The Hotel Investor Playbook
Welcome to The Hotel Investor Playbook, hosted by real estate investor and hospitality operator Michael Russell. Michael is the co-founder of Malama Capital and Howzit Hostels, and has built a personal real estate portfolio exceeding $20 million.
With an operator-first mindset, Michael brings a practical perspective to hotel investing. On the show, he breaks down what it actually takes to scale from short-term rentals into boutique hotels, covering deal sourcing, operations, capital strategy, and risk.
Each week, Michael shares real lessons from the field as he builds toward a $400 million real estate business, giving listeners an honest look at the decisions, challenges, and strategies behind the growth. Subscribe and follow along as he documents the journey in real time.
The Hotel Investor Playbook
Hotel Technology You Can Install To Boost NOI | Sue Graves E56
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Looking for hotel technology that can actually increase profit and reduce expenses without hiring an IT department?
This week on the Hotel Investor Playbook, Michael Russell sits down with Sue Graves, founder of Experience Alive, who has spent over 30 years in hospitality and now helps hotel owners implement practical, affordable tech solutions that make a real financial impact.
In this episode, you’ll discover several technology use cases you can implement today, including:
- Offload up to 50% of front desk calls through conversational AI
- Use delivery robots to run leaner night shifts and boost service speed
- Track linen and towels with RFID to cut losses and eliminate manual counts
- Build a sustainability story that supports better refinancing terms
- Plus more!
Whether you own a 50-room boutique hotel or manage a national brand, Sue shows how to make technology your competitive edge.
About Sue
Sue Graves is the Founder and CEO of Experience Alive, a hospitality technology consultancy helping hotels, restaurants, and convention centers modernize operations through AI-driven solutions, robotics, and guest personalization tools. With over 30 years of leadership experience at Marriott International and the Greater Columbus Convention Center, Sue brings a deep operational understanding to innovation in hospitality. As the founding chair of the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association’s Innovation & Technology Committee, she has championed initiatives that boost efficiency, guest satisfaction, and staff retention across the industry. A recognized voice on the future of tech in hospitality, Sue continues to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and real-world hospitality challenges, empowering teams to deliver more human-centered, high-performing experiences.
Connect with Sue
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suegraves/
Website: http://Experiencealive.com
Connect with Michael on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Email Us at info@hotelinvestorplaybook.com
Visit the Hotel Investor Playbook Instagram
Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook, your guide to building wealth and freedom through hotel and hospitality ownership. Hosted by Michael Russell. Get in the game. Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook. I'm Michael Russell, your host and co-founder of Malama Capital. On this podcast, we talk story about everything you need to know to make money investing in hotels and in hospitality assets. And today we're talking about the kind of technology that can actually make your hotel more profitable without needing a massive budget or an IT department. And our guest is Sue Graves. And she spent three decades running hotels from housekeeping to the C-suite. And now through her firm Experience Alive, she helps owners implement affordable tools that cut costs, reduce turnover, and unlock new revenue. So, Sue, welcome to the show.
Sue Graves:Thanks, Michael. Happy to be here.
Michael Russell:When you first started your company, I want to know what problem did you see again and again in hotels that made you say, someone needs to fix this.
Sue Graves:I saw a lot of problems. This was at first, I spent a little time in the convention center industry. I was nabbed out a major brand to help build technology solutions and to build luxury hotel, sort of five-star hotel standards for the convention center industry. And I did that during the $140 million renovation and expansion of the 17th largest convention center in North America. We were named number one convention center in North America when I left after working with the team to institute some awesome solutions to help support better gas satisfaction and operational efficiency. So I saw a lot of problems in the industry because the industry was doing the same thing. We're in pandemic mode where 80% of the hotel staffs were laid off. And my friends were calling me from the industry quitting, saying, I can't do the same thing the same way anymore. I'm dying. And my heart went out to the industry, and I said, Well, there has to be people out there that are coming up with solutions to fix some of these problems. And if they are, I'm going to find them. So my passion for the industry really led me to start my own business to help support the industry to a greater degree rather than operating one hotel, one convention center, one brand. I wanted to help everybody. Independent hotels, operators, owners, asset managers, anybody that needed help and support, finding unique ways to stay alive, frankly. It was an interesting time. So at that point in time, it was kind of good to start my business this way because I was able to uncover some NASA and technology solutions through virtual pitch competitions all over the world that I attended that might not otherwise have afforded me the opportunity to do so. And so I was able to start building relationships right away worldwide to help interview these people that had these technology solutions. I've probably interviewed over 450 companies in the last three and a half, four years. I don't work with 450, I work with the top 20 probably that are making the biggest difference for the industry, for operators, for owners, shedding light on everything from AI to robotics to everything in between, training and development solutions, helping hotels understand that sustainability doesn't necessarily have to cost money, but actually can be a way to reduce expenses by reducing the carbon footprint with energy solutions that are very affordable and have a quick payback. So these are the kinds of solutions that I've looked for to help owners, operators, and asset managers optimize the workforce, optimize workflow situations, and directly impact the improvement of morale for employees at the same time and bring NOI to the bottom line.
