Caitlin describes how the hospitality industry can innovate for the guest of the future. Her insight on building true connections between locations, guests, and locals contains wisdom for leaders in all consumer-facing industries.
Caitlin describes how the hospitality industry can innovate for the guest of the future. Her insight on building true connections between locations, guests, and locals contains wisdom for leaders in all consumer-facing industries.
Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. A podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance.
Today, we’ll hear from Caitlin Wischermann Ornitz, VP of Strategy at Champagne Hospitality, a luxury boutique hotel brand with the purpose of preserving and celebrating local culture and heritage. As members of the communities where it operates, Champagne Hospitality is deeply committed to environmental stewardship and to the wellbeing of its neighbors, greater communities, guests, staff, and our planet.
Guest Bio:
Caitlin Wischermann Ornitz is the Vice President of Strategy at Champagne Hospitality, a luxury hotel collection with properties in Champagne and Burgundy in France and St. Barths in the Caribbean. She is a fourth generation hotelier and applies a strategist mindset to the industry where she has her roots.
She was formerly a strategist at McKinsey & Company where she provided management consulting services directly to clients and industry insights to the public through the think tank McKinsey Global Institute. Her time was spent primarily with finance and real estate clients on topics related to growth and sustainability. Caitlin lives in New York and joined McKinsey after completing her MBA at Columbia Business School. Caitlin graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University, College of Arts & Sciences as a triple-major in Economics, German Studies, and Comparative Literature.
Guest Quote:
“How do you take care of your investments? And I think that takes the ownership side of things to have a committed investment to maintaining your asset, right? Making sure that you're putting capital into taking care of it. On the operational side, though, it’s the people who work with us. They care about the product itself.”
Timestamps:
00:42 - What Champagne Hospitality does
01:55 - About Caitlin’s role
04:35 - Caitlin’s background
09:19 - What brings customers back?
19:35 - Why it’s important to build with the community
24:08 - Being genuinely sustainable
28:19 - Who’s the customer of the future?
35:24 - The future of hospitality
39:19 - Sid’s takeaways
SPONSOR:
ServiceChannel brings you peace of mind through peak facilities performance.
Rest easy knowing your locations are:
ServiceChannel partners with more than 500 leading brands globally to provide visibility across operations, the flexibility to grow and adapt to consumer expectations, and accelerated performance from their asset fleet and service providers.
Links:
[00:00:00] Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar, a podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance. Today, we'll hear from Caitlin Wischermann Ornitz, VP of Strategy at Champagne Hospitality, a luxury boutique hotel brand. Caitlin will describe the guest of the future and how to ensure a true connection between the location, your guests, and locals.
[00:00:20] Sid: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Season 3 of Elevating Brick and Mortar. Thank you for joining us. I am here today with Caitlin Wischermann Ornitz, Vice President of Strategy at Champion Hospitality. Caitlin, welcome. Thank you for being here.
[00:00:33] Caitlin: Thank you for having me, Sid.
[00:00:35] Sid: So Caitlin, for folks in our audience who might not be familiar with the brand, can you share some insight into Champagne Hospitality?
[00:00:43] Caitlin: Yeah, sure. So Champagne Hospitality is a... Background, uh, brand to a few exceptional locations around the world that are consumer facing. So, our locations include Royal Champagne in France, in the Champagne region of France. Um, it also includes, uh, the upcoming, um, an upcoming property in Burgundy, which is also located in France. You can see a theme coming here, um, in mainland France, and we'll also include a hotel in Paris in the future. And in St. Bart's, we also have the Le Barthélemy Hotel, and we operate Le Barthélemy Villa Rentals. Um, so truly the thread that combines is that it's a upper scale hotel company, but it always has a very close connection with communities. And those communities today are all based in the French speaking world. Um, but that's, um, a little bit about us that a lot of it has to do with wine and connection to... communities and the regions in which they, um, emerge.
[00:01:58] Sid: That's great. I want to dig more into the company, but before that, let's talk about you and your journey. Um, let's start with your role, right? As VP of strategy, what are you responsible for, um, in a, in a company like Champagne Hospitality?
