment in hotel teams

✔ How to manage ownership expectations and maintain Four-Star status

✔ Practical tips for balancing CapEx, PIPs, and brand standards

Jeff also opens up about:

➡ His biggest lessons from decades in hospitality

➡ Why Kansas City is a unique and growing market for hotels

➡ The surprising amenity his property offers that delights guests (hint: it’s sweet and local!)

Whether you’re an aspiring hotel GM, an owner, or an industry veteran, Jeff’s insights will give you actionable strategies for elevating guest experience and team culture.

Connect with Jeff Keeley:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkeeley/

Connect with Chase Keller:

Website: https://franchiseclearly.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasekeller/

Subscribe for More:

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRoomKey

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-room-key/id1827944167

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36jjsmMItpI7Yr5slYleII

📍 Subscribe for more interviews, legal insights, and real-world hotel strategies: www.youtube.com/@TheRoomKey

Reach out to Chase - chase@roomkey.show

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) I tell everybody, you know, everybody's trying to steal our

business, we can't give them reasons to go, we've got

to give them reasons to stay.

So that's our challenge, is giving them reasons to stay

at the hotel, that everybody else is trying to pick

them off, but when they come into the town they're

not thinking about, oh I want to try this, oh

I want to try this, I want to stay at

the Intercontinental because they take care of me.

That's my home, that's where I go, and that's where

I feel taken care of.

Thanks for joining, this is The Room Key, I really

appreciate it, we have Jeff Keeley here joining us, the

General Manager of the Intercontinental here in Kansas City.

Yes sir.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited to hear your story.

I appreciate it, thank you for allowing me to share.

Absolutely.

So first off, I like origin stories, where did you

grow up?

I grew up in Northeast Ohio, so Canton, Ohio, home

of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I was born in Dallas, Texas actually, and I only

lived there for about 6-8 months, but I'm a

huge Cowboys fan still.

We lived in Hickory, North Carolina for maybe a year,

and then kind of grew up in Canton, Ohio.

Awesome.

Fantastic.

Tell me, who was Jeff as a kid?

Man, I was into sports, I was always, we were

always playing outside, playing all the sports, I played baseball,

basketball, soccer, football growing up, kind of settled on soccer

and played soccer all through high school and into college.

Where'd you go to college?

I went to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Okay.

What were some of your early jobs, early jobs, first

jobs?

My first job was the fry guy at McDonald's, I

started at McDonald's and was working the fries, and I

got promoted to the grill, and eventually up to the

cashier, so yeah.

Very nice.

How did that experience then lead to, obviously years later,

when was your first job in the hospitality world?

I never graduated from James Madison, where I went, I

went to school there, I never graduated.

I went there to play soccer, kind of got burned

out, and then needed to do something.

My brother lived in New York City, so I moved

in with him in New York City, and I got

a job at the Stanhope Hotel on 81st and 5th

Avenue.

So it's not there any longer, it's currently, actually we

were just in New York City last week and we

went and visited it, and it's now some condos, but

yeah, that was my first job, I cut my teeth

at the Stanhope in New York City, so 142 room

boutique hotel in the Upper East Side of New York.

Very nice.

Very nice, love it.

I was actually just in New York last week as

well.

We probably crossed paths.

Probably.

I used to live in New York a while back,

right after college, and I was just right on the

other side of the park though.

Same, where were you?

I was right on, I was on 65th and between

Broadway and Central Park West.

I lived at 121st and Morningside Drive, so up in

Columbia area up there, so it's an interesting area.

Yes, it is.

Awesome.

Alright, so you had that job, where did you go

after New York then?

So I was at the Plaza, or excuse me, I

was at the Stanhope for about a year and a

half and then went to the Plaza Hotel for a

year and a half, so I was at those two

during my tenure in New York, and then I moved

back home to Cleveland, Ohio, and I was at the

Holiday Inn at the airport for about a year, I

was a front office manager there, and then I got

promoted within the company, it was Buffalo Lodging Associates up

to Comfort Suites in Buffalo, New York.

So that was my first GM position, I think I

was 27 years old, a little 100 room hotel in

Buffalo, New York.

Yeah, very nice.

Yeah, it was fun, it was a big learning challenge,

I had a great boss, kind of showed me some

of the ropes and kind of taught me how to

be a general manager, and met my wife there, so

it was nice, it turned out to be a really

good experience.

Yeah, absolutely.

