Staff Shortages Technology & Post Pandemic Business - An Interview with Max Starkov

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It's Brendon, your Technology Concierge today I'm  joined by Max Starkov all the way from the US and   we're talking about a number of things. All  things technology basically. Good Morning Max,   how are you? Hey, Good Morning from  New York City. How are you Brendon?  Good good I love that background. I really love  that. Actually, I took the picture this is from  

Central Park looking down to 57th street  and this is the so-called billionaire row   in Manhattan. Love it I love it. Max, I've  followed you for a long time but for the people   listening today would it be okay if you just gave  us a quick rundown on your background? Background   well 40 years in hospitality industry technology,  Revenue Management and Digital Marketing. The last   25 years of naturally online and in the digital  portion of hospitality technology and marketing.   I mean I come from Bulgaria,  Sofia Bulgarian. Master's degree,  

undergraduate & Master's degree in hospitality  studies and international tourism. MBA Fordham   University in New York City. The last 25 years I  have spent. I worked for the ministry of tourism   of Bulgaria. Director of Bulgarian government  tourist office for North America. Worked for   American Express in Europe. I brought the first  Sheraton, managed Sheraton to the country plus  

you know was one of the co-founders of Hertz  Bulgaria. So this is all before I came to New York   City 32 years ago. And so the last I would say the  internet age I was the Co-founder and CEO of three   consecutive internet startups. Travelbreak.com  which was the first online travel marketplace  

where we had travel suppliers, hotels, car rental  companies tour operators offering their services   to over one million unique visitors that we had  you know us our users and that was back in 96   so we had practically the full internet universe  was on our website. Whale Media Technologies which   was the first CRS and online booking engine  in hospitality and then the last 20 years   HeBS Digital which later became NextGuest  which is now part of Cendyn which would say   direct online channel consultancy technology  CRM technology and digital marketing company.   And that's what we did for the last  20 years until you know we merged with   Cendyn. If you know Cendny just merged with  Pegasus. So basically that's that was my whole   how shall I put it my vision is to create an  end-to-end hospitality digital distribution and   guest engagement acquisition and retention  platform and that's what Cendyn is today. So I'm   I was very happy to see you know that my vision  came into fruition only recently. But anyway.   So that's what it is 40 years in 40 seconds. 40  years. One of the things you haven't touched on is  

you've been teaching hospitality for many  years. 20 years 20 years yeah. I mean as an   Adjunct Professor or visiting Professor as it's  called in Europe for example. I teach hospitality   technology at NYU Tisch Centre of Hospitality,  which is the hospitality school within the 40 000   students strong New York University. In the past  I have taught CRM, I have taught in hospitality,   I have taught Digital Marketing, Online  Distribution and so forth different courses.   And also I teach Advanced Digital Marketing  strategies for Les Roches global hospitality   in Switzerland. So two courses per  semester more than enough to keep me busy   and yeah and just to you know I enjoy sharing  what I know with the next industry leaders.  

And I share your passion for that not to the  same extent but I love sharing. Hence I've   been following you on LinkedIn for some time  and wanted to do this interview with you. Max   one of the biggest issues we're facing in the  hospitality industry right now as we come out   of the pandemic is the labour shortage. A couple  of people I've spoken to have sort of indicated,   it's fine, it's a short-term problem. Once  the borders open and you know we can have  

some immigration then we'll be able to  fill the jobs. What are your thoughts on   that? Is it a short-term problem? First of  all, this is not a pandemic problem because   in 2019 which was a record year in hospitality  here in the United States for example there were   one million open positions in hospitality in 2019.  Yeah, that was pre-pandemic. Yeah! You know when   we rely on foreigners to fill in those jobs, I  mean in the United States there's a program where   66,000 temporary workers are allowed  to come and work in hospitality.   They come from all over the world. By the way  many students you know just spend three months  

during the summer and so forth Disneyland,  Disney world the different resorts and so   forth over 66,000 work permits that they  issued to help with the labour shortages.   Yet there were one million open positions. So what  I mean is that we cannot issue 1 million temporary   visas to fill in those jobs and that  was 2019. So just imagine fast forward.  

