Olympic Discipline, Million-Dollar Loss, and Building a Hospitality Portfolio | Adam G Dailey E24

Michael Russell 0:00

What would you do if your business took a nosedive? You lost over a million dollars in a matter of weeks, and then had to completely rethink your life and business. On today's episode of the Hotel Investor Playbook, we sit down with Adam Daly, a former elite athlete turned real estate investor who built an Inc. 500 company, watched it crash and burn, and then hit the reset button. He traveled the world with his family, he wrote a book about the experience, and he came back to build a thriving portfolio of boutique hotels, hostels, and short-term rentals. We dig into the power of resilience, the mindset of a champion, and how to spot hidden value in hospitality deals and why multiple exit strategies are a must if you're playing in this game seriously. Adam's raw about the wins and the losses, and if you're scaling your hospitality portfolio or raising capital for the first time, you're gonna want to take notes. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook, your guide to building wealth and freedom through boutique hotel ownership, hosted by Mike and Nate. Get in the game, welcome to the Hotel Investor Playbook. We're Mike and Nate, founders of Malama Capital, and your host. On this podcast, we talk story with industry experts and professionals about everything you need to know to make money investing in hotels and hospitality assets. On today's show, we are happy to announce Adam Daly is here with us. Adam, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Yeah. Pumped. So, Adam, you have an absolutely inspiring story. You bootstrapped a small business into an Inc. 500 company within a few years' time. You built it into a multi-million dollar operation only to see it all come crashing down in rapid fashion. Consequently, you took a year-long sabbatical, traveled the world with your family, wrote a book about the experience, and then came back to build a thriving portfolio of boutique hotels and short-term rentals as a real estate investor. But before all of that, you were an absolute stud of a collegiate athlete, a five-time all-American at the University of Arkansas, part of nine NCAA championship teams, and even competed in the Olympic trials. So bravo. How did your experience as an athlete shape the way you approach business and investing today?

Adam G Dailey 2:37

I think a lot of it is comes down to kind of that discipline component and following processes, doing the right things over and over, as well as kind of being, you know, at the time in college, I was on this, you know, basically the most successful NCAA program in history of any sport. And I didn't realize how how unique that was in terms of the high performing team and the the coach and having everyone around me. And so I've I'm, you know, here I am 20 something, 25 years later, and I'm still like, I don't know if I've worked on a high performing uh team like that. But at the time, it just was sports, right? It was me, you know, seeing the best I could be in something. But now I'm like, oh, this guy, you know, we were we were running traction or EOS or something without calling it that. And again, saying saying yes to the right things and saying no to the wrong things and being able to kind of consistently do that. But yeah, a lot of it is just discipline and process, I think, following those those rules. When you're when you're your classmates are going to a frat party, you know, and you're you're hearing about it, but you have a workout the next day, you have a decision to make, right?

Nathan St Cyr 3:38

Yeah, I first of all, I love that. When you really go back and look at that team, you said there that there were some things that in the moment you didn't really recognize, but now in building a company, you go back to that and you're like, damn, we we were we were running EOS. Can you just go and and just go a little bit deeper into some of those details of now recognizing discipline, systems, processes, what you guys did back then that you weren't even aware was so special?

Adam G Dailey 4:06

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it is kind of this idea of you know, legacy is a heavy word, but it's also like history, pride of like you're, you know, I went into this program having generations going beforehand, doing the same thing and having these guys be my heroes. That's you know, these these guys were the reason I went to that school is because they were on the cover of track and field news. And so it's like I went in knowing this was a high performing team and knowing what was expected. I also went in with these teammates of going like we are bleeding together, right? In a different way than I have in any relationship in my life today. If like we are doing the hardest thing possible today, we are running five times a mile to get to together, right? And I'm beating you on some, you're beating me on some, and I'm gonna puke after, or I'm sick, or I couldn't finish the work, whatever it is. And so, and that's probably most team sports, I would assume, or it's not just unique to high performing running teams, but also just the leadership, I think. Of like we had this coach who was just a famous trap coach, right? And he was the most, yeah, like I said, the most successful NCAA coach of any sport to this day. He wanted to impress him, but he also, you know, led in a positive way. He wasn't out doing stupid shit. He'd done a lot of things he talked about. And and yet it was, you know, now you see this generation, a lot of it is like, oh, well, they don't run the conference meet because they want to save themselves for nationals, or they'll run one event or something like that, which is which is smart in a lot of ways. And we would be at these conference meets, and a lot of times our guys would be running, and we'd be the best guys in the country, and we'd be running two, three, four events because we were like, this is what our team does, and we want to do it for Coach McDonald. We not only do I want to fit with these guys that came before me, these stud athletes, and be one of them, but I also John McDonnell asked me to do this. Like my leader asked me, and that's an honor, right? So I want to fulfill that honor. And so it's like it was that team first that is that is unique because you know, even now, some of the top college coaches will hold they'll hold their athletes out of NCAAs because they're like, oh, we have you know the Olympic trials, that's what we're really training for. And there's no right or wrong. It's just me looking back and thinking about like, you know, how much we wanted it for our team, how much we want it for our coach versus ourselves.

Nathan St Cyr 6:22

So I have the utmost passion for leadership. It's like maybe my greatest passion in life. So I'm really curious as you as you told that story. Like, I mean, I could just feel your dedication to was it Coach McDonnell? If you could try to encapsulate what was it about him that provided such a strong drive for you to accomplish for him?

Adam G Dailey 6:49

That's a good question. And and it's also this like this sliver in time. I mean, he was an old Irish dude who'd, you know, call us really bad names sometimes too when we weren't performing well. And I don't know if that technique would be successful today. So it's like it's the timing, right? Of coming in this time where it's like we're, you know, we're where I came in. We just came in after a class that was amazing, and we kind of went another amazing class came in after us. It just that was the team culture that he built. It was an authoritative, you know, figure. He made us better men too. You know, I look at some of the other programs that I looked at and I'm like, they would have, I probably would have been somewhat successful there, but I'm like, I came out a better man because he's like, this is this is the way we do it. We do these things, and it's not just about running fast, but it's about being a good person, right? It's about being a good person, part of the community. And he led by that example, you know, even though I didn't, you know, go to church every Sunday like he did, you saw that and you saw like, oh, that's a that's a that's something valuable, right? It's it's close, right? Even though I didn't follow that mirror that behavior, the value system was still built in. Awesome.

Michael Russell 7:55

Love that. Yeah. To me, what it sounds like you're describing is accountability. You mentioned the word discipline, and you talked about your teammates, and you talked about your coach. And it sounds like you held yourself with very high accountability to all three of those, to yourself, to your teammates, and your coach. How do you apply that accountability in what you do now?

