Defining Hospitality

DH - Ben Uyeda & Adam Wininger
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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_12_08-06-2025_154445: Today's guests are an entrepreneurial duo who have together built a modular design forward, property built for the next generation of conscious travelers. They blend passions for architecture, sustainability, and hospitality. They're the co-founders of Reset Hotel. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Ben Uyeda and Adam Wininger. guys. I did it.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: You [00:01:00] did it.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Nailed it. Um.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: of tricky names.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yes, but the you, the ger is the one that got me.

that on

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, there's, there's a lot of ways to mess up my last name.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: I'm really excited to have both of you on here because been very involved in the Entrepreneurs Organization and other. Groups that involve going on retreats a facilitator, going deeper as a team, whether corporately or a bunch of other entrepreneurs.

And it seems to me that your vision of Reset Hotels is a, is a chance to reset great name, but also kind of dig deeper into our consciousness to be more conscious about what we're doing, why we're doing how we're doing it. And I can't wait. I'm very excited to talk to both of you about this, but before we get into the why and the how and the what, um, if you could please share what hospitality means to you and why you went on this journey.

So we'll start [00:02:00] with Ben, and then we'll move our way to Adam.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: So I've always thought of hospital as the craft of the welcome and craft is the critical word for me. I, I come from a. Background, not just design, but also fabrication, woodworking, metalworking, et cetera. And what I love about craft as opposed to art, is there's repetition, there's incremental improvements.

You're not always trying to have this grandiose vision. Sometimes you're just trying to get your stitching right and your dovetailed joints really tight. think when I think of great hospitality, no matter the price point or location. where that sense of craft really exists, where you can tell that they've put thought into the origin of the idea, but the repetition just makes it better and better, and the seasoning gets deeper and deeper.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Love that. And something that resonated with me there. I was at the, um, the hospitality design show Vegas in May, I believe, and now it's gonna kill me. I can't remember who said this, but they were talking about luxury and he was saying, luxury is not [00:03:00] about the chair, it's about the stitch. So for you to, to get into that right there. I need to find out who said that. 'cause I want to have them on here too because that was just fantastic. Um

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: It's, it's about the, the depth, right? Because at the surface level, a lot of people have the same suppliers, same manufacturers. Here's the design. It goes overseas to a factory. It gets sort of produced. And where we actually see differentiation is in process and craft.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: hmm. love it. Um, Ben, your turn. I mean, Adam, your turn.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: hospitality to me is, I, it kind of comes back to why we, we named the hotel reset, but I think it's important from a hospitality standpoint to really think of how do you want the person to feel when they're leaving or when they, you know, receive the experience that, that, that you gave. Um.

That's how we came up with the name Reset. 'cause I wanted someone to feel reset when they leave. Uh, but I think good [00:04:00] hospitality is just keeping in mind of how you want that person to feel, uh, during and after the experience. And, you know, usually they come in feeling a certain way and, and, and they'll leave feeling a different way.

Um, and you're, you're really the one in charge of that. So, yeah, it's, you know, different feelings for different hospitality experiences, but staying really mindful of, of that. And is the guests gonna feel good or, or are they not gonna feel good? Um, is the food gonna, you know, give 'em a good experience or not?

And.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: what I love about what you said there is that it's really the craft and the craft of the experience because most people don't. When they leave the comments on whatever social media or whatever comment site, it's, it's about that repetition and striving for excellence.

Because when, usually when they leave those comments, you've either hit it out of the park and changed someone's life. And they, and they feel compelled to take a moment and share their incredible experience and or done something terribly wrong[00:05:00]

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Right.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Off the bus. Um. And I really appreciate, and we missed like the general middle, but if you're really honing in on the craft and really focusing on this experience, um, I think that the middle of the distribution curve, um, I think that's obviously where the largest opportunity is. And based on that, like the, the middle of the bell curve your niche at Reset Hotels, and either one of you can take this, what's your ideal. Guest or group that would come stay with you, and that evolved since the first time you had the idea before you broke?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: yes. So I would say from a business standpoint, definitely, uh, midweek group bookings is like, I didn't realize when I first started how. How fundamental that is to, uh, a hotel's business. And I think every hotel, uh, owner I talk to now is like, yeah, that's the money. Um, transient on the weekends, you know, not a concern in Joshua Tree, [00:06:00] but I think, you know, if I could do it all over again, I would've, I would've built, I would've kept that more in mind from the beginning.

I mean, we did include conference rooms. We have a great, you know, facility to do that. Um, but, uh. But yeah, I, I didn't, I don't think I realized how valuable, um, that sort of midweek, uh, corporate retreat or wellness retreat is, uh, to, to a hotel. 'cause it's, you know, the opportunity, the cost of that is, is, uh, is substantial.

I.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm. And Ben, how about you?

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Same, right? Like, uh, I think this is kind of like the, the strength of Adams and i's partnership over the years is. This, I always say that we didn't design one hotel, we designed about 30. As the facts on the ground kept changing, we learned this kind of like, oh, we gotta do this sewage treatment plant. We gotta do this.

So now we, we gotta focus on that kind of midweek group booking. And I think what it's kind of taught me is, one, you gotta be really flexible and your initial ideas are sort of focused on this, this generic [00:07:00] idea of sort of brand and demographic and those things. But as you get more into sort of operations, you start seeing where there's sort of natural holes based on the sort of time of week, time of year, et cetera, and you're really trying to build everything to be a little bit more robust. I think what's kind of interesting about our approach is sure, the hotel's done, we have our certificate of occupancy and we're open. But the building hasn't stopped. Like Adam and I were just on a call earlier this week where he had a whole list of new projects ranging from building out that event space to adding new features, uh, like an experiential art park. So I think that's the part that is unique in our partnership and unique in how this hotel will evolve over time. Um. When people ask me what the best time to kind of come see the hotel I like right now because it's gonna be different the next time you come. And we're working on some event spaces to accommodate that quick observation that Adam made.

