May 2, 2025 • 48 mins
Visionary entrepreneur Philippe Ziade takes us deep into the revolutionary world of AI-powered hospitality with his groundbreaking Otonomus hotel concept, set to open in Las Vegas on July 1st. This episode unveils how technology is fundamentally transforming guest experiences while creating unprecedented value for real estate developers.
Philippe's journey from Lebanese immigrant studying engineering at UNLV to innovative developer illustrates the quintessential American success story. After starting with a marble company working on the Palms Casino, he navigated the 2008 financial crisis by pivoting to distressed properties, where operational challenges led him to develop technological solutions. Those early innovations eventually evolved into the sophisticated AI systems powering Otonomus.
What makes Otonomus revolutionary? Picture a property where guests specify exactly what they want—from room configuration to service preferences—and AI puzzles it together in real time. Through what Philippe calls "digital avatars," the system learns each guest's preferences, creating increasingly personalized experiences with every interaction. Imagine walking into a hotel room that already knows your preferred temperature, lighting, and amenities before you even arrive.
Despite the technological sophistication, Philippe emphasizes that Otonomus isn't about replacing humans but enhancing them. "We're in the augmented era," he explains, where digital systems extend our capabilities while preserving the irreplaceable human elements of hospitality. This philosophy extends to Otonomus dining offerings, including Nyla, an elevated Lebanese restaurant named after Philippe's mother.
Beyond Otonomus, Philippe shares his ambitious vision for Las Vegas's evolution into a true global metropolis with branded residential towers, financial districts, and cultural centers. His perspective on Vegas as a blank canvas for innovation will inspire anyone passionate about urban development and the city's unlimited potential.
Listen now to discover how the intersection of real estate, technology, and hospitality is creating the future of travel experiences. Whether you're a technology enthusiast, hospitality professional, or simply curious about how AI is reshaping our world, Philippe's insights will transform how you think about your next hotel stay.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase the
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be sitting down with a
visionary entrepreneur developerbehind one of the world's first
AI hotels called Autonomousredefining hospitality, which
we're going to get into.
We're going to explore the AIimpact, his latest projects and
(00:23):
his views on global development.
So welcome into the circlefounder of Growth Holdings.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We've got Mr Philippe Ziade.
Did I say it correctly?
Thank you guys for having me.
Yeah, that's pretty good, it'sPhilippe.
It's French, yeah, it's aFrench saying of Philip, but I
go with anything you call me, Ilike.
Philippe, because it makes mefeel different.
It's a differentiator and theneverything I do in my life.
We always go after beingdifferent.
I love that Somewhere somehow.
I love that.
So Philippe works.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's awesome, let's jump right in, man.
So, growth Holdings did youkind of get your first start?
What I was reading is you're amarble company, right, so did
you get connected with the PalmsCasino back in the late 90s?
That's how you actually gotinto last year 2000 actually.
Oh, year 2000, okay end of 99.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, but I came.
I came to vegas as a student,you know, to unlv.
Okay, came from lebanon, youknow was the I have an uncle
here and then also was thecheapest for me to.
It was cheap living in lasvegas and the city was growing.
I wanted to be an engineer andand construction wise.
Engineering wise it was.
It was a good place for me tobe.
(01:27):
So that's how I end up in vegas, went to uh unlv school.
Here I did mechanicalengineering oh wow, and then
started working ever since okay,so you got brothers, you.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You got your brother over here, chris that's my man.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
He's part of the lebanese background, my lebanese
, my Lebanese man.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yes sir, yes sir.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So what makes Vegas like the perfect place to kind
of jump into this AI world, man?
Because we've got so much goingon.
What we're talking aboutoffline is we're becoming like
the Mecca for food, becoming theMecca of development, like we
were talking about.
But what makes Vegas kind of,you know, the top, you know, to
focus on?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean, for me, vegas is home right and home usually
reflects comfort and the placeyou like and you like to be, and
when you're at home you're morecreative.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I love that You're comfortable.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So it's not necessarily that I thought, hey,
ai and Vegas, they're going tocome together.
It's just, I'm here, I'mcomfortable, I can be innovative
and Vegas also give us aplatform.
Las Vegas is an international,huge name, right, and and if you
understand that we have thatopportunity to, to be and start
from Vegas, uh, it's a, it's apush for you.
(02:35):
You know you're, you're on theinternational scene, you're one
of the big names.
Las Vegas, miami, dubai,singapore, london, new York, I
mean, you're at that caliber,right, and that's for us it's an
advantage, but for me it's.
You know the sequence of what Iwent through when I came here as
(02:55):
a student and the normalprogression of your life and who
you want to be.
And, coming from a place likeLebanon where you don't have a
lot of opportunity, your onlyopportunity is to get a visa and
come to the US, and then youcome here and you start dreaming
and fighting the fight to getwhere you want, to be always
scared from going back where youcame from or go back to the
(03:17):
situation that you were in andand that will give you the drive
.
Now, as I was in Vegas startingin the early 2000s, it was
booming and, you know, for Vegaswe say if you're over 20 years,
you're, you're from Vegas.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, I'm almost 17.
I feel like it's home.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'm 26 years in Vegas , so I'm I'm native and I'm
proud of it.
Yeah, so as the, we started witha marble company working on the
on the strip, starting with thePalm.
The Palm was the first projectI've ever done.
I didn't even know how to priceit, I didn't even know what,
how it works, and I learned aswe were doing the project, of
(03:53):
course, at a cost, likeeverything else, but also you
learn.
And that was the start.
And then the market crash camein 2008 and you know, vegas was
hit very, very hard and I wasforced to like pivot quickly and
I started going to japan andraising money, because you know
there were no money here.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So I had to go somewhere else and get creative.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So we raised money in japan and we started working in
the distressed market, buyingpackages from the banks and and
repositioning properties.
So we went through all of thatand at the time I was the
biggest in Nevada.
I was ranked nationally 13 bythe Wall Street Journal with the
number of transaction anddollar volume.
So as we were doing all of this, we had a lot of challenges
(04:38):
controlling the operation rightand houses going on fire.
Where's the insurance?
Oh, we never put insurance.
How come you didn't putinsurance?
Oh, we missed it that day.
You know you go into these kindof issues and I couldn't control
it.
And then I the only I looked ata technology to help me and I
was like, okay, can I streamline?
How can I take my brain andshare it with everybody?
(04:59):
Like, how can we make thesemistakes and make sure we're
efficient?
And then that's how I got intotechnology.
I hired the first companycouldn't perform.
Then I had a person in theoffice with me that had a
computer science background.
He's like, hey, I can code itfor you.
I said seriously.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
He's like yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So he started coding.
I was sitting with him and thenwe get two more guys helping
and I really mapped everything Iwanted to be and at the time it
was equivalent to AI.
So basically, you buy theproperty and automatic work
orders will go to everybodythat's working with you
Locksmith guy, the insurance guy, the remodeling team, right,
everybody gets work orders fromthe second.
(05:38):
They get the work order untilthey're done.
They take a picture, forexample, you're the locksmith
guy we purchased, you get thework order, you go change the
lock, take a picture and uploadit.
The system will time you.
Then I run an average on you,right, and then if you, if your
performance on that specificproject is above your, your
average, the system will flagyou for me and tell me he's
(06:00):
slowing you down, right.
So I was able to trackeverything.
And then, and it becamefascinated with technology and
what technology can do for myoperation.
So as we got to the end of 2012, we were sitting on a lot of
rental properties and thenairbnb became popular I was like
(06:20):
what is airbnb?
hey, let's, let's try it.
So we were renting a lot ofhouses on the market and we
started.
I said, let's try an Airbnb.
So we furnished one property,we did one Airbnb and suddenly
the house that was renting for$1,500, $1,600 a month started
generating $3,000, $4,000 amonth.
I'm like, oh wow, this ischanging the game.
(06:41):
We're going to stop long-termlease, we're going to furnish
all of them and we're going todo Airbnbs.
I got so excited, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And especially the price.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We bought these houses at the time.
It was like such a low price,and so the house was generating
40, 50,000 a year.
You bought it at 70, 80,000.
That's a no brainer.
Yeah that's a no-brainer.
Yeah and uh.
So let's do that.
And we started doing the airbnband then, before we know it,
everybody's against youeverybody hates you.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, the city.
The city hates you.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The neighbor hates you, hoa hates you, and and we
try to do everything like we.
We try to like, hide and andchange the address.
We try to go and and bribe theneighbors like, hey, I'll give
you four, five hundred dollars amonth to be quiet nobody wanted
it, yeah, but then then thatbecomes a challenge.
(07:32):
Okay, that cannot be a businessplan, but it's so lucrative.
So how can we do this like, howcan I take advantage of that?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
market.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It works yeah yeah, the the market, that sector in
the market that people want.
It's just insane.
And as we were doing this,every house or property that has
two or three bedrooms with apool, we couldn't keep up with
leasing it.
You know, because they comesleep eight, ten in a house,
they create their own kind ofexperience, especially if there
is a pool.
(08:01):
So people are we're paying forthat and then we start charging
like $40 a head.
If you're more than four, five,six in a house, depending on the
number of rooms.
People were just paying it.
So then I started like, how canI solve that?
How can I provide that kind ofproduct?
And that's where the autonomousconcept started, right.
(08:22):
So how can I provide a productthat really hotels cannot
provide or don't have, becausehotel gives you, you know, a
studio, basically, uh, andeverything beyond that.
You're into the suite and it'sexpensive and it's limited in
number.
So how can I one not be hatedby by you know, your community,
and and not not be like doingsomething that's that's against
(08:45):
the laws here, and especiallywith the zoning, zoning laws, uh
, and that's one.
How can I provide that productto the end consumers because
they want it?
Uh, and that's how the conceptstarted.
And then what autonomous istoday is actually providing the
best of both worlds.
So if you look at the airbnbproduct, it gives you the
flexibility and variety ofwhatever you want.
(09:07):
If you go to book on Airbnb,you're not going to look for a
flag or a hotel name or aMarriott or a Hilton or a W.
You're looking for the rightproduct at that right price that
works for you, so thatflexibility and variety of the
product.
That's what Autonomous offerstoday.
So the concept is we'rebuilding kind of a similar to a
(09:29):
class A.
If you want apartment complexor condo project, sure, but then
the entire floor isinterconnected, right, okay, all
the units are interconnected.
Then we created the layer of AItechnology where you book
whatever you want, starting froma studio up to a six, seven,
(09:49):
eight bedroom penthouse, and theAI will puzzle it for you on
the fly in real time.
So we changed the way you book,so we created that AI powered
booking engine.
So usually in a hotel, theyoffer you three, four room types
, right, and then you pick at aprice and then you pick which
(10:10):
one fits you.
So, it's like aone-size-fits-all kind of like
whatever fits you.
We changed that and we createdwhat we call an attribute-based
booking.
So you tell us what you want,We'll puzzle it in real time for
you right.
So now even your physical spaceis personalized.
Whatever you want, we'll haveit.
(10:31):
I will puzzle it for you.
So we created the software, wecreated the hardware, the, the
locking mechanism, the actuallock.
