137 – TMG Hospitality Trailblazers: Paul Coury

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

Chairman and CEO of Coury Hospitality, Paul Coury, is recognized as a TMG Hospitality Trailblazer!

Paul joins the Suite Spot to give viewers a look at the Coury Hospitality brand and how it grew from its humble beginnings of one hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a portfolio that contains the most extensive collection of Autograph Hotels.

Paul’s story is one of perseverance and triumph. Tune in to hear the whole story and be sure to subscribe!

Episode Transcript

Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree with another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. We’ve got a fantastic episode. First time guest, I’m gonna bring him right into the conversation. Paul Coury, chairman, CEO of Coury Hospitality. Paul, thank you so much for being with me on the Suite Spot.

Paul Coury :
Thank you, Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited to have you here. We’re gonna have a great conversation today, all about Coury Hospitality. But you know, as many times as we’ve done this TMG Hospitality Trailblazers, whether this is your first or 12th, 15th time hearing, this type of series, what this all about is about the pioneers hotel management companies, brands that are pushing our industry forward towards the future. We work in such an amazing industry, and certainly Coury Hospitality. And Paul, you’ve done some, some great things we’re gonna talk about. But before, as many times as we’ve done these episodes, I can guarantee you one thing. This question is never answered the same way because no two hospitality professionals have the same upbringing or journey into hospitality. Share with us a little insight and background into your journey that ultimately led you to Coury Hospitality.

Paul Coury :
Well, thanks again, Ryan. I look forward to trying to enlighten your audience today. It’s a great industry. I have heard this term by a lot of hoteliers, that they are accidental hospitality individuals, and I kind of fall into that category. I’ve never worked in a hotel. I never, you know, maybe a few restaurants when I was super young as a busboy or something, but mine was a journey of starting a real estate company in the mid eighties. And we, purchased a building and next door to this building was an old historical hotel in Tulsa that had sat there an occupied for many years. And we ended up purchasing that asset as strategical consolidation with the building and some land that we were buying. And then we set out on a journey to redevelop it. And I think at the time we were gonna, we were working with Hyatt to do one of their first suite hotels. It, it happened to be a bad time, like all cycles, right? We caught ourselves in the middle of the big oil bust that hit and lasted 20 years in Oklahoma. So while we never developed that hotel, it did subsequently get developed. We owned it for 10 years and introduced me to some people in the industry through some exposure, marketing exposure. And we ended up doing some consulting for a family outta Chicago that owned many hotels and golf courses around the country. And, you know, what I would say to you is that was my first exposure to the concept of a boutique hotel, because these were really small hotels that were very, I don’t know if I would say run down, but they, they weren’t, they weren’t cared for. They weren’t a true design or boutique, but they were great locations. For example, the Royal Palms was one of them. There were others like that. There were some ground leases the Phoenician Resort, the Harbor Beach, Marriott, things like that. So I was exposed to the industry and learned a lot about, you know, small hotels and family owned operations and things of that nature. And our first actual hotel occurred in the mid nineties when we purchased another building, historical building in Tulsa and converted it to a boutique hotel. And it opened in 99. It’s the Tulsa Ambassador, and we still own it 25 years later. I’m not a very good seller. And, It’s been a magnificent asset. It’s, it’s been like the golden goose in so many respects. It’s just outperformed itself four years and still remains top in, in the market, 25 years later.

Ryan Embree:
How special for that property that still be one of the leading performing ones in, in the portfolio, which is really cool to see. And yeah, your story is one that we can relate to on this podcast. We’ve had many people sit in that chair, and essentially say the same thing. I fell into the industry. So for those HR professionals out there that are, that are hiring, it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone in hospitality that is going to be your next hospitality start, especially with staffing shortages that we’ve definitely been combating in our industry for the last couple years, thinking outside the box, because a lot of these hospitality professionals don’t expect to have the type of hospitality start or have that vision for the future. And, and then you end up like stories like yours, Paul. So, let’s shift our conversation to, you have a beautiful portfolio over there at Coury Hospitality, obviously known for being the largest operator of Autograph Hotels. I’ve actually had my start in hospitality out Autograph Hotel, love the collection. Why do you feel like the Autograph Hotel collection is such a great fit for Coury Hospitality?

