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For Teague Hunter, president and CEO of Hunter Hotel Advisors, buying and selling hotels is a family tradition. He shared that lifetime of experience with Asian Hospitality in the second installment of our Leadership Series interviews with top voices in the industry. Hunter leads the Atlanta-based hotel brokerage founded in 1978 by his father Bob Hunter with his brother Lee Hunter as chief operating officer. Last year, Hunter had its most successful year to date after closing nearly $2.5 billion in sales. In March it will host its 35th Hunter Hotel Conference, which has rebounded to full attendance three years after the COVID-19 pandemic. Teague Hunter also is the host of Teague Talks, a twice weekly series of podcasts offering advice and interviews with other industry heads. In his interview with Asian Hospitality, Hunter discussed his early days in the industry, current trends in the hotel market and the future of his company and its namesake conference. The video of the full interview is now available on our website, and the following includes excerpts from the interview with additional information. Rise up early in the morning Hunter said his first hotel job was as a bellhop in the morning shift at the old Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Powers Ferry in Marietta, Georgia. It was quiet, but instructive. "I ran around and helped everybody with everything and learned the business," he said. His experience in hospitality, however, began at a much earlier age. He was 5 years old when Bob Hunter started his business. Teague Hunter recalled stories of childhood trips to the beach, during which he would tour hotels with his father along the way. After graduating college, Hunter worked as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch and held a position with IBM before he realized that was not what he wanted to do with his life.

AT THE 35TH Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, there was plenty to talk about. Several Indian American hoteliers were speakers at the event at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta March 19 to 22. This year's conference came with "a profound sense of purpose, no limits," said Lee Hunter chairman of the Hunter Conference during his welcoming address. "Over the next three days, we're going to hear from numerous industry experts, as leaders in this industry, we understand the importance of embracing change, challenging the conventions and pursuing new opportunities," Hunter said. "It's with this in mind that as we sat down to put forth our speaker lineup, this year, we focused on bringing new voices to distinguish. These voices are going to challenge you. They're going to inspire you, they're going to force you to think outside the box."

IN MARCH, THE U.S. celebrated the achievements and history of women as part of Women's History Month. In recognition of the month, some hotel companies introduced or continued programs aimed at increasing women's role in the industry. In line with the Women's History Month theme this year "Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories," Choice Hotels International kicked off its "HERtels at Choice Development Seminar" with nearly 40 franchise owners, general managers, and hotel associates in attendance. At the same time, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts' "Women Own the Room" initiative has signed over 30 hotels across the U.S. and Canada in the first year of its launch. Also, California hotelier and philanthropist Sunil "Sunny" Tolani issued a special message for the month. HERtels by Choice Choice Hotels took the recently held Hunter Hotel Conference in Atlanta as a launch pad for its inaugural HERtels seminar. The event was held next door to the Marriott Marquis Atlanta, Hunter's venue, and is an enhancement of Choice's HERtels program that was launched in 2021. "While industry-wide parity is improving, with more female investors, directors, and leaders in hospitality than ever before, women entrepreneurs still face significant economic and societal barriers when it comes to hotel ownership and development. As an industry, we owe it to the next generation of hoteliers to change this statistic," said John Lancaster, vice president for emerging markets, franchise development and owner relationships, Choice Hotels International. "This initiative and the invaluable resources it provides is a natural extension of our industry-leading emerging markets program and our enduring commitment to helping growth-minded entrepreneurs further their unique ownership journey."

LESLIE HALE, PRESIDENT and CEO of RLJ Lodging Trust, will join Mit Shah, CEO of Noble Investment Group, for the 10th Annual Bharat Shah Leadership Speaker Series at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference. The Bharat Shah Leadership Speaker Series was established and endowed in honor of Dr. Bharat Shah at Georgia State's Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration, J. Mack Robinson College of Business. The upcoming series is scheduled for March 21, accessible to registered attendees, special guests, and Georgia State University students. Hale is the first African American woman to lead a publicly listed real estate investment trust. She serves on the board of directors for Delta Airlines, is a trustee of Howard University, and is a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Currently, she is the board chair for the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Hale said she was honored to be included in the Bharat Shah series, she said in a statement.