So once you book, let's say, athree bedroom, stay with us once
you, you virtually check in,the system will lock and unlock
and open the doors.
That makes that configurationon that specific floor right.
And when I say attribute-basedbooking, there's two parts.
(10:54):
There's the hard attributes,which is the physical space, but
we also have the softattributes, which is I want a
room away from noise.
I want cleaning every day,every other day.
I don't want cleaning, justclean after me when I leave.
Everything you pick changes theprice.
So you really it's very dynamicin real time.
So you really custom tailorwhat you want, and people
(11:15):
usually pay more if you offerthem what they really want,
right.
But it's not about.
It's about being efficient.
So that side of the conceptcovers the flexibility and
variety of a product.
The other side is theconsistency in the guest
experience, right.
So the downside of Airbnb isbecause you have different hosts
and sometimes you have a greatexperience, but sometimes you're
(11:38):
not happy.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, I've been there , something like beautiful
pictures, but you go there.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
It's not similar to the pictures.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Wi-fi doesn't match.
The towels are not like clean,you don't have enough towels,
whatever.
Whatever the reason is, so thatconsistency in the guest
experience is is the downside ofairbnb, and that's what hotel
gives you.
Like if you go stay in a, in ahilton and marriott and a four
season depends what brands youknow the expectation of, at
(12:03):
minimum you're gonna get what.
What you expect so from thataspect also is is our ai and the
adaptation.
So, when we do, and and if I'mgonna explain that concept with
you, uh, simply, it's it's infour different phases, right?
Phase one is the booking enginethat I explained to you.
So you, you book, it's customtailored to you.
(12:26):
Tell us what you want, we'llput it together.
Phase two once you book, westart with what we call the
onboarding process, and thatonboarding process is two
simultaneous approaches at thesame time.
First approach is with theguest okaying that we can go
(12:48):
scrape the web, all social media, all publicly information on
you.
We can go and gather all ofthat.
The AI will gather all of that,and what we create here, what
we call your unique digitalavatar, and the digital avatar
is basically a digital twin ofyou, the guest, or, in different
(13:09):
ways.
It's a digital.
If you want mapping of yourpreferences, so it's a blueprint
, digital blueprint of yourpreferences.
So that's a unique avatar justfor you.
This is really cool.
This is awesome At the same timewe start a gamified approach
and and the system will reachout to you in a very cool way,
(13:31):
uh like when you sign up toapple or you snap, like you see,
like asking you the questionsthat you want answer or not
answer right, and we want toknow are you a coffee or a tea
person?
are you a morning or a person?
Are you a vegetarian?
Are you like into outdoors?
Are you an indoors?
We try to ask you the coolstuff and then we give you.
We give free perks and upgradesand and and hey, you're two
questions away from a free drinkat the bar, right?
(13:54):
So we have that cool approach,but the ai will take all of this
and create your avatar and andand.
What the avatar is is actually acorrelation of all this data we
collected with an output, andthat output is in that digital
avatar, right?
And that avatar will keepimproving.
As long as you stay with us, weconnect with you.
That's improving the avatar.
(14:14):
So that's the onboardingprocess and also the output of
the avatar is also monetary.
It will tell us hey, chris isstaying with you for three days
and he's going to spend $1,000and here's how you're going to
spend it.
He's going to spend $200 ondining.
He's going to spend $100 onthis.
He likes to be by the pool, helikes some music, he likes
(14:37):
golfing.
It will help us understand whathe likes and how we can
monetize him.
So when he comes and stay, whathe likes and how we can
monetize him.
So when he comes and stay.
So you go from phase two.
So phase one was the booking,phase two was the onboarding,
now is the actual stay.
So during the actual stay, wetrack everything in real time of
your behaviors, being roomtemperature in the room,
(14:59):
lighting in the room, what timeyou woke up, what you ate, how
you took your coffee, everythingyou stay with coffee,
everything you stay with us, wetrack.
And then to give you and it'sall based also on what your
avatar told us.
So now we customize theofferings for you and what that
does.
It will give you a betterexperience, but also we can
(15:21):
monetize you much more thanknowing nothing about you.
Yeah, the data mining of everyspecific data mining.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
So that's during this day experience, but also we can
monetize you much more thanknowing nothing about you.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, it's the data mining of every specific data
mining.
So that's during the stay.
Now, when you check out andusually when you check out in a
traditional hotel that's the endof your experience With us.
It's the start of your nextstay with us, and what the AI
will do during the offboardingis similar to the onboarding
where we start another gamifiedapproach.
And what the AI does it willcapture the gap of what the
(15:51):
avatar told us you're going tobe doing and what you actually
did, right.
If it tells us you're going tospend a thousand and you spend
700, then we're going to knowwhy, what happened and, if
anything go wrong, what is thatthat went wrong and why we
couldn't monetize, why was theprojection not accurate?
So we ask the questions in avery smooth way where you don't
feel what we're doing, but we'retrying to really capture that
(16:12):
gap and understand where it camefrom and how we can fix it for
next time.
So the more you stay with us,the more your avatar and your
actual stay will align and, atthe end of the day, we're giving
you a very personalizedexperience tailored only for you
through your avatar, right?
So at the end of the day, whatwe're doing is we're giving the
(16:32):
flexibility of an Airbnb andgiving a five-star service
Better than any high-end hotel,right At the cost of an Airbnb.
So that's the concept and Ithink that's the future of
hospitality, because today, youknow, it's the satisfaction and
(16:54):
experience.
It's not measured withexperiences anymore, it's
measured with milliseconds.
You have to do everything ontime, the right way every time
and and if you don't have thedata in real time and the data
is latent, then you cannot givethat experience.
And I mean look at you, you onsocial media, you go through
your finger and you can't.
(17:14):
You can't look at any videomore than three, four seconds.
You just get bored likeeverything is so quick, so fast
and everything is now and youwant to be satisfied now and and
that's the direction thateverything is going.
And if you look in thehospitality uh industry, where
they're way behind these hugebig systems that don't speak to
each other, and the only way todo that is when you have a
(17:36):
centralized brain we have the obrain and where the different
parts of the brain speaks toeach other in real time,
accurate information for you tobe able to give that service.
And that doesn't exist withhotel, with the hospitality
industry, because there aredifferent systems that manage
different parts of thatexperience.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah well, philippe, you put a lot on us there.
I think you gave me a lot tothink about.
I'm blown away.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I have too many questions for you, so first I
want to start.
I have too many questions foryou, so first I want to start.
So Autonomous was the first onein Tulum, mexico.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yes, we opened in Tulum, mexico, because that
property is beautiful.
Yes, we haven't deployed thetechnology yet.
We're going to deploy it at thesame time here in Vegas and in
Tulum In Vegas.
We're set to open July 1st.
We opened the bookings rightnow so you can go online and
book.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And Tulum will be the technology will deploy at the
same time.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, kind of just to dig in a little bit further.
You know, so it seems like you,from a business standpoint, you
live multiple lives.
Right, you go from being themarble to the housing
development and acquisition andredistressed properties and now
moving into this, like you couldsee, like a small correlation
between the two, but this is avery ambitious project, right?
You know how?
How did your kind of priorexperience, you know, with the
distressed houses lead you tothis point?
Because it's almost like itseems like there's a line there,
(18:51):
but it's a full overhaul of anexperience which is very
different than you know rentingout distressed properties.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Well, I think it really comes down to you as a
person.
I mean, you can.
You can do the same thing forthe rest of your life and never
improve.
That's what makes youcomfortable, that's what you
want to do.
But if you're really ambitiousand and and you want to push the
envelope and and what you liketo do is is is to innovate, and
that's what I like to do, is toinnovate, and I think, uh,
innovation.
If our motto as a company isconnecting minds, creating the
future, and I I'm a big believerthat if you connect minds
across different industrieswhere people see the same thing
(19:25):
and from different lenses,you're able to create a new
product or the future.
But if you don't have thatdifferent view of the same thing
from different angle, as, let'ssay, in this, in this instance,
is is as a real estatedeveloper and as a technology
developer, right, I starteddeveloping technology in 2008.
I got fascinated by it by now.
I look at the solution from twodifferent angles.
(19:47):
As a real estate solution, howdo I design and build that place
and connect these unitstogether where it works?
And then, how do I create thattechnology to really bring that
concept to life?
And I'm lucky to be able to beboth right, and that puts me in
a very unique positioning,especially in the real estate
(20:08):
development world.
So real estate development isthe opposite of technology 180
degrees.
And not only that.
I mean for you to succeed as areal estate developer is like
you do the same thing every day,with a discipline, and it works
, and don't change it.
You know location, design,layout.
(20:28):
You do it exactly the samething.
Don't try to innovate.
That's what works.
You need to do it.
Right now.
You look at technology, whereinnovation is the heartbeat of
the technology.
If you don't innovate everyweek, you're dead.
So now you put these twotogether and it's a challenge.
It's a challenge even with themindset, with the people working
around you.
They're totally differentmindsets and you've got to put
(20:50):
them together and you've got togo through challenges.
You've got to go throughpushbacks.
You've got to go a lot throughlike no, you can't, it doesn't
work from the contractors to thepeople around you, to the
operation, to the tech guys, andthen you put it's just
challenging.
But I think what I look for isalways is driven by a need and,
(21:11):
as a real estate developer, toanswer really your question as a
real estate developer in realestate, it always comes down to
the value creation piece.
How do you create value to anasset that you have?
Right Back in the days, in adistressed market.
We were hey, we buy a house, weremodel, you reposition, you
(21:31):
put it back on the market.
You create value.
Sometimes you buy a land andbuild a concept.
The concept creates value.
The building on the landcreates value.
Sometimes, time only createsvalue.
Buying at the right time andsit on it creates value, right?
So I wanted to add a layer thatcreates value to a real estate
asset that no one else has, andthat value?
(21:55):
That was the layer oftechnology.
Can I add a layer of technologythat will add a value to an
asset, right, uh, that no oneelse can do and that's a home
run for me.
So now, what I did is I toldyou this the hotel concept is
similar to a class, a condoproject, right so?
Or a multi-family.
(22:16):
So if you look at multi-family,they trade at five, five and a
half cap in the market.
Today, my autonomous concept isgoing to be 17% cap, oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So now you take you said 17%, cap 15 to 17,.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
That's the performer we have now.
So now you come and look atokay, it's the same asset, same
building, but now you'regenerating much more income.
And the enabler is your tech.
That's the layer.
Of course, tech alone is notgoing to be successful if you
don't have the right pillars ofreal estate development the
location, the design, thehallway, the ceiling heights,
the doors, the layout.
(22:50):
You have to hit every singleone of those for the tech to add
value right.
You cannot say you can addtechnology on a building that's
designed wrong or in the wronglocation, you're going to fail.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
But really I technology on a building that's
designed wrong or in the wronglocation you're going to fail,
but really I wanted to add thatlayer and, uh, that gives me the
advantage and thedifferentiator.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
That's when we started my name being I like it
to be different.
So I want, I want thatdifferentiation everything I do
and I think, and vega and the us, is there's two ways to do it
either big volume or somethingreally innovative and new.
And you know I can't competewith the big national companies.
The big volumes in the US ishuge big corporations.
