One of the first things we did as a part of our community impact strategy at Revival was run a list of everyone the hotel cut a check to in 2018. We wanted to see where there were opportunities to incorporate local, BIPOC-owned companies. Baltimore has one of the strongest entrepreneurship scenes in the nation. So, we had a great starting point. In the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd in 2020, hospitality companies responded to global outcry and uprisings around justice by making broad commitments to supporting the Black community differently moving forward. IHG’s website features a report detailing DEI initiatives ranging from town halls to training initiatives to community partnerships. The family behind Marriott gifted $20 million to Howard University to create a hospitality leadership center that will be named after their late CEO, Arne Sorenson.  I love that this and many other initiatives across major players in the industry are accompanied by intentions and strategies to address the underrepresentation of BIPOC and women in leadership roles in an industry that is incredibly diverse at the entry level. 

We need to ditch talking points. I can feel Amy Friedman (Profiles PR) side-eying me as she reads this. I have, on more than one occasion, diva texted her the morning of a televised interview asking simply “what are my talking points?” I crave the safety of having them floating around in my brain somewhere (in fairness to her, they’re almost always floating around my inbox in an email that I previously read and disposed of). I suspect by now that she knows the contents of the message before opening it and that her first thought is probably, “why do I even bother?” She then sends me some on-brand, thoughtfully crafted, easy-to-digest bullets to guardrail the conversation, not to limit me, more to establish a perimeter. Then I get on camera and immediately hop the fence. I’m the worst. But, so far, it hasn’t ruined us. Not yet, at least. 

On September 9, 2021 my phone started to blow up from travel industry friends and acquaintances asking how in the hell we’re inventing positions out of thin air in the middle of a pandemic.  On that date, we were featured in a 3-page article in Hotels Magazine entitled “Why Your Hotel Needs a Sonic Identity” wherein the author, Jeff Weinstein credits the leadership at Revival with hiring Jason Bass as director of Culture & Impact and DJ Impulse as Director of Content & Sonic Identity. It was right there, in the first paragraph where I think the head scratching (and perhaps, head shaking) began.

In 20+ years in hospitality I’ve always had a “why” brewing just below the surface.  It was never hidden.  Anyone who was paying attention would’ve noticed it and anyone who ever asked knew what the mission was.  “Let’s hand the next generation of hoteliers an industry that’s more fair, more inclusive, more just, and substantially more impactful than the one that we walked into on our first day.”