Jennifer Barnwell is the President of Curator Hotel & Resort Collection. She can see through the maze of real estate economics and is passionate about hospitality. She is also a member of and also on the Board of Advisors at the Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association. Jen joins host Dan Ryan to talk her journey in #hospitality and what it all means to her.

Takeaways: 

• You want to surprise and delight your guests. You want to make them feel welcomed and at home when they stay at your hotel.
• Sometimes a switch in products or a switch in systems is something that can really help drive your bottom line. 
• Make sure that your team is being used efficiently. You don’t want to overload them or put them on tasks that aren’t their strong suit.
• Having the owner's finger on the pulse helps to make decisions and changes run smoother. 
• Hospitality is about the experience. You want to peak the senses of your guest and make them feel interested and excited about where they are. 
• You want to create memories for your guests and have them be positive and something they can take with them when they leave the hotel. 
• Independent hotels have the ability to connect to a place in a very powerful way. It feels authentic and natural. 

Quote of the Show:

22:12 “For me, it's all about the experience. I step inside, how does it make me feel, what catches my eye, what do I see? That's interesting. What kind of peaks my curiosity, what about all my senses? That's how I tend to define it, because that is what is memorable to me.”

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-barnwell-a8689ba/
• Website: https://blla.org/

Shout Outs:

0:48 Pebblebrook

0:50 CapEx

1:09 Independent lodging Congress

8:49 Bill Kimpton

9:34 Sir Francis Drake in San Fransico 

28:16 Death & Company

28:17 Dave Kaplan

28:59 Bashar Wali

41:33 Cameron Sperance

Ways to Tune In: 

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Youtube : https://youtu.be/4J-0t8VjsqE