Paul Coury :
We joined that brand in 2014, and I think they launched it in 2008. And I was courted to bring four of our hotels in for a couple of years before we did. And the brand was the first boutique soft brand to really hit the market. You know, Marriott was head of Hilton and Hyatt by four or five years, and they really did a good job of understanding what they were trying to create. And I think they held true to that brand initially. It was mainly historical buildings that they would bring into in special locations and so forth, and ones that didn’t fit a brand profile, the, the design, the rooms, et cetera. But there were standards that they had created that you needed to comply with and minimums, and they would create some pips. So for the four that I had that were all historical billings that we did at a very, you know, four-star level, in my opinion, it was a really good fit. Subsequent, you know, it just became an incredible performer for us. We saw RevPAR growth plus 30% over the first two or three years. And those are big numbers. And in some of the assets I already thought were at the top of the market. The evolution of that and where we are today is you’ve now got a Bonvoy brand with, in the case of Marriott with 2 million members, 200 million members, I’m sorry. And, and over 150 autographs open and more in the pipeline. The evolution of the tribute, which is is another version of Autograph. But for us, it allows us to do our thing, design them at a high level, highly activate ’em, have good brand pull through, and each, each hotel has its own story. Each one has its own mini brand within the Autograph brand. So for us, with our creativity and the way we approach hotel, you know, being a hotelier and, and our design platform, it’s, it’s just been an incredible fit. And it was almost like it was made for us.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And, and you don’t have the thresholds of, it’s exactly what you said. I mean, with the strong brand behind you, you don’t have the thresholds of maybe a traditional brand to say that, you know, this is the limit of my ADR, this is the limit of my RevPAR. And you can tell that story. You can design that story to a place that’s compelling and competitive for guests when they come in to have that unique experience that they might be willing and to pay a premium for. So obviously a lot of success in the lifestyle, hospitality, space and sector, being a leader in that lifestyle, hospitality. Are you noticing any trends right now as we get into 2024? And how are you evolving kind of your operations on hotel operations side to kind of stay ahead of the competition?