Michael Russell:Yeah, I think that right now you touched upon a couple of buzzwords, but artificial intelligence and robotics, I definitely think that those are the things in the future that people are leaning on or looking forward to resolving a lot of potential cost issues and potentially bringing in more income. And so if we compartmentalize those two for right now, because I want to dig into that, but in general, technology is it's weaved into everything that we do in hotel operations. And I guess I want to understand well, what is the thread that connects you and your operational background to technology that helped you recognize you had a role in which you could help operators to improve and be more efficient, ultimately drive more NOI?
Sue Graves:I kind of understand from the ground up, Michael. I mean, I I worked as a dishwasher in college. I put myself through college waiting on tables. I was a housekeeper. And because of the opportunities that were afforded by me to be able to work in those positions, I understand workflow from a very basic level, from the hourly level. I didn't come in starting as a general manager. I worked my way up. So I understand what workflow looks like. And when I found solutions, let me give you just one example. I manage three airport properties. I'll tell you general managers who are managing airport properties need combat pay because it is a tough cookie. When you get stranded passengers and uh hundreds of them standing in your lobby, and you're trying to check them in as fast as possible, and the phone's ringing off the hook. So two years ago at high tech, I found this solution and I was like, oh my God, where were you when I was running airport hotels? So this can I stop you real quick?
Michael Russell:What is what is high tech?
Sue Graves:Oh, Hotel Information Technology Conference. It's a big hotel conference that focuses on technology. And so a lot of technology solution providers are at that show. Anyway, this solution provides an Uber or Lyft or now Weymouth type solution for guests to actually see the shuttle coming transparently. Well, what a novel idea. Like, where was that? So it in current state, those hotels that are airport properties or otherwise that have shuttle service and want to advance the guest experience to what the guest expectation is now. Every single guest is using Uber or Lyft to take them somewhere and maybe Waymo now. Okay. So why are we so latent with this solution, this technology solution in adoption in the industry when guests are already used to it? Okay. Guests of all ages, genres are all using that technology. All this technology solution provider did was adopt those same features and say, look, what would it look like instead of calling the hotel to say, where's the shuttle? I don't see it. Did I miss it? This technology solution saves 2,000 to 6,000 calls off the front desk a month. Because guess what? Once the guest is picked up, because they can transparently see the shuttle coming. So if they need to run to the restroom, if they need to they want to go get a cup of coffee and it says 15 minutes away, they can do so. This type of solution is a game changer.
Michael Russell:Yeah, well, what you're describing is is one technological benefit, right? And and that's just you're using this as an example, but I think it's a great example to demonstrate a point, which is there's two facets of implementing this technology that you've referenced. One, guest satisfaction, and two, potentially cost savings. That's a multifaceted advantages, advantage. And I think you you rolled that out, but as you were speaking, I kind of unpacked in my head and said, okay, that's just one example. I really want to dive into the promise of tech and how it pays for itself and how this could really be, from an owner's lens, advantageous, providing better customer service, but ultimately lower cost and more net income. So that's what I'm excited about digging into in today's episode.
Sue Graves:Well, that's great because I'll tell you what, you're probably going to lower your turnover because morale is going to improve because nobody wants to answer the phone and say, where is the shuttle? You told me 15 minutes ago and I've been waiting 30. Well, we all know they haven't been waiting 30. They've probably been waiting three minutes and just are impatient. So, yeah, the desk clock doesn't want to do that job and get yelled at. And it's frustrating. It's a repetitive task that can be replaced simply with a very affordable solution that, again, can reduce turnover. If if employees have to put up with that every single day, they're going to wear out.