First of all, labour participation has dropped and  it has dropped in Australia, Europe and the United   States right now it's like 65% of the population  or something like this actively working.   Especially in the United States for example the  unemployment rate is 4.6% so I mean anything below   four per cent is considered full employment.  Yeah and we're almost there you know 4.6 so in  

this sense and right now in the United States,  there are 10 million open positions across all   industries yep 1.73 million in hospitality.  Wow Okay. We're talking about today. So   when people say that this is a temporary thing  it will be resolved. My answer is it will never   be resolved because it wasn't resolved prior  to the pandemic and also labour shortages   are not a hospitality native problem. You  have labour shortages in construction,  

manufacturing, in trucking.  There are 200,000 truckers   that are needed in the United States today. These  are the people that you know with the huge rigs,   the huge trucks that transport all of  these containers and so forth. 200,000   and there are no takers and these people  make sixty, seventy, eighty up to two hundred   thousand dollars a year yet there are no takers.  So what I mean is that this is not a hospitality   problem. You know a lot of it and again this  is the politicians talking, if we increase   the minimum wage to 15 dollars then there will  not be an issue. In manufacturing the starting  

salary is 25 dollars an hour yet they have labour  shortages. In construction today it's 45 dollars   an hour so what I mean is that this is a problem  of all of the labour-intensive industries and   the labour-intensive industries are doomed to have  this issue, not for a long time, forever that's   my point. And I believe that the only issue is,  the only solution I would say to labour shortages   is changing the business model. For example  from a full-service hotel becoming a   select-service hotel or the limited-service  hotel for example killing your F&B   you know so you can do certain things in your  operations. You know to streamline operations,   simplify operations, to remove labour intensive  for example food and beverage, room service forget   it you just remove room service. Breakfast that is  a la carte breakfast, no buffet breakfast so what  

I mean is that there's certain business, I would  say tweaks to your business model that you can do   in order to simplify operations  but the most important reduce   the need for labour and reduce all of those  labour-intensive operations. For example,   what Hilton did with introducing housekeeping  on demand, it immediately eliminates half of   your housekeeping needs. Because if you  go and stay someplace for two nights   do you really need a housekeeper to “tuck” your  bed and first of all who invented this “tucking”   of beds in hotels? Nobody does this at  home. No, you're right. Why do people do it?   Tradition! It's such a, I mean, listen I was  attending boarding school, I went to the military   in my native Bulgaria and I'll tell you  every morning we had this ritual where we had   to do our beds you know perfect and so  forth. Still, we didn't tuck our beds!   This is like a self-inflicted wound. Because  I'll tell you why. Because robots today  

can do if you look at housekeeping.  Housekeeping is approximately 175   tasks. Okay. So there's no robot that  can replace a housekeeper one to one.   But if you dissect the housekeeping  job it consists of 175 tasks   robots can do, different robots can do 150 of  those tasks. Wow okay! They cannot tuck beds,  

but if you remove the tucking for example then,  employing a team of robots. Different robots,   that do different things then you can resolve  almost 100% of your housekeeping today. So that's   my point. My point is that hoteliers have to  become smart and they have to sit back and dissect   their operations and see what are these points  in my guest services, guest interactions, even   guest services where I can first of all I can save   efforts. Save resources, save human  resources and of course and it's not only   improving the bottom line but it's simply you  don't have to hire those people that you cannot   hire anyway you cannot find any way. That's my  point because of the labour shortage. So in this   sense on one hand if you dissect operations from  the moment that the guest steps into your lobby   and you know first of all mobile and contactless  check-in. Immediately 50% of your front desk is  

irrelevant. You don't need them and you will not  fire them. You will simply redeploy, them give   them other jobs. You will not have them because  you cannot find them anyway so in this sense   you will have you know 50% of front desk people  that you have to hire less that's my point.  

