I have calculated that I’ve traveled two
hundred and twelve thousand five hundred
and three miles in the last 12 months I
have stayed in 167 different hotels 167
different hotels over that same time
period I’m a hotel fanatic I never stay
in the same hotel more than one night
three days in New York that’s three
different hotels for me I travel so much
that I’ve earned the incredible
unobtainium status on Delta don’t bother
looking it up you won’t find it and you
can’t get it you need infinite miles to
get that high and along the way I’ve
burned through seven terabytes on
snapchat with video that thankfully you
won’t find because it’s gone but why
should you care I’m gonna tell you a
little bit about what I’ve learned from
my travels I have learned that we as
human beings have a single most powerful
tool in our Arsenal and that is our
ability to make human connections I
believe we are people first in hotel
your second and that’s the key to our
success I’m gonna take you on a quick
journey with me through some of the
amazing hotels I’ve seen as data
hopefully not 167 of them I’ll only show
you seven Burj Al Arab in Dubai in the
UAE I mean look at this thing that round
thing on top on the right that’s a
tennis court The Plaza Hotel in New York
what can one say about the plaza we all
know an incredible hotel this amazing
thing on South Beach the Phi in a hotel
where the owner commissioned the artist
Damien Hirst to create a custom piece of
art for him a woolly mammoth skeleton
dipped in gold
20 million bucks but who’s counting and
this robot hotel in Tokyo where if you
are a local you go to the middle and get
checked in with that robot lady if
you’re a tourist you get the dinosaurs
thankfully I was a tourist ICEHOTEL in
Sweden now I like my rooms cold but
that’s a bit much for me and the marina
sands in Singapore the alien ship on top
that’s a swimming pool now don’t get me
wrong these are amazing buildings
incredible hotels incredible
architecture but bear with me because
I’m gonna ruin this for you I’m going to
tell you that these buildings are
nothing more than brick and mortar glass
and steel and no matter how
sophisticated elegant or beautiful these
buildings may be there are some things
they cannot do buildings can’t smile
they can’t listen they can’t anticipate
a need they won’t get out of their way
to open a door or hail a cop for you
because that’s what we humans do I’ve
been in the industry for about 25 years
and I’ve learned a lot of things I’ve
learned that I guest in a hotel will
really appreciate it if you remember
their name and they really love you for
it if you know what kind of pillow they
like I’ve learned that humanity matters
far more than buildings far more than
art cars or things you may throw a
guest’s and through my career I’ve
collected a lot of stories as you can
imagine it’s the hospitality industry
after all we see all the madness that
happens to stories resonate and always
stand out for me and if you’ll allow me
I’m going to share a couple of them with
you so fortunately I have lots of
friends in the industry and lots of
connections and I’m lucky that every
hotel I go into inevitably I walk in the
room and there it is in the corner a
beautiful cheese tray a nice bottle of
wine and a card with my name on it
sitting at a 45 degree angle against a
bottle of wine now it’s midnight that’s
typically when I get to my hotel room
that cheese tray was put in the room
probably around 2 p.m.