Michael Russell:I think what you're also describing, so there's technology these days that it provides the same advantage, like conversational, agent-style chatbots, or otherwise now the phone service where the the AI sounds like a real person. It's really can be hard to distinguish. It's not like from a few years ago where it was clearly robotic, or even prior to that, people get so frustrated when people would outsource to foreign countries because it was cheaper, but then the experience was so terrible because you couldn't understand what they're saying. Conversational AI has just really moved forward quickly. So, in like real terms, how does this work? What does it cost? How are hotel owners implementing that?
Sue Graves:Yeah, conversational AI. I work with a great solution provider that's moving to a GenTic 3.0, means that essentially the agent can actually process thinking and get a call to the right location rather than robotics. So this solution can, you know, speak in 20 different languages. The LMM model is essentially trained by scraping your website. I was on a demo call with them. They took a hotel and they said, Okay, what language do you want it in? She said, English. We're in Minneapolis. It took 30 seconds for the AI to scrape her website. And he said, Okay, ask a question about your hotel. So she said, How close are you to the airport? And in a very nice, not robotic, human voice, like you and I talking, Michael. It answered her question in one second. So she's like, Holy cow, she goes, Can you make this? I want it to sound like more fun because my hotel is fun and I want to drive engagement with fun. So he's like, sure, let me pick a different voice. He said, Ask another question. How long will it take for me to get a shuttle from the airport? It answered her. A fun voice. She said, I like that voice, that's the one I want. These are things that are available now. They offload 50% of calls off the front desk agent. So imagine the repetitive questions that an agent takes every single day and how boring and repetitive it is. Give you examples. What are the restaurant hours? Do you have a pool? Do you have a jacuzzi? Do you accept pets? I can go on and on and on, and it is unnecessary. So the other thing is, is our industry is suffering from about 70 to 80% turnover rate. It's two to three times higher than any other industry, and it's not sustainable. So what conversational AI does is look, you have a new front desk clerk who is not going to know all of the answers immediately. But guess what? Conversational AI knows all the answers immediately, especially the repetitive questions. Conversational AI can also improve revenue because guess what? When I call in and I say, hey, I'm having a birthday party for a three-year-old, who can help me with this? Conversational AI will send it to the right sales manager immediately. There's a hotel, thousand-room hotel in Atlanta that offloaded 80% of calls under 120 days. Imagine what that does for number one, the guest experience. Number two, the morale of the staff jumped exponentially. You're going to save people by implementing technology that can cover these repetitive, boring tasks that the desk clerk doesn't want to do anyway. And you're going to increase revenue that will support the agent, which is a cost of under $500 a month. Now imagine what that looks like. That's huge savings.
Michael Russell:I think I want to dig into this because I'm connecting the dots as you're speaking here. And I know that replacing staff is such a huge burden, such a cost. Like you're talking about ramping up training, and that can be cumbersome on everyone else involved because now they're carrying more load. If you've got someone new and someone else having to support them, and this constant burden of like training new people is tough on staff morale and labor retention can be tough. People are constantly in and out and they're burdened by all the monotonous tasks. So there's this idea that, yeah, it could save on cost because you don't have as much turnover. And when you do have turnover, to your point, it's the ramp up to be able to provide great service is reduced. The part though that I want to dig into here that is important to distinguish, you've mentioned now like a thousand-room hotel in Atlanta and some other larger establishments where there's hotels have sales teams and such. So to me, that's alluding to some of the bigger organizations. But for our listener, let's say, that has an interest, maybe either is currently owns or operates or has an interest in doing so, let's say a hotel room that is anywhere from 20 to 100 units, right? Maybe it's an independent hotel. It could be branded. But I want to know about what are the tech solutions that can be applied for these smaller, independent hotels that really move the needle, that give them a competitive advantage where they can compete against some of these larger hotels. Because that's where I see competitive advantages happening too, is that smaller outfits that maybe didn't have huge budgets are now able to compete against the larger bad boys as well because they're implementing the right technology. So can you give us a couple of examples of ways in which smaller operators are using this technology?