And then for all of those that haven't gone  through the mobile check-in if you have you   know self-checking kiosk in the lobby. You have  some you know young guys, they could be interns   that explain to the guests you know especially  elderly guests how to do it and so forth.   You know how they can self-check-in. And then all  the mobile keys so basically you dissect the full,  

I would say stay of a guest and you see where   you can do improvements, you can introduce  technology in order to solve your labour shortage   problems. And I'll give you another example. It's  not only when the guest comes to the property.   You know outside of reservations, typically 50% of  phone calls to the property five-zero per cent are   “where the hell are you guys,  what corner, what exit”.   Explain it on the website. So you start by your  website. You start by reviewing your website   all the information. Is it correct? Does this  information provide you know the right I would say   the correct information, the correct I would  say descriptions and so forth so that they   don't call the property. Because if they call  the property somebody has to pick up the phone.   Who is that somebody? So this is the point. So  you start from your website. You start from your  

booking engine on your website you start with  your descriptions and then the photos you know   your visuals on the website on your social  media through the distribution channels,   OTA’s, GDS and so forth. And then from there, you  channel those you know the during the planning and   the dreaming. The planning and the booking phases  of the customer journey. You dissect every single   step every single interaction between your hotel  and the potential guests or returning guests   and then you see where you can introduce  efficiencies. Some efficiencies are even   better descriptions on the website. So that's not  new technology, no it's not robots or AI. It's  

just common sense. So you start from there and  then introduce CRM for example. If you have CRM   to communicate with all of the returning guests  and all of the guests that have made a reservation   and provide all the necessary information before  they come to your property before they even send   the mobile checking and so forth. So all of this  and then you have you know you can automate this   whole process from booking to people arriving at  the property without a single human touching it   without interaction with a single human which will  save you. I mean again half of your front desk   staff simply becomes irrelevant. You can deploy  them to other better things to do. And then other   property of course during the whole stay and what  happens after the stay. I mean after people leave  

again for example if you have CRM technology you  can communicate with them. You can send them a   guest satisfaction survey. You know marketing  automation, drip campaigns you can keep engaging   them throughout the period after they stay and  hopefully bring them back to the property as   repeat guests. So what they mean is that it's the  first step definitely in solving labour shortages  

is to assess all the interactions and touchpoints  with your guests, pre, during and post-stay and   if you do that any hotelier would find areas  to provide efficiencies, to introduce better   systems in place, to introduce technology  that will help and so forth and believe me   because this labour shortage is not going  away period. Understand, Thank You Max.  Max, we touched on robots and as you said  I'm actually surprised that they can handle   150 of 175 tasks that housekeeping do. I've  spoken to a few hoteliers about robots and   in particular five-star hotels are currently  of the opinion that robots are not for them   and probably never will be. They were  the same people that told me 10 years   ago that mobile check-in and mobile key would  never become part of their operation as well.   What are your thoughts? I mean where do you  see a place for robots is it limited service   and in five-star properties, they will be  there but they'll be behind the scenes,   helping front-facing staff deliver better service.  Yeah, I mean let's put it this way. First of all  

if you follow the steps of this Japanese hotel  Hennan if you remember 350 robots basically the   fully robotic operation of the hotel. Yeah. I  think that you'll be making a major mistake.   Yes. That's not where we are today. First  of all the robots themselves as Hennan   discovered this are not good enough. Yes. But  simple as that. So the way that I see it is a   robot should be introduced very carefully after  careful considerations and in places where they   already excel. And I'll give you one example. You have the Tipsy robot,   which is a bartender. It's a bartending  robot which replaces four bartenders.  

