July 22, 2025 • 26 mins
Bob Hotels converted 70% OTA reliance to nearly 50% direct bookings in under a year—partly by using an AI phone agent (GoodCall) to convert phone inquiries into instant SMS-driven bookings.
Can a roadside motel really outperform the compset—and become the #1 value property in an entire city—within a year? In this episode, Janis Krums, Managing Partner at Bob Hotels, reveals how his team transformed a run-down Sleep Inn into a top-rated boutique brand using a fresh tech stack, street-smart branding, and startup-level hustle.
This episode is for experienced hoteliers, GMs, and asset managers looking to revitalize underperforming assets, modernize their tech stack, and rethink guest engagement for today’s traveler—without breaking the bank.
Takeaways:
• How to build a modern tech stack from scratch: Janis walks through the exact vendors and decision-making logic behind Bob Hotels’ PMS, booking engine, CRM, guest messaging, revenue tools, and even an AI-powered phone agent.
• Using social proof and reviews as growth engines: Learn how the team grew to 1,100+ Google reviews with a 4.8-star rating in less than a year—and how that impacted OTAs, pricing, and occupancy.
• Why legacy vendors are getting left behind: Hear Janis’ frank take on why most hotel tech incumbents miss the mark—and why younger, hungrier companies are earning his business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We made sure that every review, we'd know what's
going on, especially early on tomake sure, like, anytime there's
a bad experience from what'sgoing on, we know what's going
on and how we can fix thatsituation. And then now it's
really maintaining thatthroughout the process.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Today, we're talking with Janus Krums, the managing
director of Bob Hotels, whichcurrently operates one fully
renovated former roadside motelin Tallahassee, Florida under
the ethos of boutique on budget.If that doesn't sound compelling
enough, you'll want to listen tothis episode to learn about
Bob's intuitive AI phoneanswering service and smart
(00:44):
social media campaign that builtbrand awareness with a local
university. Well, hello, Yanis.Thank you so much for joining us
for today's episode of thepodcast. I would love to start
by hearing a little intro fromyourself.
So if you could please introduceus, tell me your role, the
company you work for, and we'llgo from there.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Sounds good. Thanks for having me on. Excited to
share the story of Hotels. Yeah.So my name is Janis Krumbs and
I'm the managing partner at BobHotels Boutique on Budget.
Our first hotel we just openedactually almost a year ago in
Tallahassee, which was a sleepin that we had purchased a year
before and did a full renovationof it and created this concept.
(01:28):
And so we've created this as thefirst prototype and now the goal
is to expand the brand.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
And do you just manage the one property right
now?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Currently, it's only one, but we're in the process of
we have about three right nowthat we're looking at as
prospects, negotiating thattrying to find the next one. And
so hopefully next time we speak,we'll have a few more, but now
that we have one under the belt,I mean, the first six months
really was just understandingwhat's working, what's not,
trying to get everythingstreamlined from an operational
(01:59):
standpoint, from a vendorstandpoint, all those kinds of
things. And so now that we'rekind of, you know, almost a year
in, now we're having those talksabout expansion.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Can you tell me a bit about what makes your property
different than competitors? Canyou also explain what boutique
on a budget means?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Sure thing. So, I mean, our inspiration was my
wife and I were on a road trip,I think it was during COVID, and
we stayed at some of theseroadside places, and they were
dangerous, they were not thatcheap, they weren't clean. And
so we just thought like thiscan't be the state of things
roadside. I mean, there's a lotof good products downtown. There
just aren't great budget optionsout there that we thought,
(02:38):
especially in that Motel sixsleep in type of categories that
are, you know, you just want toquickly come in for one night
and just feel good about yourstay.
And that was the initialinspiration. We did a little
study of what's out there, andwe really thought there's a lot
of these properties that areowned for ten, twenty years,
haven't been updated that much,or they've done the bare
(02:59):
minimum, and they just kind ofexist. And there's a culture
that still uses them, but, youknow, by and large, they're kind
of you don't know what theseowners are going to do with them
because they're really kind oflost in some ways. And so we
found this property that wasbuilt in 'ninety two, needed a
lot of work, and it was one ofthose deals where, you know, it
should have probably beendeflagged or flagged to
(03:21):
something else because it was,you know, in really rough shape
and there was really no exitfrom that owner, right? We were
that savior who could come inand actually do something with
it because we had a vision oftrying to do something, but I
don't think anyone else wouldcome in and actually wanna put
money in and keep it asleep in,let's say.
And so we came in and had thisidea of like having, first off,
we want to have fun design, wewanted to make sure, you know,
(03:42):
it's something that actuallycatches your eye. So the brand,
it's memorable, you're gonnaremember the name, you're gonna
remember the experience. Theinspiration to us was CitizenM,
Virgin, twenty five Hour Hotel,those type of hotels from
Europe. I'm from Latviaoriginally, my wife's French, so
we kind of have a lot of thosebackground from Europe. And we
saw that there's a lot of thosetype of properties in Europe and
(04:04):
not a lot in The US, especiallyin the budget side.
So that was the initial kind ofinspiration. And so then we
geared and create the brandaround that. So we really want
to make sure it can bereplicated. So if it's something
that can be, you know, now thatwe have won, we could actually
now have a playbook of how do wedo this in other locations where
let's say, 90% is kind of like,there's a playbook, then if you
(04:25):
go to another location, you cankind of create that localized
feel around it. We're not gonnago, you know, full graduate
where it's gonna be all in onone location.
That's not gonna be ourplaybook, but we're gonna be a
little bit more than the genericbrands that are popping up right
now where, you know, you couldinterchange the names and the
logos and you probably wouldn'tknow the difference. And so that
was the initial one. It's gonnabe using technologies to make
(04:47):
sure that our experience withthe guests, the booking
experience to the arrivalexperience, the checkout
experience, it is more seamlessthan a lot of the other options.
And then it's gonna be thestaff. We're training our staff
to really have a differentmentality than most budget
places, most budget hotels have.
It's gonna be more high levelstar rating than what it's
(05:09):
expected. And that's thefeedback we've gotten so far.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So I can imagine you're certainly using tech on a
different level than the averageroadside motel might use it.
