Marloes Knippenberg 69 | The Mo Show | The Hospitality Space, Localisation & Sustainability

I'm doing it thank you we will I won't Grill her okay that feels free welcome to another episode of the most Show podcast I uh I'm privileged and honored to have marloose knippingberg did I get it right the second time I did CEO of keratin Hospitality uh she's from Holland the country very dear to my heart thank you so much for a coming into my studio and visiting our beautiful city Jitter thank you very much for having me my pleasure have you been very well has the hospitality sector would you say along with the transportation perhaps but has the hospitality sector been the most challenged in the last two or three years probably very many sectors have been challenged for the last couple of years but I think also it has really helped to go fast forward so prior to the difficulties for the last couple of years I think people weren't um so aware of the changes that were about to happen everybody is talking about New Concepts if that was co-living or co-working or digital Nomads or everything was just all about the Millennials and maybe genset and I think through the last couple of years we've seen that owners real estate developers um investors all of a sudden have to look at diversifying their portfolios that the classic traditional products that you know were always kind of the way to go are no longer the way to go and adapting to you know digital Nomads or people working from anywhere it was something that if you set this to three years ago we're working from home the natural reaction was absolutely not everybody has to be in the office at 8 9 10 whichever time everybody starts but everybody has to be together in our case we've never had a gorgeous big office somewhere with everybody in it when we started we wanted to create a let's call it a collection of talents and a way to find them is just anywhere there is different countries different places different times to bring people on but you can't do that if you're really Place bound time bound and everything else and I think for a company like ours where it's all about lifestyle it's all about connection Community Etc we can much more integrate much better and I think we've we've received a much greater stage because of what happened right for some it was really bad for others you know they accelerated throughout it [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] so you guys built the house Hotel you were behind the house hotel in Saudi and you ninja then you manage it now the decision to have Jeddah on in the network of your hotel group probably has come in and around just before covet I would imagine actually much further before and so we weren't the ones to build it so it's the house is our concept um it's it's our brand um there is always a developer or an owner behind it in this case it's pure houses uh development um and very interesting because when we started the conversations five years ago they're probably the most Forward Thinking believing and and wanting to put a product in the market that was different um and when we started the conversations there was you know it was all about Vision 2030 at the time but it had just started like the conversations had just started and You Know It with every change people go like ah you know it will happen or it will not happen it will happen or will not happen and for a product like the house we don't have brand standards we go about brand guidelines and brand guidelines allow us to create different projects and different products under the same brand in different locations but it requires collaboration it requires real integration into the culture and the locality plus it requires dialogue and as you see the country change and and you know the acceleration of change here is phenomenal it's just being part of that and and really experiencing it and you know we haven't come in two three years it's five or six years we've been traveling and seeing it and experiencing and living it and I always say I now leave my clothes pretty much everywhere so you find some of my clothes in Jordan my running shoes and riyads um but it's you know it's it's these kind of projects are not based on product and look and feel they're really based on the feeling they give you um and Saudi Arabia when when we enter it because we we knew we wanted to be in the GCC that was absolutely a focus for us and at the time it was still if you're not in Dubai you're not cool um but we we just had a great connection with our Jetta House Hotel owners um and probably you know there was that there was the the greatest opportunity for this true connection right I mean if you look at the size of the countries if you look at the size of the communities and the local communities there's very few countries that have as many locals as Saudi Arabia so if you want to create something that's truly connected it was here it was uh Jetta the first landing spot for the House Hotel in the GCC it was yes yes which is you know if you say this now right and even at the time I said are you current each other are you going to Saudi Arabia um and people were I'd say really kind of stereotypical in all of the questions that they used to ask and mainly so when we when it comes to um security and safety and everything else now it's Martha C going to Saudi anytime soon yes um and people are asking if they can come and people are asking if they if they can come and experience so you know much has changed but yes it was the first landing spot um and from there we we actually signed a lot of different projects um and they were all building simultaneously so we we just opened Georgia um 20th of July um we are beautiful country I hear Georgia it's gorgeous yeah and you know a country that has such a great potential a great tax system um they've worked really hard in creating an environment for investment um and through a couple of interesting projects I've put Georgia on the map yeah today and when people talk about culinary they talk about Georgia and it has mountains it has sea city city it has shopping it has culinary experiences and it has a lot of culture and history um and nowadays it's only a four-hour direct flight from jadan Riyadh so you know you can do it over the weekend um and then after that we were so we just opened Kuwait that's 80 kilometers out of the city center and before this sounds like an advert um it's you know the the thing with Kuwait is Kuwait City is one part but is where all of the locals have their summer houses or their weekend houses where they put their boats so again you go into a destination where International clientele goes because of consultancy because of business because of corporate and you have a great local audience that travels there so all of a sudden all of these projects are coming together that attracting locals and Internationals do you know that Kuwait is the culinary capital of the region