[00:00:00] Welcome back, friends, to our podcast, Unlocking Your World of Creativity. We're the podcast that explores the journeys and insights of creative minds, creative practitioners all over the world. And today we're stamping our creative passport in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we're diving into the world of hospitality, experience management, creative marketing.

My guest is Shannon Pearson. Shannon, welcome to the

show. Hi, Mark. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure to be

here. She has a wealth of experience in entertainment and arts. And now she's focused on creating the Carolina Experience. It's a unique short term rental accommodation service.

And Shannon, I'm sure there's a plus to that short term rental accommodations. I'd love to start with your career background and focus on hospitality. What appeals about hospitality to you?

To me, who's just hospitality obsessed. It's so fun to hear someone describe it that way. [00:01:00] Growing up, I always, I, gosh, I knew I loved the arts and I knew I loved marketing and music and creativity and entertainment. And it took me to like, I was applying for master's

degree programs and the University of Miami reached out to me and they said, we know you applied to our music management program, but we really think you would be a fit for a new program that we're doing. And it was called arts presenting and live entertainment management. So that's a mouthful. Did

they get all that on the diploma?

I know I was nervous. But it was incredible. They admitted five of us the first year. The gentleman who led the program was just an amazing wealth of knowledge. He had worked for years in the industry, and it really opened my eyes up to how much there is to do in hospitality and that it doesn't just have to be this very Linear idea of arts and entertainment, but that there's just so much there and totally made me fall in love with the space and the ideas and what could be done.

And from there, I've just I cannot veer. And I've been able to just [00:02:00] be a part of so many wonderful aspects. I've worked in the live music portion. I've worked in retail. I worked for Neiman Marcus for a bit and their experiences department. And right now working more in the real estate and luxury stay and experience.

side of things. But to me it's about the people. And to me, it's about creating memories and experiences and doing that with kindness, driving that with just a warmth and an understanding that sometimes this will be someone's best moment of the week or year or day or maybe not. And that's okay.

It's just about making someone happy in the moment. And that is my singular focus. So it's been a really fun ride to experience. A lot of aspects of this industry, but really fun. The Carolina experience I'm with now is a startup. And so that's been just a. Really fun rollercoaster to be a part of.

Yeah. Really in

addition to that experience rainbow, arc of your career I am curious the word [00:03:00] hospitality, you really defined it nicely with that kind of warmth and welcoming and, guest experience, but it has this kind of be our guest. Hospitality thing, but as somebody who studied it, what did you find?

Is the science behind it? Are there real steps or ingredients that you say if you want to create a great guest experience? What are those ingredients?

Yes, there's so much science behind it. It's really fascinating, honestly. And specifically in the company that I'm with now, it's been so wonderful to build some of these boutique hotels from the ground up because I get to have a hand in all of those things and it all matters.

Colors of the wall matter. And the smell in the room is huge. Sounds and not just that type of bedding, but the material that it's made from and the story behind it all matters very much. I'm extremely passionate about sustainable travel, sustainable experience. And that's something that [00:04:00] has become.

Part of the forefront of what I've created that the Carolina experience from an experience standpoint, not to overuse that word. I

don't think we can overuse it. It's wonderful. And I think to, and again, as I introduced you, I realized that just calling it a short term rental, accommodation, obviously there's a big name that we think of when we think of that offering, but, by adding this idea of you're not just renting the place.

You're not just going on a vacation or a weekend, but we're going to try to create something more. What are you doing beyond that traditional sort of transaction of a room rental?

We're trying to make sure that whether you're staying in one of our spaces for work or play or adventure or vacation with your family with, a solo getaway, we want to make sure that there is a little bit more to offer.

Even if you are with us for work, potentially, we want to create experiences to make it the [00:05:00] most enjoyable version of what that can be. Yeah, and not that. Everyone doesn't love their work or isn't very happy while they're working remotely, but we are in the process of, and in some of our properties have actively launched experiences to go along with your stay.