Adam G Dailey 8:16

It's harder now, I would say. I mean, there's a lot more stakeholders, right, between partners and investors, and like you said, family and and vendors and employees. So I it's it's tougher. And at the same time, it's like I came from high school being by myself and being then going straight into this high performing team, which I loved because I was like in high school, I'd be nervous by myself every day in a before a race, and people thought I was cocky because I was quiet, right? Just kind of like serious. And then I went to this high performing team where guys are joking and and things like that. And so even today, a lot of these situations I find myself by myself, and I don't want to, I prefer to be part of a hard performing team. I kind of crave, I went through this long period of running these different businesses by myself, and I'm still not there. I don't have a go-to company with a bunch of partners, or I don't have one partner that I'm like, every deal we're doing 50-50, right? But I I crave it, I romanticize about sharing those experiences, sharing the experiences I have now, sharing the when bad shit happens, right? And you're like, oh my God, I wish I had someone to talk with that really had a vested stake in this. And at the same time, oh, when we have success, going like, oh, high five, this is awesome, right? So celebrating those things and solving the problems are something that I, you know, that I want as part of a high performing team. And you go through these, like these, these, I guess you could say, you know, valleys in in of your of business life of like sometimes, you know, I think emit, he talks about that, you just how you keep burning your business down, right? You're just like, no, things are going well, let me fix it, right? And improve it, and then it ends up burning down, right? And then you do it, but you're like, cool, now I can save it, you know, now I can build it back up. And so as entrepreneurs, I think there's this cycle that's it's tricky to figure out, you know, where I've gone through my career of like, no, I only want to do things now with partners. And then, no, no, no, forget partners. I hate partners, I'm gonna do them all by myself. And so it's it's kind of figuring those things out, but but that's what I'm saying. Like, I look back to that and it's like, how did I get such a good, you know, team? You know, and and uh and ultimately was probably my coach just finding guys who who were not like-minded, but you know, if you did get some guy who just was like, I'm better than the team, I don't care about the team, he probably wouldn't, we'd have you know figured that out on his recruiting trip or something, I'm sure.

Nathan St Cyr 10:29

You mentioned in there that what you stepped into was really it was it was a culture of winning. So it wasn't one thing, it wasn't made by one person. He had created a culture that then was accepted and developed by the team itself, which then inherently when you step into it's not just about one person. So I think for you know, all of those that are out there that are building something and building something where they're looking for really for greatness, ask yourself that question is you know, what is that culture? And because I believe that there's greater energy that comes from culture than just being out there on your own doing something. I think the momentum that gets created when you can actually have a culture that when you step off to the side, that that continues within the the atmosphere of your organization to just continue to move forward, that that that's where that greatness really, really is.

Adam G Dailey 11:27

I mean, yeah, I could think of two quick things of one one nationals we lost by three points, still remember to this day, horrible. And you look at these pictures of us on stage, second place in the country, they got third, fourth on the stage and they're lifting their arms, they're jumping up and down because they're happy. We're looking staring at our shoes like our parents had died or something. And you're like, looking back, they're like, this is kind of silly, but the expectation, like you said, was to win, right? And then the next year, I think it was we went into the national championships, had one guy who was probably top three-ish, maybe, maybe could have contended for the win, and he had some kind of respiratory thing, and he had to drop out. And I was sixth man, which doesn't count in cross country. So I was just kind of running, and then I became fifth man, the last scorer, and it became a very important race. And we won that day without our top runner, which was huge. I mean, no one did that. You can't win a national championship losing your top guy that day. So that was cool. But the cool part that I was gonna say is that I I saw this teammate the other day, and I was like, what I remember is you being on the stand and as happy as every other guy there. You weren't like, oh, I dropped out, I should have been, this could have been my day. Not one bit. That guy was like, dude, we won. Like we were hugging, and we weren't like, you didn't even score today, man. Like you, you weren't you're not one of us. It was, it was, he was one of us, and he was he was elated. You know, of course he'll probably probably went and licked us wounds the next day or something like that, but maybe not even because it because of that culture, because that that winning and that team and that accountability, like you guys talked about.

Nathan St Cyr 12:55

Yeah, I really hope everybody rewind and listens to this part a couple of times because the power team and culture is just it's it's powerful.

Michael Russell 13:05

Well, I want to comment on the point that you're making that in sports, you don't always win. Now, everyone sets out with the goal to win, but one of the uh aspects of being a champion is having the right mindset and how do you respond when you lose. And I I feel like this is so relevant to being an entrepreneur and a business person. And as it relates to you specifically, you built this multi-million dollar company that was thriving. And then in a matter of weeks, you lost over a million dollars within a very short period of time. And your business through a series of things, it ultimately sunk, and and you had to, you had to pivot. You had to dust yourself off. You took a break, you you know, figured out what was important to you from life and your, you know, directionally how you wanted to move forward. But I feel like as an athlete, you you go through this over and over and over again, where you compete, you lose, you try again, you win. And that is so critical to developing that championship mindset to succeed in business because we are constantly dealing with failures, right? I was watching the show Landman, and there's this quote, and I'm probably gonna butcher it, but it's basically like being in business. You know the show Landman, first of all, with Billy Bob Dorton. Oh, dude, you gotta go watch it. If you guys haven't seen this, go watch the show. Landman is awesome. Billy Bob Thornton is the star in the show, and his character, he's an oil man, he's dealing with all this chaos. But look, I'm hold on a second, dude. I'm gonna look this quote up because I'm telling you, it had an impact on me. So our business is one of constant crisis, interrupted by brief moments of intense success. I mean, we just have this continuous stream of just problems that need to be dealt with. And yeah. Anyway, I I just I love the fact that you are describing that, you know, that moment of sitting there and reflecting on failure and being okay and proud of just look taking your shot. I think we all have to live with that consequence. And Nathan and I do this all the time when we're exploring, like, okay, what are we gonna do? Well, we're gonna shoot for the moon, but what's plan B? And can we live with plan B? Are we okay if we don't hit our goal? Can we pivot and be comfortable with the alternative? And I think that this transitions into something that you've said, which is relevant, which is you've explained that you're an expert in seeing value where others don't, and identifying multiple exit strategies. So can you walk us through your approach, number one, to spotting hidden opportunities in hotel investments and how having multiple exit plans has helped you succeed in this industry?

Adam G Dailey 15:50

Yeah, I mean, the first is just like like we kind of talked about looking for look, can you see something someone else doesn't, right? Like, oh, this is got a parking lot, but this parking lot could we could put a gazebo up here with a hot tub and put some turf down, or hey, three of these rooms are massive. They could be two bedroom suites or something, right? So, or or whatever, something like that, right? Or hey, they're they're not taking advantage. They could put a cart coffee cart out here, or the you know, so for me, we're looking at like, can we add, you know, increase the experience, of course, but also can we increase like headcount, right? Can we you know can we put more bathrooms in? Or is it if it's a you know a hostel, can we convert it to in-suite bathrooms or things like that? And so that that's kind of that that value add component, I guess you could say, that I that I'm always looking for. What was the second part of the question?

Michael Russell 16:43

Well, I guess the question, look, it was you've built this impressive portfolio of hotels, hostels, short-term rentals, and and actually an RV park in San Diego. So question was like, number one, what's your unique strategy for identifying and adding value to hospitality assets? And then, well, what about if that doesn't work? It's like, how do you identify multiple exit strategies?

