Today’s guest is very keen on visualizing spaces in 3 dimensions. He also holds state licenses in architecture and interior design. Vito Lotta is the Vice President of Architecture & Design at Hilton Worldwide. Vito joins the host Dan Ryan for the first-ever live, in-person episode of Defining Hospitality! Vito shares his journey through the hospitality industry starting with using a drafting board that his father had all the way to being an integral part of Hilton.

Takeaways: 

• Boredom is an excellent state of mind to be in because it allows you to really drill down into your imagination. It’s hard to be imaginative if your mind is constantly coming up with new things.
• Being in the hospitality industry is providing a certain level of service to your customers, such as teaching guests who can’t dance how to dance and better themselves and providing them with an unforgettable experience.
• To improve yourself for your company and your personal life, it’s best to focus on your strengths and hone those skills to be even better.
• Hilton is going in a unique direction where it’s going to be more playful, energetic, and younger. 
• When it comes to innovation, there are technical, digital, and physical spaces to it all now. You need to find a way to incorporate all those aspects into your design.
• We still live in an analog world. There are millions of apps out there but they aren’t the answer to coming up with a great design space. 
• There are different levels of privacy that guests might want that you can integrate into your hotels. Some guests might want more privacy by using an alias while others might not care as much.

Quote of the Show:

16:50 “we're in the business of hospitality. You're supposed to use your gift of dance to make our customers, our guests feel as elegant and graceful as they aspire to be.”

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vito-f-lotta-464228/
• Website: https://www.hilton.com/en/corporate/

Shout Outs:

27:13 American Institute of Architects 

32:24 Know Your Strengths by Donald Clifton and Marcus Buckingham

34:40 David Goggins

44:33 Getty’s Group

46:04 Larry Traxler

46:05 Hyatt

46:56 Gensler

50:12 Hotel of Tomorrow

50:37 Ron Swidler

50:51 Rodd Kidley

52:08 Oculus

1:00:54 Wayne’s World

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/SWU9VheTiYs