So did you know when you ditched college, moved to

New York, that hospitality was going to be it?

I had no idea, I didn't know what I wanted

to do, I just opened up the New York Times

and applied to some different jobs and had a really

good interview at the Stanhope, it's worked out, I've been

in it ever since, but yeah, when I left school

I truly had no idea what I wanted to do.

I was a history major in college, but again, I

went to play soccer and I just had to choose

a major, so I was interested in history, so that's

how it panned out.

What about that job or the industry that really drew

you in?

So I had a great manager, when I started at

the Stanhope, his name was Matias Sander, he kind of

took me under his wing, kind of showed me the

ropes and I had a knack for it, so it's

something that when you feel comfortable and you feel like

you're achieving, you kind of want to continue to do

it, so I got promoted up a couple of times

as he got promoted up, so he kind of really

got me interested and started in it, and then, like

I said, I found that I had a knack for

it and enjoyed it, I enjoyed talking to people, so

I worked the front desk and that was pretty easy

for me, to work and to talk to people and

kind of make that small talk and make them feel

comfortable, and from there you could kind of learn everything

else, so it worked out really well.

That's awesome.

Obviously, have you seen the Plaza since they finished that?

I went back there, just last week in New York,

we walked through the Plaza, now it's split kind of

between hotel and condos now as well, so it wasn't

what I remembered, you know, there used to be the

Grand Lobby and all that, and we still walk, it's

all Palm Court and all that, but the front desk

is different, so they're two totally different hotels than what

they were when I worked there.

Right, yeah, they're definitely very different.

Was the Stanhope a luxury property at all?

Oh, it was a very luxury property, we had a

lot of celebrities stay there, it was very cool, you

know, being a young impressionable young kid to see all

these celebrities come in, so it was a great hotel

to start at and kind of, it was fun to

see some of the people that stayed with us.

Yeah, yeah, so obviously your first two, very luxury, went

to the Holiday Inn, and then did you know at

that point that you were a luxury guy?

Obviously, we're sitting here in the Intercontinental.

It took me a while to get back here, but

yeah, I mean, I didn't want to be, I knew

I had to learn and grow, so I was willing

to pay my dues and figure it out and learn,

you know, make mistakes and grow from it, and so

I kind of kept moving up from, you know, the

comfort suites to a courtyard, to a Hilton Garden Inn,

to an Embassy Suites, and then to a Hyatt, and

then a Sheraton, and now I'm at the Intercontinental here,

so yeah, I just kind of grew and learned as

I grew and took those steps and figured it out

and listened and learned and made it here.

That's important.

Yes.

Listening.

Yes, it is very important.

What, you've been all over the place.

Yes.

Where were some of the areas geographically that you've been

to?

So, like I said, from New York to Buffalo, and

then Buffalo we went to Abilene, Texas, which was a

culture shock, and then we went to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We lived most of our married life in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We were there about 17 years, I think it was

three different hotels in Tulsa.

We went from Tulsa to St. Louis, we were there

for about four and a half years, down to Austin,

Texas for about two years, and we've been here almost

five years here in Kansas City, so yeah.

Man, that's, went on sticking around in the Midwest.

I do, yeah, so I like it here, I love

this hotel, it's a great hotel, it's an iconic hotel

here in Kansas City.

It's great to talk to the guests and hear their

stories, and you know, we're about 53 years old, and

some guests have been coming here for 50 of the

53 years.

They came when they were kids, they brought their kids,

now they're bringing their grandkids, and to hear their stories,

it's a great hotel, and it means a lot to

the people here in Kansas City.

Yeah, that's important.

That's gotta be, it's gotta have a little bit of

a reward, personally, to see a lot of those stories.

100 percent, it's great.

And then we have a lot of, we have some

associates that have been here for 40 years or longer,

so it's to hear those stories as well, so.

You know, we have a bellman named John who, you

know, he knows some of these long-term guests, and

they come in, and it's like, you know, old friends,

and it's great to see that he has that connection

with them, but that we have those people that are

still coming after all of this time.

Very nice.

Why, for you, why luxury?

It's just, I want to be the best of the

best.

I'm a, you know, we talked about, I was into

sports, so I'm very competitive, and I want to be

at the best of the best, so, you know, this

luxury is the best, and I wanna, I haven't mastered

it yet.

I still have some learning to do.

We still have some things to do here at the

hotel, so it's a challenge for me to do that,

but again, being competitive, I wanna be at the best,

and the luxury is the best you can do.

