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
How Small Hotels Use Staff Content to Drive Direct Bookings | Scott Eddy E68
Most hotel owners think the only way to reduce OTA dependency is to throw more money at Facebook ads or hire expensive marketing agencies. But the real solution isn't more budget, it's leveraging what you already have: authentic stories and staff who actually care about the guest experience.
A hospitality marketing veteran who's advised VCs and built a 1.6 million social following reveals the direct booking playbook that independent hotels are using to reclaim revenue from OTAs. Scott Eddy has spoken at hundreds of conferences worldwide, doing the unexpected: giving away strategies that agencies charge thousands for.
In this episode, you'll discover:
- Why rolling out the red carpet for OTA guests (instead of alienating them) converts 30%+ into direct bookers
- The exact content categories that drive bookings and why shaky iPhone footage outperforms polished videos
- How to make your front desk staff into content superstars without hiring an expensive agency
- The one Instagram metric (hint: it's not followers) that actually predicts revenue
- Why "saves" and "comments" matter 10x more than likes for direct bookings
- The AI-discoverable scripting framework that's replacing traditional SEO for hotel discovery
- How long-form storytelling videos outperform short-form for brand discoverability (despite what Instagram tells you)
- The fatal mistake 80% of hotels make: posting beautiful property photos with promo text overlays that actively repel guests
If you're serious about reducing OTA dependency and building a direct booking engine without a massive marketing budget, this episode will provide the roadmap. Don't make the expensive mistake of outsourcing what your in-house team can do better.
About Scott Eddy
Scott Eddy is a globally recognized hospitality brand strategist and digital pioneer who transitioned from a decade in investment banking to founding the first and largest digital agency in Southeast Asia. With a combined following of over 1.2 million, Scott has hosted the travel series Video Globetrotter on Lifetime Television and is consistently ranked among the top 15 hospitality influencers in the world. He now travels full-time as a consultant and keynote speaker, helping hotel brands convert authentic storytelling into measurable ROI while championing the "independent advantage" through raw, human-centered digital engagement. A genuine citizen of the world, Scott lives entirely out of hotels and cruise ships, leveraging his experiences in 85+ countries and 120+ cruises to provide a unique "perpetual guest" perspective on the evolving travel landscape.
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Most hotels are bleeding money on OTAs while their social media sits there doing nothing. What if I told you the fix doesn't involve sharing more profits with Expedia? It's getting your front desk staff to pull out their phones and document the guest experience. Scott Eddy is a hospitality marketing expert who advises hotels worldwide on how to build direct booking engines using staff generated content instead of expensive agencies. In this conversation, he's breaking down exactly how to turn your staff into content machines, why shaky iPhone footage outperforms polished videos, and the one metric that actually predicts revenue. If you want to drive more direct bookings without hiring agencies or blowing your marketing budget, this episode will provide the tactical blueprint to transform your hotel marketing strategy. On this podcast, we talk story about everything you need to know to make money investing in hotels and in hospitality assets. Today, we're sitting down with Scott Eddy, who is one of the most recognizable voices in hospitality marketing. And we're going to get tactical on direct bookings, content, and why independent hotels can beat the big brands. Scott, welcome to the show. Thanks. Thanks for having me. This is going to be fun. Yeah. So, Scott, for people who don't know you yet, what's the shortest version of your story that explains why hotels should listen to you?
Scott Eddy:I mean, to be honest, I've been in the trenches since day one. So I was in investment banking for 10 years, moved to, well, came to visit a friend who was living in Bangkok, bought a two-week ticket, never used a return ticket, ended up staying here, living here for 11 years. And that was January of 99. So that was before social media marketing. And I was here when that revolution happened. And I started the first digital agency in Asia, and all my clients were hotels. So we were the biggest in the region for five years. So I learned everything boots on the ground, in the trenches, making mistakes, making successes. It just went on and on from there.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Okay. So that's an interesting transition going from investment banking into hospitality. Maybe breakdown. How did that occur?
Scott Eddy:Because so they came out of the office and said, we just sold the firm. If you show up on Monday, you're going to have a new owner. And half the firm resigned, including myself. The guy who was sitting next to me, his best friend was an expat living in Bangkok. So that's how that happened. But when I was in Asia, and the first few years, I just basically just partied my butt off, traveled all over Asia, like really made a bunch of friends and had fun and really got acclimated because it's another world over here. It's not what we grew up in. So when social media came out, I tried to figure out I'm like, okay, I want to live here. I love it here, but I can't just party every day for the rest of my life. I have to do something. So I tried to figure out what I was good at. And the only job I ever had was in investment banking. So I learned how to sell anything to anyone. So sales was easy. And all my friends that I was hanging out with were in hospitality. So I just married those two worlds and opened up a digital agency and hired really smart people that were already in the PR and marketing world and just put together a nice team and they crushed it. I mean, it really, you know, yes, it was me, but it was my team. And we really annihilated it for five years.
Michael Russell:Yeah. So you were a bit of a socialite then. You you took a break from investment banking, probably not with the intention of becoming a hospitality marketer, but just by the product of your environment, you're like, hey, everybody I know here is in hospitality, and I'm I'm a social person. And then this new concept at the time of social media marketing was was progressing. And so I read somewhere. You were one of the first people that were was on Twitter, right? Is that correct? I guess you're now known as X.