[00:02:13] Caitlin: Your strategy is a little bit soup to nuts, right? So it starts with finding great locations that can support being operated at a very high level. Um, but before you find great locations, you need to develop a great team that can also operate those locations and then it travels through the development of that. So, once you have a property, finding the right design teams, the right, um, architects and engineers and construction companies that can really embody the future state of the hotel that you envision. And then it carries through into operations once we've opened the hotel. Um, but my role is important because it's also a tie that combines many different properties. So to create a culture and to create a real, um, standard of excellence between different properties, you really need a common thread and a common vision behind those, um, guest experiences.
[00:03:19] Yes, I'm involved in the conversation around what we do for the future, but it's not, um, necessarily like on the ground for the operating day to day, it's more how do we envision the strategy of where we want to go tomorrow or how we're serving our guests and making sure that the loop is really tight between our operators and ownership as well. So that we, what we do very specially at Champaign Hospitality is that we have a very close bind between our ownership and our operations. And that means that we're able to be exceptionally responsive to guest needs. And I think that's an important distinction to make about who we are, because it means that we're able to iterate and be very innovative in a way that I actually think is pretty market differentiating.
[00:04:13] Sid: That's great. Now, I'd love to hear about your journey because, you know, just looking at your background, you're ex McKinsey, graduated from Cornell, MBA from Columbia, uh, fourth generation hotelier. There's a lot going on there. How did you end up in your role and what's your journey been like? Why do you do what you do?
[00:04:32] Mm
[00:04:32] Caitlin: The honest answer to that question is that I knew from a very early age that I would be working in the hospitality industry. Um, because as you mentioned, generations before me were. Um, but also practically speaking, I'm a European and an American, so it's been a constant in my life to travel a lot, to walk many different walks of life, to Appreciate different cultures and cuisines and understand why they're similar and how they're different and it became just more of a calling in me. When I graduated from Cornell, as you say.
[00:05:07] I picked up and moved across the country to Orange County, California, where I had the privilege to work for some great hoteliers leading the Montage brand. And that was very formative for me because I got to see some great strategists, frankly, people who really understood their market very well, create a brand that was very well suited to that market.
[00:05:30] I eventually moved back to New York to work for McKinsey. Um, when I decided that I wanted to get more into the development side of work.
[00:05:40] When I was there, I was almost strident in that I did not want to become a management consultant. I said that I would not become another banker, another consultant. It wasn't for me. I had this calling for hospitality. Um, but truly when I, when I realized what McKinsey brought to the table in terms of exposure to some of the great minds and innovators and thinkers, mostly, um, thinking about what's coming next.
[00:06:07] I think I particularly felt that for technology and hospitality. I felt like, um, the built world of hotels and of real estate, I traditionally didn't feel this big push to be very innovative in the use of technology, especially at luxury tiers. And I had had a little bit of a flavor of that when I was at Pendry, but I wanted to bring something new.
[00:06:32] I wanted to think differently.
[00:06:34] At the time when I was there working on a study that's now public, um, and published on the future of real estate when I was approached by Champaign Hospitality to, uh, leave the firm and join them on defining their strategy.
[00:06:52] Sid: That's great. I love it. So, when you think about the impact that you make, and want to make as, as you know, you progress in your career, um, what kind of impact do you want to have on the brand that you work for and ultimately the kind of experience you want to deliver to the, to the customer?
[00:07:13] Caitlin: I think it's important to think about your personal, like what you really stand for. And I think that's how you have impact. You have impact when it comes from an authentic place, when it's part of who you are, not part of your identity. Yeah, like process to shore. And for me, I'm very passionate about the built world, the brick and mortar that makes up our spaces and our cities. The way we move through cities is something you can actually feel. That's always been something that makes me excited is something similarly for champagne hospitality that we need to build for the future too, we need to think about things in the long term. But secondly, I firmly believe that seeing the world is also one of the great privileges of being alive in this day and age, being able to experience different cultures, being able to taste different cuisines, go to cities that are so different. And for me, hotels are really the guideposts on this journey for people. So. Being able to build a place for community and connection for both people who are travelers and people of the local community. That is that common thread that guides where I envision strategy going forward. So it needs to be something that can last for the long term, but it's still taking the best of modernity today and thinking about all of the different phases of the evolution. So from selecting the right location to designing it in a way that's relevant for energy efficiency today, that's relevant for how people want to check in to a hotel today. All those things that are relevant for the guest of the future too, and then Obviously operated in a way that satisfies the guests of today and what people expect of our, um, product.