I didn't know that but I can see why I know people that go there on the weekends to try their restaurants out they've been at the Forefront for two decades now there's also no obesity issue there but they are known to have top-notch restaurants there before Dubai's rise I didn't know that yeah I know that it from everything that I've seen and experienced dfmb has always been it's their top great but you have to say nowadays and I'm not you know Pro Saudi Arabia in in everything but when you look at what's happening here now with regards to foods and kind of local Concepts and actions it's actually why do you say that because it was a week ago where I was having a conversation with my sisters and I said for the longest time we talk about Kuwait and how good it's gone but have we taken a second to realize how much the standards in FNB has climbed in in Saudi it I mean I've said it a bunch of time on episodes but but really with every month I hear of of a top-notch restaurant opening 20 years ago there were two decent restaurants in town that was a Japanese and there was a Chinese that's it now you're spoiled for options you can't keep up yes standards have really I'm sure you've seen but you know what's a what's the alternative nice thing is now when you ask okay I went to local experience people actually are willing to send you somewhere for local experience and we have a project coming up in in Upper it's actually our sister brand coming up there Cloud seven hotel or uh it's a 55 Eco Villas um long stay short stay kind of community of um Leisure visitors and and kind of a different audience which is much more this a corporate audience building suda or building a PA or who need an injection of locality lifestyle something different but when you travel there and you travel around probably have had my best River fish there and you drive half an hour out going into you know the areas of History whenever I didn't know you do this tea in this hot clay pots and you put them super hot and then all of a sudden you put the water it comes over tea experience good isn't it fantastic yeah yeah it's really good my Bedouin grandmother is from that region from soda yeah and it's the second time I went uh two years ago and um I was like what a nice part of the country you feel that Outback you know Woods Mountain Vibe and and pif are actually doing a big project Resort project up in soda uh that's going to kind of be like a Wildlife Reserve slash Resort so it's good to see that abha is you know has gotten some recognition to to really put it at uh you know one of the forefronts of Saudi tourism but when you put any video of our parents surrounding anywhere nobody believes it no it's it has rain I think it's ice cold it's not really the the natural destination that everybody's saying Saudi Arabia green and everything else that comes with it breaks the stereotypes isn't it what would you say has changed in your industry wise in terms of like what the traveler wants demands expectations if covid at all it doesn't have to be covered Centric but what has changed since in the last decade or so [Music] searching yearning an experience is no longer expensive materials Marbles and you know the kind of physical products luxury almost has become something that is just me it's just for me it's tailored to me it's kind of having something and getting something that not everybody gets or getting something that is Taylor tweaked a little bit and before it was very much about creating a safe haven so something recognizable you know you know that you have the same Caesar salad wherever you go or the same kind of breakfast experience or you know where the light button is because you know with your favorite brand that's always the way we can see that people are much more looking for something that is localized that connects them to place and is not anymore just product LED and then you have this integration of working spaces or integration of you know living product where the good old times you used to live in one building work in the other building and go to a hotel in the next building it's much more blending together and people are not willing to travel as much through a city there they like to take a plane or like to take a train or to take the car and experience something but when they're innocent you're in a place they'd like it to come to them not necessarily wasting time going around and that's really an interesting change because before it was really about the same was what used to attract people how funny you know in at a time when we're always told consistency is the name of the game here you are saying actually it's not that's correct I can't believe that I I definitely can believe that and it's even when you have you know when you kind of say and our chief experience officer always says this you know um we're not creating a home away from home because if I leave my home I want to go and experience something else we want you to feel comfortable feel connected have this experience but not necessarily replicate something that was always done and I think it's it's generational changes right it's you know one generation wants the same the Next Generation just simply doesn't just by default plus people are more knowledgeable I mean the amount of hours they spent on Snapchat YouTube um so all of a sudden you're living other people's lives you see what they can get what so it's no longer so scary to go and try a brand that you haven't tried or eat food that you haven't eaten or connect to somebody you didn't know before um and I think that that whole true connection that it's it's connection to locality connection to people connection to your environment and all of that is really something that is not dictated by consistency and same product and replication of what you can have everywhere anything I mean I travel maybe ridiculously a lot but there are certain places you wake up and you wake up and you have no clue where you are and I really it's it's that first 30 seconds when you open your eyes just like and it's so nice when you're in a product where actually open your eyes and go like ah yes I do know where I am remember checking it yes try to be true Testament to how much you travel um do you love what you do what makes you get up every day and go to work well the days that I sleep and get off um you know it's the impact the people and every business has to make commercial sense right where we're not a charity in that sense um but if it's suppliers if it's owners if it's the team if it's guests if it's all of that it's really I feel that every single time I wake up or every single time I go to Project or I'm home in connection with what we're doing I feel we're really making an impact on the industry in the world and when I say impact if that's by using local supply chain are creating transparency of supply chain or you know connecting with the people around or taking a team on board that doesn't