Paul Coury :
Good question. I mean, there are a lot of people in that space now. It appears that everyone in some form or fashion with all brands wants to look unique. They don’t wanna look homogenous, which is a good thing, but it does make it tougher to meet the customer’s expectations. And again, this is kind of becoming a little bit overstated, but Covid also created some new challenges and expectations with the guest after coming back. And so what we did was, and we, we kind of made this decision in the midst of Covid, and we were looking at how, what, what happens when you come out of this? We started saying, well, activation is going to be critical, unique activations. Yeah, great. You’ve got a rooftop bar and you’ve got a speakeasy, or you’ve got a nice bar. So, but now what? So within those spaces, you have to create unique opportunities for people to go experience something they haven’t experienced before. Whether it’s, you know, some of our speakeasies, we turn into dinner clubs, the old school dinner clubs, we really leaned heavily on music. One of our properties has three or four opportunities to listen to music on any given night if the weather’s right and you can open up a couple of your outdoor spaces. You know, we’ve really, we’ve really empowered our, we, we call our employees experienced curators. And so the notion there is that people are collecting stories and experiences, and it’s up to, I mean, as much as I would love to greet everyone and make sure that my brand and, is pulled through, I have to rely on my experienced curators to do that. So we’ve really focused on having them understand our culture, what we’re trying to deliver to the guest, and that it’s not just anymore saying their name and saying here’s a bottle of water. So on check-in, you do something unique. You may have a specialty cocktail that’s paired with a food appetizer or something in their room, or something that, you know, in the afternoon they can come down and participate in the property. So, you know, Ryan, one of the things that occurs to me that’s changed in the hotel world too, is, you know, when I was early in my career, hotels were still a place that people would go in the community and gather whether it was a business meeting or social event, and then somewhere along the way that kind of went, went out of vogue and it was the last place you wanted to go. And you, you know, people would check in a hotel, you may have a great steakhouse, they would say, where’s good steakhouse? Right here. They wouldn’t buy into that. That they’re like, okay, great, I’m gonna go down the street. So it’s changing again. Now, hotels are the community gathering spots. And so when you design those, you’ve got to activate those in a way where you’ve got multiple opportunities to meet what you may want or what someone else may want. I mean, you can’t be everything to everyone, but you, you want more than one thing. You want several things. And if you come and then whoever’s with you, okay, well, let’s, we had a nice standard, let’s go down to the speakeasy where they specialize in cocktails, handcrafted cocktails, or we have a wine venue where it’s all, it’s a private club and you, you can buy individual glasses of high-end wines and in a very intimate setting. So it’s, it’s really so much more. And then when you design the property, it’s also the uniforms, it’s the sound, it’s the smells, it’s the what do the, do the table settings and the plate wear? Do they pull through with the brand and someone sees that something feels really good but they can’t tell you what it is. Right? They can’t say, oh, this uniform and this silverware matches what I’m seeing around me.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. That the type of stuff that rises above that level of sameness. You know, and one of the places we talk about on the podcast is to say, well, how well are you telling your story is what, what type of feedback are other guests sharing to future guests online? Right? And, and I don’t remember, to your point, I don’t remember the last review that I saw. Well, guess what? I got this really great bottle of water when I checked in. But it was something where we went into this beautiful lobby, there was music playing, it kind of set the, the energy and the vibe for my stay. That’s the type of feedback that you want online for that next traveler to see. I think it’s a fascinating trend, what you brought up. It’s you’re actually the first person that’s kind of opened my eyes to this, but you’re right. You know, getting the community back into the hotels, what happened during last couple years was our radius of travel shrank to, ’cause we didn’t want to get on planes or anything like that back in covid. So what we, we started looking at was maybe those unique properties that we hadn’t experienced that has a unique experience right in our backyard. So to see more and more people do that and to be set up in a place where I can give you a unique experience, I can give you something that you’re not gonna find a couple exits down the road, I think sets you up for success moving forward and certainly is gonna be something that owners and developers are gonna look for. And, and I wanna just kind of pick your brain a little bit, Paul, when you have those conversations about a new property, which we’re gonna talk here in a second about one of the newest ones coming up for CouryHospitality. But when you have those conversations, give us some insight into how you kind of curate for owners and developers, every aspect of that experience, from culinary to entertainment, design, art is a, is a big piece I know in your portfolio as well. Give us a little insight into that.

Paul Coury :
I think, I’ll give you an example. In Kansas City, we had a historical hotel and then we added a new wing on new architecture, and we opened up and Covid hit like it did for so many people. And so we basically moved our restaurant and bar outside, and we had a, on the new building, we had a, a one story parking that you could pull under the building with open sites. So we ended up putting some curtains up. We took furniture out there, and we started serving dinner out there. And, and we brought in some music and it became incredibly popular. So I happened to be there one night, and they brought in this musician that I’d never heard before, that was a well-known jazz musician in Kansas City name’s Lonnie McFadden. And I heard this guy and I was blown away. I mean, he was a great musician and all that, but he was a storyteller. He tap danced, he played instruments, and he talked about the history of jazz in Kansas City. He was in his late fifties at the time, I think, and he had a family legacy that went back to his father. I approached the guy and I said, look, you’ve got a great show. Why have you not ever done your own venue? He’s like, well, people have told me this, and it’s never happened. So we happened to have, in our old building in the basement, our old ballroom, we had a new ballroom in the new building. So we ended up negotiating a deal with him where we created a jazz dinner club and put his name on it, and it’s called Lonnie’s Reno Room, and which was named after an old club in Kansas City. And we did a menu that’s old school, beef Wellington, cordon blue, things like this. And it was a prefixed menu, and you would pick one of each item, and we set up, we designed a stage, we did low lighting. It’s really, you know, sexy space. Well, what a success story it’s been, can’t get in. He’s been voted the last three years, the best jazz musician, best venue. And when you go down there, you see all age groups. You see super young kids on a date, very special date, typically. Or you see people my age and older going down there for just with a group special occasion. But you know, the whole story, the branding, the authenticity, it’s so real. It doesn’t feel like I just put something there to go have a drink and it’s dark. You leave there and you feel like you saw something that changed your life. I’m not kidding you. I tell him, you could put this show anywhere in the United States, and it’s gonna be one of the best shows because of him and his, his unique skillset that could talk, you know, the stories, the history, the music, the tap. You just don’t see that. So we got really lucky, but we learned from that. We learned about being authentic and finding someone in the community that people can connect to. And so this, again, this community notion, we are leaning into that so heavily right now in all of our new properties and existing,