[00:09:19] Sid: Let's be honest, there are a lot of options today when it comes to, you know, the world of hospitality and luxury. What sentiment are you trying to invoke in your customer and why should they choose you? The follow up to that is what brings them back.
[00:09:37] Caitlin: Yeah. It's a very good point. There are many options. I think it's very important that we make a distinction between Champaign Hospitality and the hotels themselves. So there's like this secret sauce of Champaign Hospitality in the background of phenomenal resources that go into finding the right locations, right? Or that go into this bond that I mentioned between a very close feedback loop of, we see something on the floor on Monday with a guest on something that's not working, it goes to Um, a decision by ownership on Tuesday to, to fix that problem. Right. But for what you're talking about, the guest facing experience, being able to have a hotel that is relevant, that is different, that is a differentiator. Those are a series of small, um, decisions. That amount to a very big whole, so it's a series of, like, culture that is supportive, that is a very great place to work, that have, um, happy associates working in a beautiful hotel, that have learning experiences where the general feeling when you go to them is that you are taken care of.
[00:10:57] All of this has to do with... Being very authentic and being rooted in the place, and to us that's, that is a core differentiator. I don't think many people do that, um, on the par that Champaign Hospitality does.
[00:11:11] Sid: You have great expertise, you know, even being at McKinsey and, and in your education as well around like the built environment. I'd love to understand what are your views on the role of design and construction, and honestly, you know, maintenance of those physical spaces in delivering your brand promise, especially when it comes to luxury.
[00:11:34] Caitlin: it is incredibly important in two ways. So in the first part, it's important to build a beautiful product. People want to stay in a beautiful hotel, right? This is something a lot of people can get right, by the way. There are many phenomenal architects in the world. There are a lot of people willing to invest a lot of money into a beautiful hotel, right?
[00:12:04] There are less phenomenal locations, by the way, so you can be the world's greatest architect and be given a terrible location to build that phenomenal hotel and, by the way, it's never going to cut it. But if you have the combination of a great physical location, you've done your investment correctly, you've built a beautiful product, um, it has a good feeling, the architecture is beautiful, the design is beautiful, that is one half of the equation. And it is a very important one, but I don't think is necessarily the hardest thing to get right. What you're alluding to on the second piece is how do you take care of your investments. And I think that takes one, the ownership side of things need to have a committed investment to maintaining your asset, right? Making sure that you're putting capital, um, into taking care of it, having, and for us, our investment horizon helps support that. On the operational side, though, it's something that I've alluded to already is like the people who work with us. Care about the product itself.
[00:13:15] So I can give you a little bit of a anecdote from my very first job. I was working in a city hotel in Dusseldorf, Germany. I was working as a concierge and I, I was speaking with our doorman one day. My feet get tired standing here all day, like, what keeps you here for 25 years as our doorman? And you're always smiling. You're always excited for this. And he said, well, I'm the first impression of the hotel. And this is my... Um, this is my home, right? Like, I am bringing everybody in. And so, then every time after that, I would see him with, like, a cloth wiping down the front table, picking out the flowers that were dead, and, honestly, it was infectious. Then all of us, who were the new trainees, understood from this person who clearly was giving him... Us, the ethos, the culture of the place, we were then all the ones who had that rag in hand, like cleaning up behind the surface, making sure we were taking care of the asset, right? And so I think it's that same spirit that that's very evocative of who we are as a company as well. People genuinely care about the hotel, partly because they've been taken care of as well. So they are returning, um, just a good, genuine good management culture.