that cheese has seen better days it’s
sweating by now I could see the sweat
beads running down the side and that
Brie
I’ll spare you the smell description you
can smell it right now and the bottle of
wine may have been ten dollars or a
thousand dollars it doesn’t matter
because it’s midnight I’m not touching
it and if my life depended on it I will
not take it with me because I’m not
checking my bag in and that note the
unfortunate note has become such a list
they all say the same thing
dear mr. Whalley thanks for being with
us we hope you enjoy your stay if you
need anything please call on us sadly it
goes in the recycling bin I don’t even
open it except for this one hotel I walk
in the room it’s midnight
there’s the sweaty cheese there’s the
wine and there’s the note however not in
an envelope this time jackpot for an adv
guy you skip a step for me I’m yours so
purely out of guilt and a little bit of
wishful thinking for karma I say what
the hell I read the card I walk up to
the card and as my soul is being crushed
reading the same junk again bla bla bla
welcome we hope you enjoy your stay on
the bottom the card said PS blackish on
ABC is on channel 12 at 8 o’clock
tonight
holy my brain is racing
why how how did they find out so I
quickly run to my computer whip it out I
go to Google in private and yes I know
how to do that and at Google my name and
there it is the third entry down is my
facebook profile the public portion of
it said that I liked the show your wine
be damned your cheese be damned you got
me
I got trolled and I kind of liked it I
must say you’ve won me for life because
you cared enough to find out something
about me and to connect with me on a
human level that hotel one nights or 10
nights I’m not moving away another quick
story generally when you make a
reservations at a hotel a good one
they’ll ask you if you have any special
and this one is one of mine so a bit of
self-promotion here so bear with me
so this guest evidently in a whisky
induced state decides to make our
reservations and he decides he’s going
to ask for a special request he asks for
two mints to be placed on his pillow
when he arrives in the room and asks for
a hand-drawn framed photograph of Neil
deGrasse Tyson and a love note from Neil
to Bill Nye the Science Guy boom I would
have paid a fortune to be a fly on the
wall in that room and see that guy’s
face when he walked in the door I
promise you he probably forgot that he
even made that request but he will never
forget that we feel filled in for him he
will be a customer for life he will be a
brand ambassador for life and he will
tell everyone he knows about this hotel
this stuff is gold
we love this you give me an opportunity
to surprise and delight you easy here’s
what the note said Billy you and I are a
binary star together we are a symbiotic
Marvel however should we ever drift
apart all of the space-time wouldn’t be
enough to fill the void in my heart I
would implode due to the massive nature
of my grief and would succumb to my fate
and collapse upon myself movie my place
this weekend love Neil let’s talk a
little bit more about this human
connection business I’m gonna get a bit
of Darwinian on you here so bear with me
we humans are pack animals we had to be
together we had to stay together to
survive as a species you couldn’t run
off in the forest by yourself and
pretend that you could survive you’d be
eaten alive it’s so part of our DNA
that’s why emotional pain hurts so much
more than physical pain that’s why
social denial hurts so much that’s why
those Instagram likes matter so much
our upbringing has seen us up for a
lifelong quest of meaningful
relationships we humans need air water
food to survive but our need to fit in
is equally as important we have an
insatiable longing for belonging I’m
about to give a shout out to one of my
archenemies it pains me to do it but
bear with me it makes sense generally
when you go to make a hotel reservation
you’re dealing with a highly mechanized
corporate machine and I hate to break it
to you but when you often think you’re
actually talking to someone online it’s
not as someone it’s a bot not Airbnb the
brilliant move they made is that when
you decide to book on Airbnb you are
immediately connected with a human
better yet they call him a host there’s
something intimate about walking into
someone’s living room there’s something
intimate about staying at someone’s
guest room I believe this is a good part
of who of Airbnb success is their
ability to make that connection with you
with a human in a foreign city in a
foreign land this human connection
business it applies to any business it
doesn’t matter what business you’re in
high-end low-end high tech low tech it
doesn’t matter if you know how to
connect with people you will always win
over an able competitor because people
always have do and always will want to
do business with other people not
machines not computers you slack all you
want use email use messenger use
anything you want nothing will replace
that human connection that one-on-one
call me old-fashioned but I believe that
my appeal as a businessman is my ability
to make those connections with people if
I’m doing a deal with you all those
communication devices and methods make
it easier to do so but they never
replaced that human connect
I’m gonna make the time I’m gonna find
the time to go see you to buy your
dinner to buy you a cup of coffee to
have a drink with you nothing will
replace that there’s still hope and
dignity in a handshake I’m gonna give
you an example
banking one of the most mundane
transactional based experiences we all
hate it who wants to go to a bank Umpqua
Bank in Portland Oregon when Ray Davis
came in to be their CEO that’s six
locations he decided wholesale that
everyone in the bank
top to bottom has to go through
hospitality training he literally pulled
people out of the hospitality industry
to do this training for the bank he took
all the bank branches and converted them
to the equivalent of hotel lobbies
social gathering places free Wi-Fi free
coffee yoga whatever he invited the
community in whether you had to do
business at the bank or not you were
welcome he made a bet that if he was
able to connect with his customers on a