Sue Graves:Absolutely. So I would say that any hotel that has a hundred rooms or more can utilize this conversational AI solution effectively and get the same result as a large hotel. Yes, I did give you an example of a thousand-room hotel, but a hundred, they might need three or four agents. What I'm saying is this a hundred-room hotel would probably need one agent, okay? And that would offload just as many calls off the front desk, allowing that one desk clerk instead of three desk clerks to be able to pay attention to the guests in front of them, giving the empathy that our industry is known for, allowing them to have a conversation, human conversation with a guest who might have an issue or want to have a conversation about what areas to explore in this city or what looks great near them. Right now, we don't have, we are not empowering employees to be able to do that. So technology is an empowerment solution, allowing our employees to act and add value at a higher level. That's what we want all of them to do. We're paying them more money. Let's utilize their human components to do the human things we're paying them for, right? So that conversational AI can do that. Now, many of these independent boutique properties have valet service. So what does that look like? In its current state, ballet companies typically are using old technology. So I found a solution that updates the technology. Guess who keeps the information on the guest, the owner of the hotel bus? In its current state, who owns the data? Your third-party proprietor owns the data. So anything that a hotel owner can own, they need to own the data. So in this particular case, a guest that's arriving will be able to use a QR code while they're having breakfast and say, I need my car in 15 minutes. In its current state, what do we have going on? We have a paper ticket and you go down and you stand in line for 15 to 30 minutes. You're anxious because you don't know when your car is coming, and it's creating a poor guest experience. By calling ahead and having the know-how on your phone to be able to enable yourself to advance that technology and advance that valet experience to a higher level, you're not only getting the car faster and when you want it, but you're allowing the guest to finish breakfast if they need to finish breakfast rather than having the car sitting there. Not only that, I own the data as an owner. So I know everything. I know how many cars are parked within an hour. I know if there's damage to a car, I know everything about the guest and what kind of car they're driving. So now that enables me, data is powerful. When you have data, you can employ those analytics to give a better guest experience when the guest arrives and when they depart. That's just one solution in addition to the conversational AI.
Michael Russell:Yeah, I think I'm I always wonder like, well, why is it that others are not doing this? Like it's so obvious. What are in your experience in speaking with hotel operators? You're presenting them, hey, look, this is great technology. You should implement this. What do you think? Why do you think that there is this reluctance from some owners to presumably spend the money to invest in this technology?
Sue Graves:I'll tell you what a big part of it is. The best part of my day is when I'm on these calls and I'm sharing solutions and they go, that exists? Most of the time, they don't even know this technology exists. So they just stick with the old way because it's the only way they know.
Michael Russell:Yeah, that makes sense. I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about robotics because I think sometimes people get the most freaked out about robotics. They think that this is the kind of vision of the future where humans are just doing nothing, they're not working, and robotics have taken over the world. But I I know that we're that's possible, but we're still far way away from that occurring. I want to talk about what's going to be happening here in the next few years. What are some starter use cases for small hotels that's not gonna intimidate people too much, that will actually have practical, applicable purposes? What are people using robotics for these days?