Adam G Dailey 17:06

Yeah. So when we're underwriting, it's like this, like you said, you can have your plan A, but it you gotta have to me, it's like plan B, C, and D of like this, because it's really fun when you're doing when you're writing deals, right? You're like, oh, this is gonna be you. No, we're gonna have a hundred percent occupancy in the summer. This could be awesome. We're gonna sell it every night, right? And so it's easy to fall into that trap when you're on the spreadsheet and you're like, no, well, this kind of needs to be 110 ADR. And I had it at 100, but I think I can hit on 10. So it's it's you gotta check yourself, I think, with with a few different options and in order not even to exit necessarily, but just in order to pivot if things get topped, you know. And I think that that I, you know, I learned that uh it hit harder, I think in in COVID, you know, because of you know, you had this plan and then the plan goes to shit, right? We opened a hotel in March 2020 and it sucked, you know, it's the worst timing in history. And and yet, if those rooms would have had kitchenettes in it, I could have sold them to you know the city who'd have put, you know, sold them to whatever their group, homeless guys or whatever, whatever, whatever they ended up doing that a lot of my kind of competitors and friends and things did. You know, so it's like to me, I take that and I'm like, well, well, now can I think about putting in you know kitchenettes or the ability to add a kitchenette? So it's just like little things like that of like, oh, you know, every time, because the banks most of the time with hotel too, a lot of the time will make you underwrite it as a long-term thing, right? So it's like to me, I'm like, can can this survive if I have to rent it to traveling nurses or something for a month at a time? Okay, can this survive if I have to rent it to long-term renters, right, without furniture? And it's like, and it won't always be yes, but it's just like you want to go through those scenarios. Okay, yes, but you'd have to write a check for a thousand dollars a month for a while. Okay, well, I can I can deal with that scenario. And I don't want there to be like this knockout punch of like you you have to hit this. If you don't hit a home run, you are screwed, right?

Michael Russell 19:05

You're describing that you go into everything knowing that you can be, you can think outside the box or an expert problem solver. And I think that that is another skill set that you developed in your life experience, right? I I think in your book, you wrote a book about travel, traveling with your family. Right. And one of the main takeaways in this book was like being uncomfortable, like being comfortable, becoming uncomfortable. And that is so much of what we do, again, as entrepreneurs, is dive into something. But in the book, you're going from place to place with your family, and you don't have necessarily where you're staying mapped out months in advance. You're not living by this rigid structure because you're allowing it to develop organically. You have a rough idea of where you want to go on a timeline of when you want to be there, but you're describing how, you know, a few days in advance you'll try to negotiate maybe some good value by booking, booking an Airbnb or hotel at a discounted rate. Look, if it doesn't work out, you're comfortable knowing we'll pivot, we'll find a solution. And I think that applies in business as well, is what you're describing.

Nathan St Cyr 20:07

So and Mike, I want to get a little bit more specific with that because like so much of what you just said, Adam, aligns with Mike and I. And but I can also share with you that when we were making decisions bootstrapping and doing everything with our with our own money, it was a heck of a lot easier for us to go through, okay, here's optimal, here's, you know, if it's not optimal, and ultimately, worst case scenario. And we, I mean, we literally in in our prototype we've developed here, I remember a very specific conversation where we said, look, worst case scenario, what if we went all in, took a couple of years, and lost a couple hundred grand? And we're like, that's not the worst case. Okay, yes, let's do it. Because that that was okay for us because it was our own money. You know, where we're at in our journey right now, now we're bringing in investor capital. I find that our creativity in when we're looking at this, here's optimal, here's what we think. But then as you get we get down below that, it's like we start to then eliminate those deals.

Adam G Dailey 21:17

Like, oh you don't even want to show those investors the best case scenario because you don't want them coming back and going, like, hey, I saw something where you guys were gonna do two million. You like you want to keep that one to yourself, right?

Michael Russell 21:29

Hey guys, quick break from the episode. Look, we're always looking to bring you the best content here on the Hotel Investor Playbook. And honestly, we'd love to hear from you. We want to know what you want to learn about. Is there a topic you're dying to hear us dive into? Or maybe you know someone who'd be an awesome guest, someone with a great story, unique expertise, or insights that would bring value to all of us in the hotel investing game. Shoot us an email at info at hotelinvestorplaybook.com. That's info at hotelinvestorplaybook.com and let us know. We read every single message, and honestly, it would make our day to hear from you. Your feedback helps us make this podcast better and more relevant for you. So don't be shy, reach out and help shape the next episodes. All right, back to the show.

Nathan St Cyr 22:14

Yeah, so I'm wondering how number one, are you utilizing your own funds? And then number two, are you are you syndicating? Are you representing JVing investor money? And then how has that changed your philosophy in these?

Adam G Dailey 22:31

I want to just uh add one thought about it, and one is that the idea of like have you got your ass kicked before? Right. So I I get approached a lot by syndicators or whatever, and they're like, they're on their first deal, second deal, third deal, tenth deal, doesn't matter sometimes, but they've never my first job was working in Motor GP, which is motorcycle racing in Europe, right? And so I was I would sign writers to these sponsorship deals and licensing deals, and that was my job. And I remembered the context was well, this guy's great, this kid's young, he's good, but he hasn't fallen yet. Because in Motor GP, you will fall, and you will fall, and you will break your back, leg, something bad. And when after that fall, you either are a different writer or you're not. And there were a lot of guys who were like, they just rode to because they they that was a career. They were sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, you know, they just kind of rode conservatively after that. And then there were the guys who are like, uh, hey, I fell, I broke my back, I missed a year, but I'm I I'm I'm back. I'm in this race all the time. But it's but the idea of like, have you fallen yet? So I I will choose not to invest in things as an outsider because I'm like, dude, this guy isn't like he's he's just looking through these rose-colored glasses and he'll it'll hit him. Maybe not on this deal, he might hit this deal, but it'll hit him eventually. And I want the guys who have been through the gnarly stuff already. And so that that's kind of what I where I go. I I started, yeah, doing my own deals, like I kind of expressed earlier. I really crave that kind of partnership. And so I always kind of have since since I got into real estate. And I started doing you know, some JB deals where I'd bring in my contractor and myself and like a money guy, and we'd all bring money in, but the money guy would use kind of his you know, W-2 to get us a better loan, and then he'd maybe fund the rehab, but we put money in. So I'm still putting money in on everything. I think all my partnerslash investors want to see that. I mean, I would love not to in some ways, obviously, to put nothing in, but I I think it's no investor wants to see that. So the last two deals we've done, we've we've syndicated, and you know, I don't know. I I don't love syndicating either. Like I would love to be part of a team where I had kind of better, you know, guys who liked doing that. Because for me, I'm not I'm not usually raising it from strangers, you know, I'm raising it from friends and family and friends of friends and people in my network. And it's and it's tough when you're like, you know, you're you're pitching this deal to them and they're like, okay. And then you're like, okay, now's the time I'm supposed to ask you, like, will you do it? And they're like, oh, but we're having beers. And I'm like, yeah, but will you do it? And we're like, okay, I will. And you're like, okay, when you when do you need the money? And I'm like, I actually don't need it really for three weeks, but I'm supposed to tell you I need it Friday. And they're like, uh, I'm going on vacation, you know, how about I'll get it diet back? And you're like, okay, and then you've created this cycle with your friend that you kind of have to chase them. And it just, and if this has happened to me dozens of times, so I just like it, it's like emotionally, it's like exhausting for me to do. So I prefer to have you know a group who helped me raise money or like a family office or something like that, or so where I'm not going and rustling up a hundred grand from from buddies of mine type of thing at a time. But I've done it, I've syndicated, I've done JVs, I've funded self-funded stuff, and I do think it's in it's always going to be important for for for me as the promoter or the the sponsor, whatever we want to call it the GP, to put skin in the game, right? I mean, the same thing. If someone's telling me how great a deal is, but they're like, but I'm not putting anything in. I'm like, good luck, dude. I put my parents in some of my deals. You know what I mean? So it's like, dude, if my mom's losing a hundred grand, like that's even better than me, right? Because like we no one wants their to help have their their mom lose a hundred grand.