Wow, OK. And it's a major attraction in Las  Vegas they have it in Europe and it's coming   to New York City and so forth so in this sense  in London they have it so what I mean is that   this is a place where you  can introduce a robot today.   As far, as other places are if you operate a  resort with you know big outside, you know gardens   and like a big estate if you will, peace resort  or golf resort then introducing let's say robot   security guards. Yes. Robotic security guards  

which are already in existence with  in many of the Casinos in Las Vegas   many of the airports in the United States you can  see them. You know going back and forth. Knight   Scope is the name of the company that specializes  there. This definitely can be done today. I mean   a security guard is 30 bucks an hour that's  the salary. A robot is seven dollars an hour.   No perks, no health insurance, no nothing. Seven  dollars an hour 24/7. That's what the robots   do. So what I mean is that so this is some of the  things that you can introduce today. Yep. Now for  

the for example of Food and Beverage already you  have Piestro for example which is a complete robot   pizza making, pizza making robot which  produces a gourmet type of pizzas   at I mean a very low price and very low cost. I  would say and it replaces a full pizza restaurant.   So if you're for example a hotel with some kind of a Food and Beverage replacing the whole   restaurant if you will with this Piestro robotic pizza-making machine it makes sense.   So these are the things that can be introduced  immediately today. Housekeeping you can introduce   for example Rosie the cleaning robot by Maidbot.  I mean two thousand hotels already use Rosie.   It cannot prepare a room like a human  housekeeper. But it can help a human housekeeper   with some of the very mundane and very  unpleasant if you will jobs. So what I  

mean is that so the way that I see it is more  like not 100 robotic operation but Cobots.   These are collaborative robots that work together  with humans in the same team where the humans do   certain things, yes and the robots do other things  and hopefully the robots do the dirtier jobs you   know the more dangerous jobs the more unpleasant  jobs and the humans do more of a managerial   job. And again the things that the robots still  cannot do. So that's how I see it progressing.   So Cobots are definitely a way you know like  humans plus robots teams. It already has been   most of Amazon Warehouses they operate in a  cobot type of arrangement humans plus robots.   I would say in many manufacturing places that's  how it's been done. So that's not a new thing for   the industry in general but in hospitality,  this will be a new thing. So as far as the  

luxury hotels, I fully understand because I  mean the personal touch the personal attention  to the guest is paramount. I mean I'm a big  fan of Mandarin Oriental for example so in  this sense I understand where they're coming  from. The way that I see it at luxury hotels   is that they will maintain a  human facade for the time being.  

Behind the curtains for example salad-making  robots, line cooks that prepare the food   so that the celebrity chef can focus on his magic.  But the robots preparing, cutting the onions and   the and the carrots and the stuff that's not  a job for humans. Robots can do this easily so   I mean in the United States there's a chain  which is like more than a billion-dollar   evaluation chain Sweetgreen which is like  a salad, yes, salad place with a lot of   locations around the United States. So  they have acquired a company that makes   complete 100 per cent robotic  restaurants. Everything from A to Z   is made by robots and of course focusing  on salads in this particular case.   So they claim we will not fire even a  single person because I mean they have   four or five people staff but we will allow our  staff to be creative our staff to work with the   clients and basically to improve customer  service and so forth and let the machine   do their thing which they do perfectly well. So  you don't need people to cut you know potatoes and  

cucumbers because a machine can do this perfectly.  Much better than a human you know more precise and   so forth. So what I mean is that so the direction  that I see at this point is you take what's   already proven in the marketplace that already  works as a standalone unit and you start from   there. You implement there and you keep your human  operations in all other aspects and then over time   you introduce robots where or AI applications for  example. It's not only robots when we're talking  

about robots I mean next-generation technology.  Because robots are machines that can do certain   physical stuff but AI can do much better things.  For example and I'll give you an example if you go   to a hotel today and you need an extra pillow what  do you do? You call the front desk and say hey   can you send me an extra pillow, please. And  then there will be first of all somebody has   to pick up the phone, take this order and say  okay room 405 needs an extra pillow and then   if they remember they will call housekeeping and  say hey go to room 405 and bring an extra pillow.   So that's the current process if you have an  issue resolution or guest communication system in   place which is like a messaging service.  And there's so many players in this field.   The guest using his own or her own smartphone  will send a message to the hotel hey guys I need   a extra pillow and then of course it's natural  language processing technology which is AI,   will decipher your message within milliseconds  and say oh this is a housekeeping thing.  

