Navigating the Peaks of Innovation - Larry Traxler - Defining Hospitality

Jeff Carlos lasted forever, but, um, yeah, he was, uh, he was, he was really in a different realm.

But, um, it was a, it was a great, uh, learning opportunity, and I think that it really set me up for success, uh, later on in life.

Because when I went to HBA, I started asking, "What is the narrative? Why are we-- What-- I know we're building a hotel in Jodhpur, uh, India, but what is the story behind this? Uh, and, and what is the craft? How are we inserting, uh, hand-carved elements that are readily available in that area? Or what other, uh, what other artisans or craftsmen are in this area that we can use to insert into this place to give it more cultural relevance, uh, and, and authenticity?" So, you know, straight out of the gate, um, in, in hospitality, I mean, we had, we did one or two hotels with Jordan, but it was mostly food and beverage, movie sets.

So, um, really, you know, sort of creative, uh, white box stuff.

But it was really when I went to Singapore and worked-

Wow

... with HBA that I started getting into that hospitality space and, and started applying the same, uh, the same, um, uh, challenges, right? What is the narrative? How, where is the craft? How do we create cultural resonance? Uh, where, where do we create authenticity and how do we do that through, um, a sense of place or the craftsman, uh, that we're building, uh, around?

Earlier in the conversation, and just in previous conversations that we've had, you've, you've said that, like, hospitality is this place navigating the waters between an idea, the business case, and the people, the guests and the people working there.

But you also said something that was really interesting earlier today where it's, you find that in this new path that you're on, a- and actually somewhere earlier in your career arc, but it's really finding the bridge between all th- all of those kinda competing, but also could be resonant, um, ideas.

So my question there, and I think you mentioned Hyatt, but where in your career did you first realize that, like, that bridge is actually the entire job or, like, a whole job and a, a real focus? Like, because that's really the hardest part and it's like you have all this practical knowledge and hands-on experience, but it's also now, you know, you did it at tremendous scale with Hilton.

I remember calling you and saying, "Hey, what's going on with this project?" And you're like, "Dan, I have like 4,300 projects.

I have no freaking idea what you're talking about.

Let's go get a beer somewhere and, but I have no idea." But when did you realize that that bridge is a whole, is a whole job in and, in and of itself?

Yeah, I think that that's part of the learning curve in jumping from the purely creative side of being in a design studio, uh, an architectural, um, studio or a, or a design studio, and coming over to, we, we used to call it the dark side, right? If you're coming over to the developer side or the brand side, uh, you're going to the dark side.

And, and in a lot of ways, uh, creatives think that that's the part where you're selling out.

But in, I, I found that-It was incredibly liberating to come away from a, from a design studio, and then actually have some ability to control the end destiny of what it is that you're designing.

Uh, when you're on the design side, it's really hard when you don't control the money, you don't control the owner/developer, uh, you don't control the operator side.

Um, and when I went to Schrager, that was the first time that I actually got to be this puppet master where I- we actually have development money, and we get to decide where it goes, and we actually control the operational side.

And we control-- we can say, "Housekeeping, this is how you will work," or, "Bartenders, this is, uh, how the, how we're designing the space.

Is that good?" And sort, and get their feedback.

Uh, but when you're purely in a design studio, you o- don't often have the ability, um, to be, be that bridge, to be able to be in the room and talk to everybody and figure out, how do you make this, um, crazy idea, uh, successful? How do you make this challenging, uh, hotel location successful? Uh, how do you create that bridge, uh, between place and guest? Um, and it's not until you have those additional pieces, uh, where you can start bridging the gap between operations, uh, the development budget, uh, the, you know, the, the guests and understanding who the guests are.

Um, I think that a lot of design studios, uh, in the past have not had the ability to do that.

Now, with, uh, with the tools that are, that are available and, you know, um, mass data, um, availability and the ability to search through and filter through and find out, uh, more about things, they can start controlling their own destiny a little bit more.

Mm-hmm.

But you still don't own, you don't own that piece of developer side.