Growing Without Compromising the Guest Experience: Brandon Hall on Hallson Hospitality's Expansion

Brandon Hall 0:00

Let's just work together. I don't see any other man companies as competitors. Like this industry is changing so fast.

Alex Husner 0:05

The growth at all costs, scaling to scale, and I think that's something that we talk about on the show quite a bit. Of we've seen disasters there.

Brandon Hall 0:12

Advisor told me like AI is not good unless you get all the information correct that you need, formatted in one place.

Annie Holcombe 0:19

People think that if you just turn it on and like ask it questions, it's gonna know exactly, but you have to go in and give it the information.

Speaker 1 0:26

My name's Matt Sayed. I'm with Secure Lodging Systems. We're a leading access control provider with over 20 years' experience working in the hospitality industry. We primarily work across Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest as a Dorma Kaba distributor. DormaCaba builds the technology and hardware. We deliver it as a complete, fully operational solution, really tailored to how your property actually runs. The reason why we use Dorma Kava is because it's the best hardware in the industry. In order for us to put our name behind a lock, we're really looking for something that's durable, something that's gonna last, something where the customer is gonna see an ROI on that investment. We want something that's gonna be on their door for 10 years. And DormaCaba locks last. That's why our customers keep coming back to us. One of the main and biggest advantages to DormaCaba locks is we have a standalone solution. We have a lock, the Aura Code 660. That lock will work with or without Wi-Fi. Your property doesn't need Wi-Fi. You just need to have access to Wi-Fi wherever you're located. You log on, you generate a code for your guests, you give that code to your guests. They work absolutely fantastic. The feedback we hear most often from property management companies or strata managers that have switched over to Dorma Kava is one, the locks are super reliable. They continue to work. There's no batteries dying every two months. There's no corrosion of the locks because these locks are great on hardware, rated for saltwater environments. And also the ease of the system. The fact that a property manager, for example, can create unique codes for each one of their staff members. They can audit the locks remotely, they can have a physical fee if needed, and they have a solution where they have local reps where if something does go wrong, someone's available to go and help them. And if they call us, they can call DormaCab's 24-hour hotline. They can call my cell directly and we're gonna answer. We're gonna support them, we're gonna train them, we're gonna make sure that their system's good. I definitely would recommend Dorma Cabinet Property Managers as a robust, durable electronic locking system that will last them up to a decade, that's easy to use, very functional, and will get their guests into their property and keep their properties

Welcome to Nashville: Inside Hallson Hospitality's Star Piano Suites

Speaker 1 2:32

safe.

Alex Husner 2:32

If you're ready to take security and access control more seriously, visit DormaCava to learn more about their products. Click the link in the description. Welcome to Alex Nanny, the real woman of vacation rentals. I'm Alex. And I'm Annie. And we are back today, live in person in Nashville, Tennessee, with Brandon Haldin, who is the CEO and founder of Halson Hospitality. Brandon, so good to see you.

Brandon Hall 2:56

So good to see you guys again.

Alex Husner 2:57

Welcome to Nashville.

Annie Holcombe 2:58

We're so, I mean, I this is amazing. So we're here at your all-suite property called Star Piano Suites, and it's a historic building. It was actually a piano production facility, correct?

Brandon Hall 3:08

Or a piano wholesale. Wholesale company way back when.

Annie Holcombe 3:13

Yeah,

Blending boutique hotel service with luxury vacation rentals

Annie Holcombe 3:14

so it's four suites and it's kind of like run like a hotel, but it's vacation rental. So it's kind of a hybrid. And it's interesting because we've had a lot of conversation with people that there's this convergence of hotels and vacation rentals, and we're seeing it more and more. And so what was it that put you in this position that you wanted to do this and break away from the traditional standalone vacation rental?

