The Hotel Daddy Podcast

Building Salt Hotels With Heart, Design, And Community

• T. Blake Danner • Season 1 • Episode 3

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What does it really take to walk away from a marquee role and build a brand that feels personal, principled, and wildly creative? We sit down with David Bowd, co-founder and CEO of Salt Hotels, to unpack the decision to leave the world of iconic properties and start small with a 20-room inn in Provincetown, Massachusetts —and how that leap reset his definition of success. From St. Martin’s Lane and Gramercy Park to a boutique collection rooted in design and community, David shares the choices, mistakes, and moments that shaped Salt’s identity.

We get candid about the “no assholes” rule and why culture fit is a strategy, not a slogan. David tells the story of firing misaligned clients, the immediate lift across the team, and how ditching the numbers race brought better work and happier guests. We go deep on leadership—fairness over fear, debate over yes-people, and the habit of listening to the people closest to the work. When a housekeeping team suggests a smarter process, he says yes, and the operation gets sharper overnight. That respect-based approach shows up in Salt School, an eight-weekend, community-rooted talent program that turns skeptics into believers and dramatically lowers employee turnover.

There’s hard truth here too: COVID was brutal. Yet when doors reopened, demand roared back, proving the human urge to travel beats the headlines. David offers clear advice to rising hoteliers on accessing capital—network beyond your comfort zone, especially with finance partners—and opens up about building a company with his spouse, the designer Kevin O’Shea, by staying in lanes and keeping work at the office. We finish with the rituals that sustain him: early walks, SoulCycle, and non-negotiable boundaries that protect focus and kindness in a 24/7 business.

If you care about hospitality with heart—talent development, design that serves community, and leadership that scales without losing its soul—press play. Subscribe, share this episode with a hotel geek or entrepreneur you love, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Thanks for listening! If you liked our episode today, please like, share, and comment!

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Hotel Daddy. I'm your host, Blake Danner. On today's episode, I speak with one of our industry's best, the co-founder and chief executive of Salt Hotels, David Bow. And by the way, a dear friend. We're going to just dive right in and get to know David, exploring his unique journey and the stories that have helped shape his career and hospitality. Now, knowing David, I think we can expect some candid conversations, a few honest reflections, and if we're lucky, maybe a couple of secrets from behind the scenes. Whether you're an industry insider or you just love a good story, you're in the right place. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and enjoy the ride as we open the doors to Hotel Daddy. David Bowde is the co-founder and chief executive of Salt Hotels, a collection of award-winning boutique properties known for design, culture, and community. With over four decades of hospitality experience, David has built his career from the ground up in the UK with brands like Hilton, Marriott, Thistle Hotels, and then as senior leaders with industry icons like Ian Trager and Andre Balage. Along the way, he helped shape some of the world's most talked-about and buzzy hotels, from St. Martin's Lane and Sanderson in London to Gramercy Park and The Mercer in New York to one of my favorites, Chateau Marmont in LA. In 2014, David launched Salt Hotels with his partner Kevin O'Shea, creating a brand that has earned global recognition from Condi Nas Traveler, Travel and Leisure, USA Today, and others. Committed to nurturing future talent, he also founded SALT School, a visionary educational program dedicated to developing the next generation of our hospitality leaders. Beyond hospitality, he's a passionate advocate for equality and the arts, serving on boards including Garden State Equality and the Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association. Originally from the English village of Salt, David now divides his time between New York City and his beloved Provincetown, Massachusetts, still driven by the same philosophy that launched his career that hotels should be as inspiring and stylish and welcoming as the people who stay in them. Welcome to Hotel Daddy, my friend, industry leader, David Bowd.

