Defining Hospitality

DH - Alissa Klees
===

Speaker: [00:00:00] What I do is inconsequential. Why I do what I do is I get to shorten people's journeys every day. What I love about our hospitality industry is that it's our mission to make people feel cared for while on their journeys. Together we'll explore what hospitality means in the built environment, in business, and in our daily lives.

I'm Dan Ryan, and this is Defining Hospitality.

This podcast is sponsored by Berman Fall Hospitality Group, a design-driven furniture manufacturer who specializes in custom case goods and seating for hotel guest rooms.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I'm excited to introduce Alissa Klees, the brand leader of Spark by Hilton, a trailblazing and disrupting brand that has taken the hotel industry by storm and earned Hilton recognition as one of fast companies, 20, 24 most innovative companies.

Alissa is the brilliant visionary behind the brand, strategy and performance. Her focus is on driving growth, meeting travelers' [00:01:00] needs, scaling the brand globally, and fostering a vibrant brand culture and personality, all while bringing new and existing owners into the world of Spark. After getting her start in the restaurant industry.

Alissa began her career with Hilton nearly two decades ago, bringing a wealth of expertise in strategic leadership, brand building, and owner support to one of Hilton's newest brands. Welcome, Alissa.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Hey there. Thanks for having me.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: So I would like all of our listeners and watchers, because we are on YouTube too, just in case you don't know. Um, to know that I first knew about Spark, actually I didn't know about it because it was very secret. Um, it was a handful of years ago. I was in Chicago at a client's office and I think they, they had like this Skunkwork type room.

It was behind closed doors. I'm really close friends with a lot of the people that were working in that closed room. They wouldn't say anything. It was like very [00:02:00] like Lockheed Martin skunkworks, like laboratory. It was pretty cool and I was always very intrigued. Fast forward to many years, you open up, um, I think the first spark was up the road here in Mystic, Connecticut.

Am I right?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah. September of 2023.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: In 2023.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Okay. So that was the first one. And then I think they could speak about it. I think they were involved in the very early concept stage of like, does this make sense? AB test, blah, blah, blah. Um, but I think what I find most exciting about Spark, 'cause I was talking to Larry Traxler from Hilton at some event within the past year.

He said it's really geared towards helping owners convert into a new flag. If they're unhappy where they are, they can kind of find a new home that's super fast and has an incredible speed to market. And I, and I think that that's a very interesting concept within our industry. [00:03:00] Um, and, but before we go into all of that, I have to ask you,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: do you define hospitality?

Or what does it mean to you?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Oh my goodness. uh, I've been in the industry for a really long time, so I think I think of hospitality though, as. Something that impacts both your personal life and your professional life. Uh, at the end of the day, we're hos like, hi. We at Hilton are in the business of people serving people. But when you think about that, you do that in your everyday life, right? Whether you are having a dinner party and hosting your friends, you put care into what you give them or what you're gonna serve them. And that's, that's because you're giving a hospi a hospitable experience right? To them. So to me it's about how you treat your friends and family. It's how you treat the checker at the grocery store and how they treat you, right? They are in the business of hospitality, uh, and [00:04:00] obviously professionally. Uh, we are in the business of making sure that. they choose us, whether it's Spark or any other Hilton brand, that they've got a great experience because the people made them feel good about the choice they made.

So to me, that's really it.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: So a couple of things. Thank you for sharing that. But a couple of things on Spark in particular. Um, and I'm a bit over my skis here because I'm not like, I'm a fan of hospitality, not necessarily an expert. Um, but the uniqueness of Spark is that while the guest and the employees in that, that working there and have that heart of house that Hilton is so great about, I think they came up with the name of Heart of House instead of back of house.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: That's right.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I think what's really interesting is, I guess all hotels are financial assets, right? They're all operating, but not all of the time do [00:05:00] hotels and new brands put owner first and foremost, right? Because this is really, um, a way for. A hotel to do a very quick, um, reimagination re flagging, um, and have a new impact in, from a speed and time to market perspective.

So, again, I said I'm out over my skis, but from your perspective with Spark, how did that priority get established, number one, and then how do you roll that out so that you don't lose sight of the guest and the employee at the same time, but really owner at first? I guess if, like Danny Meyer, he said if you're taking care of the customers

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: and the investors are last in their, in his chain of things, the investors are gonna benefit.

But this is, this is actually really interesting 'cause you are taking care of all those, but it's really about giving the owner like an easy button, if you will.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah, absolutely. You know, you, you, you [00:06:00] bring up an interesting point that it, we really did build this to be owners first. And so the secret or not so secret to that is the question really started around, we've got these beautiful legacy brands, Hampton, as an example, who's 41 years old this year. Um, where you've got owners that have made a really long-term investment in Hilton.

Right? And they ultimately, at some point that building just like your house or, or anything that building right, may be ready for something new, uh, because. Main street, USA moved up an Mm-hmm. Or because they want to build brand new, beautiful hotel and what do they do with this investment they've made? and so for us, that was the really the first question that we asked ourselves. 'cause before we didn't have a [00:07:00] solution for them, quite frankly. It's like, thank you for your investment in 20, you know, 20, 30 years and we'll see you next time. And so now what we've done is we've given them this opportunity to maintain that investment in the Hilton system.

Right? So that was the, quite frankly, that was the very first question, how do we take care of the owners that have made the long-term commitment to us already by giving them an opportunity to maintain. That hotel in the Hilton portfolio, you can probably think like, that's a no brainer. Yes, you should do that, right?

