April 12, 2025 • 52 mins
✅ What Are The BIG Changes Happening In Hotel Industry NOW
In this episode of the Social Hotelier podcast, host Sam-Erik Ruttmann speaks with Rocco Bova, a seasoned hotelier and founder of the Summit Mexicano de la Hospitalidad. Rocco shares his journey in the hospitality industry, his love for Mexico, and the cultural richness he has experienced.
They discuss the importance of hospitality education, the evolving role of technology in the industry, and how guest preferences have changed post-pandemic.
Rocco emphasizes the need for a balance between technology and human interaction in hospitality. Sam-Erik Ruttmann and Rocco Bova delve into the evolving landscape of the hospitality industry,
✅ focusing on the balance between technology and the human touch,
✅ The challenges of recruitment,
✅ The significance of personal branding and
✅ Emerging trends such as the rise of boutique hotels.
✅ They discuss the impact of technology on staffing and guest interactions,
✅ The shortcomings of current recruitment processes, and
✅ The importance of authenticity in personal branding for professionals entering the industry.
This is more than a podcast. It’s a wake-up call. If you're in hospitality, you can’t afford to miss it. Buckle up for a no-nonsense, passionate discussion packed with hard truths, future trends, and personal revelations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Social Hotelier
podcast with me, Sam Eric Rittman.
Today's guest is Rocco Bova, a globally seasoned
hotelier
and visionary founder of the summit Mexicano de
la Hospitalidad,
Mexico's premier hospitality forum created by hoteliers for
hoteliers.
With an extensive leadership background across luxury brands,
(00:24):
including Aman,
Chablis, and Saint Regis,
Rocco brings decades of experience in hospitality development,
strategic operations,
and innovative tourism ventures.
As the creative force behind my humble house,
he's reshaping the industry
through a luxury social enterprise mode.
Currently consulting across Mexico,
(00:45):
Rocco is an influential thought leader, passionately driven,
purpose lead hospitality. So welcome, Rocco, and thanks
for joining us today.
Good morning, Sam.
It's very humbling, you know, when you hear
your story
from, from other people.
Thank you for such a beautiful
description of, of what I've done so far.
(01:07):
I'm very
very proud. At the same time, very happy
too. Nice to be with you again.
Likewise, Rocco. It's always a pleasure, and,
I've been I've been looking forward to have
this conversation because I think we have
several topics that we could cover, but I
think we I realized that what we're gonna
talk about today is about maybe some three
topics. And we don't get even to the
(01:29):
humble house part of maybe touching a little
bit about your
initiative about,
the summit Mexicano de la Hospitalitar. We can
touch a little bit on that just to
give a glimpse because everybody has
now are listening in. And, you are you
are you are very active. And we just
before we started
recording this episode, you mentioned that,
(01:51):
you're waking up,
5AM,
and you during the first hour or between
between eight and nine, you already have your
first calls with either friends in the industry
or your coaching or your advising. So
I'm I'm impressed about your diligence in this,
this work. But, maybe you could just get
started a little bit about
your your your journey in hospitality. I mean,
(02:14):
I mentioned the brands, but, how how long
have you been in Mexico, for instance? That
would be interesting for me to know. I
don't even know that.
In fact, Sam, Mexico has been, kind of
a a place, that I was,
hoping to visit at some point.
One of my best friend actually married to
a Mexican
woman
(02:34):
some thirty years back, and she was actually
the one telling me, you must go to
Mexico, Rocco. You will love it.
Well, thirty years later, I came to Mexico
eventually, and I think I fell in love.
And,
and I've been here now for a little
bit more than eight years, and truly is
a magical, place. I I enjoy living here.
(02:54):
I enjoy the culture.
The astronomy,
of course, is great.
History.
But most of all, I think the people.
You know, Mexican people are very,
very beautiful people. You know? I I feel
home here. It's the first time in my
in my career and also living in different
countries
around the world that I actually feel
(03:17):
one one of the community. I don't feel
a foreigner
living in a in a foreign country.
I feel like,
I'm I'm I'm Italian, but I'm very welcome
to be Italian
in Mexico. So
it's great to be here. And, also, Mexico
gave me so many so many things. I
not so much only my my career, but
also gave me opportunity to meet some fantastic
(03:38):
people. So, you know, I am continuing my
my journey,
you know, to develop and help this country
to continue to grow.
Wonderful.
I think that, I haven't I haven't had
the had the opportunity
to visit Mexico. It obviously obviously on on
on a list place to to visit, and
we have very limited limited view of of
(04:01):
Mexico. I mean, and a very, very limited
view of of the gastronomy. I mean, it's
it's only sort of the sort of the,
the what has come through United States that
we see particularly here in in Northern Europe.
So I love food. I love good food.
So I think this is a I must
come and visit you one of these days
and to you can take me out to
show me a little bit around what what
real Mexican food is all about.
(04:23):
It will be a pleasure, Samuel. You will
be surprised as I was,
you know, to discover the many, many dishes,
particularly
indigenous
dishes. You know, a lot of the gastronomy
is actually still based on
food that was that was eaten,
you know, hundreds of years ago. You know?
So so, you know, in fact,
(04:44):
the the gastronomy of Mexico is part of
the
UNESCO,
heritage because,
they still after, you know, several hundred years,
they still use the same ingredient as they
were using then today. You know? So,
if we call,
beans,
onions,
(05:04):
corn, you know, these are the basic ingredient
of the cuisine
that still today,
this is the basic ingredient to use. So
any kitchen you go, you will always find
this four, five
ingredient.
K. Very good. So,
I actually I I need to ask you
about this, this latest initiative about the summit
(05:25):
summit.
Could you share a little bit of what
because quite recent that you started, so I
was very curious to see,
how it get started, and how was the
first
event that you held event that you held?
It's true, Sam. You see, the past four
years, I I
started to work as a consultant, as an
independent consultant.
(05:46):
And frankly speaking, you know, I'm doing pretty
well. You know, I was you were surprised
that,
you know, as a first timer, you begin
a a new business and things have worked
pretty well. So I'm very happy at the
moment, you know, to have changed a little
bit in my career.
Still the same industry, but a different way
of working.
And so what I do, basically, I help
(06:08):
developers,
owners, or or
hoteliers to bring their property to the next
level, particularly if they want to bring it
to a luxury level. You know? That's that's
where I focus. And my focus is more
into
boutique hotels.
At the same time, I was participating
to many events, many conferences around Mexico, and,
(06:29):
I discovered after a couple of years that
there was no forum
where hoteliers
can actually learn
and and understand what the trends
are and what they, you know, solution to
problems, you know, to real life problems.
And so I said to myself, maybe one
day I should organize this event myself.
(06:52):
So around a year ago,
a a colleague and also a friend,
over a coffee, he told me, Rocco, what
do you think we organize
a a conference?
Oh my god. And so, you know, the
the spark came to my eyes, and I
told him, listen. I've been thinking about this
for, like, for two or three years.
Of course of course, we should do it.
(07:13):
So if you're in,
I can put together a team in no
time, and, and we can start.
So we started with six,
members. Okay? We started with six members.
And,
you know, after a a couple of months,
we began losing some of the members. We
we stayed three three of us. So it's
(07:33):
myself,
Adolfo Tunon,
and Francisco Lugo.
So we are three three members of the
company,
and we we have started this journey to
launch,
well, create first, you know, the brand and
the concept, then prepare the program, and then
start to to commercially
(07:54):
sell,
the event.
Initially, to be honest, we started like a
a bunch of friends are doing a conference.
You know?
But then became very quickly became
too good
to just keep it as a simple conference
between
colleagues.
So, you know, my first, invited speakers actually
(08:15):
was, Braulio Arzuaga.
He's the CEO of Grupo Presidente.
Nothing more than the CEO. So when you
start with that as a keynote speakers,
the rest of the speakers and panelists, you
need to bring them to
similar level. You cannot
go lower than that. So and then one
carried the other one, and then we we
(08:37):
got people from four season, from one and
only, from Chablis, obviously, and, you know, my
ex company.
We had people from Grupo Presidente, from Grupo
Posadas, which is the second most important group
also in Mexico and actually the largest hotel
operator in, in Mexico.
And,
you know, and then started the sponsors
(08:59):
started to call me and contact me and
say, Rocco, we want to participate. We want
to help you. So we had companies like
Amadeus,
Shiji,
FCS from Singapore. We're an even company from
Singapore.
So
it it became a lot more than just
a simple conference.
And, the first event, we had a 81
(09:21):
participant.
181.
We were expecting only 20.
So we we nearly went 50%
more than what we were expecting.
We had more than 30 journalists from the
region.
We had Hotels magazine
also as the main press
sponsor.
(09:41):
Hotels magazine is, you know, the most important
magazine
in the world.
I mean, it it was just amazing. So,
it was very emotional, to be honest, also,
when, when we finished this event,
because, you know, it was, it was hard
work definitely,
but the result obviously
(10:01):
very evident. And, next year, we're actually doubling
the number of days. You know, for one
day conference is gonna be a two days
conference.
And,
and we are we are looking at at
around 50 speakers over two days. So it's
gonna be it's gonna be quite intense
also talking you know, you were telling me
about your conference in, in Germany.
(10:24):
It's probably gonna be similar to that
next year. Yeah. I mean, it's it's very
intensive. I mean, I have never organized such
a event, but I I just been part
of them in this particular event in Berlin
last week.
I saw the team. There must have been
some 25 people in their organization,
how they do it. And,
and I can imagine if you're starting us
(10:45):
with a a few friends together putting a
a event for hoteliers, but by hoteliers, that's
one thing. But now you're you're
elevating it to
a two day event, and, there's a lot
of thing lot of details that goes into
the logistics
to make everything work. So, I mean,
you know, bravo. I mean, congratulations that you
had a good start, and now you're ready
(11:07):
for the moving it to the next level
next level. Absolutely. We're definitely working on the
on this already now, and,
we are putting together an incredible program.