SPEAKER_00:

David, welcome. Thank you, Blake. That's an incredible introduction. I feel very humbled, but great to be here.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Well, look, I'm excited to have you. One of the things that I'm loving about doing this pod is we're bringing together some really talented industry leaders. But you know, a few of you guys are also dear friends of mine, and that makes it that much more rewarding, and I hope makes for some better conversation. All right. Not everybody knows you like I do. So we like to start every episode around here with something I called who's in the lobby. You ready? Yeah. I'm gonna throw some rapid of fire questions at you. Just give me the first thing that comes to mind. Here we go. What's your name? David Bowd. What's your zodiac sign? I'm Leo. Coffee or tea? Now it's coffee. That surprises me. I didn't see that one coming. Morning person or night owl? Now I'm the morning person. Go-to comfort food.

SPEAKER_00:

Ooh, Chinese food. All right. Dream travel vacation.

SPEAKER_01:

Australia on Amber's Airlines. Ooh, very specific. Love it. I think I know though, somebody gotta ask. Dogs or cats?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a hard one, but now I have to say dogs because I have my baby dog after all these years.

SPEAKER_01:

And gorgeous he is. He is. Beach or mountains? Beach. Book or podcast? Podcast. One word friends use to describe you. Fun. Final question. Watch your guilty pleasure TV show.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's hard because I don't watch TV. So I'm gonna have to say Shit's Creek and reruns of Shit's Creek.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So look, normally I start at the very beginning of your career. But if you don't mind, I want to jump right in the middle. You've had this great career. You work your way up, you come to the States, you find yourself running all operations for in Traeger hotels. Then you go on to operate Andre Balage hotels. I mean, these are industry icons. From the outside looking in, people are thinking, David Bowd has made it. And you have. But you make a decision to step away, buy a 20-room inn in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a fixer-upper, I might add, and start your own business. Tell me about that leap of faith.

SPEAKER_00:

By the time I had done that, which was 2014, I'd actually been in the industry for quite a long time. Working for Ian and working for Andre, who are two icons, as you say, and two incredible hoteliers. You know them both, and a lot of your listeners will know them. They have created some of the best hotels in the world, in my opinion. And I was a little bit like, where do I go from here? What do I do next? When Kevin and I were talking about that, my thought was actually to take a bit of a break, to do nothing. I left school when I was 15 years old and I started work when I was 15 years old. I have never taken a break. And so it was time to take a break. The idea was to buy this little inn in Provincetown, get a dog, retire, walk on the beach every day, and have this lovely life. That was sort of the motivation behind it was to regroup, really, and to take some time for myself and to take some time back into thinking about why I love this industry and what I want to do next in this industry. That was how we formed Salt Hotels, really.

SPEAKER_01:

And how much of it in your mind was moving away from something, and how much was I just want to go to something else? I was drawn to something new.

SPEAKER_00:

It was all drawn to something new. I had just finished opening the Chiltern Firehouse in London, which is was sadly the most beautiful hotel I think anyone could ever open. The opening events for that hotel, when you have the royal family coming in, when you have all of the members of parliament coming into that hotel, presidents coming in to the hotel. It's never gonna get much better than that. So I thought, what's next for me? I wanted to do something very, very different. And I was always looking forward. I always am looking forward. I very rarely look back. To me, it was time to change and time to mix it all up and do something different. And that's what happened with Salt House.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you look at Salt Hotels today and you think back to the beginning, how different has that path actually been than how you saw it when you very first started with Kevin?

SPEAKER_00:

It's funny. It's a that's a great question because the path was very different. But where we are now is exactly where I wanted us to be. And we got lost along the way. We got a little confused, I think, along the way, as a lot of people do as they're starting out and they're figuring out what they're going to do. I think we grew very, very fast, very, very quickly. We had one rule when we started SALT Hotels, and that was no assholes.

SPEAKER_01:

Did I take that rule with me?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it's a great rule. And the thought process was that we just didn't need to work with people that were assholes. We'd done enough of that in our careers over the years. It was time to just work with good people. What happened was hotels started to become very successful. I got caught up in the development side of the business and signing deals. No. The numbers game.

