Sebastien Leitner
Welcome to The Turndown.
Forget the velvet ropes and strict rules of five star service. We’re heading to Santa Monica to speak with Charlie Lopez Quintana, the Vice President and Managing Director for ETC Hotels, which includes the iconic Shutters on the Beach and Hotel Casa Del Mar. A fifteen year Ritz Carlton veteran, Charlie is now championing laid back luxury, a philosophy that tears up the traditional rule book.
This episode, we dive into his vision to eliminate the front desk entirely and his conviction that a luxury hotel leader jobs includes cleaning rooms alongside the housekeeping team. But Charlie’s biggest challenge isn’t the competition.
It’s technology. He’s risking everything to protect the human heart and soul of hospitality from AI. Will his unscripted, personalized approach be enough to keep the future of luxury feeling human?
Let’s check-in.
Charlie, it’s a pleasure to welcome you to the program. Thank you for joining today. Want to kick us off with our standard question, Charlie. I’m very curious. What’s keeping you up these days?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
You know what, Sebastian, it changes. It changes from Monday to Friday.
But look, for the most part, I sleep quite well. But if I need to pick something, look, there is always new things whether it’s an important event, whether it is some staffing opportunities that we may have.
It always changes. And then I also have a daughter in New York in college, so that also gives me a little bit of anxiety. But look, for the most part I’m very fortunate and I sleep quite well.
Sebastien Leitner
That is fantastic.
I want to, for the audience members who don’t know who you are, where you are right now, maybe let’s start where you are.
You’re in a beautiful property. Help us understand, Charlie, the hotel operator in Santa Monica. Is that correct?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Yes, that’s correct. Well, I’m in beautiful Shutters on the Beach right now. I am sitting in a suite and you cannot see the view that I have, but it’s the beautiful Santa Monica beach, palm trees, waves crashing. I see one surfer catching waves, so not bad, you know. It could be worse, it could be worse.
Sebastien Leitner
That’s fantastic. What do you do there, Charlie? Help our audience understand what you do.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Yeah, well, my title says that I’m the vice president, managing director for ETC Hotels. I like to call myself a cheerleader, right, and try to bring positivity and optimism to the organization. I like to walk around the hotels a lot and talk to the staff members and shake hands with them and with guests.
That is something that I really enjoy the most. Obviously, there is a good amount of office work as well, and unfortunately, some meetings here and there. But for the most part, look, what I do is try to bring a warm, pleasant environment to the organization and to the hotels.
Sebastien Leitner
I like that. Cheerleader of your team, of your staff. That’s a beautiful description.
And for the ones who don’t know, Shutters on the Beach is very world famous, but there may be a few that don’t know it on the program.
How would you describe that property?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Yeah. Look, opened in nineteen ninety four, when there was no luxury properties in the beach, really, not in Venice, not in Santa Monica, it was rare to see a property that offered luxury.
But there was a bet of two owners, two brothers, Tommy and Eddie Slatkin, and they had a vision, and that vision came through. Look, the hotel is iconic in the way it looks, and frankly, the name, Shutters on the Beach, was one of the biggest, I guess, talented decisions that was made back then.
And then frankly it has been the employees, the staff that throughout the last thirty years have made this place iconic. There was no service being provided to the level that this hotel provided.
You know, when you look at the A List from a famous standpoint, I don’t know who hasn’t been at Shutters. Everybody has been at Shutters. But again, it’s that laid back California luxury that today perhaps a lot of people talk about. But back in the day, this didn’t exist. Laid back luxury didn’t exist. Luxury was stuffy.
Luxury was, you know, like you thought you were going to break something walking through a lobby. And Shutters brought something totally different. A very homey interior design, beautiful rooms with a lot of accessories, books. It truly felt in the vision that Tommy and Eddie had like someone was entering their homes.
And they wanted Shutters first and then Hotel Casa del Mar to feel as such, as someone entering their home, having a glass of wine, having tea, having whatever it was, but in a laid back environment. We’re at the beach. We are, even when Santa Monica is a city, a small city but a city environment, we happen to be, by the way, still the two only hotels on the sand, on the beach. There is not a road in between us and the beach.