And so maybe that means having a masseuse come to your room, and maybe that means at the end of the day, we coordinate with 1 of the local wineries in 1 of the communities where our properties are to Give you a small tasting quick in the evening and some light bites for dinner. Whatever that looks like for you, depending on what your travel needs and wants are we want to, we really want to cater to those things and make sure that every moment of your stay with us can really be enjoyable and be as much as you want it to be.

Yes.

And certainly it's a business that lives on reviews and feedback. Can you measure, what's the proof that somebody can say, I'm really getting a different kind of experience. I'm not just getting the room or the house. [00:06:00] I'm getting the Carolina experience. How do you measure that?

I tell my team almost on a daily basis that for me, interactions start when someone finds us on the internet, or potentially sees a post of ours on Instagram, or That the experience for the guest has to be in every single step from start to finish.

And we have to be speaking in the tone of the brand. And I will again overuse the word kindness because for me that's what it's all about. I want a guest or a potential guest or even someone that's just checking out our brand and that's okay to really feel welcome, warm, engaged, that they matter, that we deeply care whether or not they'll be with us for a day, an afternoon or 2 weeks.

We offer everything from short term to very long term stays. We've had folks stay in our units for a year and more and that's so wonderful. And to me, that's some of the best feedback we can receive is folks coming to us and saying, hey, I have to be in the area for an extended period of [00:07:00] time. I would like to stay at.

At your venue. And that's, oh my gosh, that makes me the happiest I could possibly be because that means we have created somewhere that if it can't be home, it feels close, at least close enough that someone would be willing to spend their time in kind of the space that we've worked so hard to curate and create.

Yes. And we've really seen that evolution of this industry, haven't we? It's gone from maybe a weekend getaway or a short term vacation to this kind of almost temporary housing and certainly a digital nomad kind of thinking that says, Hey, I'm traveling for work. And what that really means is I'm not going to be home for a while.

How has that. Implied changes to that experience that if somebody is working from these locations.

We put a lot of thoughts specifically in our planning stages. Our acquisitions department spends a lot of time kind of finding our spaces and we do brand new builds and we also do adaptive reuse and [00:08:00] revitalization of historic buildings.

So we have a lot in our portfolio. But in the planning, not only from the construction standpoint, but also from the FF and E and design and furniture curation. Those are always at Those things are always at the forefront of our thinking is this unit has to be comfortable for someone who may need to work an 8 hour day or may not and may just want to enjoy and relax and have the space to do so and it should be comfortable for a solo traveler and it should also be comfortable for a family who wants to bring a young child or potentially, Teenager or whoever they're with.

So those things are all just really the details of that are so important to us. And again, when speaking about details, it's the small thoughts. It's making sure their sound machines in the bedroom. So that someone who needs to get up early if their folks want to be out in the living room space and they need to go to bed we make sure that's there for them having chargers.

Preplugged in next to the bed for our guests. And another set of charters out in the living room and just going down that [00:09:00] rabbit hole of what will create the most comfortable and easy to use and enjoy atmosphere because we don't want folks to have to think about it too hard. We want them to just say, I'm here and I'm doing whatever I'm doing.

And I'm enjoying the space in place as much as possible. Of course. And and the rest. Thank you. Leave up to us.

Yes. And I think about the other considerations that people might have in selecting these kind of accommodations for example, the accessibility, for disabilities, or what kind of sustainable.

Construction or materials or, furnishings all the way to you were describing a little bit of technology, is the home truly wired to be productive, right? What sort of things factor in those features. Absolutely.

One of our big, one of the big fun parts of our company is that we're completely digital access in all of our buildings, except for one.

We do have a [00:10:00] B and B, a classic B and B, and there's a innkeeper there that will make you a breakfast that will knock your socks off. So we don't want to change that. But in the rest of our buildings, they're all digital access. So we set the code to the last 4 digits of your phone number once An hour before your check in arrives and so again, when you're talking about that seamless experience where if you are traveling for work and you're very busy and you're running around and you just get to your front door and it's that's it.