maybe have all of those experiences yeah we always say we don't sell perfection but we do sell kind of human interaction and a human experience you know when you talk about impact and we talk about for example about sustainability we hired um uh lady um was 24 years old studied sustainability but this really driven by social sustainability something that's not like talked about so much when you listen to her speak it's it's I don't want to say matter of life and death but it's not just a sidekick that you know you come up you put in a beautiful business plan and you just look at it whenever you know the time is right but it's something that really integrates and I think by the combination of having this young generation and having this true passion and seeing what's going on it really makes me tick every single day because you see people thriving on it you see them developing you see you can create opportunity for them and we talk about ecosystem and somebody said a couple of days ago ecosystem when you talk about it it's almost like you're creating a mini economy and I think it was such a great way of saying ecosystem because ecosystem always sounds very fancy it's a bit like saying Community sounds very fancy and then you know what does it mean but a mini economy is something people can relate to and when you're building that yeah it's all about people getting to know each other being able to do something together if something comes out of that or not you know if that's but more than just creating transactions I say that really drives me so a community is what pulls you into the group investing in that city or town you almost establish size of the community what are their values what do they do what do they like what did they not like and then let's tailor make the product subject to their interests very much so so it's it's and maybe it's even when we start it we look at really this this target audience and what's happening and I would say we start connecting to people that become our community like-minded people or products that are you know interesting or um products that resonate with people or other people that like other people and based on that you learn a lot and you know coming to the consistency in a brand standard by versus a brand guideline right is if you try to replicate something that works in London in Jeddah or you know you do that in Shanghai People's culture people's values people you know thinking process is very different at the moment that you immerse into this you can adapt and you can really tailor it and it's very interesting because then you know the way that you just described Community comes together it because they all have a reason to come together and it it's if you relate to it in very simple terms right when you look from a technology perspective there's so many platforms that come up and they their Community platform here you can come on and connect to each other hey who has time to go onto a platform to connect to other people just because why does LinkedIn do so well because there's a reason there's a reason to go on right you want to either know something about somebody you want another job you're curious about a person you're preparing for a meeting there is reasons to go into that community and communicate into that community and that's just a physical platform the ego one when you take that into real life is how often do you get into an elevator and just say hey oh this is me uh who are you what are you doing it's not really the kind of conversation you have if you create an environment for like-minded people and that's not just on a creative level that can be on a commercial level that can be an investment level that can be on very many levels and you then you know connect people together with a reason or somebody just walks through the lobby or you create a product where it's easier with less barriers for people to talk to each other you create a community but you can't say I'm going to create a community tomorrow and you know before it used to be like yeah but what happens if you're creative and you know you're not there really what we've worked on for quite a long time is process the creativity and so following a process to for anybody in the organization to build up the people around to connect with the people around to understand their surroundings and build the product accordingly not vice versa we're not building a product and then we see if there's actually a target audience for it foreign please it's fantastic it's um it's a unique time to to be in Saudi you know you said six years ago the project was an idea Vision 2030 is about six seven years old and tourism is one of the main pillars of uh of that vision did that play a role in seeing that okay there's a country here that wants to go into tourism um let's put ourselves in a position in a position where we can help support them in their pursuit of building a uh being a tourism destination in in the world was that something that you guys saw as an opportunity I if I would say yes that sound would sound probably arrogant at a very different level I would it I mean the thing is that business yes this country's opening up you know I don't think six years ago even five years ago we envisioned what's going on today and even at that time what happened every single year we didn't in the slightest expect this to go my dad so I would say it was a great opportunity at a great time in the beginning of something I've always had a great passion for the Middle East because I just feel connected to the culture I feel at home and and I've always felt at home um so don't come here because of business I come because I actually want to be um when was your first time yeah it was six years ago that was your first time in the region no it was the first time in Saudi Arabia in the region my first time was in 2000. I lived in Abu Dhabi in 2001 there was very little around you go from Abu Dhabi to Dubai through the desert which today you can't see anymore but there's always the hospitality the openness the bringing everybody in if you invite two people for dinner there's definitely 12 coming or nobody you know this this way um just enjoy that and so when we start the connection definitely was there and it was almost a bit of that Adventure great opportunity connection with the owners we even though we were so different we spoke the same language loved their passion they loved ours um and so it started growing and we almost grew with the way Vision 2030 was growing and we came more and and you know I said before making an impact was important but that has always been important you know it's never been just about let's go and you know find this big bucket of gold it's always been it has to make commercial impact it has to you know the ROI if anything has to really make sense yeah but do good on the way without it just being The Superficial duker like truly connect to where it is truly you know