We are bringing very interesting
people as a speaker or panelist. So I'm
very, very excited also just to just for
me to get in touch with certain people
(11:28):
is already
bring joy, you know, and and,
excitement to see what is gonna what is
gonna be the next event.
Very good. So let's let the let touch
a little bit on the the kind of
topics that we were
thinking about discussing today. And,
one one of the thing is is the
education,
hospitality education,
(11:49):
and and the and the hotel schools.
Schools. I think we both have we both
have We have gone through the you have
gone through this, the formal education in hospitality,
so have I have I. And, if I
look back back
to my education,
what I remember from taking back that, I
I remember I have a diploma, but, actually,
I had to learn everything else everything else
(12:11):
after I graduated. It was only just a
a certification that,
okay. Sam Eric has graduated from this and
this and this,
college, and then and that gave me the
opportunity to find a job find a job.
But but, you know, the four year program
program
and considering how the industry has changed changed
dramatically from the analog era to digital, and
(12:33):
now we have we have artificial intelligence or
intelligence
assistance or whatever you want to call it.
It has gone such a long way, and
also also the jobs has changed. So
has the hotel schools,
are they up to up to date with
what's going on? Are they preparing the preparing
the students for the real life real life?
(12:55):
It's, it's actually great that you asked me
this question, Sam. So
I was probably not
not like you that I had to go
through a four years,
school program.
What I did in my in my career,
my early in my early career,
(13:15):
I actually would start working.
So I had the experience,
but I I I missed this
piece of paper, you know, the the the
piece of diploma that you need, you know,
to hang on the wall.
But definitely
is gonna is gonna be necessary
for you to get a job after because
people will ask you, okay. Which school did
(13:35):
you did you attend? Then you must have
an answer. So I was lucky that,
in the mid nineties when I was in
London,
the at the time called the HCIMA,
today is called the Institute of Hospitality,
created a course
which was only
ten, eleven months. So start in September
(13:58):
and finish in June.
And it was perfect for me because, actually,
it was a Monday to Friday, full immersion,
eight hours a day from 09:00 up to
5PM, Monday to Friday,
and over this ten ten, eleven months,
which allowed me to actually get a diploma
in hospitality management
(14:19):
and covered basically the most important topic from
food and beverage to room division to housekeeping
to finance,
etcetera, etcetera.
So
having the experience and being able to study
at the same time for me was great
because I already knew what the teacher was
going to talk about. For me, it made
a lot of sense.
(14:40):
But what made more sense, one, it was
obviously shortening time. And second, I had actually
time to work over the weekend so I
can make some money to pay my rent.
At the time, I was engaged with my
today's wife. So we were girlfriend and boyfriend.
So she also supported me also financially to
to be able to to get through. So
I was paying the rent, and she was
(15:01):
paying for the food, and everything worked out.
Actually, on the same year that I graduated,
also I got married.
And from there, I started my first job
as a restaurant manager at the Jumeirah Beach
Hotel.
All this to tell you that, for me,
it was fantastic to be able to study
only one year and to get everything so
concentrated,
(15:23):
but also already have some some experience.
What I see today is what I what
I have been seeing for the past twenty,
thirty years that I've been working this industry.
So the same hotel schools that you go
Switzerland,
Europe,
United States,
even Mexico per se, you know, Asia and
(15:43):
so on and so forth, they all provide
the same
four years program
with one year,
internship.
So you still need to study for three
years, plus you need to do two semesters
of internship somewhere in the world.
But you still need to get stuck four
years. I mean,
how difficult is to learn hospitality, really?
(16:05):
We both know that, you know, our our
industry is not rocket science.
It's very much hands on learning
and, it's very much about passion,
you know, or vocation. So you need to
be vocated to actually work in the industry,
to be service oriented,
but also to also be, you know, wise
(16:27):
and, and, and smart and, and understanding
how to run a business.
You don't need four years to learn all
that, to be honest.
But the most,
I don't know if I can use this
word, but I'm gonna use it anyway,
appalling
situation is that the majority,
if not all of the teachers
(16:49):
that teaching in in those schools,
they actually have no no recent experience in
hotels.
So how can a teacher
being already in his
late thirties,
early forties, or maybe fifties or maybe sixties
that had as a last experience maybe ten
(17:09):
or fifteen years back?
What can what can they teach it to
a young student
twenty or 21 years old?
Whatever can they teach,
the student can find online,
basically.
And so my my
my request
to whoever is listening, you know, whether it's
the director or CEO of a hotel school,
(17:32):
hospitality school around the world,
is that you should get your teacher
every year at least one or two months
internship
so that they understand what's really going on
in the world of hospitality
hands
on, not reading through books or magazine or
or online because this can be done by
a student
very easily. You don't need to pay
(17:53):
maybe up to hundred thousand dollars
for a four years course
plus accommodation and plus all the all the
views,
you know, to learn all this.
That's what is missing, I think, in my
in my opinion. One, review completely the program.
Two,
get the teacher back to work, you know,
so that actually they understand what's going on
(18:15):
in real life today. And I give you
a last example. I'm sorry if I'm taking
over
the space, but
today I've already been
three years out of work.
Three only three years. I already feel
it's not the same for me to be
a consultant
and being out of work. Although I work
closely with the operational
(18:36):
team, I'm not personally
involved in the operation.
So observing and actually being involved are two
very different things.
Yeah. Absolutely.
No. I I cannot speak for what the
teachers are like or I mean, I I
don't have the experience of,
how it is to to be a be
a student. I mean but I I it's
(18:57):
clearly
it's so true that, a lot of the
things things that,
students can get them they can get things
online, and they are you know, everything is
available available online, but I'm I'm just curious
what can be done better better to prepare
the student for for, the industry. One side
is the
the teacher themselves that they are,
(19:19):
updating themselves
in in the best possible way that they
are because the industry industry is not rocket
science, as you said, but a lot of
things are moving very quickly,
in in a way that,
how the technology
is,
advancing in in
for for hospitality, which was considered to be
always
(19:39):
the last one to to progress. But now,
there's a lot of opportunities to develop. And
then the the
the efficiency factor that all these hotels are
looking at that even on luxury level,
let's not even talk about economy and budget
where,
you have to
you are keeping a a really a minimum
(19:59):
staff, and then you are using technology
to do part of the things. Now always
the question is, there should be tech technology
left in the in the in the back
side back back of the house to support
areas and then the human in the front.
But I found, for instance, I will and
then I have to also give my 5¢.
And,
I apologize to the hotel that I stayed
(20:20):
in stayed in, but, I have to say
that I was very disappointed
that
I needed some service when I was in
the room, and I called I called press
press the this button for quick service. I
called I called, and I I I get
a bot answering me answering me.
And and then, I and then you have
to give a keyword so the bot will
respond to understand what they're gonna do.
(20:42):
In this case, it was that I I
needed something,
and and I never got an answer. I
never got the help or they're never directed
to human.
So I ended up having to take the
elevator down to reception to go to solve
my problem. And I thought that would be
unacceptable when you are international
branded hotel company that has,
and and you have you have tens of
(21:04):
thousand hotel rooms in the world. So
there's an advance and advancement, but there is
something that has doesn't click when you cannot
combine both things together. So I was very
surprised, and I and that's why I'm always
interested to see how
what need needs to be done to get
the the for the student the best possible
possible, start,
whether they have a chance to do
(21:25):
some intensive intern internships
in the areas of what they need to
do. So, I mean, what what are your
thoughts on this thoughts on this?
You know, Sam,
I think there are the the, you know,
the the
the situation is is, is pushing us to
go towards
artificial intelligence and technology. I mean, it's it's
(21:46):
just a fact.
I get it. You know? Everything is pushing
us towards this way. So it's it's kind
of a it's not a trend.
It's not a trend.
It's that the situation is pushing us. You
know? We need to go there. You know?
It's not everybody is saying, no. No. Everyone
is going there. No. No. No. Not everyone
is going there.
But
the world is pushing us towards this direction.
(22:08):
Okay?
So believe it or not, I'm still not
using any AI until today.
The only AI I use and is I've
been using this for thirty years is Google.
That's the only that's the only artificial intelligence.
I have no other application
to search for information, to think for me,
to decide for me, or to tell me
what to do. I use my brain.
(22:31):
And there are one more thing that I
that I want to tell you about, you
know, the past summit, for example.
Sunday, or the the the the yeah. I
took two or three hours of my time,
which is not not even a lot of
time. What I did, I wrote
almost 200
personal email to all the attendees
(22:51):
and all the sponsors
and all the speakers.
Almost 200 emails personally
sent one by one.
I didn't use a CRM. I didn't use
a a bot. I I did it personally
myself because I thought
that this is a a a conference
(23:14):
for human being.
I love technology, and I'm today, we are
talking through technology. Okay?
But I think we need to find a
a a balance between what technology can do
for us
and what we need to do to continue
the evolution
of of the human species. I think that
we are giving too much away to technology
(23:37):
to resolve this problem.
I'm concerned about the the the the consequences
that this technology in particular can do to
to the human
evolution.
Because
imagine, today we depend so much on technology
and on Internet.
At the day, there's no Internet.
We freeze. We don't do anything.
(23:58):
We we stop working. We stop leaving.
We go to to a restaurant hotel, the
first thing we ask is give me the
the, you know, the keywords for the for
the Internet. Yes. We don't even ask where's
the toilet and where is the no. No.
We ask for the Wi Fi first thing.
I mean,
it's
scary. So imagine if we start depending
on on on artificial intelligence
(24:20):
more and more. What happen if there is
no more artificial intelligence and we stop using
our own brain
to actually make a decision to solve a
problem.
You know? Like, you know, the problem you
have to the artificial intelligence, the boss that
answer your phone call was not able to
solve your problem. So what do we do?