And that is where the laid back service, the fun and the smile, and have fun, which is part of two of our values, believe it or not. One is a smile and the other one is have fun.
Has nothing to do, if you would, with the typical integrity, respect, honesty. Two of them is have fun and a smile. And I think that goes with that charming delivery of service that Shutters has been known for. Excellent from a luxurious service standpoint, but also provided in a very laid back, charming way.
Sebastien Leitner
Now for the hoteliers among us, what are some of the numbers you can share? Number of rooms, occupancy, ADR, whatever you feel comfortable sharing.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Yeah. Well, I won’t tell you the ADR.
But look, Shutters has a hundred and ninety eight rooms.
Most of them overlooking in some shape or form the ocean.
Occupancies, we always thought our ceiling was eighty to eighty three percent. That’s where we were consistently before COVID. I think the recovery from COVID is lagging a little bit. So, you know, we are in the 70s now. We never wanted to go beyond eighty two, eighty three, and we could. We always thought that to exceed or at least meet the guest expectations, we always had to have a little bit of room.
You know, Santa Monica for years and years has had a tremendous amount of demand to fill rooms. Again, pre COVID, it wasn’t complicated.
But we never thought going beyond eighty two, eighty three was wise.
Sebastien Leitner
Okay. And your busiest days are the weekend? Or help us understand the cycles at your property.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Look, again, Santa Monica, this didn’t happen in ninety four, Sebastian, but with time everybody has heard of Silicon Valley in the Palo Alto Bay Area. But Santa Monica and around became Silicon Beach. So the amount of business travel that comes to this beach destination is actually unbelievable.
So to tell you that the weekends are busier, perhaps yes, from a food and beverage standpoint, restaurants, etcetera. From an occupancy standpoint, pretty flat really, weekdays and weekends. Yes, perhaps Sunday night, Monday night are the sluggish ones, but from Tuesday to Saturday, pretty even. Pretty even.
Sebastien Leitner
Okay. And guests stay an average two and a half nights?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Two point nine days is the average stay.
Sebastien Leitner
That’s amazing.
I’d love to, before we continue on Shutters, dive into luxury and how you particularly define it.
How did you get to Santa Monica? I want to sort of rewind the clock a little bit and understand who Charlie is and what your background is in hospitality, because I’m sure you haven’t recently discovered it. You’ve been a hotelier from almost day one.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
From the very beginning.
I wanted to be a soccer player though, it just didn’t work out.
Sebastien Leitner
What happened? What happened?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Look, I was born in Bilbao in the Basque Country in the north of Spain.
You know, my grandma had a restaurant. She was a chef owner of a restaurant. My grandpa took care of a bar on the ground floor, and since I was very little growing up, I was exposed to the restaurant.
My auntie took over eventually the restaurant for grandma, and then my dad decided to be a chemical engineer, and my other uncle decided to be a banker. So, my auntie is the one that followed the tradition at home, and it actually goes beyond my grandma. My great grandparents are the ones that opened the restaurant. And it was a restaurant with four rooms also on top, but it wasn’t a bed and breakfast. It was a bed, lunch, and dinner.
Long story short, since I was little, I was helping in the kitchen, whether it was polishing silverware, drying china, polishing glassware. And at fourteen years old, I was waiting tables already. I was a server. On those days in Spain, you know, there were no child labor laws. So, we were all pitching in, especially on the weekends helping Grandma.
Then I moved to Barcelona, and I lived in Barcelona because of my dad’s work for the rest of my life before I left Spain. And, you know, I wanted to be a soccer player, and I did have a bad ankle injury at nineteen years old. Interesting enough, when I finished high school, I didn’t want to go to college. And my father said, oh, but my dead body.
So the only thing that I could think of was actually the hospitality industry. So I did college tourism and hospitality in Barcelona, and the rest is history. There was this amazing hotel being built post Olympics ninety two that is called Hotel Arch, part of the Ritz Carlton chain. And in Spain, when you do tourism, you also need to have eighteen months of practice.
So, look, I applied. I was in a property in Barcelona, every every famous one. So I just started to work there parking cars, which I think it was great that I didn’t go into the F and B arena right away. Because the F and B is something that I have in the blood.
