In honor of Women's History Month, Next Gen in Lodging podcast host Davonne Reaves spoke with two female hotel owners about their experiences navigating the industry while striking the right work-life balance and encouraging hotel ownership to other women.
The podcast's March guests were Rachel Vandenberg, a hotel owner and executive leadership coach who founded Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel, a professional development retreat in April for women in travel, and Karie Brittano, co-CEO of Brittano Group, who's currently renovating a historical hotel as a part of Choice Hotels' SOAR (Supporting Ownership Access and Representation) program.
Women tend to get asked more frequently about managing a work-life balance, and Vandenberg and Brittano said they don't think of it as a balancing act but rather a consistent check-in with their individual value systems to make sure they are healthy, happy and on track with their goals.
"Sometimes I will feel like I'm not doing the best in one area over the other, but I just have some grace for myself, and I go with the flow and go where those values take me," Vandenberg said. "I'm constantly checking in with myself. ... That's how I kind of calibrate, is really listening to where I'm at in every given moment, and then I make the adjustments that are necessary to be fully aligned."
Brittano said that she's goal-oriented, so when she's focused on something she wants to accomplish, it takes center stage. With her background as a general contractor, she started on the construction side of the business before she transitioned into ownership.
"I have goals and benchmarks that I want to achieve, and I want to make sure that I get there," she said. "Being a project manager, I make lists. I make sure I keep journals, multiple journals, just to stay on top of things and on task as things go — celebrate and rest and repeat."
Brittano's current focus is her historical hotel renovation project in South Boston, Virginia, which is expected to open next year. She credits the progress of the project in part to Choice Hotels and its SOAR program. She also discussed how she's working with her husband to give talks about hotel ownership at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
"They helped us every step of the way," she said, "and the key component in our capital stack was the key money that came with Choice."
Vandenberg got a bit of a head start in the industry. She said she's a fourth-generation hotelier and, at first, didn't want to go into the industry herself. But, just over a decade ago, she decided to take on the family business and is now in the process of renovating the hotel she runs with her parents in Stowe, Vermont.
Vandenberg said it's been a process taking the reins of her family business, and recently she decided to hire a management company to focus on the day-to-day operations of the hotel so she could instead prioritize expansion and renovation of the property.
"We were starting to max out our abilities and capabilities as a small family business to compete and to rise to the next level," she said. "So, we had to find the expertise that could do that."
Brittano, too, echoed the sentiment that being able to delegate is key to being a hotel owner. She added that finding the right resources can also make or break a deal.
"At the end of the day, it's just really being diligent about your time management and your network," she said of her experience renovating a hotel. "Make sure that you reach out to as many people as you can. There is no 'I' in 'team.' You are not an island, and you are not going to be able to develop it on your own, point blank and period."
For more from this episode, listen to the embedded Next Gen in Lodging podcast above.
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