Yes, you should do that, Alissa. But it has to go beyond that, right? And so that to your Skunk Works comment is really where, you know, you kicked off. So the easy answer was, yes, we need to do that, but if we do that, what's next? Right? And is it bigger than that? And how do we [00:08:00] introduce this, um, in the marketplace, right?

And what more could we gain and what more can our owners gain?

Mm,

that's where we started to really look at the, the guest, right? What was the guest experiencing? And could we change that and, and frankly make that more valuable to the guest, right?

and

All

put all those ingredients in, right? And that's how Spark was born.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: that was the spark of spark

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: That was the spark, the point of ignition

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yes.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: of something great.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: So I love that idea of the spark of the idea. Now you, in 2023, you opened the one in Mystic. You've been one of the fastest growing brands at Hilton, and you earned Hilton a fast company, which it's inter, I don't know how many I'm speaking out.

Like I don't really know, but it would seem to me there aren't very many Fortune 500 companies that get most innovative company because once you're established, [00:09:00] you tend to be doing that thing. You're great at all the time and not necessarily innovating as much. Right? You, you have your things, but, but how did Spark from the time that you had the one in Mystic to where we are now, in the middle of 2025, um, what's your growth been like at Hilton number one and then.

Number two, be on the heels of that. Walk us through what a Hilton owner or someone else has experienced by learning about the brand and then having interest and then actually going through the conversion process.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it's interesting, so September, 2023 is when we opened our first hotel in Mystic, Connecticut, and that owner actually purchased the asset Convert into spark. So he believed in the story and wanted to pioneer it with us,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: he purchased it, he closed it, and he converted it. And it, it is literally the most [00:10:00] beautiful upcycling, I'll call it, right?

That, that we've seen. Um, we have today 161 hotels open.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: So would we say it is the fastest brand to launch and, and really start to scale? We mean that because the growth has been nothing short of incredible. Uh, when you think about it, a hundred, and we're opening at 161 hotels, we're opening a couple every week. We're in multiple countries. We have six hotels, uh, over in Europe, middle East, and Africa, uh, region. So we are growing globally. Right. Which brings you to your second question of. What is it like for an owner, right?

Yeah.

And the community, uh, is close knit, as you may know, right? And so word of mouth is huge, right?

And they all, they all ask each other, what was your experience? Should I do this? Um, and I believe it's the [00:11:00] community, uh, of owners that are also helping us create that trajectory. Um, from a perspective of what it's like, uh, when an owner makes the decision, you know, to either leave their current AFF affiliation or move within the Hilton portfolio, right, to a, to a different flag.

In this case, we really try to the experience as simple as we can. One of our pillars when we built the brand was simplicity. And simplicity for us was three things. One, is it simple for the owner to enter into Hilton? Is it simple for the team member to work at the hotel so they, they can give hospitality? And three, is it a simple experience for the guest so that they know exactly what they're gonna get? So for an [00:12:00] owner, we try to make it really simple. So we have a package that's consistent. Uh, if you take a look on our website and look at all of the properties, you'll see, wow, they really do look all the same.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: And that's intentional, right? Because then now the owner knows exactly how to convert, right? What to expect. The team member, the housekeeper that's Kleesaning that room, knows exactly how to Kleesan that room. There's no secrets, right? Hiding in there. Did I forget to do this? Did I right? Get that nook and cranny.

And then the guest knows that when they choose the hotel. Um, in Mystic Connecticut and they had a great experience and then they decide, I'm gonna go try it in Orlando, Florida, when they walk in, they're getting the exact same experience. so I think that that's what attracts owners, right? Uh, so the package, how they acquire the package, the design, uh, has been built off the back of a classic Midscale [00:13:00] hotel, right?

Where we know generally how these things are all built because we built many of them ourselves. and so it's really enabled us and enabled the owner when they make the decision, they can open their hotel on average within seven months on the Hilton

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Seven months.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: seven months from the time they make the decision. Um. I would say on average it's generally seven to 12 months because owners are not gonna close the hotel Right. To

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: to do the renovation. So when they do close the hotel, and we've had many that do, it's about seven months when it's, uh, when they're open, have the hotel open, excuse me, right then it's

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: That's amazing.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: But it's all because of that simplified design package. How we acquire it, which I didn't mention. Um, we partner really closely with Hilton Supply Management on that. Um, so we are housing and, [00:14:00] and have our vendors and our manufacturers and our partners agree to stock inventory so that it's readily available for order. Um, I always laugh because if I wanted to order a new couch for my house, yeah, I'd have to wait right. 18, 20

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Totally.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yet these owners are getting their furniture in 10 weeks.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: okay, I want to dig into that a little bit. So, seven months being on average. What's the fastest you've done it?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Four months.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Holy crap.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: So our property, I, in Germantown, Maryland actually executed the conversion in four months. Their secret is they shut down the hotel, right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Uh,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: the hotel, then you don't have to worry. You know a

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: about the operation, so it can be done. Um, obviously not, not ideal,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: right.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: gonna see that as the norm, but

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Um, okay. So, and then to go from zero to 161 hotels also

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.[00:15:00]

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Three years, two year, two years, and change three years. My math is not good.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: two and a, it's almost two and a half. Yeah.

Less

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: that in, in dog ears?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I mean. Right,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Okay. But that's considerable growth. So if you were to, if you're to look at that, imagine that 161 being a pie. Okay.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Are you getting, like, is that, uh, most of that a portfolio conversion? Is it one-to-one? Is are there any particular brands that are overweight in converting within Hilton? Outside of Hilton?

