Dimitris Manikis on AI, Guest Experience and the Future of Hospitality | Voices of Hospitality

Everybody gets data. The question is what do you do with it? And this is again where I think AI is going to help us a lot.

Premium experience doesn't mean premium price.

Oh, wow. So, first of all, thank you for inviting me. Lovely to be here. I made an effort, as you can see. I'm color coordinated with this. Thank you, Raers. A lot of people ask me about my glasses, which I actually tailor-made again to your color. I was 25 years old. I am at the University of Surrey in the UK. I wake up one day and half of my head, half of my hair are on my pillow. And I'm like, 'What are my hair doing on my pillow and not on my head?' And I shouted at my roommate. I said, 'Mate, help.' He said, 'What happened? What happened?' I said, 'Do you see a difference?' He said, 'Half of your hair are gone.' What happens? I don't know. I don't know. So anyway, it was a fact. I woke up and suddenly half of my hair were on my pillow and not on my head. Panic, panic, panic, panic. 26 years old, 25 year olds, back in the 80s, bald people, not fashionable, not fashionable. I'm like, what the hell am I going to do? I said, that's it. I'm staying home. I'm staying home until my hair grows back. And my roommate was like, 'Mate, you cannot do that. It's not gonna happen.' I said, 'Okay, no, I'll try. I'll try.' Second day, third day, he said, 'Man, you got to go to classes. We're in a university. What are you going to do? You're going to stay half of your life in a room.' I said, 'Okay, I'm going to go to the doctor. Going to go to the doctor. There must be a pill or something.' So, I went to the doctor. He looked at me. I gave him 45 minutes of my stress and my everything. He goes, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' Says, 'I've got the answer.' I said, 'Is it a pill?' I said, 'What is the answer?' He said, 'Look, do you see these black glasses, boring glasses that you wear?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'I'll tell you what I want you to do. Go home, shave your head. Actually, the first time, ask your roommate to do it because you're going to cut yourself because you don't know how. Shave your head. Go to the city and buy a pair of red colorful frames.' And I'm like, can I see your diploma? Are you sure you're a doctor? I said, can you explain that? He said, mate, that's it. You lost your hair. Is it genetic? Is it your dad? Is it I don't know what it is. That's it. They're not coming back. Build something in your personality that makes people think of you not as a bald guy but as a more. And then I did. I went home. I went back to London. I bought a pair of bright red huge glasses. I have about a 100 pairs since then. All my personality was around my glasses. They look and guess what? Yeah. Nobody says, 'Oh my god, the guy hasn't got any hair.' Everybody says, 'I love your frames.' And then fast forward 30 years, both my daughters are dating both guys because now bald is trendy. And they do. They have the same frames as you. They try. They try, but competition is very harsh. Bald is trendy now. Yeah. I wish they were trendy, but you're the trend setter. I'm a trend setter. That's not a lot of people know about. That's how it all started.

Look, there's a lot of people who say, 'Oh, you know what? The travelers are different.' And actually, I don't believe that. I said it on my panel yesterday. If you think about the global traveler, what are they looking for? They're looking for ease to get to the destination. They're looking for a great bed. They're looking for a great shower. They're looking for a nice, you know, a nice sleep. The fundamentals of hospitality, they haven't actually changed in thousands of years. When people travel from one place to another and the first inn or the first little hotels open, people are looking for exactly the same thing. Obviously, things have changed and everybody talks about experiences, but the basics of hospitality are still the same. And I always say to my team as well and the owners that we do business with, the moment you do the basics right, everything else is a bonus. You got to do the basics right. You know what? The other day I was with my family. We were traveling for business and I was in a hotel and there was so much technology in that room that I couldn't figure it out. I didn't know how to switch off the lights because they gave me this iPad and you know I'm not that familiar with. So I was looking at all these, I'm like oh my god how do I switch off these lights and I ended up buying a night sleep mask because I just couldn't switch off the lights because sometimes we overcomplicate things in hospitality. Do the basics right. Make sure that you invest in the people and you invest in what the guest really wants. And everything else is a bonus. So that's the essence of the traveler. I don't think if you look at a Chinese traveler to an Indian traveler. Yes. There might be things that so an Indian traveler might want a couple of Indian things at breakfast. Yeah. The same with the Chinese traveler. But the essence of travel is still the same. They want the basics right and then the add-ons and the toppings are different for every traveler. But the basics need to be right. They need to be there.