[00:14:43] Sid: Yeah, I love that. That's a, that's a great anecdote and story because honestly, I think we hear this a lot, right? Which is, um, folks that know, understand that if you take care of the physical space in which your own associates and employees, work and operate in, they're going to feel pride. They're going to have a smile on their face. And that's going to reflect in how they welcome guests. Um, and to exactly what you just said, like that's infectious, right? One person takes pride and does it, um, because they believe that the brand stands for something and the brand wants to deliver a great service to the consumer. They follow suit and everybody follows suit, you know, follows suit with it. And, ultimately, like that then becomes the culture of the brand. And that's, that's amazing. And I think if, if you, if you look at sometimes where brands falter, is that they focus on design and construction and they. They do, they have all of this attention and focus on building the physical space and then they walk away and then, you know, you start to see that the space starts to look and feel old. And you kind of walk away feeling like, huh, it was nice at some point, but, you know, I wish they had taken care of it better. Right? Would you, would you
[00:16:08] Caitlin: You're absolutely right. I think that's why I segmented into the first half is the easy half of the equation, right? And this is because big companies tend to have a department that does the depart, the design part, and they have a department that does the operations part. But, you're, if you have one general strategy leading you through and making sure that we're taking, we're building an asset we love that evokes what we think the future will hold that we really like believe in and we're making a big bet on to be frank as well. The taking care of it process, is not somebody else's responsibility, then it's always our responsibility. It's always something we're doing every day. And I think that's genuinely hard. That's something that most companies don't have that responsibility. It's on somebody else's department, somebody else's plate.
[00:17:07] And what makes Champagne Hospitality different is we're a relatively small company. We're a relatively small company that has a few large, very high profile hotels that are built up of teams that care about the asset, that hear from us every day. Um, and that have this close feedback loop where they can say, Hey, I noticed this isn't working well. And it doesn't only have to do with maintaining something stagnant in time. So we have conversations. All the time about, hey, my restaurant could do better, could do incrementally better if we change the layout just this little bit. I could have a great, um, I have a, a great space outside that I can't seat people on right now, but if we had XYZ investment, We could try something out.
[00:18:05] And I think because of our size, we're able to be responsive. We're able to say, yes, go try it, go figure it out, make a bet. And that's what allows us to be nimble. That's what allows us to be thoughtful. And also, having that type of culture means that you retain people who care, you retain people who see that you are so responsive, that you care about the asset, that they care about it, and it just creates this team of people who feel like they're getting things done, feel like they're winning on a day to day basis. Like, they're really delivering the level of service they wanted to a guest. That is, um, genuinely very hard to do and is something that I think makes our company pretty special.
[00:18:53] Sid: Now, I haven't stayed at one of your properties, but I was looking at your website yesterday doing some research. Your properties look beautiful and the locations are fantastic. Um, and my wife happened to notice. Um, what I was doing and I guess now it's on the list of locations we're going to go to at some point. Uh, so that's great. You know, that's, uh, I look forward to it. Um, now let's talk about another thing that I saw on your website that caught my eye, which was this, this focus on environmental stewardship and how you talk about sustainable luxury and this focus on. The fact that you consider yourself part of the community and so you have a responsibility towards it as well. So, share some thoughts around both of those. Why, why is that important to you?
[00:19:46] Caitlin: I think it's very simple. order to operate a great business in general, and I think a hotel is the perfect example of it. I think you need to integrate with the place in which the business is built. That means ecologically, that's sustainable. There's no, there used to be a philosophy, maybe in the 80s, where you can kind of bend nature to your will. Um, I think that's less relevant in what we're experiencing today. And we need to change and learn and adapt. It also means for the community. It means that we need to be a place that is not only a gathering place for out of towners, but it is a gathering place for people of the community as well.
[00:20:31] And I can give some examples around that. And it's also a moral imperative for many of the guests of the future. This is something that, um, mindsets are shifting on. That we also need to evolve and change and take feedback and evolve with the times. So if I give you a little bit of a flavor of our sustainability efforts in particular. I can give an example of our hotel in St. Barts, Le Barthélemy. They are on an island, right? So, they have been dealing with scarce resources since time immemorial. terms of water and garbage and plastic reduction, that's part of their operational strategy, and it has been for a long time. So, they make decisions on selecting in room amenities or bio safe cleaning products or upgrading solar panels or, um, Evaluating in incredible detail how much water they use, and how efficiently it gets used, and how many times it gets used.