Nathan St Cyr 26:09

But I think the point that you started with was really, really strong. Is like you said, I'm not gonna invest with someone unless I've seen what's happened once they've fallen. Like, like if I'm gonna put money into an outside deal, I'm gonna look at that that operator or that that investment, and I'm gonna be like, well, where did they get their ass kicked? And so I think that sometimes we don't want to share where we've gotten our ass kicked, but we've gotten our ass kicked. That is our strength. I I love that you've said that because that just makes me realize, man, to be able to just talk about your freaking loss, own it, and then freaking how did you recover from it? How did you respond from it? That people actually care about that and they actually will view you as stronger by sharing that than just presenting yourself as look, all we do is win. Well, what the hell happens when you frickin' don't? Yeah.

Adam G Dailey 27:08

Like you said, what do you do when you lose? So it's like I remember back when I did lose a million dollars in 2012. Part of that million was uh had up at a $200,000 line of credit from my banker. And I'm like, and he's he's looking at the balance sheet and going, like, dude, you look good right before the Olympics. I had all this inventory, right? I'm like, bro, that inventory is zero in two weeks. So like all this million dollars that's short on the balance sheet is not looking good. But I I came back and I was like, hey, I don't, I don't have the money, you know, I don't have two hundred thousand dollars. And he's like, you know, and it it was a buddy of mine. So there it there was some conflict there, but I was like, I'm going to pay it back. I do you just have to work with me on this. And so I paid him back, I think $15,000 or whatever for about a year, a month. And he is today, he is at another bank, but he is still my good friend. I probably got four million, five million dollars worth of loans with him. Not only that, but the other guy who was at the bank where I have about eight million dollars, he's the president of this other bank. Somehow it came up, he's like, You're the guy who lost all the money in the Olympics. Oh my God. And I was like, Did so is this bad? And they're like, Am I am I seen like bad in this industry by bankers? Because obviously bankers think way different than we do. And he's like, he's like, no, because you did what you said you were gonna do. Because you you manned on and you you said because they wanted me to pay the two, they wanted me to sell a house or something to pay them, right? And I was like, I'm not gonna do that. They wanted me to like sign more that they didn't have a tight enough personal guarantee, so they wanted me to re-sign another one on land. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do any of that, but I'm going to pay you back because I because that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna uh that's the right thing to do, and I'm telling you, I'm gonna do that. So, and like I said, now 10 years or what is 12 years, 15 years later, it's like it's it's those relationships matter, right?

Nathan St Cyr 28:48

And the power of following through with what you say, man, that is, Adam, that's freaking that's gold.

Adam G Dailey 28:54

You'd be amazed how many people don't see that though, right?

Michael Russell 28:58

I love this because it's raw and it's real, and is you know, you're you're talking about the things that happen that no one wants to talk about the pain, right? The frustration, the the awkwardness of raising money from friends and family. But these are the things you got to do to be successful. And we spotlight, you know, a lot of times the the trophies that we win, but this is what it really takes to make things happen. So I I appreciate you being real with us and just walking us through like what are some of the trials that you went through. I I do want to scale it back though a little bit, and I want to, I ultimately want to get to where where you are now. But I know that a lot of our listeners are probably wondering, okay, great. Like right now I've got this dream. I'm passionate about hospitality because I I've enjoyed traveling, I've stayed in nice hotels, I want to invest in something that I'm proud of, that, you know, something that's tangible. And maybe they've delved into short-term rentals and they saw some success there. But now they're like, okay, what's next? And they understand the value of commercial real estate. And so they're exploring this opportunity. And I wanna I wanna go back to when you made this transition because you had a couple short-term rentals that were operating successfully, and then at one point you made the shift. And I want to know what was the biggest shift in mindset or operation operations required for making that move from short-term rentals into operating boutique hotels.

Adam G Dailey 30:23

Ignorance, rolling, over arrogance. I don't know. I I mean we had we had a couple very successful kind of short-term rentals, and then you you guys know Little Italy and San Diego, very popular neighborhood. And I was just like, man, I'm if I had 10 of these, I'd I'd know exactly what to do because we didn't have enough product, right? And we'd sell these, we'd crush at Comic-Con. And so that was kind of the idea was born of like, I need to scale this business more. And and I, you know, I didn't realize it at the time, but I'd actually had a history of like wanting to be in this industry. I mean, we put an offer on a bed and breakfast back in 2008 or something, back in uh Whistler. And so we and we'd done the same thing in Barcelona, and we'd and we'd had this tour business where we showed people around and we spent I spent a million dollars on a hotel in Vancouver. And that was like also, I was like, I want to own the hotel. I'm like, if I if this guy made a million dollars in a month, like I wanna, I wanna be the guy who makes that million dollars. And so, you know, the you know, going from aspirational to doing it, I think there's a you know, you got to figure out what what you're good at, I guess you could say. So if you're great at raising money, yeah, work with a guy like me. If you're great at operations and you love hosting people and you're like, my wife and me want to work at the front desk all the time because I love interacting with people. I love that that's an invaluable part of the team, right? If you have a you know net a high net worth and you can, you know, get a bank loan or whatever, like that. There's all these things that are that are important, but it's like it's working in thinking about beforehand the problems, right? Of like, oh, are you ready to get that phone call at you know midnight on a Saturday that this pipe's not working or someone threw a brick through the front door or whatever it is, right? But my transition was just wanting to be more taking it from, I guess you could say, kind of a lifestyle business and and like, can we go more? Can I get more doors? It's like I said, it's not the smooth path that I thought it would be. You know, it's like where it's like, oh, I have, you know, I don't know how many doors or units we have now, 130 or 50 or something, but they're not, they're all different partners, they're all different names of the but you know, it's not daily boutique hotels or something like that, but that would that seem sexier, and I still am interested in building that brand, not daily, but but building a brand that's that's scalable, that has, you know, that that creates value and would sell for more, but but it but you take the deals as they come, you know, ultimately, and you and the more and more you do them, I think you have more more confidence and you you build, you know, even the last deal we did a year and a half ago in Mission Beach. I mean, it's like the basis was really hot. So, you know, it it was this thing, uh, it was it was a higher risk than I'm used to just because it was so expensive, but it was just such a sexy location, and it was something that I felt like would be good for like my grant, right? To be able to like show people I did this the this the coolest hotel in one of the coolest parts of town, right? And uh is this the hotel? Yeah, that's the boardwalk in mission beat.