First of all you got to listen. You got to listen. You got to survey the clients. Technology gives you such an amazing tool today to get real time feedback. One of the things that we are actually doing at Wyndham through our Wyndham Advantage now we're actually doing during stay messaging. So you know sometimes in the past we used to ask people to tell us about their experience once the experience was actually done over. What was the value of that? Yes, you could learn but you couldn't actually solve people's problems while they were actually happening. So during stay messaging is going to change all that. Now, somebody can say, 'I just checked in my room. My pillow is not the right pillow. Can I actually have a new pillow?' Or, 'My room is not good. Can I actually turn the air conditioning down or help me?' That is going to change the way we interact with the client. There's a lot of pre-arrival messaging. There's a lot of during stay messaging. You guys and the technology that you bring, all of you can actually change the way that we interact. So we learn about the customer during the stay. To me that's the biggest advantage that you have in making sure that the customer has a better stay than what we did in the past. So that's one. Second is make sure that your team are listening more and they talk less. You know sometimes you check in at the hotel and there is no interaction with the guest. There's no looking the guest in the eye because what the receptionist does, she or he punches keys on a keyboard, gives you a passkey, credit card, doesn't interact with the guest. Technology will change all that. We will know more about the customer before the customer arrives. That will give the opportunity to the receptionist to actually interact with the guest, look the guest in the eyes and say, 'Oh, by the way, sir, tonight there's a great concert at town. Would you like tickets of that?' or we have a great barbecue on the rooftops. Is that happening at Wyndham Properties? It starts happening and that's how technology and AI is going to enable. People say, 'Oh, is AI going to take people's jobs?' No, it won't. It will actually enable them to do things that they didn't have time to do in the past. We're going to convert reception to a guest experience that is what I think is going to fundamentally change in the next two to three years in hospitality.

I'll tell you what, first of all since COVID we had more technology adoption that we had 25 years before. We advanced technologically as an industry for the last 5 years than 25 years before. That's why let me tell you something which is fundamental. It's fundamental in our business. Do you know that today it takes a housekeeper cleans exactly the same room that they did in the 60s or the 70s. It hasn't changed. A housekeeper cleans the same amount of rooms a day because that's the way it is. Yes, you help with a bit of more efficient and whatever but it takes five rooms a day or 10 rooms a day. A robot cannot, there will be a day I don't know during my time I don't think so a room is going to be cleaned purely by robots I don't know but another surprise that we saw at Wyndham when we get to ask people what they want, what do they want? They want late check out, early check in and they're willing to pay for it. They want to know if there is a pet, if there is a pet policy, can they bring their pets? Do you know that there's a huge number of people now globally that they travel with their pets? Because the pet is family. Do you know what percentage? I wouldn't know that, but I know that it's growing like crazy every year by year because what we did during COVID we all got a pet. Suddenly pets became, you know, a big thing. Now you travel with your pet. So these are the kind of things that we didn't have the opportunity to interact with the guest before. Now we can ask the guest or the guest can ask us and there is an AI enabling tool that can say yes we are very friendly. You can bring your pet and there's an extra charge or whatever. The other thing that we need to be very very cautious as an industry we have a lack of talent. We have a lack of people. The moment we overemphasize technology, young generation will ask why would I work in an industry that is planning to replace me with a bot. So we got to be very careful. How do we actually talk about technology? Technology is an enabler is not a substitution to human interaction. Hospitality is about human interaction. There is no hospitality with no human interaction. And I see it from my family. I see it from my friends from myself when you go into that airport check in because that's hospitality that guest smiles on you, the journey becomes completely different.

