S15 E09: Kurt Alexander, President of Omni Hotels & Resorts

[Music] You're listening to the luxury item, the podcast on the business of luxury and the people and companies that are shaping the future of the luxury industry. Here's your host, Scott Kerr. While major hotel brands have pulled back from large-scale convention hotels, in favor of asset-like growth, Omni hotels and resorts is doing the opposite. It's still building them and in most cases owning them. A couple of years ago, the Dallas-based Omni announced a $1.5 billion investment plan on development and renovations and a complete brand overhaul. The brand Refresh stems from extensive research that's driving the strategic direction of the brand with a focus on more approachable luxury positioning and personalized service. My guest on the luxury item is Kurt Alexander, president of Omni Hotels and Resorts. Kurt joined Omni as Chief Financial Officer in 2014 and moved up to President in 2022. Kurt didn't start his career in hospitality. He first worked in public accounting for Ernst & Young. After working for seven years in investment banking, he joined Omni as Director of Strategic Planning. He held the roles of VP of Finance and Chief Financial Officer before assuming the role of President in 2022. Welcome to the luxury item, Kurt. I got Kurt to be with you. Yeah, great. That you're here with me. I'm so excited to speak with you. Omni Hotels and Resorts has undergone a significant brand evolution and Refresh strategy. At start a couple of years ago, it's the first time Omni has changed its visual identity in more than a decade. It's designed to position the company as an approachable luxury leader. What insights were you seeing in your research that guided the new brand strategy of focusing more on approachable luxury? Good question. And the good place to start, you know, it certainly extends beyond our visual identity. I think really from our perspective, and I don't know if it's research driven as much as just verifiable, just from a macro standpoint, you know, every industry either pushes towards commoditization at the kind of at the lower end or to kind of luxury at the higher end. And you can see this in every retail application, no matter where you are at the kind of price point, you know, target for a long time was the luxury version of Big Box retail, where Walmart was more of the commoditization and that is kind of flipped in recent years, but it's really kind of informed by this view that travel as an industry and hotels more specifically are a commodity. And so how do we as a small independent brand compete in this world of commoditization and increasingly big brands? And so really for us, it was trying to understand that macro landscape and then saying, okay, where do we fit and where do we want to fit? And really with conviction, see our brand as being positioned at the approachable luxury end of the market. That's what our customers kind of see us as, but not everything we were doing was supporting where we wanted to be and kind of where our customers saw us. And so, you know, when you when you think about a hotel brand, there's a lot of different touch points for consumers. And certainly the visual identity, what the logo looks like, the colors, that is one of those touch points. But certainly more importantly than that is what is the room look like? Is it modern? Is it refreshed? What is the customer experience? Is the staff well trained? And so really it was a holistic approach to steer us more in that direction and visual identity and kind of the brand look and feel is is a big part of that. And Omni has a rich heritage and dual business and leisure appeal, but there is still a perception by many that Omni is a business hotel brand. The place you stay when in town for meetings or events or a convention, not really top of mind for leisure or luxury travelers, despite it having a network of over 50 hotel and resort properties across the US. Part of Omni's brand overhaul was launching a new logo, visual brand language, and a new multi channel marketing campaign title experiences matter here was the goal of the campaign to change those perceptions or are you rebuilding the brand from the ground up? You know, I would really say certainly the goal of the campaign. But as I said, kind of earlier it extends beyond a marketing campaign. This is not just kind of a flavor of the day or we think this will resonate with customers. This really is at the core of our DNA and where we're going. And so how do we measure the success? Certainly we want to change the broad customer perception of us being kind of a stayed conservative corporate brand and move more into kind of the lifestyle approach of luxury. And so how do we measure that success ultimately through the customer's eyes and so we look at things we use medallia from a customer satisfaction survey standpoint. We participate in JD power. We were really proud to win the upper upscale best in class recognition this past year. We get things like how are we positioned in our competitive set. So in the hotel industry, you can kind of pick four