Scott Eddy:I was first, probably 2,000 people. And I was the first American expat in every Asian country to have a million followers on Twitter, which got me like headline news, which got me speaking gigs, which got, you know, and it just snowballed from there. I think I have maybe 570 or something like that. Like it's gone down, like it's went through all these changes and whatnot. I'm not even active there anymore, but it's a shame because I I love Twitter. I I built my whole brand on Twitter. It was in the same era that that Gary V was building his brand. Obviously, he's had a lot more success, but he's a good dude. And and Twitter was it back in the day.
Michael Russell:Well, I want to connect the dots here because I I think my first question was really based on the premise of like, well, why do people trust you? Why should they listen to you? And you've got, I think on LinkedIn, I mean you've you've got a ton of followers, and and on Instagram, I believe, with like a half a million followers. So, you know, you're well over that million total mark, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Currently, still, right? So you've you've built this trust factor, you've built this credibility. So obviously you know a thing or two, but you you decided to build this personal brand. In order to speak though with conviction, I mean, you got to know a thing or two. You don't just jump into something and you can't be as people forever. Like it is one thing to be able to be a salesman. I get the point you made, but at some point you got to establish that you know what you're talking about. And if I'm a hotel person now and I look at your your presence online, that that's gonna add some credibility right off the bat. But for you personally, like what's a moment, or maybe if you reflect back in your career, maybe something that made you say, you know what? I'm not just BSing. I actually know what works.
Scott Eddy:It's really funny because in my world, everybody judges everybody. It doesn't, it's human nature, it happens in every country. And from the outside looking in, the first thing people think is influencer, because I have huge audiences everywhere. I have like 1.6 across all platforms. And yes, do I do those? Absolutely. I do big influencer campaigns, and that's how I made my name, basically, on the social media side. And but the difference is so I tell everybody when I'm speaking at a conference and I and I get a hand raised and they're like, hey, I want to do what you do. And I'm like, that's great. A, it's a saturated market. You better have a unique story or else you're gonna get buried in the noise. But B, here's how I judge if you're if you've actually made it in this industry. If there is a conference coming up, a hospitality conference, an investor conference, whatever it is, and the person that's picking the speakers is the biggest dinosaur in the world. She has Facebook for her grandkids, and that's it. If she knows who you are and invites you to speak, that gives you credibility. And I and I have been down that road many, many times. I speak at probably 15, 20 events a year. I still advise for four or five VCs around the world. So I have the credibility package, but at the end of the day, everybody's judgmental and everybody's going to judge you until they have a conversation with you. Once they have a conversation with me, they know that I'm not one of these garbage influencers out there that gives all that word a bad name. That's why I hate that word so much because it's so egotistical and self-serving that if you follow anything that I give along on LinkedIn, I basically give away digital strategies every single day. Things that people charge for every single day. And I get messages all the time. They're like, why don't you create a PDF and sell it and a white paper and you know, a webinar and this and that? I'm like, people hire from me for my services. I promise you, I'm not lacking the business. I just want to help the industry. I want to lift up the industry. There's so many people out there that work with zero budgets. Zero. I mean, less than zero. They're working in a horrible work environment. They're getting pounded by their manager, they're getting pounded by the asset manager, the owner, the everybody. So, whatever I can do to help.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Well, I think that's really relatable. In this day and age, you know, people are, it's just become common where people just pay it forward. They just they give it. And it it's interesting because it doesn't always necessarily mean less business. It it has the opposite effect. Giving it away for free generates more.
Scott Eddy:Yeah. People don't understand that. I get so much business, it's it's unbelievable because inevitably, yes, I can I can put something generic on there, LinkedIn, that applies for basically everybody because everybody needs a digital strategy. But if you really want something customizable to you, then we're gonna have a serious conversation. And listen, my last six jobs have come from LinkedIn DMs. I get up 100% of my business from social media.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Well, I think part of what you're doing is although you're giving away information for free, you're also simultaneously building credibility. And that credibility is what sells. I mean, most of the quote unquote selling occurs when people know, like, and trust you. And anyone listening to this has heard that a million times at this point. It kind of reverts back to that influencer type mentality or identity, but you're doing way more than that. And I'm excited to speak with you because I want to really dive into some of these tactical things. And so I've picked out a few things that I thought we could discuss that'll be relevant, especially for the audience of folks that maybe don't have a huge budget, maybe aren't, you know, the Marriott or the Hilton, but are operating more of a boutique hotel and need to be scrappy. So I think that this is gonna be really relevant for not just the audience, but for myself as well. And if it's okay, I want to talk about like your direct booking strategy, you know, and maybe you can speak to us in plain English here because I've heard you say that OTAs are a discovery channel. Yeah, it's like what does that mean operationally?
Scott Eddy:I love this topic so much. You have no idea. Because everybody because is all hotels like to do is bash the OTAs. I hate this, I hate that, I hate paying this, I hate paying that. But they depend on it so much because their normal marketing is terrible. The problem is most hotels, owners, whatever it is, they look at social media marketing as a cost, not an investment. Okay. So, okay, you're getting 30% of your bookings from OTAs, right? All right. So, how about flipping every common misconception that you have about OTAs on its head? Instead of treating people that sign up through Expedia and Priceline and whatever, instead of seeing that and treating them like pariahs, like alienate them. You can't check in early, there's no Wi-Fi, you can't use the public pool, you can't do this, you can't, why not roll out the red carpet for these people and say, Yeah, of course. Why don't we do this? Why don't we do that? Why don't we do this? I say, and at the end of the stay, when they're leaving, say, if you had a great time, I got uh I got something for you. If you book direct next time, here's a 30% off voucher that you use. And the customer walks away not feeling like they're a leper. They feel like they actually treated, they got uplifted instead of pushed down to the back of the line.