What would you say is your mostcritical technology partner
right now?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
We're trying to use every vendor that we're using as
kind of modern. We were in thesystem with choice, and I think
they haven't updated things in acouple decades. So, to us, we
wanted to make sure that, firstoff, it's intuitive from a user
perspective. So, our website'son Webflow, you know, quickly,
easy to change. I can editthings really quickly.
(05:46):
I don't need a developer to makequick changes. Our booking
engine, we're using Olive, whichis a startup that's a couple of
years old, but their whole pitchis trying to eliminate
unnecessary steps. So, youshould be able to book a room
with the goal is three clicks,right? Like we just want to make
it as super easy as possible.And the PMS we're using is a
(06:06):
stay in touch and it's anothervery straightforward for our
staff.
And so, those have been theforward facing well, guess Olive
is more forward facing than stayin touch, but stay in touch kind
of powers the back endobviously. And the other part is
really the communication that Imentioned before with guests,
because I think that's for us,we need to know if there's an
issue with the guests, you know,checking in, whatever's going
(06:28):
on, our GM needs to know, ourfront desk needs to know. And so
we use IKEA for text messaging,making sure that there's a pre
arrival guide. Once theycheck-in, there's another text
message that comes out tellingthem about the property and any
issues they might have. And sowe want to make sure that during
that experience, if there issomething our GM will see any
negative issues and they willreach out directly.
(06:50):
And that's been super helpful. Imean, over this year we have now
on Google over 1,100 reviews.We're rated 4.8 on Google, where
we went from, you know, nonexistent on TripAdvisor to the
number two rated and number onevalue property in Tallahassee in
less than a year. And that'sreally about just kind of
surprising our guests becausewhen they come in and they pay
(07:13):
usually between $80 and $120they don't expect much just
because of the experiences theymight have had in other
locations and other type ofhotels. And we've been compared
to a Disney, a Chick fil A wherethey really feel like the staff
actually cares about the guests.
And that's been the biggestdriver for training and making
(07:36):
sure that our employeesunderstand that, that this is
not just, you know, you can'thave your headphones in and
looking at your phone whileyou're checking somebody. And
you know, you gotta make sureyou're actually engaging with
that person. And it could bejust as simple as, you know,
how's your day? And you justcheck them in without, you know,
a lot of conversations, but it'smaking sure that they understand
that they actually are beingseen. And so those are probably
the biggest things that we'vekind of emphasized during our
(07:59):
operations.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Talk me through your mentality composing your tech
stack. It sounds like you hadthe unique experience to kind of
start from scratch once theChoice systems were out of
there. How did you go aboutshopping for vendors, doing
demos? What was your thinkingthere as you're building your
ideal tech stack?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I mean, as kind of an outsider, my background was in
tech but not in hospitality. SoI used some contacts that are in
the industry. I used, you know,Hotel Tech Report. I used other
sites just to kind of understandwhat's out there and what's
recommended, and also try tostreamline the process as much
as possible. From reservationsto, you know, optimizing
(08:41):
marketing to messaging, allthose kind of things.
So initially, obviously itstarts with the PMS, and so we
experimented with conversationswith a few of the, you know, the
biggest players, the CloudViz,the Muse, the those type of
PMSs. I ended up sticking withStay In Touch, and that's been a
very good experience. Theircustomer service has been great.
(09:03):
Their employee experience hasbeen really good, and they're
very responsive. And so alsofrom a trainings perspective,
it's been very easy for ourstaff to come in and really
understand the systems becausethey're pretty intuitive.
If there have been anotherlegacy flag properties, pretty
quickly within a couple hours oftraining, they already know
what's going on. So that wasnumber one. And then to me,
number two was visibility. So Iwant to make sure that we can
(09:27):
see, you know, a property can beseen properly and that we can
market and get out there,especially as a brand new
product. So initially we weredefinitely leaning heavily on
the OTAs just because we had nobrand equity, nobody knew who we
were, so we were making surethat we could at least be seen
there and make sure there's alot of deals out there.
So that was kind of like ourinitial push to just get people
(09:47):
in the door. That led to revenuemanagement. We actually ended up
going with Diamo, and they'vebeen a partner since opening,
and they obviously had a littlebit of restructuring, but
they're coming out of thatpretty strong. And they also do
digital marketing as well. Soyou can work with them to push
the meta search, the, you know,SEO, SEM, OT, you know, travel
(10:09):
ads, all that through theirplatform, which is pretty nice
just to not have to worry aboutthem.
You can see your performancethrough their platform as well.
And we've been doing really wellthere once we started going
through our after a couplemonths of visibility, our travel
ads were performing north of 30xROAS and our search, we were
20x, which I think industrystandard's about 6x. Those are
(10:32):
really the tech stack that we'reusing now. Really, the first six
months, was awareness. I mean,on Expedia, pretty quickly we
got recognized as a VIP hotel,actually I think the only one in
Tallahassee.
And so we were, you know,featured prominently on search
results. Mean, so all thosesmall things, we made sure that
every review we know what'sgoing on, especially early on to
(10:55):
make sure like anytime there's abad experience or what's going
on, we know what's going on andhow we can fix that situation.
And then now it's reallymaintaining that throughout the
process. And another thing thatwe do is we use Jot forms for
our shifts so that every shiftwe know if there is an issue
coming in from the front desk orwhen anything our GM gets an
update every eight hours aswell, every shift. So it's like,
(11:18):
so that way all the managementteam, everybody is understanding
how what's performing, what'snot performing.
And if there's an issue we needto address, we're all aware of
it. So it's kind of hands on,but at the same time, we're now
kind of automated a lot of notautomated, but like we've
created processes in place sothat it's not overwhelming. It's
just quickly understanding ifthere's a problem from a staff
(11:39):
perspective or from anoperations perspective or from
property level where we need tomaintenance or whatever, we can
pretty quickly address it andtake care of it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So you mentioned the focus on guest reviews. Are you
using any reputation managementsystem or how do you and your
team ingest reviews, read them,and then perform any appropriate
follow-up?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
We use guest review for just an aggregate, and they
do a good job of just kind ofshowing us what's going on.