Michael Russell 33:22

Yeah, I looked at the images online, and you're right. I mean, you guys didn't a knockout job in the design, and where it's located is fantastic. It's basically beachfront, it's walking distance to all types of attractions. So I imagine that bad boy was not cheap. And how do you how do you approach that? Um, there's two things I want to know. Okay, when you have buy something like that where you got to create value, right? There's there's there's improvements that you can make, but then there's also running the day-to-day operations to drive ADR, right? People aren't gonna stay in a place just because it looks nice, they're also gonna rely on the reviews on the service and the operations, and especially for a property like that where you want to have higher rates to justify the purchase price. How do you perform operations?

Adam G Dailey 34:12

Yeah, I mean, that's something we talk about all the time. And it's something, I mean, it's not there's no like right answer, right? It's being methodical. And I mean, I I love the book Unreasonable Hospitality, and I make all our team read that book because it's like, you know, people, if your room is too small, there's only one way to really beat that. It's like having someone at the front desk who's so nice that that person will never complain that room is too small because they feel bad because the front desk person is taking such good care of them, or they're getting value somewhere else, right? Like, oh, they're they didn't realize they got free surfboard rentals, or they didn't, you know, this the the guy at the front desk did make a reservation and got them at a you know a table somewhere that they wouldn't have been able to get normally. So I mean, but we're constantly figuring out tricks and tactical things of like move this photo over here and it creates conversions. Oh, these guys are it's a new channel, they'll they'll do social media and charge 10% of sales, and that's it, right? Or or different things. So we're we're trying to, you know, oh, incentivize, oh, give people $10 gift card if they leave us a good review, right? So it's like there's a lot of things we're doing on a consistent, I mean, the service is the the key one, but the the other is like you said, how does service turn into income, right? So it's like we're at the boardwalk, we're looking at like, okay, there's these things of like, will someone buy a package if they go, if we give them, okay, you're gonna get a free drink and appetizer at these three restaurants three nights in a row. Like, maybe, because they'll be like, that's kind of cool. I'll spend an extra 50 bucks and I don't know where I'm going. Whereas the same thing, if you said here's a package or here's a value, 10% off at these three restaurants. They're like, I don't know those three restaurants. I don't know what 10% I'm gonna spend, you know, $37 instead of 41. Like, come on, dude, that's not gonna get me excited. That being said, if you check in and you go, by the way, here's these gift cards, here's your your magic coupon that gets you 10% off any of these three bars here, you know, and just tell look for Mike and he'll, you know, maybe even give you something else. And you're like, that's cool, right? And so you feel good. You feel, you know, when we were doing the Olympic tours back in the day, this was 20 years ago, we'd have all these things. These packages cost $3,700 per person. But what we do is we'd right when they sign up, we'd send them a book about the Olympics, and that wasn't included, and it cost us 12 bucks or whatever, but they'd that impressed them so much because they just spent 3,700 bucks. They're like, not they had buyers remorse, but I'm sure they're like, dang, dude, hope this is good, you know, and then they get this book, and it's also like self-serving because they'd show up knowing something about the city, right? You wouldn't get these idiots that like know nothing, they'd go, Oh, I read about this neighborhood, right? Saw this. So we think of like, what are those little $12 tweaks that that can like that can make a difference, right?

Nathan St Cyr 36:55

I love that. When we look at, you know, a lot of people that have optimized their you know, their short-term rentals and are now shifting over into this concept of, oh, well, we can we we can take all of that model and move it over into boutique hotels and we can go with this extremely staff light, we can we can leverage AI. And we talk about this a lot, but as everything shifts to that direction, what people really crave, they crave the human touch, right? They crave hospitality is how does somebody make you feel? And if we remove people from that equation, and so I'm just wondering if you can weigh in on what your thoughts are with how people are optimizing using AI, but are are they missing it with the human touch?

Adam G Dailey 37:48

It depends on the property specifically. So I think we talk about that a lot of like at the boardwalk, for example, it's like if they get in this room and it's $189 and they're just staying one night and they don't interact with the human and whatever, they're they're probably fun, right? If that same room, a family's coming and they're spending $600 a night in July, their expectations are higher, right? They're gonna be like, so this is wrong, this is wrong. I need this to be right. And the other kind of component is like when that when I'm staying somewhere as a consumer and I want some towels, dude. Don't make me download an app and go write that I want some towels, and those it's Saturday night at nine, and they're like, first thing in the morning you'll have those towels, or you'll have them in 90 minutes or something like that. No, I want to like I want to walk out my door, or I want to call, or I want to walk out my door, I want to figure out how to get some towels right away. You know, I think AI will solve some of that. You know, maybe a drone will bring you your towel in a few years or something like that. But yeah, there's and for you know, that property for any, like you're never going to charge, as far as I can see, a thousand dollars a night for a property and not have a layer of service. I mean, there's something someone just showed me is out in the desert, it's like three grand a night or something like that, and it's I think eight to ten staff per guest is the ratio. So you're like, like it's overkill, but you're also like, I mean, it's three grand a night for desert, right? I mean, it's not the heart of New York or anything like that. There's no competition, they just created this thing based on service, right? Spa and restaurant, I assume, and all that type of stuff. So I think it's tricky, like you guys said. STR stuff, short-term rental. It's logical to think you can go run a boutique hotel and it and maybe seven, eight rooms is is similar. What where it gets tricky is in that kind of 30, 25 to 30 and above, like the 50 room place we have is it's a business, man. I mean, you got multiple employees, like people, you got dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of people coming and going every single day. And that's a it's just a and adds a layer of complexity.

Michael Russell 39:53

Yeah. Look, the reality is when people look at going from short term rentals, they have a location that is you've got A group of people that all know each other and are staying together. And typically you can supply it so that it can operate sufficiently on its own. And then when you scale up to a hotel and you try to apply the principles of the self-check-in model, I'm not saying that it can't be done, but you have to account for some of the things that you're describing where you're now selling individual rooms with people that don't know each other. So the atmosphere might not necessarily be there because people aren't going to just congregate with strangers naturally unless you create some sort of environment or you, you know, you try to inspire people to get together like a happy hour or something of that nature, right? And so you've got this kind of like hollow sense of culture in in these self-checking models where you might have pretty decor, but then you walk out to the lobby, and if no human being is like curating that experience, then people feel awkward hanging out, especially in the smaller boutique ones, where if you have like, let's say, a 20-room hotel and you have a pool table there and you have like little like mock bar or whatever, well, you're not just gonna go down there and there'll be like two people in there and it's quiet, and you're like, I don't know this stranger, and like feel comfortable just like you know, having that experience. So you need a human element there. And I think there is a balance. We had we hosted um Ari Smith. He's a technologist or a futurist that was talking about how AI can really enhance boutique hotel operations, but the luxury is always going to come from the human interaction. And so, you know, I've I've heard you kind of reference this, or you've mentioned that like, you know, the the melding of technology for operational efficiency is key, but enhancing the human touch is where you can really drive the luxury experience. That that's very similar to what he was describing. And I'm curious to know if you are implementing that balance within your boutique hotel collection now on how you're doing so.