And the fact that I started within the rooms division, I think, has helped me during my career to round up my operations background. So, look, I did bellman, doorman, bell captain, and eventually, the company asked me about three and a half years after if I wanted to go to Dubai, and I said, where? Dubai. I said, what is that, Dubai?
It’s amazing that today everybody and their mother knows where Dubai is. But not back in ninety eight.
You know, Dubai was just starting. Look, a wonderful experience. I opened the Ritz Carlton in Dubai and was there in and out because the summers were very hot, so we would go on task force. But in and out for about two and a half years, and then there was an opportunity.
I met my wife in Dubai, she was American. And there was this opportunity to come and open the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, which is south of San Francisco in the Bay Area. And I came, and I was there for about eight and a half years in many different positions within the rooms division.
And then, there was an opportunity to come and open this resort in LA County, South LA County called Terranea, which was really like Half Moon Bay but on steroids. Bigger, and it looks so Mediterranean, and the name was Terranea, which is the middle of the Mediterranean world.
And I felt so identified with that project. So, I left Ritz Carlton after almost fifteen years, and I opened Terranea. Was there for eight and a half years in the executive director position running all operations.
And then eventually, you get this call, hey, do you know the hotel called Hotel Casa del Mar? Said, well, I’ve been competing against them for a number of years. I’m very aware of them.
You know, I guess eight years is that amount of time where, hey, why not, let’s try something different. And, yeah, I came to Santa Monica in twenty seventeen. I was the GM at Casa del Mar, and then I became the general manager at Shutters on the Beach. And then, I guess I was at the right place at the right time when my predecessor, my boss, and one of my mentors retired in twenty one. And for the last four years, I’ve been running these two hotels in the luxury space, but we also have another hotel next to Casa del Mar called Bayside that is more on the limited service three star level, but super cute as well with great views and an amazing location by the beach.
So, yeah. I hope I didn’t talk too much, but I gave you a little bit of everything on my journey.
Sebastien Leitner
No, it’s quite a journey. It’s very similar to mine, although I did take a departure at some point.
I worked in London in ninety nine. I was revenue manager for the Howard and Browns at luxury that then became Raffles shortly after, and then did an opening in two thousand and one in Berlin for a five star hotel. And then, you know, I was thirty something and left hospitality, but I’m still in travel. I’m still in travel tech. You know, I aspired at some point to become general manager, so now I’m talking to you. You could have been my future, which is too funny.
Ritz Carlton, what a school. I mean, if there is any, it is, right?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
There is in many different ways. I’ve explained this before in another interview, but I was one of the lucky ones that got the pre Marriott school and then the Marriott school. Totally different, right? I think I understood operational excellence from a service standpoint in the pre Marriott days.
And then I understood operational excellence from an efficiency standpoint in the Marriott days. So I think I was very, very fortunate from that standpoint. Look, I remember when I was in Barcelona in my early days as a line employee, they would pay for you to learn another language.
And then obviously they had the internal trainings on total quality management.
It was unbelievable. I was very lucky too that when I went to open Dubai, the company went for the Malcolm Baldrige Award for a second time in ninety nine. And actually Dubai was chosen as one of the hotels to be inspected, and we had just opened. So I was very involved in that journey.
And look, everything you could talk about, it was quality, quality. There was not really any type of cost controls or anything like that. It was everything about how to go above and beyond and how to provide an experience that nobody else was delivering, right? So look, I’m very fortunate, as I told you.
But then, look, on the other side of things, at the end of the day, this is an enterprise and it’s a business, right? And we need to learn how to provide owners with a return on investment.
I think I got that side of things as well. And then, you know, at Terranea and here now with ETC in Santa Monica, you continue growing, you continue learning.
I think it’s one of the most fascinating things of life that you don’t stop learning and you keep it interesting throughout the years. Independently of what position or responsibilities you hold, I think that constant learning is something that still gets me going to this day.
Sebastien Leitner
Do you think, I mean, you’ve seen both sides of this story, right, you’ve seen independent hotels, you’ve seen corporate hotels, you’ve seen corporate hotels where luxury and quality is the number one philosophy, and then you have also luxury where efficiency is more important.