try to evolve and multiply and everything else you don't get to be CEO without seeing challenges or being challenged failing um going through tough times can you single out a time in your life and this is actually not in my notes I just feel comfortable asking this question can you single out the can we use the word failure it's called a negative connotation a time where you experience failure that taught you a lot that perhaps helped you get to where you are today absolutely um what my what the first 10 years of my business career was corporate absolutely truly as corporate as as you can go which was a great school great School um when I decided to leave I could see the world was changing and I could see in a in a big corporate machine it's very difficult to turn the ship when it's sailing and going right and kind of I don't know if it was just opportunistic crazy or anything else I decided that this was not my future so I I stopped I worked whatever 17 hours my last day left but I didn't have a plan and it probably taught me so much about you know what can happen because when you drive on on excitement and passion and success and you know this goes on and on you don't really know how far the ground is to your feet um and by experience how far that was and it really took me a while to to find that way I I had incredible people I met on that journey and you know what it taught me it was really that the people you expected the least from are the ones that come on your journey and Define where you're going and the ones that you expected most from we're not there I see whether I see where that was going yes but you know what's what's ironic but you can blame everybody right I decided to leave right I decided to make a change so I never had oh let's Point some fingers at all and it's also I mean I wake up in general my glasses half full by default um but don't wake up negative or seeing the the worst of it but it really taught me how difficult certain things can be and then when we started this obviously you you kind of knock doors you sleep in front of doors you chase people um and and you know that until you get to this point where people actually come to you it takes it takes a long time and it really forms who you are because I think today the one thing that it has taught me is unless we keep our feet on the ground and unless we really stay focused in in what we're trying to achieve and and what we're doing we're losing it that's a big uh it's a big learning and that's a that's a life lesson yes something that you have probably Incorporated in your corporate life and then as well as maybe in in just life in general sure don't write people off people will surprise you you know those who probably even think much of ended up as you said surprisingly yes powerful but that's also comes back to community right and it comes back to connection and that's always you know when you say locality your connection to people you need a bit of a mix of everything for something to come together and and to work um Saudi is unique the populace is pretty unique if you can Envision a population pyramid very wide at the bottom I just don't want to get the numbers wrong but it's about 50 percent under the age of 30. is that an opportunity for you guys to look into hiring Saudis young young Saudis who want to enter the hospitality space it's an opportunity full stop and I think no I'm not I think it's part of our DNA and it has been part of our DNA when you just look at the curtain Hospitality team it's very diverse we're probably 50 50 male female although the male version still says that we're dominating but we're not and it but it was never a business plan it we just grew together like that and when you look at um not just gender but you look at diversity with regards to culture uh where people are coming from an age it's very diverse so business development is what 24 ahead of ESG 24 head of Technical Services 65 plus but it makes a great mix and when we looked at the statistics when we started it was I think the GCC was set to be 68 under 35. um and that's also why we went from Brand standards to Brand guidelines why we create different products why we integrate and why we say we don't sell Perfection because the moment that you build up that kind of human touch there is you know things that happen if you ask people to be themselves well not everybody is the same and not everybody likes the same and one of the things I've always said and you know when when the hospitality first saw technology you know I said robots will make coffee the first thing it was every single newspaper was full of it Hospitality it's all about the human touch it's all about the human interaction and what will happen now the hospitality saying we have a shortage of people where do we find them or why do they not want to come and work with us when you look at the behavior of the younger generation and that's not everybody right but Our Generation purpose says well okay we need to create social spaces because they like to be social they like to be social on their phone you know it's it's if you have 30 applications open the same time and your concentration span is 20 seconds it's very difficult to expect somebody to do something the same 8 to 10 hours a day every single day and I think when you look at something like uber for example is it just successful because it's really convenient yeah fine but it's also great right I can do this next to my job I can do it for a couple of hours a day I can make this my full-time job I can it's really wide what what it allows you to do and I think with where this is going and where you see this newer generations and that's also why we've injected from the beginning on property so at House Hotel here but also in our other projects and in head office so many young talents but the one thing that we've always done is I mean we we won this award for remote ship when covet just started because we didn't want to cut internships um and again team members were just spread and they never saw another human the only thing is you need to come with responsibility you need to come with ownership and you need to be self-motivated because if you're just coming in an organization to be the youngest and give your opinion then that's it it doesn't work for an organization like ours but if you're ready to take on a piece and learn on the way pretty much be my guest and we really facilitate that we integrate that and we don't make it this one is younger so we just you know take it as it comes we're really making a point of it and you see that on property you you know we have really talented young Saudi men and women in the team and it's interesting because once you start speaking to them and once you start experiencing you learn so much and even the processes that you implement you somehow have to adapt them you learn you adapt you see if it works and you you kind of go from there but there is no sad piece of paper that somebody can give you to say this is how you should deal with them and now everybody wants to go into the hospitality it doesn't function that way no blueprint no not yet looking towards seven eight years from now by by 2030. um what do you expect to see generally I'm going to let you answer that question in any specific way where do you see the industry the space that you are in um seven eight years from now I would love to know what we'll have a next year let alone 2030. I'd love to