Matthew Hostetler, chief development officer at Red Roof, has been operating outside his wheelhouse for about 18 years now. In this installment of Asian Hospitality's Leadership Series, he explains how he does it all with a smile on his face. Hostetler was at the Hunter Hotel Conference in March in Atlanta when he took time to talk about his history in the hotel business along with the current status of Red Roof. Topics also included AAHOA's 12 Points of Fair Franchising, the company's preparations for possible economic headwinds this year and the success of Red Roof's newest brand. Same job, different industry In 2002, Hostetler was recruited by Cendant Hotel Group, which is now Wyndham Hotel Group, to conduct franchise sales under Phil Hugh, who was at that time senior vice president for franchise sales. That was when he stepped out of his comfort zone. "I said yes to an opportunity that was way, in sales was not outside of my wheelhouse, but outside of my industry," Hostetler said. "I was in transportation for 15 years before that. So yeah, that definitely outside the wheelhouse." In 2014, he joined Red Roof as the senior vice president of development, again working under Hugh. In 2020, when Hugh left the company, Hostetler became chief development officer. Now he's settled into the job. "I love the hotel business. I love hospitality. I love the people in this business, how they are so entrepreneurial," Hostetler said. But there's also so people oriented as well. That's what attracts talent so much right? Hospitality. Everyone has a smile on their face most of the time."

THE AHLA FOUNDATION recently expanded its travel scholarship program with historically Black colleges and universities supported by a 2023 grant from the Nareit Foundation's Dividends Through Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Giving Campaign. The foundation also announced its 2024 officers and board of trustees, further diversifying the board's representation of industry segments, AHLA Foundation said in a statement. "HBCUs are an incredible, yet underestimated, resource for talent" said AHLA Foundation President Anna Blue. "Travel scholarships are an important tool for fostering inclusion at the earliest stages and help to increase exposure to the different parts of industry, including hotel and lodging REITs." The $85,000 grant from the Nareit Foundation, Nareit's philanthropic arm, will facilitate HBCU students' attendance at REIT- and investment-focused events, including the Hunter: Hotel Investment Conference in March and the NYU International Hospitality Industry Conference in June, the statement said.

Mit Shah today is CEO of Atlanta-based Noble Investment Group, a multi-million dollar company founded in his lifetime of experience growing up in the hotel business. It's a story he shares with many Indian American hoteliers, but he said it's a story that bears repeating, a story of the American dream. Shah retells his story here for Asian Hospitality's Leadership Series, the first episode for 2024. Along with his family history, he also discussed Nobel's investment practices, the economy in general and lessons learned from hosting interviews with industry leaders for the Bharat Shah Leadership Speaker Series, named after his father, at the Hunter Hotel Conference in Atlanta. "My parents were immigrants to the United States. In the 1960s they came here for a better life and education. As they were doing that, they had friends that found themselves in this industry and buying small properties throughout the country," Shah said, adding that his parents bought their first hotel, the Winkler Motor Inn in Winston Salem, North Carolina in 1979. "I was 10 years old at the time, my younger brother was six years old at the time and that was the family business, a very common story that we hear throughout our industry. It's an important story to continue to tell because it's deeply rooted in the American dream."

THE U.S. TRAVEL ASSOCIATION wants the federal government to replace pandemic-era restrictions with endemic-focused policies to enable full and free travel. That was one of several subjects Roger Dow, USTA's outgoing president and CEO, discussed at the Hunter Hotel Conference in Atlanta in March. In a letter to incoming White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, USTA asked to immediately remove the pre-departure testing requirement for all fully vaccinated inbound international arrivals. "Despite declining hospitalizations and infections, increased vaccination rates and immunity, and a more robust public health infrastructure to manage the virus, the vast majority of pandemic-driven federal travel policies are still in place," the letter said. "While the public health benefits of these policies have now greatly diminished, the economic consequences continue to grow,"