You know, I I got I got locked
(24:41):
into my room. What do we do? The
bot cannot solve the problem. We need a
human being to solve this problem, not a
bot.
Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So we
we talked about the sort of the education
and the hotel school and so on. But
I think, also, one thing that has changed,
which I realized that,
the when you had when we had the
the
(25:01):
the COVID or the the epidemic,
a few years ago years ago, and it
also,
affected the many hotels that they they
they have to
speed up the the
in terms of in terms of what they
can offer the guest.
Suddenly, you had guests that don't want to
meet anyone at the front desk front desk.
You have always
(25:21):
sanitizing
bottles around the lobby, and they they want
to have all the keyless chicken and have
a,
do the booking, keyless chicken,
and access to the room. And without seeing
anybody or or, you know, they're wearing a
mask, but they don't want to see anybody.
They also want to go to the room
and so they feel that they are not
(25:42):
gonna catch the bug for for this flu.
But then the technology after the flu is
over,
the the technology remains. And now we have
a number of people who,
are wondering whether is this worthwhile for me
to meet a person at all or they
actually really want to see a person.
Do you see that that technology that evolved,
(26:03):
as a result result
and implemented during the
pandemic
pandemic. Now it's gonna stay on, and you
still have people who just want to have
get onto the room and,
don't want to have
don't want to and only if they have
a problem, they want to
meet a person or or or hotel want
to hotel has in the worst case scenario,
(26:24):
they have a WhatsApp group
for the hotel guest that they where they
can send a problem.
You see that human context, I'm really worried
about that it's kind of getting
limited. And and also partly it's that the
guest is demanding it, but also that hotels
are taking advantage to reduce reduce the staff
for the hotels.
You know, Sam, there will be certain countries
(26:45):
that,
for for financial reasons, obviously, they will need
to go,
they will need to go with technology
because,
you know, employing three or four people per
shift
is just too expensive. You know? There will
be some places that whether we like it
or not, the technology is gonna go
forcefully
(27:05):
into place.
Other countries, thankfully,
I I guess Mexico is one of the
one of the one of those countries.
I think still we are in this
intermediate,
you know, transitional
period. Okay?
I don't believe that this is gonna be
so sooner,
but eventually, will it will affect
(27:26):
Mexico or or even other country where
where payroll maybe is not as expensive as
Europe,
you know, or North America or or more
developed countries.
You know, there are there are definitely certain
certain place where this is already
happening. For example, you know, the the trend
of
not cooking and not eating at home is
(27:50):
is
like
the new
the new
style. You know? So people go out, you
know, all the restaurants, for example, here where
I live,
for breakfast are full
full of people.
So people don't cook breakfast anymore.
People
order food via, you know, whatever, Uber Eats
or Didi or whatever other technology
(28:12):
that is existing in that country.
People don't cook anymore. You know? I'm very
lucky to actually have a wife that still
cook every day,
so I cannot complain. But
it's sad to see this transition
of food delivery
and, you know, and,
having this less
(28:34):
mechanical, you know, manual
lifestyle. You know? I think, I think that
we're losing this a little bit, and this
eventually will continue. You know? This is not,
this is not gonna stop. I I don't
believe so, at least.
Yeah.
The recruitment process in hospitality is a very
interesting subject
of Mhmm. Whether you have Absolutely. An AI
(28:57):
that screens everything and do all the heavy
lifting or you have some other people. What
what have you observed now, how how the
recruitment process is going on in in in
certain hotels, and what should they do about
this if you're not agreeing here?
Wow. Sam, you know, actually, this was one
of the very topic of the past summit.
(29:18):
And,
you know, sometime I even even if I'm
not looking at Tivoli for a job,
sometime I just apply for a job just
to see how the how the
how the technology works.
Okay?
In most cases,
like, 95,
90 eight percent of the cases, you get
an automatic response from the from the CRM
(29:39):
or applicant tracking system
that manage your application.
So dear applicant,
I like a very generic dear applicant, thank
you very much for
applying for the job, blah blah blah. You
know, we will be in touch with you.
Should should you be so shortlisted?
So if you're not shortlisted, no one is
gonna is gonna tell you anything. So you
(30:00):
have no idea
why you were not shortlisted.
You will never know if your CV was
adequate or your experience was adequate.
So you're you're gonna stay in the limbo.
And,
and so so
in even even not so long ago I
mean, I'm talking about,
you know, some, what, ten years ago.
(30:23):
In some hotels that I worked, personally, I
worked, the shortlist
you know, while,
applicant track tracking system was already,
available.
So the applicant tracking system
shortlist
a curriculum
not knowing if the curriculum actually is the
best curriculum because
(30:45):
what does a machine understand about the profile
of a person just because of a piece
of paper? Anyway, so that's the first already
huge mistake.
The second
part is that, okay, so the CV shortlisted
by the applicant tracking system
goes into the desk of someone.
Normally, the HR manager, normally.
(31:06):
But what the the HR manager will do
will delegate this to a more junior person.
And in some cases, this happened to me
already in more than one property,
This junior
person is actually a student.
You know? So imagine an intern
having to shortlist,
maybe a chef, maybe a director of food
(31:28):
and beverage, maybe a restaurant manager, or maybe
even a general manager.
So can you believe that the applicant tracking
system is making the choice
of who is the best applicant?
Then
the HR manager or director
delegate this task,
which we still don't know if it's the
best of of the of the shortlisting, would
(31:50):
delegate this task to a more junior person.
And if you're lucky, it goes into the
hand of an HR executive.
If you're not lucky, it will go on
to the hands of an intern. So
and that was ten years ago. Today,
I don't think this has changed
because I do recruitment
also for some hotels in some occasion,
(32:12):
and, and I see the
who do I interact with normally.
And, also, I see because I apply myself.
So I also see how
applicants are handled.
You know? Actually, the most recent one, which
was, like, last week,
it was an interesting
it's an international company. They're opening a new
(32:34):
hotel in Mexico. And so I said, okay.
Let me see again.
This one, I have to say, was a
little bit smarter. So I need to investigate
which applicant tracking system they use because this
was a lot smarter. Although I was not
sure to list it as a candidate, it
doesn't matter.
But the answer
the answer prepared
was a a lot better than many other
(32:57):
answer that I've seen from other international companies.
So I will investigate
what, applicant tracking system they use. That was
pretty good, I have to say.
But it also
begs the question, how should, the traditional
human resources structure, you know,
to be
human research should be structured in hotels,
(33:18):
to ensure that you align with
this evolvement of of,
of
recruitment needs
at what kind of levels are,
interviewing or discussing with the potential candidates? Because
I I've had a similar situation where,
I was contacted by
(33:40):
someone because of we are both on LinkedIn.
So LinkedIn is frequently get,
contacted and,
you can all and then I have nothing
against anybody being a junior or not, but,
the questions that came up were a little
bit, strange in the sense that I wasn't
pretty sure I I was talking to somebody
who was aligned with the job requirements even.
(34:01):
So I'm just wondering your thoughts of what
would be the ideal
considering that we're we're living in 02/2025
and what will be the ideal way how
recruitment should be handled.
It's true, Sam. You see that the the
the issue
today, I mean, 2025,
is that we have so many platforms,
so much content,
(34:22):
so many ways to search for a job
that is definitely impossible
for any human
to go through
hundreds of applicants for one position.
It is it is true. I mean, at
the end of the day, we need to
be realistic.
What is not
working is actually the workload
(34:44):
that a an HR director has on top
of recruitment.
That's the main problem.
You know, if we keep looking for
meeting after meeting,
reports,
and this and that, you know, then if
you overwhelm
the person to actually do their job,
(35:06):
definitely, they cannot dilute their task and their
time to give to each of the task.
The challenge today is that we have Instagram,
Facebook,
link LinkedIn,
and and other job
portals where people can apply for a job.
You know? You have also the company page
or the career page and so on and
so forth. So it's, you know, it is
(35:27):
overwhelming
for any person.
And now how can a person
go through hundred or maybe more than a
hundred applicants?
It's a challenge. It's the I don't have
a solution to that. I don't think anyone
has a solution.
ATS definitely is not a solution because it's
clear that it's not working, and it's clear.
I know personally many competent
(35:49):
general manager level that they they're not able
to to find a job.
It's it's just not happening.
So applicant tracking system
doesn't work.
And this is this need to be addressed
because
all the industry is struggling to find talent.
Yeah. Not because there is no talent, because
the technology that we use is not good.
(36:11):
Simple.
So there are plenty of talent, and they
the good talent, what they do, you say,
well, you know what? I'm gonna work somewhere
else. Why should I work in hospitality,
you know, if if if I need to
apply to maybe 600
jobs to get maybe one interview? I mean,
where is the where is the logic there?
You know? And then maybe it's not the
job that I want.
So it's it's it really it really is
(36:33):
a a a a challenge. And, also, I
don't know how company like Mario Tilton,
InterContin, Accor,
you know, and all the big five or
seven companies globally, how can they open a
hotel a day as an average? They open
one hotel every day. How can you stuff
one hotel
with three, four hundred rooms average with a
(36:54):
50, two hundred people every single day around
the world. It's just crazy.
Yeah.
So I I don't even they don't do
anything. I mean,
if the big if the big company, they
do nothing, you know, imagine the smaller company.
What can they do? Not less, obviously. So
it's it's gonna go it's gonna go haywire
in the next three to five years. It's
(37:16):
gonna go your way because
big company, they keep growing, and then they're
not stopping their growth. Their growth strategy still
is one hotel every day. You know? That's
what they want to open.
Yeah. For how can they manage that? I
have no idea.
That's a very that's a that's a million
dollar question for sure. But now
from the candidate point of view,
(37:38):
we both are quite social, and we both
are active on on on on the social
media. And and,
when I meet you on we have never
met
physically, but we have met online many times.
And so we have an idea of
the kind of personal brand you represent, Rocco.