SPEAKER_01:

More, more, more, back on the train. Gotta get it. Yeah. So it's so funny. One of the things I love about entrepreneurs like yourself is you usually end up where you think you're going, but it's that in-between path that gets a little crazy. We get on the train and it starts being successful, and success breeds success, and now you're like more, more, more. And I'd love to understand at what point did you say, that's actually not what I was doing this for?

SPEAKER_00:

I did an interview for travel and leisure. One of their questions was, How many miles did you travel last year? I had to go through my calendar and work out how many flights I had been on and how many miles I'd traveled. It was horrendous. It was so many thousands of miles. I was platinum status with every single airline. This is crazy. This is not a badge of honor. This is crazy. This doesn't mean that I've made it. This means actually that I haven't made it and that this isn't what I wanted to do. And that was the realization and the moment of I need to take a step back and I need to think about what do we want SART hotels to be? Do we still want it to be the same? And if we do, and we did, then we need to make some decisions. Unfortunately for us, that came at the same time as COVID came and the two things could actually help us and help each other.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to go back to this no assholes. How many clients have you had to fire in your career? How many times were you able to just go? Yeah, no, this doesn't work for me. No names, but how many times? In the last few years, probably half a dozen. See, that's the beauty of being an entrepreneur, right? When you're working in corporate America, it's so hard. But when you own the company, when you're making the decisions, when you and your partner Kevin are saying, this is what we want, you have the great ability to say, this doesn't meet what we're looking for. We don't need that. How difficult is it to fire a client?

SPEAKER_00:

The first one was difficult. The first one, I don't think I slept the night before. And I stressed a lot about it. And I kept worrying about have I made the right decision? And am I making an emotional decision? Is this what a businessman does? And I remember thinking that question a lot. I kept thinking I was making an emotional decision. When I did it, the relief and the happiness that came through my team felt so good. And everybody was so much happier. This was a no-brainer. We should have done this before. And then we moved on and we carried on and we made smart decisions together.

SPEAKER_01:

So let me ask this question. So much of your brand, for folks that know Salt Hotels, they know this, and we have a lot of hotel geeks that are listening. You are so known for creativity, design, your commitment to community. How much better did that get when you took this burden away from you and your team of dealing with, as you call them, assholes?

SPEAKER_00:

The ceiling was lifted. It literally went overnight. It's like when you have a bad employee in a department. How much that employee brings the department down. It's exactly the same with a bad partner. They bring everything down, they bring you down, and your creativity starts to get put in a corner and you start to question yourself and doubt yourself. You're not as creative anymore. What it did for us is it just opened everything up and took away the ceiling, and suddenly here we were again, creating and doing some great things again.

SPEAKER_01:

So, look, I think that is the most important part of making sure that you're having fun every day is especially when your brand is about creativity, especially when your brand is about out-of-the-box thinking. Sometimes we put ourselves in these boxes because we're unhappy, we're not being fueled. And that takes me to the next question. What's your style as a leader? How do you inspire your teams because you are on the bleeding edge of creativity, of design in your space? What's your leadership style? How do you make that happen?

SPEAKER_00:

I like to keep everybody involved. I've worked for many people who tend to shout, who are not as kind as other people. And I think when you work for people like that, you learn that isn't a great leadership trait, and you learn not to be like that. For me, I learned from the bad leaders just as much as I learnt from the good leaders. It's communication, it's working together as a team. I like being creative as a team. I don't think I know all the answers. I hate yes people. I love a good fight in a room where we're creating something and somebody's like, I don't think that's right. I disagree with that. And it's like, why? And we end up pushing something because we're debating it. I love that. Our entire team has a voice. And I think everybody has a voice in an organization. Last week, I was in Miami and it was housekeeping appreciation week. We were with all the team in Miami. They were talking about a couple of things that would make their life much easier in the housekeeping department. We had set it up. What do we know? They know much more than we know about their department. Subject matter experts. Exactly. And it's they're like, yes, we can change that in a heartbeat. And that's where it's so important to give everybody that voice and let everybody speak because the whole business can be so much better.