Price point wise, they're reallygood compared to some of the
other legacy companies. So theywere kind of a no brainer for
what they do and what they froma cost perspective. And then
otherwise, we have sometemplates and things of how to
(12:26):
answer questions. Initially, wewere very hands on at the
management level, but now we'vegiven the reins over a little
bit to our staff to be able toanswer with a certain Bob Flair.
If you go on our Google reviews,you'll know what I mean. Just to
kind of have some fun there. Andso we've created some frameworks
that they follow of how toanswer. Number one is being
(12:48):
respectful, but if there'ssomeone who's being very
unreasonable, we might call themout on it. Because as we all
know, hospitality has a lot ofcharacters and sometimes, they
might not be always right.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You mentioned for the first two months, actually,
hotel opened that you were quitereliant on OTAs, third party
channels. Can you talk methrough how you built up your
direct channel? And if you couldshare your channel mix as well,
what percentage of reservationscome direct versus through OTAs?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, I mean, we were very heavily on OTAs. I mean, I
would probably say we wereprobably like first few months,
70% probably OTAs. We're nowslowly getting to more closer to
50% direct and hopefully fast,you know, climbing that. But
really it's gonna be the brand.What we've done is we use the
revenue for our CRM and guestcommunication.
(13:42):
And so we will do, especially inthe summer, initially we thought
summer was gonna be very slow,but actually we've been last
month we finished at 94%occupied in June, so it was not
very slow. So we've done someemail marketing, things like
that, but it's just been aprocess of slowly kind of
creating this because we reallydon't have a brand yet that
(14:05):
people know about. And soreally, people who come through
Tallahassee, if they're comingto Tallahassee, typically it's
either going to be for FSU orFlorida A and M. FSU obviously
drives a lot of that, and on thegovernment side drives a lot of
it during the beginning of theyear usually. And then it's a
lot of transient.
So we will pick up, in a typicalday, sometimes up to 40% in one
day of guests coming in. Wedrive everything online. They're
(14:28):
coming in as well, obviously.And so that's a massive pickup
where they're not reallyplanning it. The only time
they're really planning ahead tostay in Tallahassee is
graduations, FSU football games,and legislation.
If there's something big goingon, you'll see a lot of, you
know, the government work typeof bookings. But otherwise,
we'll have our base of, youknow, people coming in a few
(14:50):
days ahead and then day offwe'll have a major pickup just
because people are drivingthrough for whatever, you know,
wherever they're heading to. Andso now that we know that, we
also are creating our pricingstrategies accordingly because
we know that we don't reallyneed to drop our prices if we're
at 50% because there's a verygood chance we might finish at
80 plus percent by the end ofthe day. And so, like, just
(15:13):
because now on Google, we willrank really well because of our
rankings through reviews. On theother channels, we are highly
ranked as well.
So now there's that reputationthat people can trust that
they're getting a good propertywhen they're staying with us.
And so any FAST guest, we trynow to remarket obviously to
(15:36):
them. We'll start engaging themabout coming back. But it's been
a slow process of getting allthat database and kind of like
slowly working through that. Butmainly we focus on really the
paid channel on Google andtravel ads as our kind of like
getting in front of, but thenslowly we're cultivating, you
know, hey, there's an event orwhatever's going on, or there
(15:59):
might be a summer deal forlonger stays and we'll do those
things.
But we're still in theexperimenting phase right now,
seeing what's working. And wewere genuinely surprised how
much demand we got last month.So we'll see how July will
finish up for us. So far it'sbeen pretty strong still, which
July typically in Tallahassee isvery weak.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So with such high last minute pickup, how have you
handled staffing? If a week inadvance when you're putting your
shift schedule together, if theoccupancy on the books ends up
being very different than theday of. And if you could explain
a bit more about how yourpricing system accounts for that
last minute demand.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Sure. So on the staffing side, we've just seen
steady pickup. So we've justadded a few more housekeepers.
And honestly, we kept thembecause we haven't had a need to
have less hours. We wereactually running north of 90%,
so we had full staff.
And we kind of know that I mean,we use Lighthouse for our kind
(17:05):
of projection and forecasting,so we can see the demand in town
and then we see what we'redoing. So that can give us a
little bit of a boost therewhere we know what's going on
ahead of time a little bit, butbecause of how we're performing,
the demand in town doesn'treally affect us as much because
we know we're outperforming thedemand. So we're taking the
market share from our comp setthere. And so we're at full
(17:29):
staff right now. And so we justhave our crew that we are.
We thankfully haven't had todecrease hours or, you know,
like anyone go, which usuallytypically you'll have summers
will be much softer. So the GMwill usually pick up some shifts
and things like that, but wehave not seen that yet. And
typically July is very soft andthen mid August will pick up
(17:50):
heavily for move in and FSC, youschool starting and everyone
being back in town. And then onthe pricing standpoint, yeah,
mean, we just kind of set, likeI said, we use Lighthouse and,
you know, like I said, Diablokind of automates that process
for us so that I don't have towe have certain rules based on
occupancy and then we can kindof set up our floor and ceiling
(18:11):
rates. And I'll monitor that andwe'll have kind of a
understanding where we are andwe'll adjust as needed.
But it's really based off ofjust our occupancy and then also
on the comp set of what's goingon, if there's anything if
they're up performing. But sofar, it's really based on our
data just because they aren'tadjusting their rates really.
(18:31):
You know, some cities you'll seemore dynamic price changes.
Tallahassee does not do that asoften. And so we're the ones
doing a lot more of theadjusting because if we see that
we have softer demand, we willlower our price, you know,
towards the end of the day justto fill it up a little bit.
But typically, we're looking atit from a percentage basis and
then maybe adjusting a littlebit. But we try not to once now
(18:52):
that we kind of know what we'regetting towards the end of the
day, we anticipate we will getit. And so we try not to mess
with it too much.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
We've talked quite a bit about your current tech
stack. I'm curious if there areany vendors or any products on
the market that are on your wishlist that you haven't
implemented but are maybeconsidering for the future.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Nothing that really stands out right now. I mean,
everything is AI enabled, so whoknows where things are going.