to seven hotels that you think you compete with. And then come any Smith travel research will give you anonymized data and tell you how you compete. And so we look at from a transient standpoint, you know, which is business travel and leisure. And so we look at our ref power index in ref power for folks who may not be as acquainted with the hotel industry. It is your average daily rate multiplied by your occupancy. And so, you know, we look at that metric every single month. We look at medallia every single day. We look at JD power once a quarter when they publish those. So these are some proof points we look at to say is what we're doing resonating with the customer because if it's not, then I would argue it is all for not because ultimately the customer is king and we want to make sure that they see us the way that we see ourselves and where we're devoting all of our resources time energy capital. And you know, we've been really pleasantly surprised at the speed with which we've been able to change some of those perceptions and the traction we are getting across all these data points. It's interesting last year McKinsey released a report on today's luxury traveler. It revealed that the luxury travel segment has dramatically evolved with new demographics and preferences shaping the market. Today's luxury traveler is younger more diverse. So while the luxury travel surge is driven by a sharp rise in the number of people globally with net worth between a million and 30 million. There's an expanding base of travelers with less money, but luxury aspirations is that who omnie is really focusing on this aspiring luxury traveler. Scott, it's a great question and I would say we're we're a little bit broader than that. And so there's a restaurant here in Dallas that I really like. It's called Hillsstone. And Hillsstone is where I think omnie is position and where we want to be positioned. You have billionaires in Dallas who go to Hillsstone on a regular basis because it's consistently good and it's high quality and it's very predictable. And then you have people maybe the aspiring luxury diner who saves up money for a month so that they can go to Hillsstone. And so really I think that we are uniquely positioned and able to be positioned at this intersection where the ultra wealthy, the ultra luxury traveler. When they stay with us, they love it. And then certainly the aspiring luxury traveler, you know, we may be opening their eyes to a new travel experience where a bellman can come and pick up their luggage and deliver to the room. And they have daily or maybe twice daily housekeeping service and high touch service in a restaurant and you know and really changing people's perception where the aspiring luxury traveler is used to eating at restaurants where you order to counter and somebody brings you your food and you know you check in on an app and you never encounter. Anybody from an airline standpoint, you know, and so so we think we're broader than just the aspiring luxury traveler. Certainly that is a segment that we are well acquainted with. Do we want to make more inroads with but I would argue that our brand positioning and kind of where we fit is broader than that and really does extend up to the ultra wealthy as well. And part of your overall strategy includes extensive renovations and transformations of its existing properties and new developments. How will these major upgrades, new builds and expansions meet the needs of today's luxury and modern business travelers. So I'll give you an example Scott and we have a resort and Asheville, North Carolina called the Grove Park in the Grove Park in is was originally constructed in the early 1900s and Asheville as a city around it has just gone through this amazing renaissance over the last probably 30 years. Hurricane Helene was devastating to that community, but it's just been so cool to see it bounce back and. And growth park in really is a piece of the fabric of America. There's a Donald Ross golf course there. There's just this incredible spot. It's kind of carved into the side of a mountain. We have these awesome hiking trails and it's just this immersive dying experience and you feel like you're a part of Asheville when you're there. And so when we think about our brand position and these renovations and transformations, we have been upgrading the growth park in, but the main in rooms, the ones that were constructed in the early 1900s. If you wouldn't stay there, the like the classic definition of luxury travel would not apply. You have like a slanted roof above the shower because it's a small room and the elevator shaft to get up the room is in. It's actually in the fireplace. It's literally just so unique and that is the most demanded room at the resort. And so again, you have the ultra wealthy who are coming to Asheville because they want to stay there. They want to experience the growth park in. They may go to the built more estate for a day to see it, but they want to stay with us. And so that really, you know, it's not going to be maybe the high end montage, obares type product there, but it's so