When you think of delivering a luxurious guest experience, is it easier to do that as an independent hotel or as a branded hotel?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
I think it depends on the brand.
Sebastian, look, I think independent hotels give you an entrepreneurship level that goes above and beyond the brand.
Frankly, I am corporate because I work directly for the owners and we make the decisions together.
And they only get involved from an interior design standpoint. They are very invested in the way the hotels look and feel.
It’s a passion of theirs and they are very good at it.
But operationally, they just really don’t get involved. So, frankly, I get to make decisions. And I’ve learned, talking about learnings earlier on, I refine what I see.
I travel and I try to stay in the best hotels of the world and I see things and I say, oh, wow, why I didn’t think of it? And then the next question is, how can you do it better?
Sebastien Leitner
Do you have an example? I’m very curious. Like what was the last thing you noticed somewhere?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Many. Look, WiFi, technology, you were telling me that you like the technology side of things.
I think I look at a software and I said, okay, is there any rival that is better than this? Or can I call them and tell them, hey, I would like to change this, change this, and change that? Can you do that?
And some of them tell me, yeah, that’s easy. Some of them are like, oh, no, we need to go into the backend and change this, too much. So they put you roadblocks. But those that have an open mind and want to make things better, they do.
A simple example, you know, I remember I’m a runner, I do triathlons now, but that first day that I was in a Ritz Carlton visiting and the doorman gives me a towel and a bottle of water. That was the first time in my life I said, well, how can I make it better? So I did a cart with water, towels and Gatorades with a little frame that says welcome back, yogurts, you know.
And these are little examples. The look and feel of a guest room too, with this technology of lighting and privacy signs that you see on the new hotels being built with this infrastructure from a technology standpoint. Hotels that are already built, it’s very complicated. But still, from a functionality standpoint, how can you do it better? At Shutters and Casa, we just finished with privacy sign lights instead of the old privacy sign, and you have lighting controls on the bed that we didn’t have before.
You have USB and USB C now in both hotels next to the bed. But when we were thinking about how to do it better, we would actually go to hotels that have built it and I didn’t like certain things. Perhaps it’s the positioning, the height of where everything goes.
You know, you still see hotels being built recently that have the outlets a foot from the floor instead of being at a useful height, and I don’t understand why. So look, it’s little things like that that at the end make the whole experience.
TVs, speakers in the guestrooms. Well, do you want to have a speaker that can be moved or do you want to have a surround system built in the guestrooms so there is nothing cluttering? Right? That’s something we’re underway with in our suites. We finished with the lobbies.
Both lobbies in both hotels now have an amazing sound surround system and it makes a difference. And I said, well, the next is the suites. Why do you want a speaker that can be moved around when you can have six of them and everything comes through beautifully? So, look, those are things that we work on and we try to do better.
And to your question, is it easier as an independent? Is it easier as a brand?
To do some of the things I just told you in a brand, sometimes it requires three, four, five different individuals to say yes.
Because it goes to your regional boss, and then the regional boss has another boss that has an opinion. And then after you have, from a brand standpoint, agreed to it, then it comes to the owner of the hotel. And the owner of the hotel may say, oh, I love it, that’s great. Or they say, you guys are crazy, this is not gonna work. So then you go back to the start.
And in my environment today, from a capital project standpoint, from improving the product, it’s much easier.
Because there is the team here brainstorming, refining things that we see elsewhere.
And then that goes to an owner that for the most part doesn’t really get involved unless it has to do with the look and feel of the hotel from an interior design standpoint. It’s much easier. It’s much easier.
And it can create amazing experiences for guests as a result of it.
Sebastien Leitner
How do you look at loyalty at your particular properties?
Right? When we think of big branded hotels like Ritz Carlton or, you know, Marriott Bonvoy, we think of loyalty, we think of earning and burning points, right, and many corporate guests end up using their points to stay at a luxury destination because they want to reward themselves.