Like what, if you were to take the 80 20 rule to talk about where those 161 are coming from,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Broadly speaking, what, what are you seeing?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Uh, 99% of the portfolio is all external coming

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: So they're

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: kidding.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: other affiliations, uh, into the Hilton system.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: That's a home run.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it is really is a home run. It's all one, and most of it is one-to-one. We have a few partners that [00:16:00] have raised funds to do several, right, because they believe in the business model, but the overwhelming majority, 90% of it is, is the one-to-one ratio

or the

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: ratio.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: that's actually shocking. 'cause most of the time when you hear about something like, like a number that, that large of a number in such a short a time, usually it's like a, it's a portfolio conversion. Like

some, like, um, I know Sesa did an amazing job of growing their brand through the pandemic by taking portfolio and converting them.

But you're, but you're hitting, this is all from singles and doubles.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it's very organic,

right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: That's unreal.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: organic growth is at the heart of what Hilton does if

you

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: It, right? We build brands. We generally don't acquire or other chains. I mean, there have been a few exceptions that make the most business sense for Hilton in the space we're trying to enter. we believe truly in organic growth. And I think, and I, well I don't think I know what we did here with Spark [00:17:00] was find a way and a way to deliver a brand very organically into the system. know, this brand is really designed to attract a new owner to Hilton. There are countless, particularly in the us, countless owners, where aspire to franchise a brand in one of the big three companies, right? Uh, and us being one of them. And this gives them that entry point. I have a beautiful story. That I think about a lot. And I, the story a lot actually when

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Well, it's the first time I've heard.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yes, so I'm gonna tell it, I'm about to tell it

to you.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Great.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: but uh, and I think it just goes to the heart of kind of what Spark has done and why this is, this is grown so much is, so we have a spark up in Markham, Ontario,

Canada, that's owned by JM [00:18:00] Hospitality.

And we did the grand opening last summer up there. And it's, um, the whole family was there that owns the hotel. Um, the owner, his children, his brother's children, they're all involved in the business and they all have a commitment. so they had the mayor there. It was just a really nice grand opening, right?

And so the daughter comes up and she tells the story of why. This decision was so important to her and why they were so excited to be the first in Canada. And so this hotel was a former Journey's end. That is a brand, if you're familiar

with

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I never heard of them.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: right? It's a, a former Canadian brand that was pretty prevalent I think in the eighties. Uh, and it was their first hotel they ever bought.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Oh, wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: She grew up there. Her brother grew up

there,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Working in there

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: working

in the

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: and living living in it.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: around the hotel,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Okay.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: in the hotel, her kids, her brother's kids. They [00:19:00] now go for swimming in the pool at the hotel. And so this was their dream. And he is existing Hilton owner.

He is not a new Hilton owner. But what her story was is to say that this was our first hotel we ever bought. This was my dad's dream. We're now in this and we now have this opportunity to maintain what was our dream and put it into the Hilton system.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I love it.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: be a pioneer with Spark. And it's those, they're countless of those stories

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: So,

so Alissa

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: but

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: as, as you're sharing that story,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: well, two things. One's a little bit of a sidetrack. So I almost stayed in Markham once, um, I brought my daughter up to see Taylor Swift.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Mm.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I forgot what hotel we were gonna stay at, but it was the only hotel I could find.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Was it last November

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yes.

Yeah. Oh, good. So we hope

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: note.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: maybe we were sitting next to each other, but I could only find a place up in Markham.

Then I checked again before we went, I, I actually wound up staying at the DoubleTree in [00:20:00] Toronto, walkable, um, to the, to the arena, to Rogers Arena.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: but I missed my opportunity to Markham. But what I love about the story about the family from Markham, um, is in the beginning of our conversation today, you brought up like if you own a house and you wanna renovate it, like after, after time you have to do these things.

But oftentimes a house renovation is a, a huge capital expense. And sometimes we might not have that capital

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Personally to do the renovation that my wife wants. And, um, but from Spark and that easy button and the growth

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: From a capital expenditure perspective, how does that compare contrast, uh, to other brands out there when people want to convert?

Like what's, what makes it so compelling that people. For this many hotels to convert in such a short amount of time. 'cause that's probably the biggest expense if you're taking, if you're converting hotels, it's like, how do you paint, [00:21:00] put new trim and finish and furniture and just get everything up and ready from a capital expenditure perspective.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah. You know, I think when we designed the package, and that's what it is, it's a package, right? That you

buy Hmm the hotel. And so when we designed the PA package, we were very focused on cost.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: we launched, it was one of the most economical renovations out there,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: you think about, but, but it also is on the chain scale.

The brand competes in, right? So we're not, we are not an upper Midscale brand. Uh, we are not an upscale brand, right? Where you're, you're gonna have a, a higher level of furnishings. More amenities in the hotel. We really went towards that pillar I mentioned earlier, simplicity. and simplicity was also had to look at the cost, right?

So the package is really economical. Um, for your listeners that are [00:22:00] like, how much is it, Alissa? It's the guest room is $8,000,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Whoa. Yeah.

Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: And when you look at the guest rooms before and after, it is, it is shocking what you see, right? You're like, wow, this is totally different. Um, and so when you look at that and if you're considering your, your investment and you're considering, I wanna go with Hilton?

Do I wanna stay with the affiliation I may have, do I wanna go to. Another competitor, um, cost right is usually

the Hmm.

thing that they look at besides the franchise cost, right? It, it's the cost to go in. and so what we think we did is created a really economical package that is designed to withstand the length of the license, right?