Ryan Embree:
Well, I mean, you think about a larger trend and just not even in hospitality, but just society right now. Like we are craving authenticity with, with AI and, you know, all of this technology coming and which obviously there are some elements that we can, we can do to improve the guest experience, you know, help our employees out. But from a guest perspective, we’re looking and we’re craving that authentic experience there. And it’s more than just hanging up a piece of art in the lobby and saying, well, this was a local artist here. Maybe 90% of your travelers are gonna walk by and not recognize the uniqueness of it. So being able to incorporate that in your culinary, your F&B elements of your lobby, but you also have to have your staff members on board. They have to know the history behind this too. They have to buy into that story as well, because if it stops at a building or if it stops at experience and your, your employees aren’t in that, it gets lost. It’s just like a game of telephone because your staff is very, very critical in telling that story to your guest and making sure that that falls on the, on their shoulders, the weight of that and saying, wow, this is really cool that I’m in this historic building that’s been here for a hundred years and I’m getting to experience this. So all very, very cool stuff. And, and right on point with what we talked about on this podcast before, Paul, let’s switch to one of the, those autograph collection properties that are in the pipeline. You said there was a big pipeline. Well, you’ve got one of them in there. You’ve already have a major footprint in Texas, where I’m from originally, you’re expanding in Texas, in fall 2024, the first Autograph Collection Hotel in Frisco, which has just been, I mean, that was booming when I lived there a decade ago. Hall Park Hotel discussed the exciting development and what travelers can expect from this new project.

Paul Coury :
That’s going to be, I mean, it’s literally a hundred yards from the Star, which is, you know, the big training facility that Jerry Jones built for the Cowboys. And it’s a whole immersion engagement that he created. And we were lucky enough to be selected by Craig Hall, who owned a lot of buildings in that area and was one of the first developers of that area. And he actually raised a couple of existing buildings and then built this new hotel and apartments and some office. But when we got involved with that, I would say Craig, Craig’s passion is art. And so this hotel will have a park that flanks it, a major park, and he’s going to do a lot of art in the park Statuary special unit, very unique. I don’t even, it’s being curated at a very high level. And I think one of the challenges was while you would, well, on the, on the surface, you would think that the notion of a art hotel would be easy. It’s very difficult because, you know, you’re not, you’re not gonna go probably do cowboy football art, and that’s gonna work. I mean, that would be your first thing you would think of is, oh, I’m by the star. I’m gonna do pictures of former cowboy football players. So once again, we got involved, he was already actually under construction and had laid out what, what he thought his vision was for the restaurant and bar. And we were like, you know, Craig, let’s rethink this. We want two bars, and your family has a history also with the wine business. They own Hall Wines in Napa. So we created a separate bar and wine area, a lounge that would, that would focus on, you know, selling very special cheeses where you could go in and select 20 or 30, I forgot what they call it, cheese sommelier, but it’s called like a smellier or smellier or something like that. So we, we did that and then we created another bar and restaurant with a large outdoor space that pulled in the park and so again, we thought, we’ll lead this with the food and beverage and tie into more the soft story to Craig Hall, which was the wines, and he and his wife Catherine. And then the art would follow. And so that’s where we’re at now. The property will open the end of the year and the art’s being designed and activated for it based on what we created there. And it will have a lot of really large suites. It’s going to have 60 suites, which is really unique. And so I think it’s going to provide a product and that part of Frisco that’s super elevated, it’s a beautiful design, and I think it’ll be one of the nicer autographs probably within the system when it’s all said and done.

