Through the generosity of the AHLA Foundation, five students and I had the opportunity to attend the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in Atlanta last week. I love attending conferences because they’re fun, you make friends, and they often get me thinking in a new direction or about something new in general. And that’s just what happened in Atlanta.
During the “Wall Street” session segment of the conference, there were some very heavy hitters discussing the relationships between brands and owners. To put the scale of the participants into context, we’re talking about leaders from companies like Hilton Worldwide and BlackRock. They were discussing potential purchases in the billions of dollars. The four participants and the moderator were truly big dogs.
One interesting concept that all parties seemed to agree on was the concern about the commoditization of the hotel product. I think this concern is completely warranted, as it increasingly seems to me that hotels of different brands are very similar to one another. One of the ideas suggested (that is leading to the commoditization of hotels and their brands) was the increasing fragmentation occurring in the industry.
Obviously, there are exceptions to this fragmentation, but it does seem that many owners do not operate their properties – certainly not on a day-to-day basis; many brands do not own their properties; and even the hotels themselves are viewed more as “revenue-generating assets” rather than “hotels”.
This last point was highlighted further as some major owners had focused their capital on investments in different “revenue-generating assets” – things like data centers. In speaking to some smaller owners and brokers, they noticed this shift away from hotels, too. In fact, one of the hottest trends in “revenue-generating assets” right now is daycares.
All this got me thinking: With all this fragmentation that is occurring, how will this impact the future? My conclusion is that it will allow for more and more specialization within the hotel industry.
As part of our experience at the conference, the AHLA Foundation set up several intimate sessions with industry leaders. These allowed for frank discussions as well as Q&A sessions for the students. Each of these smaller sessions was incredibly inspirational, and all of the leaders were hardworking, charismatic, and very smart. Although I probably could have filled this entire article with quotes from the sessions, there was one that stood out to me:
Identify your value-add, then capitalize, then monetize.
This quote, connected with the increasing fragmentation that has occurred in the industry, really got me thinking about opportunities that will exist in the future, particularly for young professionals and students.
In another general session on artificial intelligence, there was an “aha” moment for me that put the opportunity much more in focus. The people on the stage in the AI session (who were experts) only had about two years’ worth of experience working with AI. The newness of AI in general is a huge opportunity for anyone. Even a complete novice can get ramped up quickly on perhaps the biggest technological opportunity of all time.
And I’ll give you an example of a quick ramp-up. In that same general session on artificial intelligence, a web development site (Lovable.dev) was mentioned. This site was described as somewhere that anyone could put in an idea and a website or app would be created. It was mentioned by one of the panelists, who said that his elementary-aged son logged on and created a basketball game within minutes.
So later that evening, I checked the site out, and it really was incredible. I was able to very quickly create an accounting game: Financial Statement Classifier Game. Check it out – AI really is incredible and powerful.
And that brings me back to the point of this article: to genuinely and enthusiastically encourage everyone out there with an entrepreneurial spirit to go for it! Because right now, at the intersection of fragmentation, specialized skills, and AI, it feels like many barriers that may have existed in the past have been broken down. So, ask yourself:
Do you have an idea?
Do you have a specialty?
Are you an entrepreneur?
Do you have a basic idea of some of the AI tools out there?
If the answer to these questions is yes, then in my estimation, for you, the sky’s the limit. And if it’s not you? I still believe that looking for your specialty, identifying where you can fit in best, and learning about AI will also bring you great opportunities in the future.
What a time to be alive! It’s not too late to get in on the AI boom and use all your talents and specialties to give yourself the next big opportunity. So go get it!
Tucker JohnsonUniversity of Houston – Conrad N. Hilton Hotel CollegeUniversity of Houston
