#193: Why the Valencia Group Doesn't Follow Trends | with John Keeling

The Modern Hotelier #193: Why the Valencia Group Doesn't Follow Trends | with John Keeling === David Millili: Welcome to The Modern Hotelier Hospitality's Most Engaged podcast. I'm David Millili. Steve Carran: I'm Steve Carran. David Millili: Steve, who are you interviewing today? Steve Carran: David, today we have on John Keeling from Valencia Hotel Collection. Thanks for sitting down with us John, how are you doing today? John Keeling: Doing well, Dave. Thank you so much. Steve Carran: So John, you've been in the industry for a while. How did you end up getting into hospitality? John Keeling: It was a mistake. I was a Middle Eastern studies major at UCLA. And after I'd come back from Vietnam and I'd uh, uh, was doing some graduate work. I worked in the food service operation at UCLA and became general manager of the graduate residence hall. And I liked it so much. I figured if institutional feeding and housing is this much it, fun hotels will be even more fun. And so I went into the hotel business. Steve Carran: Very cool. And how long have you been in the hotel business? John Keeling: Over 40 years. So I'm considering making it a career. Steve Carran: Yeah. David Millili: It's a wise choice. So tell us more about Valencia and the collection? John Keeling: Well, Valencia is, what started out the president of our company grew up in the industry. He was literal, almost literally born in a hotel and lived for five first five years of life in a hotel. But he started building Hilton products. He got frustrated with the brain standards, so he began building independents and that was about 20 years ago, and that's what we've been doing since I was a consultant to him in those years, and then when I decided to leave the consulting firm, he made me an offer and I've been doing development for the last 16 years. So, we do independent hotels they're upscale, just below luxury full-service hotels and one of our brand standards is we never do the same hotel twice. Steve Carran: Love that. So what's new with Valencia? Do you have any new projects coming up? John Keeling: Well, it has been a lean time, you know, and people say, well, it's because the interest rates are so high, it really isn't because, we had higher interest rates than this, sometime back so we can deal in a high-interest rate environment. The problem was the lenders just shut down. So we hadn't done anything for about two and a half, three years. But we now have three projects that are real. One is actually under construction in Arlington, Texas. It'll open up in, in, uh, about May 15th of next year. We've got another one in Tucson, which will break ground, next month. And we just got financing on a property in Tyler, Texas and so, we'll probably break ground the first quarter of next year. So that's three. when we had none for three years, so there's some new stuff going on. David Millili: So tell us, so you and I have been both at this a long time. What trends do you see up and coming that Valencia is gonna taking hold of to make sure that, you know, guest experience and staff production is better? John Keeling: You know, one of our competitive advantages is we don't follow trends, but we know what the rules are. We know that you've gotta have interior corridors. You've gotta have three stories, at least. You gotta have a major brand. We don't do any of that. And so our secret power is we break the rules, but we know what we're doing. And what we're trying to do is just create great guest experiences. And the trend in the hotels that are gonna be really successful in the next decade are those that can, can accomplish that. David Millili: That's great. So John, tell us how people can get in touch with you or find out more about the Valencia Hotel Collection. John Keeling: They go to our website, valenciahotelcollection.com or they can look me up and I'd be happy to talk with 'em. David Millili: Alright, that's great. Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier, hospitality's Most Engaged Podcast. We're here in Chicago at the ILC Indie CONfab. Thank you