Sue Graves:Yeah, this isn't futuristic. This is happening now, Michael. So, you know, there are delivery robots that are making a huge change in the guest experience. I don't know if you've experienced this, but I've experienced it. As a female traveler, if I forget my toothpaste and I'm brushing my teeth, it's typically after I'm showering, and then I go, oh my gosh, I gotta brush my teeth before I leave. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm standing in a towel. Okay, this is really embarrassing, but I got to call the front desk and I have to have somebody come up and deliver toothpaste because I can't go down in my towel. Well, it's typically a male delivering the toothpaste. So here I am, I got the towel wrapped in my hair. It's just not a good situation. Then they're standing there waiting for a tip. I'm like, where do you expect me to pull this tip from? I'm giving you the scary version, okay? So now enter in robotics. You need toothpaste, you need extra towels, you need anything, okay? A pizza box can fit in there. It can deliver pizza, it can deliver food. Now the robot is deployed from the front desk. You type in the room number, everything is already mapped. The entire hotel. Is mapped for the robot. The robot can even call the elevator him or herself. You can name the robot, make a part of your team. Let's call the robot Molly. Molly the robot is going to be bringing you your toothpaste. And Molly will ping your phone for you when she's at your door. So now the guests can, I can go about my business in the room if I need a quick email to be done. Now all of a sudden I get a ping on my phone. I know Molly's at the door. I open the door, Molly says hello, I push a button, I grab my toothpaste out of there and I shut it. Molly says thank you. And it's super simple. And in hotels that are independent hotels and boutique hotels that are using this solution are increasing revenue like crazy because in the morning, guests don't want room service. They just want a coffee and a croissant most of the time. Sometimes just a coffee. So if you have a retail shop and you just have coffee, guess what? Your coffee sales are going crazy right now. There's a boutique hotel in San Francisco using this that actually added a second robot to their team because the demand was so high for the robot to deliver coffee in a croissant in the morning. They're paying for the robot just with the increased revenue. So room service takes too long, and all you want is I just want a couple of great latte. And then the robot's going to get up there quickly and efficiently. And guess what? Nobody's touching it except for the server who put it in the robot. That's the other thing. You have extra towels that you need at night. Who's delivering those towels? Typically an engineer. Well, where's that engineer been? Before the engineer touched your towels, right? So this also offers an opportunity for creative cleanliness. Let the engineer do the engineer job. Let the robot deliver the towels that are clean and fresh and only touched once.
Michael Russell:Yeah. We had Bob Rauch on the podcast not too long ago. He's known as the hotel guru. And when he was describing how he's using robots in his hotel, very similar to what you described. But what he mentioned was particularly at night, he can run a lighter staff because he'll have, for example, one front desk agent sitting there at the desk. But in the middle of the night, you have 24 hours, someone's got to be there. In the middle of the night, if someone were to request a towel, that person can't leave the front desk. So he's either A, got to hire someone else to work. So there's two staff members there, or B, you can just use the robot, the front desk staff person can remain there. And then the robot goes off and it does its thing and there's no engineer needed. You know, there's just the service can be provided faster, presumably, because they're not trying to locate someone who's in the middle of doing something. It's like, okay, just send the robot. So I see how there's a lot of convenience that's offered for the guests, but also potentially cost savings and labor. I'm curious too, then, if we fa fast forward to the future, like what are some of the things that you expect robots will be doing in the future?
Sue Graves:Let's talk about housekeeping. Housekeeping is, and I was a housekeeper, so I can speak firsthand about this. There are solutions out there now, but there will be solutions in the very near future that will really give a housekeeper a little buddy. So if you think about making beds, beds are very difficult to make. I'm very tall, and I had to actually buy volleyball knee pads that I used because I had to make the beds on my knees because ergonomically it was so backbreaking, and it is very, very difficult work. Carts are loaded with supplies that have to go in guest rooms, towels, sheets, pillowcases, shampoo, conditioner. Those things weigh a lot. There are advantages now that have mobile operated carts. So carts can actually mobile move. So I feel like what we need to do is we need to employ technology where we can reduce risk, apply ergonomic solutions to extend the life of our housekeepers. There's a lot of slip and falls that are occurring. I found a solution that uses ozonated water for cleaning instead of chemicals, and it's 70% savings on your chemical costs. A traditional hotel utilizes about 17 different chemicals. This solution provider can get them to two. Imagine what that does. And you can save 70% in chemical costs. Not only that, guess what? Your injury of slip and fall reduced by 70%. Because guess what? When chemicals dry, they leave a residue. Anything that hits that floor is going to make it slippery. When water, ozonated water dries, you have a dry floor. So this has been adopted globally by at least one major brand now, but it is also in boutique hotels and independent hotels, saving 70% chemical costs. These are huge solutions that are available now. So when you say future, I'm thinking a robot's making a bed in the future. Okay. That's going to happen. Um, but in its current state, I found a solution that ergonomically lifts a bed electronically 12 inches, 360 degrees around the bed, allowing the housekeeper to vacuum around the bed, allowing the housekeeper to make the bed ergonomically 12 inches higher, up to 12 inches. So you're extending the life of your housekeeper and reducing injuries by using ergonomic solutions such as this that are available now.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Well, there's a lot of excitement about some of the technology that is front of the house people see, but behind the scenes, back of the house stuff, there's a lot of money that could be saved. Nobody sees it. You're talking about chemicals and things. One thing that blew my mind, I heard about recently, was this RFID linen tracking. So, you know, you might be able to break down how that works, but in essence, basically there's a little microtrip that's that's attached to some linens. And then if it goes disappearing, you can quickly understand well, where are my linens and how many do I have? Like these are the back of the house things, like I'm saying, that no one sees from an operation standpoint. This technology actually matters. Can you walk us through? Like, do you have experience with these RFIDs?