know what happened tomorrow pretty much um what I think what's what's really interesting is that you have these parallel streams going on right you have this this stream of Giga projects going on which probably by then not probably part of those will be on the map phase one two three whichever phase they're in plus you have private sector that understands that there's all of these untapped destinations that are not just jadariat Hobart um that you know could use different products and there's really different demands going into those destinations if those two things going in parallel at the same time as I said before is people are saying can I join you to Saudi can I come and see there's a lot more Workforce coming in there's a lot more people from you know the the developing cities coming into the industry it will be really interesting to see in 2030 and I'm I'm kind of like if I if I look fast forward I think there will be a number of destinations that people are just so curious about you know today is what mucanos Maldives London Paris yeah tick tick tick tick the the kind of Bucket List locations people go to once they know about them and look at the Lula and we're starting to we're starting to operate directory in November I was gonna ask you please tell me that you're gonna open in my favorite City we are we are I cannot tell you so much about it yet but amazing November I didn't see it I can see the brand there and the the when you look at I don't know and it's fantastic the there is such a local community and there's so much happening and again we will take a product that doesn't go by Perfection but will bring together this kind of mid-market creative curious local audience together and I think Saudi Arabia in 2030 will have many more of those projects um there would it would be so much on the the map of Tourism that also I mean look Italy Spain Portugal they just launched the digital Nomad Visa so you can go tax-free live and work there for I think it's a year or something I guessing um but I'm assuming pretty much Saudi Arabia will not be far behind to say come just set up and digital Nomads before was just young kids that you know wake up at four and go to bed at seven and that's it now it's not related to to age it's not related to income it's really related to if your job allows and if your role allows you can go and experience and that you don't need to do in a big city you can do pretty much from anywhere where you really want to experience so long rounded answer to I think there's so much happening between now and 2030 I'd be really curious to see even from a technology perspective from a security perspective from you know all of those elements integrated within the industry because Saudi Arabia hasn't been open that long it's not preset it's not preempted so you can jump from today to almost to the Future in a much faster manner integrating all Industries together which really offers such an advantage yeah slightly off-piste here maybe we keep this maybe we don't you know what bothers me a lot about staying in a hotel the check-in and checkout process okay hear me out let me know if you want some more everybody does oh good thank you with where technology is today and say if Hotel X had an app can we not check in on an app whereby when we get to the check-in on the app your room number is X you enter the hotel because now phones can open your car I have I don't have a Tesla I have a Ford and I can open the car on my phone how cool would it be to get to your room and you and then the door opens or the code pops up like a one-time password and it opens the door are we far away from such an experience whereby you don't have to deal with a reception no you're super close so you can see it in in many countries it's happening already I think what's great and that's not just about Saudi Arabia but GCC in general security levels are really high and I think that's one of the most amazing things I still and I know I shouldn't do it but I leave my hand back pretty much anywhere I walk off and then come back to still find it there I did the same in Europe it's not the same right um so in London you can leave something and it'll be there when you're back but yeah for sure um it's no it's it's so close it's like unreal but it's all about security and I think where um probably you will see it first is the airport where it's probably recognized face recognition and you just walk through no longer you have to check everything um the the greatest piece of this data protection um you know even you can open the with your telephone the door you can do that today places but the thing is all about the data that goes through the connection you create and everything else but come again to the to the point of Technology I'm assuming you're going to make like 15 steps ahead without going through the painful process to see what was the learnings everywhere else skip that and just go almost to perfect um and you know there is it used to be even in the hospitality you could have a room for a night or room for a day and the day use room was always there was always this dark kind of cloud around it you know something dodgy must happen actually when you look at it today right not everybody can check in after two or leave at 10. if your flight is at I don't know if you come in at 1am and you leave at 8 you need the room for six hours you don't want to just stay at an airport you can experience something other times you need a room for 24 hours because you're exactly there just a little longer um I think it if you look at some of the new Property Management Systems um and good friends of mine launched one five years ago called Muse I you know they just based their whole philosophy on what you're just saying it's annoying I've already filled out all of these questions online you're still asking me the same questions that I already filled out how can we make this process easier and then if you Fast Track that with other Integrations of Technology you know all of a sudden you know patterns you know everything else but in the hospitality industry we collect a lot of data we don't necessarily are able to analyze so much data we talk a lot of past past data but not really you know what's somebody doing yesterday or something like that for other Industries are much more developed if you integrate those two together hey you could really create experiences that are so much more tailored and