So you go into how can I createa unique product?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
When you're creating that innovative product and with
so many various touch points,right Like there's a lot of
moving pieces through thiscustomer experience, like, how
do you make sure that?
How do you test thatcohesiveness of that experience?
Because when you're brand newit's hard to kind of there's no
test run right Like you can'treally.
You're building it withanticipation versus without
really understanding how itcould be.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, that's a challenge, but that's also the
advantage for us.
So, imagine I'm only the techcompany.
I'm going to pitch this, forexample, to the Marriott.
You have too many bugs, you'redead, and that's the high risk
of technology.
But because I'm both, so we'regoing to go live.
We're expecting to have bugs orissues, and usually when you
(24:18):
expect to have 10, you'll have1,000.
But because we own the hotel,we own the concept, we'll make
it work, we'll, we'll.
We'll work with the guests andand and I just want to also
mention something very importantthat the concept is based on
human talent.
People think when they hear AI,they think it's oh, it kind of
(24:47):
hotel.
You're not going to see people,you're going to see robots.
That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yes, robots going to go everywhere like, but but you
see, I mean even the way, if you, if you see the units and I'll
invite you guys to come and seeit.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It's very, very homey , very comfortable, uh, and and
I'm a big believer in thepartnership between, between
technology and humans, right,and?
And we're into that era now,and I think I call that era the
augmented era, okay, where yournature, your natural
capabilities are being augmentedby technology.
You know computational systemsthat will help you think, robots
(25:12):
that will help you make and,most importantly, a digital
nervous system that will connectyou to the world far, far
beyond your natural senses.
Right, and, and this is when Iwhen we say real data, in real
time, that that digital nervoussystem that captures the data
and and understand the feedbackquickly, right, and then act on
(25:35):
it.
So, so that augmented era is isaugmenting our capabilities and
therefore augmenting everythingwe do, starting from the google
days up until today.
Right, so it augments what youknow, it augments your, your
access to data, it augmentseverything is under your
fingertips and now, with ai,it's way beyond that.
So we want to take advantage ofthat augmentation and we want to
(25:57):
use that as a support andenhancing, uh, the the human, if
want interaction and notreplace it.
There's a big difference ifyou're enhancing or you're
replacing and we're enhancing,and I think, especially in Vegas
.
We're talking about Vegas andthe name and the talent we have,
the best talent in the world inhospitality in Las Vegas and we
assembled a very strong team.
(26:18):
And we assembled a very strongteam and I'm very aware of the
difference between having anexperience that is functional
and efficient versus anexperience that's unforgettable,
and I think the differentiatorbetween the two is that
partnership and that's thathuman interaction.
(26:39):
Right?
So your body language, yoursmile.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
That's what Vegas is human interaction, right so your
body language, your smile.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
That's what Vegas is all about.
Right, like being hospitable.
It's the team that's going tocome with the tech and the tech
is going to help the team toperform better.
So that's very important tomention that, because people
really, when they hearAI-powered hotel, you just think
you're going to see robots andwe have a few robots as part of
the operation.
But they're they're cooladdition to the team, right, so
(27:06):
they're always working alongalongside team that's managing
we're overstaffed.
It's not an onset so?
so we have the team and and alsowhat, what the technology we're
developing, it's not only guestfacing.
A big part of it is on the backend, right?
So?
So, the same way, you want tooffer the guest a good
experience, you want to offeryour team a working, a nice
(27:30):
working experience, where, wherea lot of things are easy for
them.
So I'll give you an example inour o-brain think of it like a
chat gpt, right, that's theo-brain.
So our processes, uh, ourin-house processes situation
that you're going to have tohandle everything that you do,
the, the, the team, they cansimply go and ask their phone,
(27:50):
like what do I do here?
And then it tells them exactlywhat to do based on all the
processes that we have.
So you don't have to.
So, really, we, we give themall these information.
It's easy for them to operate.
There's systems and in placeslike, for example, room service,
right In our system, when theteam, let's say, go to clean the
(28:13):
room, the minute they go intothe room they check in.
So they have their phone andthey scan and they're checked in
.
So we track, like I told youwhat I did back in 2008,.
They track from the minute theystart until they're done.
They can report everythingthrough the system If something
is missing, something is stolen,something needs to be fixed to
the engineering departmentthrough a work order.
(28:35):
But then, when they're done, wetrack them and then we know the
average performance per team,per room type and what the
system does.
Based on check-ins andcheck-outs and based on the
request, the system can projectthe labor force that you need on
that specific day, specificweek, based on all the averages
and the data that we have.
So really there's a lot of andthe system has a lot of backend
(29:00):
efficiencies for the operation,where it just improves.
At the end of the day, yourteam will have more time to
focus on the guest, becausethat's what hospitality is all
about, right, instead of goingand manually doing all these
operations, we want to supportthat through tech and have them
focus on the guest.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So tell me something.
So say Chris and I, here withour wives too is we want to
check in.
We can set up, say we want tostay there for a year.
We can set up a lease and staythere for a year.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
We have a long-term short-term.
Right now it's 29 days.
It renews every 29 days, butyou can stay as long as you want
.
We would love to have you.
That's pretty cool Give you avery nice experience and take
your money.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, I bet you would .
Yeah, it was 17% cap rate.
Jesus Christ, yeah you knowthat.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I mean the cap rate is coming from efficiency and
operation and added valueMonetizing.
So okay, big corporation, rightnow they have their generic
loyalty program.
You know the tiers, you knowgeneric loyalty program, you
know that, that, that that tears.
You know you start with silver,gold and platinum and then they
have data points and and thedata points is how many times
you stayed with them and howmuch you spent, and that's it.
(30:07):
And I don't know what they dowith it.
They do nothing.
So there is no correlation ofthat data.
And what does it mean to youand what does it mean to them?
There's a lot of money beingleft on the table and I think
it's not being monetized.
But look around you, look howeverything is Like I told you,
people want their own experience.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
And you have no gaming, correct?
There's no gaming, no gaming.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
But I mean for me, you go to restaurants.
You don't always go to the bestrestaurants out there.
A lot of times you go to theplaces that know you and they
know what you order.
And then you go in and then theserver sees you.
It's like oh the same.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
this, this, this is like yep you're happy like they
get you the stuff because theyknow you.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I want to have a dry cleaner for 10 years, no matter
where I live, but you have to go15, 20 times a year for them to
know you.
We want to know you from thefirst time and it doesn't matter
if you come 15 times or youcome one time.
You're going to get the sameservice because we know you, the
system knows you and we wantyou to have that kind of special
personalized experience whatkind of disclosures do you need
to have to have that experience?
(31:09):
I think just from a legalitystandpoint it has to be a very
challenging disclosurestandpoint.
Yes, I mean you'll sign.
Did you ever read thesedisclosures?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
no, I love the experience.
I'll sign all day me neither.
Probably everybody will read it.
Just you ever read thesedisclosures?
No, I love the experience.
I'll sign all day Me, neither.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Probably everybody I've ever read.
It's just sign, sign, sign,keep it moving.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
But that's a good question.
And also we always take theguest will always have to allow
us to do whatever we need to do,but also we don't own the data.
We're like a custodian of thedata, so we give a lot of
flexibility to the guests.
So first, you can up out of anyof that data collection from day
(31:46):
one that makes sense and youcan go to the the front desk and
get a key and go to your room.
If that's what you want to butalso, at any time during the
experience, you can go back anderase all your data.
We give the guests that access,so it's full transparency.
We're just here to give you abetter experience, and that's
(32:07):
the objective of collecting thedata.
That's smart.
And people complain all thetime.
But if you're holding thatphone, you gave away all of that
anyways.
And I haven't seen a personwithout that smartphones in the
last five years.
I haven't seen one person thatthat smartphones.
In the last five years, Ihaven't seen one person that
doesn't have, that you ain'tlying and the kids too.
Everybody, your dog, your cat.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Everybody got their phones.
Now let's talk about the foodman.
So you got a Lebaneserestaurant and what's some of
the amenities that's going to beat Autonomous?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Autonomous.
We have two pools, we're goingto have a rooftop, fifth floor
lounge.
We want it to be like a newexperience for Vegas.
Like we travel all over Europeand Miami and Dubai and all
these places and there's a lotof cool concepts that we don't
have in Vegas.
Like everything is focused onthis trip, these big
corporations and just similarexperiences everywhere you go
(33:04):
Different colors, different this, different that, but at the end
of the day, it's the sameexperience.
You got to walk through thecasinos, go up there, you got to
be mixed with a lot of people,especially if there are special
events in vegas.
And for us locals, we want wereally want something different.
Uh, I think vegas is lackingand and that that's going to be
a private club.
Uh, not too private.
It's going to be difficult.
We want to make sure we filterthe people that goes there.
It's going to be difficult.
We want to make sure we filterthe people that goes there, but
it's going to be like a supperclub DJ music from like 11 to
(33:27):
like 2, 3 am.
It's on the roof, the wholestrip is in front of you.
It's beautiful views, beautifulspace, very well designed and
it's just a different experience.
I want you to experience.
What I always wanted is pull upwith my car in the front of the
door and then have a guy thatknows me and go up all the way.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
I don't have to walk and go through the casinos to
get to that experience.
This will be open to the publicand not just for the guests,
yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And then we have also .
We're going to have like fourrestaurants.
Uh, one of them is the Lebanesethe one I'm doing, because I'm
Lebanese and I think Vegas ismissing a really elevated
Lebanese experience.
We don't have that.
And we partnered up with a topchef winner, a younger chef,
sherbal Hayek, that he's doingvery well in LA.
(34:12):
He has the Laia restaurants andhe has the Lady Hog, so he's
going to be the main chef todeliver that experience.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
We're naming the restaurants after my mom.
This is exclusive on VegasCircus.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That's the first time I say it and I hope she's not
going to see that.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
We'll wait.
We'll wait to put that out.
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
The name will be Nyla .
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Nyla, nyla and A-Y-L-A.
This is like the coolestproject.
I'm just saying that you'resitting with this like just
coming from the app.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
I could just hear my kids.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I hear this episode I got my own little avatar to be
able to do it.
That's pretty cool to be ableto build that, and then you
really know who that customer is.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I'm assuming the goal isto build these around the world.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So it's it's building .
It's building them all over theworld.
So so the the only way to do it.
I'm not a hospitality guy,right, I'm, I'm the innovator,
I'm the visionary, but but it'sI'm not a name in hospitality,
where I, I, you say my name andeverybody's gonna come throwing
money at me.
So I really have to do theconcept, prove the concept right
and then scale.
(35:21):
So right now we're in, uh, we'reimproving the concept kind of a
phase.
So we have a second one beingdesigned in the not being
designed.
We're in actually buildingdepartment right now for a
permit in the art districtdowntown las vegas.
Yeah, so we really want to wrapthem around this trip because,
like I said, we're going afterthat like kind of airbnb, uh,
(35:42):
and and I think we don't want tobe on this trip you want to be
as close as possible to thestrip, but still off the strip
so you can give that experience,and so we're going to wrap
around.
And then we have an expansionplan in the next seven years to,
once we prove the concept, thento go out, because when we went
for financing it waschallenging to people hey,
(36:03):
you're not a hotel, you're notan apartment, you know, I know
I'm somewhere in between.