Sue Graves:Yeah, I support a great solution provider that's in independent hotels and branded hotels. They're in about two or three hundred hotels now. Um, and I'm helping them expand. So, yes, RFID technology. So when you say it's ship, people think it's a hard guests are gonna be able to feel it. They don't feel it's soft, it's pliable, you don't feel it. It's sewn into the hem of every single sheet, towel, pillowcase, robe, anything that has a hem, you can put an RFID tag in. Okay. Imagine RFE to our RFID tag as a social security number for a king sheep. So social security number for the king sheep is only sewn into the king sheep. So that's how it identifies through RFID technology what that linen is. This is a king sheet, this is a pillowcase, this is a king pillowcase. It will have its social security number. Now, this solution has technology that sits, can sit outside of the uh ceiling level or can sit under the ceiling level in a laundry department or near the back dock where you, if so, if you use a third-party linen provider, put it on the back dock so that as the linen is pushed out, it reads it. It reads it within 40 feet, which is unbelievable. The solution provider I work with. There are many RFID tag solution providers. Most of them can only read eight to ten feet. Some of them you have to put in a box that you pay an exorbitant amount of money for and you don't have space for. This, no. This is why I vet the very best solutions, because I know there's no space in laundry for a box that you have to push the bin in and then hit a button to read the linen. You don't have to do that. With this solution, within 40 feet by the normal movement of linen through the property, it is reading, sending you, the owner or operator, a linen inventory on a daily basis that arrives in your inbox at 8 a.m. and tells you how much linen you have on a daily basis. So, what could you do with that labor that might take one to two or three hours, three or four people that is not done accurately? Guess what? You're not counting the linen in the chute, and you're not counting the linen in the washer. Okay. So it's inaccurate anyway, the way we're doing it now. And guess what? When I sent my houseman up to count linen, they were down in five minutes. They said, it's about 200 sheets. They're not counting the linen, they're eyeballing it and saying, Sue, I think we got about 200 hand towels up there. They're done in five minutes. They don't want to do that. They're not up there, you know, counting, counting each piece of linen. So now you have predictive analytics. You can budget accordingly.
Michael Russell:What does it cost for this RFID, though? I'd like to know how this can be applied in a real world scenario.
Sue Graves:Well, Michael, because because I manage so many hotels and I've worked with so many different kinds of owners, I am very aware of what owners and operators need and look for. So guess what? I found a free solution. The RFID technology does not cost any money. This solution provider sends it to you for free. Your maintenance staff can install it for free. Okay. So it saves 10 to 20% on linen inventory on average, not including the cost of labor to count linen monthly or quarterly, depending on how often you're doing your linen inventory. So, what an owner or operator or asset manager, whoever's on the call, needs to think about is how often am I doing inventory and how many people am I using now? And what am I paying those people? So, in your head, figure out is that worth 500 bucks a month or $1,000 or $1,500? What am I paying now? What else could that housekeeper be doing? What could $70,000 be doing other than counting linen? Because it's it's a waste of time. It's a repetitive task that's inaccurate and inefficient in its current state. Everybody should be using RFID type linen and saving 10 to 20% on their linen inventory budget, plus being able to allow predictive analytics and you know where your linen is on a daily basis. If you're missing 50 towels overnight, something's gone. Something's wrong.
Michael Russell:Well, I want to flip the script a little bit here. What's a technology that you see hotel owners utilize that is either obsolete or no longer valuable? Or you when you walk into a hotel and you see that they're using it, you're like, oh my gosh, this has got to go. This is not providing the best ROI.