[00:21:43] I'm not exaggerating when I say that's something they talk about every single day, and try to bring new ideas to the fore on it. Um, it has to do really with this idea of scarcity. One example of that is they started implementing zero waste kitchen practices. So, And also teaching guests about zero waste cooking.
[00:22:03] So, it's something that they're always coming up with new ways to be innovative in this, but they have also come up with ways to not just reduce impact, but actually have positive impact. So, we've been helping restore the coral reef outside of our hotel. Both philanthropically and by providing guests with hands on experiences to plant coral.
[00:22:31] We have a coral nursery that I recently traveled out to see the corals growing and then get transplanted to a reef. And it is something that it feels, before you actually see it with your own eyes, I think it can be very discouraging to feel like climate solutions are out of our hands. They're big problems.
[00:22:55] It's not something that we can touch and feel and see impact on. But when you're up front with something that if you plant it, it will grow and it will thrive, right? These are small pieces that we can all do a part on. And I've been touched to see how the Bartholomew team has really taken a, um, thread and run with it for many years on trying to improve their, um, sustainability efforts, operationally, specifically at the hotel.
[00:23:26] Sid: Caitlin, do you think as a whole, the hospitality industry is doing enough of this? Like, is there enough focus and momentum and evangelism around why this is important? Because I think there's a lot of greenwashing going on. You know, companies and brands say what they think that they should say. Um, But not everyone is actually taking action where it matters, because being sustainable and being responsible isn't always the cheaper option, isn't always the more convenient option, but it is, it is the right option, right? And do you think that there's enough loud voices in the industry itself? Like, are there places where, you know, folks like you, um, have the ability to go and speak and be evangelists for what it means to be sustainable and do the right thing.
[00:24:20] Caitlin: the way. I classify it as, if you break down what actually has the impact. Where, where is the greatest reduction in emissions coming from. If we break are serious about living our values, right? Part of that is operational, and that is part of being values oriented, like we're being at Le Barthélemy, to truly conserve energy, to conserve water, to do everything we can, um, operationally.
[00:24:52] And yes, you're right, I think that is very rare in the industry. Um, and then part of it, which is emerging, Is relatively new to many people because the way that markets have been priced historically has not taken in climate risk. So, we historically have seen that properties in places prone to flooding, like we could take Miami for example, um, not being priced as if the value of that asset is going to be washed away. Because we have insurance, right? We have propped up, um, methods to make sure that this is, That the value of your asset will enter, but what we're starting to see with the frequency of felt climate impact. So now that we're starting to actually see more frequent and more intense, um, risk, physical risk, and also actually transition risk on these assets is that the investment decisions, and the calculus that goes into where to invest is changing. And that I think is coming. I think we're probably at the, at the part of the equation that is everybody's trying to do the right thing. Everybody's doing their best there. And a lot of it is greenwashing, right? They put together a list of like top 10 places to stay if you want to feel good about the environment, right? Like it's Probably not the most, like, deep analytical exercise that goes into, like, what's their emissions impact by property. I don't think that database can exist. But what is coming is a very analytical exercise of where can investors actually get a return if they start to price in climate risk. And I genuinely think that is coming. I think we are in a world where... Um, it will matter where you, um, how you build your hotel for the return you're able to get, because some places won't be able to be insurable anymore. You'll either have to self insure, or you will, you will have a different, um, You know, calculus on if you have to rebuild every two years, it's probably a different way of building and therefore you can hire architects that are building for the climate that you're in. You can build in different ways so that there's less wind impact to your hotels. You can integrate with nature rather than fighting against it that are innovative, honestly. And when I talk about I'm inspired by the strategy of building for a future that we know is coming, too. It's that modernity of the built environment that is still very important, and I think that's coming in the future.
[00:27:51] Sid: in your research and as to what you're hearing from your consumers, have you found that enough consumers care about this yet?
