We all look to the news and commentary coming from the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in January as the tone-setter for the year ahead. Investors excited about making deals? That optimism is what we need to go for it! Brands talking a lot about luxury? Let's get ready for that segment to keep blowing up.
But the hands-down best takeaway I heard from the ALIS stage this year?
It was the story Thomas Penny, president of Donohoe Hospitality, told about the conversation he and his daughter had about joining the hotel industry. As he told it on the Breaking Boundaries panel, he suggested a couple companies she might be interested in, she took a look at one in particular and told her dad, "How can I spend 20 or 30 years with a company when I don't see any folks that share my gender represented within the executive leadership?" Penny said.
Ouch. Burn. Feel it. It's real and it's not good.
In a time when diversity, equity and inclusion programming and goals are on the federal and state chopping blocks, already trickling down to private companies, this story should sting especially hard.
So don't let it. That's my challenge today to you all today. Don't let up, not in our industry especially. U.S. companies have all been given an "out," a get-out-of-jail-free card to cut the programming, slash the goals, not worry about it. Focus attention and money elsewhere.
But I want you to worry about it. Your daughters and employees and friends and colleagues want you to worry about it.
Staffing challenges are still real. People in Penny's daughter's generation are watching and choosing companies accordingly.
This is real. Diversity, equity & inclusion goals and programs are real, they have real benefits and they affect real people.
What an amazing opportunity for hospitality companies to show their commitment to the reality that everyone travels, everyone stays in hotels and everyone benefits from hospitality.
I can't wait to see how you all show up.
Email me, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Want to send me a vintage hotel postcard? Email me and I'll tell you how.
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