Surprise & Delight - Josiah Mackenzie - Episode # 060

Today’s guest began his journey through hospitality working in a small property on the California coast and then built the number one hotel marketing blog in the world. He’s the publisher of Hospitality Daily, which is dedicated to helping hoteliers provide better guest experiences. Josiah Mackenzie is the Principal at Benchmark Research Partners, and he joins host Dan Ryan to share his experiences and passion about #hospitality and what it all means to him.Takeaways: Hospitality is a gift that you can give to others. It is the feeling of safety, of being creatively free and being inspired by others and what is around you.The hospitality career path is more steep than it has ever been now and that makes it a perfect time to join this industry.People who work in the hospitality industry have a desire to meet new people from across the world and serve these people. Hospitality is something that you learn from observation and seeing how the professionals handle themselves and clients.When designing a great guest experience it is important to focus on the F&B moments as those can allow you to create moments to surprise and delight guestsHospitality isn’t just welcoming people to your hotel. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into getting everything.Real estate is becoming a better environment to work in and it is worth investing your money into hospitality.Quote of the Show: 2:21 “I think hospitality at its core is really a gift. It's a feeling of being safe, of being free, of being inspired.”Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiahmackenzie/Shout Outs: 1:00 Skift1:28 Andrew Benioff1:30 Independent Lodging Congress3:55 Aaron Richter3:58 Equinox13:34 Adele Gutman15:41 The Grand Hotel16:47 Remington Hotels20:56 Horst Schulze35:25 Sweet Green37:26 Hoxton Hotels38:14 Sharan Pasricha from Ennismore38:52 IHG38:58 Kimpton40:45 ZokuWays to Tune In: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPXApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1sAmazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/Youtube : https://youtu.be/XSWERxaustQ