It's like, okay, well, that'sour whole conversation before.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I'm like what is he like?
What do you put it?
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah, and I had to go through that challenge of
putting that financing togethersomewhere of a hybrid.
You know, with the financialinstitutions they don't have
anything hybrid, everything isboxed and you're either in the
box or outside the box.
But it was a challenge.
But I think proving a conceptright now is the focus.
But, like I said, I'm not ahospitality person but I'm
(36:35):
excited to step in and make adifference.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, you said this is open up in July July.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, this is super exciting man.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Very quick.
What would?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
you say, just one of the biggest differences as far
as development.
I know we were talking a littlebit offline, but the difference
between because you do businessin, obviously, the States, you
do business in Europe, you dobusiness in the Middle East what
would you say is thatdifference that you see, is it
harder to get approved to docertain things or what's kind of
those in the us in us, comparedto, like a europe or middle
east?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
oh yeah, of course, I mean also the cost, especially
in the middle east.
I mean, if you look at dubai,uh, you dream of it.
They'll build it right andthat's that's how it is.
And and I think I think, asmuch as I love vegas, this is
home for me and and that's whyI'm doing these innovations I
think Vegas has been lackingbehind what's going on in the
world.
We have a huge name and I thinkWall Street now runs the Strip
(37:30):
and, like I said before, I thinkSteve Wynn was the last
innovator in the city where hecame up with how the hotel can
be and should be.
And we're still running, tryingto, up until today, try to
mimic the win after like builtin 2006.
Every new property they open,they want to be like the win and
they want to compete with thewin.
(37:50):
I mean, that's that's that'shuge and that's that's a
visionary that changed the waythat you know of what we think
of of vegas, vegas trip andhospitality, but ever since,
nothing came out in ve Vegas asa new direction.
The world is changing and we'restill, even the latest property
they opened.
They're still following thiswell, they're still following
the same concept right and thesame vision, trying to compete.
(38:14):
And I think Vegas I see Vegas.
I see like branded residences.
I see the Fendi tower.
I see the Bentley tower.
I see like branded residences.
I see the Fendi Tower.
I see the Bentley Tower.
I see financial districts.
I see a soccer stadium.
I see art districts, like inMiami.
I see all of this should be inVegas.
Las Vegas is a huge name.
It's a global name.
Everywhere we go in the worldthey talk about Vegas.
(38:36):
They're like, oh man, you're inVegas.
The name is bigger than what wehave and I think we need to
catch up and and and I inviteeverybody that come and along
and become a visionary to toreally because the city I like
for me, I see the city now willtake a lot of vertical,
high-rise, uh, branded towersthat we're working on a couple
(38:58):
of projects to bring that here.
That's a fits perfectly in LasVegas, I agree.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
I was always shocked.
It never happened.
It has to do with the wind.
Maybe it's too windy, that'swhy they haven't done it yet it
has no wind.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I can see this happening in the next 5, 10, 15
years.
I think that's the directionwe're going to go, because we
don't have a lot of land and ifyou look at Vegas, we're
surrounded with mountains, we'relike an island, right, and
everything within the mountainsis going to become very valuable
.
And then, because you know,developers now started going
behind and around the mountains.
(39:29):
So there's a lot of value hereand I think and Vegas is going
through that transformation andI've always said, when I used to
go to Japan and raise moneyback in 2008, 9, and 10, I used
to tell them, hey.
Said, when I used to go to japanand raise money back in 2008, 9
and 10, I used to tell him, hey, I think vegas is a huge name
and I think the value we'regoing to create is going to
start being created when, whenthat perception of what vegas is
(39:52):
and can be start changing.
Right, I agree.
And right now, the perceptionof vegas from being like that
transient city of hey, comingfor the weekend, have fun, to
becoming a metropolitan citieswith a, with a sports team and
and the type and quality ofpeople moving in here from
different states in californiaand the other states that
transformation of the perceptionof what vegas becoming, you
(40:13):
know, the sports capital of theworld, of vegas coming, becoming
this and that, and I think weneed a financial district for
vegas.
There's a lot of upsides inVegas and I think, as that
perception change, you're goingto see a lot of value creation
with that and you're going tosee a lot of the cool projects
on more innovation coming to thecity.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
You're sort of seeing more and more, yeah, definitely
.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I mean just to highlight that.
I mean, like I was telling youbefore, that's why Chris and I
we started.
That was the goal is like I wasjust telling you, my wife and I
we were just in DC, new Yorkand Boston.
As soon as you say you're fromVegas, they're like, oh, you're
from Vegas.
What it just changes theirwhole setup but that was what we
wanted to do is we wanted tospotlight people that are really
growing this city, cause it's areally cool city.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
This is, this is home for me and, like you said, we
don't really go to the strip asmuch unless it's like a show or
things like that, or therestaurants and things, but I
love what's happening off thestrip.
This is amazing, so we're justgoing to continue.
We're so excited for thattransformation and yeah, and and
you know the city is, is, andpeople not as much now, but that
you live in vegas.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
It's so hot and it's like there's nine beautiful
months of the year yeah, invegas, like right now, it's 85
degrees and it's clean and it'seasy, it's new, it's easy to
live and it's new and it smellsright, it's just comfortable.
That's the key, because NewYork everything smells crazy
Trash everywhere and I go a lotof places in the world and I
(41:32):
miss Vegas every time I go Imiss home, it's just easy.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
We talk about it too.
It's bright, it's clean.
Everything is new to is bright,it's clean, everything's new,
like I really everywhere.
Where do you go?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
in the world.
You stop at a gas station atmidnight and then you wait in
line to pay yeah, right, like,really like, and you feel safe
and and everybody is veryhospitable, everybody's smiling.
Every you go to europe and youtell me that experience there
they're pissed at you if you askthis something twice, and, and,
and, and.
You should thank them thatthey're serving you, and and you
always feel like, hey, I wantto go back to Vegas, we're
(42:04):
spoiled.
We're spoiled with that type ofservice.
I say that all the time and thehospitality I mean.
I think what makes the USdifferent is the service, is the
level and the caliber of theservice, and Vegas is top notch
of the.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
US.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
I love that and that makes us very different.
I mean, you go to Dubai eventhough I like Dubai, because for
me it's an intersection betweenthe East and the West and a
different culture and gives youreally the best of both cultures
but still they lack in theservice, they lack a lot and
they lack the training.
Sometimes the server smells andyou're sitting in like
multi-hundred billion dollarwhatever project.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
And server smells and you're sitting in like
multi-hundred billion dollar,whatever project.
And then this you look at, theservice is like okay, something,
man, I gotta go back to vegasbecause we're spoiled.
Yeah, I say we're spoiled allthe time.
Yeah, one thousand percent,right, yeah, but but I love it.
Yeah, I agree.
Um, just a couple morequestions where I could actually
talk to you for hours, we haveto have a part two with you um,
just for business advice, I knowwe've talked a lot about
visionary and putting.
I can't even imagine what ittook to take your vision and put
(43:07):
it to paper and then get thewhole investment and whole nine.
But what would you share forsomebody that's listening right
now that they want to buildtheir business?
Maybe they want to be a smallbusiness owner, they want to be
a big business owner, likeyourself.
What would you share with them?
Just one tip that's helped youowner.
You want to be a big businessowner, like yourself.
Um, what would you share?
Speaker 2 (43:22):
with them.
Just one tip that that's helpedyou.
Uh, it's.
It's first wanting to do thedifference and be and be
different is throwing yourselfand then throwing yourself into
the mix and then you'll figureout as you go.
Is is taking that initiativeright and, uh, and the risk, uh,
to do something different, dosomething for you, go out for it
.
You're, you're in the us.
(43:42):
I come from lebanon.
I told you the only opportunityin lebanon is to get a visa
somewhere, right, and the us islike like golden visa, like
that's the best place in theworld.
I came here as I was 22 yearsold and look what I've done, uh,
because of the us and theopportunity that I get.
So, if you're here and you're,and I came, I didn't, you know,
(44:05):
I didn't speak the language thatwell, I didn't even know the
culture.
It was totally new for me.
It's totally a new place for meand you're still able to do it.
So if you're here and you thinkthat you're unlucky or you think
that things are not going yourway, that's wrong.
I agree, you are.
Think that you're unlucky oryou think that things are not
going your way, that's wrong.
You are in the, in the bestspot in the world to make it
(44:26):
happen, and and and a lot ofpeople don't have that
opportunity.
So the fact that you're here,that's already an advantage and
and a very, very good start.
You just got to hustle your wayand and make sure you just take
the decision to take thatchallenge on, and if you work
hard in the US, you will make it.
(44:46):
Yeah, I love that.
There's no way that you'regoing to work and not going to
make it in the US.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
I tell my kids that all thetime we always ask every guest
about food.
Man, and I know you'll probablysay your restaurants at your
hotel, but what's your favoriterestaurant?
Do restaurants at your hotel?
But what's your favoriterestaurant?
Do I look foodie to you?
I'm a big foodie.
I'm going to tell you right now.
But I'm trying to lose like 10pounds right now because all I'm
going to do is eat it.
But I'm a huge foodie justbecause I think we got some of
the best restaurants in Vegas.
But what's your favoriterestaurant?
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I mean, I like food.
I'm a workaholic, I think, butI like food too.
Okay, it depends.
I mean I don't have a reallyfixed favorite one.
I like Cipriani at the Wynnbecause, it's traditional For me
.
The Metri D knows you.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
They know your name.
Yeah, shout out to Rob.
I forgot Rob is one of the GMsthere.
Yeah, robert and David.
Yeah, really good guy.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
So I like the new experiences off the Strip, like
the guest house.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Oh, shout out to my guys over at the guest house.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I like Samba, also, I haven't checked the Indian spot
yeah, really good really.
I don't like Indian food, butthat place.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
I heard is really, really good.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
That's on my list and , and I'm you know, uh, nico's
at Durango Steakhouse I like wejust went to that's why I always
look for these experiences offthe strip as much as I can,
because you know, like I said atthe beginning, I don't want to
go through the whole casinoexperience to get to the
restaurants that I like and Iencourage.
(46:07):
You know these concepts and Ithink these few places that I
mentioned off the strip aregoing to be the start of a
movement for these hospitalitygroups that understand now they
can spend less on buildingnon-union labor and still get
the same money like the strip ifthey give you the right
experience and the right food,that understand.
Now they can spend less onbuilding non-union labor and
still get the same money likethe Strip, if they give you the
right experience and the rightfood, and they're doing it.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
And we love it.
We got the same palette for allthe restaurants you just
brought up.
So shout out to Guesthouse.
We've been to Guesthousemultiple times.
I love them over there.
Good guys over there too.
What's the social handlespeople can reach out to over
there too.
What's the social handlespeople can reach out to?
Obviously, you or Autonomous oranything like that.
They can reach out to you on orlearn more about the project we
have.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
we are on all social media.
On Instagram we have AutonomousHotel.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
We have Autonomous Tulum as well, and then we have
Growth Holdings, which has thedifferent companies, so they can
reach out to us.
We different companies, so theycan reach out to us.