So the idea is these guys are renovating and they shouldn't have to do it again, um, you know, up until the end of their license,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: [00:23:00] Mm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Which is important because you're making the investment once,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: So, um, cost is what reigns Supreme there. And Hilton Supply Management, honestly was our, our core partner there, our, our design firm, pivot Studios, who helped us with like the case package and the f the f and and then they partnered with Hilton Supply Management to negotiate the, the, the package cost.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I, I,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: was shocking when we launched the brand in October.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: 2022 our owner's conference. We had all our owners walk through it and they were like, there's no way. This is seven, this is 7,000. You know, seven, 8,000. I mean, everybody was like, yep. Home run.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: So, so imagine this, what I'd like to do is, um, I'm gonna, when we're done recording, I'm gonna get photos, like high res photos of the rooms and lobbies, but like imagine that you're speaking and there's an image of a room

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Mm-hmm.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: shown on the [00:24:00] YouTube channel right now, which there will be for the listeners, just if you want to log into YouTube or see this part, um, walk us through like, the experience and imagine like

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: photo of the room.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: First of all, they focused on the space because what we tend to do in the hotel industry in the early two thousands was fill it with a lot of dark furniture oversized for the space of the room. Um, and have some sort of manila yellow wall color. And I say that jokingly, but

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: With love and understanding and appreciation.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Tones of maroon,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Very popular anyway, so when they walk in, the first thing people notice is how bright the room is.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: And they say, this can't be the same room. You've put in more light. No, we have not. You, you know what has happened. And, and so we do that because we remove heavy draperies, right?

And we paint the walls really bright white. We have a feature wall in there. So when you walk in though as a guest, you're gonna [00:25:00] say, wow. This is a fresh space and I have a lot of space. Um, I think then as a guest, you know, you, you look at the design, it's really simple. Um, you're gonna have a great tv, uh, you're gonna be able to stream your favorite shows there in this space that

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: wow. From your phone.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: your phone and from, we have a connected room technology, which allows you to safely stream all of your platforms.

So if you're a Netflix lover, you can log in

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Every hotel company needs to listen to this and like, I'm sorry, but you're be, be a first follower. 'cause I can't stand it when I, I have to, I have this huge TV in front of me and I have to watch it on my phone when I'm trying to go to bed.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: All that. We just

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: launched on Connected Room Peloton. So if you're a Peloton user, uh, and you do their strength training classes, I don't know if, if you like that, or maybe some of your listeners do, you can now do your, your Peloton in your room.

Because you oh, wow.

And access the, the strength classes, [00:26:00] which I

think is pretty

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: That's a game changer. I wish I could do that in my house. I'm sure there's a way to do that in my house, but I haven't figured that out. yet.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: neither. So I'm

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: No.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: TV that's on the bike.

But, uh,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

Huh.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: pivots. This is one of my favorite things. So the desk is a pivoting desk. It has an under piece to it

that pivots out.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: think about if you're traveling with your kids, your daughter, right?

You're going to Taylor Swift, um, and you walk in and your daughter and you are having a quick bite to eat in the room because your flight was late and you've gotta head to the concert. There's two places for you to sit.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: No way.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I mean,

it's the little things like that, right?

Um, that appreciate

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: a place to hang your coat that's not in the closet.

'cause we put hooks on the wall,

uh,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: lamps that you don't have to get out of bed. I. turn off the lamp. Right. You can just turn it off there. And then probably the most popular, I will say for guests is all of the power [00:27:00] outlets. So, right. We all travel with four devices. We have our iPads, our phones, our computers, you name it. Um, and I hate when I have to get behind the bed or I have to unplug something that I don't know what's gonna happen through the room if I unplug it. So what we did is we lifted all of the power to, to bedside or desktop, so

you don't

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: have that. So on average we have six power

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: that's okay.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: in, in the

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: countertop level.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Fantastic. So, okay. Thank you for that. And now I love how many independent brands, um, like Inde, even independent hotels, not independent brands, a standalone hotel as a brand, um, have been u making use of brand more and more. Whereas the bigger companies like Hilton for instance, you know Right. You, you create these brands or acquire these brands or organically grow these brands, as you say.

Um, and what I [00:28:00] love, and I'm hearing more on the independent side now, but I think it's. Come from

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: guys or the the idea of pillars, right? And any branding exercise, right? You have to come up with the pillars and everything, um, follows from that if you're doing it the right way. So it's almost like values in a company.

Um, but the first one you said was simple to the owner, to simple for the owner to enter. The second one was simple for the, the team to know how to work in this new brand. And the third one was simple for the guest. Um, on the simple to the owner, I know we've been talking a lot about the owner.

I want to go to the second two in a minute, but to be able to have done a hotel in four months and or average seven. I know you brought up HSM and Hilton Supply Management. Aside from negotiating the prices, which is important to get that $8,000 number for the room, they, what was the strategy on.

Inventory because when you have that much scale, it's not like you, you still have to make [00:29:00] that furniture. So there must have been some negotiation. I don't really play in the select service space or focus service space, which is an interesting business. But like how did, how, how did that come up? Like what did the manufacturers have to hold an inventory so that you could, so that they could supply this growth and, and make it a seven month average?

Because normally it's a year and a half for a regular one-off hotel. Like from the time that you're like, oh, let's do a renovation. It's like a, it's a year and a half.