And then we're also working on some experimental art as [00:08:00] well as adding Asana, which is uh, basically what my day is tomorrow,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Oh, awesome.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: And

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: or traditional

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: infrared.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: in, it's infrared, but it's actually hot. A lot of infrared saunas don't actually get hot. There's actually,

it's like one 90.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: The, the great thing about Saunas and Joshua Tree is you get a lot of preheating from the

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, exactly.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: that's what I was gonna say. So for me, the first concert I went ever went to in my entire life was U Two's, Joshua Tree in 1987, I

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: cool.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Believe, at Brendan Burn Arena in the Meadowlands. And then, so U2 has played an important role in my life experience. It's just. They're just awesome. And

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: having that incredible first experience.

But then having gone to school in Southern California from New Jersey, you know, going out to Joshua Tree was like a rite of passage or a pilgrimage for me in a sense when I was older. Um, and I've had some incredible experience. For those of you who haven't been there, it is like a biblical and profound place.

And I don't know if that's [00:09:00] just because I'm carrying the weight of my U2 infatuation with me. Um. But bringing it back to that bell curve of customer and experience, if you were to look at the one, like the best feedback that you've gotten since you've been open, like those like transformational experiences, um, are they and how much of it has to do with the set and setting of where you are?

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I think the, one of the ones I've gotten, and we recently had a creative director from Hype Beast, which is. Sort of a, you know, kind of a very new media company, huge audience. And these people get invited to so many cool things. And so we are very nervous. This is a very important guest. We wanted to have a great experience.

So they do a great review and a great sort of post to their massive audience. And one of the things he sort of brought up that I thought was, that brought me back to some of the first conversations that Adam and I had sort of looking at this vast piece of land was. How nice it is [00:10:00] to have a sense of emptiness, right?

We're, we're at the most overstimulated time that humans have ever been in. We have so many calories, so many, so much screen time, so many things trying to compete for our attention. And when you think about our proximity to this very big LA market, one of the best assets we have is actually just the openness.

A sky where you can actually see stars at night. Unopened like these views. So you open the gate to your private courtyard, which is basically an outdoor living room. You see the mountains of the national park. For just hundreds and hundreds of, well, maybe even almost half a mile. And that is kind of what's missing I think for even the most affluent in kind of their luxury condos and urban life is that sense of space and openness.

And I think that's one, you know when, when Adam discovered this piece of commercial land, which is another thing we're really proud of, that we kind of developed this the right way, um. We were just like kind of standing in the middle, being like, this is so [00:11:00] big and it feels different when you just have that distance all around you.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Love it.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, I would, I, I think the, the moment that's made me smile so far as an owner was when I was, uh. I was just at the pool and I just saw like a guest there. 'cause it, we, we, like, we've been on, on this site for a long time, so it's, it's still weird for me to see people, I don't know there because it's like, look, who are you?

Uh, 'cause we just opened and they're like, what do you mean I booked her? Right. Um, but I, I saw these two women, one of 'em had like a floaty thing in the pool and she just had her head back. Uh, in the pool, in the sun with a cocktail in her hand. And I was like, she's resetting. I just saw that. I was like, that's, that's exactly what we're going for.

That like, 'cause people need that, right? They just, they need those moments. It's kind of like what Ben was saying, like, quality of time and is, is becoming more valuable. Um, so, you know, [00:12:00] just take, even if it's just 10 minutes of just you're facing the sun with a cocktail. Floating in a pool. I mean, it's just, it's those little moments that, that I think people kind of come out here for.

And, and like from a guest guest standpoint, you know, when a guest leaves saying they, they, you know, they feel, they feel different, they feel refreshed. That's that, that gets me excited. Um.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: one of the things, so you, you gave the Hype Beast example and then the visual of what a reset looks like, that guest. But you said earlier like the, the real, the real money maker for you guys could be that midweek. Travel. Right. And to me a lot of that, one of the things we've geared up towards is this kind of retreat. Leadership retreats, corporate retreats, um, together in a group situation. And to me, especially with leadership, that seems like right on the money for midweek. Right. Especially if you're geared to that. 'cause you can, the [00:13:00] people who are working together be home on the weekends with their friends and family, and then they can do their reset. In the middle of the week. Um, I also have recently gone on some retreats and just talked to a facilitator that does group retreats, leadership retreats, and it seems like for people who facilitate group retreats to reset and think about life differently and have a different experience, they're starved for location

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: So moving beyond those two individuals. What are some great examples so far, and what's your ideal group retreat for a group reset?

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I think one of the things that's really interesting is you think about the landscape of all the properties that are out there. Within like a hundred mile radius of our property. so Palm Springs is about an hour away. They have tons of condition, meeting space, every kind of ballroom you can imagine. But when I talk to some of these event planners, they're looking [00:14:00] for distinction and in many cases, they want things to leave a more distinct and memorable imprint or flavor, they're less interested. Often you, you know, they still need the bare minimum of the, of, of the meeting space and the AV equipment and stuff like that. one ballroom, no matter how nice the property starts to feel like another one, right? One sort of catering set of options feels like a, like another. what's really interesting to me is seeing how well some of the outdoor hospitality spaces without the condition square footage have done. I've talked to

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: groups that have done retreats at auto camp, which doesn't have any of this. And they were willing to take a risk just to feel something different, something where the

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: itself felt apart from the normal sort of conference or sort of business travel. I think that that's kind of where we're trying to explore right now is we know we have the distinct feeling. we get the, the, the core [00:15:00] amenities to make this a fluid event and not just a interesting and unique one.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, I mean, I, I would. Second that, I mean, I, I think people are, are a little bored of the Scottsdale conference room. like no one's, no one's, no one's telling their friends how cool their company retreat was at a Scottsdale conference room or Palm Springs or whatever. Um, you know, it's, it's boring.