that take away this check-in check out headaches and the kind of timing problems because as a property you can't even clean all the rooms you know at the same two or three hours so if you spread that over 24 it creates very many opportunities I would imagine it being really advantageous to the business people who are traveling maybe not so much in tourism we have all day you know whatever we're relaxed but with the you know business people they want to just get into the room sleep wake up leave the next day yeah I've left many hotels without checking out and they called me I'm like yeah sorry I was in a rush I just between me and you and whoever's watching if the line is there you're sorry right I'm out if you have my card yes I'm sorry it's interesting it's a very very interesting space um would you say technology today has helped Market the products do you guys work with influencers it's a few questions there technology influencers uh how effective are influencers if you've had any experience with working any um right it's a much better question for our chief experience officer because he has a very strong opinion about it um I so yes we have worked with influencers but much more micro influencers than than influences on a big scale um and we haven't most of the time there was no payment because there might be you know to the many economy in and the kind of there might be not even a free stay but something else an introduction to somebody or a relation in a different way or a different business opportunity but something that is a two-way interaction because if you have influences yes it puts a product on a map really quickly but to reach the target audience you want to have in your property and the kind of like-minded people it's not a product for the mass and then everybody comes in it's a bit like when you do a big opening event we've never done big opening events simply because we don't believe in it you have a certain audience that comes to be seen goes on a picture you have some Publications but those aren't normally not the audience that will actually stay where if you create open days new connections and you create something that goes on for much longer you get people that truly want the product or belief in it or want to be part of it or can identify themselves with or just curious about it when you come to the question of do we use technology yes but we use it when it's to the advantage of the experience not tech for tech um and when technology came in Hospitality it was really expensive um very difficult to implement and there wasn't so much experience in it so we we've never come on the market to say we're the kind of disruptors we're leading to change we're not and there are certain things that you know is much better for others to test first and then for us to to implement the one thing that we are doing is we're launching a community platform a mini neighborhood platform which really becomes a tool for our Channel managers and properties to be able to almost curate their neighborhood get the suppliers and if that's retail or FMB or you know the little shop that has the computer cable or you know the shop next door that has the running shoes you wouldn't know if you go into a property you wouldn't be able to to to see and test around and everything else if somebody did for you all of a sudden you you connect everything together so this yes we use technology for because if you go on Uber Eats or any of you know the other aggregators or you have something that is tailored for you it's so much easier and again supports locality supports kind of environment um and I think what what you've seen with globalization is that the big Brands really shot through the roof um and for a lot of the smaller Brands it's not just a matter of of cost because yes it's costly but it's also a matter of experience of knowing where to start of how to do it and this kind of integration yes this we facilitate and for this yes we use technology and yes once we can get a property management system a PMs and and track in that is very different and elaborate the way that we've built up the company it will allow owners to actually pick what is new and you know the word agile is really overused nowadays but when you build processes that are flexible but still you get your reports ready whenever you need to get them ready your Finance system is in place you can start playing with different elements as the world is changing um I'm honored that you decided to choose my podcast to celebrate the house hotel's first birthday yeah has it been a year yeah yes it's a little longer you guys have done a lot in that year I thought maybe two years uh what were would you say a highlight in your eyes of what happened in the past 12 months since Inception wow it might be five years actually but um I'd say highlights the the team coming together I think that was really one of the highlights the way that that team started growing um I'd say the way that the curation of of the entire Plaza and the restaurants have come together and how those owners have started the integration I'd say um our owners who who really kind of you know started Living this journey together with us um and and really kept on asking and developing and and wanting and and growing more um we became a particular tell of the year with condone asked bigger one we just won um it's a nice award yes that's very nice and we just won a small property um National level for meat and it's a big jury that you know there's nothing you can pay nothing you can do it and it's a really big mission um and we just want that um congratulations thank you that's felt really good uh we had his Excellency the minister of Tourism stay with us which was such a great compliment of him bringing his not his entire team it would be almost impossible but some really key people in this team you know if it's from tdf or SDA or or you know the the supporters the advisors um it's the ultimate validation huh genuinely being interested not just come stay sniff smile and PR no it was right it was yeah yeah and it was January such a it's not just a compliment it's it's so meaningful for all of us for the teams for everybody involved for you know that's what we've been working for so long um we had one of our our Saudi team members in front of us who drove a guest to one of his meetings with his own car once um and it was picked up again by the media because he just I know was panic in the lobby and instead of just you know oh I have to ask somebody I have to do this he just said come on let's go and just did it and it was just such a human reaction and we celebrated that and we didn't just celebrating online we we actually really gave him a bigger role we were training him to you know pick that up teach others to do that um proactivity being proactive being real being yourself right the one thing that is probably the most difficult in the industry and for a product like us