Speaker 2: Hey, everybody. We've been doing this podcast for over three years now, and one of the themes that consistently comes up is sustainability, and I'm just really proud to announce that our sponsor, Berman Fall Hospitality Group is the first within our hospitality industry to switch to sustainable and recyclable packaging, eliminating the use of styrofoam.

Please check out their impact page in the show notes for more info.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: the, the purchasing is, um, HSM is our preferred purchasing agent. So every owner [00:30:00] purchase their product through HSM.

So that's first how you can work with the manufacturers to guarantee

that things

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Mm-hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: time. Because what we were able to do is go to our partners and say, we're building this brand.

Our pipeline is X number of hotels, so it's all gonna get purchased. Right. So we had credibility and buying power behind us. And when the o when the, um, the partners see that they're willing to put it in stock

Right. And to keep

it

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Um

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: they know. gonna buy a thousand headboards in the next two months.

Right. So

I,

it's worth it

for

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: to have it. So that's really what it is. It's about having really good partnerships with your vendors and HSM has some of the best in the industry, um, and being able to use the power of Hilton. And at that time when we launch the brand, the pipeline behind it, to ensure [00:31:00] that, that they were gonna get what we said they were gonna get.

And

they have, and

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: um, have been thrilled with it and continue, um, to keep inventories up. So at any given time, we generally have about 40 hotels worth of inventory spread in various warehouses across,

across the,

yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it's the components to make the items right, because they need to, they make it on demand,

but,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: All. Yeah. But they also need to plan ahead and probably buy a lot of those power hubs and all, and the TV and just have those all waiting as well. 'cause sometimes it's funny where you can get pinched on a long lead item that just like becomes a critical path and

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yep.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: messes everything up. So that's, that's pretty awesome.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: We also chose things that other brands are using, other Hilton brands too,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Ah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: like you've got some, like the Nightlight a

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Mm-hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: in the

bathroom, right? Every brand in [00:32:00] our category uses that nightlight. So you not only have little Spark, you have Powerhouse Hampton, right? Purchasing that. So

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Okay, so. You have 90 plus percent are conversions into the brand from outside of Hilton.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Um, so that's on the owner level, right? You've created all this supply chain, uh, a package that's, um, that will both last long, last a long time and be like budget friendly, so to speak, and also have outsize impact, um, as far as changing it, but above then you have the Hilton.

What's good for Hilton about this? Every time I go to a hotel conference I hear I, and for the first couple times in the past couple years, I, everyone was talking about nug nug. I had no idea what they were talking about. And then I was like, I had this ask someone, wait, what is nug and it's net unit growth,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: far as like for the CEOs of these companies, so in, in terms of like Chris nata at Hilton Nug is like super important as a, as [00:33:00] a brand.

And they talk about it at all these quarterly shareholder meetings and earnings reports and all that. That must be such a home run for those, for those earnings calls as well at Hilton.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yes it is. It is. You certainly. Yes. That's what I'll say.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Okay. But I can't, Ima like, I, I'm trying to think about the other brands out there

and I, I, I, I don't think I've heard growth that much except for maybe Sonesta when they did that huge, um, acquisition of just different portfolios and put it together like to, to be able to be on a growth path of a new brand that you've created your own yourself organically from a net unit growth perspective.

I can't think of anything else out there right now that's growing like that. I.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: no, we have gotten out ahead right of the industry. We let it, um, there are now competing brands in the same space. Right. Uh, and they will do what they can Right. To catch up because they, I think 'cause they [00:34:00] saw Yeah, and you,

power.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: you created a runway with that skunkworks metaphor. Like you created like a, a, a moat of time almost, if you will. That's pretty, that's, I mean, it's super awesome as an entrepreneur to hear that.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: It's, it's awesome. You know, Chris. is always thinking

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Mm-hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: he knows, right? So it's interesting that he, he started probably asking the question, right? And challenging his team, us the team to think about this. it came at a perfect time,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I mean, when

you just think about, um, the investment community and where hotel growth is coming from right now, right?

It's predominantly conversion at this moment in time.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: All right.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: and so to really get out in front of it right, and, and kind of read the tea, so to speak, before the tea is poured is awesome. And, and we've benefited from that. So,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Well, I think what's also interesting is from the net unit growth, you've created this pretty. This spark

[00:35:00] and it's really helping fuel that, I would imagine. Um, but then I also hear from, and this is actually a good pivot point to talk about the, one of the other pillars, which is

the guest. I hear a lot of the, like if you look at the earnings from the big hotel companies, a lot of the earnings are coming from luxury lifestyle because they're able, they command a higher a DR, they're a bit, they can be more profitable if done well.

Um, and that's like a real bright spot.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yep.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: not necessarily, it might not be growing their units, but like they're able to outperform on earnings. That being said, um, there's a, there's a certain type of customer that loves those luxury lifestyle,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Mm-hmm.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: and some of them may stay at Spark, but when you think about the pillar regarding the guest.

Walk us through how, how you think about that. Because the guests may have been staying at that hotel in Markham, for instance, there, but I'm sure they get repeat people. And what's the guest feedback at Markham or Mystic or any of the other [00:36:00] 160 plus hotels?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yeah. yeah. Listen, you hit a nail on the head with luxury lifestyle, right? Everybody aspires to stay at those. You want that experience, right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: wants that. Regardless of your demographic, in terms of how you choose hotels today in your life is at the spark level or at the Hampton level, you strive to reach the Waldorf Astoria level.