Look, they're all exciting for different reasons, right? If you look at the Iberian Peninsula, you look at Spain and Portugal, Greece, Turkey, I mean, beautiful seaside resorts, beautiful places, all-inclusive places that families can get together. Obviously, I'm in India. So I've been saying all along that this is one of the most exciting markets not just in my region, but I think in the world. Another market that is extremely exciting is the CIS region, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. I don't know if you're aware, but we've got more Indians flying to Tbilisi in Georgia than many other destinations. Why? Because no visa and direct flights. Exactly. Direct flights. So when I went to Uzbekistan for the first time, I'm like why haven't I been here before? What an amazing country. When I went to Tbilisi, Georgia for the first time, I'm like my goodness, wonderful people, wonderful cuisine, food. So this is what it's all about. Yes, traditional markets will always be there. They will always be fashionable. But we want people to discover India. I'll give you an example. I said it on my panel yesterday. How come Greece where I come from, 9 million citizens in Greece, we get 35 million tourists every year, India, 1.4 billion people and you only get 10 million international arrivals. We need to introduce India to the world. Yes. And this is one of the number one priorities Wyndham has for this region. We need, yes, we love India. India has been amazing to us. We've grown. We have great talent. How can we introduce India to the world? If you ask me, that's my number one priority for this market in the next two to three years.

I'll tell you what, I'll give you my experience. On average, I spend about 45 minutes at arrival on passport control. Why a country that is so familiar with tech and you're a tech company like an e-gate, how can they not automate the arrival process? Why do you have to have all these queues and biometrics again and again and again? Why they cannot actually make it a more seamless process? That's one. More PR. I go to ITB Berlin, I go to the WTM in London, where is India? India needs to promote India more and it's not about the government it's all about us all of us as an industry, the private sector how can we come together to make sure that we all together promote India to our customers. We have 125 million Wyndham Rewards members. My priority is make sure that how we introduce India to that population because we need to bring more inbound travel to India. So that to me is the number one priority. So yes, a lot of exciting markets, a lot of great markets that have been great to Wyndham. This is a market that has been very good to Wyndham, but we need to give back to the market as well. So that's one of my big strategic options for the next two three years.

Look, it's really a mix, right? So, for example, you got to be at the right location. You got to have the right price. And I'll give you an example with China, right? In China, my colleagues have done an amazing job. They've opened some amazing hotels. We've got about 1,500 hotels in China. When the Chinese traveler comes to Europe and they've got one of our brands right next to their home or in their hometown and they are a Wyndham Rewards member, it is highly likely that they will stay with us because they feel convenient. They know the brand. They understand the standards. They are part of the loyalty club. So that's how the loyalty club complements the traveler, the travel choice. Data, data mining. I mean you guys know about data more than anybody, right? Yes. Everybody gets data. The question is what do you do with it? And this is how I think when you guys help us drive demand and more direct business. This is where we then take the data and make the most out of it. And this is again where I think AI is going to help us a lot because we piled all that data in the past and we didn't do anything with it. Now we know more about the customer than we did in the past. So yes, its price, its convenience, its location. The brand is complementing all that. The brand brings security. That brings safety. It brings comfort. It brings familiarity. All of that works together. A brand alone cannot do it. A location and price alone cannot do it. I think it's a combination of everything. To sum up, it's an experience that you actually, it's more familiarity. So, for example, if I go at the Dolce, right, the Dolce Hotel, which is part of our brand portfolio, I know what to expect. I know that my Wyndham team has ticked all the boxes, all the boxes on FLS. I'm sure that there's going to be all securities and safeties for my family check. I feel far more secure and safe when I book at this hotel than I would have booked in something that it might once be wonderful but I don't know if it has gone through an international checklist. That's what international brands bring and that's why we've grown so much around the world.