But for us, I just wanted to getthe basics right. Make sure
that, you know, someone findsus, gets on the website, it
loads quick, it's simple. We'vebeen adding a little bit more
social proof on our website toshowcase that, a, we're a real
(19:34):
hotel, the Bob Hotels is justonly one of the, so a lot times
people still are very skeptical.
So the social proof for us ishuge. But yeah, for us it's
making sure that these basicswork and then it's understanding
how we can, if we're spendingtime somewhere that's very time
consuming, then I would look fora vendor that could solve that.
But right now I think we're in apretty good spot. It's just
(19:56):
understanding, you know,probably the next phase for me
is going to be, you know,understanding understanding our
budgets to really understandwhere we can cut some costs.
Maybe some of the vendors may bea little bit too much for our
property.
And especially if we know wedon't maybe need a certain
software to perform at the samelevel, we're going look at all
of those as well just becausethere's a lot of innovation
happening. You know, I'm justseeing every day there's new
announcements of different AItools and their capabilities.
(20:18):
And so that's probably prettyinteresting. We're experimenting
with AI front desk answeringservice that's initially
answering our phone calls. Andthat's been a very interesting
driver for actually direct linksto our website because a lot of
times people just wanna ask whatthe rate is, what's going on,
where can I book, and you'll getan instant text message to your
(20:38):
phone?
Boom, you can book right there.And that's actually been a
really good channel foracquisition of direct bookings
that way as well, where that wayit frees up our front desk.
Because we are running such highoccupancy, they don't get that
call. And obviously, if theguests choose to have a real
person to talk to, they just saythat, it's really simple. It's
not one of those 15 stepprocesses where you're like, can
(21:01):
I just talk to a real person?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
What's the vendor that you're using for the
Speaker 1 (21:06):
We're using GoodCall for that.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Shifting gears a bit, I'm curious to hear from you,
given your kind of freshperspective on the industry,
what would you say are one ortwo skills or characteristics
that someone should have to besuccessful in hospitality?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I mean, number one is it's a people business, right?
Like I was the GM for a fewmonths in here and you just have
to be able to connect withpeople and enjoy that process.
Because if you don't like thatprocess, definitely shouldn't be
in hospitality. That's numberone for me. You really have to
understand because everyone'scoming in, there's so many
(21:45):
different stories every daycoming into your hotel, and you
need to be able to kind of havethat good relationship with
people and the staff becauseit's, you know, you meet you
have it's such a personal thingevery day.
It's, you know, making sure thatthat's a very good experience.
And then, I mean, me, anothercharacteristic really, it's such
a dynamic environment too.There's always something new
(22:06):
happening from either it couldbe something on the operational
side or it could be a vendor. Soyou just being able to deal with
issues and fires as they come upand be able to kind of like
manage that stress in spite ofthe other one and it changes. I
mean, when we took it over as asleep in, there was different
(22:26):
type of stresses and differenttype of issues that we were
running into.
Now we've tried to elevate thisproperty. You're now creating a
really curated experience forpeople to coming in and they
really expect now a little bitsomething higher level than just
a bed. And so you really try tothen have a different
experience. So it's evershifting, but that's, I mean, to
me, that's a business. You haveto kinda adjust on what's going
(22:47):
on and you see what therequirements are and you have to
address those.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
So thinking about the future of BABA hotels, you
mentioned you're interested ingrowing. What would you say is
the goal for the next fiveyears?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I mean, our goal really is to find partners and
other properties that can be, Ithink, initially converted. I
think there's a lot of thesetype of properties out there
that are a little bit older,they might not know what really
to do with it, and we're kind ofshowing the playbook of how to
level up an older property. Andso for us, it's finding those
type of, both from, you know,we're right now trying to
(23:24):
acquire ourselves as our group,but we've been approached to
potentially franchise thisconcept or have conversations
that way as well. I thinkinitially we probably want to
have a few more of these just tobe able to have a real playbook
of how we want to expand and howwe, you know, what tech stacks
can be the final one, or atleast we know exactly if you
open one, to do it efficiently.But those are the plans right
(23:47):
now.
We have two properties thatwe're looking at in Florida
that, you know, would beinteresting for us just because
they are older and, know, need alot of work. But I think that's
the niche that we're sitting in,where we can come in, have a
good acquisition price, and thenwe have a hopefully a low
renovation cost as well. Currentenvironment is a little iffy,
but hopefully we can get goodprice again on this one. And
(24:08):
that's how we're approaching itinitially to understand this
first year was really a lot ofquestions being answered and
then how we want to run thistype of property. And now it's
really, okay, now that we feellike we have some answers, how
do we want to expand?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Before we wrap up, I'd like to ask this question at
the end because sometimes thereare some hot takes. Curious,
what is one thing you believeabout technology in the hotel
space that your peers orcompetitors might disagree with?
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I think being an outsider coming in, I think a
lot of the bigger companies inthe space will need to really
level up. I think a lot of theincumbents just don't have
products that aren't that good,or they're priced extremely high
for levels that maybe don't makesense for what they actually
deliver. Because I've, you know,tested a lot of them and I think
(24:59):
that's one of the reasons mostof the companies, except for one
or two, are startups or veryyounger companies that we're
using just because they tryharder. If not the CEO, I can
talk to the almost the CEO. Italked to a few of the other
incumbents, and I honestly don'tthink the sales guys knew their
own product.
I think I asked more questionsabout their product than they
(25:22):
knew. And so I think that'sprobably the biggest thing that
I've seen in this industry. Youknow, coming in and outsider, I
think there's a lot ofopportunity for younger
companies to come in and takemarket share just from what I've
seen so far.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Well, thank you so much for your time, Janis. It
was so great chatting with youand really excited to see where
Bob Hotels goes over the nextcouple years.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Thank you, Adrian. Thanks for having me
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Thanks for listening to Hotel Tech Insider produced
by hotel tech report dot com.Our goal with this podcast is to
show you how the best in thebusiness are leveraging
technology to grow theirproperties and outperform the
concept by using innovativedigital tools and strategies. I
encourage all of our listenersto go try at least one of these
strategies or tools that youlearned from today's episode.