So it's really important to have those brands and those experiences available to your, your guests in your entire ecosystem. With Spark, what's interesting is that we haven't had that demographic, right? Because when you speak to, and what we call them as value maximizers, right? They're seeking a high value, um, simple experience. They oftentimes are young, by the way, new professionals, right? I'll call 'em. They're starting their traveling careers, whether it's leisure or business, and [00:37:00] how they use hotels. And what they tell us is the hotel is. place to sleep and I expect a good experience,

but the reason I am there is not the hotel.

It's because of X, Y, Z. Um, so when we were talking to them and they're like, you don't really have that at the price point I wanna pay, right? Because Hampton is aspirational for them. want to stay at Hampton, but it's outside of my price point at this point. so so we didn't have a brand in that space.

And then we have True, which is was designed but has punched above its weight, um, in terms of price,

right? It's in fantastic experience, by the way, if you have traveling sports teams or even business, like the lobby is activated, right? If I had it for my daughter at Taylor Swift, I would've chosen it, right?

'cause she would've loved it. Um, but anyways, when we talk to those travelers, we, they didn't have, we didn't have [00:38:00] that price point. So how are they responding to that? I mean, I think it's a tale of two stories. You have Hilton honors members who are trying us, they love Hilton, they're loyal to Hilton, and they are trying our brand and they're saying, wow, right. Wow. I can't believe the before and after of this hotel, and I will stay there for this stay occasion. You hit it on right, like this specific trip. And then you have these new to Hilton members, right? Are on the people that we strive to get into our system and build loyalty and brand love. And they're saying whether they stayed at that hotel for 20 years before, they're saying, wow, I can't believe what you've done and I'm so excited to stay at Hilton.

Let me join now. Um, and then there are the ones that are just saying like, I didn't even know Hilton had a brand like this for me, and so now I'm going to try it out. so overall the design and the experience they're getting is really [00:39:00] positive. The. The sentiment has been positive. It's not without learning, right?

There are learning moments, um, in it and we've evolved. Uh, I always like to poke a little fun at our myself, is we thought a comfort height stool would suffice at a desk, right? And early on, guests, both honors members and new, uh, were saying, where is the chair for me to work at

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Totally.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: at, right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: That's probably me.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: don't know right? Except me too. so we quickly had to learn and adapt, right? And say, okay, we made a design error, right? We, we thought this would work. It's not really resonating. Um, and we put in a chair in the rooms and they're

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: process of

implementing that across the brand. So we are not perfect.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: mm-hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: but we learn from our mistakes and are trying to adapt to what our guests are telling us.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: okay, let's go to the third pillar of the team. So. 90 [00:40:00] plus percent of these are conversions from other brands doing it other brand ways into Hilton.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Recently someone asked me like, what's the biggest technological cool thing I'm seeing in our industry? I was like, I, I don't, there's a lot, but like, technology's cool, but people are cooler.

Right? It's really about the people that

that make it. So what are the, um, what are some great examples of before and after from the people that are working in the heart of the house? And I still love the fact that Hilton calls it heart of house and not back of house because that's where I think personally and I'm biased, um, that all the magic happens.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah. Agree. Uh. We ask. So when we go see the hotels, we always talk to the team members, what do you like? What don't you like? You know what's happening. And we don't get a lot of what we don't like. And I

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I don't mean that to be

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: They don't like the stool.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: It, They don't like the stool.

They kept saying, where's the chair?

The guests are yelling at me for the chair. but you know, two things. The [00:41:00] housekeepers particularly love it because what we've done is we've removed drawers complicated furniture to Kleesan right? So

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: idea is, is that they can get in and out of that room more efficiently. Um, we thought about everything from furniture to even the, the top of bed product, right?

And how long it takes them to make a

bed change a

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: make a bed. they are really, really positive about the, the before and after. Experience. Not only that, you've got, you're now part of Hilton's award winning culture, right? You have access to a lot of benefits that you might not have, whether you're, um, new to Hilton or, or not.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: that's actually a really in important part too. 'cause as much as I think it's, again, I'm not sure I have to fact check myself on this, but I'm just gonna say it because I, I believe this for a Fortune 500 company like Hilton to. Get most innovative by fast company, like

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yeah.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: their fast company, I think from my [00:42:00] memory, is not giving those awards to Fortune 500 companies.

Typically it's like fast growth small companies, like maybe in the Inc. 5,000 or something that, that fit that. But Hilton also consistently is ranked as one of the top companies to work for

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: The

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: in, oh, the, I'm sorry, the,

the,

top. The top. Chris, I hope you're listening. Uh, and I'm sure a lot of that comes from, from him, but also like the entire team and culture that you've built.

So, um, like give us an example of, uh, if you, if you have an example or a generality of a before

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: after, I know you touched on it, but that's what maybe wanted to contextualize what we're talking about.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: So we, we've been talking about pillars and like the three pillars within Simple. We

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Had

four pillars, and our first, first and very first pillar that we had was this pillar called Pride. And is the owner proud that he [00:43:00] chose, he or she chose Hilton to franchise with? Is the guest proud to say? Where are you staying tonight? Oh, I'm staying at Spark. Right. And is the team member proud to work where they work? huge because if the team member is not proud about where they work, that translates to the guest service and we know that. So that was really important to us. And so it's funny at Mystic, it's not funny, it's a good story.