Michael Russell:Hey guys, people have been hitting me up asking if I have a mastermind or a course. I don't run one right now, but I do know the legit operators in this space. If you're thinking about paid education and you want my honest take on who I'd talk to for your situation, just email me info at hotelinvestorplaybook.com. I read every email and I'm happy to point you in the right direction. Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and I gotta tell you, my reaction to what you've just said is conflicted.
Scott Eddy:Okay.
Michael Russell:Okay. Because on the one hand, I really believe what you just described is so pertinent and true that people they may not even be aware that they're doing this, but they're feeling the pain of like, oh shoot, they bought through, they booked through the OTA that that's 15% of you know, I'm earning 15% less. Yeah, and to have this kind of resentment towards the OTA guest. But you're saying, hey, look, let's treat them so well that they're gonna want to come back. Let's let's elevate their experience so that we're gonna get them so that they never book through an OTA again. They're just they're gonna know, like, and trust us, and they're gonna book direct. So that part, like, yes, bingo. The part that I have a challenge with is the incentive to get them to book was by discounting. And then I'm like, well, now I'm just trading a 15% discount for a 30%. Are there any other ways to incentivize them beyond just offering a discount? Like, is there a way to move the needle without discounting that example that you gave 30%, but it could be any amount?
Scott Eddy:I mean, it could be any amount, and every property is gonna be different. Can you do an upgrade? Can you add on an experience to the room? Can you, I mean, there's a million different things, but every single property is gonna have a different answer to that question. An upgrade is an easy, easy one that doesn't take money out of your pocket, especially if it's low season or shoulder season. But I just think that listen, if if you if it hurts that much about the OTA is shut off that pipeline and create a strong enough digital strategy where you don't have to depend on them to fill that gap of the 10, 15% that you're missing or the 30%, or how much ever it is. I mean, look at yourself in the mirror and say, okay, I need to do better at marketing. Direct booking is the way to go. And I got news for you. I love working with the independents way more than the big brands because they have all the flexibility in the world. They have all the free range in the world. I mean, it's awesome working with those guys, but at the end of the day, it's all about your digital infrastructure.
Michael Russell:Let's talk about that. That's a great, that's a great point you're making. So when I look at the Marriott or the Hilton, and I I think they have billions of dollars in marketing budget. I mean, what advantage could uh let's just say a 25-room boutique hotel possibly have in comparison to that marketing war chest?
Scott Eddy:So, because you're only looking at the good. Look at all the restrictions that you have with Marriott and Hilton and and all these big, I mean, the restrictions are endless. Not having your own website that you control, like the music controls, like just everything. I mean, I come about it, I come face to face with it all the time in every country on the planet. And you just have full reign of your marketing when you're an independent and not under that constraint. Yes, you have the scale. Yes, you have the marketing, absolutely. And that is the only benefit that you have. You know, you have that infrastructure, so you don't have to create it. But I mean, independence, you have all the control in the world, but you have to invest in it, not spend on it, invest in it, and it can come back to you tenfold.
Michael Russell:Yeah, you know, I I hear this a lot, and I'm gonna say it again. It's gonna happen over and over. But I think we're entering the era of authenticity. And what the box hotels did really well was they created consistency, and now people are desiring variety, the opposite of consistency to a degree. And so sometimes that can go haywire because if you're not consistent, then you can get an unpredictable experience. But if executed correctly, being able to pivot faster to things that guests prefer. You gave some examples about like music and this, but you know, well, it could be a variety of experiences. It could be the latest wellness trend, whatever that may be, some sort of red light therapy or you know, steam room sauna, fold plunge, you name it, whatever, that that people have access to. Doesn't matter. The point is that that could take a whole bureaucracy of decision makers up the chain of command in the corporate world. When you're an independent, you can act faster. So I think that listening to what you're saying, I think that's a real advantage. I want to apply this from the lens of an investor. If someone is evaluating, let's call it a dated flag hotel that maybe is no longer having to operate under that chain. You know, what are some things that you would recognize? Like, hey, this is a green flag that it would be worthwhile going independent for this property. What are some of the advantages that you would recommend to a client if they were thinking about, from a marketing perspective, how to distinguish themselves from just a regular branded hotel?
Scott Eddy:First off, I would lean into storytelling hard. I mean, I know it's an overused word right now, but we just need more of it in hospitality. Hospitality is the most dynamic industry in the world, yet they fall so flat in their marketing. We have more stories to tell than any other industry out there. With asset managers, marketing is a strategic lever and durability, you know, and build that brand equity from the inside out. You know, one of my most popular services right now that I'm getting hired for is long-form storytelling video series. And what I'm doing is because everybody needs new marketing materials right now with AI doing what they're doing. Because you're no longer going to Google and saying Miami Beach hotels, and then they give you the first page. What you're doing is you're grabbing your phone and you're saying, Hey, I'm going to Miami Beach in two weeks. I'm taking my wife. I'm not taking the kids. I want a place with a good happy hour. I want free breakfast included. I want to be able to walk to a few museums. I mean, they're talking to their phone for 15 minutes. And the AI is scraping this against what is out there, not what you want to be out there. So, what I'm doing is AI is scraping from three different areas. They're scraping from the voice that's coming out of your mouth, the captions on the video screen, and the captions that you write. So those need to be clear indicators of what you want to scrape from AI. So, what I'm doing is I'm making AI discoverable scripts that I'm talking with. What I'm doing in Jamaica is exactly that. My friend owns two hotels, and we're going down there. I'm shooting with the owner, I'm shooting with the GM, I'm shooting with the chef, and we're just doing long form storytelling. And we're basically, I wrote scripts that are AI discoverable. And these are going to be used for the next two years in their marketing plans and running ads. So, number one is it's not just about everybody says short form, short form, short form. You know, and Instagram says do a seven-second video. Instagram's saying do a seven second video so they can sell ads. Understand that doesn't give you brand discoverability. Yes, short forms work a hundred percent, but you need a healthy mix of everything.