(26:09):
Successful digitaltransformation is all about
consistent small experimentsover a long period of time, so
don't wait until tomorrow to trysomething new. Do you know a
hotelier who would be great tofeature on this show, or do you
think that your story wouldbring a lot of value to our
audience?
Reach out to me directly onLinkedIn by searching for Jordan
Hollander. For more episodeslike this, follow Hotel Tech
(26:32):
Insider on all major streamingplatforms like Spotify and Apple
Music.
We made sure that every review, we'd know what's
going on, especially early on tomake sure, like, anytime there's
a bad experience from what'sgoing on, we know what's going
on and how we can fix thatsituation. And then now it's
really maintaining thatthroughout the process.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Today, we're talking with Janus Krums, the managing
director of Bob Hotels, whichcurrently operates one fully
renovated former roadside motelin Tallahassee, Florida under
the ethos of boutique on budget.If that doesn't sound compelling
enough, you'll want to listen tothis episode to learn about
Bob's intuitive AI phoneanswering service and smart
(00:44):
social media campaign that builtbrand awareness with a local
university. Well, hello, Yanis.Thank you so much for joining us
for today's episode of thepodcast. I would love to start
by hearing a little intro fromyourself.
So if you could please introduceus, tell me your role, the
company you work for, and we'llgo from there.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Sounds good. Thanks for having me on. Excited to
share the story of Hotels. Yeah.So my name is Janis Krumbs and
I'm the managing partner at BobHotels Boutique on Budget.
Our first hotel we just openedactually almost a year ago in
Tallahassee, which was a sleepin that we had purchased a year
before and did a full renovationof it and created this concept.
(01:28):
And so we've created this as thefirst prototype and now the goal
is to expand the brand.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
And do you just manage the one property right
now?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Currently, it's only one, but we're in the process of
we have about three right nowthat we're looking at as
prospects, negotiating thattrying to find the next one. And
so hopefully next time we speak,we'll have a few more, but now
that we have one under the belt,I mean, the first six months
really was just understandingwhat's working, what's not,
trying to get everythingstreamlined from an operational
(01:59):
standpoint, from a vendorstandpoint, all those kinds of
things. And so now that we'rekind of, you know, almost a year
in, now we're having those talksabout expansion.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Can you tell me a bit about what makes your property
different than competitors? Canyou also explain what boutique
on a budget means?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Sure thing. So, I mean, our inspiration was my
wife and I were on a road trip,I think it was during COVID, and
we stayed at some of theseroadside places, and they were
dangerous, they were not thatcheap, they weren't clean. And
so we just thought like thiscan't be the state of things
roadside. I mean, there's a lotof good products downtown. There
just aren't great budget optionsout there that we thought,
(02:38):
especially in that Motel sixsleep in type of categories that
are, you know, you just want toquickly come in for one night
and just feel good about yourstay.
And that was the initialinspiration. We did a little
study of what's out there, andwe really thought there's a lot
of these properties that areowned for ten, twenty years,
haven't been updated that much,or they've done the bare
(02:59):
minimum, and they just kind ofexist. And there's a culture
that still uses them, but, youknow, by and large, they're kind
of you don't know what theseowners are going to do with them
because they're really kind oflost in some ways. And so we
found this property that wasbuilt in 'ninety two, needed a
lot of work, and it was one ofthose deals where, you know, it
should have probably beendeflagged or flagged to
(03:21):
something else because it was,you know, in really rough shape
and there was really no exitfrom that owner, right? We were
that savior who could come inand actually do something with
it because we had a vision oftrying to do something, but I
don't think anyone else wouldcome in and actually wanna put
money in and keep it asleep in,let's say.
And so we came in and had thisidea of like having, first off,
we want to have fun design, wewanted to make sure, you know,
(03:42):
it's something that actuallycatches your eye. So the brand,
it's memorable, you're gonnaremember the name, you're gonna
remember the experience. Theinspiration to us was CitizenM,
Virgin, twenty five Hour Hotel,those type of hotels from
Europe. I'm from Latviaoriginally, my wife's French, so
we kind of have a lot of thosebackground from Europe. And we
saw that there's a lot of thosetype of properties in Europe and
(04:04):
not a lot in The US, especiallyin the budget side.
So that was the initial kind ofinspiration. And so then we
geared and create the brandaround that. So we really want
to make sure it can bereplicated. So if it's something
that can be, you know, now thatwe have won, we could actually
now have a playbook of how do wedo this in other locations where
let's say, 90% is kind of like,there's a playbook, then if you
(04:25):
go to another location, you cankind of create that localized
feel around it. We're not gonnago, you know, full graduate
where it's gonna be all in onone location.
That's not gonna be ourplaybook, but we're gonna be a
little bit more than the genericbrands that are popping up right
now where, you know, you couldinterchange the names and the
logos and you probably wouldn'tknow the difference. And so that
was the initial one. It's gonnabe using technologies to make
(04:47):
sure that our experience withthe guests, the booking
experience to the arrivalexperience, the checkout
experience, it is more seamlessthan a lot of the other options.
And then it's gonna be thestaff. We're training our staff
to really have a differentmentality than most budget
places, most budget hotels have.
It's gonna be more high levelstar rating than what it's
(05:09):
expected. And that's thefeedback we've gotten so far.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So I can imagine you're certainly using tech on a
different level than the averageroadside motel might use it.
What would you say is your mostcritical technology partner
right now?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
We're trying to use every vendor that we're using as
kind of modern. We were in thesystem with choice, and I think
they haven't updated things in acouple decades. So, to us, we
wanted to make sure that, firstoff, it's intuitive from a user
perspective. So, our website'son Webflow, you know, quickly,
easy to change. I can editthings really quickly.
(05:46):
I don't need a developer to makequick changes. Our booking
engine, we're using Olive, whichis a startup that's a couple of
years old, but their whole pitchis trying to eliminate
unnecessary steps. So, youshould be able to book a room
with the goal is three clicks,right? Like we just want to make
it as super easy as possible.And the PMS we're using is a
(06:06):
stay in touch and it's anothervery straightforward for our
staff.