[00:28:02] Doing the right thing by the environment, you know, things that are tied to, you know, ESG and, and companies doing the right thing beyond just what is the most profitable way of doing things. Right.
[00:28:15] Caitlin: Yeah. I actually think people do care.
[00:28:19] Sid: Yeah.
[00:28:19] Caitlin: It's ordinary people who are saying, Hey, my, um, the products I buy for my home are now, my options are this is biodegradable, right? This is, the world is shifting in many ways, and people are evolving. People have different views on what's normal now, and I think there isn't this, like, extra credit you get by being green and being good for the environment. It's almost a baseline of, are you a good steward? Do you listen to your community?
[00:28:56] And when I talk about like all those little decisions in your operations, like, is your team making an effort for your amenity programs? Is your team making an effort for thinking about how you can reduce your water consumption or how you can, um, transition some of your energy to be self produced, um, there are so many different things that you can do that offer more time and attention. But I think the guests genuinely sees the teams doing this. I think it is something that are, there are certainly people bending the table to say we need to change. We want to go to an eco resort. We want to experience nature.
[00:29:49] It's the way that I think we're all evolving, and I think it takes time, but I do think people care.
[00:29:56] Sid: I agree. I think, I think brands today, If they think they have a choice, um, I think they won't in the future, right? Because investors and regular consumers will force it. Like they're, they'll force it based on where they deploy their money, um, and where they, uh, show their loyalty, right? And, and brands will have to adapt. They won't have a choice. I agree with you. Um, let's, let's pivot a little bit. I'd love to get to the industry and some macro trends. I'd love to get your take on, in the business you're in, you know, what does the future of like travel and the demand for luxury experiences look like? What, what are you seeing today and where, where is it going?
[00:30:36] Caitlin: So the travel industry in general is segmented into many different types of hotels and very different types of reasons for traveling and different experiences.
[00:30:47]
[00:30:47] On the leisure side, it's very segmented by the types of properties and the types of locations. So, much of leisure travel has rebounded in spades to pre COVID level. So a lot of people have been doing revenge travel. But I think there's also this shift of people are thinking differently about where they're going. They're not staying true to only a few locations that are really easy to get to in key, hot periods. So people have more flexibility of their work schedules. That's just true now, also post pandemic. So they're willing to extend a season. They're willing to travel to that place a little bit of a different time if they're able to get a deal. This opens up the world for many investors too, because it changes when you would anticipate your demand for a hotel in this particular region. And it changes seasonality of hotels too. And so I think there are a lot of shifts happening in the leisure market that frankly nobody quite understands yet. But I think what is definitely true is that the places people are traveling, there are many old favorites that are always going to be popular. Like Paris has been having record, um, tourism year over year, but there are also new places that people are discovering that a few years ago weren't nearly as popular and their seasonality has increased. I think Italy is a great example of many different regions in Italy were less traveled to before than they are now. And they're experiencing a bigger season as a result too.
[00:32:38] Sid: What is your view of the biggest driver when it comes to gaining customer loyalty?
[00:32:45] what brings your consumer, your customer to really want to come back and visit all your properties?
[00:32:52] Caitlin: It is purely how you make people feel. One of my old, very first, um, bosses, one of my very first jobs, told me... Think about the journey somebody has taken on to get on vacation, right? They get one week a year, and they're making memories for their family. When they're older, they'll think about back to a few key moments in their life.
[00:33:15] Many, many of those moments are traveling. And so I think that what people hearken back to, what they remember, all has to do with how you made them feel, and especially also how you make children feel, by the way, in that a lot of loyalty is created by the places you traveled when you were younger, the places that you experienced, the, um, connection to your family that you have through that. And so, loyalty is all guest experience. It is delivering what you said you would, when you said you would, and going beyond. It is about making people feel seen, and like you are not just customizing something to them because, um, you do it for everybody and it's got like a little tiny spin because it's this person, but really going the extra mile to make them feel like they're wanted and seen and feel like they, Um, and also being there in the moments when they need you.