It's old. Um, I think for companies that want to, you know, for these retreats, like first off, they wanna get authentic connection between their employees. That's best found on like a really cool hike in the national park, or like a cool rock climbing experience or you know, a sound bath or yoga class as the sun setting by the pool.

Like, that's the moments people are going to want to tell their friends about and their family about and, and get excited about and share pictures and, and remember. Um, and you know, I, I think if you're, if you're company booking a company retreat, you want to kind of give your employees those sort of experiences.[00:16:00]

One that foster authentic connection and also get your employees actually excited to, to, you know, to, to share the experience with their friends. 'cause they're, they're just, they're, they're, they're not gonna tell anyone about the conference room that they went to in some, you know, random city.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: We, we've all been to the conference or the retreat where you start in a big room, the big assembly hall with everyone, and then they're like, okay, now we're gonna break out into our small groups. And the small group is just a smaller room that looks just like the bigger room here. We're

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: 180 acres.

Let's go for a walk together with that small

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Right,

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: to kind of discuss things as an internal team.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Have you guys ever been to the, um, in, um, independent lodging congress events, ever?

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I, give a talk there at the last one in, uh, Cavallo Point.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Oh, okay. I, I missed that when I was traveling. But one of the things I love about they do is they have these walk and talk moments where you're going on a to an ice cream shop or do an [00:17:00] art gallery or something, and you're just walking altogether. And it allows for some incredible ice breaking and just getting to know someone while you're sweating with them. I can imagine with 180 acres, it's just unbelievable. So, and can you,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: it be like, um, can you also do things like a, on, like, if you're on Safari, you can set up drinks and tables and just chill out or beanbag somewhere out in the middle of the desert.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: We fully intend to do all that. Um, just yeah, creating like little moments of surprise for people out in the desert. So when we do an art park, we're, it's, there's not gonna be a map. Um, it's gonna be trails, um, and little, little surprises for people as they kind of walk around and, and discover things. Um, I think it's, it's, it's a way better experience than like, you know, knowing you're going somewhere rather than kind of being surprised by it is, is it's like two different things.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I, I like

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Awesome. Halloween versus birthday party, right? Both are great. Both are like things you get really excited for as a kid. [00:18:00] But they're different. And I think most people approach events only through the lens of birthday party, centralized around one sort of thing, all one room, big cake presents, et cetera. Halloween is so interesting 'cause there's this adventure sense, this sense of discovery, and that's how we've really been thinking about this park and that 180, 80 acres of land. Okay, we set up a few hammocks here, a few little, like a cool little vibey seating area. Maybe a outdoor grand piano that eventually fades into oblivion as the desert sort of reclaims it. These sort of surprise and delight moments that are not on this linear path that makes you feel like a tourist, but actually feeling like you're in this rich landscape where you are kind of directing your own adventure. That's why Halloween's so fun. And if you think about it from a business standpoint. I grew up in a great sort of suburban neighborhood, and I would think about how much fun we had on Halloween versus how much it cost all the households. Like they created so much joy for all the kids in the neighborhood, and each house [00:19:00] only had to contribute like $4 you know, a big bag of candy.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: That was back in the day. I'm dating myself, but I think that that Halloween idea is also what has really driven Burning Man to be such an interesting. Thing, and we don't want to necessarily, you know, adopt all the aspects of Burning Man, but it's something, it's a shared experience and touch point that Adam and I both have. But there's something there that they hit upon, some sort of concoction that's feels very distinct where people are even willing to go through these immense hurdles and difficulties to get just a little bit of that feeling. And that's something that we're constantly, you know, the great thing about developing hotels, we get to experiment on this stuff on ourselves.

So, uh, we're constantly, you know, bringing things that we experience back to it and trying to figure out how we can weave it in.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Well, and then with Halloween, as, as you, as we get older, we can start wearing and chaps as well. Uh, that's funny. I, when I fir, when I first moved to New York City [00:20:00] in the early 2000, they had the big Hollywood or Hollywood Halloween parade, up and down sixth Avenue. I was, I was walking with some friends and I was like, wow, people wear like no clothes on Halloween.

I never noticed that. And they're like, yeah, duh. It's everyone's chance to be trashy

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Miami during Halloween is, is a site.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: yeah, it's pretty awesome. I don't know why I never noticed that before in my life. I guess I'm just like blind. Um, so, so going, we hear about. Experiential travel, experiential travel. We want experiences. And what I found, and maybe I don't think it's just me as I get older, but whether it's a corporate retreat or a spiritual retreat, um, or an entrepreneurial retreat, um, or a learning retreat, the, for me, the best experiences as I get older are, are really. The experience is inward between my two ears, right? And being inspired and, um, learning new things about [00:21:00] myself, uncovering blind spots. Um, how are you marketing your reset to those types of facilitators out there in the world who really excel at that and want to get a tribe together to go inward and learn new things about themselves and others.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah. Yeah. I think Joshua Tree is, is one of, uh, you know, the more spiritual places in the world. Um, it's, it, it feels like you're on another planet. Uh, there's definitely an energy here. You know, it's, it's, uh, pretty, pretty clear to to, to people that come here that there's, uh, there's something going on. Um, and yeah, I mean, I think if you're looking to do inward work, uh, Joshua's an amazing place, amazing backdrop for it.