And you probably have some idea about my
(37:59):
personal brand, and we're quite comfortable with our
personal brand, how we project that professionally.
But what advice would you give a
a somebody who's starting in the in the
industry about,
the importance of personal,
personal branding?
And and, also, I mean, the second question
is that you think the hospitality industry places
(38:19):
enough importance on personal branding during the hiring
process.
I'm gonna answer the first the second question
first
because
I one thing I actually I realized, Sam,
about personal branding
or employer branding in this case.
What employer branding should do,
(38:39):
they should be able to attract the talent
that they need and that they want
automatically,
not without job posting
or creating opportunity
or opening a new hotel.
You know what I noticed? That I have
no hotel,
and I have
no my humble house yet.
(39:00):
But I I get request
for jobs for people to want to work
with me
every week. If not every day, but at
least two or three times a week, I
get people asking me, Rocco, I want to
work with you.
Why is that?
What do I do?
I don't do really much.
(39:21):
I only I only try to be myself.
I'm not trying to be somebody else.
I think that
employer branding
should do exactly the same thing, should represent
exactly
what they
are. Because what they're what they're doing instead,
they are representing
(39:41):
what they what they would like to be,
not what they really are.
And that's where
the
maybe my humble opinion,
the
breakdown exists.
Okay? There's no alignment
between
what the company really is
and what the company want to be. You
(40:02):
know, all this
wonderful
vision
and mission statement and golden rules and,
call it whatever you want, values and so
on,
if they don't really walk the talk,
the right people will never go
in that company. Never.
(40:23):
Even more now because even younger people, more
young younger generation
are more attracted
to
true value based company.
And the moment they see that this company
doesn't walk the talk,
they burn the bridge completely
and build a wall.
Not only they burn the bridge, they also
(40:44):
build the wall just in case somebody has
the brilliant idea to try to go back
to.
That's what I see. That's and and and,
you know, going back to the first question,
okay, about
building personal branding,
Just be authentic. Be yourself.
Be yourself.
Be coherent.
You know, walk the talk. Be a be
(41:06):
a leader
that really mean what they say.
And they say what they mean so that
they are really transparent.
They have integrity,
and they really want to do good
because otherwise, you just become
an influencer. I don't want to be an
influencer, Sam. I have no intention
(41:28):
to have a million followers.
I wanna have a lot of friends just
like you that maybe we never met, but
I I have the respect
or reciprocal
respect
that
I know who who you are. I know
what you're trying to achieve,
and you know what I'm trying to achieve.
We have alignment.
You know? I I I call tribe. You
(41:48):
know? I, you know, I have my tribe
of people that they trust me, and I
trust them. You know?
When I employ people, you know, when I
do recruitment
because, occasionally,
I look for for talents as well for
some of my clients.
And my clients, they expect me to present
the three options.
And I tell them, no. I don't present
you three options. I'm not another
(42:10):
recruiter
like everybody else is doing and give you
three options. I don't give it to you.
I only give you one option. This one
option is the one person you need.
And so they remain shocked. They say, okay,
Rocco.
I will I will follow you.
But then when I speak to the to
the candidate,
I tell them,
listen.
(42:30):
You don't need to tell me about your
experience because I can see this from your
from your
curriculum.
The one thing I only ask you is
to make sure that what you say on
your CV is really who you are. Yeah.
Because the moment the moment you screw up,
you screw up your
reputation,
you screw up my reputation,
(42:50):
and you don't comply with the with the
with the company that is going to give
you the opportunity of your lifetime.
Automatically,
the person either stay on and and deliver,
or they tell me, you know, mister Rocco,
I already found another job
Yeah. Which means that actually they were not
the right people.
(43:10):
And I filter like this. So this this
is my style of interview.
I don't ask them the usual question, you
know, where you work to tell me a
little bit about you, what are what are
your personal goal, and, you know, these are
the typical standard question that everyone ask today.
No. My my my interview lasted, like, ten
minutes.
Just deliver.
(43:30):
Don't thank me for the job. Don't thank
me to help you. Just deliver.
Very good. Yeah. I mean,
the the personal branding becomes very much of
a issue nowadays for all of us who
are
on social media different medias like, platforms like
LinkedIn, or is it Instagram and so on?
(43:52):
Any tips you want to give some young
professionals what how they should pay attention to
how they are
perceived
on social media? Is it important in your
opinion, or they should just be their self
as they are and that's where their authenticity
comes in?
They can be themselves, and they can be
professional at the same time.
(44:13):
You know? I
like, I'm talking to you now very, very
frankly. You know? This is Rocco.
You know? About, twenty years ago, for example,
I went for an interview
to to
for a job.
And at the time, I was already shaved.
And so
the the director of this company,
(44:36):
he he asked me, hey, Rocco.
What about your hairstyle?
And I said, what about my hairstyle? What's
wrong with this?
You know, this has always been fashionable, so
I don't understand.
And,
he said to me, well, you know, Rocco,
the company here is a bit, whole facial.
You know? They may not accept it. That's
(44:57):
okay. Fine.
You know? Would you accept me for my
hairstyle or for for the experience that I'm
gonna bring and the passion for my job?
Eventually, I got the job.
Eventually, I got the job, but it was
it was questionable, you know, about my my
style. Now
to a young person that gets into
(45:17):
into professional
social
social
networking,
Definitely, I I suggest to be professional.
Okay?
Second,
I suggest to
pick topics
that can inform
and can teach something to other people. Whether
you're gonna reshare it, it it doesn't matter.
(45:39):
It doesn't need to be your own content.
You can reshare content,
but definitely needs to be something that is
gonna help other people grow, not just yourself.
The third and the last thing that I
suggest, I mean, is to grow their network
starting from day one.
Not because they're still student,
you know, because I I get this answer
(45:59):
also from my kids, you know, and, no.
But still, you know, I'm still studying. Well,
even studying,
you require
a network of colleagues, you know, whether it's
gonna be your student colleague, you know, the
same university or or other university.
You can start confronting each other, you know,
confronting in the positive way. You know? You
(46:20):
can exchange opinions and, and, and point of
view.
But, definitely,
a young person should start from the beginning
to create a network that's gonna help them
grow in their career
or grow as a person
and start immediately. Don't wait after you finish
because between now and four years, technology has
changed. Social media have changed. So many things
(46:42):
have changed. The world has changed. So start
now. Don't wait until four years when you
finish your study.
Very good.
Okay, Rocco.
I have two more questions before we wrap
up,
today's episode. One question I always like to
ask my guests.
Best even besides what we talked about,
what are the other trends that you see
(47:03):
happening in hospitality that hoteliers should take note
of? What what do you think they are
you you you if you put some priority
on that?
I I I still more and more, at
least in this part of the world, there's
still more and more smaller
hotels
coming up, you know, like mushrooms, you know,
smaller boutique hotels, ten, fifteen, 20 rooms.
(47:25):
They are growing like mushrooms everywhere. So for
me, it's great because that's where I where
I thrive. I have the experience. You know?
I've got the connection.
I have the network. I know the suppliers
and so on and so on. So for
me, it's paradise at the moment. I don't
know if this trend is gonna stay forever,
but it's gonna stay for for a long
time. That's that's a fact. So we need
(47:45):
to be aware of that, and we need
to stop building
bigger hotels, you know, with 10,000 rooms or
5,000 room or 3,000 room. We don't need
that, really. You know? No. Nobody
maybe there is a market for it, I'm
sure.
But we we don't need 3,000 rooms to
create
a a a a destination.
We can create a destination with 40 rooms.
(48:06):
You know? And the clear example was actually
Chablis Chablis, the one the one I was
I was lucky to work open
eight years ago, and we created a destination
in in the middle of the jungle. You
know? We we we position
Yucatan and Merida
as one of the best place to go
for vacation for luxury travelers.
(48:27):
This is definitely one. The second one is
technology.
It's here to stay.
It's coming stronger,
faster than anyone can believe. So we need
to be ready for that too.
Whether we like it or not, I
not very keen on on technology,
you know, on one side.
On the other side, I love technology, but,
(48:48):
you know, there is always a fine line
on how far we need to go.
But it it's coming. So we need to
we need to embrace it and need to
find the best way,
of its use.
Very good. Now the second the final question
is then,
if, people who want to reach out to
you, how can they find you, and how
(49:08):
could they connect with you?
Listen. I'm quite public on LinkedIn. I I
do all my stuff. 90%
of my time is actually on LinkedIn. That's
where I spend my my social time.
You know, when I do digital social media,
I only I only do LinkedIn. I have
an Instagram account, but I hardly use it.
And I have a Facebook account that I
(49:29):
I only use it for, you know, some
some other connection. But if you want to
find me, just tag Rocco Bova on LinkedIn,
and, generally, you'll find me.
Very good, Rocco. And, this episode also will
be visible on on on LinkedIn,
YouTube, and and Instagram. So we'll make sure
that we'll spread
the
(49:50):
wonderful information that you have shared in this
episode will be visible on on all those
platforms. So, Rocco, I really want to thank
you very much for for this morning in
your in in Mexico that you took the
time to,
share your views. And I'm looking forward to
have keeping in touch and have another,
conversation with you. We'll find another topic. I
really want to talk a little bit about,
(50:11):
my humble house because that was something we
never had a chance to talk about. And
I we have discussed it in the past,
but I think it's such a wonderful
it's a wonderful
concept that,
I think, we need to spread spread the
the good word about this one one of
these days. I I can tell you a
little tip about my humble house. It is
it is moving forward.
(50:31):
It is moving forward. I'm actually working with
I've got the land already.
It is moving forward. I'm working with a
group of architects here in Mexico to to
design the the master plan.
And it's actually also evolved
from being just a hotel
to being a master plan community where there
is also hotel. But, maybe we'll find a
(50:53):
we'll find another
another episode of your podcast to discuss about
this. When I get also more information,
I will be able maybe to show you
some renderings of what it's gonna look like.