unique. And so for us, when we think about these products and these hotels, it's how do we maintain character, but make it applicable to today's luxury traveler. And it's not just a vanilla kind of no depth, no texture experience, but it really is immersive and lets the customer experience the destination. So whether that is in Asheville, the growth park in or La Costa out in Carl's bad or the homestead up in hot springs, Virginia, just to name a few, we have these iconic resorts that really, I think bring the luxury traveler to the modern amenities of today, but in really unique and cool settings around the country. So for the new developments, what cities are you focusing on and how do you pick the cities that you want to build new hotels? So we open up a new hotel in Fort Lauderdale here in about six weeks before the end of 25. We're building a new, I think it'll be a five plus star resort down in Puntade Mita, just with the Puerto Bayarta on the west coast of Mexico. We just signed a deal with Raleigh, the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. It built a hotel downtown there. We're working on a new hotel in New Orleans. We're working on a hotel in Midland, Texas, interestingly. When you talk about a luxury traveler, I think Midland may be the wealthiest city in the country on a per capita basis. And we're going to have the nicest hotel in that city. In terms of how we pick these markets or these destinations, we're privately held family owned business. In the city of Raleigh, we're going to have a new hotel in the city of Raleigh. We want to own everything. I think about our development strategy as a Venn diagram. In one circle, you have brand objectives. In the other circle, you have investment objectives. Where those two circles overlap in the middle really informs where we go about building new hotels. We have some awesome one. We open up a hotel in Boston and the seaport district during COVID, which is exceptional. And similarly, we open a new hotel in Oklahoma City during COVID, which is just amazing as well. And both, you would sit there and say, "Okay, Boston, I get it. Tell me about Oklahoma City, but we have the best hotel in Oklahoma City." And I would argue the best hotel in the seaport district as well. But both were informed by this brand objective and investment objective analysis. So are you looking at specifically, I know you mentioned Boston, but you have a lot of tier two cities that are very wealthy. Is that part of that strategy? Certainly, you know, in most cities, not every city, but in most cities where we own an operate, we have the best hotel in that city. In Raleigh and New Orleans, when those hotels come online, they will kind of check that box as well. But in a hotel market like Boston, there are incredible luxury product there. If somebody truly wants the five-plus star experience, they're going to go stay at whatever that hotel is. But for us, we, again, we think we're kind of in this sweet spot of four and a half stars, which is it's nicer than the Marriott Weston high-end. It's not a four seasons or Ritz Carlton. And so like in terms of competitive brands that we often think about, it's JW Marriott, where it's Fairmont. And from a size standpoint, we are basically the same size as those brands in North America. You were talking about before that you opened up a luxury resort in Mexico and Punta de Mita. Your only other properties outside of the US are in Montreal and in Toronto and Canada. We're seeing more US-based luxury hotel brands actively expanding outside the US. Will we be seeing Omni take a more aggressive global growth strategy in the future or is North America really your canvas? I think North America is primarily our canvas, but going back to the Venn diagram of brand objectives and investment objectives, I think that to the extent that we run across things that make sense where we can deploy capital in compelling markets, we will pursue those. But that said, I think we would love to have some presence in the Caribbean. We would love to have a hotel in Cabo, maybe one in Cancun. Our customers are telling us they want us there. And so it makes it a whole lot easier to go pursue something like that when your customers are telling you that they're going to fill it up because they can't wait for you to get to that market. So it's not a defined strategy per se that we're going to have X number of hotels outside of the US by 2030, but certainly to the extent it makes sense and we run across compelling opportunities, we will pursue them. You were appointed to the role of president of Omni hotels and resorts in 2022, previously serving as a company CFO. It came at a time when experiential luxury is reshaping the expectations of affluent travelers. The high end hospitality market is increasingly linked to emotional connection, striving to engage guests in a more meaningful and lasting way. Knowing that lens, what type of mindset do you think it takes to lead in this sector? So probably not as finance lens, which I say that obviously as a finance guy myself, but I think that the hospitality industry is an