We're online.
We're actually online now youcan go book.
The best way to reach out to meis to book.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
But we're also hiring .
Speaker 2 (47:09):
So we have a great team and we're still hiring.
So I would encourage everybodyto go on the website
autonomoushotelcom and thenapply for a job.
We love the good talent.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Well, good stuff man absolute pleasure to pick your
mind, man for a little bit.
Like I said, we got to run itback on part two, man, but
appreciate your time and checkus out at the musiccom.
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
I liked it, you have a comfortable chair.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
That's very important oh, that's awesome, man, so I
can sit for another hour.
There we go.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Hopefully we'll have a a phase two.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
And next projects that we have.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
We can write it back, man.
Have you come every year allthe vision stuff that you do it,
man?
Speaker 3 (47:46):
So yeah, for very rarely we don't talk this much,
like we just both out there,like in trance, just listening
to what you had to say.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Man, give you the platform to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
That was great, that was awesome.
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase the
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be sitting down with a
visionary entrepreneur developerbehind one of the world's first
AI hotels called Autonomousredefining hospitality, which
we're going to get into.
We're going to explore the AIimpact, his latest projects and
(00:23):
his views on global development.
So welcome into the circlefounder of Growth Holdings.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We've got Mr Philippe Ziade.
Did I say it correctly?
Thank you guys for having me.
Yeah, that's pretty good, it'sPhilippe.
It's French, yeah, it's aFrench saying of Philip, but I
go with anything you call me, Ilike.
Philippe, because it makes mefeel different.
It's a differentiator and theneverything I do in my life.
We always go after beingdifferent.
I love that Somewhere somehow.
I love that.
So Philippe works.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's awesome, let's jump right in, man.
So, growth Holdings did youkind of get your first start?
What I was reading is you're amarble company, right, so did
you get connected with the PalmsCasino back in the late 90s?
That's how you actually gotinto last year 2000 actually.
Oh, year 2000, okay end of 99.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, but I came.
I came to vegas as a student,you know, to unlv.
Okay, came from lebanon, youknow was the I have an uncle
here and then also was thecheapest for me to.
It was cheap living in lasvegas and the city was growing.
I wanted to be an engineer andand construction wise.
Engineering wise it was.
It was a good place for me tobe.
(01:27):
So that's how I end up in vegas, went to uh unlv school.
Here I did mechanicalengineering oh wow, and then
started working ever since okay,so you got brothers, you.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You got your brother over here, chris that's my man.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
He's part of the lebanese background, my lebanese
, my Lebanese man.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yes sir, yes sir.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So what makes Vegas like the perfect place to kind
of jump into this AI world, man?
Because we've got so much goingon.
What we're talking aboutoffline is we're becoming like
the Mecca for food, becoming theMecca of development, like we
were talking about.
But what makes Vegas kind of,you know, the top, you know, to
focus on?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean, for me, vegas is home right and home usually
reflects comfort and the placeyou like and you like to be, and
when you're at home you're morecreative.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I love that You're comfortable.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So it's not necessarily that I thought, hey,
ai and Vegas, they're going tocome together.
It's just, I'm here, I'mcomfortable, I can be innovative
and Vegas also give us aplatform.
Las Vegas is an international,huge name, right, and and if you
understand that we have thatopportunity to, to be and start
from Vegas, uh, it's a, it's apush for you.
(02:35):
You know you're, you're on theinternational scene, you're one
of the big names.
Las Vegas, miami, dubai,singapore, london, new York, I
mean, you're at that caliber,right, and that's for us it's an
advantage, but for me it's.
You know the sequence of what Iwent through when I came here as
(02:55):
a student and the normalprogression of your life and who
you want to be.
And, coming from a place likeLebanon where you don't have a
lot of opportunity, your onlyopportunity is to get a visa and
come to the US, and then youcome here and you start dreaming
and fighting the fight to getwhere you want, to be always
scared from going back where youcame from or go back to the
(03:17):
situation that you were in andand that will give you the drive
.
Now, as I was in Vegas startingin the early 2000s, it was
booming and, you know, for Vegaswe say if you're over 20 years,
you're, you're from Vegas.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, I'm almost 17.
I feel like it's home.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'm 26 years in Vegas , so I'm I'm native and I'm
proud of it.
Yeah, so as the, we started witha marble company working on the
on the strip, starting with thePalm.
The Palm was the first projectI've ever done.
I didn't even know how to priceit, I didn't even know what,
how it works, and I learned aswe were doing the project, of
(03:53):
course, at a cost, likeeverything else, but also you
learn.
And that was the start.
And then the market crash camein 2008 and you know, vegas was
hit very, very hard and I wasforced to like pivot quickly and
I started going to japan andraising money, because you know
there were no money here.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So I had to go somewhere else and get creative.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So we raised money in japan and we started working in
the distressed market, buyingpackages from the banks and and
repositioning properties.
So we went through all of thatand at the time I was the
biggest in Nevada.
I was ranked nationally 13 bythe Wall Street Journal with the
number of transaction anddollar volume.
So as we were doing all of this, we had a lot of challenges
(04:38):
controlling the operation rightand houses going on fire.
Where's the insurance?
Oh, we never put insurance.
How come you didn't putinsurance?
Oh, we missed it that day.
You know you go into these kindof issues and I couldn't control
it.
And then I the only I looked ata technology to help me and I
was like, okay, can I streamline?
How can I take my brain andshare it with everybody?
(04:59):
Like, how can we make thesemistakes and make sure we're
efficient?
And then that's how I got intotechnology.
I hired the first companycouldn't perform.
Then I had a person in theoffice with me that had a
computer science background.
He's like, hey, I can code itfor you.
I said seriously.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
He's like yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So he started coding.
I was sitting with him and thenwe get two more guys helping
and I really mapped everything Iwanted to be and at the time it
was equivalent to AI.
So basically, you buy theproperty and automatic work
orders will go to everybodythat's working with you
Locksmith guy, the insurance guy, the remodeling team, right,
everybody gets work orders fromthe second.
(05:38):
They get the work order untilthey're done.
They take a picture, forexample, you're the locksmith
guy we purchased, you get thework order, you go change the
lock, take a picture and uploadit.
The system will time you.
Then I run an average on you,right, and then if you, if your
performance on that specificproject is above your, your
average, the system will flagyou for me and tell me he's
(06:00):
slowing you down, right.
So I was able to trackeverything.
And then, and it becamefascinated with technology and
what technology can do for myoperation.
So as we got to the end of 2012, we were sitting on a lot of
rental properties and thenairbnb became popular I was like
(06:20):
what is airbnb?
hey, let's, let's try it.
So we were renting a lot ofhouses on the market and we
started.
I said, let's try an Airbnb.
So we furnished one property,we did one Airbnb and suddenly
the house that was renting for$1,500, $1,600 a month started
generating $3,000, $4,000 amonth.
I'm like, oh wow, this ischanging the game.
(06:41):
We're going to stop long-termlease, we're going to furnish
all of them and we're going todo Airbnbs.
I got so excited, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And especially the price.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We bought these houses at the time.
It was like such a low price,and so the house was generating
40, 50,000 a year.
You bought it at 70, 80,000.
That's a no brainer.
Yeah that's a no-brainer.
Yeah and uh.
So let's do that.
And we started doing the airbnband then, before we know it,
everybody's against youeverybody hates you.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, the city.
The city hates you.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The neighbor hates you, hoa hates you, and and we
try to do everything like we.
We try to like, hide and andchange the address.
We try to go and and bribe theneighbors like, hey, I'll give
you four, five hundred dollars amonth to be quiet nobody wanted
it, yeah, but then then thatbecomes a challenge.
(07:32):
Okay, that cannot be a businessplan, but it's so lucrative.
So how can we do this like, howcan I take advantage of that?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
market.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It works yeah yeah, the the market, that sector in
the market that people want.
It's just insane.
And as we were doing this,every house or property that has
two or three bedrooms with apool, we couldn't keep up with
leasing it.
You know, because they comesleep eight, ten in a house,
they create their own kind ofexperience, especially if there
is a pool.
(08:01):
So people are we're paying forthat and then we start charging
like $40 a head.
If you're more than four, five,six in a house, depending on the
number of rooms.
People were just paying it.
So then I started like, how canI solve that?
How can I provide that kind ofproduct?
And that's where the autonomousconcept started, right.
(08:22):
So how can I provide a productthat really hotels cannot
provide or don't have, becausehotel gives you, you know, a
studio, basically, uh, andeverything beyond that.
You're into the suite and it'sexpensive and it's limited in
number.
So how can I one not be hatedby by you know, your community,
and and not not be like doingsomething that's that's against
(08:45):
the laws here, and especiallywith the zoning, zoning laws, uh
, and that's one.
How can I provide that productto the end consumers because
they want it?
Uh, and that's how the conceptstarted.
And then what autonomous istoday is actually providing the
best of both worlds.
So if you look at the airbnbproduct, it gives you the
flexibility and variety ofwhatever you want.
(09:07):
If you go to book on Airbnb,you're not going to look for a
flag or a hotel name or aMarriott or a Hilton or a W.
You're looking for the rightproduct at that right price that
works for you, so thatflexibility and variety of the
product.
That's what Autonomous offerstoday.
So the concept is we'rebuilding kind of a similar to a
(09:29):
class A.
If you want apartment complexor condo project, sure, but then
the entire floor isinterconnected, right, okay, all
the units are interconnected.
Then we created the layer of AItechnology where you book
whatever you want, starting froma studio up to a six, seven,
(09:49):
eight bedroom penthouse, and theAI will puzzle it for you on
the fly in real time.
So we changed the way you book,so we created that AI powered
booking engine.
So usually in a hotel, theyoffer you three, four room types
, right, and then you pick at aprice and then you pick which
(10:10):
one fits you.
So, it's like aone-size-fits-all kind of like
whatever fits you.
We changed that and we createdwhat we call an attribute-based
booking.
So you tell us what you want,We'll puzzle it in real time for
you right.
So now even your physical spaceis personalized.
Whatever you want, we'll haveit.
(10:31):
I will puzzle it for you.
So we created the software, wecreated the hardware, the, the
locking mechanism, the actuallock.
So once you book, let's say, athree bedroom, stay with us once
you, you virtually check in,the system will lock and unlock
and open the doors.
That makes that configurationon that specific floor right.
And when I say attribute-basedbooking, there's two parts.
(10:54):
There's the hard attributes,which is the physical space, but
we also have the softattributes, which is I want a
room away from noise.
I want cleaning every day,every other day.
I don't want cleaning, justclean after me when I leave.
Everything you pick changes theprice.
So you really it's very dynamicin real time.
So you really custom tailorwhat you want, and people
(11:15):
usually pay more if you offerthem what they really want,
right.
But it's not about.
It's about being efficient.
So that side of the conceptcovers the flexibility and
variety of a product.
The other side is theconsistency in the guest
experience, right.
So the downside of Airbnb isbecause you have different hosts
and sometimes you have a greatexperience, but sometimes you're
(11:38):
not happy.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, I've been there , something like beautiful
pictures, but you go there.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
It's not similar to the pictures.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Wi-fi doesn't match.