If your bathroom is clogged or you know the light  is out then it will decipher this and it will   send it to engineering and so forth but it's  all automatic. And then of course housekeeping   sends a robot for example to bring it to your  room the extra pillow or somebody personally   brings it. It doesn't matter. What matters is that at the end of the month   the manager can see, the General Manager can  see what's wrong with our hotel I have 150 rooms   and 150 requests for extra pillows yes so I better  buy 150 pillows just put them in every room. So   you have the analytics, you have a business  decision that's already made for you by the   analytics. So that's where AI for example helps  tremendously in exactly such issue resolution   technology applications which are readily available in hospitality. They cost a dollar  

per room per month, two dollars per room per  month depending on how complex and this and that.   And guess how many independent hotels have those?  10 per cent. Really Ok. That's crazy because   as software as a service there is literally you  know no implementation. No we have no information   and with the efficiencies and guest service, the  solution pays for itself. Of course. So my whole   point is that so when talking about robots yes  robots are needed I mean for example security,   but security is not only a robot. Security if  you have a mobile key system which automatically  

logs which door has been opened, by whom, at  what time and so forth and keeps security so   this is it has nothing to do with robots  it's a secure mobility system if you will.   And many of those mobile key companies  they provide this type of system. So   what I mean is that business processes, AI  definitely IoT which is the Internet of Things,   devices in the room in a similar room like  yours where they, you know the IoT devices they   detect the temperature they detect whether there's  somebody in the room itself. You know the lighting   and so forth and then again if you leave the room  30 seco nds after that everything goes into like   economy mode, into like a utility saving  mode. The temperature goes to a certain level   the lighting goes off and so forth and it's  all automatic so there's no need for a human to   go from room to room to check you know oh  what happened. I mean did somebody leave the  

air conditioning on which is you know like  so we're wasting energy. My point is that   it's a combination of next-generation  technology applications that include   physical, like robots. It includes devices,  like physical like IoTs, includes AI, includes,   automation and the combination of them all  actually is what a hotelier should be looking at.   Not just focusing on some, how shall I put it  being obsessed with robots for example like "Henn   an" in japan. The hotel. So it's the combination  of many many factors and what for example, the   Hilton & Marriott are working right now on  the concept of the Smart Room. Yes. Where   based on your loyalty member preferences, the room  automatically adjusts itself to your preference.  

Which they know, of course, they know through  the PMS, through the loyalty member and your   preferences and your past stays. And again these  are preferences that are automatically adjusted   based on oh Mr Smith when he's on a business trip  he likes A, B, C, D & E but when he's on leisure   he likes you know five other things. So the system  automatically knows that whether you're coming on   business or leisure or “bleisure” the combination  of the two. Or a business trip with leisure  

extension, for example. Yes. And then it adjusts  itself automatically to your liking. You know if   you need extra pillows it automatically sends a  request to housekeeping to bring an extra pillow.   If you like a single malt scotch whisky the bottle  is coming and right there you know with a bucket   of ice. If you like this if you like that. Your  Netflix login information is automatically logged   into the TV set. And the temperature of course  you like cooler, you like hotter, you like warmer,   you like subdued lighting, you like extra bright  lighting. All of this is changed automatically  

