Check out the latest TMG Hospitality Trailblazers episode featuring the Founder of Aligned Hospitality, Bryan Tubaugh!
Bryan joins the podcast to discuss founding Aligned Hospitality, the meaning behind the brand, technology in hospitality, improving the guest experience, and much more.
Tune in now.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, with another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. This episode we head west to bring in my next guest from Aligned Hospitality, Brian Tubaugh, founder, and CEO. Thank you so much, Brian, for being on the Suite Spot.
Bryan Tubaugh:
Hey, Brian, I appreciate it and glad to be here.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, exciting. We're gonna talk all about Aligned Hospitality. Talk about the journey where you guys are, you guys have seen some explosive growth, which we're gonna talk about, but first, since it's your first time, love to get people's background stories journey. What ultimately led you to Aligned Hospitality, but founding Aligned Hospitality as well. Yeah, absolutely. I'm one of the I guess, rare breeds. I grew up in the industry. Both my parents, were both general managers. Both of them started in the hospitality industry, line level, housekeepers, bellman, and then, you know, the typical hospitality love story fell in love, one became a front office manager. The other became a GM. Then they started traveling and they had me. So, yeah, so both my parents were in the industry. I, to be honest with you, it's all I've known. It's, you know, all I choose to know. Anytime I try to take away or get away from the industry, it brought me back. So yeah, so I was born into it. And then my business partner, Helinda, my mother, she raised me, my parents divorced. She raised me in Tucson, Arizona, where, you know, our headquarters is still at Tucson and Phoenix. And so, yeah, so we just I grew up in the industry. I started off in operations with Hilton. Went that route, started in housekeeping at 14. We won't tell people that though. So I was a houseman summer job. It was an exterior corridor hotel. So I got to feel that $120 heat. And, yeah, I mean, quickly worked my way up to the front desk. And you know, I may have had some back push on that help as my mom was the general manager at the property. And then the fun part of the whole story, the twist was when I was 18, I had an HR director at the DoubleTree that I was working at. It was a full service, DoubleTree. And the HR director called me into his office. I'll never forget him, love him to death, Eduardo. And he said, Hey, Brian, do you like this industry? I said, well, yeah. I mean, is there anything else in the world? And he said, well, if you like it and you love it, you need to leave Hilton. And I was like, whoa, did I do something wrong? I mean, I, I love Hilton. I'm at a double tree. This is what I've known. I eat a cookie a day. Like, you know, what, why? And, you know, and he kind of looked at me and he said, listen, because of who your parents are, you're never gonna be able to progress in your career. And you're never gonna be able to take that next step because everybody will know you as Rick and Helenda's son. And if you truly want to make your own staple in this industry, then you need to, you need to, you need to move on. And, I tell that story too, and I'll tell you where that leads, but I tell that story because I do think that's a gap nowadays in our industry, is that that mentorship, that line level to that middle management to management, right? We go rockstar front desk. You're now a general manager. Figure it out. So anyway, so he shipped me out. I found Starwood at that point. The four Points by Sheraton. I became an SRSA, I don't know if you remember that position. Sales Reporting Systems analyst.