Michael Russell:Okay. So let's let's do a case study here or let's let's play this on an example. Let's say I'm trying to attract someone to come to Maui, right? And say I hire you. And I'm like, okay, I realize that people are no longer, well, to a certain degree, I is overtaking search, right? And so to your point, instead of a website being optimized like from a 2015 style where it's got all the keywords and the SEO and all the stuff that at one point was really relevant. Now it's it's more important to stay competitive, to be ahead in that marathon race, for example, is to now be putting out long-form content and all these other things that AI has the capability to investigate. And so I want to attract an audience that says, hey, I want to go to Maui and I'm looking for somewhere that's budget friendly, but also going to offer great experiences. What should I do? What would you recommend that we do?
Scott Eddy:I would say that first off, you need to work backwards. So that's what you want to happen. So how do we make that happen? We create a digital strategy and really commit to it and be committed to it and do a range of short form and long form videos. So are just to ask, are you on Maui right now? Yes. Yeah. Where you live?
Michael Russell:Okay. Yeah. Where and so we have a couple of properties in the Hawaiian Islands, and you know, they're they're hostel properties, and we have a decent marketing like a team of people out there filming content. But this is extremely relevant for where we are now because I'm gonna take away what you're saying. I'm gonna go implement it.
Scott Eddy:100%. So, do you know the property Hannah Maui, the Hyatt property on the other side? And okay, so they're a client of mine. So the asset team are very good friends of mine, and they own many hotels in California. So we went there and did this campaign there. So it is actually working. Uh long-form storytelling. So listen, you still need all the same content as before. You still need the beautiful food photos, you still need the beautiful drone stuff, you still need all that stuff. It just needs to go deeper. And in my opinion, you need to get it the staff involved as much as possible. Your staff are the superstars of your property, and you need to treat them as such. You know what I mean? You got staff, if you got staff that have been there for a while, they have stories. That's what people want to hear. Stories. And also, a big problem, and especially you see this in Hawaii a lot and also in California a lot. A lot of the hotels just talk about their hotels. People are coming to the hotels and not leaving. So you should be talking about the destination half the time, if not more than half the time. Most hotels just promote their hotels and their promos and this and that and this and that. Tell stories about what the person is going to do while they're at your property. What's a day in the life of the typical guests? What's the day in the life of a family? What's the day in the life of a couple that's spending their honeymoon there? You know, what are potential experiences that they could have? Let's talk to your chef. Let's let's see how he created the menu. Where do these ingredients come from? Let's talk to those people. Let's go deep, deep, deep into your property and the destination that you're at. Does that make sense?
Michael Russell:No, it does. I mean, now my mind is spinning and I've I've just kind of spurred all these other questions because okay, rewind a little bit. You started with hey, your your staff is instrumental, right? They're there, boots on the ground. How do we get them involved with filming this? And I think this goes back to the idea of being Authentic, and instead of having the perfectly polished video, like that stuff that that's that doesn't work as well anymore. Right now, people want the the user-generated content. And so if you've got staff, presumably, that are part of the experience, right? Yeah. They're not just like behind the scenes, they're the ones that are interacting with the guest. And so the day in the life piece, like that's really people want to know. They kind of want to take away some of the uncertainty of like, wait, am I going to have a good time? Is the staff going to be friendly? So I'm imagining in my mind, okay, what do I need to film? And I'm I'm spinning a little bit because I'm like, okay, what are some practical takeaways? Like, if I were to write this down right now, like, what are the things that I should be filming? Who should be filming them? And if I were to map that out over, I don't know, let's just say a defined period of time, let's just say a week. You said, okay, every week you should have four or five posts. Can you break it down so I can maybe like have something to take away that's like, all right, these are the posts that I should be making and why I should be making those.
Scott Eddy:So, first off, every property is going to be different because some people want to be on camera, some people do not want to be on camera, some people are tech savvy, some people are not. So, A, you have to figure that out. It's very rare, and I know most hotel people get give me pushback on this. They're like, nobody wants to be on camera. And I say, How do you know? Did you ask? Do you know that for a fact? So you need to find that out first. It's very rare, and I'm telling you, I visit over a hundred hotels a year. It's very rare that there's not one person on property that doesn't want to be a superstar. So make them be the superstar of ABC Hotel. And like, you have to, again, you have to reverse engineer it depending on who you're getting. That's depending on what you're doing. So if this is a person where they're the first ones there and they're doing the prep in the restaurant before the breakfast, why not show that? Why not show the preparation to the restaurant before the guests come in? Hey, we just got here. Everybody normally gets here in about 45 minutes. I'm the first one here. These are things that hotels don't like to show because they're not pretty. Everything's not set up. No, no, no, we can't show that. But this is reality. So if you look at like influencers that are really popular, especially the cooking ones, the food ones that do recipes, if you notice the ones that get the most engagement are the ones that aren't prepared, like with a beautiful background. They're the ones with a messy kitchen and flower on the floor and this and that. And it's just a little bit messy. It's a little bit unfinished, it's a little bit unperfect because people don't relate to perfect, they relate to their own lives.