Uh, Ben kind of touched on the, no, the idea, I think that people love of the desert as well is it just feels like an empty canvas, like a blank canvas. Um, so [00:22:00] it kind of creates a lot of space. For you to go inward, uh, 'cause there's not any real distractions. Um, and you know, if you're, if you kind of start with those two things, like, okay, I do wanna do, have an experience in the desert, I wanna go to Joshua Tree.

Um, there really aren't any places right now. I think we, we pretty much built the first one where you can host a large group and have, uh, indoor and outdoor activities. So, you know, if you want to do kind of like a. Indoor sound bath in the middle of the day when it's a little hot out. You can do that. You wanna do the sunset yoga, you can do that as well.

Um, but I, I think the scale of what we built is, is unique here. I mean, there's tons of gorgeous Airbnbs, but you, you just can't host, you know, substantial groups there. It's definitely great for like 10, 15 person kind of retreats, but.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: And

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Um,

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: purveyors out here, right? I mean, Joshua Tree attracts a disproportionate number of artists, creatives, sound bath [00:23:00] practitioners, yoga teachers and things like that. So the talent pool is, is deep. I think what's sort of interesting from a, from a communication and marketing challenge is when you have this kind of very distinct culture like you do in Joshua Tree. Communicating that to people that are in LA that are kind of aware of these things is one thing. I had a bunch of, uh, content creators from the Midwest come and I was trying to explain to them what a Sound bath was. So I think that's one of the, the sort of intriguing things that we're gonna face is California culturally is. Different than other parts of the country and certainly, uh, internationally. But it has a great brand. There's a high desirability and it's often on the leading edge, particularly of things in health and wellness. People are experimenting here first and then they become sort of common around the world. So I think what we're are sort of challenges is to bring in these people, find the white ones, think about how RESET can serve as a [00:24:00] platform for these kind of experiences and. you know, and then knowing where to kind of invest in the infrastructure for them. We've all seen certain trends in these spaces kind of come and go over the years. So we wanna really think of ourselves as a platform where we can integrate with the sort of dynamic people of that moment that are onto cutting edge, um, without sort of overbuilding, you know, a, like, a great example would be, I feel like. There was like a collab between W hotels and like a spin class at the time.

Right. Uh, that's been revamped into something else. Maybe they turned it into SoulCycle and now they have to convert it into something else. So I think that's where we want to be really flexible and responsive, is look at where that pulse is. Bring in these people that can bring in their sort of audiences and followings and us try to stay as a really stable platform for hosting all these things and evolving over time.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Refresh my, refresh my memory. How many rooms do you guys have?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: 65.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: [00:25:00] 65. Um, so one of the co and that's a little bigger than my experience. One of the a, a really surprising experience I had recently at a, a retreat center. It was between Tulum and. I dunno, apply to Carmen or something there. And they probably had 12 or 15 and in that, they were probably just like eight or 10 casitas maybe and some other kind of big yoga central thing. But we went with, um, four different families and their kids. So we had little, little kids from like 12 to 18 or maybe 10 to 18, I forget. But it was cool.

We just wanted to go to a place that we could just all meet and hang out. not have distractions of like discos and all this other stuff. We could just be there, be together as, as families and catch up. But what was interesting is they run a lot of retreats through there. So, and I actually did a podcast with, um, with one of the guys who, who helped build it and runs it, but [00:26:00] they had a temescal, like a sweat lodge.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, that's a cool.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: They did ice bath and we did breath work and they, we didn't go there with the intention of doing it, but they're like, Hey, do you want to get your kids? Doing this and you could do it as a, as families. And it

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: With the shaman.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: I'd done all that stuff on my own, was really cool to do it as a family with my kids.

'cause they just think I'm weird doing this stuff. But to, to be able to do it with them without like saying, Hey, we're going to do this, and having them think it's weird the entire time. Um, have you had families go and, um, go there in groups yet?

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: a couple. I mean, we've only been open for a few weeks, but I, I love that insight. Right. And I, we've talked about this, right? This idea of the reset isn't just going back to your factory settings. It might be. Refreshing so you can introduce something aspirational that's just sort of alluded your sense of discipline or daily routine so far. Right.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: It is a software update.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: right. So it's like trying these new things that you're interested in, incorporating in that setting is a [00:27:00] great way to make a memorable start. One of the things we're

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: is we're partnering with, with different authors. They got a book coming out. 'cause starting a book, particularly like a, a really insightful one that might lead to a little self-improvement. On vacation is amazing 'cause it's like you got a little bit more free time. It's like sitting right there on the shelf. Books are a great kind of, uh,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: decor that's functional. And what better time than new environment, clean slate to try to introduce that cold plunge or that sauna routine or a new sort of fitness, you know, or, or even just something simple like getting your 10,000 steps in.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Which is also that journey inward too. It's like you're facilitating that look inside and the software update.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, we, we, with the books, we, we had a discussion on the team of whether we get a bunch of different books and put different books in different rooms, or if we just get the same three or four books in each room. And I actually like the, the second one better of getting the same book. 'cause um, I, I [00:28:00] realized at one point there were, there were two people that had the, uh, I, forgot exactly which book it was.