SPEAKER_01:

Has your leadership style changed running your own business versus working in, you know, what was kind of some big corporate America institutional investor type brands?

SPEAKER_00:

It has to have changed. And I think it changes naturally as you get older and you get wiser, and you've done it before. So, or you've seen most situations before. My dad was chief of police, and he always taught me when I was growing up, he said, the most important thing in your life is to be fair. That was something that stuck with me from when I left school. That's something that I've carried on throughout my career. I've always thought whether it's a we've got to do the same thing regardless of the position that we're doing it for. And so I think I've always tried to be incredibly fair. I'm probably more patient now than I was when I was working in corporate America because I don't have the deadlines on me any longer than I used to have.

SPEAKER_01:

And does that cause you to be, I don't want to say more forgiving, but more understanding of the multiple priorities that a lot of your team members have?

SPEAKER_00:

It does. But I think the other side of it is I have to make sure we make the money. I have to make sure there is money in the bank to pay everybody's wages now. And so I'm less forgiving in that way because I've got to make sure that that happens. And so there's a little bit of give and take. Some things I'm probably a little bit more lenient on, and some things I'm probably a little tougher on.

SPEAKER_01:

So in your bio, and for folks that know you and know SALT, we mentioned SALT School. Would you, for those that don't know, describe what SALT School is? Because it's something, as you know, I am so fond of.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And I appreciate that so much because it is my baby. Salt School started in 2016. I was in a meeting and I was told that we were opening a hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and somebody told me, we'll never get good staff. For anybody that knows me and knows that if they tell me we'll never do something, then that's it. I'll prove you wrong. And so that evening we were talking in a different meeting about what makes a community. And one of the things that makes a community is school. I call it my working girl moment because elevated moment of Melanie Griffith saying how she thought of the idea of the radio buyout. That's how it came together. So then, with the wonderful Jenny Lockman, who is the greatest person putting this sort of thing together, we put the school together. And the school is about introducing people to hospitality. We've honed it over the years to be eight weekends where we cover all different aspects of hospitality from housekeeping, food and beverage, sales and marketing, revenue management, creative, and then some of the sort of more back of house areas to accounting. We have open applications we go through every weekend, and we have different people from the industry. Some are now, some are salt employees, but a lot come from different areas of the industry. Some come from, we tend to do food and beverage away from hotels because it's more interesting and to get restaurateurs and bar specialists to come in because it's much more fun. And they talk about what happens in those specific departments. We do a lot of role playing, a lot of guest experience role-playing and those sorts of things to give candidates a real opportunity to see what happens in hotels because I think a lot of people quite like the idea of hospitality, but don't know what it's about. I love this industry. I want to attract as much talent as possible to this industry. And I don't think we do a very good job as an industry attracting talent. Salt School is there to break down some of the barriers. It's proven incredibly successful. And some of the things that we didn't expect from Salt School are such a massive reduction in turnover. People join Salt School and then they come and work with us and then they set, we've got nanny managers. Actually, our manager here in Provincetown, she was at the very first Salt School back in 2016. She now does the summers in Provincetown and the winters in Miami. She has a great, uh, a great life and works. Give me some of that about it. Yeah, right. I think she never has any downtime. That's the uh the disadvantage. But it gives people the chance to to see our industry and to stay in our industry and to be promoted. So you and I speak on a lot of panels.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And every panel I've been on in the last two years, staffing comes up, retention, attraction. And one of the things that I so personally loved about SALT School was not only was it a connection to the community, but it also was just a super creative way, as you said, to attract good talent when people said you couldn't, and to deal with what is clearly one of the biggest issues our industry faces right now, which is sourcing talent. I want to share with my listeners what a gracious industry colleague you are. I've watched you from afar. We've been friends for a long time. And as salt was coming out of the ground, I followed you and I followed Salt School. And I was bowled over with the success you were having. So I picked up the phone one day and I called you and I said, David Bowd, I love what you're doing with Salt School. Can I knock it off? I was just opening the freehand brand at that time. And you know, I think a lot of people in our industry would have said, that's my ideal, stay away. But to your point about being passionate about this industry, you actually said, Oh my gosh, Blake, I'm flattered. Of course you can knock it off. Not a lot of people would do that, David.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I would give anybody, and I have done since, and I love the fact that you asked for it, and I love the fact that you took it, adopted it, adapted it, made it your own, and made it something that worked for you. And I think that that's what anybody can do. And like you say, it does open the doors to get great talent in the community, to be part of a community. And I still do not get why more and more people aren't doing community-driven, educationally driven programs to attract people into our industry. And it is work and it's hard work, but it's so beneficial.