Yeah, yeah.

And, obviously, the Intercon Metal, as far as the Midwest

and Kansas City market, I would say it's probably the

highest property that we have here.

We're the longest four-star hotel in Missouri, so we've

been a four-star hotel here for 35 years.

So it's the longest in Missouri, so yeah, so it's,

I don't wanna be the GM that loses that, so

we, again, competitive, so we wanna keep it going every

year, and we've managed to do that all the five

years I've been here, so that's my goal, is to

get it to four stars and beyond if we can,

so yeah.

Every year we talk about it, you know, we set

our goals at the beginning of the year, and one

of those goals is to maintain that four-star status,

so we've achieved it every year so far.

Yeah, awesome.

What is a day in the life of J.F.

Keeling?

Man, it is never the same day twice, which, again,

makes this industry fun, because you're never bored, you never

get into these ruts of doing the same thing.

You could come in and you want your day to

go this way, it takes a left turn and then

a right turn and all that, but we have a

stand-up meeting every day at 8.30. All the

department heads come in and we talk about, you know,

what occurred, we read the manager on duty reports from

the previous day and we go through all the guest

comments and guest scores and then we talk about what's

going to happen for the rest of the day and

sometimes that happens, sometimes that doesn't, but we talk about

groups coming in and events going on and any VIPs

coming in and making sure that they're taken care of

and everybody's on the same page and then the day

starts and it could be anything from, you know, we

have an associate event or we're doing an orientation or

we're doing a site inspection that I go out and

talk to the people who come with a site inspection,

it could be we're working on a forecast, we're working

on a budget, we're doing, you know, the P&L

review, so it could be anything, so it's, like I

said, it's never the same day twice.

Usually get out of here, you know, 5.30, 6

o'clock and it's a full day, so we've got

a great staff, great set of managers that allows me

to kind of keep semi-normal hours so it makes

it easier when your staff is there to support you

and you can trust them and make sure that, you

know, they're taken at home and making sure the guests

are taken care of.

Absolutely.

On that note, what does your process look like to

attract, hire, and train good, quality, luxury employees?

You know, word of mouth is a bestseller, so we

want to take care of our current associates, make sure

that everything that they have, you know, they have all

the tools they need to do their job, that we

make it a challenging and exciting place to work, so

we want to keep them and we'd love to have

no turnover, but that's not realistic, but we try to

make it a challenging and rewarding place.

We interview and we make sure that, you know, we're

hiring the best people that we think are going to

fit into those positions and then we train them to

do those positions, so you know, it's a good interview

process, it's taking care of them and then training them

and giving them the tools to do their job.

So we try to do that every day and challenge

our associates to push each other, but also take care

of our guests.

You know, they don't have to come to me, they

can take care of the guests right there, so we

try to empower them to take care of the guests

and to make those decisions so that our guests don't

have to wait if there's an issue that they can

get it taken care of right away.

Right, right.

Empowering them to own their position.

100%.

I love it.

What does the potential pressure look like as far as

being a luxury property and having the 35-year four

-star on you as the buck stops with you on

everything?

Again, I have staff that makes me look good.

I truly understand that, that it's not me.

I talk to maybe a dozen, 20 guests a day,

whereas we have front desk associates and managers that talk

to 50 to 100 or more.

I don't, I clean, if I'm cleaning rooms we're in

trouble.

But we have people that clean 16, 18 rooms a

day, so I truly understand where my bread is buttered.

So I make sure that our staff gets recognized, that

we give them, we challenge them on a daily basis

that our managers are recognized and they're given the power

to do their job.

So we have a great staff.

We pay, I think we're in the higher third of

the city.

We challenge them, we train them, we give them the

tools to do their job because it is a challenge.

We're kind of up here and everybody's trying to get

here and they're trying to steal our business and I

tell everybody, everybody's trying to steal our business.

We can't give them reasons to go, we've got to

give them reasons to stay.

So that's our challenge, is giving them reasons to stay

at the hotel.

Everybody else is trying to pick them off, but when

they come into the town they're not thinking about, oh,

I want to try this, oh, I want to try

this.

I want to stay at the Intercontinental because they take

care of me.

That's my home, that's where I go and that's where

I feel taken care of.

So we push our staff every day to find new

and unique ways to make our guests happy and we

make sure that we're taking care of them.