How do you think of loyalty as an operator of independent hotels?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Look, I can tell you how I think. But before that, I need to tell you, it’s very difficult to compete with Marriott Bonvoy, especially, you know, people accumulate points on business travel, and then those points become the leisure vacation and they use those points in another hotel or resort of the brand. It’s extremely difficult to compete with that. We’re fully independent. We’re also part of Preferred Hotels and Resorts. So, from a sales and marketing partnership standpoint, we partner with them, and we have been pleased so far. We do have a program called iPrefer that has been developed.
And, you know, we’re trying, from a point standpoint, to grow.
Now, what I think of loyalty is someone that takes care of you in a personalized way.
And I think even from my early Ritz Carlton days, when some pickup brands were starting this points culture, we always thought that the best points culture was to deliver the best service. And to make sure that personalization was always there. And then if they have these likes, that those likes were found in the guest room through guest preferences. There was a very strong guest preference environment.
Remember when I was at Bellman, there was that little booklet you had in your uniform and you would write things you noticed that a guest would like, before computers.
And then there were the old databases built in Word and then Excel. Well, today, and you are very techy, Sebastian, today you have these amazing CRM software solutions that have all the information for you. That focus is what loyalty means to me.
Having said that, humans like things for free, right? So the points culture that was created by the big brands is here to stay. And it’s extraordinarily difficult to compete with that. But again, iPrefer has its own program, and from a service standpoint, trying to anticipate guest needs and deliver those likes and dislikes, we continue focusing a lot. I think the guest relations part of the pre arrival phase continues being in my opinion the most important phase of the stay, even more than the stay itself.
Everything that you can find out pre stay, if you can execute and implement those findings, that’s what is going to make the difference. Especially in the ultra luxury space, I think those individuals care a little bit less about points, right? They know what they want. And if you are able to deliver that, you’ll have loyalty. Now it’s perhaps in the entry luxury, upper upscale part of the marketplace where points are important.
In the ultra luxury environment, those suite bookers, presidential suite bookers, penthouse bookers, that’s not important. What is important is how are you going to bypass the front desk. These people don’t want to come from there. From there, what is that? Forget about it. Right? So that’s something that we are implementing now, a beautiful partnership with a software company that, interesting enough, I was checking in at a hotel in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia last year, Sebastian, and I saw it. And obviously they knew that we were hoteliers, we were on a sales trip.
And, you know, I see this tablet at the front desk, and the guy unplugs it, takes the tablet and takes me to the room and the reg card is there and everything is there. I said, well, I don’t think I’ve seen this to this level in North America. So, I got the information of that company, which is actually based in India, although now they have an office here in the Bay Area, San Francisco.
We are starting January fifth training on it. And, you know, I have a dream, and the dream is that I will have a hotel without a front desk at one point.
I don’t know when that is, but that’s my dream, Sebastian, that there will be no front desk. Look, there will be a desk for your guest relations team, concierge, whatever you want to call it. Those are semantics.
But it will not be a front desk.
Sebastien Leitner
I support you wholeheartedly on this. Like, for me, the front desk, at least the function of a front desk, the check-in and check out function, are things that we need to solve for, we need to make disappear.
It was so funny, as you were talking about points, I was thinking about my travel experience. I spend a lot of time in airplanes, unfortunately, right, and for me, points almost become a transactional value. I’m at the highest tier of my airline. At the highest tier, I don’t feel recognized as the most important customer. It’s terrible. It’s a terrible experience. Right?
And maybe that’s an airline thing more so than anything else. In hotels, I don’t have loyalty because I stay mostly in independent hotels. So sorry, Marriott, Hilton, I’m really sorry. I try to discover independently.
I’m curious, you’ve been in luxury accommodation for the last twenty years.
How has the definition of luxury evolved?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
From a look and feel standpoint or from an overall experience?
Sebastien Leitner
Let’s start from a guest perspective, guest experience.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Look, I think you need to make it as seamless as possible.
If they wanna be in flip flops in the lobby, so be it. If they wanna have breakfast at twelve noon, and you have switched off already to your lunch menu, but they want an omelet, you give them an omelet.
Look, it’s trying to avoid that hours of operation environment where it’s no, no, so sorry, we’re not serving breakfast anymore. Well, that’s not luxury.