And so, those have been theforward facing well, guess Olive
is more forward facing than stayin touch, but stay in touch kind
of powers the back endobviously. And the other part is
really the communication that Imentioned before with guests,
because I think that's for us,we need to know if there's an
issue with the guests, you know,checking in, whatever's going
(06:28):
on, our GM needs to know, ourfront desk needs to know. And so
we use IKEA for text messaging,making sure that there's a pre
arrival guide. Once theycheck-in, there's another text
message that comes out tellingthem about the property and any
issues they might have. And sowe want to make sure that during
that experience, if there issomething our GM will see any
negative issues and they willreach out directly.
(06:50):
And that's been super helpful. Imean, over this year we have now
on Google over 1,100 reviews.We're rated 4.8 on Google, where
we went from, you know, nonexistent on TripAdvisor to the
number two rated and number onevalue property in Tallahassee in
less than a year. And that'sreally about just kind of
surprising our guests becausewhen they come in and they pay
(07:13):
usually between $80 and $120they don't expect much just
because of the experiences theymight have had in other
locations and other type ofhotels. And we've been compared
to a Disney, a Chick fil A wherethey really feel like the staff
actually cares about the guests.
And that's been the biggestdriver for training and making
(07:36):
sure that our employeesunderstand that, that this is
not just, you know, you can'thave your headphones in and
looking at your phone whileyou're checking somebody. And
you know, you gotta make sureyou're actually engaging with
that person. And it could bejust as simple as, you know,
how's your day? And you justcheck them in without, you know,
a lot of conversations, but it'smaking sure that they understand
that they actually are beingseen. And so those are probably
the biggest things that we'vekind of emphasized during our
(07:59):
operations.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Talk me through your mentality composing your tech
stack. It sounds like you hadthe unique experience to kind of
start from scratch once theChoice systems were out of
there. How did you go aboutshopping for vendors, doing
demos? What was your thinkingthere as you're building your
ideal tech stack?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I mean, as kind of an outsider, my background was in
tech but not in hospitality. SoI used some contacts that are in
the industry. I used, you know,Hotel Tech Report. I used other
sites just to kind of understandwhat's out there and what's
recommended, and also try tostreamline the process as much
as possible. From reservationsto, you know, optimizing
(08:41):
marketing to messaging, allthose kind of things.
So initially, obviously itstarts with the PMS, and so we
experimented with conversationswith a few of the, you know, the
biggest players, the CloudViz,the Muse, the those type of
PMSs. I ended up sticking withStay In Touch, and that's been a
very good experience. Theircustomer service has been great.
(09:03):
Their employee experience hasbeen really good, and they're
very responsive. And so alsofrom a trainings perspective,
it's been very easy for ourstaff to come in and really
understand the systems becausethey're pretty intuitive.
If there have been anotherlegacy flag properties, pretty
quickly within a couple hours oftraining, they already know
what's going on. So that wasnumber one. And then to me,
number two was visibility. So Iwant to make sure that we can
(09:27):
see, you know, a property can beseen properly and that we can
market and get out there,especially as a brand new
product. So initially we weredefinitely leaning heavily on
the OTAs just because we had nobrand equity, nobody knew who we
were, so we were making surethat we could at least be seen
there and make sure there's alot of deals out there.
So that was kind of like ourinitial push to just get people
(09:47):
in the door. That led to revenuemanagement. We actually ended up
going with Diamo, and they'vebeen a partner since opening,
and they obviously had a littlebit of restructuring, but
they're coming out of thatpretty strong. And they also do
digital marketing as well. Soyou can work with them to push
the meta search, the, you know,SEO, SEM, OT, you know, travel
(10:09):
ads, all that through theirplatform, which is pretty nice
just to not have to worry aboutthem.
You can see your performancethrough their platform as well.
And we've been doing really wellthere once we started going
through our after a couplemonths of visibility, our travel
ads were performing north of 30xROAS and our search, we were
20x, which I think industrystandard's about 6x. Those are
(10:32):
really the tech stack that we'reusing now. Really, the first six
months, was awareness. I mean,on Expedia, pretty quickly we
got recognized as a VIP hotel,actually I think the only one in
Tallahassee.
And so we were, you know,featured prominently on search
results. Mean, so all thosesmall things, we made sure that
every review we know what'sgoing on, especially early on to
(10:55):
make sure like anytime there's abad experience or what's going
on, we know what's going on andhow we can fix that situation.
And then now it's reallymaintaining that throughout the
process. And another thing thatwe do is we use Jot forms for
our shifts so that every shiftwe know if there is an issue
coming in from the front desk orwhen anything our GM gets an
update every eight hours aswell, every shift. So it's like,
(11:18):
so that way all the managementteam, everybody is understanding
how what's performing, what'snot performing.
And if there's an issue we needto address, we're all aware of
it. So it's kind of hands on,but at the same time, we're now
kind of automated a lot of notautomated, but like we've
created processes in place sothat it's not overwhelming. It's
just quickly understanding ifthere's a problem from a staff
(11:39):
perspective or from anoperations perspective or from
property level where we need tomaintenance or whatever, we can
pretty quickly address it andtake care of it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So you mentioned the focus on guest reviews. Are you
using any reputation managementsystem or how do you and your
team ingest reviews, read them,and then perform any appropriate
follow-up?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
We use guest review for just an aggregate, and they
do a good job of just kind ofshowing us what's going on.
Price point wise, they're reallygood compared to some of the
other legacy companies. So theywere kind of a no brainer for
what they do and what they froma cost perspective. And then
otherwise, we have sometemplates and things of how to
(12:26):
answer questions. Initially, wewere very hands on at the
management level, but now we'vegiven the reins over a little
bit to our staff to be able toanswer with a certain Bob Flair.