human level removing the transaction
part of it which is the necessary part
that he still had to do but really
connecting with him on a human level it
would make a difference well he was
right three hundred and fifty locations
from six added some fifty million bucks
on his balance sheet of deposit he got
it right we’re talking about banking
here it doesn’t get any more
transactional than that this is the
stuff of Harvard Business case studies
my industry is very focused on service
as is every industry frankly it doesn’t
matter what business you’re in you have
to provide good service service sadly
has become very transactional it’s the
checklist we tell our people in hotels
when someone checks in used our name
three times exactly because that’s what
we’re supposed to do ritz-carlton once
the gold standard for service in the
hospitality industry has a credo card
the every employee had to carry and
memorize and practice that credo with
every guest it doesn’t get any more
checklist than that you definitely need
service in your business but service is
what gets you in the in the game service
doesn’t win you the game it’s your
ability to make
human connections is well ultimately
will we knew the game when we all focus
on making connections with the people
around us it makes us healthier happier
humans of course there’s monetary
benefits out of making those connections
but as a human being as a citizen of the
world I believe understanding our need
for making those connections will make
us want to make more of a difference in
the lives of others religion politics
hashtags aside it brings us back to the
core of humanity the decency we all
deserve as human beings living under the
same Sun breathing approximately the
same air so my challenge for you in this
room today is to go out there and find
your blackish moment and it literally
doesn’t matter what business you’re in
find that moment that allows you to
connect with a customer with a partner
with anyone those are the things that
are going to set you apart from your
competitors here’s what I believe I
believe there’s dignity opportunity in a
handshake in keeping an open door and
open mind and open heart in sitting
across from someone looking them in the
eye and making that human connection
that’s the only way we’re going to be
able to deal with all the havoc in the
world right now
empathy intimacy quiet respect
one-on-one eye to eye cell-to-cell a
kind of poetry of our species this
poetry is going to help us make sense
out of the chaos it’s going to help us
find beauty and poetry out of the
madness in the world today buildings can
do that we here in this room can so go
out there make some serious human
connections wreak some havoc on the
havoc and remember we’re all people
first and fill in the blank second thank
you
[Applause]
hundred and twelve thousand five hundred
and three miles in the last 12 months I
have stayed in 167 different hotels 167
different hotels over that same time
period I’m a hotel fanatic I never stay
in the same hotel more than one night
three days in New York that’s three
different hotels for me I travel so much
that I’ve earned the incredible
unobtainium status on Delta don’t bother
looking it up you won’t find it and you
can’t get it you need infinite miles to
get that high and along the way I’ve
burned through seven terabytes on
snapchat with video that thankfully you
won’t find because it’s gone but why
should you care I’m gonna tell you a
little bit about what I’ve learned from
my travels I have learned that we as
human beings have a single most powerful
tool in our Arsenal and that is our
ability to make human connections I
believe we are people first in hotel
your second and that’s the key to our
success I’m gonna take you on a quick
journey with me through some of the
amazing hotels I’ve seen as data
hopefully not 167 of them I’ll only show
you seven Burj Al Arab in Dubai in the
UAE I mean look at this thing that round
thing on top on the right that’s a
tennis court The Plaza Hotel in New York
what can one say about the plaza we all
know an incredible hotel this amazing
thing on South Beach the Phi in a hotel
where the owner commissioned the artist
Damien Hirst to create a custom piece of
art for him a woolly mammoth skeleton
dipped in gold
20 million bucks but who’s counting and
this robot hotel in Tokyo where if you
are a local you go to the middle and get
checked in with that robot lady if
you’re a tourist you get the dinosaurs
thankfully I was a tourist ICEHOTEL in
Sweden now I like my rooms cold but
that’s a bit much for me and the marina
sands in Singapore the alien ship on top
that’s a swimming pool now don’t get me
wrong these are amazing buildings
incredible hotels incredible
architecture but bear with me because
I’m gonna ruin this for you I’m going to
tell you that these buildings are
nothing more than brick and mortar glass
and steel and no matter how
sophisticated elegant or beautiful these
buildings may be there are some things
they cannot do buildings can’t smile
they can’t listen they can’t anticipate
a need they won’t get out of their way
to open a door or hail a cop for you
because that’s what we humans do I’ve
been in the industry for about 25 years
and I’ve learned a lot of things I’ve
learned that I guest in a hotel will
really appreciate it if you remember
their name and they really love you for
it if you know what kind of pillow they
like I’ve learned that humanity matters
far more than buildings far more than
art cars or things you may throw a
guest’s and through my career I’ve
collected a lot of stories as you can
imagine it’s the hospitality industry
after all we see all the madness that
happens to stories resonate and always
stand out for me and if you’ll allow me
I’m going to share a couple of them with
you so fortunately I have lots of
friends in the industry and lots of
connections and I’m lucky that every
hotel I go into inevitably I walk in the
room and there it is in the corner a
beautiful cheese tray a nice bottle of
wine and a card with my name on it
sitting at a 45 degree angle against a
bottle of wine now it’s midnight that’s
typically when I get to my hotel room
that cheese tray was put in the room
probably around 2 p.m.