And our internal guests too, all of our staff, we

want to make sure that they feel taken care of

because they're the ones that, you know, happy associates equal

happy guests.

Yes.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

How does your relationship with ownership shape your day to

day?

You know, I think it's, I have a good relationship

with our owners.

I talk to my boss probably once a week.

I think if you're not talking to them a lot,

that means that you're doing your job.

But I think as long as we're, you know, hitting

our budgets, we're exceeding our GOP and our scores are

there, that we're doing our job.

And if my owner's having to call me every day

to ask questions about why did this happen or what's

going on here, then we're not doing our job.

So I think it's a good sign when you don't

have to get those phone calls on a daily basis.

You know, it's just a touch base once a week

and everything going well, yes.

You need help from me.

What do you need from me?

What do you, you know, what's going on?

So I think that's the way it should be if

they have to keep their thumb on you all the

time and ask you all these questions and you're not

doing your job.

And then when they ask questions, you've got to have

those answers right away because if you have to, you

know, you should know what's going on in your hotel.

You should know what's going on with your associates, your

guests, your scores, your revenue, and you've got to be

able to answer those questions right away.

You shouldn't have to say, oh, let me check on

that and I'll get back to you.

You should know, think like an owner.

What are the questions they're going to ask me?

Or you know, if our forecast is down or if

we're not hitting our budget, our GOP is down, what

are they going to ask?

And I need to have those questions ahead of time

so that I can give them the answers that they're

looking for.

Yes.

Yep.

Absolutely.

And there seems like there's a very good similarity.

I would imagine the way that you want to have

the relationship with ownership is how you would like the

relationship with the heads of the departments.

100%.

I, again, we do these stand-ups every day and

I don't want to regurgitate information to them.

I want them to give it up to me.

So we have someone different lead it every day.

So that makes them look into, you know, what are

our guest scores?

What was the MOD report?

What can we do here?

So someone different leads it every day so that they

understand where the numbers are coming from, where these comments

are coming from, and they can share with everybody else.

So we try to make it not just me giving

them information, but them giving it to each other and

understanding it and where it comes from and all of

that.

So we have someone else lead it every day.

Very nice.

Yeah.

You mentioned the sports, but is there anything that you

can tie that your previous history, you're like, there's a

reason that I went through this or I had this

job or my parents did this?

Again, I think it's a lot of the competitiveness, a

lot of being on a team and understanding what a

team is and working together to get to that goal.

So I think sports is an everyday for me.

I mean, I enjoy it, but it's also, you know,

I want it to be the best.

I want my hotel to be the best, but I

understand I can't do it alone.

You know, just as in soccer, there's 11 guys on

the field and if all 11 are working together, it's

great.

But if one falters, then we're struggling.

So it's the same thing in the hotel.

If the front desk isn't doing their job or housekeeping

is not doing their job or the culinary team isn't

doing their job, you know, we succeed as a team

and we fail as a team.

How does the Kansas City market compare?

Because you've been in a lot of different markets, spent

a lot of time.

How is our market itself different?

I mean, it's competitive.

It's a great market.

It's getting better.

You know, Austin obviously is a different animal.

It was crazy and it's blowing up.

So that was a different, but while I was there,

I was there during COVID.

So, you know, when I first got there in 2019,

it was crazy.

But then during COVID, it was like everywhere else.

It was dead.

But, you know, Kansas City is similar to Tulsa and

St. Louis.

It's a very competitive market.

We have a lot of great hotels here.

We have a great convention center.

We have a lot of things to offer visitors that

come to town, some great museums, some tourist attractions.

There's a lot to do in Kansas City.

So it's a very vibrant market.

I think it's doing well.

It's just going to get better.

I mean, I'm excited about the World Cup next year.

Obviously, the Chiefs have done an amazing job of shining

the light on Kansas City.

And it's been great.

It's helped us out a lot.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Have you converted to a Chiefs fan yet?

Unfortunately, no.

I take a lot of crap.

We play the Chiefs this year on Thanksgiving.

It's in Dallas.

So we'll see how that works out on the day

after Thanksgiving.

So I might be, yeah, we'll see how it works

out.

All right.

How do you handle the CapEx, PIP conversations with ownership,

with your department heads?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's our job to talk

to the owners and let them know they're not here.

You know, they're in Providence, Rhode Island, and they don't

know the day-to-day operations.

So it's our job is to be realistic and let

them know the good, the bad, and the ugly, and

then share with them how we're going to improve upon

it.