What we are underestimating. I think that we sometimes make the mistake to put people in boxes. Dimitris and his family travels this way. So let's talk to them this way. Actually they're wrong. I travel this way this week. Two weeks later me and my kids we go on a camping holiday. Three months later, I go on a business class with my wife on a nice romantic getaway in Barcelona. Now, if you put me in a box that I only travel this way, you miss this bit and you miss this bit. Great point. Travelers today change depending on circumstances. So, my daughter came to me the other day. She said to me, 'What do you know about solo travelers?' I said to my wife, 'She broke up with her boyfriend.' I bet you because why would she be asking me about solo travelers? And she did. And I said, 'Honey, did you break up with your boyfriend?' She said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Okay, okay, now I get it. Solo travelers.' Solo Travelers is now one of the fastest growing segmentation in the world. How can you put a box in what a solo traveler really wants? You know what they really want? They want safety and security when they travel and then everything else caps up to them. So we need to become smarter. We need, as I said, we need to become smarter and faster to adapt to what people are looking for. A lot of people say, 'Oh, everybody's looking for experiences.' I'll tell you what, we've got thousands of Days Inns across the United States of America. There's a blue worker who works in a data center in Minneapolis or in Ohio or in Arizona. What kind of experience do they want? They want check in fast, checkout. They want a decent bed. They want a great check in checkout experience. They want to put their business suit the next day or the hard hat on to go and work in a factory. So I think we're overdoing it with experiences. You know there's going to be 1.5 billion people traveling this year. You all think that they are going to stay in a luxury hotel or in a luxurious experience or whatever. No. There are people who travel for health reasons, people who travel for work, people who travel because they need to connect with their relatives in the next city. So I think we overdo it with experiences. Yes, still a check in experience at a Super 8 is important. But that guy is not looking for a lifestyle experience. He's looking for a great bed to go to bed, work, wake up the next day and go work in a data center that has been built in Arizona. So we need to understand all that. As with Wyndham what we do and what's the beauty of our 25 brands we cater in so many different segments. We cater on the economy, the midscale in India. We just announced our first Wyndham Grand. So we're getting into the more of a luxury space in India which I'm very fascinated about. And the other thing, Bano, I need to tell you, premium experience doesn't mean premium price. Sometimes you can deliver a premium experience without charging somebody a fortune. And that's something that we like to do at Wyndham. If you look at our Dolce brand, upper upscale, great brand, we provide great experience, but we don't charge a crazy price because we do believe in the democratization of travel. Travel needs to be possible for all. Yes, that is our motto at Wyndham and that's what we try to do, myself, my team, everybody who works for Wyndham around the world. We try to do it every day. Travel is a human right and it has to be made possible for us.

It is. It is. If you were doing the Magna Carta today, you would put travel as a human right. Because our industry connects the dots. It's the industry of peace. It's the industry that brings cultures together. If we would travel more, there would be less wars because we would understand each other more. So, I do believe that now can Wyndham change the world? No, that's not our motto. Our motto is to work very hard to make sure that travel is possible.

Yes. I think you can be a brand ambassador for a lot of the destination management companies. So I can see that passion and we need that guy. Yes. We need you as a passionate ambassador for India.

Look, our chief commercial officer, Scott Strickland, I just spoke to him a week ago. He's amazing. He always comes up with these innovative ideas, new stuff, the stuff that we're doing with you guys as well. Look, I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in two different ways though. AI, and be careful what you wish for, because AI is not the holy grail. It's not the answer to every prayer. AI is an enabler, it's a tool, but it cannot replicate brain and it cannot replicate experience. So what are we doing at Wyndham? We take the experiences that we have, we invest hundreds of millions of dollars with the experts. We invest with Google, with Salesforce, with Sabre. We invest with you guys. We invest with everybody who has a vested interest for technology to work and benefit the industry. Could we actually do it ourselves? Probably we could, but it's better to invest with the experts, right? Salesforce is actually using us as an example in so many different ways in terms of how we actually use some of their modules to make sure that we become better in data mining.