We'll make it happen, Rocco. For sure. Whenever
you're ready.
Fantastic.
Thank you, Rocco.
It's been a pleasure, Sam. Thank you so
much for inviting me.
(51:14):
Thank you for tuning in to the Social
Hotelier. If you enjoyed this episode that I
had a wonderful discussion with Rocco Bova, please
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use your mobile device for that. That. We
(51:36):
have an incredible lineup of guests coming your
way, so stay tuned for more thought provoking
conversations.
Until next time, take care and keep exploring.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Social Hotelier
podcast with me, Sam Eric Rittman.
Today's guest is Rocco Bova, a globally seasoned
hotelier
and visionary founder of the summit Mexicano de
la Hospitalidad,
Mexico's premier hospitality forum created by hoteliers for
hoteliers.
With an extensive leadership background across luxury brands,
(00:24):
including Aman,
Chablis, and Saint Regis,
Rocco brings decades of experience in hospitality development,
strategic operations,
and innovative tourism ventures.
As the creative force behind my humble house,
he's reshaping the industry
through a luxury social enterprise mode.
Currently consulting across Mexico,
(00:45):
Rocco is an influential thought leader, passionately driven,
purpose lead hospitality. So welcome, Rocco, and thanks
for joining us today.
Good morning, Sam.
It's very humbling, you know, when you hear
your story
from, from other people.
Thank you for such a beautiful
description of, of what I've done so far.
(01:07):
I'm very
very proud. At the same time, very happy
too. Nice to be with you again.
Likewise, Rocco. It's always a pleasure, and,
I've been I've been looking forward to have
this conversation because I think we have
several topics that we could cover, but I
think we I realized that what we're gonna
talk about today is about maybe some three
topics. And we don't get even to the
(01:29):
humble house part of maybe touching a little
bit about your
initiative about,
the summit Mexicano de la Hospitalitar. We can
touch a little bit on that just to
give a glimpse because everybody has
now are listening in. And, you are you
are you are very active. And we just
before we started
recording this episode, you mentioned that,
(01:51):
you're waking up,
5AM,
and you during the first hour or between
between eight and nine, you already have your
first calls with either friends in the industry
or your coaching or your advising. So
I'm I'm impressed about your diligence in this,
this work. But, maybe you could just get
started a little bit about
your your your journey in hospitality. I mean,
(02:14):
I mentioned the brands, but, how how long
have you been in Mexico, for instance? That
would be interesting for me to know. I
don't even know that.
In fact, Sam, Mexico has been, kind of
a a place, that I was,
hoping to visit at some point.
One of my best friend actually married to
a Mexican
woman
(02:34):
some thirty years back, and she was actually
the one telling me, you must go to
Mexico, Rocco. You will love it.
Well, thirty years later, I came to Mexico
eventually, and I think I fell in love.
And,
and I've been here now for a little
bit more than eight years, and truly is
a magical, place. I I enjoy living here.
(02:54):
I enjoy the culture.
The astronomy,
of course, is great.
History.
But most of all, I think the people.
You know, Mexican people are very,
very beautiful people. You know? I I feel
home here. It's the first time in my
in my career and also living in different
countries
around the world that I actually feel
(03:17):
one one of the community. I don't feel
a foreigner
living in a in a foreign country.
I feel like,
I'm I'm I'm Italian, but I'm very welcome
to be Italian
in Mexico. So
it's great to be here. And, also, Mexico
gave me so many so many things. I
not so much only my my career, but
also gave me opportunity to meet some fantastic
(03:38):
people. So, you know, I am continuing my
my journey,
you know, to develop and help this country
to continue to grow.
Wonderful.
I think that, I haven't I haven't had
the had the opportunity
to visit Mexico. It obviously obviously on on
on a list place to to visit, and
we have very limited limited view of of
(04:01):
Mexico. I mean, and a very, very limited
view of of the gastronomy. I mean, it's
it's only sort of the sort of the,
the what has come through United States that
we see particularly here in in Northern Europe.
So I love food. I love good food.
So I think this is a I must
come and visit you one of these days
and to you can take me out to
show me a little bit around what what
real Mexican food is all about.
(04:23):
It will be a pleasure, Samuel. You will
be surprised as I was,
you know, to discover the many, many dishes,
particularly
indigenous
dishes. You know, a lot of the gastronomy
is actually still based on
food that was that was eaten,
you know, hundreds of years ago. You know?
So so, you know, in fact,
(04:44):
the the gastronomy of Mexico is part of
the
UNESCO,
heritage because,
they still after, you know, several hundred years,
they still use the same ingredient as they
were using then today. You know? So,
if we call,
beans,
onions,
(05:04):
corn, you know, these are the basic ingredient
of the cuisine
that still today,
this is the basic ingredient to use. So
any kitchen you go, you will always find
this four, five
ingredient.
K. Very good. So,
I actually I I need to ask you
about this, this latest initiative about the summit
(05:25):
summit.
Could you share a little bit of what
because quite recent that you started, so I
was very curious to see,
how it get started, and how was the
first
event that you held event that you held?
It's true, Sam. You see, the past four
years, I I
started to work as a consultant, as an
independent consultant.
(05:46):
And frankly speaking, you know, I'm doing pretty
well. You know, I was you were surprised
that,
you know, as a first timer, you begin
a a new business and things have worked
pretty well. So I'm very happy at the
moment, you know, to have changed a little
bit in my career.
Still the same industry, but a different way
of working.
And so what I do, basically, I help
(06:08):
developers,
owners, or or
hoteliers to bring their property to the next
level, particularly if they want to bring it
to a luxury level. You know? That's that's
where I focus. And my focus is more
into
boutique hotels.
At the same time, I was participating
to many events, many conferences around Mexico, and,
(06:29):
I discovered after a couple of years that
there was no forum
where hoteliers
can actually learn
and and understand what the trends
are and what they, you know, solution to
problems, you know, to real life problems.
And so I said to myself, maybe one
day I should organize this event myself.
(06:52):
So around a year ago,
a a colleague and also a friend,
over a coffee, he told me, Rocco, what
do you think we organize
a a conference?
Oh my god. And so, you know, the
the spark came to my eyes, and I
told him, listen. I've been thinking about this
for, like, for two or three years.
Of course of course, we should do it.
(07:13):
So if you're in,
I can put together a team in no
time, and, and we can start.
So we started with six,
members. Okay? We started with six members.
And,
you know, after a a couple of months,
we began losing some of the members. We
we stayed three three of us. So it's
(07:33):
myself,
Adolfo Tunon,
and Francisco Lugo.
So we are three three members of the
company,
and we we have started this journey to
launch,
well, create first, you know, the brand and
the concept, then prepare the program, and then
start to to commercially
(07:54):
sell,
the event.
Initially, to be honest, we started like a
a bunch of friends are doing a conference.
You know?
But then became very quickly became
too good
to just keep it as a simple conference
between
colleagues.
So, you know, my first, invited speakers actually
(08:15):
was, Braulio Arzuaga.
He's the CEO of Grupo Presidente.
Nothing more than the CEO. So when you
start with that as a keynote speakers,
the rest of the speakers and panelists, you
need to bring them to
similar level. You cannot
go lower than that. So and then one
carried the other one, and then we we
(08:37):
got people from four season, from one and
only, from Chablis, obviously, and, you know, my
ex company.
We had people from Grupo Presidente, from Grupo
Posadas, which is the second most important group
also in Mexico and actually the largest hotel
operator in, in Mexico.
And,
you know, and then started the sponsors
(08:59):
started to call me and contact me and
say, Rocco, we want to participate. We want
to help you. So we had companies like
Amadeus,
Shiji,
FCS from Singapore. We're an even company from
Singapore.
So
it it became a lot more than just
a simple conference.
And, the first event, we had a 81
(09:21):
participant.
181.
We were expecting only 20.
So we we nearly went 50%
more than what we were expecting.
We had more than 30 journalists from the
region.
We had Hotels magazine
also as the main press
sponsor.
(09:41):
Hotels magazine is, you know, the most important
magazine
in the world.
I mean, it it was just amazing. So,
it was very emotional, to be honest, also,
when, when we finished this event,
because, you know, it was, it was hard
work definitely,
but the result obviously
(10:01):
very evident. And, next year, we're actually doubling
the number of days. You know, for one
day conference is gonna be a two days
conference.
And,
and we are we are looking at at
around 50 speakers over two days. So it's
gonna be it's gonna be quite intense
also talking you know, you were telling me
about your conference in, in Germany.
(10:24):
It's probably gonna be similar to that
next year. Yeah. I mean, it's it's very
intensive. I mean, I have never organized such
a event, but I I just been part
of them in this particular event in Berlin
last week.
I saw the team. There must have been
some 25 people in their organization,
how they do it. And,
and I can imagine if you're starting us
(10:45):
with a a few friends together putting a
a event for hoteliers, but by hoteliers, that's
one thing. But now you're you're
elevating it to
a two day event, and, there's a lot
of thing lot of details that goes into
the logistics
to make everything work. So, I mean,
you know, bravo. I mean, congratulations that you
had a good start, and now you're ready
(11:07):
for the moving it to the next level
next level. Absolutely. We're definitely working on the
on this already now, and,
we are putting together an incredible program.
We are bringing very interesting
people as a speaker or panelist. So I'm
very, very excited also just to just for
me to get in touch with certain people
(11:28):
is already
bring joy, you know, and and,
excitement to see what is gonna what is
gonna be the next event.
Very good. So let's let the let touch
a little bit on the the kind of
topics that we were
thinking about discussing today. And,
one one of the thing is is the
education,
hospitality education,
(11:49):
and and the and the hotel schools.
Schools. I think we both have we both
have We have gone through the you have
gone through this, the formal education in hospitality,
so have I have I. And, if I
look back back
to my education,
what I remember from taking back that, I
I remember I have a diploma, but, actually,
I had to learn everything else everything else
(12:11):
after I graduated. It was only just a
a certification that,
okay. Sam Eric has graduated from this and
this and this,
college, and then and that gave me the
opportunity to find a job find a job.