Adam G Dailey 41:58

Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's what I'm saying. We're having those conversations almost every day about these different properties. And like I said, it's some of them are we have one property that's it's it is more like a like a commodity, right? They're never going to come to this hotel and say, this is the best thing I ever experienced. Like they they're gonna, it's a good, it's okay. It's a you know, four out of five type of thing, but they're not telling their family, like, you gotta stay here, right? It's a it's it's seven dollars cheaper than the place around the corner, or it had slightly better reviews, or whatever leads them, you know, it has parking, or whatever people people chose it because they want because it was a transaction. Like you said, it's important to like use AI for everything to make people more efficient. And then there's the like like I said, there's a there's a a shift of like you are never going to charge X amount without a human. I don't think I think there's a ceiling. And so we we have that discussion a lot. Some of my partners don't always agree with me. And obviously it's it's it costs a lot of money to keep people there, right? To keep, you know, and and it's it's tougher now to run a boutique hotel than it was two, three years ago, right? Just because of escalating cost and demand and and the economy and things like that. But yeah, I mean, we're using AI a lot on kind of the process, right? One of my partners is like amazing at like using AI for you know our revenue management, and it is like we're we're crushing it, you know, in terms of like the things he's using and the questions he's asking, and he's built like proprietary stuff where it's like it measures you know what the competition is doing and how many people are clicking on our page. And it's just so it's like how can you use every time you're on a spreadsheet, you shouldn't be on a spreadsheet, is what we always tell our team. Like somehow that's an AI solution, right? You should not be inputting anything ever in a spreadsheet or even barely looking at a spreadsheet. So it's just kind of questioning that over and over, I think, of like, what are we doing? What are if five people are coming in and saying the same complaint every week, like how do we fix that? Fix the complaint, but also fix it with technology, right? Like instead of putting a sign up, can we just put this thing in their welcome message where they all get where they all know that we close at seven on Fridays instead of six or something? So it's like that that's for us, we we kind of talk about automation and AI together. And I think a lot of people are I don't want to say confusing them, but but a lot of these AI people say they're using AI and they're just using, they're just automating, right? Which is yeah, which is easy to get from VH to bolton word.

Nathan St Cyr 44:27

Yeah. So you you've mentioned a couple of times that you you don't have like one partner that you do everything with, right? And that that's building that team, that's something that does excite you. But because you've had multiple partners in your mind, what makes a great partnership? And then because I think that this is very common in our, you know, people that are scaling up are like, all right, well, if I'm gonna scale up, if I can leverage maybe some of the areas that are not my strengths, or you know, let's just use others as leverage to get furthers. What makes a great partnership? And then what are lessons learned?

Adam G Dailey 45:05

I think looking at like you mentioned, complimentary skills, I'm in it for probably the same thing I would even say about back in when I was running. I'm in it for a little bit of the brotherhood, right? And the relationship and the journey. I I want to be able to go out with my partner and have a beer and laugh, right? Or I want to be able to invite him and his family over to my house on a Sunday for a barbecue, right? So if they're, you know, a 22-year-old kid who's just running around Bali and you know, has, you know, then there's probably like a value, like misalignment. And it's the same thing if my partner's, you know, running around cheating on his wife or something, you know, just there, there's a which is like no, there's no judgment necessarily. It's just more like we're in different places of our life. So I'm looking for people who are who who share values, I guess you could say, but also compliment. So it's like for me, I I get very attracted to uh people like me, right? Oh, you're big picture kind of big dreamer. And in theory, I really should be partnering, you know, more with the nerdy spreadsheet kind of guys, right? The COO type of guys, the like I said, the guys who love the operational stuff that I don't love. And so that that's kind of what I think about a lot is like the finding that alignment of values, but the but the separation of skills. Whereas I've been in in these partnership groups at times where it's like, oh my god, we're all the same dude, and just different variations of this dude. And of course we're gonna there's gonna be conflict.

Michael Russell 46:29

I want to repeat that alignment of values, separation of skills.

Nathan St Cyr 46:35

I just wrote it down, bro. That's great. That's that's the that's a that's the partnership quote from Adam Daly. Alignment of values, separation of skills. Hell yeah. That's freaking funny.

Michael Russell 46:50

You also mentioned in there that look, you you're more of a big picture guy. You don't want to be bogged down with the details of operations. Yeah, what you're describing right now is very much operationally intensive. And I'm curious because you own a you own several hotels, and each one is a little bit different. I mean, you've got hotels, hostels, you know, just a variety of assets, but you don't operate all of them. You were talking about earlier developing a thesis. So I'm just gonna recap. You know, we were talking about AI and you were saying, look, you got to develop your thesis. Is this a commodity hotel where people are looking for convenience? Fine. Self-checking model works. If it's gonna be something where you want to drive ADRs and you got to have a high human touch element, completely different thesis operationally works much differently. What you've been describing a lot is are the things that you're doing to improve operations, but knowing that you own other assets that you don't operate yourself, I'm curious to know when evaluating an investment opportunity. How do you determine that thesis whether you're gonna self-manage it or if you're going to like master lease it to another operator?

Adam G Dailey 48:08

Like you have to do your your diligence or look in the mirror, whatever, before before you close on that deal to know kind of what your plan is. So, you know, with what with the hostel you mentioned, like we we went into that thinking we were going to turn it into kind of these like shared room long-term kind of plan. And with the we were gonna we put in a pool and we kind of made it cool, and it was gonna be this millennial kind of work-live, really cool place. And then we started we started Airbnb it for like bachelor parties on the weekends, and it just crushed. It did way better, right? We're right away. And we were like, because we're trying things, right? And so it's like, and then we and then we got approached. We didn't find them. We got approached by an operator saying, Hey, we want a master lease. And then they were like, these are what we pay. And we're like, well, we know we're gonna make twice that. Why would we do that? And they're like, Because you'll never have to do anything again, right? It's a triple net lease, we'll pay everything. We're and I and to me, that was attractive because then I could go focus on the next deal, right? And so for me, like I said, I'm at a point in my life where I know if I don't have the team who can operate, then I need to master lease it or find find another solution. Whereas, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, I was definitely more in the trenches. And like I said, my wife and I made offers to buy BNBs because we were thinking we'd run the front desk. So I think it's just this a lot of self-awareness and knowing, again, what's your zone of genius, where you're weak. And and obviously you want to do that beforehand, right? Before you close on this property, you want to have, you know, these these different routes. You want to have, and if you know, like, oh, I'm not gonna, I want to master lease it, you better have talked to some potential people who are gonna lease it before you close, right? And not not after, because your numbers might be way off. But that's what it comes down to to me, is like bandwidth and trying to be do what I'm good at. So when I when I finish a project, I I get kind of I don't want to go that much anymore. Like I'm like, I want to do the next deal. But when we finish that pain and do the grand opening, I'm like, I don't need to come here anymore.

Michael Russell 50:08

It's like a runner running a race, right? When you finish the race, it's over.

Nathan St Cyr 50:13

Yeah, I also want to touch on something you said about self-awareness. I think there's in just seeing your story, there's a level of maturity that you know you've through experience now you've recognized and and you're self-aware. And then you said zone of genius, right? Well, I just came from a mastermind about scaling, and it's like delegate everything other than your genius. So to have that self-awareness of man, this really is my highest and best use. How do I keep myself in that zone and then find the answers through others, through whose to really go and that's where you're gonna become your your highest potential?