Luxury is, well, look, I want an omelet right now. Why can I not have a cheese omelet? Are you kidding me?
And interesting enough, you go to some luxury hotels today, and they will tell you, I’m so sorry, we’re not serving breakfast anymore.
You see, that’s not luxury.
Luxury is that the guest is going to do what they want to do when they want to do it. And in their own terms, look, as long as it’s not I learned this a long time ago in my early Ritz Carlton days, as long as it’s not illegal, immoral, or unsafe, as long as it’s within those boundaries, the sky is the limit. The sky is the limit. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s for free.
There is a price tag.
But if the guest is willing to pay for it, you make it happen. You’re the lever.
Sebastien Leitner
So in order to deliver this, which I would define as a flexible experience, like when you talk about having breakfast at lunch, or walking around in flip flops, what do you train new staff on? Is flexibility what is being focused on right now?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Yeah, one of our service values is “I will make it happen” service.
It’s kind of like the typical never say no. The way we phrase it is I will make it happen. And that’s a culture that you need to teach from day one in orientation.
There is nothing impossible.
Now, that doesn’t mean it’s for free, but there is nothing impossible. I’m going to do my utmost to make it happen. And look, if it’s impossible, what is the closest I can get to it? What alternatives am I going to find that the guest is going to be happy with? And yeah, it’s one of our service values.
Sebastien Leitner
That’s beautiful.
I want to do a quick rapid fire and then talk about the future, right? And there’s a lot of amazing things happening, especially in the US.
We have to talk about football, we have to talk about travel trends.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Call it soccer, Sebastian.
Sebastien Leitner
I don’t understand. Me neither.
You mentioned triathlon and marathon, but what’s one ritual you never skip when you think of work? Your weekly executive meeting or the daily standard?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Daily standard.
You know, the executive meeting is useless from a service standpoint. The executive meeting is more to talk about financials, talk about perhaps some capital projects, perhaps about some opportunities that we may have from a staffing standpoint, things like that, right? But what is fun is the daily standard. I try to go at least to three or four a day.
You know, I have my own one. Actually, the gyms have their own ones, but I attend that.
And then I try to go, you know, kitchen three pm, housekeeping eight am.
Restaurant, if I’m early one day at seven. I love the breakfast one at seven. We have a four thirty restaurant one before we do service at five. And now we’ve introduced, and I should have done it a long time ago, but silly me I didn’t. We had these amazing lineups in the morning, but then the PM shift would come and would not get the same intensity of a lineup. So we do a PM shift standup now in both hotels that is F and B, rooms and spa combined. Extremely powerful to communicate. Because we have the typical pass downs, but those are within a department. We didn’t have this all together environment before. Look, they are the most fun and I think that’s where the magic happens. That is where you inspire and motivate.
The most fun of our job is to be a leader and to inspire and motivate. When you’re a manager, which are things that we need to do as well, it’s not always fun.
But look, everything that has to do with coaching in the right direction, inspiring and pumping up everybody. I told you at the beginning about being a cheerleader. That is the best time to do it.
Actually, a lineup that I love is a banquet lineup of a dinner, usually around five forty five, six pm before service. I love the excitement that our banquet manager puts into it.
So it’s one of them that I try to attend as well.
Sebastien Leitner
What’s the biggest threat to modern service?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
To modern service?
Well, look, everybody talks about AI, everybody talks about technology. I think in the luxury, ultra luxury space, I think if we are not careful, we will destroy the heart and soul of hospitality.
It’s the face to face, the engagement, the smile, that server coming to your table with your coffee, your glass of wine, your tea, whatever it is, with a smile.
You know, there is something that we focus on now that is the plus one, something that Forbes Travel Guide put into our vocabulary. But if you deliver something, what is the plus one to that?
You know, the typical example which is the best, if someone asks for a toothbrush, you want to deliver a toothpaste, you want to perhaps deliver floss with it. If someone asks for a shaving kit, are you going to add a little aftershave? Look, if someone orders a coffee and you deliver a little cookie, a little biscotti, whatever your standard is depending on the hotel, I think the plus one is one of the most wonderful things that is out there. If we stop this in the name of technology, and a luxury to someone that is eighteen years old today is going to be different to what I perceive as luxury, but I still think and I hope that when I retire and the new hoteliers figure out what the new definition of luxury is, I hope that they haven’t touched any of what I just told you. That that continues because it’s what I believe.