amazing business. Users focus on EBITDA, how much money are we making? Finance is important, but guest experience really drives the bus on everything. So to the extent that we are satisfying our customers, the owner side of the equation takes care of itself. What mindset does it take to lead in this sector? It is one that I certainly want to make sure I understand our customers mindset. What do they really want? So for the group customer, what's important to them may be different than what's important to the business traveler and it may be different than what's important to the leisure traveler. And so I think that obviously this is the luxury item podcast focused on that leisure traveler. What they want is the bespoke unique, only available at omnety type experiences. And so we are really leaning in and engaging in that dimension through our signature experiences that every one of our hotels is putting together. And so I'll give you an example of one called hooked on Amelia at Amelia Island, which is just how to Jacksonville, Florida. And with this hooked on Amelia experience, you go out on a fishing charter with one of our chefs. And obviously you have a great day fishing. And whatever you catch, tuna, red fidget, whatever, he will prepare food for you on the boat. And it's just this such a cool thing that like again, nobody, nobody's going to do that. And I think that we as a small brand have the wherewithal and the expertise and being vertically integrated as owner, operator brand. We can deliver this very connected, very unique, very bespoke customer experience that is going to keep people coming back again and again and again. And I think that The luxury traveler is not driven by loyalty. Hilton and Mary Otter making these big bets on their loyalty program. But I think the luxury traveler just wants a fantastic experience that they can count on. It is very good, but that kind of pushes the envelope into its anticipatory and that they can tell their friends about of you would never believe this experience I had at OmniMilli Island as an example. And so that's kind of informing some of our mindset around it. Certainly it's a journey we're not there and we're not executing at that level all the time, but that's where we aspire to be. Personalization has been a defining feature of luxury traveler over the last several years. Luxury travelers now expect hyper personalized itineraries, exclusive access and these tailored experiences, advances in technology, especially AI and data analytics allow hotels to anticipate these guest needs and design activities and room environments to suit these individual preferences. How is Omni rethinking personalization under your new strategy? - Well, you hit the nail in the head and a couple of years ago we reconfigured our loyalty program to be experiential in nature and to focus on kind of the value of a customer rather than the frequency with which a customer may visit us. And so I'll give you an example. We have a hotel in Corpus Christi and which is by the way, we are the best hotel in Corpus Christi if you've never been. And but it's a kind of heavy business travel market for energy companies. And so somebody could stay with us 50 times a year at Corpus Christi at 200 bucks an hour and previously our loyalty program would recognize them as our best customer and don't get me wrong. They are a very valuable customer. But in some of these big resorts that we have, I had a friend who he had his family reunion at Omni LaCosta and they spent $25,000 on a four day trip for their family reunion. And previously our loyalty program would have recognized that my friend as he stayed with us one time. But he spent 25 grand with us, which was more than the Corpus Christi traveler who we recognize as like the ultimate in our program. And so we've reconfigured this our program to really focus on the spin that someone has with us. And so my friend who has his family reunion every year, next year when he comes back and maybe he goes to the Omni Homestead, we call him up and we say, hey, we're so excited to host your family reunion. We're gonna be engaging with you from an experiential standpoint and we have the first tea time of the day reserved for you and you're in laws, we have your wife set up for spot treatments, we have your dinner reservations, all of it's on us. And again, going back to our business strategy of vertical integration, we can fulfill all these experiences because we operate everything. It doesn't cost us anything to fulfill a round of golf and give that to somebody. It's an opportunity cost equation, it's not a hard dollar cost. And so for us, it's really about understanding what's important to someone, what is the persona that they're traveling in? You start coming in, if you're on a family reunion versus you on a business trip versus you with your spouse or friends, you're gonna want something different out of each one of those trips. And so we wanna understand why you're traveling and then cater to those needs specifically. And it's really interesting because we are small brand. I think we can do things that the