I don't just want to tell them.

We've got to tell them how we're going to get

there.

So I think it's, again, thinking like an owner, and

it's not just, this is what's wrong, but here's the

four solutions we can do.

This one is more long-term.

This one's short-term.

This one's more expensive.

This is less expensive.

And go through all those options with them.

So when we do our CapEx, we kind of think

through that whole process and talk about what is the

best for us in the short-term, but then, again,

what's better in the long-term.

So we talk through all that, and then we let

them make the final decision, but we want to give

them all the options so that they can make an

informed decision.

And, again, I think that's our job as a hotelier

is to, you know, you're the guy that's got the

boots on the ground, so you understand how it's going

to affect you, how it's going to affect your guests,

how it's going to affect your team, and maybe prioritize

it as, this is the 1A that we've got to

do, and this is maybe 1B, and this may be

2, 3, 4, 5.

But we have to do this.

These things would be nice, but these are the things

that we have to do.

Yeah.

And I bet they're very reliant on your opinion.

100%.

I mean, and, again, I rely on, you know, my

chief engineer to get bids or my chef to get

bids.

So, I mean, again, we talk through the whole process,

and it's a team deal because, again, I'm not the

expert in the kitchen equipment.

I'm not the expert in the HVAC equipment, but they

are.

So I try to get their feedback as well and

understand the best of my ability of what it's going

to take and what we need, and then present that

on to the owners.

Yeah.

How do you balance brand standards?

Obviously, Intercontinental, they have their standards of what they want,

what they want to see, versus what the Kansas City

market needs, what the ownership wants.

It's a fine line.

I mean, we do have QA inspections.

You know, obviously, we get surveys from our guests who,

you know, if the brand sees that we're not adhering

to these standards, then...

But it's something we have to do, and we understand

that.

Our ownership understands that, that there are certain things that

we have to do, and we do that.

And most of the brand standards are there to take

care of our guests, to take care of our associates.

So, yeah, we try to balance that the best we

can.

You know, it's not...

Some of them are negotiable, but some of them are

non-negotiable.

So there's some things that we have to do, and

they make sense to do, but there's other things we

can talk to the brand and maybe get some waivers

and all that because it doesn't fit for us.

But the majority of this stuff, it's good for us,

it's good for the hotel, it's good for the Intercontinental

brand.

But then there's some things, like you said, that maybe

aren't specific to our hotels that we can get waivers.

And usually, they're pretty lenient on granting those waivers.

So it's a nice balance.

Yeah.

And just, again, having that conversation, everybody's on the same

page of what is the best.

Because if it's the best for this hotel, it's probably

the best for the brand itself.

And again, if you give them the information, again, we're

here, we understand our market, and if we give them

the information, if you just say, I need a waiver

because I don't want to do it, then obviously, they're

not going to grant it.

But if you go into the details and let them

know why and how it affects you, and maybe it's

not cost effective, or maybe it's not utilized, then more

apt to not to grant it to us.

So, yeah.

What are some lessons and advice as you've grown up

in this industry?

Listen.

I mean, we talked about it before, is just listening.

A lot of people, it's frustrating sometimes when you have

somebody come in and you're trying to talk to them

and train them and let them know, and they seem

to know everything, and they don't want to listen, and

they just want to go out and do it their

own way.

And again, sometimes you've got to let them do that

and kind of fail, and then hopefully they come back

and will learn.

This is an industry where people come to us because

they're celebrating something, they're away from their family, and we've

got to make sure that we're taking care of our

guests.

That's the biggest thing.

And also, our associates.

They're with us for eight hours a day, or longer

sometimes, and we've got to make sure we're taking care

of them, because they're going to take care of our

guests.

So taking care of the associates and taking care of

the guests, those are the two things.

That's what our industry is built on.

So making sure that we're doing that on a daily

basis, and all of our decisions should be based upon

the financial commitment made to the owner, guest satisfaction, and

associate satisfaction.

Those are the three big things you've got to think

about on a daily basis.

And every decision is just going to help one of

those three.

But then again, you don't understand that enough if you're

not listening and learning and growing.

So I think the biggest thing is listening and understanding

and being able to take those life lessons and apply

them on a daily basis.

Yeah, that's very wise.

And then also, you put yourself in a good situation.

Not every situation is in the right situation.

So whenever you're interviewing for a job, ask questions and

find out if it's a fit for you.