is creating a culture where you can be yourself because that's really difficult people find it so much easier if you tell them use his surname or use his first name three times when you talk so much easier because you just set the rules they just now have to follow it and if somebody didn't like it it doesn't matter because that's the rule the moment you say really truly want people to experience you want to to see what's going on that is so much more complicated and that's you know that's something that I see where we will be working on for you know the next couple of years because it's much the creative process you can you can pretty much process map you can put something to it that can scale because many people ask us you know sounds really great looks like there's a lot of effort in all of these projects but not scalable but the way that we've built it up now it's very scalable and it doesn't need just one person it can be done by others the culture piece and the way of people being themselves this will take time because it's not a natural done to to anything what's next for the Jeddah chapter of the House Hotel [Music] mature I have to say they've done an amazing job with that and they're all individual and they all look different so so far it was just standard rooms it was just on a Junior Suites okay um but again you know it's it's faced approach everybody has a different opinion about you to make it work or you don't make it work right um the event space which is not classic meeting space um because one of the key Parts with both of our Brands Cloud 7 and the house is we don't have classic meeting floors because meeting product can drive some business but most of the times the occupancy is on a classic meeting floor is really low and if that would happen in your bedrooms you know that would be Panic people are used to the fact that meeting rooms are kind of empty but it's difficult for people to find places where they want to do their events or a place that you know you can show or be in and and you feel you can identify yourself with it or you can make your own Mark and that's what we're creating there instead of a couple of restaurants that are coming online um and then the the greater picture is is more in Saudi Arabia so alula still this year are being developed a couple of things I can't talk about yet but very very exciting did you see it earlier this year yeah this was a really good kept secret by the way and under this I'm sure it's no longer a secret how many rooms 150 oh big a big footprint yes it's a big project and again it will be a product that we will develop out and the whole idea is that while we're on the ground we will start developing it so it's not this perfect business plan concept that comes to life it's really the experiences and we will learn as we go with the locality with complementing what is there and creating that connection to yeah I mean they're doing so much there and they're doing so many creative projects is that if that's art or Media or food or events or and you know it's when you go you can be a you can you can see it from a distance or you know you can kind of sit in this stage and see it or you can be part of it and this is really what we're going to create just you know for people to be part of that do you like the old town vibe it would be difficult not to like that right I mean put me there for a while I wouldn't mind yeah you know I drive there from here seven hours I did it's it's oh you've done the drivers oh yes I did the drive from Jada to um from neum to acaba because we have a cloud 7 project it's you you you've been around Saudi in car I but even in train I did from here to Alaska oh you okay yeah though or sorry I did that from Riyadh so the train experience yeah yes and it was but this is the way I think this is really what has been very important to us is it's great to talk about developing cities right but you go to bahanapada they're both very different and they're both in need of something very different and a very different product and a very different approach and it's very difficult to do that from your desk once you experienced it and we haven't just done that in Saudi Arabia we're going um we sign a project going into Rome so we're opening Rome next year city city center 150 meters from the Spanish Steps but we're putting Cloud seven mid-market product City Center where everybody else would say let's put a five-star kind of product but five-star lifestyle has done so much that if you put something mid-market or something that contradicts each other a little bit you put a product that's not necessarily there and so you create that Curiosity again you create that connection you create that locality um and so our our next developments you see coming next year will be Mediterranean Europe Portugal Spain Italy Greece pretty much that same mentality same philosophy same kind of approach to the GCC when it comes to hospitality Market coming on on the map quarter one next year I'd like to see say end of this year but I'm pretty sure we're quite full for the end of this year yeah yeah for sure we're looking at November December we're looking at November okay fantastic can I reach out to one of your team members I would like to be a paying customer at this facility because um it was in need of um a facility a good hotel there are a few there but uh but every time I'm there it's full but I think we should take this one step further in that case if you just come as a visitor you know just for tourism find tick tick but I think the diversity and the way that we're positioning Comfort two weeks pick up and just be a digital Nomad from there set up shop from there and I think you could actually really create such a different connection and and so much more than just experiencing it as a tourist so yeah I should I should have opened with this question how many uh live locations are there today a life seven or eight now we should be at 12 by the end of this year we're going to be doubling that next year so we're 24 25 next year and how was the company seven years um with 40 45 46 project signs and we're that goes up to 50 plus probably by the end of this year um and there you know comes in where people first looked at us like this kind of cute funny Boutique brand that might not be scalable you look today are projects in Egypt are two and a half thousand keys and they've been building for five years in Egypt they're probably the most sustainable developer North Coast um and Cigna so one and a half hours out of Cairo um which is North Coast Leisure destination but certain eyes is really a secondary city building universities um hospitals residential at different levels and they try to take Transportation as in car transportation really out of the development now it's still difficult today to take that out fully but you know they've really done a great job putting that putting sustainability on on the map um and again