other brands can't do and we can know our most valuable customers, like legitimately know them. I was talking to one of our top loyalty members who goes to the Omnihome set recently and he was coming through Dallas and he and I got coffee and he's telling me about his upcoming travel. And guess what, that guy is like the ultimate VIP within our brand and there's not many of those. And so there's a little bit of this like, if you know you know type thing with Omni and which I think really plays into this quiet luxury trend that we're seeing very, very well. - Another big part of these luxury hotel strategies is locally idea of local immersion with the goal of offering authentic, place-driven guest experiences. Many of these hotels collaborate with local artists and chefs and businesses to create unique experiences like private cooking classes, artisan workshops, heritage and spire tours and pop-up events. Others curate itineraries and excursions to hidden local gems and experiences outside the typical tourist attractions. One of the key elements of Omni's marketing strategy is the local experience. When all your competitors are on the same local immersion page if you will, how does Omni stand out? - Yeah, it's so true, right? And we talked about this a little bit earlier, but we believe that travel transforms people and human connection is a part of the human condition. Like people were made to be in relationship with one another and to encounter things and the physical world is like one of the greatest gifts that we have to get to explore. And so, going back to our signature experiences, they are only available at Omni. And so I'll give you another example. Omni Homestead, which I've talked about, there are warm springs pools that people have been going to for 260 years. Literally, this resort is 10 years older than America. It opened in 1766 due to the healing effects and kind of the therapeutic effects of bathing in these warm spring pools. And so I promise you that no other resort or hotel in Virginia can offer access to these pools and kind of that immersive experience. And so, you know, or maybe I'll bring it to more of an urban setting in Nashville. One of the hottest hotel markets in the country, maybe in the world, the Omni Nashville is connected to the country music hall fain. And so, we are able to offer these behind the scenes tours and access to, you know, the lithograph place that makes these records. And just these really cool prints in Nashville. And again, it's only available through us. And so, there are a ton of hotels in Nashville and a ton of beautiful hotels in Nashville. But nobody's connected to the country music hall fain. And just so what a cool, unique immersive experience that we think differentiates us in the marketplace. And I don't have to tell you that in today's competitive hospitality landscape, providing good services simply not enough, especially in luxury hospitality. It's defined by proactive thoughtfulness, seamless execution, and is really the sense of personalized care. It's not just about doing what's required. It's about doing what's unspoken. You've spoken in interviews about the importance of service excellence and delivering an enhanced guest experience. And that's why you believe people will choose Omni. Is staff training part of overhauling your brand? - It sure is. And we have made a multi-million dollar commitment over several years, multi-million dollars per year, over several years, really focused on staff training. And coming out of the pandemic, I think the whole travel ecosystem was very adversely impacted by staffing shortages and then just people not knowing what they're doing if they were in the job. And so that really informed our perspective initially was coming out of the pandemic. We were 20,000 people before the pandemic. We got down to 2,000 people during the pandemic. And so how do we rebuild this workforce and a team that makes these experiences come to life? And so how do we hire for emotional intelligence? How do we hire for really a sense of calling? We often talk about hospitality as a coloring. It's not just a job, but there is a segment of the population that it's in their blood, like they love to serve people. And how do we identify those people in our interview process? So it starts there. And then once they're in the doors with Omni, it's kind of catalyzing this and creating an environment where they can beat themselves, but they can be the best version of themselves and they can understand what the guest wants. You said oftentimes the requests are unspoken. I'd even argue sometimes the guests requests, they're not just unspoken, they're unknown. The guests may not even know what they want, but how do we anticipate and kind of get to the second, third, fourth derivative beyond that and do things that just blow people away? And so it's been so cool to see these stories come out of every hotel and then we celebrate those stories and then point everyone, our 21,000 people, we point them to this is what good looks like. There was a story of the Parker House in Boston. It's the longest