Sue Graves:Well, the first one, I'm gonna go back to conversational AI because I call hotels often to just make appointments and I get the phone tree still. And I timed it. I timed how long my spending on the phone to get a simple answer to a question. It's over two and a half minutes, and it's about average. Every single hotel is the same because you have to go through the phone tree. When a conversational AI could give you an answer in under 10 seconds, probably five seconds. I would love to say that I'd like to see a little bit more mobile check-in. But if you have poor Wi-Fi, it's not gonna work. So as as a technologist myself, I would love to use mobile technology, but you know what? I don't. I get a hard key. You know why? Because I'm standing in line, and this was in Washington, D.C. at a hotel, and I'm standing in a line that's 50 deep because they had cancellations at an airport. I was in an airport property. The lady standing behind me was standing in that same line, and guess why? Because her mobile key didn't work, and they told her she had to stand in line. If I had a hard key, it's gonna probably work. So I think we need to figure out a way to improve Wi-Fi for hotels. It's a huge problem. Enabling technology requires really great Wi-Fi solutions. One thing that I'll tell you that an owner can save on, and when we talk about refinancing, and we didn't even get into that, and I don't know where we are on time, but smart room technology is key. And so a lot of owners are spending a lot of money on new thermostats because they're smart technology thermostats. So I'm like, well, that's great. And there are solutions that have great savings, they can save up to 30% with a new thermostat. But those new thermostats cost a lot of money and they put holes in walls, okay? Because typically they don't fit your current technology that you have, you know, your current thermostat. And it's time consuming to make those switches. So now you've got wall damage, either painting, plastering, wallpapering to fit a new thermostat, or you've got to buy a thing that goes around it that looks funky. So I'm like, okay, I I'm not doing this. I'm gonna find a solution where thermostats don't have to re be replaced. And I can have a smart room that can actually address odors in a room, can address fan motor speed and reduce. So we just finished a pilot and saved 62% utility cost with this solution that has an API integration to directly to the HVAC. It can work with any current thermostat. So if you Lenick thermostat, whatever thermostat you're currently using, don't replace it. You don't need to replace it. You just need to add this technology to save 62% energy costs. And what does that do to NOI? Okay, so we're talking about only one thing right now. We're talking about energy savings. But let's paint a bigger picture about sustainability. Now you have a sustainability story to tell. You're reducing the carbon footprint. How are we using that in our marketing tools to attract this generation that's traveling now that cares a lot about reducing the carbon footprint and cares a lot about sustainability? That's why I'm finding the cleaning solution using ozonated water. That's why I'm finding these technology solutions that not only help the owner reduce expenses with smart room technology, but also can tell a great sustainability story because guess what? It monitors the carbon reduction, and you can use that in your sustainable stories. So when you go to refinance, guess what? Now you have a story to tell about how you're reducing risk, you're reducing carbon emissions. There's a solution provider I work with that reduced refinancing for a hotel company by a million dollars because they were able to help them tell a sustainable story socially and carbon emissions-wise. And they saved a million dollars on the refinancing with the solution that I found.
Michael Russell:Well, that's interesting. I don't totally see the connection, though. I've never heard of this connection before where you're connecting something that is being more environmentally friendly to a bank that is loaning money. And I guess what I'm wondering is, well, why is a bank incentivized or other than just the spirit of being a good human, typically that's not part of the underwriting model of a bank is to look at how are we saving humanity? It's like, okay, well, what's the bottom line financially? So what's the connection between lower emissions and more likely to get a better refinancing, positioning for a better refinance?
Sue Graves:Well, there's green financing, but you you need to be able to back it up with the ESG story. So this is your ESG story. So you've got your inputting solutions that have a longer life, okay? And you're be able, you're going to be able to have data analytics to back it up and to help support sustainable financing. So in Europe, they are a little bit ahead of us because they actually have at banks sustainability finance management managers. And these sustainable finance managers actually want solutions that reduce carbon emissions and also solutions that have a lasting impact that won't wear out sooner. So, how do you employ that? You have to stay. I use the solution provider that helps write this sustainable story also uses AI to track legislation in a state, a country, a municipality that will tell you whether, guess what? The boiler you just bought is going to be not able to be utilized in Europe anyway by the year 2027. Well, guess what? Boilers should last longer than three years. So now you've just purchased a boiler that is not going to be sustainable. So now you have a stranded asset. So what we want to do is we want to avoid stranded assets, which a large majority of our current assets will be in the stranded asset category if they don't make changes that will tell a little bit more of a sustainable story. So reducing carbon emissions, putting in solutions that will have a lasting impact and that will help reduce risk. When you help reduce risk, you help reduce insurance and you help pay that debt back faster. If you can reduce your utility cost by 62%, guess what that financing looks like now? So it's all a big 360-degree circle. So when I compared a story, it's all interconnected. I'm not just telling a story about improving NOI by increasing, by reducing your utilities by 62%. Now I'm saying, guess what? Now with that, you have a sustainable story to tell. You're reducing the carbon footprint that's trackable. You can now go and use that for green financing. See what I mean? See where I'm going here? It's going to reduce your debt.