If you go on our Google reviews,you'll know what I mean. Just to
kind of have some fun there. Andso we've created some frameworks
that they follow of how toanswer. Number one is being
(12:48):
respectful, but if there'ssomeone who's being very
unreasonable, we might call themout on it. Because as we all
know, hospitality has a lot ofcharacters and sometimes, they
might not be always right.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You mentioned for the first two months, actually,
hotel opened that you were quitereliant on OTAs, third party
channels. Can you talk methrough how you built up your
direct channel? And if you couldshare your channel mix as well,
what percentage of reservationscome direct versus through OTAs?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, I mean, we were very heavily on OTAs. I mean, I
would probably say we wereprobably like first few months,
70% probably OTAs. We're nowslowly getting to more closer to
50% direct and hopefully fast,you know, climbing that. But
really it's gonna be the brand.What we've done is we use the
revenue for our CRM and guestcommunication.
(13:42):
And so we will do, especially inthe summer, initially we thought
summer was gonna be very slow,but actually we've been last
month we finished at 94%occupied in June, so it was not
very slow. So we've done someemail marketing, things like
that, but it's just been aprocess of slowly kind of
creating this because we reallydon't have a brand yet that
(14:05):
people know about. And soreally, people who come through
Tallahassee, if they're comingto Tallahassee, typically it's
either going to be for FSU orFlorida A and M. FSU obviously
drives a lot of that, and on thegovernment side drives a lot of
it during the beginning of theyear usually. And then it's a
lot of transient.
So we will pick up, in a typicalday, sometimes up to 40% in one
day of guests coming in. Wedrive everything online. They're
(14:28):
coming in as well, obviously.And so that's a massive pickup
where they're not reallyplanning it. The only time
they're really planning ahead tostay in Tallahassee is
graduations, FSU football games,and legislation.
If there's something big goingon, you'll see a lot of, you
know, the government work typeof bookings. But otherwise,
we'll have our base of, youknow, people coming in a few
(14:50):
days ahead and then day offwe'll have a major pickup just
because people are drivingthrough for whatever, you know,
wherever they're heading to. Andso now that we know that, we
also are creating our pricingstrategies accordingly because
we know that we don't reallyneed to drop our prices if we're
at 50% because there's a verygood chance we might finish at
80 plus percent by the end ofthe day. And so, like, just
(15:13):
because now on Google, we willrank really well because of our
rankings through reviews. On theother channels, we are highly
ranked as well.
So now there's that reputationthat people can trust that
they're getting a good propertywhen they're staying with us.
And so any FAST guest, we trynow to remarket obviously to
(15:36):
them. We'll start engaging themabout coming back. But it's been
a slow process of getting allthat database and kind of like
slowly working through that. Butmainly we focus on really the
paid channel on Google andtravel ads as our kind of like
getting in front of, but thenslowly we're cultivating, you
know, hey, there's an event orwhatever's going on, or there
(15:59):
might be a summer deal forlonger stays and we'll do those
things.
But we're still in theexperimenting phase right now,
seeing what's working. And wewere genuinely surprised how
much demand we got last month.So we'll see how July will
finish up for us. So far it'sbeen pretty strong still, which
July typically in Tallahassee isvery weak.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So with such high last minute pickup, how have you
handled staffing? If a week inadvance when you're putting your
shift schedule together, if theoccupancy on the books ends up
being very different than theday of. And if you could explain
a bit more about how yourpricing system accounts for that
last minute demand.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Sure. So on the staffing side, we've just seen
steady pickup. So we've justadded a few more housekeepers.
And honestly, we kept thembecause we haven't had a need to
have less hours. We wereactually running north of 90%,
so we had full staff.
And we kind of know that I mean,we use Lighthouse for our kind
(17:05):
of projection and forecasting,so we can see the demand in town
and then we see what we'redoing. So that can give us a
little bit of a boost therewhere we know what's going on
ahead of time a little bit, butbecause of how we're performing,
the demand in town doesn'treally affect us as much because
we know we're outperforming thedemand. So we're taking the
market share from our comp setthere. And so we're at full
(17:29):
staff right now. And so we justhave our crew that we are.
We thankfully haven't had todecrease hours or, you know,
like anyone go, which usuallytypically you'll have summers
will be much softer. So the GMwill usually pick up some shifts
and things like that, but wehave not seen that yet. And
typically July is very soft andthen mid August will pick up
(17:50):
heavily for move in and FSC, youschool starting and everyone
being back in town. And then onthe pricing standpoint, yeah,
mean, we just kind of set, likeI said, we use Lighthouse and,
you know, like I said, Diablokind of automates that process
for us so that I don't have towe have certain rules based on
occupancy and then we can kindof set up our floor and ceiling
(18:11):
rates. And I'll monitor that andwe'll have kind of a
understanding where we are andwe'll adjust as needed.
But it's really based off ofjust our occupancy and then also
on the comp set of what's goingon, if there's anything if
they're up performing. But sofar, it's really based on our
data just because they aren'tadjusting their rates really.
(18:31):
You know, some cities you'll seemore dynamic price changes.
Tallahassee does not do that asoften. And so we're the ones
doing a lot more of theadjusting because if we see that
we have softer demand, we willlower our price, you know,
towards the end of the day justto fill it up a little bit.
But typically, we're looking atit from a percentage basis and
then maybe adjusting a littlebit. But we try not to once now
(18:52):
that we kind of know what we'regetting towards the end of the
day, we anticipate we will getit. And so we try not to mess
with it too much.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
We've talked quite a bit about your current tech
stack. I'm curious if there areany vendors or any products on
the market that are on your wishlist that you haven't
implemented but are maybeconsidering for the future.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Nothing that really stands out right now. I mean,
everything is AI enabled, so whoknows where things are going.
But for us, I just wanted to getthe basics right. Make sure
that, you know, someone findsus, gets on the website, it
loads quick, it's simple. We'vebeen adding a little bit more
social proof on our website toshowcase that, a, we're a real
(19:34):
hotel, the Bob Hotels is justonly one of the, so a lot times
people still are very skeptical.
So the social proof for us ishuge. But yeah, for us it's
making sure that these basicswork and then it's understanding
how we can, if we're spendingtime somewhere that's very time
consuming, then I would look fora vendor that could solve that.