At Mystic Connecticut, we asked our first opening at Grand opening, we asked the front desk manager who had been at the hotel four years the previous affiliation and then stayed with us onto Spark. And the first day he was so happy, like you could just see this guy radiating

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: with

excitement. And so he said, what, what excites you about this? And he said, you know, I used to [00:44:00] dread coming to work every day. And we said, why? And he said, because I just knew the guest wasn't gonna have a good experience.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Were going to complain and there was nothing I could do about it. Because I knew what the experience was, and now I can't wait to come into work because I know they're gonna have a good experience and I'm proud of the experience we're gonna have. Unprovoked. We did not lead that horse to water. This is what he said. And we were just like, wow, this is, this is exactly why we did what we did. So

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah. And if you, I'm sure as you bottle that. That feeling up or if you were to bottle that feeling up, I'm sure out of those 160 plus other hotels that have converted into the Spark brand, I'm sure you're because 'cause on top of the, the conversion, like the before, so many of, of these hotels, like from a macro economic [00:45:00] perspective, we're able to deplete their CapEx reserves.

They didn't have like, pips got more relaxed,

like which the guest experience suffers. And now you're providing a, an easy button that rather than 15 months, I don't know, maybe select serve, it's not 15 months, but like whatever it is normally to give them a seven month average conversion to that joy of the frontline people working there.

Um, it's pretty amazing.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: People are proud to work in Kleesan and fresh spaces, right? Like when they see their owner has invested right in the building that they work in, they inherently are gonna be better, right? They're gonna be more proud. And that ultimately translates to the guest because if you walk into a hotel and you have a smiling face, right, because they, they are proud about where they work, something could go wrong and you're still probably gonna remember that smile,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm. Uh, that remind as you said, that, um, it reminded me of one of my favorite short stories, [00:46:00] which is, um, Ernest Hemingway. He wrote a Kleesan, well-lighted place. I remember reading that in high school again in college. And the way in, in that short story, he just touches upon just that feeling in the room, very in, in like a short to the point Hemingway type way, but he just really cuts to the chase there.

So if anyone has a chance to read it, it's a good,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: am gonna go

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: it's a good one.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it up now.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah. Um, so as you've built this crazy runway and you're, you're, this brand is taking off globally, um, what's exciting you most about what you're seeing like. Out there in the short term, medium term, long term for from a Spark perspective.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I think obviously from a short, I, from all short, long and short, mid and long, the growth is very exciting. It is beyond, I think, what we could have expected. and we're really proud of that. Right. It's really awesome to see, [00:47:00] uh. What we've been able to do. I think from an owner perspective, I'm really excited, to see the performance of these hotels, right?

The brand is performing exceptionally well, uh, out the gates and owners. I have countless owners that, you know, are like, this is the best. The best thing that we've, the best decision we've made. Right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Wow.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Um, and while going through a renovation is tough, we all know that regardless of what flag you fly or whatever, it's just a tough experience, right?

To come out on the other end and start to see like the green shoots of what you've decided to do is really rewarding. And, and I can't wait to see, I actually can't wait to see like in the next two years what the brand's performance story is and how we're telling that story. 'cause we're still early, right?

And telling that story because these hotels are opening so fast. And then from a [00:48:00] guest perspective, you know, we're doing something so different. I, I'll never forget, like when I was a kid and you're driving to Florida from Michigan or Chicago. Um, and you're overnighting, right? Your parents have drove in 12 hours and you have to overnight.

Oftentimes you get to that experience and you get in there and you're like, Ugh, what was that? Right? Because you're just looking a really great price because you're just gonna pull the kids up in the morning and get back on the road,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: But, and you get in and you're like, oh, what did we just do?

Right? Like, okay, just sleep real

quick and then go

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: As you're scratching yourself in the car.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: yeah, Um, and, and it's just so unfair, right? Like, just because you may want to pay a hundred bucks, $110,

115

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: mean. Your experience shouldn't be good. Right. And it shouldn't be Kleesan, bright, as [00:49:00] Hemingway would say, consistent from, you know, exit to exit.

So I'm really excited that I think we, and I believe we've done that for the guest and we've given them this option in Hilton. Um, and ultimately when they make those decisions, maybe in 20 years they'll be choosing the Hilton or the Conrad Right. For their vacation. So

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Ah, so you've created a runway of long term believers too

in Hilton Honors. That's like,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: right.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Um, if you were to look at, 'cause you, you came on to spark, not at the initial spark, but shortly after the, the, the flame was burning, right?

Maybe it was a, a little candle, right?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Uh,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: build it.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: yeah. Or it's, I'm, no, what I,

what I'm envisioning is like that old mission impossible, like flare that it, it's sparked and it's going.

And now you have, you gotta

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: make it. Make it. So,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: yeah, Um, this message will self-destruct in 10 seconds. But if you were to look at your forecasts from back then and [00:50:00] compare them to like what reality is right now, like what, what's your opinion on that?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: More than quadruple.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: No way.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: maybe we underserved ourselves. We just didn't know how the industry would react. Right. Like we knew it was good, and we knew there would be a lot of interest, but we needed to prove ourselves. Right. And we needed to, we typically haven't been in this space, we weren't

known for this

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: lower mid-scale premium economy, entry level space.

Right. And so for that, you have to, you have to do a lot of. Selling, right.

And kind of like, come

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: the journey and find your partners that are willing to take the chance and take the risk. And so we were conservative in how we thought initially the brand would come out of the gates.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: it's unbelievable when, when you get, uh, like a, an asymptotic kind of curve, right? Like an exponential curve. Um, how [00:51:00] hard it is for people to forecast and get thinking around that. I read this book called like. Exponential organizations. I think it was exponential organizations. A while ago I saw the author speak to Sali Ishmael, shout out to you.