continuously operating hotel, I think in the United States. We just finished a $60 million renovation of it. It's an incredible historic hotel. I think JFK and Jackie were engaged. there, like just so much history, if those walls could talk. And there was someone who had their wedding canceled. The venue they booked it at, they canceled it. And somehow they kind of popped into the lobby. We had a catering sales manager interact with them, took them on a whole site visit of the hotel in the next day, Scott. We pulled off a wedding for 200 people. And this bride is sending us letters and pictures of just like, you changed my life. And so, you know, and don't get me wrong, there's a lot of people in the hotel industry who would have done the same thing. That's not a unique to omnistory. But it just speaks to like the EQ of our people to come in, understand the situation, move really heaven and earth, everything they had going on at the hotel to make room, a clear space to open up guest rooms for this wedding party. Anyway, it's just been really cool and very edifying to me to see our people just kind of come to life in this regard. You touched upon this earlier. The asset and light model has proven to be a rather successful strategy for many global hotel brands. The strategy focuses on management and franchising agreements rather than owning the physical properties, allowing them to scale without heavy capital investment while earning management fees. Omni takes a contrasting approach, owning a significant majority of its properties and employs this asset rich strategy, which I think is over 80%. Why does Omni use an owner operator model and how is it a way to achieve long term value? Yeah, I mean, I do think like the traveling public doesn't necessarily know this, that you could be staying in a Marriott hotel that's owned by a private equity firm and managed by a third party, but it says Marriott on the building. And I think that it's become such a fragmented ecosystem of brands that are basically marketing vehicles, management companies that are operating, and then ownership groups that are kind of trying to keep both the brand and the management company honest. And it really started for us out of a desire to not pay fees to anybody else. So it's not like some we were just so smart, but I think that as the industry changed, oh, by the way, Marriott used to own all their hotels, Hilton used to own all their hotels. And then they realized it was just, it was too hard to grow quickly by owning all this real estate. I think that as the industry has changed, our differentiation on this owner operator brand model has become more pronounced. And I believe it allows us to deliver a higher quality, more integrated experience. And you're right, these big brands have embraced franchising, but guess what? Every single one of them wants to control the experience at their luxury properties. And so the Waldorf Astoria that just opened in New York, like that is, I think the definition of luxury right now, Hilton manages it. And they want to control every touch point. And so, and they wish they owned it. They don't, but they I promise you they wish they did. And so, you know, I think that we are unique in that space, the four seasons, the O'Barrige, the montages, they want to control it as well. You look at some of the kind of the owners of different of these luxury hotels, Bill Gates with Cascade owns a lot of four seasons and owns the brand and a management company for seasons. And so, again, we're not this ultra luxury brand. We never aspire to be that, but it is the same playbook being employed or deployed by these luxury brands. And so, anyways, I do think it's a different chain in the space. And it allows us to just deliver more integrated seamless experience. I want to change the direction a little bit. I want to talk a little bit about the whole concept of travel these days. You know, consumer sentiment in the US is currently near all time lows worse than during the Great War session. And near the worst of the pandemic era, normally that spells doom and gloom for most industries. However, travel has shown resilience and strength in the face of this metric. People are prioritizing travel experiences over personal luxury goods. So, do you think travel has become more of a human need and less of this discretionary item? And why is that? Yeah. I think so. I think it kind of goes back to what I mentioned earlier that part of the human condition, I don't care whether you're two years old or 100 years old, I don't care whether you're from a different continent or you know, we're raised in a different household. People crave human connection. And so, I think it starts like life is about relationships. And the depth and the richness of relationships. And so, travel is a way to connect people with people. And certainly, you know, touring the Vatican in Rome, like what a cool experience, but it's about who you're with when you're doing. And so, yes, I think it is a human need. I think that kind of the democratization of travel of, you know, airfares are very affordable. I was reading