It's the, yeah, the Rick Rubin book,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Oh,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: the Creative Act. Or was it creative way of being something like that? And there were two people at the pool both reading the same book, and I was like, oh, they should chat. You know, like, they, like, that's,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: meld

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: it's kind of cool, right? Like they're both in the same Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: conversation. You're

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: good conversation starter. And then also we could be more intentional with, you know, I'd, I'd, I'd like to see, I mean. Maybe the s team won't like for me to say this, but I'd like to see the books kind of disappearing from the rooms. Um, you know, I don't know how we're gonna manage that, but, we'll, it's, it's, it's good.

Like you want someone to like, get a little glued to it.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: But yeah, I, I, I'm excited. I, I think it's a really cool opportunity to kind of, uh, guide people. A little bit like, like suggest certain books to people to kind of get their, get their mind going and, and get started on a reset. Like, uh, another thing that we, we put in is I've always loved, uh, [00:29:00] thank you letters.

I love writing them. It's, and like, for me, a feeling of reset is like, it's a really light feeling. Like you feel really, like there's a, a lightness to it of, you know, just yeah, clear desktop, however you kind of wanna put it, but it just, it, you just feel a little bit energetic and, and light. Um, and I, I think that's, that's really like the feeling that I want guests to have and, and that comes from doing work on yourself.

Um, for me, one of the big ways I do that is like I, I, I took it from, I forgot, I forgot his name, but, uh, Jesse Itzler talks about this, so he, he does, thank you. Thank you. Notes. So I started incorporating that and it was like the best feeling for me when I did that this year. I wrote like 50 of them. And, um, I just got this like incredible lightness, light feeling after.

So we incorporated that into the hotel. So when a guest checks,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: calendar?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: I bought it, but I haven't,

I

haven't even opened it.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: year. It was great. I did,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: I, it's,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: forgot to buy

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: it's,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: this year. But

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: yeah. I can

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: what's so cool about it is all, he's all about [00:30:00] being intentional about our lives. Right. And thank you notes have been a really important part of my life and success. Yes. It's a way of expressing gratitude. But more, more for me. It's like when I write a thank you note to someone, whether in life or business life, allowing me to pause, take a minute and go inward

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Exactly.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: with that gratitude. And it's almost like you, you speed up by slowing down and taking that pause and, and I think if you got a cool thank you note kit and be like, Hey, that's freaking

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: that's,

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 [00:31:00] info.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: that's what we're doing. So we, so I think the first thing the guest gets when they get in, it's not like a postcard or anything like that. Um, we're actually giving them a blank thank you card. To write a thank you to someone you know, a loved one or a friend or whatever. And then we have a system at the hotel where you can put it, we give them an envelope and a stamp and you can leave it at the front desk or leave in your room and we'll mail it for them.

So we'll send, they can like, they can start their reset by like thinking of someone they want to thank and we make it pretty easy for them to kind of, you know, they don't have to run to the post office and all that. To send that thank you note, but I was like, what better way to start your reset than to like, you know, thank somebody else and like write something down and send it to them.

And getting a thank you note is just the best feeling in the world.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: It is so awesome because

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Only do I, I give myself a gift of writing it 'cause it true.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: I love writing them. It also allow when that person opens them, it's been on like a journey. Maybe the corners are [00:32:00] bent, like it's got the stamp from wherever, and it's like taken a lot of effort to get it to that person, and then they get to a moment

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Right,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: and get out of themselves and go inward and think and connect and get in touch with their inner

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: and, and what we were talking about earlier with the craft, right? Where. You can kind of perfect something over time or, or the will will Gadara, I think it was how you pronounce the last name. He talks about it an unreasonable hospitality where, um, you know, magician's trick seems like incredible when you see it, but they've been practicing that for thousands of hours and that, you know, their slight of hand is mastered and they've done all this work behind the scenes to make it look like magic there.

Um, but, but really what it is, is like, and our team talks about this a lot. What are things that we can just kind of get in the, in the routine, in the system and like, make it really easy for somebody to send a thank you note, um, where, you know, the, it's, it's like creating these little moments of magic, like pretending that we're the magicians and [00:33:00] like, what's something that we can just rinse and repeat so many times that it feels like magic to the person there.

But for us it's been systematized and it's pretty easy. So that's, you know, I, I think that kind of goes back to good hospitality is like, can you create these moments that feel like magic, but you've actually systematized it on the backend. you know, like a magician does.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Um, I have a good Will Guera story. So I used to go to the Nomad Library Bar all the time during the, my office was across the street and I got to know his team and him and I would just take meetings there if I had to get outta my office. And when Unreasonable Hospitality came out. I interviewed him just before on this, and then, uh, I was at a dinner and a, a client of mine from Utah was in town and she had the book in New York City in her purse.

I was like, oh my God, you're kidding. I just interviewed him and IS while we're at the table, I emailed him I said, [00:34:00] Hey, can I come by your doorman later tonight and can you sign it to Susanna?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Oh, that's.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: And he said, yeah, sure. So I, the next morning I went down to the, the doorman. I gave it to her. We just talked about it in May, and she was like, oh my God, that was so incredible.

But again, that's like that thank you note moment, right?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: It's a frictionless, because I had his contact info, it was no big deal to him. I just said, Hey, can you do this? It's the same thing as providing someone with a thank you note the stamps. That's a genius idea

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: you're creating magic for the person writing it, the person receiving it, and then on our end from, you know, people running the hospitality show, like, we make it really easy for that magic to happen because, you know, we have, we already printed out thousands of these and we have the stamps, so we have the system and.

You know, we have our GM can go to the post office and drop 'em off and all that. So it's like, it's, uh, yeah, we, and we're, and we're looking for more moments like that. Like we, we we're constant kind of like constantly thinking of what are other things that we can do that [00:35:00] will feel like magic. But it's, you know, it's been, it's been kind of in the, it's, it's, it's in the system, on the backend, backend for us.

