Richard Brosal
There’s a lot of moving parts. I think one of the things that’s so difficult in the hospitality industry, especially for a company like ours, we rely on so many other people to make sure that our job is done correctly.
Sebastien Leitner
Welcome to The Turndown. My name is Sebastien Leitner, and I recently sat down with Richard from Jet Luxury Resorts. What a character. He is such a seasoned professional. He’s seen it all. He has a fantastic perspective of trends and changes in the industry. He has expanded his own business, bootstrapped, built it to an enormous, very successful business in Las Vegas and some other locations.
He has some really great points around the changes in guest expectation, the changes to traveler behavior, and likewise, the changes to the next generation, and how it is impacting his operations, his fulfillment, his ability to cater to his next customer. Some really great insights, really great stories. Fantastic guy. Can’t wait for you to meet him.
Richard, thank you so much for joining me. This is fantastic. I really love you being on the show. I wanna turn it over to you with the most important question. As the CEO of Jet Luxury Resorts, what’s keeping you up at night these days?
Richard Brosal
You know, Sebastien, it’s a great question. I think one of the things that anybody who is an entrepreneur and has started a company like we did fifteen years ago in the hospitality industry, when you realize the enormity of the hospitality industry and us being a niche company specializing in the condo hotel space and being the advocate and the voice for individual owners and developers who are in the condo hotel space.
I think one of the toughest things for us is that we are a specialty company. We’re not like your average hotel company. We have no bricks or mortars. We don’t own anything. I’d like to say we’re like a virtual hotel company. We offer our inventory, which is obviously limited compared to the big boys in the industry. But yet, we strive to give unbelievable and unparalleled customer service, guest service, communication, good old fashioned, not hiding behind text messages, not hiding behind emails.
Most importantly, the industry has turned into the OTA world. Everybody wants to book now. They want it on their phones, their laptops, their iPads. And there’s so many people who really don’t care so much about the old style where you built your reputation on repeat business and great customer service and loyalty. So when I, as an owner, look at our company and the growth over the years and being able to change in a nanosecond if needed, the types of things that keep me up at night is realizing the changes that are ever taking place in the hospitality industry, that we are on top of our game and that we can pivot when needed.
We’re independently owned and operated, so we don’t have a big corporation behind us. It’s my money. It’s my business partner’s money and our life savings that are invested into this company. So those are the types of things that keep you up at night where you’re wanting to make sure you’re doing the best for our owners, the individuals that we’re managing their individual units, and the developers. And yet we also have to keep the guests happy. So it’s a double edged sword.
Sebastien Leitner
Wow. That’s fascinating. You have two customers ultimately. The owners that trust you in managing their real estate, their investment. And then on the flip side, you have a brand to develop, a guest reputation to develop. That’s amazing. Is there anything that lets you sleep well at night?
Richard Brosal
That’s an easy answer for me. I think behind every successful man is even a more successful wife or significant other. I’ve been with my wife for forty plus years. We have three beautiful adult children, three grandchildren, and we’ve raised our children to realize that you have to be a good citizen, a good person. So the thing that allows me to sleep is that when I look in the mirror when I brush my teeth in the morning and at night, I like who I see. I think I’ve contributed in a positive way each day.
My wife says it’s my Achilles’ heel. What makes me great also is my Achilles’ heel, that I care too much about people and I trust. When you get burned or someone takes advantage of you, it’s hard not to take it personal. But I lay my head down every night knowing that I’m an honest person, and we try our best to be good in our business. And as long as you do that, I have no regrets.
Sebastien Leitner
Beautiful. Help me understand your morning routine. How do you start your day from a business perspective?
Richard Brosal
Monday through Friday, I get up at four thirty in the morning, and I go for an eighteen to twenty two mile bike ride outside. It’s a great way for me to have quality time with myself. You have to concentrate when you’re riding. I put my earbuds in, listen to my bike music, and go for a great ride. Not only is it great cardiovascular, but it’s also good for the soul.
Then I come back and cool down. During that cool down period for about thirty minutes, I’ll get on my computer at my home office, check things, make sure the OTAs, our reservation system, things that have taken place are working properly. Jump in the shower and then head to work. I’m usually in the office by seven, seven thirty. I try to have a good balance. It gives me that energy, and more importantly, it keeps my mind clear to where I head into each day not worrying about yesterday and trying to be proactive.
Sebastien Leitner
What’s a common myth about your job or the job in hospitality as a whole?
Richard Brosal
The most interesting misconception of the public or the guest is that this is easy. They think they show up to the property, and everything’s just perfect, and nothing really took place. Anybody can do this. And I can tell you that is not the case. In fifteen years, we have seen here in Las Vegas no less than a dozen companies that have come and gone that said, oh, I’m gonna do what Jet Luxury Resorts is doing. They think it’s easy, and it’s not.
There’s a lot of moving parts, and one of the things that’s so difficult is for a company like ours, we rely on so many other people to make sure that our job is done correctly. The front desk people, the valet people, the security, dealing with the OTAs or the lack thereof of communication from the OTAs to their guests. There’s just a lot of moving parts. You have to have a good relationship with the properties themselves, the management, the front desk people, the housekeeping, all the people at the property.
I make it a point to be at our properties no less than three, four times a month where I’m down there. That’s something that might be a misconception, that it’s just easy. This is not an easy business.
Sebastien Leitner
You talked about OTAs and managing expectation and communication with their guests. If you could wave that magic wand and say, hey, OTA, fix one thing to help me do a better job, what would that be?
Richard Brosal
I wanna be careful with this answer because the last thing I wanna do is shoot myself in the foot. Everybody has to work with the OTAs in today’s world. If I could wave my wand, it would be for the OTAs to have better communication with their guests who have booked on their platforms and respecting what our policies are.