Data mining. So we've got all this data. How are we going to use it? Do we actually just pile data or do we mine the data to find out more about that customer the next time that they book with us? These are the kind of things that we are still in the, as I said, tip of the iceberg. But never forget, it's the first time in human history, I think, that you've got five generations in the workforce: 25 year olds, 35 year olds, 45, 55, and 65. How do you actually make technology to make sure that all these people work towards a common goal? It's the first time that you've got more 65 year olds in the workforce than before. Why? Because the more we become dependent on technology, the more we'll need people who have the experience and they understand what that technology can actually do for us. And that experience cannot be replaced by a bot. An artificial language can talk to you in so many different ways, but how can you actually interpret the data? That's why a combination of, and we've got some amazing guys in our team led by Scott, in making sure that they read the data in a way that can actually provide us and bring us the ROI that we need. But definitely, we're looking at the leaders of the industry. We work with the leaders of the industry and we make sure that we piggyback on the investments they make in order to become a better company and use technology for the benefit of the guests.

Use it less when you write an email. Be yourself because everybody will know that is an AI-generated email. Don't depend on AI to create your thoughts. Be yourself. Write your own strategy because I've seen so many strategic documents these days and I'm like, nah, that's not real. That's AI-generated or AI-driven. So, yes, use it because it gives you access to tools and data so quickly, but if you don't put yourself in it, people will see right through it. The more we depend on technology, the less authenticity will be important in our lives going forward. The glass generation, you know, the people who grew up with the glass, they will not know what it means to flip a book. No, because they've learned how to read on an iPad or on a Kindle. Learn how to flip a book. Learn how a book smells. But at the same time, use technology to your benefit. I think that's a combination.

Look at my two girls, right? I have two girls, 28, 26. They tend to speak to me on WhatsApp and I'm like, 'Girls, come on. There must be a better way for us to communicate.' No, but it's easier that way. I'm like, 'I'm your dad. Give me a break. I need a hug from time to time.' And a WhatsApp cannot do that. Yes, but we send you smileys and more hearts. So, no. Sometimes it works and it's easier, but nothing can replace a girl giving me a hug and telling me how much she loves me, even if I get two hearts and 10 smiles a day.

First of all, make it simple. Don't complicate things. The more you complicate things, the more people distance because they don't have enough time in a day to understand complicated moments. So, make it simple. Second, make it usable and make it relevant. I'll tell you what, I get about 10 to 15 emails a day from people who are volunteering to make my life better and easier. Why? Because everybody now is using AI or technology as a way to generate more business or to tell somebody that I have a tool that is going to change your life. Become relevant. Make it simple, make it digestible, make it workable, and make it friendly to the end user. The more complicated you make it, the more difficult the adoption will be. The more you put things that people cannot read through them, the more they will give up. When I went into that room a month ago and I couldn't work out the iPad to switch off the lights, I gave up and I just put a sleeping mask on and I slept through the night because at some point I gave up. Have you seen these iPads that you press light, close the curtains, open the curtains? It takes one thing to block and your whole room looks like daylight in the evening. So make it simple, don't complicate things, give the customer what they really want, not what you think they want.

But you're right. Look, today our Maria, my head of legal, was telling me the other day, she puts two documents together side by side and artificial intelligence in two minutes can actually give her results that it would need at least two or three days and a paralegal. This is the way that technology can actually help. But you still need that person to understand the logistics and the nature of that contract. So revenue management, distribution, energy consumption, food waste, technology is going to be a game changer.

Absolutely. And it's going to be a game changer. Game changer for all of us.

Yes. I think vulnerability of leadership. You know, when I grew up, my dad, who died a wise man at the age of 94, he used to tell me, 'Men do not cry and leaders are not vulnerable.' I think it was one of the things he was wrong about. Leaders today need to show vulnerability. You need to be humble and authentic. You know, in today's world, everybody can see through you, right? So you got to be authentic and you got to love people. The days of leadership where distance was important or hierarchy was important, I don't believe in that. I spend 240 days a year traveling and people ask me why I do this. Because you got to be with your team. You got to listen to your team. You got to be there with them.

Actually, she's very happy with it because I'm not around. You know, when I spent two months at COVID in the lockdown, she got crazy and said, 'When are you...' You know, what is the secret of a successful marriage? Distance. So, and I've been happily married for 30 years. So distance works. So yeah, humility, vulnerability, people can see right through you, listen more and just be relevant to their lives. We have one of the proudest moments that I had in 2025. The proudest moment, it wasn't the number of signings. It wasn't the new hotels. We did a survey internally at Wyndham. 92% of the EMEA team said they're proud to work for Wyndham. That was the proudest moment for 2025 for me. I can brag about the signings. I can brag about the new res, the new hotels, the expansion. That 92% was the biggest accomplishment of my team and myself in 2025.

