I feel tension each day with Hospitality Daily. My goal is to bring you the best new ideas to empower your teams, delight your guests and grow your profits - and I know the real challenge isn’t always in the ideas themselves (or the lack of ideas). It’s the systemic issues within hotels and hospitality companies that often hold the industry back.
That's what we're diving into today with our guest, Adam Zembruski. I deeply respect Adam for his incredible track record in hotel operations leadership and because he’s a hotel investor with real skin in the game. He brings a raw, unfiltered perspective on the state of the industry and today shares some hard truths about what's happening on the ground with hotels. The goal of our conversation isn't to be negative but to honestly face the realities of what might be holding us back from innovation, progress, and results.
The big idea: Deep, systemic blind spots in the hotel industry are holding us all back from what's possible. We must listen better to more voices and break out of "business as usual” to move forward.
I no longer go to conferences. The general managers and others doing the work of hospitality don’t get to go.
Why this matters: As a hospitality leader, it's easy to become disconnected from the day-to-day experiences of your frontline staff. Understanding their perspectives and challenges is essential for effective leadership and driving innovation. By reconnecting with your teams on the ground and actively seeking out “blind spots,” you can gain valuable insights into the realities of working in the industry today and move ahead in a way that benefits everyone.
It’s time to get practical:
Think about how you can create educational opportunities for people beyond the C-suite of your corporate offices. To use one example Adam mentioned, the issue with so many industry events is the same people attend, and it's rarely the general managers or people on the front lines of hospitality. Create opportunities for everyone in your organization to learn and grow.
Get involved with an organization like DECA that creates more opportunities for people and could be an opportunity to show others the power and beauty of a career in hospitality.
Move beyond limited zero-sum thinking and think more expansively about how we can all grow together. (Nikheel Advani's episode on this is a great reminder if you'd like to learn more.)
Work with a forward-thinking hotel management company. (The more people I speak with, the more I realize the importance of this. I'm writing an update to my guide here on this, so let me know if you'd like to participate in creating this.)
Listen now to the full conversation on this on the Hospitality Daily Podcast (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)
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A few final things:
If you have any thoughts, ideas, questions, or suggestions for Hospitality Daily, please reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you!
If you have something that would benefit the hospitality professionals who read, listen to, and watch Hospitality Daily, let’s work together to help you help more people.
Thank you for reading.
-Josiah