So it's not, you know, tons of work every time.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Well, and like with unreasonable hospitality, it all come, comes down to those customer touch points or client touch points. What are all the times that you actually have an interaction and how can you inject some magic into it?

I

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Right.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: of, one of the best dinners I had, definitely top three. I went to 11 Madison Park, which was his restaurant. Right. And have you ever been there?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Never.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Oh my God. First of all, it was, the food was awesome, the whole experience. But my favorite part was at the end, I think that it was like cider season or something. So we got some weird cider, which I don't

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: but I drank it. And then they came over and did a, a magic trick with cards, right? you're like, wow, that was really cool. And then we're like, Hey. we just keep these cards? And couples. Can we just play hearts or something for a

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Oh, that's awesome.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: we shut the [00:36:00] place down? They're like, yeah,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: That's so cool.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: So we just played cards there at the, it, it must have been a six or seven hour dinner. It was unbelievable, but it went by in a heartbeat. But again, he, they did those things that let us make our, he gave us a trick in magic, but we also got to do our own magic.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah. No, I love that. It's like such a fun experience. I'm just like playing cards at the table at a restaurant. That's so cool. I've never done that.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, it was great. Well, I've done it, but usually it's at a bar and it

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Right.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: but we

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Not like a five star, whatever it is, a three star Michelin restaurant.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: it's unbelievable. Um, so one thing as far as the experience. Having 65 rooms and 180 acres, as you guys think about the future and as you're figuring out all the magic you're delivering to everyone, and the journeys that you're letting everyone go on 180 acres is, it's hard to find spots like that.

So as you think of the future, um, how do you, where, [00:37:00] where do you see those other large format places where you can get lost? Or is it more about taking. Things that you've learned in this new laboratory and bringing it even smaller so that people can create their own magic and go inward.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: think we're gonna learn a lot over the next year. We are starting on some of the larger installation projects one, this is 'cause we're fans of art and design in general, but two, there's actual real business opportunity here. I think one of the ways that I like to describe it is you've driven into Vegas, you've probably seen that stack of like painted rocks.

And as a designer it's, it's fine. But as a business opportunity, that thing is blockbuster. That the images of that thing with people standing around them, all user generated content reaching billions of eyeballs a year. not an

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: And that installation, you know, you can do stuff like that and it's not particularly [00:38:00] technically hard.

You just need sort of a commitment to sort of the artistic vision and a willingness to work at a artistic scale that's a little bit different. But that scale is why there's actual opportunity in this type of installation. lot of cute little galleries in soho or on Kinney that have like little things that you could buy and put on your wall. But when you look at something to scale of Storm King or to scale of Burning Man, those are actually more rare in this world and we think there's a great opportunity for those to integrate those, those experiences that feel grand. make you kind of, you know, question your own sort of identity and place in the world, um, using some of that land. And then obviously as we kind of learn on what works well with the existing sort of build out that we've done, uh, we definitely have some room to grow.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: I think in. Who, like, we'll definitely find out in the next couple years. I think it's gonna end up being an art park with the hotel rather than a hotel with an art park. Um, I think the art park's gonna be the main [00:39:00] driver of things in the next couple years. Um, I just think it's so unique and, and there's not enough of it.

I know. Uh. At one point we had this like golf course company come to us and be like, Hey, you need to get all this land and, you know, should we do a golf course? And we're like, I think there's enough golf courses in Palm Springs alone. Right. Um, but um, no, I, I think, you know, going back to the, the feeling of reset, if you kind of use that from like a first principle standpoint of like, that's what we're trying to do here.

Um, art feels art is timeless. Um, and it's throughout history given people that change in perspective that we're really looking to give our guests. And, you know, we're, we're, we're sitting there like, what? We have all this land. What a unique opportunity. It's very rare that a hotel has this much land. Um, let's do something that like no hotel's really done.

Um, and, and, you know, provide an experience that people don't really get at most, most spots. Um, uh, [00:40:00] for sculpture art, I, I never liked like galleries and museums. You know, it's no knock on them. It's just like my experience whenever I'm there is I'm just reading the placard and like walking and it's like quiet, whispering.

Like I just, I just feel like I'm at a zoo. Um, and like, you know, the art's like caged almost. Um, I love sculpture art 'cause I feel like I'm on a safari. I feel like I like the arts out there in the world. I love seeing art in people's homes. I love seeing like, art in real life. Um, and, you know, I think.

Creating that kind of like art safari experience, right? Where you, like, you don't know what you're gonna see, but then you stop and you, this, this kind of takes you by surprise and you keep going, you turn left, you talk like that. That's what I'm excited by. Um, and, and I just don't think there's enough of it.

And I, I hope, I hope there's a lot more of it, um, over the next like, couple coming decades, just all over the world. I, I really think that that's, uh, you know, in, in a world of. [00:41:00] Increasing technology and AI and all that. Having these like real life experiences with larger than life sculpture art is just, it's just so cool.