So for me, I struggle thinking that the future is going to be more driven by a machine.
And it goes back to a conversation that I have with my hotel peers at times. It’s like having a sensor opening the door for you in a luxury hotel instead of a doorman.
You’re going to save three FTEs a year and you put that into dollars.
And then you’re going to have still someone open the door for you. It’s just not a human. It’s just a sensor, right? Whether it’s a revolving door, whether it’s a door that opens by itself, there is not a smile there. There is not a good morning there. And I think when we think about technology, we need to go back to these sensors in the door. That’s when you stop having a doorman in many hotels.
And they still charge luxury pricing.
But you don’t have a doorman opening the door and saying good morning to you. I don’t think that’s, yes, you’re gonna save three FTEs, but I don’t think it is what I perceive as luxury, ultra luxury.
Sebastien Leitner
On a resume of somebody you’re considering for a role in a property, what wins? Five years of experience in a cool independent boutique hotel or two years at Four Seasons?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Depending on when it was Four Seasons.
Sebastien Leitner
Okay. So what happened at Four Seasons?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
You know, look, I think companies when they get too big, things fall through the cracks. I think if you tell me the Four Seasons of the late nineties, early two thousands, that is a strong regimen. I don’t know if two years is enough, Sebastian. I don’t think two years is enough anywhere in order to be immersed in a powerful culture like Four Seasons. And I never worked for Four Seasons, but the amount of friends and people that I’ve worked with that came from a Four Seasons background, you see the quality of the individual. And the quality of the individual is because of the learnings, like we were talking earlier with Ritz Carlton.
That you get. I need to tell you that perhaps more than that, I want to see the quality of the individual as a whole, values as a whole.
It needs to be a true extrovert, someone that enjoys people.
But if I look as a leader of one of my hotels, it needs to be that cheerleader extrovert that has no issue taking the jacket off and cleaning a room with a room attendant when needed, has no issue bussing a table when needed.
And does it with a smile and love in it, right?
Now that comes if you have grown through the ranks. And something very important to me, Sebastian, when you were saying two years with Four Seasons or five years in an independent world, it doesn’t matter. I will tell you, have they been a line employee?
Or did they start straight in management?
And I look at that.
Sebastien Leitner
I’m guessing why you think it’s important, but please explain what you mean by that.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Yeah, it’s very simple. I don’t think you understand what an employee feels if you haven’t been one.
I don’t think you understand how an employee feels when you are coaching and counseling them.
I don’t think you feel how an employee feels when you inspire them and you motivate them. And you need to know how someone made you feel in order to make someone eventually, as you grow in your career, feel that way.
For me to have mentors from the very beginning, whether I was your department head manager or your division head or your GM, but you felt it at a line staff level, is extremely powerful. That makes sense.
Sebastien Leitner
Looking ahead, in twenty six, we will have some major events, leisure events happening, with the World Cup, the Club World Cup, and of course more.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
It’s football, football, Sebastian.
Sebastien Leitner
It’s football. Correct. Look, very exciting, very exciting. We have eight games in LA.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
First one is June twelfth, which is the opening game for the US. So the US have two games here in LA.
And then we have three more of the qualifying groups.
And then we have a round of sixteen, and a quarter final. Eight games total, super exciting. The most exciting development, and I’m giving you something that is very, very recent as of this week. The city council of Santa Monica passed seven to zero that Santa Monica is going to become a fan fest.
So we’re going to have the Third Street Promenade, with discussions with a couple of countries to be the fan fest for LA, which makes all the sense. I mean, LA, for those that don’t know LA, is inland, but LA County has Santa Monica as the premier beach. So it only makes all the sense in the summertime, the fan fest to be by the beach. You know, I went to Rio in twenty fourteen and I saw Spain play in the Maracana.
And we lost two to zero, but that’s a long, sad story. The most fun was to be in Ipanema beach all day before the game. So that’s what we’re going to try to accomplish in Santa Monica. I’m the chair of Santa Monica Travel and Tourism leading up to this World Cup.
