Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Open for Business

While weddings, concerts and large events have been shown to be potential super-spreader events, we have been excited to see a number of larger conventions and meetings that have been staged without any transmission of the ‘VID. And, that’s because these events are run by professionals for professionals…in other words, people who take safety protocols seriously.

Greg Edwards and his crew at Catch Des Moines recently released a promotional video, assuring meeting and event professionals that the DMO is just as serious about health and safety as they are. And, it carries with it that conspiratorial wink for which Catch Des Moines (and, more specifically, Greg) is known.

Nicely played.

Well, That's One Way to See It

Four porn stars are reportedly facing charges for filming in a Mexican National Park. Officials are apparently furious that such antics harm the brand image and culture of Chiapas. 

On the other hand, the head of the Chiapas Hotel & Motels Association said he hoped the video would spur tourism, saying "I see it as a promotion to the destination. (The actors) are coming because it is a safe place and they chose this location due to its nature.”

Well, that's one way to look at it, I guess.

Supporting Each Other

Earlier this year, we shared the story of The Spot, a Galveston beachside restaurant that, in the middle of the pandemic, boosted employee paychecks...by a lot. The owner believed that by giving big raises, his employees would, in turn, spend more with other local businesses. And, that could hopefully save several independents from closing their doors. It worked...at the same time The Spot had its biggest May in history.

Another "Pay it Forward" type story has just broken in Toronto. This Summer, Andy Dinner took over the lease of a building in his neighborhood with the intention of opening a barbershop...at a time when trips to hair stylists were banned. When he finally opened, he offered $5 off any haircut if the customer could produce a receipt from another business in the neighborhood. 

According to this story from the CBC, Andy shared that "the number of bar owners and restaurant owners reaching out to me and expressing their gratitude has been really emotional, it's been really overwhelming for me." And, several businesses have said they've been able to stay open, in part, because of Andy's love of the neighborhood in which he grew up.

He says he now understands why his small idea has had such a significant impact.

"People need good news. The world is so starved right now for positivity, everything is so dark right now. We are going to get through this and we're gonna come out stronger by little things like this. By doing our best."

Cheers to you, Andy. Next time I'm in Toronto, I'll be sure to swing by for a cut...and to discover your sensational neighborhood.

Photo Credit: Nick Purdon / CBC

What it's Really Like

As I've told audiences on several virtual Annual Meeting presentations we have done for Destination Marketing Organizations, what we thought would be a universal understanding of the pain caused by government-ordered shutdowns simply hasn't happened. And, that's because a lot of people don't work in hospitality and can't fathom the depth of pain we feel. They're still working; getting a regular paycheck and benefits. They may be inconvenienced by the 'VID...but they aren't looking at eviction.

Terri and I have a special affinity for Hell's Kitchen, a Minneapolis bar-restaurant that hosted our DMO client-and-friend reception when Destinations International met in the Twin Cities in 2016. If you were there, you know how nasty cool this employee-owned spot is.

Terri continues to be tickled by their irreverent e-mail marketing (We're happy to be offering delivery & curbside pickup so you can take a little Hell home with you)...but shared this recent missive with me last evening. While the majority of the e-mail was about opportunities to make Hell's Kitchen part of their fans' Halloween, there was this at the close of their message:

As promised, we want to keep you up to date with how HK is surviving COVID because so many of you have written that you like our "behind the scenes" news. Even though we expanded our hours and delivery range dramatically last month, the truth about trying to survive COVID as a large, downtown restaurant with high fixed costs and real estate taxes remains harsh:

We're thrilled with all the orders we've received for Pickup and Delivery, but the numbers don't lie: our total September 2020 income was just four percent of what we brought in September 2019. That's not a typo: our business is down 96% compared to last year's same period.

Our staff roster pre-covid was 155--it's now at 7, and that's after bringing back more employee-owners to help with delivery and expanded hours.

When we first closed down on March 16, we were completely debt-free and had money in the bank. That's why we were so positive in April..."don't worry, folks. We have our savings account to get us through this temporary setback" (keep reading to see why we're still optimistic). On March 16, our "current" payables to food and service vendors amounted to approximately $193,000 (we've always paid invoices on time, so nothing was past due). Of that amount, we've paid off all but $15,000 and are almost caught up. We're thrilled that we've been able to honor our commitments to our critical food suppliers, but it drained our savings completely.

As the virus continued to drag on into fall and we still had mounting bills (remember, our "burn rate" while closed is still well over $50k/month), we were finally forced to dip into our PPP funds in early September. Many people think "but that government stimulus PPP money was forgiven, wasn't it?" Nope; in fact, NONE of it was forgiven because we did not have anyone on payroll during the government's "time limit," a restriction which made NO sense whatsoever for restaurants throughout the country that were (or are) still shut down to help control the spread of the virus. So ALL of our PPP money is now DEBT which now must be paid back.

Re the PPP loan: No matter how frustrating it was to once more take on debt, we're still grateful, because we honestly feel this loan will give us a long enough runway to survive COVID through next spring if we spend our pennies wisely. Our mantra is "Every. Penny. Counts." For example, we now drag the soiled linens home each week rather than pay the linen service. We moved all of our banquet supplies from our rented storage lockers ($412/mo) to our empty dining rooms. We cancelled every contract we could (grrr to those mega companies who don't give a damn). Even our many phone lines are now down to only a few, and our unused bar coolers/refrigerators are turned off to save on our electrical bill. Baby steps, righhhht?

That's our story and yes, we still have a lotta moxie and hope. We didn't share these details to despair, guilt-trip or inspire fear; our skeleton crew is doing an amazing job guiding the business back to safe harbor and we're confident that Hell's Kitchen will weather the storm. We only share these admittedly-scary numbers because we want everyone to understand the reality of running a downtown restaurant that was dependent on 1) office occupancy, 2) hotel occupancy, 3) convention center activity and 4) visitors to downtown music, sports, and theatre events.