that cheese has seen better days it’s
sweating by now I could see the sweat
beads running down the side and that
Brie
I’ll spare you the smell description you
can smell it right now and the bottle of
wine may have been ten dollars or a
thousand dollars it doesn’t matter
because it’s midnight I’m not touching
it and if my life depended on it I will
not take it with me because I’m not
checking my bag in and that note the
unfortunate note has become such a list
they all say the same thing
dear mr. Whalley thanks for being with
us we hope you enjoy your stay if you
need anything please call on us sadly it
goes in the recycling bin I don’t even
open it except for this one hotel I walk
in the room it’s midnight
there’s the sweaty cheese there’s the
wine and there’s the note however not in
an envelope this time jackpot for an adv
guy you skip a step for me I’m yours so
purely out of guilt and a little bit of
wishful thinking for karma I say what
the hell I read the card I walk up to
the card and as my soul is being crushed
reading the same junk again bla bla bla
welcome we hope you enjoy your stay on
the bottom the card said PS blackish on
ABC is on channel 12 at 8 o’clock
tonight
holy my brain is racing
why how how did they find out so I
quickly run to my computer whip it out I
go to Google in private and yes I know
how to do that and at Google my name and
there it is the third entry down is my
facebook profile the public portion of
it said that I liked the show your wine
be damned your cheese be damned you got
me
I got trolled and I kind of liked it I
must say you’ve won me for life because
you cared enough to find out something
about me and to connect with me on a
human level that hotel one nights or 10
nights I’m not moving away another quick
story generally when you make a
reservations at a hotel a good one
they’ll ask you if you have any special
and this one is one of mine so a bit of
self-promotion here so bear with me
so this guest evidently in a whisky
induced state decides to make our
reservations and he decides he’s going
to ask for a special request he asks for
two mints to be placed on his pillow
when he arrives in the room and asks for
a hand-drawn framed photograph of Neil
deGrasse Tyson and a love note from Neil
to Bill Nye the Science Guy boom I would
have paid a fortune to be a fly on the
wall in that room and see that guy’s
face when he walked in the door I
promise you he probably forgot that he
even made that request but he will never
forget that we feel filled in for him he
will be a customer for life he will be a
brand ambassador for life and he will
tell everyone he knows about this hotel
this stuff is gold
we love this you give me an opportunity
to surprise and delight you easy here’s
what the note said Billy you and I are a
binary star together we are a symbiotic
Marvel however should we ever drift
apart all of the space-time wouldn’t be
enough to fill the void in my heart I
would implode due to the massive nature
of my grief and would succumb to my fate
and collapse upon myself movie my place
this weekend love Neil let’s talk a
little bit more about this human
connection business I’m gonna get a bit
of Darwinian on you here so bear with me
we humans are pack animals we had to be
together we had to stay together to
survive as a species you couldn’t run
off in the forest by yourself and
pretend that you could survive you’d be
eaten alive it’s so part of our DNA
that’s why emotional pain hurts so much
more than physical pain that’s why
social denial hurts so much that’s why
those Instagram likes matter so much
our upbringing has seen us up for a
lifelong quest of meaningful
relationships we humans need air water
food to survive but our need to fit in
is equally as important we have an
insatiable longing for belonging I’m
about to give a shout out to one of my
archenemies it pains me to do it but
bear with me it makes sense generally
when you go to make a hotel reservation
you’re dealing with a highly mechanized
corporate machine and I hate to break it
to you but when you often think you’re
actually talking to someone online it’s
not as someone it’s a bot not Airbnb the
brilliant move they made is that when
you decide to book on Airbnb you are
immediately connected with a human
better yet they call him a host there’s
something intimate about walking into
someone’s living room there’s something
intimate about staying at someone’s
guest room I believe this is a good part
of who of Airbnb success is their
ability to make that connection with you
with a human in a foreign city in a