It's, it's so much fun and it's like, yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: And it is consistent with some of the initial observations that we made, made us interested in this endeavor where basically the more people consume digitally, the more they're gonna want. The opposite of that, and the more high end, the opposite of that is going to become. I remember

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I first moved out to Joshua Tree in 2017 and it was after I saw this graph and it was from 2013 to 2016 and it was monthly active users on Instagram, almost perfectly correlated with visitorship to national parks. And I was like, huh, I've been looking for a change of location and kind of moved out to Joshua to build a house. that was intriguing to me 'cause I'm heavily involved in the creator economy. And the creator economy has grown massively, and attention is this valuable commodity that's bought, sold, and, and [00:42:00] bartered with. But the outcome of that isn't the removal of all things IRL, it's actually the extension of that to being the highest tier of luxury and aspiration. the more people are struggling with screen time, the more they're gonna want to go to Yosemite, to Joshua Tree, to these amazing places. more they're like looking at a funny video online, the more they're gonna wanna see art that has to be seen in real life and is too big and too a mess, and has too much of an immersive feeling to be captured in just a video on Instagram alone. So I think those are kind of two of the pillars. We we're humble enough to know that nature is the big draw, and we got a great location, just like three miles from the National Park entrance. We're the closest hotel to the

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: And, and we're touching the, you walk, uh, the border of our hotel. It says National Park Boundary at the edge of our hotel.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: So we, we nailed that location to this unfakeable permanent [00:43:00] draw of human interest. So from there it's like, well, how do we get an extra stay out of the guest? How do we add some of the things that we can kind of do with sort of art and creativity to kind of extend that experience?

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: have you considered or are you thinking about doing, you know, a lot of these, a lot of bands these days are doing these smaller experiential events. Um, I think. this one band, I really like Goose. They're doing something down in, it's called Gonzo or something down in,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I know those guys.

Uh, yeah. David Rodriguez. I, I met him. He's great.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: and then I'm supposed to talk to one of, one of their other owners in the next week or two. Yeah. Gon Gonzo's Gonzo's. Great.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: And have you considered doing that? Do you have the infrastructure to do that or too out in the middle of nowhere or like how, how, what are your thoughts on that?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Um, I don't really know what it is, to be honest. That, that experience, I've never, I've never been there. But if you have ideas, love to, love to hear ' em.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: basically like music all around, like the band will play in like [00:44:00] an intimate setting. Then they have like art installations in a bigger stage and people come, of cool.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: that we've had a lot of is thinking about what does this, the room count that we have 65 rooms mean for

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Kind of music experience, right? We have enough land where we could throw a massive festival, but the idea of bringing in a bunch of porta-potties and doing a smaller version of a Coachella.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: No.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Doesn't really

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, that would

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Right.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: totally.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: when I talk to people and hear their best live music experience, it's often medium sized act in really intimate venue. 'cause that feels like a unique thing, whereas maybe the,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Mm-hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Act, um, in a stadium feels like, well a lot of people, uh, experience that. So I think there's a big opportunity there. And I think from talking to different music acts based in sort of LA. There's a lot of interest because like a DJ or a musician that has like, you know, a following of like 200 to [00:45:00] 500,000 on Instagram, you make your living do it, you tour, but the people that really love you, love you much or more as the biggest act that they always like.

And so there's that opportunity that the big act maybe wouldn't take of being like, Hey, maybe this is just 200 or a 100 person. You know, weekend along experience, but it has a really high price tag. And suddenly those kind of things, uh, become interesting to those types of artists and there's a lot of those artists.

So I think this is an area of huge potential, but we haven't really, you know, quite clocked on the infrastructure. Oddly enough, I think the art will segue into this naturally if we do some of these installations and these things that kind of also be used as stages. gonna see the creative people.

Creative follows creative, right? If you

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Mm-hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: build the platform and infrastructure, people start coming at you with ideas.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah, there's this other band, Wilco I really like.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: it.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: They're from Chicago, but they'll go to North [00:46:00] Adams, Massachusetts at Mass moca every other year. These indoor, outdoor, huge assemblies of art and just do a concert and have all these other people come in and you can like go in the museum and like you'll see some people from some other band just acoustically in the museum playing next to some big sculpture.

Everyone's chilling. It's a really, it's pretty rad.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: It's a great

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: 'cause Joshua Tree is a known entity in the

music

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I mean,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Harriet's is,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: It's my favorite place to see

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: hmm.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: live performances. Honestly. It's, it's so good.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: in, you know, top tier acts like consistently and often. It's just like surprise drop-ins.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Wow. Um, so you're, you're newly open. impacting people, you're facilitating these magic moments and journey inward. It's 10 years in the future. Um, where do you see reset going? Like what's your long-term vision?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: I, I think [00:47:00] it'd be cool. I don't know if 10 years is it, but at some point in my life it'd be cool to do a hotel on a different planet or like a hotel in the moon or something crazy like that. Um, you know, modular lens well to it. And that was kind of like a design backdrop in a way for the team. I mean, Joshua Tree.

Is one of the closest places I found that just feels like you're on a different planet. Um, so you know that, that would be cool one day if I'm just like thinking big and, you know, can, can wave a magic wand and, and, and make something happen like that. And, yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: I, I, tend to look at some of the other hotels that I've experienced in my lifetime, right? And over a 10 year, 10 years is tricky, right? In my twenties, W Hotel was about as cool as it got.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Totally. I remember that.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: sure they had a vision for 10 years and they were really smart people. They were executing at a super high level. I think. I think of sort of longevity in these long [00:48:00] distances of times, I tend to think less about brand and more about specific properties that just are so idiosyncratic, but still special and not too weird. Um, Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur is always gonna be a property that people sort of value regardless of cultural changes and shifts. Even something like Chateau Marman is, is so distinct as a flavor and as a piece of existence. And meanwhile, we've seen brands to various degrees kind of come, have a really great run, create a ton of value, uh, and scale up. But I think, uh, you know, and we're so early in this game and

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: really proud of the brand we're creating, I think it's, it's perfect for this particular moment in time, it's gonna do really extraordinarily well. But for now, we have the one property and. It's different. It's special, it's got a great location and, uh, we're just excited about welcoming as as many [00:49:00] like-minded people as possible.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: So do you think the modular and, oh, for those of you who don't know it's modular, so they, were they all prefab? Where were they all prefabbed

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Uh, they were made in Canada actually

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: shipped down? So

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: shipped out, which was

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: a part of your future visioning as well?