and that's what actually hotels already  have rooms like these Marriots and Hiltons.   And you know Chris Nassetta the CEO of  Hilton says that "there will come a time   and it will come very shortly when you will  know your room and the room will know you".   So in this sense and that's the future of  hospitality. And what's behind it is IoT devices   definitely. Definitely robots you know delivery  concierge type of robots to deliver all these  

things. Yes. Artificial intelligence, of course,  I mean to remember all of this and second to make   conclusions based on your behaviour, your  past behaviour your preferences. And again to   be able to come up with perks and benefits and  like different types of services that the system   knows that you might like or you will like for  sure 97 per cent chance that you will like x   and so forth based on your past behaviour. So it  will be a combination of next guest technologies.   Not just of a single application. Yep Yep. So we  need to look at it from a holistic point of view.  

Yes and then holistic point of  view not only the technology   but also holistic point of view as far as the  customer journey because the hotel whether   the hotel realizes this or not the hotel  interacts with the customer in the dreaming phase,   in the planning phase. In the dreaming phase.  When somebody says oh I just saw this article,   this blog, this posting on social media about  this amazing hotel in the Bahamas or in Tobago   or in whatever. Yeah. And so that's why that's  the dreaming phase and then okay let me see   do we have the time, when can we go this  is the planning phase. Where exactly what   how are we going to get there flights and then,  of course, the hotel is the hotel that we want   to stay in, is it very expensive, is it cheap.  You saw the planning phase and then of course  

the booking phase then the stay phase and then  the post-stay the sharing the retention phases   so the hotel interacts one way or another in  all of those phases so that's where you have to   analyze and see what kind of technology,  what type of technology applications,   what kind of efficiencies sometimes you know I  mentioned it's not even technology. It's like   finding a better description on your  own website. Or coming up with a with a   like local activities guides tours activities experiences attractions   guide and positioning the hotel as the center of  the local universe. Sometimes that's all it takes.   But again so that's why it's not just  pure technology it's not some futuristic   you know like a science fiction type of technology  implementation that will solve our problems it's   a very comprehensive very holistic. I would  say approach and ultimately if you look at   it shouldn't be that expensive. Because  many of the things are simply brainpower,   expertise. And you can hire this we can rent this expertise from outside. I mean I don't even  

for a second think that a hotel a hotelier has to  develop has to know IoT devices. How they work,   how they talk, how they interact with the PMS  or let's say AI, oh my god where do I start.   Natural language processing, machine learning, AI  what is the difference how do I start with all of   those. No, you don't have to do that. There are  vendors outside that specialize. Smart vendors  

all you need to do is to have a   young person, like technologists as we call  it here in the United States. Somebody who   is not an IT but somebody who understands  the business applications of technology.   And somebody who will be your  leader in this whole transformation.  Max the other question I wanted to  or thing I wanted to talk about is   business of the future. So you know the US is  ahead of us but we're now coming out of the   pandemic our borders are opening up or starting  to open up people are going to stay in hotels   do you think that city hotels, large city hotels  which have been probably 70 per cent corporate   in the past, will the corporates return in the  same numbers as they did pre-pandemic. Well,  

I mean I don't think that we're going back to  normal as many people are hoping we are going   forward to the next normal. And this next normal  will be quite different than the old normal that   we know in the pre-pandemic times. So so in this  sense, I don't believe that the corporate business   will come in exactly the same fashion  in this mode. At the same time, I don't   think that the corporate business will  disappear. It simply will come in a different   form and shape. In the sense of you have  even today in the United States mid-size   and smaller enterprise the corporate the sales  force from this mid-size and smaller companies   that are hungrier that has less resources than  the big guys they travel on business even now. So  

they do travel on business. What you don't have is  the big fortune 500 companies because of liability   issues and so forth internal regulations and the  likes but mostly liability issues. Some of them   were even warned by their travel insurance  providers that "hey no business travel"!   Then we have to you know revoke your  insurance or you know increase your premiums   that was during the epidemic last year.  So in this sense, that's why I mentioned  