Michael Russell:Yeah, I get it. What you're saying resonates with me. This makes a lot of sense. And I'm like, oh, I'm excited to encourage my team to produce stuff like this. But I guess I'm feeling a little uncertain. Like, okay, well, the goal is not to just generate likes. At the end of the day, I need a return on investment. And so, what are the content categories that actually drive bookings? If we were to simplify this, like, are there let's say your top three or four buckets of content that I could just, you know, provide sort of like a content list. Okay, content should fall into one of these three or four buckets, go produce it.
Scott Eddy:So, what I'm saying definitely takes longer because you got to build up the trust first, the brand equity first, and then so they need to fall in love with your property. This isn't this is not running an ad, book now, boom, and it's gonna happen in 30 seconds. It doesn't. This is why it's a strategy, it's not a one-week campaign. Listen, can you walk into a hotel, stand outside your hotel or or hostel, whatever it is, with a phone, and you're walking through to the check-in counter, you're getting your key, you're going to your room, you're showing your room, you run that as an ad on Facebook, and Facebook ads are still the best money that you can that you can spend, the best ROI that you can see in social media marketing. Will that generate bookings? Percent. Can it guarantee bookings? Who knows? Does anybody know your brand? Do they know anything else about your property? So this is why I'm saying you need to do a series of things. Not there's not one thing that's going to drive bookings. There's a series of things that you can drive bookings with. Make people fall in love with your staff, show the destinations of the destination around you, show they what experiences they can do. You need to do all these things simultaneously. And while you're posting all these things, run ads. So run organic, right? And whatever hits organic, you run ads on that. You don't throw good money after bad, whereas if one thing falls flat organic, you don't run ads, put money behind it thinking that that's gonna help it. That will not help it. If the creative failed, the creative failed, but you're never gonna know until you publish.
Michael Russell:Yeah. So I mean, obviously, you're describing having this kind of behind-the-scenes tour of what the experience is gonna be like. You're answering questions essentially for the for the guest. If you were to think about well, what is the guest most concerned about? Exactly. If you can answer it through a visual and make them feel comfort, like, ooh, the room is clean, or these are the people that clean the room, right?
Scott Eddy:The simplest things. It's the simplest things that people have questions about. What are my options at breakfast? What are the times of breakfast? You know, like how easy is check it? Who is the GM? Where did he come from? What's his background? Tell me a story. How long have you been a GM? Like, people want to know that I'm going there. Oh my god, I can't wait to see Jim. I saw that video. That's what they want to do.
Michael Russell:Yeah, that's no, this is good. I mean, for me, my my takeaway is look, if you're gonna start, just come up with a list of questions that you believe or you think that your guests are most likely to ask, and then go and answer them through content.
Scott Eddy:Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, at the end of the day, brand clarity equals pricing power. But to get that brand clarity, you need to start by telling stories. And your staff, those are your superstars. Yeah, you could you hire people and bring in, you know, a whole crew? Like I've done that and made the whole polished videos, but I got news for you. Me coming in with my phone, I could do a better job as far as ROI is concerned.
Michael Russell:Well, how does this work then if you're empowering staff to film? Do you establish some rules to kind of keep it on brand and safe? Or you just say, hey, have Adam.
Scott Eddy:Listen, again, every property is different, every person is different. But yes, I mean, like with anything else, this is as fun as it will be, it's also a job. It's part of your it's it's now now it's one of your job descriptions. Yeah. Do you have free reign? Am I loosening the leash a little bit? Am I gonna let you run wild and just like go around and like like, you know, it's not gonna happen, but it has to be boundaries, but it's part of your job description.
Michael Russell:Yeah, I mean, I guess that question, I mean, I say it, but in the reality is that you're you're probably you have a culture that you've established and they're gonna respect that. I think, you know, in talking and thinking out loud here, like I said, I'm spinning a little bit of all the different, you know, if you pull a lever, what's gonna be the domino effect? And so at the end of the day, though, I am circling back to how can I tell that this is working? And you gave the example that look, this isn't something that's a one-week campaign. But it but over a period of time, I need some sort of a KPI dashboard to understand that the investment of my time and bandwidth and possibly money, that this hotel, this content is is having a positive effect. So transparently, right now, Scott, I'm gonna tell you each week we review as part of our we have the the level 10 meeting or like there, you know, the I I forget we used EOS. So for whatever the word is for having our meeting, and one of the metrics that we are every week identifying and and reviewing is how many followers do we get on our Instagram page? And every week we do that, I go, does that even really matter? So I'm I'm feeling like that follower count really isn't a true metric of profitability or revenue generation. Like that's just a vanity metric. And so what I want to know from your perspective, if you're consulting a client, what's the KPIs that that they're gonna look at that they can determine, hey, this is this is working.
Scott Eddy:So I love I love the save option on Instagram. I look at how many saves because that's how people bookmark their trips, their vacations. I love looking at comments. I am obsessed with the comments on everything. It's literally the first thing that I do when I wake up every single morning is I reply to every single comment on every platform, on every post that came in overnight. Because replying to a comment respects the guest time. Now, is that guess worthwhile or not? Who knows? But respect everybody's time while you're finding that out. So comments are huge. And if you're not getting enough comments, you're not posting the right content. So are you asking questions in your captions? Are you asking questions in your videos? Are you taking polls? Are you doing all these things to prompt comments? Comments is where the ROI lives. I mean, this is the number one indicator of are you getting it right? And also, listen, if you have a hotel and you're famous for a cookie, right? I would go into your kitchen and I would film the chef making that cookie, and I would literally put the recipe of that cookie in the description, in the in the caption. Give it away. Like I give away my digital strategies. I get fired more because I give stuff away. And if it's that popular, give it away. I promise you it's coming back to you tenfold.