And we’re working together with city officials. We have an amazing new city manager. And then we’re going to make Santa Monica super fun. And then it’s going to go beyond the World Cup into some beautiful, amazing concerts that we’re going to do on the beach here.
Actually, with the ones that do the concerts in Coachella Valley. So the city is partnering with them. And then we have the twenty seven Super Bowl, Sebastian.
That is February twenty seven. And then we have the Olympics. So there is so much happening and look, we are extremely lucky that we are in Santa Monica, and Santa Monica is poised, and our company is poised, to deliver great service and great experiences through these very, very important dates that we have in the calendar coming up.
Sebastien Leitner
That’s amazing. Now, what’s your favorite team? Who you’re following? Who you’re endorsing? It must be Spain.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
No, no, sure. There is no other team.
Now, if someone else needs to win, I will go with the U.S. You know, my two kids were born in San Francisco and they will follow Spain too. But if we need to default to a second team, that will be the U.S, yes.
Which would be an amazing surprise and upset.
Actually, the coach of the U.S. is Mauricio Pochettino. I’m an Espanyol fan, Espanyol of Barcelona.
That’s the club that I follow in Spain. And Mauricio was our coach but also was our player for many, many years. So that’s even more reason to support the U.S. if Spain doesn’t make it.
Sebastien Leitner
Makes a lot of sense. So you have an amazing destination, Santa Monica. You have a fan mile that will be there for what, five or six weeks?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Five, six weeks is what I heard.
Sebastien Leitner
Five, six weeks, okay. That’s amazing.
You have the Super Bowl happening, are there any headwinds right now that you’re tracking? Anything that worries you?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Headwinds have been a thing for the last two years.
So now we are going to change the narrative to tailwinds.
I don’t want to hear, frankly, I don’t want to talk about headwinds, Sebastian. Everybody knows about the devastating fires that we had at the beginning of the year.
The political environment in the U.S. hasn’t been the best, definitely, during the last couple of years. We are talking about tailwinds. And tailwinds is all these events that are happening in the LA area.
You know, tailwinds is a new city manager with a wonderful vision for the city.
Tailwinds is all the money that the owners of these two hotels are putting into them to ensure they stay fresh and looking great. It is constant, the amount of money that the owners pour into these two hotels. So, it’s all about tailwinds. And then we have an amazing culture and team members.
I don’t know if we said this yet, Sebastian, but the average tenure of our employees is beyond a decade.
This is unheard of in the hospitality space.
That is unusual. We have employees at Shutters retiring now that are opening members from ninety four. How cool is that?
Sebastien Leitner
That is amazing.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Sebastian, we talk about tailwinds. There are no headwinds on the horizon.
Sebastien Leitner
Alright, alright, I’ll remove it from my vocabulary. I’d like to close off with a recommendation you have for someone that is right now considering a role in hospitality. Think of your own self, right. You chose hospitality because your dad pushed you to it. But imagine somebody is considering a role in hospitality. What recommendation do you have for him or her?
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
You know, make certain that you’re a servant at heart.
Make certain that you enjoy making people happy. Otherwise, do not join this industry.
If touching people’s hearts, if making someone’s day, if surprising and delighting is something you don’t get immense joy from, don’t join this industry.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t do it.
You know, it is about touching people’s emotions, what makes this industry special. So, I guess that is the advice I will give. Look, I will also say that at one point in your career, spend time either in the kitchen, in stewarding, or in housekeeping.
Whether it is as a line employee or as a leader, I think those three departments are, in my opinion, the unsung heroes of the hotel. I spent most of my time in the front of the house. I did have about five, six very rewarding years in housekeeping, and I did polish my share of silverware when I was little. Those years, in fact, make you stronger as an individual. It widens your heart and it just makes you a better person.
Sebastien Leitner
Charlie, thank you so much for joining the program. Really appreciate your thoughts, insights and stories.
Charlie Lopez-Quintana
Thank you. Amazing. Thank you for your time. It has been an honor. And Sebastian, when your travels take you to LA, I hope you know where you are staying next.
Sebastien Leitner
Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
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