foreign land this human connection
business it applies to any business it
doesn’t matter what business you’re in
high-end low-end high tech low tech it
doesn’t matter if you know how to
connect with people you will always win
over an able competitor because people
always have do and always will want to
do business with other people not
machines not computers you slack all you
want use email use messenger use
anything you want nothing will replace
that human connection that one-on-one
call me old-fashioned but I believe that
my appeal as a businessman is my ability
to make those connections with people if
I’m doing a deal with you all those
communication devices and methods make
it easier to do so but they never
replaced that human connect
I’m gonna make the time I’m gonna find
the time to go see you to buy your
dinner to buy you a cup of coffee to
have a drink with you nothing will
replace that there’s still hope and
dignity in a handshake I’m gonna give
you an example
banking one of the most mundane
transactional based experiences we all
hate it who wants to go to a bank Umpqua
Bank in Portland Oregon when Ray Davis
came in to be their CEO that’s six
locations he decided wholesale that
everyone in the bank
top to bottom has to go through
hospitality training he literally pulled
people out of the hospitality industry
to do this training for the bank he took
all the bank branches and converted them
to the equivalent of hotel lobbies
social gathering places free Wi-Fi free
coffee yoga whatever he invited the
community in whether you had to do
business at the bank or not you were
welcome he made a bet that if he was
able to connect with his customers on a
human level removing the transaction
part of it which is the necessary part
that he still had to do but really
connecting with him on a human level it
would make a difference well he was
right three hundred and fifty locations
from six added some fifty million bucks
on his balance sheet of deposit he got
it right we’re talking about banking
here it doesn’t get any more
transactional than that this is the
stuff of Harvard Business case studies
my industry is very focused on service
as is every industry frankly it doesn’t
matter what business you’re in you have
to provide good service service sadly
has become very transactional it’s the
checklist we tell our people in hotels
when someone checks in used our name
three times exactly because that’s what
we’re supposed to do ritz-carlton once
the gold standard for service in the
hospitality industry has a credo card
the every employee had to carry and
memorize and practice that credo with
every guest it doesn’t get any more
checklist than that you definitely need
service in your business but service is
what gets you in the in the game service
doesn’t win you the game it’s your
ability to make
human connections is well ultimately
will we knew the game when we all focus
on making connections with the people
around us it makes us healthier happier
humans of course there’s monetary
benefits out of making those connections
but as a human being as a citizen of the
world I believe understanding our need
for making those connections will make
us want to make more of a difference in
the lives of others religion politics
hashtags aside it brings us back to the
core of humanity the decency we all
deserve as human beings living under the
same Sun breathing approximately the
same air so my challenge for you in this
room today is to go out there and find
your blackish moment and it literally
doesn’t matter what business you’re in
find that moment that allows you to
connect with a customer with a partner
with anyone those are the things that
are going to set you apart from your
competitors here’s what I believe I
believe there’s dignity opportunity in a
handshake in keeping an open door and
open mind and open heart in sitting
across from someone looking them in the
eye and making that human connection
that’s the only way we’re going to be
able to deal with all the havoc in the
world right now
empathy intimacy quiet respect
one-on-one eye to eye cell-to-cell a
kind of poetry of our species this
poetry is going to help us make sense
out of the chaos it’s going to help us
find beauty and poetry out of the
madness in the world today buildings can
do that we here in this room can so go
out there make some serious human
connections wreak some havoc on the
havoc and remember we’re all people
first and fill in the blank second thank
you
[Applause]
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