Ryan Embree:
So Cool. Fascinating, really to hear kind of, again, the thought process that goes behind that. I’m sure all of the renderings, all of the ideas that kind of get put on the table, and then carefully kind of, you know, there’s a reason for everything. And, and you know, we’ve had a couple brand leaders on recently on the podcast, and from a curtain in a room to an extra sink in a suite, there’s a reason for everything. And whether it’s the, the guest feedback that they’re hearing, whether it’s associate feedback they’re hearing or owner development, and trying to incorporate their story, which is really, really cool into a new property like that. So very excited to see that open at the end of the year. And again, you know, if you have the opportunity to go there now, you’ve got some background and can kind of understand the thinking and thought process behind that. So you’ve got such a collection, we’ve talked about already, ultra unique lifestyle hotels. One of the ways to set expectations, we’ve talked a lot about it, social media marketing, right? That I’m sure those experiences that you’ve shared, so far, those rooftop bars on a sunset on a Friday night with a packed crowd and music going. That’s all over Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. So tell us your philosophy on kind of strategic social media marketing, especially with these unique hotels that where you have to tell a story so everyone can experience the elevated experience that you’re offering.

Paul Coury :
Again, another great question, and I keep referring to Covid, but that’s kind of a point where I think a lot of the world was reset, but prior to that, we had just decided as a company that we were going to have a social media person at every property, that we weren’t gonna hire a firm. I mean, we still work with firms, but, and we weren’t gonna do it from a corporate level, although we have that and then help direct them. But we wanted it at the property in the moment, you know, conveying the message. And what I had heard and really resonated with me was that 80% plus of the decisions people were making on where they’re staying was influenced by the internet. They were going somewhere. Either they’re going to Bonvoy, they’re going to Instagram, they’re going to TripAdvisor, they’re going to Google, they’re going somewhere when they’re either looking or confirming that’s where they want to go. And so what do they see? Does what they see say, I wanna be there. So we, we had made that decision and then, and then Covid hit, and obviously people were furloughing but that was the one position we did not let go. And we decided that we didn’t know how long it’s gonna last, but we wanted to keep in front of people. We, we wanted to keep our hotels still in front of people and not miss that window, and they forget about you. So it’s been the best thing we’ve done. And if our company’s involved in a hotel we have, and we started off calling this person an experienced curator, and then we went further with that whole notion said, all of our employees are experienced curator, all of our people are there trying to deliver our story and our message. And we don’t really, for example, I don’t say every one of you can post on Instagram, what’s going on here? We don’t want that kind of, you know, we wanna control it. But they’re still doing, you know, they’re, they’re talking, they’re, they’re still posting their own personal things about what they’re doing and what’s going on. So we’ve seen a lot of growth and we’ve seen a lot of growth in our activations occurring with the local community. So in our project in Grapevine, Texas, which is the Vin Hotel, I would say 70% to 80% of our guests that are engaging in our property are outside. They’re not hotel guests, they’re people being driven to the property by activation from our social media. And then guess what? The old word of mouth, you know, you tell, I had this great experience, I had to, and you tell a story, and then this story, five other people here, and you know, you remember the book, the, the tipping point that was very popular, you know, 25 years ago. That was what the whole notion was finding important people, mavens, if you will, that would say something great about your widget or your hotel and then it self manifests. So it’s, it’s as simple as that. It’s good old fashioned word of mouth that you’re now doing through social media.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Word of mouth to potentially, you know, back in the day, it just used to be maybe your close network of maybe 20 of family friends, and now it’s, you have access, putting it on an organic page of, you know, 200 million, sometimes hundreds of millions of people of seeing that and exposing your brand. And, and you hit it the nail right on the head, Paul, as far as what we preach here of a consistency. And it’s so funny to see that something stemmed from your social media position to you opening that up to the entire associate over there at Coury Hospitality, because you realize that the importance and the power that this can have on influencing future travel there. So speaking of marketing for Coury Hospitality, you guys have, along with your beautiful portfolio, a beautifully designed website, and on it, your profile on there, Paul saying, we’re not just developers, we’re storytellers. Our properties come alive through storytelling. Now, we’ve talked a little bit about some tools that you can use to do the storytelling, but how do you and your team of experienced curators, you know, story tell for your properties?