Michael Russell:So I never even really put it together like that. That's amazing to think about. And so I'm kind of recognizing the whole premise of what you're describing is that technology can be very valuable to our guests, could drive more revenue, but ultimately can save costs. And there's an incentive for owners to start implementing this technology. What I want to know as we wrap this up here is what role do you play in helping owners to acquire this technology? Are you sort of an aggregator of technology and you help customize it for their specific needs and you help source it for them?
Sue Graves:I help source technology solutions. I have what I call a little toolkit that I've already sourced. Like I said, I've interviewed 450 companies already. I don't work with 450, but I do help those NASA technology companies with their roadmaps. I just I want them to be successful. I want them to eventually be able to support the hospitality industry, but they're just not ready. So I can't work with them. So as I've vet them from an owner perspective and an operator perspective, which I've been an owner and an operator, well, not an owner of a hotel, but I've always acted as an owner. I can vet these solutions and determine whether they are affordable and whether they will work in the hospitality industry. And then I share those solutions. So a meeting with me costs no money. I share these solutions freely because I am so passionate about the industry and I want owners to save money. I want owners to make their employees happier. I want to improve morale. I want to help improve the guest experience because I want owners to have more hotels. I don't want them to stop and to be frustrated. I want to take that obstacle away from them. And I want to meet with them and share this. So I build my relationship with the solution providers and I work on a referral agreement from them with the auspices of knowing that you cannot pass this on to the client. So that's in every agreement. You have, you and I have an agreement so that I can help you expand. In my model, everybody wins, right? I win because I get a little piece of the pie along the way. But technology company wins because they have an outlet to for me to share their solution at a big level and a small level and get them exposed internationally and otherwise. I've helped one company, they said, you know what? If it weren't for you, Sue, we wouldn't, we we are now officially in Europe because of you. We would have never been able to do that. So I can help Sun expand globally if there's a global operator. I work with global banks, HSBC Bank in London, I work with. I have a meeting with the sustainability financial finance manager next week. And he wants all of my sustainable solutions because he wants all of his, he wants all of the people that have loans, all of his hotels that he's loaning money to. He wants to have them implement all these solutions because that helps return that debt faster. And then guess what? Everybody wins. The owner's winning because they're increasing their NOI by decreasing expenses. I can't help that insurance rates are higher. What I can do is help you reduce your utility expense to pay for that insurance without going sideways. And I can help improve the guest experience and help reduce turnover. I mean, digital tipping is everywhere now. If an owner isn't using a digital tipping platform, now they're outdated by they're missed the boat by two years. I mean, people have been adopting this for two years. Less than 15% of the American population carries cash anymore. So what are we doing? We're still having the housekeeper wait for the cash that the guest doesn't have. But we implement a digital tipping solution. And guess what? Housekeeper, now you can advertise for housekeepers. We use digital tipping. Well, guess where the best housekeepers are going to go? They're going to go to the hotel that has digital tipping because they know that their wage is going to be increased an average of 30% with digital tipping.
Michael Russell:That's incredible.
Sue Graves:I'm trying to help find ways to reduce turnover to attract the very best employees and for the owner to optimize the operation.
Michael Russell:Yeah, that that sounds like a win for everybody. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's a win for the owner, a win for you, it's a win for the guest. It that this makes a lot of sense. So this has been great. Sue, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about Experience Alive?
Sue Graves:Yeah, the best way to connect is on LinkedIn. Susan Graves. I'm the lady in the red dress. Happy to work with anybody and help support them.
Michael Russell:Great. Awesome. So you heard it. We'll put that in the show notes as well. This has been another episode of the Hotel Investor Playbook. She's Sue Graves. I'm Michael Russell, and we will catch you again next week. Aloha, I'm not sure what you're doing.