I spent a lot of time with our interns, the young interns that we have. What is it that you want? How do you envision leadership today? What is the difference between what a 65 year old or a 55 year old wants from a 25 year old? You need to listen more and you need to be there. You need to be present in the room. So it's not easy though.

Yeah. So when we have a new recruit in our team, right? That person, let's say we employ a 45 year old guy and that guy has 20 years career, right? He takes this career, this 20 years, passes on them to you and says, 'Look, Dimitris, I just signed my employment contract. I've just given you 20 years of a great career. It's your responsibility, mate, to make sure that you do something really great with it.' That's a huge responsibility. People think or in the past we used to think, oh, we're doing them a favor by employment. No, they're giving you 20 years of their career. They're placing it on your hands and say your leadership, your style, your decisions will influence those 20 years. So that's a huge responsibility. So never underestimate it. You have a responsibility for the young kid that is his first or her first job after the 50 year old who gave you 30 years of a career said you make sure that you do something really great with it because I just trusted and I joined your company. So that's a very novel respect. You can be distant, you can be what? No, you have a responsibility for these people who handed over their careers to you to make sure that you make the most of it.

Look, hospitality is the basis. Technology, as we said, is an enabler. People think because they can work out an iPad or they are masters on, I don't know, AutoCAD or whatever, they can design a hotel. No, technology can help, but can it replace everything that we stand for as hospitality employees or leaders? No way. No. I'll give you an example. I have a friend in Greece who is a very well-known actor and he keeps on telling me how difficult his job is. I said, 'Oh, explain to me why.' He said, 'I stand three months a year, four months a year. I stand in front of an audience. I need to read my part. I always need to be positive. Give them energy. Make them understand what my play is all about.' That's a bloody difficult job, Dimitris. I said, 'Okay, interesting. Have you ever been a receptionist in a hotel?' He says, 'No.' I said, 'Okay, let me compare.' 340 days a year, that person comes into a room, sits behind a desk, no matter what happens in his or her life, smiles, welcomes, and makes people feel comfortable, safe, and welcome for 340 days a year, no matter what happens back at home. Ill kid, fight with her husband or partner, I don't know, how she was going into work in the morning. I said, 'How easy is that or how difficult is that?' He said, 'Wow, I never thought about that.' Can you imagine how technology can help that person do a better job and that smile can stay on that face for eight hours? Think about it. Eight hours a day. Hey, they smile and they welcome 30, 40 people a day and they do that for 340 days a year. Now you tell me that this is not a hero in hospitality. Now you tell me how shouldn't we help that person offload some of that weight by using technology and make that person's life better. That's what is my commitment to the younger professionals, that that smile can stay on your face if you're a receptionist in one of our Wyndhams or one of our Ramadas, and we give you the tools to become a better person and a better professional. That's how I use technology and that's what I said, young professionals, our commitment as Wyndham is to make their lives much easier in that very difficult job and very difficult environment.

A lot of different things. Of course, everybody, I mean, we are a Wall Street listed company. Everybody talks about global dominance, you know, more rooms, more destinations. I think awareness of our brands in new markets. We became publicly listed about eight years ago. We were predominantly a North America company but now we're a truly global company. So I think one of the things in the next five years, the future of Wyndham is to expand globally. If you look at what my colleague and my good friend Gustavo is doing in Latin America, what Junan is doing in APAC, it's an amazing story. I mean, if you look at our China story is amazing, what is happening in Southeast Asia, what Gustavo is doing in Mexico, in Brazil, in Argentina is just an amazing story. What we are doing in EMEA expanding. So the next 5 years for Wyndham is becoming more and more of a global company. We're all going to do what everybody else does. Technology, AI, data mining, loyalty programs. Yes, everybody's going to talk about the same things. For us, it's becoming more and more of a global company. We've got some interesting scales that we want to get into, up and upscale and luxury. That wasn't something that was in our narrative but we're getting more and more in that space now. I mean, if you look at my region, we open more and more upper upscale hotels than economy or midscale.