Paul Coury :
We also have a term now as activate every inch. And we’ve actually found in, in the case of the Vin again, which is in Grapevine, it’s a wine inspired hotel. But after we opened in September of 20, we have created two more special speakeasy type room. And so through, again, like I can create a beautiful room, but then what do I do to activate it and bring it to life? And that’s the story part, you know, that’s the rest of the story. And that’s what brings the people in because they understand your messaging and they get it. They look at that and they say, that’s what I’m looking for. And then they become part of the story and so on and so forth. So it’s actually, it’s simple, but it’s not, you know, trying to activate something takes a lot of work. Takes a lot of work, and we have standups like every hotel does, but we also have constant brainstorming sessions about what do we do now and how do we keep it fresh? There’s an opportunity with everything, the Kentucky Derby, mother’s Day, on and on. But you can create, you know, Cinco de Mayo, all there’s, there’s standards out there, but then you have to come up with your own. How many Taco Tuesdays have you seen out there? you know, yeah. Wind down Wednesday. It’s all trying to find a reason to create a new chapter for people to, to come and have fun.

Ryan Embree:
You know, it’s so easy on the flip side, as a traveler, looking for those experiences. ’cause we do it in our, I know I certainly do, you know, we do it in our own, you know, research online when we’re looking, we wanna feel a part of something, a part of the story and a part of experience, and be the first one to share it, by the way. Right? How, how good does that feel when you go to a really cool spot restaurant or anything like that, and you’re the one that gets to say, Hey, you have to check out this spot, and then all of your friends and family are like, wow, that was incredible. That was a really cool experience that I had there.

Paul Coury :
Ryan, there’s a whole trend going on right now. Private clubs and privatizing and even taking it to the next level of exclusivity. And, you know, there’s different opinions about, is that right or wrong? But the truth is, people are all about that. If you put up a sign that says members only, you drive people nuts. It, it’s like, what’s behind the door? Well, we can’t show you unless you’re a member. I mean, it’s happening everywhere. I just, I just toured a hotel in Arizona and they have a very high end club, and it’s $90,000 to join. And it’s within a hotel. I toured another one in Newport Beach in a high end hotel, same deal. We did it on a very small scale with a 45 seat wine club that we call Cave Society. So we’re now looking on one of our designs that within the restaurant space and the bar, we’re going to create a private club within that, that, so let’s say you have fish in a regular restaurant. Well, this version may have tableside sole manure where they come and present at tableside. I mean, that’s an example of how you might elevate that experience for someone. And if they want that and they want to be in that exclusive world, they’re going to hotels to find that. Yeah. Isn’t that ironic? I mean, yeah, it used to be a hotel was a place you would go to sleep to park your stuff and, and be treated well. That was the old saying. It’s just, yeah, it’s, it’s, the price of poker is going up. And particularly in this space, it’s just, you’re going to have to always find another way to give the guests an experience they can’t find somewhere else.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. That’s an, that’s a fascinating term. Continue to keep an eye on, but certainly goes right in line with what you talked about, about getting the community involved there and super, super smart idea. So we’ll continue to keep an eye on that. Checking down your LinkedIn feed for Coury Hospitality. Make sure you follow them. Where you recently announced your new motto, unmatched moments. Share us a little bit more about the idea behind the motto and the feedback you’re getting from your associates on your town hall tour that you’re, that you guys are doing right now.