The towels are not like clean,you don't have enough towels,
whatever.
Whatever the reason is, so thatconsistency in the guest
experience is is the downside ofairbnb, and that's what hotel
gives you.
Like if you go stay in a, in ahilton and marriott and a four
season depends what brands youknow the expectation of, at
(12:03):
minimum you're gonna get what.
What you expect so from thataspect also is is our ai and the
adaptation.
So, when we do, and and if I'mgonna explain that concept with
you, uh, simply, it's it's infour different phases, right?
Phase one is the booking enginethat I explained to you.
So you, you book, it's customtailored to you.
(12:26):
Tell us what you want, we'llput it together.
Phase two once you book, westart with what we call the
onboarding process, and thatonboarding process is two
simultaneous approaches at thesame time.
First approach is with theguest okaying that we can go
(12:48):
scrape the web, all social media, all publicly information on
you.
We can go and gather all ofthat.
The AI will gather all of that,and what we create here, what
we call your unique digitalavatar, and the digital avatar
is basically a digital twin ofyou, the guest, or, in different
(13:09):
ways.
It's a digital.
If you want mapping of yourpreferences, so it's a blueprint
, digital blueprint of yourpreferences.
So that's a unique avatar justfor you.
This is really cool.
This is awesome At the same timewe start a gamified approach
and and the system will reachout to you in a very cool way,
(13:31):
uh like when you sign up toapple or you snap, like you see,
like asking you the questionsthat you want answer or not
answer right, and we want toknow are you a coffee or a tea
person?
are you a morning or a person?
Are you a vegetarian?
Are you like into outdoors?
Are you an indoors?
We try to ask you the coolstuff and then we give you.
We give free perks and upgradesand and and hey, you're two
questions away from a free drinkat the bar, right?
(13:54):
So we have that cool approach,but the ai will take all of this
and create your avatar and andand.
What the avatar is is actually acorrelation of all this data we
collected with an output, andthat output is in that digital
avatar, right?
And that avatar will keepimproving.
As long as you stay with us, weconnect with you.
That's improving the avatar.
(14:14):
So that's the onboardingprocess and also the output of
the avatar is also monetary.
It will tell us hey, chris isstaying with you for three days
and he's going to spend $1,000and here's how you're going to
spend it.
He's going to spend $200 ondining.
He's going to spend $100 onthis.
He likes to be by the pool, helikes some music, he likes
(14:37):
golfing.
It will help us understand whathe likes and how we can
monetize him.
So when he comes and stay, whathe likes and how we can
monetize him.
So when he comes and stay.
So you go from phase two.
So phase one was the booking,phase two was the onboarding,
now is the actual stay.
So during the actual stay, wetrack everything in real time of
your behaviors, being roomtemperature in the room,
(14:59):
lighting in the room, what timeyou woke up, what you ate, how
you took your coffee, everythingyou stay with coffee,
everything you stay with us, wetrack.
And then to give you and it'sall based also on what your
avatar told us.
So now we customize theofferings for you and what that
does.
It will give you a betterexperience, but also we can
(15:21):
monetize you much more thanknowing nothing about you.
Yeah, the data mining of everyspecific data mining.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
So that's during this day experience, but also we can
monetize you much more thanknowing nothing about you.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, it's the data mining of every specific data
mining.
So that's during the stay.
Now, when you check out andusually when you check out in a
traditional hotel that's the endof your experience With us.
It's the start of your nextstay with us, and what the AI
will do during the offboardingis similar to the onboarding
where we start another gamifiedapproach.
And what the AI does it willcapture the gap of what the
(15:51):
avatar told us you're going tobe doing and what you actually
did, right.
If it tells us you're going tospend a thousand and you spend
700, then we're going to knowwhy, what happened and, if
anything go wrong, what is thatthat went wrong and why we
couldn't monetize, why was theprojection not accurate?
So we ask the questions in avery smooth way where you don't
feel what we're doing, but we'retrying to really capture that
(16:12):
gap and understand where it camefrom and how we can fix it for
next time.
So the more you stay with us,the more your avatar and your
actual stay will align and, atthe end of the day, we're giving
you a very personalizedexperience tailored only for you
through your avatar, right?
So at the end of the day, whatwe're doing is we're giving the
(16:32):
flexibility of an Airbnb andgiving a five-star service
Better than any high-end hotel,right At the cost of an Airbnb.
So that's the concept and Ithink that's the future of
hospitality, because today, youknow, it's the satisfaction and
(16:54):
experience.
It's not measured withexperiences anymore, it's
measured with milliseconds.
You have to do everything ontime, the right way every time
and and if you don't have thedata in real time and the data
is latent, then you cannot givethat experience.
And I mean look at you, you onsocial media, you go through
your finger and you can't.
(17:14):
You can't look at any videomore than three, four seconds.
You just get bored likeeverything is so quick, so fast
and everything is now and youwant to be satisfied now and and
that's the direction thateverything is going.
And if you look in thehospitality uh industry, where
they're way behind these hugebig systems that don't speak to
each other, and the only way todo that is when you have a
(17:36):
centralized brain we have the obrain and where the different
parts of the brain speaks toeach other in real time,
accurate information for you tobe able to give that service.
And that doesn't exist withhotel, with the hospitality
industry, because there aredifferent systems that manage
different parts of thatexperience.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah well, philippe, you put a lot on us there.
I think you gave me a lot tothink about.
I'm blown away.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I have too many questions for you, so first I
want to start.
I have too many questions foryou, so first I want to start.
So Autonomous was the first onein Tulum, mexico.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yes, we opened in Tulum, mexico, because that
property is beautiful.
Yes, we haven't deployed thetechnology yet.
We're going to deploy it at thesame time here in Vegas and in
Tulum In Vegas.
We're set to open July 1st.
We opened the bookings rightnow so you can go online and
book.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And Tulum will be the technology will deploy at the
same time.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, kind of just to dig in a little bit further.
You know, so it seems like you,from a business standpoint, you
live multiple lives.
Right, you go from being themarble to the housing
development and acquisition andredistressed properties and now
moving into this, like you couldsee, like a small correlation
between the two, but this is avery ambitious project, right?
You know how?
How did your kind of priorexperience, you know, with the
distressed houses lead you tothis point?
Because it's almost like itseems like there's a line there,
(18:51):
but it's a full overhaul of anexperience which is very
different than you know rentingout distressed properties.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Well, I think it really comes down to you as a
person.
I mean, you can.
You can do the same thing forthe rest of your life and never
improve.
That's what makes youcomfortable, that's what you
want to do.
But if you're really ambitiousand and and you want to push the
envelope and and what you liketo do is is is to innovate, and
that's what I like to do, is toinnovate, and I think, uh,
innovation.
If our motto as a company isconnecting minds, creating the
future, and I I'm a big believerthat if you connect minds
across different industrieswhere people see the same thing
(19:25):
and from different lenses,you're able to create a new
product or the future.
But if you don't have thatdifferent view of the same thing
from different angle, as, let'ssay, in this, in this instance,
is is as a real estatedeveloper and as a technology
developer, right, I starteddeveloping technology in 2008.
I got fascinated by it by now.
I look at the solution from twodifferent angles.
(19:47):
As a real estate solution, howdo I design and build that place
and connect these unitstogether where it works?
And then, how do I create thattechnology to really bring that
concept to life?
And I'm lucky to be able to beboth right, and that puts me in
a very unique positioning,especially in the real estate
(20:08):
development world.
So real estate development isthe opposite of technology 180
degrees.
And not only that.
I mean for you to succeed as areal estate developer is like
you do the same thing every day,with a discipline, and it works
, and don't change it.
You know location, design,layout.
(20:28):
You do it exactly the samething.
Don't try to innovate.
That's what works.
You need to do it.
Right now.
You look at technology, whereinnovation is the heartbeat of
the technology.
If you don't innovate everyweek, you're dead.
So now you put these twotogether and it's a challenge.
It's a challenge even with themindset, with the people working
around you.
They're totally differentmindsets and you've got to put
(20:50):
them together and you've got togo through challenges.
You've got to go throughpushbacks.
You've got to go a lot throughlike no, you can't, it doesn't
work from the contractors to thepeople around you, to the
operation, to the tech guys, andthen you put it's just
challenging.
But I think what I look for isalways is driven by a need and,
(21:11):
as a real estate developer, toanswer really your question as a
real estate developer in realestate, it always comes down to
the value creation piece.
How do you create value to anasset that you have?
Right Back in the days, in adistressed market.
We were hey, we buy a house, weremodel, you reposition, you
(21:31):
put it back on the market.
You create value.
Sometimes you buy a land andbuild a concept.
The concept creates value.
The building on the landcreates value.
Sometimes, time only createsvalue.
Buying at the right time andsit on it creates value, right?
So I wanted to add a layer thatcreates value to a real estate
asset that no one else has, andthat value?
(21:55):
That was the layer oftechnology.
Can I add a layer of technologythat will add a value to an
asset, right, uh, that no oneelse can do and that's a home
run for me.
So now, what I did is I toldyou this the hotel concept is
similar to a class, a condoproject, right so?
Or a multi-family.
(22:16):
So if you look at multi-family,they trade at five, five and a
half cap in the market.
Today, my autonomous concept isgoing to be 17% cap, oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So now you take you said 17%, cap 15 to 17,.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
That's the performer we have now.
So now you come and look atokay, it's the same asset, same
building, but now you'regenerating much more income.
And the enabler is your tech.
That's the layer.
Of course, tech alone is notgoing to be successful if you
don't have the right pillars ofreal estate development the
location, the design, thehallway, the ceiling heights,
the doors, the layout.
(22:50):
You have to hit every singleone of those for the tech to add
value right.
You cannot say you can addtechnology on a building that's
designed wrong or in the wronglocation, you're going to fail.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
But really I technology on a building that's
designed wrong or in the wronglocation you're going to fail,
but really I wanted to add thatlayer and, uh, that gives me the
advantage and thedifferentiator.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
That's when we started my name being I like it
to be different.
So I want, I want thatdifferentiation everything I do
and I think, and vega and the us, is there's two ways to do it
either big volume or somethingreally innovative and new.
And you know I can't competewith the big national companies.
The big volumes in the US ishuge big corporations.
So you go into how can I createa unique product?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
When you're creating that innovative product and with
so many various touch points,right Like there's a lot of
moving pieces through thiscustomer experience, like, how
do you make sure that?
How do you test thatcohesiveness of that experience?
Because when you're brand newit's hard to kind of there's no
test run right Like you can'treally.
You're building it withanticipation versus without
really understanding how itcould be.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, that's a challenge, but that's also the
advantage for us.
So, imagine I'm only the techcompany.
I'm going to pitch this, forexample, to the Marriott.
You have too many bugs, you'redead, and that's the high risk
of technology.
But because I'm both, so we'regoing to go live.
We're expecting to have bugs orissues, and usually when you
(24:18):
expect to have 10, you'll have1,000.
But because we own the hotel,we own the concept, we'll make
it work, we'll, we'll.
We'll work with the guests andand and I just want to also
mention something very importantthat the concept is based on
human talent.
People think when they hear AI,they think it's oh, it kind of
(24:47):
hotel.