Brandon Hall 3:35

Yeah, well, I think one of our motives with this building was that it's it's Nashville is saturated with bachelorette, batcher pads, right? It's just stuff as many beds in in a unit as you can. With this building, the owner particularly wanted it to be very high-end luxury. And high-end luxury doesn't really exist in Nashville in the short-term rental space. High-end luxury hotels just started showing up here, but that demographic is definitely coming here now as the city's grown. And so we wanted to design these to be very high-end, have the see the feeling of a four seasons Ritz-Carlotton when you walk in, and then also brand it that way. So we weren't just gonna throw it up as just being, you know, a downtown penthouse on Airbnb. We wanted it to have a personality and a brand so that people remember it. And they, you know, I truly believe that when you create great experiences for people and attach a brand to it, they're gonna remember it, they're gonna come back to it, they're gonna tell people about it. So, you know, it was very much a hybrid between Boutique Hotel and where we have the website that looks like a hotel website is branded star piano suites, and we have a concierge here that will check in the guests and get them whatever they need, have full concierge service. So you really feel like you're at a four or five-star hotel, but you have a big, beautiful space all

Why design, branding, and consistency matter to the guest experience

Brandon Hall 4:48

your own.

unknown 4:48

Yeah.

Alex Husner 4:48

And actually, we're we're staying in another section of town. That the one thing I said when we got to the other place, I was like, you walk in, it feels immediately clean, it smells great, like it looks like you know, it's just it's a really well-kept property. And I think, you know, a lot of the little details in how that it is designed and you have the halse and mugs, you know, like the it's the little touches that for sure. You I love how you said that, that it's like when the property is that nice and you also add the little bit of like the branded pieces that does, you know, it sparks a memory in people's mind to come back to it. But did so you guys actually did the interior design of this property. Do you do all the properties or um this one in particular?

Brandon Hall 5:27

We didn't. We came in as the interior designers were already working on it. So the owner had hired um interior designers. Uh they're called BMB Designs. They did an incredible, incredible job here. All the other properties that we do, we have a couple different designers that we partner with throughout town, kind of depending on what the scope is. But they all I think across our portfolio, one of the things behind Halsen is that there's a standard design. So it's a standard kind of high-level design that's not hokey or themey, but consistent. So they all may not be as nice as this building, but they kind of you guys can probably feel the similarities between all the properties that you guys have stayed in.

Annie Holcombe 6:05

Yeah, and I um I used um the Jolene actually last year. So it's I actually I'm so grateful that I did that because I'm a Dolly Parton fan, and so it's like so sad. Um, but I think that that property is gonna get rented like crazy now. People wanting to just kind of have that, the dolly like in their experience. But I I love the way you have themed it because it's not the none of the properties. I've looked at all of them on your website and they're so great. They're not hokey, they're not overly done. I've seen some people that really go all in on the bachelorette and it's just too much. Right. But these just are understated, so it doesn't matter if you're there for a bachelor, bachelorette party, family reunion, whatever. I mean, you're just here for as a couple, you know, as couples, they're very tastefully done. And like Alex said, it's nice to walk into a home and it doesn't smell like the last guest was cooking their, you know, whatever they cook for dinner that I'm before.

Alex Husner 6:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so when we had you on the show earlier this year, I checked it was actually end of last year, and you came on and you were talking about wanting, or really kind of in that decision point of it, do you scale the business? And you're at what 80 properties or so?

Brandon Hall 7:00

We're at my 85 right now. Okay. Yeah.

Alex Husner 7:03

And just in Nashville.

Brandon Hall 7:04

Yep.

Alex Husner 7:04

Maybe share a little bit about that decision of like that size and just Nashville and any updates on whether you're you are trying to scale.

Brandon Hall's approach to responsible vacation rental growth

Brandon Hall 7:12

Yeah, I actually have a pretty big update for you guys. Okay, we're breaking news. Um yeah, so we back when we spoke, it was, you know, scale. That's what I've always said is scale responsibly. So I've I've been in the industry, you know, really for four years now and just kind of watched a lot has happened in the past four years, as you guys know. And so one thing that I just noticed is a lot after COVID, a lot of management companies just grew as quickly as they could and got over their skis. And then, and then when you do that, obviously you can't keep up with the maintenance with the quality assurance and all that to make sure that you're continuing to get the good review, the reviews that you're needed to. I mean, go on the whole thing about reviews, but like I just truly believe that reviews were the core of everything. And in order to keep them high, you had to scale responsibly so you're not getting in front of over your skis. So that was why we said, you know, we're gonna scale responsibly and not take on tons of units and mom and also like keeping the standard as I just discussed. I think it's incredibly important to like take on the right units that fit the brand if you're trying to, if you're trying to build a brand that's really important.