Far too many times, the OTAs and their affiliates are not on the same page with what the policies are. Cancellation policies, how to book a reservation, that they must be twenty one years old to check-in, that they must have a credit card placed at time of check-in for a refundable security deposit. We explain till we’re blue in the face, it’s all in writing, it’s all on the portals. And yet, it’s a constant battle with the OTAs at times turning a deaf ear and then pointing guests in the direction of us as the property.
Then you have a client calling you and blaming you for everything. The biggest frustration is lack of communication. And quite frankly, too many people in the world do not pay attention. They do not read. You can send them message after message explaining that their credit card has declined and their reservation will be canceled when we’ve given five days notice, and the guest shows up at the property.
Sebastien Leitner
I’m responsible for partnerships at Cloudbeds. We talk to OTAs all day long, and it’s all about partnering to fix things, figuring out how we can improve the experience for both the guests and the property owners so that we remove friction. I want to talk about the last three years. I’m curious about your learnings as you came out of COVID. Are there things you learned from this pandemic?
Richard Brosal
I don’t know necessarily whether we could do anything differently. I opened my company in two thousand eight, January of two thousand eight, right during the financial crash. To say it was very difficult the first two, three, four years would be an understatement, but we persevered. All of our owners never missed a payment. Our employees got paid.
Nobody could have predicted COVID. It was a worldwide pandemic that caused closure here in Las Vegas for close to three months, literally everything shut down. But the thing that has made it very difficult over the last three years are the expectations of guests. When we reopened, the CDC along with the board of health had rules about what you could and could not do. You couldn’t keep kitchen inventory like plates, dishes, glassware in the units anymore. You had to have different types of disinfectant cleaning.
The amount of people when they started coming back, you would have thought they’d all been under a rock. Nobody knew anything. How dare we not have kitchen inventory. How dare we not allow room service with food being delivered. We were blamed for it. Eight out of ten guests, you would think they never read or didn’t understand.
What we also noticed more importantly, which is getting better finally but has taken three years, is the sense of entitlement. Everybody feels they’re entitled to everything for free. You don’t upgrade them when they pay seventy nine dollars for a studio unit, and they want a penthouse one bedroom at a hundred and eighty nine dollars. God forbid you tell them you’ll upgrade them if they pay the additional. Then they dispute their credit cards, write a crappy review. We never saw any of that pre COVID ever.
One of the saddest things we’re dealing with is the amount of people booking hotel collect reservations through the OTAs where the guest puts their own credit card in. We charge five days prior to check-in, and I would say seven out of every ten bookings that are hotel collect, credit cards decline. Then my team spends days sending messages, text messaging, letting them know their reservation will be canceled. And they show up at the property anyway, demanding that they’ve already paid when clearly they haven’t. I’ve taken five separate credit cards from an individual standing at the front desk just to cover a three hundred dollar charge.
Sebastien Leitner
This is so interesting. If we put this in context of increases in inflation, interest rates rising, disposable income shrinking, travel becoming more expensive, and you’re noticing it’s harder to collect payments directly from guests. I want to do a quick lightning round before we wrap up. Direct versus OTA.
Richard Brosal
Direct is, to me, beautiful because you own every aspect of that reservation. From the time they call you or book online, you have a direct connection with that guest.
Sebastien Leitner
Google.
Richard Brosal
Still the number one search engine in the world. We have Google reservations, keywords, algorithms. Fifteen plus years, if you Google Signature, we’re gonna be right up there in the top. Total necessity.
Sebastien Leitner
TikTok.
Richard Brosal
Nah. I just don’t pay attention to it. For us in our business, we would never use it. I don’t even think about it.
Sebastien Leitner
Leisure.
Richard Brosal
Leisure is what most people would love to get back to. The leisure traveler wants to know when they’re going somewhere, that they’re getting out of their usual situation. Leisure puts a smile on my face. I’d rather go leisure travel than when I have to travel for business.
Sebastien Leitner
Turndown.
Richard Brosal
In today’s world, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Sebastien Leitner
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Richard Brosal
Hawaii. My wife and I have traveled quite a bit over our marriage, and we always seem to go back. We live in the ninth island here in Las Vegas, and the eight islands in Hawaii are amazing. Love Kauai, but we also really enjoy Maui. Everybody’s happy, it’s laid back, and the guest service there is amazing. When you have islands that are in dire need of the hospitality industry and tourism, they really know how to treat guests.
Sebastien Leitner
Hospitality is a big industry right now that is recruiting, growing, hiring. I’d love to get your perspective, one piece of advice you would give someone starting out in this industry.
Richard Brosal
Best advice I can give to anybody who wants to start out in this industry is make sure your expectations are real. Getting into this industry, you have to have a passion for it, and you have to learn it from the ground up. Far too many people think they can become a general manager or a director of sales, and this just doesn’t happen. I think our colleges and hospitality universities are getting better at letting students know that you have to earn your stripes.
Hard work will result in good things. If you do a great job as a housekeeper, you’re then gonna become a director of housekeeping. Then you may go into valet, front desk, reservation sales. The more you can learn in this industry will help you pave a better career. Manage your expectations and realize that anything you put your mind to, you can achieve. It’s the ones that sit back and are complacent that won’t get recognized. But I’m a firm believer if you go into something that you love and do it for the right reasons and have passion, you will be recognized and rewarded.
Sebastien Leitner
That’s awesome. Richard, thank you so much for joining me here today. Thank you for sharing your insights, your experience, your fifteen years of wealth of experience that you brought to this industry. I really appreciate your time.
Richard Brosal
My pleasure, Sebastien. This has been a great time.
Sebastien Leitner
Thank you for listening to The Turndown. Don’t forget to subscribe and tune in next week as we discover new exciting guests.