there you know with every single project it's not just our projects but I would say we almost have a collection of owners that are Visionaries that are really understanding that the world is changing understanding that unless they diversify their product they're just simply going to compete against everything else that's coming into the market um and that counts for the person in Kuwait as well as accounts for our owner in Georgia where we just actually signed another project last week so that makes five I think now and you know it's not that I don't care about the numbers because I really do care about the numbers but I don't think at the moment it's about if it's 12 or 13 if it is 25 or 26 it's really about doubling scaling and making it work so we could truly create within the industry a product that is different because it's led by people and experiences in locality that is able to adapt and that's why we always talk about Hospitality not just hotels we do long and short stay and we love to combine it we do working spaces and we love to integrate this we have our own FMB Brands we love to collaborate with others once you start complementing that you have this ecosystem this mini economy that goes into your building you do I'm recalling a a saying based on a lot of what you just said which is escape competition through authenticity be authentic and you will give the competition a bit of trouble and and this is coming to mind when when you know you I can imagine with the other product it's going to be different to the Jetta product it's going to be different to the marakish product it's going to be different to the one to 150 meters away from the Spanish Steps product yes and it must be really nice that you were there from the beginning from this infancy and I thought 2030 branches by now but seven in seven years you built it from the ground up yes petition it's something that is very difficult to create on a business plan it's unless you live it and you experience it and you talk to people and you go around and you continue to connect and continue to refresh you can't and it feels like you know do we want to develop another couple of Brands not right now because there's no necessity because it's not necessarily the brand that is giving you that differentiation factor it's much more the way that you develop the product for the people you want to attract that is going to make that difference um and you know we work with different interior designers we work with different curators we you know within the team um where to just took on a culture art person we have a creative director in the team which is very uncommon when you look at the hierarchical kind of chart in in our industry but it suits our products and that really suits what we're doing and yeah even if you bring in an art director who's just going to look at visual pieces it's not going to make any change but if you look at all of the touch points all of a sudden you do make that change how funny before we wrap up marlus thank you so much for everything that you have uh said to us information that you shared with us hopefully some information that people will be hearing for the first time um actually lots are quite different yes they're not where did you start it didn't go from there thank you so much for all that uh before we wrap up I you know and then I'll give you a chance to to say uh whatever you want to say but would you have any advice and I kind of use this question at the end of pretty much every episode what would your advice be to those up and coming people who want to enter the hospitality space across the world who are studying Hospitality or who are going from high school to University and who have a Keen Eye in Hospitality what would your advice be to them um it's a try to be good at one thing and really accelerated it um I think today people like to be good at a lot of different things and jump very quickly from one side to the other um and there's very few that truly own their space and and kind of make a mark and in a world with so much media and kind of being the coolest and the best with the most followers and and everything else when you look at the business world at the end it's about bottom line right however you look at that even if it's a not-for-profit or whatever you know whatever you build has to be sustainable in whichever way the moment you're good at something and you accelerate and something you make your mark and you then learn from there um and I would say I don't want to say be daring but but take responsibility um the moment you take responsibility in ownership and you own your space I'd say there's so many great opportunities within the industry and out of the industry and connecting that were it's not untouched but you know the industry is growing so fast needs so many people put with the demands that are coming up we're really looking for people that are that are shining stars but not because they're amazing and everything you can be shining story because you're good at one thing um and I think we're often say like okay if you're not good at something just try to fix that first before I think today with the pace everything is going just if you're strong at something accelerate in that and then see whatever happens comes after great advice when you said words to the effect of do one thing and and do it right and I have their book up there the best burger chain in the world only has 300 branches and it's called in and out California a few locations in Texas I think Oregon as well you know what's on their menu hamburger cheeseburger double cheeseburger right and then obviously fries yes no chicken no nuggets no cheese sticks no nothing no do one damn thing and do it right and nobody will compete with you if you're just focusing on that yes and there's no surprise that they are the unanimously um Undisputed best burger in the world next time you find yourself in California uh track one down uh think of me order the the double double which is the double cheeseburger you will go back up to the counter and order another one I will do that forget all right Lewis thank you so very much for coming on the show I I love uh you know what you're doing to our country in the hospitality sector when I walk into the house Hotel like wow we've never had a product like this in in Jeddah and now you say you're opening another and I'm sure you're not going to stop there so as a Saudi citizen thank you for all the efforts thank you the research the sleepless nights the everything that goes into it I see the hard work and um and I trust that the industry is rewarding you for all the hard work that you put in thank you very much thank you for having me and thank you for being so real looking forward to the future I try to be yes us too thanks so much Marcus I appreciate it amazing thank you so much it's good [Music] thank you

2022-09-29 17:33

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