You're not going to see people,you're going to see robots.
That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yes, robots going to go everywhere like, but but you
see, I mean even the way, if you, if you see the units and I'll
invite you guys to come and seeit.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It's very, very homey , very comfortable, uh, and and
I'm a big believer in thepartnership between, between
technology and humans, right,and?
And we're into that era now,and I think I call that era the
augmented era, okay, where yournature, your natural
capabilities are being augmentedby technology.
You know computational systemsthat will help you think, robots
(25:12):
that will help you make and,most importantly, a digital
nervous system that will connectyou to the world far, far
beyond your natural senses.
Right, and, and this is when Iwhen we say real data, in real
time, that that digital nervoussystem that captures the data
and and understand the feedbackquickly, right, and then act on
(25:35):
it.
So, so that augmented era is isaugmenting our capabilities and
therefore augmenting everythingwe do, starting from the google
days up until today.
Right, so it augments what youknow, it augments your, your
access to data, it augmentseverything is under your
fingertips and now, with ai,it's way beyond that.
So we want to take advantage ofthat augmentation and we want to
(25:57):
use that as a support andenhancing, uh, the the human, if
want interaction and notreplace it.
There's a big difference ifyou're enhancing or you're
replacing and we're enhancing,and I think, especially in Vegas
.
We're talking about Vegas andthe name and the talent we have,
the best talent in the world inhospitality in Las Vegas and we
assembled a very strong team.
(26:18):
And we assembled a very strongteam and I'm very aware of the
difference between having anexperience that is functional
and efficient versus anexperience that's unforgettable,
and I think the differentiatorbetween the two is that
partnership and that's thathuman interaction.
(26:39):
Right?
So your body language, yoursmile.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
That's what Vegas is human interaction, right so your
body language, your smile.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
That's what Vegas is all about.
Right, like being hospitable.
It's the team that's going tocome with the tech and the tech
is going to help the team toperform better.
So that's very important tomention that, because people
really, when they hearAI-powered hotel, you just think
you're going to see robots andwe have a few robots as part of
the operation.
But they're they're cooladdition to the team, right, so
(27:06):
they're always working alongalongside team that's managing
we're overstaffed.
It's not an onset so?
so we have the team and and alsowhat, what the technology we're
developing, it's not only guestfacing.
A big part of it is on the backend, right?
So?
So, the same way, you want tooffer the guest a good
experience, you want to offeryour team a working, a nice
(27:30):
working experience, where, wherea lot of things are easy for
them.
So I'll give you an example inour o-brain think of it like a
chat gpt, right, that's theo-brain.
So our processes, uh, ourin-house processes situation
that you're going to have tohandle everything that you do,
the, the, the team, they cansimply go and ask their phone,
(27:50):
like what do I do here?
And then it tells them exactlywhat to do based on all the
processes that we have.
So you don't have to.
So, really, we, we give themall these information.
It's easy for them to operate.
There's systems and in placeslike, for example, room service,
right In our system, when theteam, let's say, go to clean the
(28:13):
room, the minute they go intothe room they check in.
So they have their phone andthey scan and they're checked in
.
So we track, like I told youwhat I did back in 2008,.
They track from the minute theystart until they're done.
They can report everythingthrough the system If something
is missing, something is stolen,something needs to be fixed to
the engineering departmentthrough a work order.
(28:35):
But then, when they're done, wetrack them and then we know the
average performance per team,per room type and what the
system does.
Based on check-ins andcheck-outs and based on the
request, the system can projectthe labor force that you need on
that specific day, specificweek, based on all the averages
and the data that we have.
So really there's a lot of andthe system has a lot of backend
(29:00):
efficiencies for the operation,where it just improves.
At the end of the day, yourteam will have more time to
focus on the guest, becausethat's what hospitality is all
about, right, instead of goingand manually doing all these
operations, we want to supportthat through tech and have them
focus on the guest.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So tell me something.
So say Chris and I, here withour wives too is we want to
check in.
We can set up, say we want tostay there for a year.
We can set up a lease and staythere for a year.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
We have a long-term short-term.
Right now it's 29 days.
It renews every 29 days, butyou can stay as long as you want
.
We would love to have you.
That's pretty cool Give you avery nice experience and take
your money.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, I bet you would .
Yeah, it was 17% cap rate.
Jesus Christ, yeah you knowthat.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I mean the cap rate is coming from efficiency and
operation and added valueMonetizing.
So okay, big corporation, rightnow they have their generic
loyalty program.
You know the tiers, you knowgeneric loyalty program, you
know that, that, that that tears.
You know you start with silver,gold and platinum and then they
have data points and and thedata points is how many times
you stayed with them and howmuch you spent, and that's it.
(30:07):
And I don't know what they dowith it.
They do nothing.
So there is no correlation ofthat data.
And what does it mean to youand what does it mean to them?
There's a lot of money beingleft on the table and I think
it's not being monetized.
But look around you, look howeverything is Like I told you,
people want their own experience.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
And you have no gaming, correct?
There's no gaming, no gaming.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
But I mean for me, you go to restaurants.
You don't always go to the bestrestaurants out there.
A lot of times you go to theplaces that know you and they
know what you order.
And then you go in and then theserver sees you.
It's like oh the same.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
this, this, this is like yep you're happy like they
get you the stuff because theyknow you.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I want to have a dry cleaner for 10 years, no matter
where I live, but you have to go15, 20 times a year for them to
know you.
We want to know you from thefirst time and it doesn't matter
if you come 15 times or youcome one time.
You're going to get the sameservice because we know you, the
system knows you and we wantyou to have that kind of special
personalized experience whatkind of disclosures do you need
to have to have that experience?
(31:09):
I think just from a legalitystandpoint it has to be a very
challenging disclosurestandpoint.
Yes, I mean you'll sign.
Did you ever read thesedisclosures?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
no, I love the experience.
I'll sign all day me neither.
Probably everybody will read it.
Just you ever read thesedisclosures?
No, I love the experience.
I'll sign all day Me, neither.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Probably everybody I've ever read.
It's just sign, sign, sign,keep it moving.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
But that's a good question.
And also we always take theguest will always have to allow
us to do whatever we need to do,but also we don't own the data.
We're like a custodian of thedata, so we give a lot of
flexibility to the guests.
So first, you can up out of anyof that data collection from day
(31:46):
one that makes sense and youcan go to the the front desk and
get a key and go to your room.
If that's what you want to butalso, at any time during the
experience, you can go back anderase all your data.
We give the guests that access,so it's full transparency.
We're just here to give you abetter experience, and that's
(32:07):
the objective of collecting thedata.
That's smart.
And people complain all thetime.
But if you're holding thatphone, you gave away all of that
anyways.
And I haven't seen a personwithout that smartphones in the
last five years.
I haven't seen one person thatthat smartphones.
In the last five years, Ihaven't seen one person that
doesn't have, that you ain'tlying and the kids too.
Everybody, your dog, your cat.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Everybody got their phones.
Now let's talk about the foodman.
So you got a Lebaneserestaurant and what's some of
the amenities that's going to beat Autonomous?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Autonomous.
We have two pools, we're goingto have a rooftop, fifth floor
lounge.
We want it to be like a newexperience for Vegas.
Like we travel all over Europeand Miami and Dubai and all
these places and there's a lotof cool concepts that we don't
have in Vegas.
Like everything is focused onthis trip, these big
corporations and just similarexperiences everywhere you go
(33:04):
Different colors, different this, different that, but at the end
of the day, it's the sameexperience.
You got to walk through thecasinos, go up there, you got to
be mixed with a lot of people,especially if there are special
events in vegas.
And for us locals, we want wereally want something different.
Uh, I think vegas is lackingand and that that's going to be
a private club.
Uh, not too private.
It's going to be difficult.
We want to make sure we filterthe people that goes there.
It's going to be difficult.
We want to make sure we filterthe people that goes there, but
it's going to be like a supperclub DJ music from like 11 to
(33:27):
like 2, 3 am.
It's on the roof, the wholestrip is in front of you.
It's beautiful views, beautifulspace, very well designed and
it's just a different experience.
I want you to experience.
What I always wanted is pull upwith my car in the front of the
door and then have a guy thatknows me and go up all the way.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
I don't have to walk and go through the casinos to
get to that experience.
This will be open to the publicand not just for the guests,
yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And then we have also .
We're going to have like fourrestaurants.
Uh, one of them is the Lebanesethe one I'm doing, because I'm
Lebanese and I think Vegas ismissing a really elevated
Lebanese experience.
We don't have that.
And we partnered up with a topchef winner, a younger chef,
sherbal Hayek, that he's doingvery well in LA.
(34:12):
He has the Laia restaurants andhe has the Lady Hog, so he's
going to be the main chef todeliver that experience.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
We're naming the restaurants after my mom.
This is exclusive on VegasCircus.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That's the first time I say it and I hope she's not
going to see that.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
We'll wait.
We'll wait to put that out.
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
The name will be Nyla .
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Nyla, nyla and A-Y-L-A.
This is like the coolestproject.
I'm just saying that you'resitting with this like just
coming from the app.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
I could just hear my kids.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I hear this episode I got my own little avatar to be
able to do it.
That's pretty cool to be ableto build that, and then you
really know who that customer is.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I'm assuming the goal isto build these around the world.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So it's it's building .
It's building them all over theworld.
So so the the only way to do it.
I'm not a hospitality guy,right, I'm, I'm the innovator,
I'm the visionary, but but it'sI'm not a name in hospitality,
where I, I, you say my name andeverybody's gonna come throwing
money at me.
So I really have to do theconcept, prove the concept right
and then scale.
(35:21):
So right now we're in, uh, we'reimproving the concept kind of a
phase.
So we have a second one beingdesigned in the not being
designed.
We're in actually buildingdepartment right now for a
permit in the art districtdowntown las vegas.
Yeah, so we really want to wrapthem around this trip because,
like I said, we're going afterthat like kind of airbnb, uh,
(35:42):
and and I think we don't want tobe on this trip you want to be
as close as possible to thestrip, but still off the strip
so you can give that experience,and so we're going to wrap
around.
And then we have an expansionplan in the next seven years to,
once we prove the concept, thento go out, because when we went
for financing it waschallenging to people hey,
(36:03):
you're not a hotel, you're notan apartment, you know, I know
I'm somewhere in between.
It's like, okay, well, that'sour whole conversation before.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I'm like what is he like?
What do you put it?
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah, and I had to go through that challenge of
putting that financing togethersomewhere of a hybrid.
You know, with the financialinstitutions they don't have
anything hybrid, everything isboxed and you're either in the
box or outside the box.
But it was a challenge.
But I think proving a conceptright now is the focus.
But, like I said, I'm not ahospitality person but I'm
(36:35):
excited to step in and make adifference.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, you said this is open up in July July.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, this is super exciting man.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Very quick.
What would?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
you say, just one of the biggest differences as far
as development.
I know we were talking a littlebit offline, but the difference
between because you do businessin, obviously, the States, you
do business in Europe, you dobusiness in the Middle East what
would you say is thatdifference that you see, is it
harder to get approved to docertain things or what's kind of
those in the us in us, comparedto, like a europe or middle
east?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
oh yeah, of course, I mean also the cost, especially
in the middle east.