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: No, I There's, there's another, you know, potential property I've, I've looked at that's more of a renovation play, um, you know, still nature market, things like that. And it, it just goes back to. Like if we're really just sticking true to the brand, which is giving people that feeling of a reset. You don't need modular for that.

You don't need it to be ground up every time. It's, it's like what are the different ways you can kind of provide that experience in different settings? I mean, for me, nature really goes hand in hand with that. Um, so I think it'll be really focused on, um, outdoor areas for, for the foreseeable future. Um, [00:50:00] but no, like there's.

there's no attachment to anything other than that kind of like core principle.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Construction types are a means to an end. They're not a goal in and of themself.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: And I think we've seen other sort of outdoor hospitality ventures actually mistake the their means of production with the experience they're providing. And then as they scale, they become more and more common and less and less unique. And as they scale aggressively, less time and attention goes into site and location. And it seems like a watered down version of the original great vision. So I don't think the type of construction it, it's interesting because it gets attention, 'cause it's novel and it's unusual and I, and I love talking about this with construction pros and other developers and we go through the war stories. There's no silver bullet, there's no magic type of construction that's suddenly gonna make development easy. It's gonna be hard, it's gonna feel

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: [00:51:00] and there's gonna be challenges. The other thing that I think is very difficult to talk about it is there's no counterfactual, right? We kind of have information from other developers and stuff like that. when I hear people really sort of chest something like, we did it this way, and 3D printing is, is so awesome. Um, I'm like, interesting. I would love to learn more about it. I think we're in service of creating unique spaces for the guests and we'll consider any new or novel technology. And we may not always pick the best ones.

There's, there's a ton of things we would've done differently with modular in this case, but I think overall it's important to keep the means of production. Exactly. That it's a way to do it.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Hmm.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: might not be the best, but once you commit, gotta finish and it's gonna be hard.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Well, I think like with the, with the nature component, if that's really a heavy part of, or like a real brand pillar of yours, um, the further out you get, I think the more and more modular or factory built. Makes sense. Um,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: you can [00:52:00] kind of control it. You might not be able to find the people that can do the finer carpentry or build out or framing out in the middle of nowhere.

But you can do that somewhere else. You do The trick is like it to connect to the site

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: yeah,

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: makes sense.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: yeah. Modular construction method is definitely beneficial for remote areas where labor's not as ready. Um, but yeah, I mean, we're, you know, I, I think also from a, uh, a design standpoint, we, you know, we might do modular somewhere else, but if you're doing a hotel in like a wooded area, you know, the, the, the look and feel that we're going for was very kind of like futuristic, mad Max, you know, um, Joshua Tree.

You gotta do something kind of like out there, different little risky, um, and. Uh, you know, if we're doing it in, in some, I don't know, wooded, you know, some somewhere in the woods by Waterfall or something like that, like it, that same design won't work there. And I think that's like, you know, [00:53:00] a mistake that other people in the outdoor hospitality industry have made as they just kind of take the exact same, you know, cookie cutter unit or whatever, and like, they're like, oh, let's put this everywhere.

And it, it's just the, I think, I think that. Each, each hotel should be designed to their surroundings. Um, and it, and, and the surroundings should be different unless, you know, unless we're doing a bunch of hotels in the desert and they're all in the same, same area.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Yeah.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Um, so that's more what's guiding us rather than, than anything else.

But modular, modular is a method for remote area. Definitely makes sense. Like if you're building on some, you know, remote island somewhere, it's definitely a good method.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: cool. So this has been fascinating and we'll put up photos in the YouTube version of this. Um, and I'm so excited for you and your growth. Um, if people wanted to learn more about you individually or reset as a place to go visit and kind of get in tune with your vibe and [00:54:00] ultimately write you guys a thank you note for changing the way that they think about hospitality, what's a good way for them to do that?

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: so much of our life has been wrapped up in getting this thing, uh, across the finish line and open that. Going to the, the, the Reset Hotel, uh, Instagram account is like a really great place to start. Um, and I think, uh, AB and I individually are, are tagged in various places on there, but Instagram seems to be the, the easy spot. if someone's listening on their phone right now, just look in that little podcast description and click on over and give us a follow.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: Perfect,

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yeah.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: that in there. Um, I really enjoyed this so much, um, and thank you for helping me inward in myself

write more thank you notes. So I appreciate you.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Gotta come out. we'll listen to some

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Thanks

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: We'll

We'll go for a walk.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: of course.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: And we'll write thank you notes.

ben_1_08-06-2025_124445: Yes.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: Yes, love.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: this has been awesome. Thank you both. Um, I'm very grateful for your [00:55:00] time and, and getting your story out there and I wish you all the success in the world and I do hope to come visit soon.

adam_1_08-06-2025_154445: It'd love to have you. Thank.

dan-ryan_12_08-06-2025_154445: And thank you to all of our listeners. Without all of you, we wouldn't be able to interview awesome guys like this, living their dreams and executing and building these new concept hospitality experiences. Um, so. If this has changed your way of thinking about hospitality, please forward this to someone, uh, who you think could benefit. Or if you think of any facilitators, especially all you like EO and YPO facilitators who are always asking me, where's a good place to go check 'em out.