But but, you know, the four year program
program
and considering how the industry has changed changed
dramatically from the analog era to digital, and
(12:33):
now we have we have artificial intelligence or
intelligence
assistance or whatever you want to call it.
It has gone such a long way, and
also also the jobs has changed. So
has the hotel schools,
are they up to up to date with
what's going on? Are they preparing the preparing
the students for the real life real life?
(12:55):
It's, it's actually great that you asked me
this question, Sam. So
I was probably not
not like you that I had to go
through a four years,
school program.
What I did in my in my career,
my early in my early career,
(13:15):
I actually would start working.
So I had the experience,
but I I I missed this
piece of paper, you know, the the the
piece of diploma that you need, you know,
to hang on the wall.
But definitely
is gonna is gonna be necessary
for you to get a job after because
people will ask you, okay. Which school did
(13:35):
you did you attend? Then you must have
an answer. So I was lucky that,
in the mid nineties when I was in
London,
the at the time called the HCIMA,
today is called the Institute of Hospitality,
created a course
which was only
ten, eleven months. So start in September
(13:58):
and finish in June.
And it was perfect for me because, actually,
it was a Monday to Friday, full immersion,
eight hours a day from 09:00 up to
5PM, Monday to Friday,
and over this ten ten, eleven months,
which allowed me to actually get a diploma
in hospitality management
(14:19):
and covered basically the most important topic from
food and beverage to room division to housekeeping
to finance,
etcetera, etcetera.
So
having the experience and being able to study
at the same time for me was great
because I already knew what the teacher was
going to talk about. For me, it made
a lot of sense.
(14:40):
But what made more sense, one, it was
obviously shortening time. And second, I had actually
time to work over the weekend so I
can make some money to pay my rent.
At the time, I was engaged with my
today's wife. So we were girlfriend and boyfriend.
So she also supported me also financially to
to be able to to get through. So
I was paying the rent, and she was
(15:01):
paying for the food, and everything worked out.
Actually, on the same year that I graduated,
also I got married.
And from there, I started my first job
as a restaurant manager at the Jumeirah Beach
Hotel.
All this to tell you that, for me,
it was fantastic to be able to study
only one year and to get everything so
concentrated,
(15:23):
but also already have some some experience.
What I see today is what I what
I have been seeing for the past twenty,
thirty years that I've been working this industry.
So the same hotel schools that you go
Switzerland,
Europe,
United States,
even Mexico per se, you know, Asia and
(15:43):
so on and so forth, they all provide
the same
four years program
with one year,
internship.
So you still need to study for three
years, plus you need to do two semesters
of internship somewhere in the world.
But you still need to get stuck four
years. I mean,
how difficult is to learn hospitality, really?
(16:05):
We both know that, you know, our our
industry is not rocket science.
It's very much hands on learning
and, it's very much about passion,
you know, or vocation. So you need to
be vocated to actually work in the industry,
to be service oriented,
but also to also be, you know, wise
(16:27):
and, and, and smart and, and understanding
how to run a business.
You don't need four years to learn all
that, to be honest.
But the most,
I don't know if I can use this
word, but I'm gonna use it anyway,
appalling
situation is that the majority,
if not all of the teachers
(16:49):
that teaching in in those schools,
they actually have no no recent experience in
hotels.
So how can a teacher
being already in his
late thirties,
early forties, or maybe fifties or maybe sixties
that had as a last experience maybe ten
(17:09):
or fifteen years back?
What can what can they teach it to
a young student
twenty or 21 years old?
Whatever can they teach,
the student can find online,
basically.
And so my my
my request
to whoever is listening, you know, whether it's
the director or CEO of a hotel school,
(17:32):
hospitality school around the world,
is that you should get your teacher
every year at least one or two months
internship
so that they understand what's really going on
in the world of hospitality
hands
on, not reading through books or magazine or
or online because this can be done by
a student
very easily. You don't need to pay
(17:53):
maybe up to hundred thousand dollars
for a four years course
plus accommodation and plus all the all the
views,
you know, to learn all this.
That's what is missing, I think, in my
in my opinion. One, review completely the program.
Two,
get the teacher back to work, you know,
so that actually they understand what's going on
(18:15):
in real life today. And I give you
a last example. I'm sorry if I'm taking
over
the space, but
today I've already been
three years out of work.
Three only three years. I already feel
it's not the same for me to be
a consultant
and being out of work. Although I work
closely with the operational
(18:36):
team, I'm not personally
involved in the operation.
So observing and actually being involved are two
very different things.
Yeah. Absolutely.
No. I I cannot speak for what the
teachers are like or I mean, I I
don't have the experience of,
how it is to to be a be
a student. I mean but I I it's
(18:57):
clearly
it's so true that, a lot of the
things things that,
students can get them they can get things
online, and they are you know, everything is
available available online, but I'm I'm just curious
what can be done better better to prepare
the student for for, the industry. One side
is the
the teacher themselves that they are,
(19:19):
updating themselves
in in the best possible way that they
are because the industry industry is not rocket
science, as you said, but a lot of
things are moving very quickly,
in in a way that,
how the technology
is,
advancing in in
for for hospitality, which was considered to be
always
(19:39):
the last one to to progress. But now,
there's a lot of opportunities to develop. And
then the the
the efficiency factor that all these hotels are
looking at that even on luxury level,
let's not even talk about economy and budget
where,
you have to
you are keeping a a really a minimum
(19:59):
staff, and then you are using technology
to do part of the things. Now always
the question is, there should be tech technology
left in the in the in the back
side back back of the house to support
areas and then the human in the front.
But I found, for instance, I will and
then I have to also give my 5¢.
And,
I apologize to the hotel that I stayed
(20:20):
in stayed in, but, I have to say
that I was very disappointed
that
I needed some service when I was in
the room, and I called I called press
press the this button for quick service. I
called I called, and I I I get
a bot answering me answering me.
And and then, I and then you have
to give a keyword so the bot will
respond to understand what they're gonna do.
(20:42):
In this case, it was that I I
needed something,
and and I never got an answer. I
never got the help or they're never directed
to human.
So I ended up having to take the
elevator down to reception to go to solve
my problem. And I thought that would be
unacceptable when you are international
branded hotel company that has,
and and you have you have tens of
(21:04):
thousand hotel rooms in the world. So
there's an advance and advancement, but there is
something that has doesn't click when you cannot
combine both things together. So I was very
surprised, and I and that's why I'm always
interested to see how
what need needs to be done to get
the the for the student the best possible
possible, start,
whether they have a chance to do
(21:25):
some intensive intern internships
in the areas of what they need to
do. So, I mean, what what are your
thoughts on this thoughts on this?
You know, Sam,
I think there are the the, you know,
the the
the situation is is, is pushing us to
go towards
artificial intelligence and technology. I mean, it's it's
(21:46):
just a fact.
I get it. You know? Everything is pushing
us towards this way. So it's it's kind
of a it's not a trend.
It's not a trend.
It's that the situation is pushing us. You
know? We need to go there. You know?
It's not everybody is saying, no. No. Everyone
is going there. No. No. No. Not everyone
is going there.
But
the world is pushing us towards this direction.
(22:08):
Okay?
So believe it or not, I'm still not
using any AI until today.
The only AI I use and is I've
been using this for thirty years is Google.
That's the only that's the only artificial intelligence.
I have no other application
to search for information, to think for me,
to decide for me, or to tell me
what to do. I use my brain.
(22:31):
And there are one more thing that I
that I want to tell you about, you
know, the past summit, for example.
Sunday, or the the the the yeah. I
took two or three hours of my time,
which is not not even a lot of
time. What I did, I wrote
almost 200
personal email to all the attendees
(22:51):
and all the sponsors
and all the speakers.
Almost 200 emails personally
sent one by one.
I didn't use a CRM. I didn't use
a a bot. I I did it personally
myself because I thought
that this is a a a conference
(23:14):
for human being.
I love technology, and I'm today, we are
talking through technology. Okay?
But I think we need to find a
a a balance between what technology can do
for us
and what we need to do to continue
the evolution
of of the human species. I think that
we are giving too much away to technology
(23:37):
to resolve this problem.
I'm concerned about the the the the consequences
that this technology in particular can do to
to the human
evolution.
Because
imagine, today we depend so much on technology
and on Internet.
At the day, there's no Internet.
We freeze. We don't do anything.
(23:58):
We we stop working. We stop leaving.
We go to to a restaurant hotel, the
first thing we ask is give me the
the, you know, the keywords for the for
the Internet. Yes. We don't even ask where's
the toilet and where is the no. No.
We ask for the Wi Fi first thing.
I mean,
it's
scary. So imagine if we start depending
on on on artificial intelligence
(24:20):
more and more. What happen if there is
no more artificial intelligence and we stop using
our own brain
to actually make a decision to solve a
problem.
You know? Like, you know, the problem you
have to the artificial intelligence, the boss that
answer your phone call was not able to
solve your problem. So what do we do?
You know, I I got I got locked
(24:41):
into my room. What do we do? The
bot cannot solve the problem. We need a
human being to solve this problem, not a
bot.
Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So we
we talked about the sort of the education
and the hotel school and so on. But
I think, also, one thing that has changed,
which I realized that,
the when you had when we had the
the
(25:01):
the COVID or the the epidemic,
a few years ago years ago, and it
also,
affected the many hotels that they they
they have to
speed up the the
in terms of in terms of what they
can offer the guest.
Suddenly, you had guests that don't want to
meet anyone at the front desk front desk.
You have always
(25:21):
sanitizing
bottles around the lobby, and they they want
to have all the keyless chicken and have
a,
do the booking, keyless chicken,
and access to the room. And without seeing
anybody or or, you know, they're wearing a
mask, but they don't want to see anybody.