Michael Russell 50:59

Yeah, you're right. I want to revert back to this idea of developing a thesis and moving forward in a direction based on what you think is gonna work best. And so you've partnered with Saunder for one of your properties, you I believe at the triple net lease with them, and you've seen this rise in you know, tech-driven hospitality.

Adam G Dailey 51:18

So I want to know what did you learn from that experience? You gotta leave some meat on the bone for the next guy in these scenarios, you know. And it's also like I want them to be super successful, I want them to make four times what they're paying me. You know, it's working with the smaller operator sometimes is more. I mean, you can pick up the phone and get an answer on something, right? And versus these, you know, multi, you know, billion dollar companies where it's just it's a you don't have that personal touch or you I had a very good relationship with a guy at Sondra for a long time and then he and then he left, right? And so, and I'm a relationship kind of driven guy, so it's a little different now, now that I don't have that relationship over there. But it's it's also like for us, a big reason we did it was we did it in 2020 when our backs were kind of against the wall and we were we were in a bad spot. And we also did it because for us, part of our kind of model has been in general has been to go in, add value, find someone to lease it and then get out because the banks love me with having a having a renter in there versus operating. When I operate, they want to they want to know everything and they want history and they want to know this and they want to know that, and they're gonna follow up all the time. When I'm renting it, they're like, who who's the renter? Show, you know, paint that picture and then show me they've paid six months in a row. And then a year from now, when they're when they're following up, like, hey, show me they've paid the last 12 months. That's all they care about, right? So for us, that's been a lot easier to refinance with that story versus us like like when we're we're trying to refinance the the boardwalk hotel you mentioned now. And it's it's it's tough because even though it's crushing all our numbers and our forecast and it's hitting every single thing we said it was gonna do, they're also like, dude, you haven't hit 12 months. Like, you know, like we can't we can't refinance based on these magical numbers that that are seven months or something like that. We want to see you how how you do through the hard times or how you go through the slow season. So yeah, that that's been part of it. And again, knowing what I know now about operations, I'm like, I don't, I bring, I bring like I'm a I'm an operational enthusiast, not an expert, right? I can I can sit in the room, I can geek out and maybe offer some tidbits here and there, but I'm not gonna provide as much value as most of the other people in that room.

Michael Russell 53:28

Okay, well, Sonder is, you know, there's been a lot of publicity in the in the news, a lot of relatively negative publicity about them scaling back and them having challenges and them not hitting their forecasted, you know, revenue budgets. I'm curious to know what your perspective is on Saunder, like and then that model in general, right? Why why are they not hitting their numbers?

Adam G Dailey 53:54

I mean, Sonder was built to gain, it's like a tech company. They were bent, they were trying to build users and gain doors without doing proper underwriting and being profitable. So the which works for a long time when the market's climbing, but obviously it doesn't really work for a public company either, of like because the public wants to make money, they want to generate profit. So for until the last few years, they they were never focused on profit, they're focused on revenue, right? And revenue is a vanity metric at the end of the day, right? Like, and so when you're focused on just revenue and gaining more doors, and you know, then it's it's tough, you know. And so they've tried to change that model. And you know, you like you said, it's had mixed results. They had but it and it's and it and in some of it, you know, we've had you know, knock on wood reasonable success with them, but some other owners have not, where they just you know pulled the rug and out from under them, and and and so I think, you know, I think it's they're they're trying really hard. It's just it's a tough, it's a tough market, you know. It's like I mean, we could raise money and go try and start another Marriott, but dude, it's tough to be Marriott, right? There's a balance. Like the hotel they rent from us has a beautiful lobby with a bar and a fireplace and everything, and there's nobody ever there. And like you said, I to me it's a missed opportunity because I we built it to have this, to have a community there, whether it's a guy working the front desk or you know, every now and then you'll see a guy on his laptop or something sitting by the fireplace, but but you know, they're not you know able to leverage some of these things. And when you go up on the roof, you're like, oh, this is this is a little beat up, you know, like no one's cleaned up here today or something like that. So it's the same conversation we were having earlier, that big that that mix of kind of self-check-in and service, right?

Michael Russell 55:40

What does that say about the model? Your you know, your intuition, what does it tell you? Like, do you think that this self-check-in model is just a fad and that because of the limitations of the environment, that people are gonna it's not sustainable for this model to continue, or do you think that once they get the kinks worked out, it it is possible for operators to continue?

Adam G Dailey 55:59

It's I think it's gonna be a like a hybrid ultimately, and it's gonna be we're gonna use technology to figure that out. So do you I mean, it's like like I like I said, I want to talk to someone when I want to, but would you travel and you just spent left your house nine hours ago and you get to the hotel and there's four people waiting to check in in front of you? It's one of the worst experiences you can have. You're like, dude, I just want to get in my room. So it's like knowing that there's an option to self-check in, right? And skip this line or whatever. I mean, it's like airports are starting to figure out, or you know, where you can go up and check in and all that, but somehow hotels haven't. It's not a like black and white, like this is the right answer. I think we're gonna see technology enhance this to where it's like, hey, Nathan like needs to talk to a person. He just he just wants to ask them about the neighborhood and wants to check in the wants to know the checkout time and wants to, you know, that's just his style. Whereas Michael likes to go straight to his room and you will never hear from him. Like he's gonna check in on Monday, check out on Tuesday, and you won't know if he's there or not, right? And so I think we can use technology to kind of curate experiences for both of those types of guests because they're both gonna exist, right? And and if Nathan goes in and checks in, he's like, there's no one ever there, he's like, This is bullshit, dude. I want to I want to check on this, I want to check on this, I need an extra set of blankets, I need that, you know, this isn't working. There's no one ever here. He's gonna get super frustrated. Whereas Michael, if I go and knock on your door every morning as the concierge, like, just want to make sure you're okay. You're like, dude, I'm okay. Like, leave me that alone. Like, if I was had a problem, I would have said something, right?

Michael Russell 57:33

Right on. You're constantly looking at these different opportunities, and you're one that really focuses on you know investigating opportunities that others have overlooked. Do you recognize, like, are there any untapped opportunities that you have on your radar that you're looking into that you think, well, you know, you've you've don't don't you're taking a dive into hostels and you're looking at some other things. Like, where are the untapped opportunities now in hospitality?

Adam G Dailey 58:02

I think a lot of it has to do more. I mean, it's a cliche, but this kind of the experience, right? That people want experiences more. I think like you guys talked about that kind of community component. I mean, you look at you look at a hostel and there's successful hostels and not successful, and that the fundamental difference isn't the type of cereal they're serving or something, right? It's the community that they're creating, right? These are these are fun, right? I'm gonna have more fun by going to this one than that one. And and that's how you create these these experiences, you know, of you know, one of the coolest hotels I ever stayed with at was in Guatemala and was on a lake. And one of the things they did, like all the guests, you know, for 10 bucks extra were serving dinner. And it was like 15 of us eating that, not eating and drinking. I was like, this was cool, right? They created community. So I think there's gonna be a lot more of that, you know, community experience in a curated way. I mean, the to where it's like it's not forced upon the guests, but they can they can kind of pick and choose and you know they can go do you know, you know, helicopter rides if they want, or or or or be part of a party or go to a luau or what or whatever. But it's like ultimately people are remembering those experiences more than any amenity you're gonna give them, right?