Paul Coury :
Yeah, we believe that, again, for us to tell a story, to have an unmatched moment that occurs at every interaction with the guest, every interaction be a chance to create a memory, good or bad. If someone interacts bad with you, you created an unmatched moment also. So we’re interested in the good unmatched moments first, I wanna qualify that, but so we’re really with our, with our going to the people with our little show, and we’re town halls, we’re meeting with them, we’re making sure they understand the culture. We want them to be a part of the culture, but we’re not just saying, do this because you should. We’re treating them the same way. We’ve created two platforms of bonus programs, all of our line level people, including housekeepers, including front desk, and they have opportunities in two different ways to make meaningful bonuses. Not just like a $50, you know, gift card or something like that. So our idea is that we’re gonna commit to you and show you loyalty, and hopefully you’ll learn that that’s a two-way street. And again, I’m old enough where I’ve got some interesting historical perspective, but the notion of loyalty has changed. I mean, gen Z and and millennials have a different idea about how long you work someplace. Six months and a year is a long job. I mean, I’m going off on a little bit of a tangent, but I’m trying to get to a point if I’m gonna create people, if I want people working for me that buy into our philosophy about engaging with our guests and creating unmatched moments, they’ve got to feel like we’re treating them the same way, and that they’re respected and they’re treated with a commitment. And then in turn, they’re gonna share that with who they interact with. It’s an interesting management philosophy that’s existed for a long time, but instead of it coming from them to us, we’re trying to take it from us to them.

Ryan Embree:
Certainly an interesting way, again, at the top of the episode we talked about, I mean, we’ve got, we still are combating those staffing challenges. So finding ways to connect with your associates. ’cause you’re right, you know, there, there was a time in Covid where we had to, we had to furlough, we had to lay off a lot of these associates. So building that trust is gonna be super important to kind of change the narrative of what loyalty looks like in hospitality. So your team members aren’t jumping ship for another dollar an hour across the street or, or anything like that. You want to create an environment and have buy-in like I talked about earlier. I mean, if that line of communication can move from the building to your associates, to your guests, that is how you create those memorable experience. So interesting to hear that. And your thoughts on, on staffing and, and the culture over there at Coury Hospitality. We’re gonna jump into some rapid fire here before we wrap up. You know, and I typically save this line of questioning for what’s called our spotlight series, where we talk about one particular hotel. But I think you got such a unique portfolio over there. I’m gonna try to stump you with some of these. So, favorite view at one of your properties?

Paul Coury :
I think my favorite view is the Vin because when we designed it, we’re, we’re in a older community that really leaned on the train world. And then what happened was they also have this high speed rail now that we’re on the first stop from DFW, and it’s a bullet train, Swiss bullet train. So we built this massive window that when you walk in, that’s the money shot. You see the train yard, you see our outdoor activation, and you really feel like you step back in time.

Ryan Embree:
That’s very cool. Favorite fun fact about one of your properties, Paul.

Paul Coury :
Okay, so my first hotel, which is the Tulsa Ambassador, was built by a gentleman, general Patrick Hurley, who went on to become Secretary of War under Hoover. And his father-in-law was Admiral Byrd from World War I that led the Atlantic Fleet. So he named this and he was ambassador to Iran, ambassador to Russia, ambassador to China. This guy was a major player, so this hotel was called the Ambassador. He did another one called the Commodore in deference to his Father-in-Law. And I really felt such a interesting connection with that history. And then I was able to find his son, who was a very famous artist, Wilson Hurley, who did big landscapes and, and like, he’s in the Smithsonian, he’s in the Cowboy Hall of Fame, some of his pieces. But I was able to meet him and get to know him before he passed. And just that he, he had an estranged relationship with his father, during their life for various reasons. And when I met him, the son, he was 80 years old, right? Or 70 years old. But it was cathartic and it did some healing with him and his father in a strange way for this hotel to be restored and bringing him in. He had said, I would never come back to Tulsa. And you know, I was young in my career in the hotel, but that was, that’s a great, to me, something that I’ll always feel like was a real historical connection.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, that’s super cool. And again, one of those stories that, you know, you see a piece of art or I would encourage, obviously we’ve got a lot of hotel owners, associates listening to this podcast. I mean, that’s, go ask about, you know, these pieces of art that you see. And and that’s gonna be one of my next questions here in a minute. But, you know, there could be some very special story behind, you know, some of this stuff. So, favorite signature dish?