They also want to go to the room
and so they feel that they are not
(25:42):
gonna catch the bug for for this flu.
But then the technology after the flu is
over,
the the technology remains. And now we have
a number of people who,
are wondering whether is this worthwhile for me
to meet a person at all or they
actually really want to see a person.
Do you see that that technology that evolved,
(26:03):
as a result result
and implemented during the
pandemic
pandemic. Now it's gonna stay on, and you
still have people who just want to have
get onto the room and,
don't want to have
don't want to and only if they have
a problem, they want to
meet a person or or or hotel want
to hotel has in the worst case scenario,
(26:24):
they have a WhatsApp group
for the hotel guest that they where they
can send a problem.
You see that human context, I'm really worried
about that it's kind of getting
limited. And and also partly it's that the
guest is demanding it, but also that hotels
are taking advantage to reduce reduce the staff
for the hotels.
You know, Sam, there will be certain countries
(26:45):
that,
for for financial reasons, obviously, they will need
to go,
they will need to go with technology
because,
you know, employing three or four people per
shift
is just too expensive. You know? There will
be some places that whether we like it
or not, the technology is gonna go
forcefully
(27:05):
into place.
Other countries, thankfully,
I I guess Mexico is one of the
one of the one of those countries.
I think still we are in this
intermediate,
you know, transitional
period. Okay?
I don't believe that this is gonna be
so sooner,
but eventually, will it will affect
(27:26):
Mexico or or even other country where
where payroll maybe is not as expensive as
Europe,
you know, or North America or or more
developed countries.
You know, there are there are definitely certain
certain place where this is already
happening. For example, you know, the the trend
of
not cooking and not eating at home is
(27:50):
is
like
the new
the new
style. You know? So people go out, you
know, all the restaurants, for example, here where
I live,
for breakfast are full
full of people.
So people don't cook breakfast anymore.
People
order food via, you know, whatever, Uber Eats
or Didi or whatever other technology
(28:12):
that is existing in that country.
People don't cook anymore. You know? I'm very
lucky to actually have a wife that still
cook every day,
so I cannot complain. But
it's sad to see this transition
of food delivery
and, you know, and,
having this less
(28:34):
mechanical, you know, manual
lifestyle. You know? I think, I think that
we're losing this a little bit, and this
eventually will continue. You know? This is not,
this is not gonna stop. I I don't
believe so, at least.
Yeah.
The recruitment process in hospitality is a very
interesting subject
of Mhmm. Whether you have Absolutely. An AI
(28:57):
that screens everything and do all the heavy
lifting or you have some other people. What
what have you observed now, how how the
recruitment process is going on in in in
certain hotels, and what should they do about
this if you're not agreeing here?
Wow. Sam, you know, actually, this was one
of the very topic of the past summit.
(29:18):
And,
you know, sometime I even even if I'm
not looking at Tivoli for a job,
sometime I just apply for a job just
to see how the how the
how the technology works.
Okay?
In most cases,
like, 95,
90 eight percent of the cases, you get
an automatic response from the from the CRM
(29:39):
or applicant tracking system
that manage your application.
So dear applicant,
I like a very generic dear applicant, thank
you very much for
applying for the job, blah blah blah. You
know, we will be in touch with you.
Should should you be so shortlisted?
So if you're not shortlisted, no one is
gonna is gonna tell you anything. So you
(30:00):
have no idea
why you were not shortlisted.
You will never know if your CV was
adequate or your experience was adequate.
So you're you're gonna stay in the limbo.
And,
and so so
in even even not so long ago I
mean, I'm talking about,
you know, some, what, ten years ago.
(30:23):
In some hotels that I worked, personally, I
worked, the shortlist
you know, while,
applicant track tracking system was already,
available.
So the applicant tracking system
shortlist
a curriculum
not knowing if the curriculum actually is the
best curriculum because
(30:45):
what does a machine understand about the profile
of a person just because of a piece
of paper? Anyway, so that's the first already
huge mistake.
The second
part is that, okay, so the CV shortlisted
by the applicant tracking system
goes into the desk of someone.
Normally, the HR manager, normally.
(31:06):
But what the the HR manager will do
will delegate this to a more junior person.
And in some cases, this happened to me
already in more than one property,
This junior
person is actually a student.
You know? So imagine an intern
having to shortlist,
maybe a chef, maybe a director of food
(31:28):
and beverage, maybe a restaurant manager, or maybe
even a general manager.
So can you believe that the applicant tracking
system is making the choice
of who is the best applicant?
Then
the HR manager or director
delegate this task,
which we still don't know if it's the
best of of the of the shortlisting, would
(31:50):
delegate this task to a more junior person.
And if you're lucky, it goes into the
hand of an HR executive.
If you're not lucky, it will go on
to the hands of an intern. So
and that was ten years ago. Today,
I don't think this has changed
because I do recruitment
also for some hotels in some occasion,
(32:12):
and, and I see the
who do I interact with normally.
And, also, I see because I apply myself.
So I also see how
applicants are handled.
You know? Actually, the most recent one, which
was, like, last week,
it was an interesting
it's an international company. They're opening a new
(32:34):
hotel in Mexico. And so I said, okay.
Let me see again.
This one, I have to say, was a
little bit smarter. So I need to investigate
which applicant tracking system they use because this
was a lot smarter. Although I was not
sure to list it as a candidate, it
doesn't matter.
But the answer
the answer prepared
was a a lot better than many other
(32:57):
answer that I've seen from other international companies.
So I will investigate
what, applicant tracking system they use. That was
pretty good, I have to say.
But it also
begs the question, how should, the traditional
human resources structure, you know,
to be
human research should be structured in hotels,
(33:18):
to ensure that you align with
this evolvement of of,
of
recruitment needs
at what kind of levels are,
interviewing or discussing with the potential candidates? Because
I I've had a similar situation where,
I was contacted by
(33:40):
someone because of we are both on LinkedIn.
So LinkedIn is frequently get,
contacted and,
you can all and then I have nothing
against anybody being a junior or not, but,
the questions that came up were a little
bit, strange in the sense that I wasn't
pretty sure I I was talking to somebody
who was aligned with the job requirements even.
(34:01):
So I'm just wondering your thoughts of what
would be the ideal
considering that we're we're living in 02/2025
and what will be the ideal way how
recruitment should be handled.
It's true, Sam. You see that the the
the issue
today, I mean, 2025,
is that we have so many platforms,
so much content,
(34:22):
so many ways to search for a job
that is definitely impossible
for any human
to go through
hundreds of applicants for one position.
It is it is true. I mean, at
the end of the day, we need to
be realistic.
What is not
working is actually the workload
(34:44):
that a an HR director has on top
of recruitment.
That's the main problem.
You know, if we keep looking for
meeting after meeting,
reports,
and this and that, you know, then if
you overwhelm
the person to actually do their job,
(35:06):
definitely, they cannot dilute their task and their
time to give to each of the task.
The challenge today is that we have Instagram,
Facebook,
link LinkedIn,
and and other job
portals where people can apply for a job.
You know? You have also the company page
or the career page and so on and
so forth. So it's, you know, it is
(35:27):
overwhelming
for any person.
And now how can a person
go through hundred or maybe more than a
hundred applicants?
It's a challenge. It's the I don't have
a solution to that. I don't think anyone
has a solution.
ATS definitely is not a solution because it's
clear that it's not working, and it's clear.
I know personally many competent
(35:49):
general manager level that they they're not able
to to find a job.
It's it's just not happening.
So applicant tracking system
doesn't work.
And this is this need to be addressed
because
all the industry is struggling to find talent.
Yeah. Not because there is no talent, because
the technology that we use is not good.
(36:11):
Simple.
So there are plenty of talent, and they
the good talent, what they do, you say,
well, you know what? I'm gonna work somewhere
else. Why should I work in hospitality,
you know, if if if I need to
apply to maybe 600
jobs to get maybe one interview? I mean,
where is the where is the logic there?
You know? And then maybe it's not the
job that I want.
So it's it's it really it really is
(36:33):
a a a a challenge. And, also, I
don't know how company like Mario Tilton,
InterContin, Accor,
you know, and all the big five or
seven companies globally, how can they open a
hotel a day as an average? They open
one hotel every day. How can you stuff
one hotel
with three, four hundred rooms average with a
(36:54):
50, two hundred people every single day around
the world. It's just crazy.
Yeah.
So I I don't even they don't do
anything. I mean,
if the big if the big company, they
do nothing, you know, imagine the smaller company.
What can they do? Not less, obviously. So
it's it's gonna go it's gonna go haywire
in the next three to five years. It's
(37:16):
gonna go your way because
big company, they keep growing, and then they're
not stopping their growth. Their growth strategy still
is one hotel every day. You know? That's
what they want to open.
Yeah. For how can they manage that? I
have no idea.
That's a very that's a that's a million
dollar question for sure. But now
from the candidate point of view,
(37:38):
we both are quite social, and we both
are active on on on on the social
media. And and,
when I meet you on we have never
met
physically, but we have met online many times.
And so we have an idea of
the kind of personal brand you represent, Rocco.
And you probably have some idea about my
(37:59):
personal brand, and we're quite comfortable with our
personal brand, how we project that professionally.
But what advice would you give a
a somebody who's starting in the in the
industry about,
the importance of personal,
personal branding?
And and, also, I mean, the second question
is that you think the hospitality industry places
(38:19):
enough importance on personal branding during the hiring
process.
I'm gonna answer the first the second question
first
because
I one thing I actually I realized, Sam,
about personal branding
or employer branding in this case.
What employer branding should do,
(38:39):
they should be able to attract the talent
that they need and that they want
automatically,
not without job posting
or creating opportunity
or opening a new hotel.
You know what I noticed? That I have
no hotel,
and I have
no my humble house yet.