Alex Husner 8:19

If you own a vacation rental management company, this one is for you. A lot of owners have thought about selling someday. Maybe not today, maybe not even this year, but eventually. And when that thought comes up, two questions usually stop people in their tracks. What is my business actually worth? And what happens to the people, the homeowners, the reputation, and the brand that I spent years building. That's exactly why we want you to know about Monarch Collective. Monarch is built for local vacation rental brands that want to grow without losing what made them special in the first place. When Monarch comes into a new market, the local brand stays. And not just the name on the website. The team stays, the homeowner relationships stay, the reputation you earned in your own backyard stays. But now there's a much bigger platform behind it. You get paid for what you built and the parts of the business that drain so many owners. Finance, accounting, HR, legal, backend operations, they come off your plate. And instead of doing everything alone, you get the support and horsepower to keep growing. You can keep running the business as long as you want, you can step back when you're ready. There's not one version of what this has to look like. And here's the best part: you don't have to be ready to sell to have the conversation. Even if you're just curious, Monarch will sit down with you, free and no strings attached, to help you understand what your business could be worth. No pressure to sell, no pressure to sell to them, just a real conversation with people who understand this industry and respect what local operators have built. So if you've ever wondered what your company could be worth, go find out. Visit gomonarch.com/slash partnerships.

Hallson Hospitality's merger with Epicbnb and expansion to 175 properties

Brandon Hall 9:50

We're in the process. It's actually will be official as of October 1st of merging with another local company called Epic BNB.

Alex Husner 9:56

Oh wow. Congratulations.

Brandon Hall 9:59

Thank you. Yeah. Um Steph Urbeck Urbach founded the company 11 years ago here. She has, before I knew her, she was always the first one on Air DNA when it came to raise. It was always no, she was still. And they have great properties. And and any anyone that I kind of met in the industry around town or like and got to know me and my my the way I think about this business, like you have to meet stuff. Like you guys are really going to get along. And so we actually met about a year ago, and um just we're like first and foremost, we're like, let's just work together. Like this is there's I don't see anyone, any other manager companies as competitors, like this industry is changing so fast. Like, if we can just it started by us wearing sharing a warehouse, we're like, we can just share a warehouse that can cut down on swast. And so that's kind of how it started. And then as we just like looked at the missing pieces that we both had, I had pieces that she needed, and vice versa. And we're like, and we were the two highest-rated companies in Nashville, and really just aligned very closely on the way we think about this business.

Alex Husner 11:07

How many properties do that bring into the total portfolio?

Brandon Hall 11:10

We'll be at 175. Oh, okay. So doubling, really.

Alex Husner 11:13

That's incredible. That's super exciting. I have heard of them before, and I've heard great things about her. So yeah, she's great.

Brandon Hall 11:19

They just won, they just came in third place on air DNA's like best prop nationally, best property managers nationally.

Annie Holcombe 11:25

Yeah, that's where I saw it recently. Yeah, I knew I'd seen it again recently. Well, that's exciting. And so you've got some other really, really big things that you've been working on. And again, it goes back to my question in the beginning. It's kind of the diversification of things. And so a lot of people are talking about, you know, there's a lot of regulatory issues, and Nashville's struggling with some of those right now. So you kind of have to think beyond like what can you do in a normal sense of booking, so the traditional channels, you're having to like think, okay, midterms, long terms, those type of things. But you're taking on a an old an inn, a historic inn. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?

Brandon Hall 11:54

Yeah, exactly.

Annie Holcombe 11:55

Is it outside of the 175, the LB2?

Alex Husner 11:58

It's part of our

Expanding into boutique hospitality with Germantown Inn

Alex Husner 11:59

it's kind of part of it.