Paul Coury :
Beef Wellington.

Ryan Embree:
All right.

Paul Coury :
And, and that goes back to the chalkboard restaurant that’s in Tulsa Hotel. That restaurant had been in some form or fashion since the seventies. That was always their signature dish. We’ve kept it, we’re doing another chalkboard. We’ve kept it, I’ve used it in Kansas City, and it’s an old school classic that you don’t see very often. And if you haven’t ever had a beef Wellington, I encourage everybody to try a beef Wellington.

Ryan Embree:
I like it. All right. And last one, favorite piece of art?

Paul Coury :
Okay, so we were in, we’re opening another Vin in Rogers, Arkansas, which is the Bentonville headquarters or Walmart headquarters. And we were in Aspen for the wine and food show last June. And I went into a gallery and I found this bronze. It’s about 10-12 feet wide, four feet tall, and they’re big grapes, cast grapes on a deal. And the artist is a very famous Chinese artist, Robert, I’m not sure, KUO Robert Kuo. And he’s, he’s like 85 years old, and this was the last piece he cast. So we bought that in anticipation to make it a major focal piece for the new Vin in Rogers. And so when we’ve designed our lobby and all this, we’ve taken this big piece. We, we have it, we, we’ve figured out how we’re gonna hang it, and it’s gonna be displayed over the front desk, and it’s gonna be a showstopper, and it is magnificent. So that’s my first real big investment in something that I consider true art, and I’m really excited about, you know, having people see that, talk about that.

Ryan Embree:
That’s interesting. It’s, that’s one of those stories that you hear, you know, the lobby was planned probably around a piece of art and not the, not the other way around, but I’m sure we’ll see it all posted all over social media as we, as we talked about on this episode. As we wrap up here, you know, we always like to wrap up these episodes, especially with trailblazers such yourself and, and fast moving hotel management companies like Coury Hospitality, with a little bit of a glimpse into the future. What’s your vision for Coury Hospitality over the next five years or so?

Paul Coury :
We’re gonna stay true to what we do. We’re gonna stay in this space. We’re really focused on it. We’ve got a lot in the pipeline in different stages. And needless to say, the economy’s kind of slowed up some financing for us and for other people. But I could see us with 20 to 30 more over the next five years. And we have a couple of brands we’re gonna develop. I think the VIN is one. We have a concept we’re working on in Frisco that is, is really taking it to the next level. It’s a, it’s a very fine hotel with five restaurants attached to it, and people are doing that now. You know, Sam Fox just did one in Arizona. He did the global ambassador, and he put his brands on there, his restaurant brands on there. We’re partnering with a restaurant group. They’ll do some of those and, but they’ll be attached to the hotel. Think of a food hall except instead of individuals, small kiosk, real restaurants, right? Yeah. With their own outdoor space, you can share certain spaces. I think this is a trend. I think this is, is going to be keeping it to the next level and what people’s expectations become to draw them in.

Ryan Embree:
That sounds amazing. I mean, you certainly on this podcast episode have added some things to my travel bucket list, so I really appreciate the time. Paul, thank you for joining me here on the Suite Spot. And yeah we’ll keep an eye on Coury Hospitality and all these exciting projects you got going on.

Paul Coury :
Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate you thinking of us.

Ryan Embree:
Thank you so much for everyone listening to the podcast, and we’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.