an article with Ed Bash in his CEO, Delta recently, and he said, you know, they see growth international that only one out of five people has ever even gotten on a plane around the world. And so, he was saying that, you know, that's kind of their growth engine going forward. But guess where a lot of those people want to travel to the United States. And they want to see the best country in the world and just these amazing sites and national parks. And so, we're going to be the beneficiary of that. And so, I think it is a need, I mean, like the hierarchy of needs, travel is not at or near the top of it, but human connection is. And, you know, and so, I think that travel is a very important part of that. And like I said earlier, just the whole idea of hospitality, like we are welcoming tens of thousands of guests every single night. We're giving them a comfortable bed, a great meal, a place to connect and form memories. And so, we often talk about like just for a little bit, we hold the elixir of creating, like making the world a better place and solving some of the issues in our broader society. And so, I think that I think travel is really at the core of that. And so, we feel called to it. We love the business and we're really excited about what the future looks like. Sports tourism has become one of the fastest rising travel segments from action-packed trips to watching the World Cup or Formula One races to weekend golf getaways. We're seeing a lot more sports tripping by affluent travelers. Omni owns and operates a bunch of golf courses across the US. Many of them are championship courses. Is Omni shaping its destination strategies based on both the resurgence of golf in the US, especially among younger and more diverse audiences? And the popularity of just sports tourism in general. Yeah, I mean, again, it's not a stated strategy, but it starts with we love the game of golf. And so, we have 28 courses around the country. I think we have 416 holes. And that's a combination of par three courses, short courses, nine hole courses, 18 hole courses, like we really run the gamut. And again, back to what I was just talking about. We love the game of golf, A, because it's fun. But B, there's no better way to spend four hours with somebody than shoulder to shoulder walking down a fairway. You're in nature kind of pursuing a healthy activity. Like there's a whole wellness angle with it, but just the relationship aspect of it is out argue second to none. And we have some treasures in our portfolio. You know, names like William Flynn or Donald Ross. We have a course up in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania. And AW Tilling Hast did not have nine holes. And Donald Ross did nine holes. I think it's the only course in the country where that's the case. At Omni PGA Frisco here in North Texas, we have a bow-welling resort course and then Gil Hans designed the East course where we are hosting the 2027 PGA championship. And so, yeah, I mean, we believe that the golf is not just an amenity at these resorts, but that increasingly people are planning trips to golf courses and they end up staying at the hotel. So, so historically, you go, I want to go stay at XYZ Hotel. Oh, what do I want to do there? Maybe I'll play golf. But we think that the quality of our portfolio is such that so many people are saying, I want to go play golf at fields ranch on the East course or the LaCosta North course that hosts the NCAA championships, where should I stay? Oh, look, there's an Omni Resort right there. Why do we end up staying there? And so anyways, it's been really fun to see. And again, as a golfer myself, I'm probably a bit biased in it. But we're partners with the PGA of America. They've been great partners. We're partners with the PGA tour. We're actually hosting a PGA tour event at Omni, Park and Creek in Austin next year. And so we love the game of golf. Well, Kurt, my final question is the luxury item question, which I ask all my guests. So if you was stranded on a deserted island and you could only have one single luxury item with you, what would that luxury item be? It can't be any form of air or water transportation so you can get off that island pretty quickly or anything that requires mobile service so you can call your family and friends to get you off that island. It's just you on this lonely island, no one in sight, no boats in sight, nothing. But you have one luxury item with you. What would that be? Man, I was thinking about a golf club, but I can't have a club and a ball. That's two things, right? No. You could have a club and a coconut. I would say a really good book or a journal that I can just kind of process my thoughts with. And I think that you read these stories about people who have been in isolation and they study a book or they study the Bible or they write a book. And I think that people are just pretty amazing. And so I would say a really good book. Kurt Alexander, president of Omni Hotels and Resorts, thank you so much for joining me on the luxury item. Thanks, Scott. We got really enjoyed it. I'm your host, Scott Kerr. Until next time.