Hospitality and Journalism - Cameron Sperance - Episode # 012

The hospitality industry has roots in all sorts of other lines of work, even in journalism.

Dan is joined by the author of the Moon Boston Travel guide and world traveler, Cameron Sperance! Cameron is also a hospitality beat reporter at Skift. Listen to this week’s episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today!

Takeaways:

• Hospitality boils down to providing that home away from home experience. It’s all about providing caring service with a smile and making a pleasant stay for the guests.
• You can tell if people are being treated well at the hotel they work at by the way they treat their guests, and a positive attitude creates a better experience.
• In Cameron’s experience reporting about hospitality, you have to build genuine connections with people.
• During the pandemic, many industries have tried to replicate how the hospitality industry makes their guests feel, showing that hospitality has its roots in many industries.
• The concept of doing some self isolation and meditation has taken off in recent years, and it’s a great way to recharge with a busy life.
• There is a lot of tension around who will stick in the hospitality industry in terms of the labor level employees, the ones who work long hours and demanding schedules.
• A struggle some hotels face is finding the balance between being exclusive while also being fair to your clients and guests.

Quote of the Show:

28:33 “There was always a hospitality element to how we work that I think that's why it made it so successful and popular, pre pandemic.

And I mean, it just kind of runs the gamut. There's so many different, Industries out there that are trying to get a little bit more hospitable that I think this has been a wake-up call of just like how the tentacles of hospitality span out into so many different industries.”

Links:

• Cameron’s Profile - linkedin.com/in/cameron-sperance-988505a
• Company website: skift.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronsperance
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Travel-Guide-Cameron-Sperance/dp/1631218859

Shout Outs:

2:41 Boston Bureau

2:51 Ghelfi and Laura Posa

3:04 Skift

4:16 Alice conference

8:01 Daily Planet from Superman

8:01 J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man

8:41 Boston Herald

11:14 Wall Street Journal

11:15 The Real Deal

11:16 The New York Times

12:01 Boston University School of Hospitality

12:02 Pinnacle Advisory

17:20 Hilton

17:21 Marriott

21:18 Soho House

21:19 Rosewood in Hong Kong

32:54 Walden Pond

33:04 Henry David Thoreau

32:20 Parker Torres

35:39 The Lorraine Motel

37:06 Dubrovnik, Croatia

37:30 Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones

41:46 Russian River

52:16 SoulCycle

52:22 Equinox

56:46 Michael Lastoria

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/