SPEAKER_01:

Love it. I just think it shows your passion for the industry and your high tide raises all ships' attitude. I've always been appreciative and I've thanked you many times, but here today on Hotel Daddy, I want the world to know thank you for letting me rip it off. We did it in our own style, and uh you are a gracious gentleman about it. And I love that support. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

You had a better name for it, Blake. You had a great name for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so well, in fairness, I was opening, you called it Salt School. I was opening the Freehand brand, and and so we decided that Freehand University sounded good. So we just called it FU. Hey, you had to have a little bit of wink and nod there. So, final question on kind of the salt journey. What's been your greatest disappointment in the salt hotel's run?

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. I think COVID was the hardship of COVID and what it did to us as a company. It helped us in so many ways, but it was so difficult. I had to let some people go. That really hurt me. We had to close all of our properties, which was awful, as every hotel did. I remember the day. We had some amazing partners that allowed us to keep going when, and we did keep going, which was phenomenal, but it was a really, really difficult time. I would never want to go through that again.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen. What did the rebound of business after COVID teach you about travel?

SPEAKER_00:

I think don't believe anything you read. I mean, right? Like at all this. The human spirit wants to travel, and as soon as they can, they will. Exactly. It was crazy. The minute we opened those doors, everyone was back. And everyone, like you say, everybody wanted those experiences.

SPEAKER_01:

And you happen to operate in some key domestic leisure destinations. Yeah. So that traveler that wanted to travel that couldn't go international, you were booming. Yeah. So I happen to know a lot of folks that are gonna listen to this. And I know a lot of folks are listening right now, and some of them are young, they're smart as a whip, they're creative, they are making their way in this industry. They share the passion that you and I have for this industry. They want to open their own inn, they want to open their own small little hotel, they want to open their own restaurant. And what is usually a gating issue for them is accessing capital. Now, you're a guy that went out and started on his own. If you had any advice to these young, wannabe entrepreneurs, they want to follow a path similar to yours, they might not do it with all the experience that you had when you did it. Any advice on how to handle the capital issue? How do you get out there? How do you find capital?

SPEAKER_00:

I do speak to a lot of people every week that are going through that and having that struggle. And I always say, you know, it this industry is so much about the people that you know and the people that you meet along the way. Experience counts for a lot when people are thinking about going out on their own. They will use the time now while you're in your full-time job to meet as many people in the finance world as you possibly can. Um go to every single networking event that you possibly can. You've got to be out there, you've got to put yourself out there. These people are out there, they're looking for young entrepreneurs that are doing the next interesting thing. And I think it's being ballsy and and being out there and and not taking no for an answer, having the attitude of it's all about attitude. I think our industry is entirely about attitude. And if you've got a can-do attitude, then it'll work, it'll take some time and you've got to keep plugging at it. But get out there and keep meeting these people. And one will introduce you to somebody at some point who's gonna be able to open a door for you.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to summarize what I think I just heard you say because it's such good advice that I haven't given before, and I'm gonna steal it from you as well, which is they think nothing about networking in the creative circles. They think nothing about networking in kind of the people they're comfortable with. But if you're seriously about wanting to do something, you need capital, you gotta network with the finance folks. You gotta put yourself out there. And for a lot of these young, hungry entrepreneurs, that might not be as comfortable for them, right? I love that advice. So you founded SALT with your partner, the adorable Kevin O'Shea, who I just am a big fan of. What's it like working with your spouse?

