I Am A Hotelier

I am a hotelier. My very livelihood centers around making my clients and guests feel comfortable, safe and welcome. In these uncertain times, let's slow down, take a breath, keep each other in our thoughts, keep the conversations going, keep being kind to one another and keep supporting one another. Hospitality and tourism is one of the largest economic drivers in the world, and in some cases entire countries depend on it.

To the millions of hospitality, travel, F&B and entertainment professionals out there: Keep the faith. This is painful, but things will get better. Stand together. We will be stronger because of it.

This is something that I wrote to my hospitality friends a couple of days ago and posted on my personal social media pages. I never imagined that my first blog post would reflect the ever changing nature of our industry. I meant everything that I said above, and will stand by it throughout this entire ordeal. We, as a industry will bounce back. When? We don’t know, but we will.

Since January I’ve been living in Coral Gables helping out a hotel. Before returning home to California last night, I spent the last few days shaking my head, consoling some amazing hard working people and watching the hotel plummet even lower in occupancy than we thought possible. Amazing employees full of smiles one day and head down with tears the next.

It’s so important that we remember that 10% of the work force in the United States is made of of employees in hospitality (hotels, bars, restaurants, etc.). They are some of the most loving, generous and warm people that you can meet. I’m writing this so that people really understand who is behind your non-fat lattee, Dirty Martini, and linens in your rooms.

I will always encourage anyone to join this amazing industry. It’s been, and will be a wonderful way to earn a living. Full of ups and downs, (like all industries) but rewarding and so much fun. Anyone who is thinking about hospitality, go for it. You meet amazing people and develop life long relationships. Exactly like the people that I met this last few months in Coral Gables.