750. If you look at Junan, what you know, some of the hotels that he's opening in China, wow, there are some amazing hotels. So we're gradually moving in that up and upscale, while at the same time being honest to our DNA, great economy hotels, great midscale, but looking at the up and upscale and the luxury and playing into that space. So that's how I see the future of Wyndham and exploring destinations. You know, as I said, 5 years ago we didn't have a presence in the CIS, now we are among the leading companies there.

First of all, nobody works. We don't like to discuss geopolitical realities. Geopolitical, look, leaders today in hospitality can deal, I believe, with most things and I know that I'm exaggerating, but who, how many believe that we're going to come alive after COVID? Think March 5 years ago, March 2020, we closed all our hotels, all of us. We stuck in our rooms and we said, 'That's it. That's it. Empty cities, airports parked in deserts, closed hotels.' We never thought we're going to come out of it alive. Leaders, and there are some great leaders that we saw today. My CEO Mark from Hyatt, Chris Nassetta, Tony Capuano, all these great leaders. They took us through some of the darkest hours of hospitality. I don't think these leaders are not capable of managing everything. I mean, probably I'm exaggerating. Of course, we got weaknesses and not everybody can manage everything, but geopolitical challenges and curve balls are the ones that are going to be the most difficult to manage. Example, we wake up one day and look what happened in Mexico. Suddenly we had hundreds of airlines canceling flights to Mexico because we had the recent unrest of what happened in Mexico. How do you deal with that? We had the Ukraine-Russia war. That is something that if you put a scale, how do you deal with that? Control the controllables. So I think that we have a resilient industry. We have resilient leaders. We have leaders who have been tested through the test of time and through difficult circumstances and I think those leaders, and we have continuity. Look how many of the leaders of the global companies have been there more than seven, eight years. Most of them. Very unlike Fortune 500 CEOs. So we have continuity, we have leadership, we have resilience, but yes, there are things that we won't be able to manage. So I guess those leaders, and I've seen some of them in action, they focus on the controllables and they make sure that they build great teams that can carry them forward. It doesn't take one leader to make a difference. You need to build the team in order to make sure that you survive or you thrive the next day. The other thing that we don't want to talk about is we always talk about the positive side of technology. What is the negative side of technology? How could technology negatively impact hospitality? That is something that we need to make sure that we are fully aware as well. So we make sure that we only deploy the right strategies instead of actually following the wrong advice. So and people like yourselves, you know, when we sit in those conferences and we listen to how technology can actually help us, yes, it can be an enabler, but it can be a challenge as well. So yeah, hopefully we're not going to have a lot of things that we don't want to talk about, and we're going to focus on the things that we do want to talk about.

Oh wow. In my life?

I think there are two moments. When my wife said yes to my ninth effort to propose for her to marry me, because without... so I tried nine times and she only said yes on the ninth time. So thank you, honey, for not believing.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And I think the most decisive moment for me was when I decided that hospitality is going to be the career that I'm going to follow instead of following what I did study, which was business studies. And if I would ever be given the chance to come back and live another life, I would also choose exactly the same. I would make a couple of changes but I would choose to do exactly the same because I am absolutely blessed. And look, as I told you, I'm at the end of my journey, right, being 62 years old.

Yeah. But I don't know what lies ahead. But I had incredible journeys. I met incredible people and I've been to incredible places. So yes, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of family sacrifices, a lot of lost birthdays, wedding anniversaries, but being very selfish with myself. Man, my god. What a journey. What a journey it has been. It is. And I guess according to God's wishes, it will continue to be. But what a journey it has been.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I'm not a lawyer or a doctor to give people advice. I made a lot of huge mistakes in my life. You know what? That's the only way you learn. And I thank all my team and all our clients and our owners for giving me the opportunity to be myself because sometimes you don't get that opportunity. So, thank you for your tolerance and your patience and thank you to all of you for your help. Thank you. Thank you.