liability considerations by the major  corporations. But mid-size and smaller   companies don't have similar considerations.  So in this sense, they are travelling   fortune 500 companies not travelling. The  big corporate meetings are not happening yet.   You know with 500 people with you know  kickoff meeting with 1000 people or corporate   whatever it is the United States meeting,  annual meeting you know with 500 people.   Those are not happening that's for sure.  So what I believe in the future is that  

business travel will continue, unmanaged business  travel you will have maybe 60-70 per cent   the rebound if you will of manage corporate  travel. Hybrid type of hybrid type of corporate   events of corporate meetings. So instead of 200  people attending you'll have 100 attending and   the rest will be you know Zoom or Microsoft teams  or whatever. Yeah. Virtual. So we're talking about  

technology here. Yes. Does the hotel have the  right technology for this type of hybrid meetings?   Yep. So that's why I mean if you look at all  the projections especially for the United States   Q4 of 2023 it's like a corporate business  will be back to some kind of acceptable level.   Ok. But in the meantime, there  is a new opportunity for hotels.  

And this new opportunity is  all of those remote workers,   how do you train them, how do you energize them,  how do you focus them on the corporate mission.   That's where it's a new type of business.  People coming from their weekend houses   from Airbnbs and congregating in one place where  they finally meet each other after so many months.   Or they meet their boss for the first time  face to face and then they sit in the room   they have all the entertainment. There will  be more entertainment than actual work done   in those meetings simply because it's more  like team building, team bonding exercises.  

Are our hotels prepared for this type of  business? It's a new type of business.   Interesting. And I think that this will  be huge. And if you have the right product   you will get a lot of this type of business.  Because, mind you, the office environment,   I mean the con & prons, I mean, but I don't  want to go there. But in my experience,   we/you achieve at least 50 per cent  of your knowledge as a specialist in   as an expert in anything through tacit knowledge.  Which you gain from your co-workers. For example,  

your co-worker working with a client that has  this issue which again over coffee you exchange   information and now you're prepared. This thing  cannot happen over Zoom. Yeah. So my point is that   we're missing the training, I mean, I remember in  my company we had a six-month probation period.   When we had people outside out of college   six months probationary period and they learned  learned learned during six months they took   certifications that they had to take and so  forth. You can take these certifications at home   but you will miss exactly this you know  like tacit knowledge that you can acquire   from your surroundings from case studies of  other of your colleagues from things discussed   over a beer during happy hour or over coffee  with a colleague and so forth with a friend.   Many of because we had a lot of young people  out of college and so forth at my company,   many of them got became you know like more than  just colleagues they got engaged they got married   you know like office marriage. Yep. Right now  you don't have this. So what I mean is that  

so that's why managers are understanding that if  they don't introduce some kind of face to face   even in a 100 per cent let's say remote  work environment, if a company has   accepted okay we will we'll shut down the office.  No more office you know we will work remotely.   Like some companies have done it already. Yes.  I think that these gatherings which will be more   as I mentioned team building, bonding get to know  you get to know your colleagues type of meetings   and of course, there will be the corporate side  with all the here are our goals for this year,   here our objectives, here's what we stand for  in the industry all of the typical corporate   you know stuff. That's a given. Yeah. But are  hoteliers prepared for something like this?   What about a scavenger hunt as a team-building  exercise. How many hotels can do it?   Such things what I mean is that what about  the Disco night like a throwback to the   1970s. Are they even prepared to do something  like this? So I mean that here the creativity can   be I mean just imagine. But what I mean is that it  takes somebody to sit, analyze, talk to potential  

clients see what they want and come up with  a product. And this is I think that this will   be a very viable product in the coming at least  three years. I think that's fantastic I love the   idea Max I love it. Max, I really appreciate your  time and the knowledge and thank you so much it's   been a pleasure. Brendon, you're more than welcome  and don't be a stranger you know where to find me.

2021-11-30

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