Michael Russell:Well, what's your take on running promotions? You know, with like, you know, share this. Like if comment here or I don't know, share this with five people or something, and you're eligible for a competition or giveaway, something like that.
Scott Eddy:Giveaways. I love them. I love them. I would so I would always, if you're doing a giveaway, I would always do it in collaboration with local influencers in your direct market or your target market or your your biggest demographic. So your biggest demographic is probably California. So I would get micro influencers who have ridiculous engagement, and I would do collaborations and giveaways with them as far as a collab post. And I got news for you. I where I pick up a lot of engagement and a lot of followers on my posts is I literally reply to every single. So on giveaways, on giveaways, you know, they're gonna comment, share, or like or whatever you tell them to do, right? Because they want the prize, they want the the vacation. I would reply to every single one of those people and try to start a conversation because I can tell you A, they're your target, B, 20% to 30%, maybe even 50% of those people will follow you after that.
Michael Russell:Well, yeah. Well, okay, so I just picked up on something that is nuanced, but I think could be effective for us. So we've run these promotions. And for example, we run promotions with people from Latin America and they have this huge following. And I think one gal was a relatively large influencer in Brazil. And at the time I was really excited because we got all this engagement with people from Brazil, but I don't know that we saw really a major uptick. And then I start looking at the demographic of where people are coming from, and you're right, not a lot are coming from Brazil. So although we're getting, you know, likes and shares and whatnot, the influencer needs to be someone that's going to promote people from California, for example.
Scott Eddy:Yeah, you just need to, again, I reverse engineer everything. If the result that you want is heads and beds, which is what every asset manager wants, then you need to target your immediate market, Hawaii, or your biggest market, which is your California. And you need to like, and then you need to narrow down like where in California. And then you need to, you know, like really you can go micro, micro, micro. But yeah, I mean, it's it's they're out there. They're out there. I'm telling you. I actually have a really good friend in LA who would be great for you.
Michael Russell:Okay. All right, we'll talk offline.
Scott Eddy:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael Russell:I want to talk about the way in which to record this content because you know, I think that I'm guilty of it sometimes of being a bit of a perfectionist. And so, you know, I want the best production value possible. But I I've heard you talk about look, the shaky iPhone content is outperforming polished content. Can you talk about that?
Scott Eddy:Yeah, it's it's listen, I have the best videographers in the world. I mean, I have some unbelievable guys. I have made cinematic films in Antarctica and Kenya and Alaska. But I got news for you. Nothing performs better than me holding up my phone and shooting a 60-second video and posting it. This is what COVID changed the world with. Because people didn't have budgets, because people were like locked in their house, that's all that you were seeing. So then post-COVID, what has happened is that type of video equals authentic. And now it just went down a rabbit hole, and I don't think it's ever coming back. Now, do I do I say that the fancy videos have no use? Absolutely not. We still shoot them, we still film them, they have their place. And I love a highly edited, like we were just in in this resort in the middle of the jungle in Bali, but it's like three hours north of where all the big resorts were. Like literally no air conditioned, up in the mountains. It was unbelievable. And I was there with a great videographer, James, and he's actually putting together a very unbelievable, really high, highly edited, gorgeous cinematic film from this trip. And it's going to be amazing. I can promise you the stuff that I shot there that I just posted right after I shot it has gotten more engagement than this will get. But this was needed as well. I think you need a healthy mix of both.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Yeah, I agreed. Yeah. I mean, you've got a video on your website currently, which is of a hotel in Mexico. And I think it's obviously a few years old because it looks like they're still during the COVID period, but it's it's a really well done production. And I tell you, I was like, where is this place? I want to go there. Like it was really well done. So there's a there's a need for both. It's not like one or the other, it's a combination of sorts, right? I want to shift gears a little bit here. And although operations is not necessarily your area, you're your domain, you stay. I mean, you basically live out of a hotel. I mean, you you literally do travel the world year-round. And so you've had enough interaction on a regular basis to understand and feel what good operations is. And and I've heard you say that there's a there's a separation between service and hospitality. What's the practical difference and why does it matter for revenue?
Scott Eddy:So most people look at working in hospitality as a job, especially if you're not in the upper tier management. It is a job. It's something that I do to survive. And that comes across in how you present yourself to the guests. Whereas if you take a little bit more pride and you look at it as a career, you're gonna look at the days a little bit different. You're gonna look at your attitude a little bit different, you're gonna look at your focus a little bit different. And I mean, how can that matter in revenue? It's night and day. But I think that also comes down to the employee culture at the place. I think that the trickle-down effect in the hospitality world is real. I think that if you treat the employees right, if you treat the employees like they're your family versus they're just somebody who's getting a salary from you that needs to work and do their job, I think that you're gonna see the difference. And I think you're gonna see the difference in the ROI.
Michael Russell:Yeah.
Scott Eddy:You really do.