But right now I think we're in apretty good spot. It's just
(19:56):
understanding, you know,probably the next phase for me
is going to be, you know,understanding understanding our
budgets to really understandwhere we can cut some costs.
Maybe some of the vendors may bea little bit too much for our
property.
And especially if we know wedon't maybe need a certain
software to perform at the samelevel, we're going look at all
of those as well just becausethere's a lot of innovation
happening. You know, I'm justseeing every day there's new
announcements of different AItools and their capabilities.
(20:18):
And so that's probably prettyinteresting. We're experimenting
with AI front desk answeringservice that's initially
answering our phone calls. Andthat's been a very interesting
driver for actually direct linksto our website because a lot of
times people just wanna ask whatthe rate is, what's going on,
where can I book, and you'll getan instant text message to your
(20:38):
phone?
Boom, you can book right there.And that's actually been a
really good channel foracquisition of direct bookings
that way as well, where that wayit frees up our front desk.
Because we are running such highoccupancy, they don't get that
call. And obviously, if theguests choose to have a real
person to talk to, they just saythat, it's really simple. It's
not one of those 15 stepprocesses where you're like, can
(21:01):
I just talk to a real person?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
What's the vendor that you're using for the
Speaker 1 (21:06):
We're using GoodCall for that.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Shifting gears a bit, I'm curious to hear from you,
given your kind of freshperspective on the industry,
what would you say are one ortwo skills or characteristics
that someone should have to besuccessful in hospitality?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I mean, number one is it's a people business, right?
Like I was the GM for a fewmonths in here and you just have
to be able to connect withpeople and enjoy that process.
Because if you don't like thatprocess, definitely shouldn't be
in hospitality. That's numberone for me. You really have to
understand because everyone'scoming in, there's so many
(21:45):
different stories every daycoming into your hotel, and you
need to be able to kind of havethat good relationship with
people and the staff becauseit's, you know, you meet you
have it's such a personal thingevery day.
It's, you know, making sure thatthat's a very good experience.
And then, I mean, me, anothercharacteristic really, it's such
a dynamic environment too.There's always something new
(22:06):
happening from either it couldbe something on the operational
side or it could be a vendor. Soyou just being able to deal with
issues and fires as they come upand be able to kind of like
manage that stress in spite ofthe other one and it changes. I
mean, when we took it over as asleep in, there was different
(22:26):
type of stresses and differenttype of issues that we were
running into.
Now we've tried to elevate thisproperty. You're now creating a
really curated experience forpeople to coming in and they
really expect now a little bitsomething higher level than just
a bed. And so you really try tothen have a different
experience. So it's evershifting, but that's, I mean, to
me, that's a business. You haveto kinda adjust on what's going
(22:47):
on and you see what therequirements are and you have to
address those.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
So thinking about the future of BABA hotels, you
mentioned you're interested ingrowing. What would you say is
the goal for the next fiveyears?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I mean, our goal really is to find partners and
other properties that can be, Ithink, initially converted. I
think there's a lot of thesetype of properties out there
that are a little bit older,they might not know what really
to do with it, and we're kind ofshowing the playbook of how to
level up an older property. Andso for us, it's finding those
type of, both from, you know,we're right now trying to
(23:24):
acquire ourselves as our group,but we've been approached to
potentially franchise thisconcept or have conversations
that way as well. I thinkinitially we probably want to
have a few more of these just tobe able to have a real playbook
of how we want to expand and howwe, you know, what tech stacks
can be the final one, or atleast we know exactly if you
open one, to do it efficiently.But those are the plans right
(23:47):
now.
We have two properties thatwe're looking at in Florida
that, you know, would beinteresting for us just because
they are older and, know, need alot of work. But I think that's
the niche that we're sitting in,where we can come in, have a
good acquisition price, and thenwe have a hopefully a low
renovation cost as well. Currentenvironment is a little iffy,
but hopefully we can get goodprice again on this one. And
(24:08):
that's how we're approaching itinitially to understand this
first year was really a lot ofquestions being answered and
then how we want to run thistype of property. And now it's
really, okay, now that we feellike we have some answers, how
do we want to expand?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Before we wrap up, I'd like to ask this question at
the end because sometimes thereare some hot takes. Curious,
what is one thing you believeabout technology in the hotel
space that your peers orcompetitors might disagree with?
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I think being an outsider coming in, I think a
lot of the bigger companies inthe space will need to really
level up. I think a lot of theincumbents just don't have
products that aren't that good,or they're priced extremely high
for levels that maybe don't makesense for what they actually
deliver. Because I've, you know,tested a lot of them and I think
(24:59):
that's one of the reasons mostof the companies, except for one
or two, are startups or veryyounger companies that we're
using just because they tryharder. If not the CEO, I can
talk to the almost the CEO. Italked to a few of the other
incumbents, and I honestly don'tthink the sales guys knew their
own product.
I think I asked more questionsabout their product than they
(25:22):
knew. And so I think that'sprobably the biggest thing that
I've seen in this industry. Youknow, coming in and outsider, I
think there's a lot ofopportunity for younger
companies to come in and takemarket share just from what I've
seen so far.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Well, thank you so much for your time, Janis. It
was so great chatting with youand really excited to see where
Bob Hotels goes over the nextcouple years.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Thank you, Adrian. Thanks for having me
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Thanks for listening to Hotel Tech Insider produced
by hotel tech report dot com.Our goal with this podcast is to
show you how the best in thebusiness are leveraging
technology to grow theirproperties and outperform the
concept by using innovativedigital tools and strategies. I
encourage all of our listenersto go try at least one of these
strategies or tools that youlearned from today's episode.
(26:09):
Successful digitaltransformation is all about
consistent small experimentsover a long period of time, so
don't wait until tomorrow to trysomething new. Do you know a
hotelier who would be great tofeature on this show, or do you
think that your story wouldbring a lot of value to our
audience?
Reach out to me directly onLinkedIn by searching for Jordan
Hollander. For more episodeslike this, follow Hotel Tech
(26:32):
Insider on all major streamingplatforms like Spotify and Apple
Music.
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