So whether you're in NYC, Nashville, L.A., Seattle, Charlotte, Houston, Chicago or any other major metropolitan area, don't forget to also support the indies that have helped make your downtown experiences unique and marvelous all these years. Those "takeout and delivery" orders mean the world to us all as we wait for this nightmare to be over. Your help now allows us to get back to normal and take care of you when our dining rooms finally reopen.

Be well, stay swell and VOTE!

We know Hell's Kitchen will survive; it's who they are. But, did you catch all the contracts they've canceled? What about those companies...and the ones that depend on them? The ripple is frightening. And, most Americans don't recognize that this all will impact them in the next year.

Did you also pick up on the real estate taxes that contribute to their "sunk costs?" That government has ordered these businesses closed, shouldn't there be some relief there, as well?

And, of course, Congress continues to sit on its hands.

Be well, stay swell and VOTE, indeed.

Join Us Tomorrow

Four former Destination Marketing Executives have been invited to share their take on 21 predictions for 2021 tomorrow at 1 ET / 10 PDT. David Downing, Matt Stiker, Josh Collins and I will be on a panel as part of the eTourism Summit.

To join us, register here: http://bit.ly/2UAk80d

Should be a wild ride.

Solidifying Loyalty

You spent a boatload for season tickets and couldn't make a single game because of the 'VID. How does the team keep you close for future years?

Brand Strategist Gary Brandon posted this simply sensational move by the Pittsburgh Pirates last week on LinkedIn.

The cost? Virtually nothing, as they have scads of used balls laying around. So yeah...we're talking postage.

The value? A customer for life.

How can you emulate this move?

Culinary Ghosts

As we shared last Thursday, the impact of the government's ham-handed response to the 'VID has hit restaurants and hospitality businesses especially hard. Here in Madison, a number of iconic restaurants have closed for the winter...and some have sadly closed forever.

An hour or so south of the Mad City, a number of Rockford restaurants have taken a different tack, creating what they call "Ghost Restaurants." These are eateries that exist virtually and often offer fare that isn't on the menu at the host kitchen but is still prepared there. Like a Mexican restaurant selling pizza and an Italian restaurant selling wings.

In an article in the Rockford Register-Star, restauranteur Paul Sletten said, “I had staff who needed hours. I had our hog farmer Joe at McKenna Farms who needed to sell pigs. It was less about making money and more about helping our staff...we have about 19 employees, and we have made work for all of them.”

And isn't that what people in the hospitality industry do? Look out for each other? So sad that some of the most noble business people around are being left adrift by our elected officials.

Now You Care?

When times are good, we get lazy. We're not as intentional in our efforts to maintain relationships, personal or business. We all fall victim to this...even me.

Thus, it's been fascinating for me to watch the gyrations of two companies over the past few months, for two different reasons, that desperately want to remind me of how much (they think) I love them.

Jos. A. Banks is a menswear company. My only purchase from them was a decade ago when I was on assignment in Fort Worth. I had mis-packed and needed a couple sport shirts. Clearly, they secured my e-mail address during that transaction...and promptly forgot about me.

Since their parent company declared bankruptcy in August, I have been receiving two or three e-mails a day, extolling all the great deals available to me. So, that one we can chalk up to desperation.

Also a decade ago, artifacts from the late Bill Graham's collection of recordings and memorabilia from his days running the Fillmore East and West became available on a site called Wolfgang's Vault. I joined, enjoyed the content for a few years and then forgot about it...but still getting auto-billed each year. Luckily, the credit card they had finally expired this year and they have lost their ability to extract $35 a year from me because of my forgetfulness to cancel.

Since that occurred last month, I've been getting a raft of e-mails, begging me to come back to discover all the cool additions to the Vault. Apparently, these exceptional new additions weren't worthy enough to tell me about while I was being billed because I haven't received an e-mail from Wolfgang's Vault for years. That's probably because they didn't want to remind me that I was being billed for a service I hadn't used in 5 years. This one, we can chalk up to shady business practices (or, if not intentional, at least not very smart).

I don't, for a moment, fault these companies for reaching out. But really, at least admit you were (and apologize for being) lazy friends before trying to reengage me.

 

Gaining a Broader Understanding

Last month, the President issued an Executive Order that would prohibit federal agencies from offering diversity, equity and inclusion training for government workers. In doing so, he called DEI initiatives "divisive" and "un-American."

I'm not sure how helping government workers better understand unintended bias and identify ways to open up opportunities for all is "un-American," but the American Society of Association Executives last week urged the Administration to rescind the directive, post haste.

Truly, the only people that believe that DEI programs are "divisive" are those that want a strict continuation of the status quo...a status quo that pretty much sucks. Which is one of the reasons we issued our position paper on Board Diversity in collaboration with Searchwide Global this summer.

It's also why you should consider the Travel Unity Summit October 21-23. The All-Access Pass is only $50 and offers sessions from some of the top names in travel accessibility and DEI, including Destination DC's Elliott Ferguson, Sports ETA's Al Kidd, HospitableMe's Billy Kolber and many more. And, there are a handful of sessions that are free, including the keynote from Travel Unity Executive Director Roni Weiss.

For more on the Travel Unity Summit, click HERE.

This is Who We Are

Those of us that are dedicated to Destination Marketing are, to be sure, a different breed. We're the proud ones; the ones that bristle when someone says "there's nothing to do here." We are the ones that carry the torch for our communities.

Even when we are 90 years old.

Meet Peggy Rixen-Kuntz, the individual that greets every visitor to the Dickinson ND Visitors Center.

Yeah...I love what we all do, everyday.