Because just because it's more money or because it's a

bigger hotel or it's a nicer hotel doesn't mean it's

the right hotel for you.

So you've got to make sure you're putting yourself in

the right position for success, because some people move up,

and maybe they're not ready to move up, or it's

not the right situation.

And you've got to look out for yourself as well

and put yourself in the right situation for success.

Yep.

All right.

Before we check out, we have a section that we

call the wake-up call to some rapid-fire questions

to get some interesting answers.

What is the most overlooked job in a hotel?

Housekeeping, by far.

Those biggest respect ever for housekeepers.

Sometimes the rooms, after you have a volleyball team in

and seven young ladies have slept in there, and they've

used every towel, everything in the room, it's unbelievable.

And they have to do that 16 more times.

It's by far the hardest, most underappreciated position in the

industry.

So it's unbelievable.

Yes.

Yeah.

Housekeeping, by far.

Yes.

We have a large family, and so we'd go through

towels like crazy, and love when the housekeeping is on

top of it.

100%.

Housekeeping brings up towels when we need it, cleans it

all.

It's a job.

It is a job.

And they're amazing people, and yeah, I'm glad we have

a good crew, because it's tough to do without them.

What is your favorite guest amenity that you geek over?

My favorite guest amenity that I geek over, I'm going

to brag.

So we just had beehives installed this year.

So we have two beehives on our rooftop, over on

our wing.

And the beekeeper came out, and I went up on

the roof with him, and actually some of our managers

had gone up, and we just got, I think he

said 40 pounds of honey, which came out to about

three and a half gallons.

So we have rooftop honey that we have made from

our hotel.

So that's the coolest thing that we've had.

So we have amenities that we can include our own

signature brand of honey.

So that's pretty cool.

I've never heard of that before.

So I did it in Austin.

And we didn't, again, it was during COVID, so it

kind of fell flat.

But these beehives, he started off with just two stacks,

and now we're up to four stacks.

And there are, I think he said, between 60 and

80,000 bees in each hive.

And it's kind of cool to learn about it, but

then just to see the finished product, and you taste

it, and the honey's amazing, and it's just going to

be a really cool amenity to give out to our

guests.

It was from our local bees right here.

So yeah, that's the coolest amenity.

Interesting.

Do you have a flowers garden up there as well?

We don't have a garden.

So we're eventually going to do like a chef's, like

an herb garden.

But I mean, so they fly within a mile radius.

So we got loose park up the street.

The plaza over here has lots of flowers.

We have flowers planted in our pool area and along

our drive.

So there's, you know, and there's a residential area right

behind us.

So there's ample opportunity for them to go.

And he was, even the beekeeper was amazed at how

quickly they built up their honey reserve.

So he was thinking it was going to be, you

know, 20 pounds, and it was double that.

So it was pretty amazing just watching him pull it

out.

And these whole things were just filled with honey.

So it was pretty cool.

So yeah, that's awesome.

That's our best amenity.

I never would have thought that was going to be

your answer.

What is one trait that every hotel employee should have?

Empathy.

You know, that, I think we need to empathize with

our guests and kind of put ourselves in a situation

that, you know, that maybe it's, you know, if a

guest has a problem, that maybe it's not a problem

to you, but you need to understand that it's a

problem to them.

So I think empathy is huge.

Being able to put yourself in their shoes, understand how

they're feeling and why it's an issue to them.

Again, it might not be a big issue to them,

or excuse me, to you, but it's a big issue

to them and we got to treat it like it's

a big issue to them.

So I think empathy is the biggest thing that an

associate needs to have.

Spoken from a true leader.

What is the most unexpected request that you've ever received

from a guest?

Unexpected request that I, man, let me think.

Unusual, often.

I don't think anything's unusual.

Again, our job is to make their stay great.

So, I mean, people ask for things, we've had some

celebrities here and they've asked for some unique things, but

nothing, you know, we had one celebrity that asked us

to take all the beds out of the room and

just put the mattresses on the floor and then she

needed 17 pillows.

So that was kind of strange, but, I mean, nothing

has been, you know, crazy that, you know, we've never

had, you know, somebody want to, you know, I don't

know.

But we've never had anything crazy and that's kind of

unique.

But we've had celebrities that have ordered, you know, exercise

equipment to be put in their room and then when

they leave, they leave it here.

So then we have extra exercise equipment.

So that's kind of been a couple of times that

they've shipped stuff to the hotel, we put it in

the room.