Michael Russell:Yeah. I mean, I think that by definition, you know, service is like the things that must be done, and hospitality is like those emotional moments that are memorable. You know, service prevents downside. Like there are certain rules and process and things that they must perform. And then there's the just reacting in the moment, doing something like that doesn't feel so transactional, but feels genuine and authentic for it for that moment. You know, when you you ask someone how they're doing, it's different than if you ask, like, no, how are you really doing? Like, how was your day yesterday? You guys, did you go on that mountain bike tour? Did you go on that whale watch, whatever it was in the experience, and actually care? Those are like the separating factors. And these don't have to be big dramatic things. I want to tell you one thing. I'm gonna vent a little bit here, and then maybe you can parlay this. But one thing that drives me absolutely bonkers, which is totally preventable, is when the front desk is buried behind a screen and they're multitasking and they're looking at their property management system, they're not really present, and it almost feels like I'm interrupting their process instead of being welcomed. You've checked in at enough hotels. I don't know, do you have something that comes to mind where that experience of being like the initial, the initial introduction to the hotel, like just something that's memorable that was like, wow, that's how it should be done. Is there a tangible takeaway that listeners could apply to their reception right now that would really lift that hospitality experience?
Scott Eddy:So this goes back to your training and how you treat the front staff and really your front office manager. That is the most important part of the whole hotel stay. That first, if that first interaction sucks, man, you're you're just fighting an uphill battle the whole time. So your training, yes, you need to really focus on every employee of the of the house. But I got news for you. Those are the people that you need to concentrate the most on. And those are the people that you got to make sure that they're working, that they're not overwhelmed. And if they are, get them more help. Just make sure that there's more than enough people up there to do what they have to do, where they have that little extra time where nobody is walking towards that desk and their head's not facing them. That is critical. You need to make sure you need to overcompensate these people because that's your most critical. I mean, that's the epicenter of the whole property. These people are overwhelmed all the time.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Well, I think that I'm having now on a more regular basis conversation about how to implement AI to be more efficient. And although there's the idea of eliminating the front desk staff to save on labor, I think that the real value in implementing AI and technology is to eliminate the task work. You know, if folks now can sort of pre-check in before arrival, but they still need some interaction, then the whole focus upon the interaction is to be out of the computer and be into the person, like welcoming them. That is the definition of hospitality is being hospitable. So, you know, technology has a role and has a place, but I think what really separates good from great is human connection. So that that's an important aspect.
Scott Eddy:Yeah. And, you know, like I honestly think that properties need to use AI to enhance hospitality, not take away from hospitality. Do the mundane stuff that they don't need to be doing. So there can be that extra conversation, not less conversation. People want that.
Michael Russell:Yeah. I want to shift to like a little bit of an investor lens here because I think this is relevant, particularly where I'm at right now, is you know, I'm an optimist and I think, hey, I can do something better than someone. You know, I can go in there and I can pull these different levers and I can move the needle and offer a better experience. But it's it's difficult sometimes to objectively make projections that that are in alignment with reality. Like I sometimes get concerned that I have fanny fantasy projections. I just I'm wondering, like, from your perspective, clients hire you, they want to see improvement. I mean, what are some conservative ways to underwrite either an existing hotel who's going to implement a marketing campaign, or for someone that's looking at purchasing one, you know, what kind of like lift could they experience in terms of, you know, what you can define this in a variety of ways. It could be metrics that are related to ADR, it could be occupancy. I mean, ultimately RevPAR is a combination of the two. But what's realistic for someone who goes out there and executes at a high level, what can they expect? I know you're gonna say every situation is different. I get that. But give me some perspective on how to apply this practically when I'm underwriting potential investments.
Scott Eddy:Listen, I just think that most properties operate, and I would, and when I say most, I would say 80% of the hotels in the world operate without a digital strategy. And that's no joke. And that that number is probably low. They might have a content calendar, but that means nothing. You have to have hard targets. You have to have hard targets are very, very important and it keeps you on pace. It keeps you on pace with the investor, with the manager, with the GM, everybody. And I think that it and there's there's more properties that don't have hard targets than do. And I think that if those hard targets are in place, all this, you know, storytelling and all these videos and all these running ads and this and that, you have to have hard targets on what you want to hit at this time. And you got to be realistic. You know, things are gonna happen in a week, and you can't turn a property around in three months. You gotta be realistic, but you need these hard targets, and that's what keeps you on pace.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Okay. Well, if I'm if I'm looking at purchasing a hotel that, and I know every situation is different, but I have to make this hard choice between investing marketing dollars and this somewhat of an opaque objective, because I I don't exactly know the return on investment of those marketing dollars. I mean, you probably deal with this all the time from skeptical hotel owners or GMs who are like, How do I know I'm gonna get my money's worth? How do you answer them?
Scott Eddy:I don't know. That is that that is the simple answer. There's no, there's nobody if anybody in the world has gives you a different answer, they're lying because it's a guess. Everything is a guess. If you're buying that hotel, how do you know you're gonna make money? Even if you don't spend any money on marketing. One thing I can guarantee that if If you don't invest in a proper digital infrastructure, your odds of failure go up probably three times. These days, if you look at social media as a whole, right, it's the main pipeline of communication with the world. Okay. In developing countries, when there's a coup happening or any disruption, the first thing they do is shut off social media. So if it has the power to disrupt a country from being taken over, you don't think he can sell a hotel room or two if the proper strategy is applied? So the answer is who knows. But the answer is if you don't do it, you're more likely to fail than if you don't do it.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Instead of asking you what hotel investors or operators should do on social media, what's the I don't know, what are some of the mistakes that you see hotel operators doing on social media that they should immediately stop doing?