Brandon Hall 12:00

Yeah, okay, okay. It's part of it. We just took over, so it's called the Germantown Inn. It's a very historic um 10-bedroom boutique or bed and breakfast um just up the street here in Germantown. It's the only hotel. I think there's one other small hotel in Germantown, but as far as as far as um hotels go, there's there's not much up there. So I got to know the owners pretty well, and they just they they've had it for 10 years and just wanted to kind of kind of saw what we've done with this and some other properties of just bringing kind of like life back into it. And so we're in the process of just redesigning it, kind of the whole thing. But our our goal with it is to be a very high-end luxury experience in a very boutique space and just delivering like it has full-time innkeepers, so our goal is just to deliver like five-star hospitality at a boot really cute boutique property that has tons of character and a lot of history.

Annie Holcombe 12:55

I love that. And so um Varma's gonna be here. Um, and so hopefully you will see you there.

Brandon Hall 13:00

Of course.

Annie Holcombe 13:00

Yeah, and so have they asked you to come and speak um because you won the property manager of the year a couple of years ago.

Brandon Hall 13:06

Yeah, 2024.

Annie Holcombe 13:08

Yeah, yeah. So, and and that's how I first became aware of you because I just didn't know that there was any big players in Nashville, but um, just been watching you ever since. And so that's like a big feather in your cat from a couple of years ago, but now it's in your the conferences is back in your backyard, and yeah, you get to walk around and tell everybody, show everybody what you're doing, and yeah, it'd be exciting to host kind of hosting it, you know, if you will. Welcome to Martown. Yeah. The mayor, the mayor of

Scaling operations while maintaining quality and service standards

Annie Holcombe 13:34

Nashville.

Alex Husner 13:34

Yeah, yeah. One thing that you said, Brandon, that really hits a chord with the whole theme for our podcast this week this year is like the growth at all costs, like just scaling to scale. And I think that's something that we talk about on the show quite a bit of we've seen disasters there. And obviously you're dr you're growing very intentionally, I would say. Uh, but I do remember when we spoke with you last, we talked about your tech stack and how you were trying to you know figure out some different elements and like how to bring AI into the experience. Do you have any updates on that?

Brandon Hall 14:03

Oh, I have to share my secrets.

Annie Holcombe 14:07

You can code them if

How Hallson is using AI and centralized property data to support its team

Annie Holcombe 14:08

you need to. Yeah.

Brandon Hall 14:09

No, um it's been a it's been an interesting journey with it. Um I we're so we've we have a couple, we were just talking about this in my meeting before this, but we have a couple teammates that are really good with AI and have built really cool things on Claude or Chat GTP. Um, but we have a big company that does, there's a lot of different personalities that have different tech capabilities, right? And I think every property management um is in that space. And and the biggest um, the biggest thing that we're trying to do is is how do we database? An advisor told me like AI is not good unless you get all the information correct that you need, formatted it in one place. And so we've done a lot of work on getting everything from our homes, like where's the GFI, where's the the breaker box, pictures of it, just everything like insanely documented for each property in a format that AI can read it. And that helps our GX team and whatnot be able to access it.

Speaker 15:09

Vacation Finder is hybrid OTA. We were created to empower professional property managers and give them the ability to own the guest relationship. Once again, we position ourselves as more cause-related than we do about focusing on profit at the end of the day. I'm Josh Thromberg and I am the CEO of VacationFinder.com. Vacation Finder is exclusively for professional property managers. We require that they be local boots on the ground. Actual individuals are there in the destination that's able to provide customer service and solutions when problems arise. That helps us as Vacation Finder to really build and establish that trust, not only with property managers, but with the guests that we're trying to really look at Vacation Finder as their trusted booking source. For anyone that's a property manager that's out there looking to really focus more on a even a direct booking model, I think Vacation Finder is really an opportunity that they need to consider. We're positioned to be the ally to professional property managers in our industry. We want you to own that guest relationship so that you have communication directly with that guest the moment that the booking occurs. So you're the merchant of record on your own vacation finder. And that's been the vision since day one is how can we create this marketplace that's going to put professional property managers in the driver's seat? How are we going to create a marketplace that communicates to guests the value that comes with selecting a property that's managed by a professional property manager? What does that provide to them? And that is what we're trying to do is provide the best possible solution for both guests and property managers. If you love our industry, if you love your homeowners and the properties you represent and the guests that come to stay in your properties, and you want to create an experience for them and you want to do right by all the stakeholders, then you absolutely should consider Vacation Finder.