[00:34:20] Sid: I love that. I mean, you're 100 percent right. I mean, I travel a lot and I think personally, you know, you're, you're spot on. It's a combination of things, right? It's the location. It's the human touch, the, the smile, the welcome, uh, the physical space. How did the space felt? When I walk out of that room and I check out, all I feel is, that felt good, or nah, I don't think I want to come back. And you may not spend enough time to pinpoint exactly what it was, but it's a combination of things, and so that's, I think that's spot on, and that's a big part of what we talk about on this show as well, which is, you know, one of the things that make a family or a person want to come back and enjoy the experience that they've had is that built environment,
[00:35:13] uh, we just have to have, um, a maniacal focus on getting all parts of the equation correct, right?
[00:35:21] Caitlin: yeah, no, I think that's very true.
[00:35:23] Sid: Caitlin. When you look at the future, what does luxury hospitality look like? What does the future guest look like? And what are their expectations going to be?
[00:35:33] Caitlin: There's a few different answers. So there's one, cities will look different. The ways that we experience community in cities will be different just because of how they get built and how they get built vertically, as well as some of the sprawl that, so historically, they've sprawled outwards, and it depends which city we're talking about, but much of them will also be built up and transport will be very different around them. But when we talk about other locations where many of our hotels are... but in the outskirts of cities, the vision I have for the future is that it's very closely tied with the community that's been there for forever. So it's not so different than how it's always been. It's always been a place where people can check in and have a room and a meal. Hotels were built up by somebody who lived there, who rented a spare room, who knew the community well, and there were locals that came to visit. Just the sense of that it was a gathering place. I think we've gotten away from that in many, many, um, places around the world because we went through this boom of development. And what happened was that there were fewer and fewer people who actually even knew the local history, who even knew the... story behind the location, right? And in France, this is very important.
[00:37:02] So, in the Champagne region, in Burgundy, also in St. Barthes, it's very, very important to understand the community from which you are creating a community, um, new meeting point because that changes the guest experience. It either makes it feel authentic or it makes it feel like it doesn't belong. And one of the things that's special about Champagne Hospitality's hotels is that they feel authentic and it really just has to come down to spending the time, putting in the hours to actually Developing a true connection with the community. And I think that's where it's going in the future too. It's more of a hearkening back to, um, the real fundamentals of, um, why we do it in the first place.
[00:37:48] Sid: Is there anything as it relates to technology and AI and robotics that will touch the world of luxury hospitality? Is there, is there a world in which we see aa robot with white gloves service?
[00:38:05] Caitlin: Right. I was having this debate actually last night. I think yes, AI probably has a role to play behind the scenes, but certainly will make Um, desk jobs different in the future because we'll have different ways of collecting information.
[00:38:22] We'll have different ways of disseminating information, checking that things are factually correct. Um, but in the world of service, That it's something about feeling like you're in a certain place.
[00:38:36] That is what people are paying for. Yes. Maybe we have more tools at our disposal because of better technology. Um, but I think at its fundamental service will always a core industry where we'll need people.
[00:38:50] Sid: I love that. Well, with that, I just want to say a huge thank you, Caitlin. Uh, really appreciate you being here. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Um, Caitlin, for folks in our audience who want to just reach out and say hello, and maybe ask a question or two, uh, where can they find you?
[00:39:07] Caitlin: I'm easily found on LinkedIn.
[00:39:09] Sid: Perfect. Well, thanks again. Uh, I really appreciate it. And for all those in our audience, thank you for being here. And we'll look forward to seeing you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
[00:39:19] Sid: Well, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Caitlin Wischermann Ornitz, VP of Strategy at Champagne Hospitality. She offered some fascinating insights into the world of luxury hospitality. Our conversation made it clear that while the needs of the consumer are definitely changing, the most important part of hospitality is how you make the consumer feel. So what contributes to that feeling? Well, it's everything from the warm welcome you get from the associates who work there, the level of service provided, as well as how the physical built space is designed and constructed and maintained. All of those combined influence what we feel. The brands that get all those pieces of the equation right will win.
[00:40:02] Thanks for listening. I'm your host Sid Shetty and I'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.