SPEAKER_00:

For us, it's great. We met, as you will know, because we worked with you at the time. I know the whole story. Yes. We met working together. We met opening the Mondrian Scottsdale many, many years ago. By the way, you were both so DL about it, just for the records.

SPEAKER_01:

I need everyone to know that.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. We were. We work very, very well together. We have our own disciplines. We do have a lot of fun with those disciplines. They obviously cross over a lot. We sort of stay in our own little lanes. We consult each other on everything. You know, I'm sitting in the office right now, we have an office table in the middle, we face each other. But we sort of come into the office and it's work. We don't talk about work when we're out of the office, unless it's something that we need to talk about. You know, it's work and then there's the rest of our lives, which is, I think, the way it should be. We look at it like it has to be fun and it has to be enjoyable. Look, don't get me wrong, I mean, there's been moments where it's been like, oh, get me out of here now. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna I'm gonna take the dog for a walk. Do tell, do tell. If the dog could talk, then I think there'd be a few problems. But we're very fortunate. We've always worked very, very well together. And we're very fortunate that we're both have the same mindset. We're both very hard workers. We sort of appreciate that in each other as well.

SPEAKER_01:

How important do you think it is that both of you came into SALT having already kind of made your mark in the industry? I mean, you both, you both had already had great success. So, how important do you think it is that when you founded SALT together, you both came in with a lot of credibility, like both of you on your own?

SPEAKER_00:

I think that helped a lot. It wasn't David's show or Kevin's show, and I think everybody had respect for us both, but I think that definitely makes it a lot, lot easier for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

You are both proud, out, successful business leaders. What's that journey been like specifically for you?

SPEAKER_00:

It's been hard. I remember when I was a general manager in London in my early 30s. I think I was actually just 30. There was a general managers conference. The company that I worked for at that time had about 50, 60 hotels. There were three gay general managers. We were very quiet and we were not out and proud, and it was not talked about.

SPEAKER_01:

It was a different time. You are about the same age, you know. I I remind these young guys and girls, and it was a different time.

SPEAKER_00:

Totally. And it was part, it wasn't comfortable. I really focused on the LGBTQIA team members that worked for me, making sure they never felt like that. So I sort of took my struggles and focused it much more on sort of the team people that I worked with giving it back because it wasn't comfortable until I think until honestly, I worked for an American company.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow, interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Which was the Intrager hotels, which was then it's more open, it's it's less people care. And I think it has, like you say, it has changed so much now. And thank goodness, because it was it was appalling, especially in an industry where it is made up. We claim to be so accepted. Exactly. I'm really glad now that things have changed significantly. But I also, very, very lucky, I had some incredible mentors throughout my career that were very good to me and knew that I was gay and helped me through, particularly my early, you know, when I was a very junior member of staff going through, you know, coming out and all of that sort of thing. They were great. It was tough, but I was very fortunate that I had great mentors as well. How important is it for people like you and I right now to represent? I think it's incredibly important. I don't think there's been a more important time than today and and than now. And I think that it's so incredibly important that there's a voice out there.

SPEAKER_01:

I appreciate you so much for that. I I do, I agree with you. It is important that we be visible right now. That's all. I don't need to lead with it. But I need to be visible. I need to be visible with my life, and I I love you for that. Thank you. You know I'm passionate about fitness. So you and I had hadn't seen each other in a couple of years, and I'd heard that you'd really jumped on the fitness bandwagon. You were doing soul cycles, exercising, and I'm in LA and I go to Soul Cycle and you come walking out of the studio. And my friend, you are lean and mean and fit. And I remember saying, Wow, David bowed. And this is when you were starting a company, and I thought, how does he do it all? So, in the remaining few minutes, we have. Tell me how you balance fitness in this really aggressive schedule you have. And how important is it?