I mean, if you look at dubai,uh, you dream of it.
They'll build it right andthat's that's how it is.
And and I think I think, asmuch as I love vegas, this is
home for me and and that's whyI'm doing these innovations I
think Vegas has been lackingbehind what's going on in the
world.
We have a huge name and I thinkWall Street now runs the Strip
(37:30):
and, like I said before, I thinkSteve Wynn was the last
innovator in the city where hecame up with how the hotel can
be and should be.
And we're still running, tryingto, up until today, try to
mimic the win after like builtin 2006.
Every new property they open,they want to be like the win and
they want to compete with thewin.
(37:50):
I mean, that's that's that'shuge and that's that's a
visionary that changed the waythat you know of what we think
of of vegas, vegas trip andhospitality, but ever since,
nothing came out in ve Vegas asa new direction.
The world is changing and we'restill, even the latest property
they opened.
They're still following thiswell, they're still following
the same concept right and thesame vision, trying to compete.
(38:14):
And I think Vegas I see Vegas.
I see like branded residences.
I see the Fendi tower.
I see the Bentley tower.
I see like branded residences.
I see the Fendi Tower.
I see the Bentley Tower.
I see financial districts.
I see a soccer stadium.
I see art districts, like inMiami.
I see all of this should be inVegas.
Las Vegas is a huge name.
It's a global name.
Everywhere we go in the worldthey talk about Vegas.
(38:36):
They're like, oh man, you're inVegas.
The name is bigger than what wehave and I think we need to
catch up and and and I inviteeverybody that come and along
and become a visionary to toreally because the city I like
for me, I see the city now willtake a lot of vertical,
high-rise, uh, branded towersthat we're working on a couple
(38:58):
of projects to bring that here.
That's a fits perfectly in LasVegas, I agree.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
I was always shocked.
It never happened.
It has to do with the wind.
Maybe it's too windy, that'swhy they haven't done it yet it
has no wind.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I can see this happening in the next 5, 10, 15
years.
I think that's the directionwe're going to go, because we
don't have a lot of land and ifyou look at Vegas, we're
surrounded with mountains, we'relike an island, right, and
everything within the mountainsis going to become very valuable
.
And then, because you know,developers now started going
behind and around the mountains.
(39:29):
So there's a lot of value hereand I think and Vegas is going
through that transformation andI've always said, when I used to
go to Japan and raise moneyback in 2008, 9, and 10, I used
to tell them, hey.
Said, when I used to go to japanand raise money back in 2008, 9
and 10, I used to tell him, hey, I think vegas is a huge name
and I think the value we'regoing to create is going to
start being created when, whenthat perception of what vegas is
(39:52):
and can be start changing.
Right, I agree.
And right now, the perceptionof vegas from being like that
transient city of hey, comingfor the weekend, have fun, to
becoming a metropolitan citieswith a, with a sports team and
and the type and quality ofpeople moving in here from
different states in californiaand the other states that
transformation of the perceptionof what vegas becoming, you
(40:13):
know, the sports capital of theworld, of vegas coming, becoming
this and that, and I think weneed a financial district for
vegas.
There's a lot of upsides inVegas and I think, as that
perception change, you're goingto see a lot of value creation
with that and you're going tosee a lot of the cool projects
on more innovation coming to thecity.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
You're sort of seeing more and more, yeah, definitely
.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I mean just to highlight that.
I mean, like I was telling youbefore, that's why Chris and I
we started.
That was the goal is like I wasjust telling you, my wife and I
we were just in DC, new Yorkand Boston.
As soon as you say you're fromVegas, they're like, oh, you're
from Vegas.
What it just changes theirwhole setup but that was what we
wanted to do is we wanted tospotlight people that are really
growing this city, cause it's areally cool city.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
This is, this is home for me and, like you said, we
don't really go to the strip asmuch unless it's like a show or
things like that, or therestaurants and things, but I
love what's happening off thestrip.
This is amazing, so we're justgoing to continue.
We're so excited for thattransformation and yeah, and and
you know the city is, is, andpeople not as much now, but that
you live in vegas.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
It's so hot and it's like there's nine beautiful
months of the year yeah, invegas, like right now, it's 85
degrees and it's clean and it'seasy, it's new, it's easy to
live and it's new and it smellsright, it's just comfortable.
That's the key, because NewYork everything smells crazy
Trash everywhere and I go a lotof places in the world and I
(41:32):
miss Vegas every time I go Imiss home, it's just easy.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
We talk about it too.
It's bright, it's clean.
Everything is new to is bright,it's clean, everything's new,
like I really everywhere.
Where do you go?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
in the world.
You stop at a gas station atmidnight and then you wait in
line to pay yeah, right, like,really like, and you feel safe
and and everybody is veryhospitable, everybody's smiling.
Every you go to europe and youtell me that experience there
they're pissed at you if you askthis something twice, and, and,
and, and.
You should thank them thatthey're serving you, and and you
always feel like, hey, I wantto go back to Vegas, we're
(42:04):
spoiled.
We're spoiled with that type ofservice.
I say that all the time and thehospitality I mean.
I think what makes the USdifferent is the service, is the
level and the caliber of theservice, and Vegas is top notch
of the.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
US.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
I love that and that makes us very different.
I mean, you go to Dubai eventhough I like Dubai, because for
me it's an intersection betweenthe East and the West and a
different culture and gives youreally the best of both cultures
but still they lack in theservice, they lack a lot and
they lack the training.
Sometimes the server smells andyou're sitting in like
multi-hundred billion dollarwhatever project.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
And server smells and you're sitting in like
multi-hundred billion dollar,whatever project.
And then this you look at, theservice is like okay, something,
man, I gotta go back to vegasbecause we're spoiled.
Yeah, I say we're spoiled allthe time.
Yeah, one thousand percent,right, yeah, but but I love it.
Yeah, I agree.
Um, just a couple morequestions where I could actually
talk to you for hours, we haveto have a part two with you um,
just for business advice, I knowwe've talked a lot about
visionary and putting.
I can't even imagine what ittook to take your vision and put
(43:07):
it to paper and then get thewhole investment and whole nine.
But what would you share forsomebody that's listening right
now that they want to buildtheir business?
Maybe they want to be a smallbusiness owner, they want to be
a big business owner, likeyourself.
What would you share with them?
Just one tip that's helped youowner.
You want to be a big businessowner, like yourself.
Um, what would you share?
Speaker 2 (43:22):
with them.
Just one tip that that's helpedyou.
Uh, it's.
It's first wanting to do thedifference and be and be
different is throwing yourselfand then throwing yourself into
the mix and then you'll figureout as you go.
Is is taking that initiativeright and, uh, and the risk, uh,
to do something different, dosomething for you, go out for it
.
You're, you're in the us.
(43:42):
I come from lebanon.
I told you the only opportunityin lebanon is to get a visa
somewhere, right, and the us islike like golden visa, like
that's the best place in theworld.
I came here as I was 22 yearsold and look what I've done, uh,
because of the us and theopportunity that I get.
So, if you're here and you're,and I came, I didn't, you know,
(44:05):
I didn't speak the language thatwell, I didn't even know the
culture.
It was totally new for me.
It's totally a new place for meand you're still able to do it.
So if you're here and you thinkthat you're unlucky or you think
that things are not going yourway, that's wrong.
I agree, you are.
Think that you're unlucky oryou think that things are not
going your way, that's wrong.
You are in the, in the bestspot in the world to make it
(44:26):
happen, and and and a lot ofpeople don't have that
opportunity.
So the fact that you're here,that's already an advantage and
and a very, very good start.
You just got to hustle your wayand and make sure you just take
the decision to take thatchallenge on, and if you work
hard in the US, you will make it.
(44:46):
Yeah, I love that.
There's no way that you'regoing to work and not going to
make it in the US.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
I tell my kids that all thetime we always ask every guest
about food.
Man, and I know you'll probablysay your restaurants at your
hotel, but what's your favoriterestaurant?
Do restaurants at your hotel?
But what's your favoriterestaurant?
Do I look foodie to you?
I'm a big foodie.
I'm going to tell you right now.
But I'm trying to lose like 10pounds right now because all I'm
going to do is eat it.
But I'm a huge foodie justbecause I think we got some of
the best restaurants in Vegas.
But what's your favoriterestaurant?
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I mean, I like food.
I'm a workaholic, I think, butI like food too.
Okay, it depends.
I mean I don't have a reallyfixed favorite one.
I like Cipriani at the Wynnbecause, it's traditional For me
.
The Metri D knows you.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
They know your name.
Yeah, shout out to Rob.
I forgot Rob is one of the GMsthere.
Yeah, robert and David.
Yeah, really good guy.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
So I like the new experiences off the Strip, like
the guest house.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Oh, shout out to my guys over at the guest house.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I like Samba, also, I haven't checked the Indian spot
yeah, really good really.
I don't like Indian food, butthat place.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
I heard is really, really good.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
That's on my list and , and I'm you know, uh, nico's
at Durango Steakhouse I like wejust went to that's why I always
look for these experiences offthe strip as much as I can,
because you know, like I said atthe beginning, I don't want to
go through the whole casinoexperience to get to the
restaurants that I like and Iencourage.
(46:07):
You know these concepts and Ithink these few places that I
mentioned off the strip aregoing to be the start of a
movement for these hospitalitygroups that understand now they
can spend less on buildingnon-union labor and still get
the same money like the strip ifthey give you the right
experience and the right food,that understand.
Now they can spend less onbuilding non-union labor and
still get the same money likethe Strip, if they give you the
right experience and the rightfood, and they're doing it.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
And we love it.
We got the same palette for allthe restaurants you just
brought up.
So shout out to Guesthouse.
We've been to Guesthousemultiple times.
I love them over there.
Good guys over there too.
What's the social handlespeople can reach out to over
there too.
What's the social handlespeople can reach out to?
Obviously, you or Autonomous oranything like that.
They can reach out to you on orlearn more about the project we
have.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
we are on all social media.
On Instagram we have AutonomousHotel.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
We have Autonomous Tulum as well, and then we have
Growth Holdings, which has thedifferent companies, so they can
reach out to us.
We different companies, so theycan reach out to us.
We're online.
We're actually online now youcan go book.
The best way to reach out to meis to book.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
But we're also hiring .
Speaker 2 (47:09):
So we have a great team and we're still hiring.
So I would encourage everybodyto go on the website
autonomoushotelcom and thenapply for a job.
We love the good talent.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Well, good stuff man absolute pleasure to pick your
mind, man for a little bit.
Like I said, we got to run itback on part two, man, but
appreciate your time and checkus out at the musiccom.
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
I liked it, you have a comfortable chair.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
That's very important oh, that's awesome, man, so I
can sit for another hour.
There we go.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Hopefully we'll have a a phase two.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
And next projects that we have.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
We can write it back, man.
Have you come every year allthe vision stuff that you do it,
man?
Speaker 3 (47:46):
So yeah, for very rarely we don't talk this much,
like we just both out there,like in trance, just listening
to what you had to say.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Man, give you the platform to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
That was great, that was awesome.
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