He's awesome. Um, but he was talking about, um, like when the iPhone came out, right? Or smartphones, I don't know if it was the iPhone in particular, it was smartphones. You had all these analysts that were like thinking about, okay, how many more are they gonna grow? 20% this year? 20. And it was like four times, five times every single year.

The analysts couldn't even, even, these are the people who are paid to think about how these things grow when thi when it hits that steep curve, the hockey stick, if you will, human beings can't think, and their brains can't keep up with that level of growth. That's, that's pretty amazing. Four times. Geez,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I'm

estimating, but yeah. Four times.

But if you

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Eh, close enough.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: think about the industry just in the US

alone, right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Mm-hmm. [00:52:00]

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: There is always an opportunity for conversion in this space, right? Like the, the ho hotel space is predominantly made up of upper midscale and midscale hotels,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: of a great evergreen opportunity, right?

You can always plant new

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: totally.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: um, as

other trees go.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: okay, so now you have these followers in, in, in your competitive set who were trying to come up with something like that, that skunk works mentality and that idea, right? 'cause it started as an idea that maybe was a quarter, had a quarter of the, um. The forecast, right?

But they still knew something was good there,

um, to protect that. That gave you a real moat of time,

uh, to launch that. And it's really exciting because I know, I know that you say that you, um, that Hilton, it's all about organic growth, but recently Hilton's made some pretty interesting, um, acquisitions.

But like for Graduate for [00:53:00] instance, that I think is one of the most innovative, focused, targeted type of brands that I've seen in a long time. And it's a real win,

uh, there. But I also think as many as they've built, I still think it's an untapped market that can grow. And then nomad,

I don't know, they have maybe one or two hotels, um,

but one in Vegas, Vegas,

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: London.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: London. Oh yeah. Well, it was Vegas at the MGM and then there was the one, the first one. But it's such, they did such a good job with the first one and then. To me that's such, it's, it has this like, mystique of luxury that now they can organically grow into. Right? It's not like it's there. That was a really cool acquisition as well.

But to hear this outperform it makes me excited to think about what other, um, skunk works are going on at Hilton and, and your competitors, to be quite frank.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: lot.

'There

always is, right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: cause every time you think about each of these brands, having so many [00:54:00] brands,

you're like, okay, there's like a, there's a diminishing return now. Or like they've reached an upper limit, but then you have a story like this, which is started as an idea spark and it's crazy.

I mean, it's un it's unbelievable.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: when you think about brands like Nomad and Graduate, though, like they're very distinctive experiences,

right? They are

giving a very distinctive level of hospitality and that's how Hilton looks at it, right? We

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: we are

a

hospitality company first and foremost. Um, we are a business of people, serving people what whatever experience and we want and we strive to give people the experience that they want. so those growth stories, well, yes, acquisitions, um, are very distinct experiences

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Totally.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: and it made sense for us. Um, but we will build upon. Those stories organically, right?

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Hmm.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: will

[00:55:00] grow,

graduate will continue to grow. Um, and Spark obviously is a rocket ship on the moon.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: and then forget about like your space hotel as well. I mean, it's pretty awesome.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Um, so I mean, to me this is really exciting. Um, it's not a, a sandbox I necessarily play in, um, with Berman Falk as far as doing custom furniture and seating because we're more in that luxury lifestyle space.

But I. Completely respect and like am awestruck by how incredible, incredibly steep this growth curve is. And like how no one thought about this before. Like it's, it's pretty wild. Um,

and maybe it was just a perfect storm of events, but as it pertains to Spark or Hilton, are there any questions that you wish I would've asked you that I, that we didn't, that we didn't hit in our conversation, which I've loved, by the way?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: I loved it too.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: It's

not over yet.

It's not over yet.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: over yet. Uh, I think it was a really great conversation, so thank you. You're a good [00:56:00] conversationalist.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Oh, thank you. Well, and also I, I, I'm gonna send you that queen Kleesan, well-lighted place, short story by Ernest Hemingway, because

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: do.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: I think, um, he captures something and I haven't read it in 20 years, so I wanna, I wanna read it again. But I just remember I look at my, I'm looking around in my office right now.

I'm like,

maybe.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Kleesan well lit is what I'll say. Your office,

so,

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: not seeing the things that are off camera. There's like, there's a couple piles, physical piles and, uh, that need some processing. Um, but I've enjoyed this so much Alissa, so, so much. Um, I really thank you for sharing the story. Um, if people wanted to learn more about you or Hilton or Spark, um, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Yeah. Uh, hilton.com Right? We'll give you all information about, uh, uh, spark, as well as information on developing Spark. You can also find me on LinkedIn, uh, if you wanna reach out to me personally, um, and I'm here

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Awesome.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: it up.

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Spark it up. [00:57:00] Spark it up. Well, seriously, thank you for sharing your story and this incredible, um, story of exponential growth. Um, I really, I Appreciate all of our listeners. Appreciate it too.

alissa-klees_1_05-30-2025_095734: Thank you so much for having me. It was

dan-ryan--he-him-_3_05-30-2025_095734: Okay. And I would be remiss without thanking our listeners, you guys rock. Thank you for, um, exciting me, sparking me to have these awesome conversations, um, and learn so much and share this learning and impact.

Um, if this you think would change an owner's perspective on converting to a spark or gave you a new idea for thinking a little bit differently to foster some kind of great impact or growth, please pass it along. If you think anyone else can benefit from it, like it, leave comments, subscribe. It all helps impact everyone in our industry.

So thank you all very, very, very much.

[00:58:00]