SPEAKER_00:

It's vital and it's critical. I know that now. I never found a good fitness regime in my early life and uh early career. I didn't like the gym, and it was never my sort of thing, and I couldn't find anything that I really liked. And and I think that's part of it. You have to find something that you you really buy into and you really, really enjoy. And I was very fortunate that I found Soul Cycle from day one. I was terrible at it, but I absolutely loved it. I mean, it's like going to a gay discount. Oh, that's I buy that, but okay, it's your story. It's uh like 45 minutes in a gay disco at 6 a.m. It's uh like, okay, this is this is fun. I can do that. It's funny, you know. I I get up now at 5 a.m. every day. I walk the dog for an hour and a half, and then at 6:30, I do a at-home soul cycle class every day. And then if I'm in New York or somewhere that has soul cycle, I'll go and do an in-person class. I'll have it in my schedule. It's part of my routine that I will not compromise about. And I book hotel rooms around where SoulCycle is, I book travel around what time classes are, because I think that it's my 45 minutes of my time where I've not got a phone, no one's going to interrupt me. In the old days, that a lot of people listening to this will sort of be laughing at now. We didn't have phones, we weren't contactable 24 hours a day. We had a life that's missing right now, and I think we're too accessible. And I think that 45 minutes just gives me a little touch back to the 80s and 90s where we weren't always accessible. And I truly love it. And of course, I I love it because I'm so far ahead of you, Blake, on Soul Cycle Classes.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh oh, come on, I'm pulling out my app. You want to compare? I'm pulling it out right now. Uh-uh. And just in like 1250, like 1250. So, dude, I'm only at like 901 or something. I actually didn't think you were that far ahead of me. I gotta pick it up. You just said something that I want to double down on because it's something I'm hearing from all of the really successful leaders I talked to, which you said, I book hotels around, I put travel around, I make sure that I plan my fitness. All the young managers out there who are listening to us right now don't apologize for making fitness important and frankly protecting time in your day for it will make you more productive, more creative, it will make you a better manager, leader, employee, whatever you are at this point in your career.

SPEAKER_00:

Can I just add that as well? Because it your thing might not be fitness. It could be wellness in a different way, it could be meditation, it could be whatever your thing is. Make sure you take time for you because our industry is one of the hardest industries you can join. It is a lot of pressure. There are a lot of people looking at you, there are a lot of people wanting things from you, there's a lot of expectations on you. It's very easy to burn out. And so you need to take care of yourself. To take care of yourself, you need to give yourself some you time.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for that. So true. It's fitness for us. It might be playing ball with your kids, it might be playing dominoes, but make time for it. All right. I'm so embarrassed. I literally have like 15 questions we didn't even get to. And here we are at the closing mark. David, thank you. Thank you so much for spending time with me and enjoying and sharing your passion with our listeners. As we close out today, you are such a great mentor. Any final advice? There are a lot of folks listening who I know that are up and coming in our industry. They look at guys like you who have had great success. What's that piece of advice you might give them as we close out today?

SPEAKER_00:

You meet incredible people in this industry along the way. Some of my best friends, many of my best friends, my oldest and best friend was a front desk agent with me back in the late 80s. We've worked together a few times over the years. We're still in contact. You meet incredible people in this industry and you stay in touch with them. I think that that is one of the beauties of our industry and one of the real advantages of our industry. And it's don't lose touch with those incredibly talented people that you work with in your early career. And so if you've lost touch with somebody, pick up the phone today and give them a call and get back in touch with them. I have no notes on that answer.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Okay, kids, this has been Hotel Daddy. We spent the day with David Bowd, co founder and chief executive of SALT Hotels. David, my friend, thank you. Thank you, Blake. Thanks for listening to Hotel Daddy with your host, Blake Danner. Be sure to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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