Brandon Hall 17:14

And we started working with this company called Victor, which is an AI bot that lives within Slack. And so Victor connects to from Monday.com to Notion, Guestie, Priceline, all of our things. He has access to all of it. So he's then able to communicate with our team real time. Those that are super savvy with AI and those that have no idea what they're doing with AI, they can literally just ask a question and Victor will answer it based on the data that it has. And so it's really allowed us to move a lot faster with AI and and really kind of like the biggest problem in what I think in this industry is we're gonna have 175 homes. Every single one of those homes is different. And even me as a as a CEO, I'm not going to be able to get into every single home. It's just to know them. Like I knew most of them, like the back of my hand until you get to about 50. So as we're hiring on new teammates, as we're bringing on VAs that are never gonna be here, like it's a very efficient way to make sure that the correct information is delivered to them via AI rather than having to go and like constantly look it up. So, I mean, that's one use case for it, but we've we've been very impressed with that tech product so far from AI, just because it's easy for our entire company to utilize.

Alex Husner 18:29

That's a very useful exercise that you've gone through to do that. I mean, really, I mean, like that's it's kind of like the cleaning house of your whole company because up until this point, it's like, well, you know, some things might be inaccurate in one place, but for the most part, like it's okay. But this is the perfect use case of like, let's get everything. And it's almost like from day one from that point forward. So yeah, that's that's exciting.

Improving information accuracy across a growing portfolio

Brandon Hall 18:51

And there's there's been instances where it'll say, like, you know, whatever the question may be, is like, oh, this is what it's documented in the Google Doc or Notion, but it was also referenced in three different conversations in Slack from six months ago, three months ago with different information.

Alex Husner 19:07

Yeah, so you're kind of spotting where things are.

Brandon Hall 19:09

It'll like go through all of our past conversations, email Slack, and like and and figure out what is the actual right answer, not it's not just going to one spreadsheet and pulling it.

Annie Holcombe 19:18

So like recognizing disparities and things. Yeah, that's awesome. That's a that's an ongoing task. I feel like everybody's struggling with that right now as to what to do with it. But it's like I think people think that if you just turn it on and like ask it questions, it's gonna know exactly, but you have to go in and give it the information and give it access to the information. So that's smart that you've done that. And then so that'll allow you to scale. So do you have any intent as you merge the two groups together that you would grow outside of Nashville?

Integrating the merger and exploring future growth opportunities

Brandon Hall 19:44

Yeah, I think the option is definitely there. I mean, our goal is to get through where we're in the middle of integration of the merge right now. Basically, everything will be done by October 1st and we'll be off and running. Kind of the first part of this, the rest of this year is like just keeping the ship together, going under the room. Exactly, all hands on deck. And then yeah, I think it opens up a lot of opportunities for us. I mean, we're won the third best award in the country, we're on property management. We've we've have incredible reviews. I think we've both built something super special that works and works in this industry. And I think there's gonna be opportunities. We don't really know what those are. We just want to put ourselves in the best position.

Alex Husner 20:22

Yeah, do the right things and it makes off.

Annie Holcombe 20:24

You know, it's all about planting the seeds. We Alex and I talk about that on the show a lot. You plant seeds along the way, and you never know what's gonna sprout up and grow opportunities that just happen to be there.

Alex Husner 20:32

Yeah, they were coming all along. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Well, thank you, Brandon, so much again for having us, for putting us up in our beautiful home that we're staying at, and and just the opportunity to be here live in person and can't wait to come back to your town in a couple weeks now. Yeah, for the conference.

Brandon Hall 20:48

So absolutely. Well, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks, Brendan. Thank you.

Alex Husner 20:53

If anybody wants to get in touch, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

Brandon Hall 20:56

My direct email is Brandon at Hallson.co, um, and social media is Brandon Hall Eleven on Instagram.

Alex Husner 21:03

If anybody wants to get in touch with Annie and I, you can go to alexandi podcast.com. Until next time. Thanks, everybody.