Michael Russell 59:15

Yeah, no, it's so true. I think what you're describing too is a lot of people are motivated now by Instagram. They're looking for those moments that they can capture and share and then be proud of. And you don't always find that staying in a commodity hotel. You might, you know, stay at the I don't know, a Marriott hotel. It's just a place to stay, it's convenient. But man, if you can capture this like awesome mural or this neon sign, or you've got this, you know, margarita party, like those are the moments that people are like, look how much fun I'm having.

Adam G Dailey 59:45

And we look for those like things of like, oh, what is it can we find this thing that's more Instagrammable, right? Like that that's something we're always thinking about because even if no one we have this great looking, like like we have a $14,000 cold. At one of our hotels. It's sick. Commercial clean. Is that how much does it cost?

Michael Russell 1:00:04

14 grand?

Adam G Dailey 1:00:05

They don't, but this is a commercial one. So it's like super, it's like the highest end one you could get. Oh my God. We we promote it. I think people think they want to use it. They probably take photos of them about to jump in, but very few people actually use this thing, right? So, but it's like, but I think people book it thinking they're going to use it. Like they they genuinely book it thinking, like, that's cool, it's right there. And we've seen people go and Instagram themselves right next to it in their bathing suit, and then they go back to their room because they didn't they didn't get in, right? So I I think that you have to think about, like you said, not only what what are people gonna use, but what are people what's cool, you know. Unfortunately, you know, and that's something we're we're not experts in, I don't think, but we're learning because it's it's relevant for sure.

Michael Russell 1:00:48

Yeah. And I think the boutique hotel market is unique in that we can we can try things out and test a lot easier. We're way more nimble operating your 10 to 30 unit properties as opposed to these big brands that are like they got to scale this thing out at enterprise level, and so they're more risk averse. And so, you know, you try something out, it doesn't work, it's a nominal cost, and you pivot and do something else. So I'm excited about that. I wanna I wanna end on this this last question here because what we try to do is give our listeners some actionable tips. And so I'd like to ask you if if someone is who's listening is considering getting started into investing in hotels, maybe what are some key steps that they should take early on to set themselves up for success.

Adam G Dailey 1:01:38

I mean, people have so much information now that wasn't available. So listening to podcasts like you guys, right? But following, signing up for newsletters, looking at, you know, following creating Pinterest pages with all the cool things you like. If you have the means, obviously throwing in some money on some LP deals. I mean, in terms of limited partner where you're just the investor, you're not the operator, but you're seeing how a seasoned operator runs their business. You're seeing their PLs, you're getting their marketing reports, and you're like, they don't tell. I wish I got these every month. This guy does them every three months. That sucks. I don't feel like I'm in the loop enough. Well, now you you put that in your up here, and you're like, when I'm operating one day, I'm gonna start, I'm gonna send out updates every two weeks, right? Or I'm gonna have a blog and I just all my investors can have access or whatever it is. So I think learning, I mean, there's just so much information now. So no one has an excuse not to become an expert, but you don't want to learn too much and not try it, you know, because there's like there's so many people who are who know so much because I've listened to these podcasts where they've looked at tons of YouTube videos and they're terrified to actually get out there and and put put put it on the line, right?

Nathan St Cyr 1:02:46

You gotta take action, you gotta do, but I do love what you just said. I actually had five people at this mastermind that I went to that want to get into this space, into hospitality investing. They all asked me, are you guys currently raising capital? Because I would love to be an LP in your deal so that I can experience what an expert operator, how you run your business, how you go through the like the wizard of Oz, getting the frickin', getting the view behind the frickin' the big freaking screen, right? That's that's what people want. And I think that's an that's really, really solid advice out.

Adam G Dailey 1:03:21

And I tell everyone who invests with us for I'm like, I'll I'm here too. Like if you're like uh like a few of people are like in that position, I'm like, just call me and we'll have lunch and I'll explain to you anything you want to know. You know, I'll I'll because I all the people on our team, or investors and partners, we're we're I'm they're I'm trying to be buddies with them. I'm trying to learn from them and have them teach us. But I think you're right, you gotta you gotta get out there. There's some podcasts I was listening to years, this is probably five, 10 years ago, it was a real estate one, might have been bigger pockets or something. They they had some stat of like, we have 80,000 listeners, and out of those 80,000 listeners, like 1,500 are active, active, you know, and I just or some something like that. And I was just like, it blew my mind that there's that, and it, you know, and it makes me it gives me confidence in that respect too, because I'm like, oh, I'm the only one taking action, right? So it's like if you take action, you're beating 90% of the market, whether you're doing, you know, throwing 20 grand in an LP deal, whether you're, you know, buying a condo and doing Airbnb, doing anything is better than waiting to do it perfectly. And that that would probably be one of the things I wish I one of my regrets is I didn't I didn't do more of this earlier in my career, right? Whether it's failing, whether it's investing in real estate, whether all of this, it's like you gotta, you gotta like accelerate through the mistakes and accelerate through the learning.

Michael Russell 1:04:43

Well, I'm so glad you brought that point up that look, just get started, but everyone has a different risk tolerance and not everyone wants to do this on their own. And you mentioned that you'll go out, you'll go out and you'll syndicate, you'll borrow, you'll raise money from friends and family. And you've got a lot of things moving and shaking, you've got projects. I don't know if you're currently doing a raise right now, but I know that you're constantly looking, and there's going to be a point in time where you know you're gonna have an investment opportunity. And so if our listeners wanted to invest and partner with you, let's say, where maybe they took a passive role and they became a limited investor, like where can they stay in touch with you so they can just follow your journey for whatever you have going on, your next project?

Adam G Dailey 1:05:23

I'm on TikTok. No, I'm just joking. What's TikTok? Yeah, mostly LinkedIn. I mean, that's the easiest way for someone to connect with me is a connection. And I I go through periods while I'll do a bunch of content in a month, and then I want the next month, so I'm not the best in terms of creating content, but at least you I mean, I'm I'm pretty responsive on email and things like that too.

Michael Russell 1:05:42

So dude, you answered your phone. We had our we had one of our team members call you to to confirm that you're gonna be on today's podcast, and we were blown away because he called from the east coast and you actually picked up uh number.

Adam G Dailey 1:05:55

Yeah, no, it was like it was a Virginia number. So I was like, wait, who's calling me from Virginia? Like it piqued my interest, you know.

Michael Russell 1:06:03

Right on. So LinkedIn, people can get a hold of you anywhere else?

Adam G Dailey 1:06:06

Yeah. I mean email, but you can get my email when when you connect with me on LinkedIn.

Michael Russell 1:06:11

So cool, cool, sweet. Well, Adam, this has been great. Thanks so much for being on the show. Listeners, as always, thanks for tuning in, and we will catch you next time. Aloha. Thanks for hanging out with us today on the Hotel Investor Playbook. If you got even one good nugget of wisdom about hotel investing, do us a favor, hit that subscribe button and leave us a five-star review. And hey, if you're feeling extra generous, drop a quick line in the review section. Something like Mike and Nate are the go-to hotel investing guys, or best podcast for anyone looking to crush it in hospitality, or you know, whatever feels right. Those little shout-outs go a long way in helping more people find the show. And they pretty much make our day. All right, appreciate you guys. Catch you next time.