Kimpton's Hurlburt on Renovated Morrison House Hotel (Audio)

they are the future of fund administration. Right now, the S and P five hundred Index down twenty points, session low two thousand forty six, a drop of one percent. Town Industrials down one hundred eighty four points, a decline there also of one percent. The Dow it's seventeen thousand, five hundred twenty seven. Then Astack composited in deck down fifty five points to twenty a drop of one point

two percent. Ten uere yield one point seven five percent, Gold up three dollars the ounce to twelve seventies seven, again of point two percent, and crude oil above forty eight dollars forty eight oh nine on West Texas Intermediate of eight tenths of one percent. I'm Charlie Palet and that's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen Hayes and Tim Box on Bloomberg Radio. This is taking Stock. We are broadcasting live from the Kimpton

Morrison House Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. That is a part of the Washington metro area. You know, it's interesting, Kathleen, when we travel around the country to be able to learn a little bit about each distinct area and the individual economy that we're able to spend some time. And this of course home to Bloomberg and one oh five point seven FM HD two. And I want to thank our host for setting us up today. The Kimpton Hotel, Hotels and Restaurants. Mark Matt Hurlbert is the area direct

their operations for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants. And we're at Alexander, Virginia. Thank you very much for having us here. Thank you, it's great to have you all. Um. When when when you think about Alexander of Virginia, I end up having to go online and I had to start off by understanding, you know how many people what goes on here? I mean, it's it's got maybe a hundred and forty thousand people, right, but it punches away above its weight because it's it's

combined in this Washington metro area. Tell us about the area. One aspect of it is because of our location right next to Washington, you see, only five miles from downtown d C. But also because the history here for our country, you know, the to uh basically the start of the Civil War was here in Alexandria, and we've had a rich history before and after that, with George Washington and many of our leaders living and uh working and uh enjoying themselves in the local establishments here and uh in

this area. And so it's great history, but also a location that gives as you launching point to all the d C metro area, Well, it's a it's a lovely quaint you know. They get the red brick sidewalks and all kinds of mixture of old and new. And you've got obviously that this area is developing. You're gonna be talking about that later in the show. In terms of news stores and brand names and all that. Um. In terms of the hotel industry, the hospitality industry, there's a

lot of competition in this area. In the DC area Broadley, d m V. I know some people call it DC Maryland, Virginia. So how does Kimpton, How does the Morrison House Hotel stand out and and bring in the people to eat and stay overnight. Well, one thing that's the key to success for Kimpton since our very beginning, is to having a real understanding and having a great restaurant and bar attached with your hotel. And uh that really helps us bring in both locals and out of town guests to enjoy.

And that's there's no different here at the Morrison House. We just opened the Ashler Restaurant and bar, led by chef Bobby Surdam, who's fantastic. We have a great for our program that's actually designed around the Colonial area cocktails, so lots of spirits that were being traded through the port here back in the day and uh, including ports and madeiras and RUMs and uh, there's a it's a great um cocktail program for you to try some some

things you probably haven't tried before. I think about Manhattan with run rather than bourbon things like that. UM. But in general Kimpton also we make sure that design is at the forefront of each of our hotels and restaurants, there's no one. There's no one. They're all unique, right, they're all there a little Yeah, that's important to us. We we want each place to kind of represent the area that's in and you'll you'll find that colonial kind of charm of this the Morrison House and our Monico

Alexandria just down the street. And we have another hotel called the Lorian Hotel and spat up on King Street here as well in Old Town Alexandria. Um So, yeah, the design and the decor needs to be tied into the local area because we want guests to experience what it's like to be in this area that they're in, not just somewhere they can find anywhere around the world.

So in order to experience is what is the price point? Well, you know, our price is verry based on day of week, time of year, I think for in general, if you if you looked at the Morrison House, will be between a one ninety nine or nine per night based on when it when it is time of year. So I was we were talking before we got started. Full interest of full disclosure, I worked at A Kimpton years ago in Seattle, Washington, is one of the very first Kimpton's,

the Alexis, which is down here Pioneer Square. Now you have a total of what about five dozen hotels across the country? Is that never correct? How do you then? How does your business model match up? Again, you used to work for Hiatt or one of these huge change It has all kinds of hotels and some very big ones around the country the world. Yeah, well, it's an interesting challenge for us as a company that has a lot of different hotels and specifically have unique style and

design to each one. What is a brand and we want people to be aware of us as a brand and then you can access us throughout the country. And we're continuing to grow very quickly right now. So um, we've been working very hard on on our marketing and one of the things that we're doing is put in

the Kimpton name. So when you notice the Morrison House hotel, it's the Kimpton Morrison House now and that's a way for us to kind of help associate for people that, um it's part of the Kimpton chain that they know and love from different hotels and restaurants the experience around the country. Like to get your thoughts on Airbnb? What is that? What? What does that mean in the hospitality

industry these days? When you when you hear that from your colleagues, from from other people in the business, what's the feeling. It's usually followed by a word I can't say on the radio, but al right, yah know, Airbnb is it's been a big change for our industry over

the last few years. And obviously it's growing very quickly. Um. And you know it's part of the shared economy, that's that's uh that it's been a big growth in the well we guess you say, like last five or tenure your guests use Uber when they come and go from here or yeah, definitely, definitely for sure. Yeah, so um Airbnb. You know, it's hard to get statistics on air They

don't they don't give a lot of information. But some of the studies that I've seen show that it's really more equal to a limited service hotel, so uh not in those rates typically that I quoted you for the Morrison House or typical that the that the Kimpton hotels would charge. Um. And you know, obviously there's different parts of the country where it's more popular than others. In New York City. Obviously it's very big and there's a great demand for it there um, but it's certainly something

that we pay post Kempton. All right, well, Maco about Thank you so very much for joining us as we kick off our live broadcast here at the Kimpton Morrison House Hotel and Alexandria, Virginia. He's airy director of operations or the company. This is Woomberg Radio, coming up on taking stock. As brick and mortar retailers fight off the online e commerce world, how can you invest? We'll talk to someone creating a new et F