Scott Eddy:The biggest mistake hotels make in social media marketing are they post the image, then they put the promo in text over that image and post that thinking that it's going to drive ROI. That's actually driving people away from your brand, not to your brand, because people are going to remember that you posted that and they're going to, in their mental muscle, they're going to remember that next time they scroll. Those things do nothing. And it has nothing, there's no place in it in storytelling. I think that the first thing these properties need to do is create a proper strategy and go buy it. You know, like when you have a job and you go into your job, you have, you know, you might not have it written down, but you know what you have to do on a daily basis. And you have that strategy up in your head. If you don't do that, what happens? You either get fired or reprimanded, and neither one of those things are good. So what make so why is it different when you have a hotel? It is the same exact thing, it's just a different playbook. And and so another big thing that hotels don't do, um, that do wrong, is they say, okay, society told me that I need to have a social media person. Hey, Penny, you're young. I'm gonna have you be my social media person because you're young and you get it. And once you do your social media post, because society said that we need to, then you have these other 17 job responsibilities that I need you to do real work with. So now we have a social media person. Yeah. It's ridiculous. It's a joke. You might as well not do it.
Michael Russell:Well, okay. So, what's your opinion then, in terms of comparing putting effort and bandwidth into having your own team document for social media purposes versus hiring a professional or an agency? If you're a boutique hotel owner and you have a limited budget, you may not be able to afford both. If you had to choose one, agency versus in-house, what do you think?
Scott Eddy:In-house, in-house 100%. Really? Because they know your brand inside and out. They're there living, breathing, eating, sleeping your brand every single day. Agency, listen, I had an agency. I have friends that have agencies. I have friends that make their livelihood off of these type of retainers. But I'm telling you right now, once once you sign that contract and they give what deliverables they're going to give per month, they're they're not eat, breathing, and sleeping your brand because they're getting paid regardless. Yeah. You need somebody who's really invested in your brand. Really invested. And give them bonus targets, give them, I mean, really like live by these hard targets. Live and live by the and build that strategy. And in-house is always the way to go. Another very popular service that is happening right now, because I preach this so much that you should have in-house, is I'm helping people hire people for in-house, train them, developing a digital strategy for them, and basically an internal playbook showing them how to engage, how to post, when to post, how often to post, and really like, and then we have like weekly or bi-weekly calls for the first six months, and then they're off and run.
Michael Russell:Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. In fact, yeah, we're doing something similar right now. We just engaged an agency to help set us up. And we have someone on our team in-house who's been doing the work, who, you know, but let's face it, this person is not an expert in digital marketing. This is someone that is passionate and cares and is adept and is smart, but doesn't necessarily have the history and career experience as a professional agency of you.
Scott Eddy:So let me give you a little advice what to tell this person. I was a horrible student. I was a C minus student in high school. I never went to one day of college. I learn every single thing that I learn on YouTube. I spend three to four hours a day, either watching andor listening to YouTube. I watch social media shows, I people that I respect, trends, everything. Everything. The good, the bad, the middle. I don't care if they have a million followers or one follower. I don't care. You can learn from everybody. And when I find something that I like, I listen to it 15 times. Because that mental muscle, it just gets, it just gets in your head. Live and die by YouTube, that person. It's free. It's only time. It's unbelievable that that I still have to tell people that it's free. People don't understand, and they laugh at me when I say this. In three or four years, social media will not be free. Think about the way the world works. Think about the way a I don't know how active you guys are on Facebook pages or Facebook company pages. If you post something, if you're not boosting it, like 1% of your audience sees it, right? So social media, in my opinion, in the next three to five years is gonna happen just like that. You're gonna create a basic account and you're gonna be able to do very limited things unless you pay a monthly fee. Instagram is already testing it out. They already have the elevated, you know, like I account they charge 23 to 25 bucks a month. I really don't think it does much, but I I do it just because it might one day. I don't know. LinkedIn has a professional version. I don't think that does much either. They're very expensive. They're like 80 bucks a month, but people are already testing it. And I'm telling you right now, it's not going to be free for everyone. You're gonna look back at this time and you're gonna be like, my God. Sort of like when TikTok first came out, and I was telling people, I'm like, get an account, get active, go all in. I'm telling you, this is gonna work. And they're like, Yeah, I'm not an 11-year-old dancing. And I tell them, every platform starts young and ages up. Do you know? And I get and I guarantee you don't know this. Do you know the most active demographic on TikTok right now is age 38 to 55?
Michael Russell:Is that right? I did not know that.
Scott Eddy:Every platform ages up, huh?
Michael Russell:Yeah. I mean, I I always thought of TikTok, you know, I got the stigma of exactly what you described, like young teenage girls dancing.
Scott Eddy:Well, face as university kids partying, and now your grandmother's on there.
Michael Russell:Yeah. Well, I mean, as you're speaking, look, you're talking about how education is free, YouTube and social media. So, on that note, I am going to make a call to action. If you're listening to this podcast, please share it with someone who could benefit. That's how we grow and get more awesome speakers like Scott Eddy on this show to continue to uh to support the show. We need your support. So please share this with someone who could benefit us on Apple or wherever you get your podcast. But Scott, this has been super practical, and I appreciate you coming on and sharing your playbook. So, how can our listeners stay in touch or continue to follow your journey?
Scott Eddy:I am at Mr. Scott Eddy on every platform.
Michael Russell:Awesome. Okay.
Scott Eddy:Easy.
Michael Russell:Well, for everyone listening, thanks again so much for being a part of the Hotel Investor playbook. We will catch you all again next week. Aloha,