(39:00):
But I I get request
for jobs for people to want to work
with me
every week. If not every day, but at
least two or three times a week, I
get people asking me, Rocco, I want to
work with you.
Why is that?
What do I do?
I don't do really much.
(39:21):
I only I only try to be myself.
I'm not trying to be somebody else.
I think that
employer branding
should do exactly the same thing, should represent
exactly
what they
are. Because what they're what they're doing instead,
they are representing
(39:41):
what they what they would like to be,
not what they really are.
And that's where
the
maybe my humble opinion,
the
breakdown exists.
Okay? There's no alignment
between
what the company really is
and what the company want to be. You
(40:02):
know, all this
wonderful
vision
and mission statement and golden rules and,
call it whatever you want, values and so
on,
if they don't really walk the talk,
the right people will never go
in that company. Never.
(40:23):
Even more now because even younger people, more
young younger generation
are more attracted
to
true value based company.
And the moment they see that this company
doesn't walk the talk,
they burn the bridge completely
and build a wall.
Not only they burn the bridge, they also
(40:44):
build the wall just in case somebody has
the brilliant idea to try to go back
to.
That's what I see. That's and and and,
you know, going back to the first question,
okay, about
building personal branding,
Just be authentic. Be yourself.
Be yourself.
Be coherent.
You know, walk the talk. Be a be
(41:06):
a leader
that really mean what they say.
And they say what they mean so that
they are really transparent.
They have integrity,
and they really want to do good
because otherwise, you just become
an influencer. I don't want to be an
influencer, Sam. I have no intention
(41:28):
to have a million followers.
I wanna have a lot of friends just
like you that maybe we never met, but
I I have the respect
or reciprocal
respect
that
I know who who you are. I know
what you're trying to achieve,
and you know what I'm trying to achieve.
We have alignment.
You know? I I I call tribe. You
(41:48):
know? I, you know, I have my tribe
of people that they trust me, and I
trust them. You know?
When I employ people, you know, when I
do recruitment
because, occasionally,
I look for for talents as well for
some of my clients.
And my clients, they expect me to present
the three options.
And I tell them, no. I don't present
you three options. I'm not another
(42:10):
recruiter
like everybody else is doing and give you
three options. I don't give it to you.
I only give you one option. This one
option is the one person you need.
And so they remain shocked. They say, okay,
Rocco.
I will I will follow you.
But then when I speak to the to
the candidate,
I tell them,
listen.
(42:30):
You don't need to tell me about your
experience because I can see this from your
from your
curriculum.
The one thing I only ask you is
to make sure that what you say on
your CV is really who you are. Yeah.
Because the moment the moment you screw up,
you screw up your
reputation,
you screw up my reputation,
(42:50):
and you don't comply with the with the
with the company that is going to give
you the opportunity of your lifetime.
Automatically,
the person either stay on and and deliver,
or they tell me, you know, mister Rocco,
I already found another job
Yeah. Which means that actually they were not
the right people.
(43:10):
And I filter like this. So this this
is my style of interview.
I don't ask them the usual question, you
know, where you work to tell me a
little bit about you, what are what are
your personal goal, and, you know, these are
the typical standard question that everyone ask today.
No. My my my interview lasted, like, ten
minutes.
Just deliver.
(43:30):
Don't thank me for the job. Don't thank
me to help you. Just deliver.
Very good. Yeah. I mean,
the the personal branding becomes very much of
a issue nowadays for all of us who
are
on social media different medias like, platforms like
LinkedIn, or is it Instagram and so on?
(43:52):
Any tips you want to give some young
professionals what how they should pay attention to
how they are
perceived
on social media? Is it important in your
opinion, or they should just be their self
as they are and that's where their authenticity
comes in?
They can be themselves, and they can be
professional at the same time.
(44:13):
You know? I
like, I'm talking to you now very, very
frankly. You know? This is Rocco.
You know? About, twenty years ago, for example,
I went for an interview
to to
for a job.
And at the time, I was already shaved.
And so
the the director of this company,
(44:36):
he he asked me, hey, Rocco.
What about your hairstyle?
And I said, what about my hairstyle? What's
wrong with this?
You know, this has always been fashionable, so
I don't understand.
And,
he said to me, well, you know, Rocco,
the company here is a bit, whole facial.
You know? They may not accept it. That's
(44:57):
okay. Fine.
You know? Would you accept me for my
hairstyle or for for the experience that I'm
gonna bring and the passion for my job?
Eventually, I got the job.
Eventually, I got the job, but it was
it was questionable, you know, about my my
style. Now
to a young person that gets into
(45:17):
into professional
social
social
networking,
Definitely, I I suggest to be professional.
Okay?
Second,
I suggest to
pick topics
that can inform
and can teach something to other people. Whether
you're gonna reshare it, it it doesn't matter.
(45:39):
It doesn't need to be your own content.
You can reshare content,
but definitely needs to be something that is
gonna help other people grow, not just yourself.
The third and the last thing that I
suggest, I mean, is to grow their network
starting from day one.
Not because they're still student,
you know, because I I get this answer
(45:59):
also from my kids, you know, and, no.
But still, you know, I'm still studying. Well,
even studying,
you require
a network of colleagues, you know, whether it's
gonna be your student colleague, you know, the
same university or or other university.
You can start confronting each other, you know,
confronting in the positive way. You know? You
(46:20):
can exchange opinions and, and, and point of
view.
But, definitely,
a young person should start from the beginning
to create a network that's gonna help them
grow in their career
or grow as a person
and start immediately. Don't wait after you finish
because between now and four years, technology has
changed. Social media have changed. So many things
(46:42):
have changed. The world has changed. So start
now. Don't wait until four years when you
finish your study.
Very good.
Okay, Rocco.
I have two more questions before we wrap
up,
today's episode. One question I always like to
ask my guests.
Best even besides what we talked about,
what are the other trends that you see
(47:03):
happening in hospitality that hoteliers should take note
of? What what do you think they are
you you you if you put some priority
on that?
I I I still more and more, at
least in this part of the world, there's
still more and more smaller
hotels
coming up, you know, like mushrooms, you know,
smaller boutique hotels, ten, fifteen, 20 rooms.
(47:25):
They are growing like mushrooms everywhere. So for
me, it's great because that's where I where
I thrive. I have the experience. You know?
I've got the connection.
I have the network. I know the suppliers
and so on and so on. So for
me, it's paradise at the moment. I don't
know if this trend is gonna stay forever,
but it's gonna stay for for a long
time. That's that's a fact. So we need
(47:45):
to be aware of that, and we need
to stop building
bigger hotels, you know, with 10,000 rooms or
5,000 room or 3,000 room. We don't need
that, really. You know? No. Nobody
maybe there is a market for it, I'm
sure.
But we we don't need 3,000 rooms to
create
a a a a destination.
We can create a destination with 40 rooms.
(48:06):
You know? And the clear example was actually
Chablis Chablis, the one the one I was
I was lucky to work open
eight years ago, and we created a destination
in in the middle of the jungle. You
know? We we we position
Yucatan and Merida
as one of the best place to go
for vacation for luxury travelers.
(48:27):
This is definitely one. The second one is
technology.
It's here to stay.
It's coming stronger,
faster than anyone can believe. So we need
to be ready for that too.
Whether we like it or not, I
not very keen on on technology,
you know, on one side.
On the other side, I love technology, but,
(48:48):
you know, there is always a fine line
on how far we need to go.
But it it's coming. So we need to
we need to embrace it and need to
find the best way,
of its use.
Very good. Now the second the final question
is then,
if, people who want to reach out to
you, how can they find you, and how
(49:08):
could they connect with you?
Listen. I'm quite public on LinkedIn. I I
do all my stuff. 90%
of my time is actually on LinkedIn. That's
where I spend my my social time.
You know, when I do digital social media,
I only I only do LinkedIn. I have
an Instagram account, but I hardly use it.
And I have a Facebook account that I
(49:29):
I only use it for, you know, some
some other connection. But if you want to
find me, just tag Rocco Bova on LinkedIn,
and, generally, you'll find me.
Very good, Rocco. And, this episode also will
be visible on on on LinkedIn,
YouTube, and and Instagram. So we'll make sure
that we'll spread
the
(49:50):
wonderful information that you have shared in this
episode will be visible on on all those
platforms. So, Rocco, I really want to thank
you very much for for this morning in
your in in Mexico that you took the
time to,
share your views. And I'm looking forward to
have keeping in touch and have another,
conversation with you. We'll find another topic. I
really want to talk a little bit about,
(50:11):
my humble house because that was something we
never had a chance to talk about. And
I we have discussed it in the past,
but I think it's such a wonderful
it's a wonderful
concept that,
I think, we need to spread spread the
the good word about this one one of
these days. I I can tell you a
little tip about my humble house. It is
it is moving forward.
(50:31):
It is moving forward. I'm actually working with
I've got the land already.
It is moving forward. I'm working with a
group of architects here in Mexico to to
design the the master plan.
And it's actually also evolved
from being just a hotel
to being a master plan community where there
is also hotel. But, maybe we'll find a
(50:53):
we'll find another
another episode of your podcast to discuss about
this. When I get also more information,
I will be able maybe to show you
some renderings of what it's gonna look like.
We'll make it happen, Rocco. For sure. Whenever
you're ready.
Fantastic.
Thank you, Rocco.
It's been a pleasure, Sam. Thank you so
much for inviting me.
(51:14):
Thank you for tuning in to the Social
Hotelier. If you enjoyed this episode that I
had a wonderful discussion with Rocco Bova, please
take a moment to leave us a review,
give it a thumbs up, and don't forget
to hit that subscribe button to stay updated.
Now if you're listening to this as a
podcast,
I really appreciate if you write the review
on on Apple Podcasts, and you need to
use your mobile device for that. That. We
(51:36):
have an incredible lineup of guests coming your
way, so stay tuned for more thought provoking
conversations.
Until next time, take care and keep exploring.
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