You don't have to go to a front desk. You don't have to wait in line or some folks who may not want to have that extra conversation and may not want to have to. Put on a happy face for a minute, get to sail right into their accommodations and not have to worry about it. And then you mentioned, which is so important for us is accessibility for all of our guests that no one would have to think twice about if I have, if I require special accommodations, will that be available?

Absolutely. That's paramount for us is and then down to. Where what's the part? What does parking look like? And what are, access points? And of course, obviously, there are units in all of our buildings, but beyond that [00:11:00] folks that maybe just aren't comfortable with stairs or uncomfortable with having to walk a long way to the front door.

All of that goes so deeply into our thinking. And when I say that my title is chief experience officer, I take that really seriously. And to me, it's every project that we do and the projects that we continue to operate. That's. That's what I wake up thinking about is if I'm a guest and I booked for the first time how, how easy was this for me?

How enjoyable was it for me? I don't know if you always think about entering a hotel, whether or not that's enjoyable, but it should be, I think it should be

the other way. So we know what it could look like,

right? And I think that's incredibly important. And I want you to be able to come in and not break that sweat or feel super stressed or be bickering with your traveling companion, because no one knows how.

How to, get in or get situated and get comfortable. Yeah, that's so all of those details to me are everyone is more important than the next

honestly. I love that. Shannon, how do we connect with the Carolina experience and find out more about what you're working on?

Yes. We have a brand new website.

There was a [00:12:00] website in play for the past few years and a labor of love for the past year. I've created and worked with a wonderful company to I'm not a coder. So let me not say it that way. But from a visual and design standpoint, we're really in love with our website. So you can book direct any of our properties through our website, which is just the Carolina experience dot com.

We also are an Instagram and Facebook. I really love. In the topic of creativity, the digital media aspect of all of this. I that's my favorite part. That's a joy for me is the content creation side of things. So please connect with us on Instagram at the Carolina experience and that'll be me direct.

A DM goes right to me. I love to connect with people. So

now we know you face to face here. Yes. Yes. Let's turn the page a little bit to the creativity and I guess that. side of things. And people would look at this just like they would maybe music management or event management and say, wow, what a lot of fun.

It looks so easy. You make it look easy. There's certainly no challenges, right? [00:13:00] Yeah. So I guess that's what I wanted to explore a little bit. As we look at delivering experiences, you are going to hit obstacles every now and then there will be potholes in the road and they could be yes, self inflicted, there's Something not working, there's something down, or somebody's having a bad day and you really have to overcome that.

When you have faced these kind of challenges as a creative hospitality professional what's your approach? I

think that's where, honestly, creativity comes into my day most, honestly is in the instance where guest recovery is necessary. And often it is and right. It could absolutely be a fault of ours.

And there is everyday maintenance issues. And things can go wrong from A to Z. And we work really hard for those things not to go wrong, but they do. And, It is so important that when they do that, we handle every situation case by case and that every person gets really a personalized conversation [00:14:00] and experience and solution to their problem.

And to me, it's really important to never be plug and play that. Oh, the air conditioning was out for an hour. And you just get this discount code or that's. That doesn't work for me. And it doesn't work for my team. And so my team knows that if anything happens to a guest that makes their stay less than exemplary, or if they write, if they're not having a great day and they're just frustrated and it doesn't feel right to them, that's okay.

And we want to talk about that. And we want to talk about what makes sense for that guest to make them feel better. And sometimes that's having my property manager swing by with a bottle of wine. And sometimes that's. Offering to extend the stay by one night because maybe the person just didn't get to enjoy the room the way they should have the first two days.

And so let's make that a third or maybe that's a return visit. Potentially it's experiencing one of our other properties. And so that it really is one of my favorite parts. It's not my favorite part that someone would require recovery or a fixing of a problem, but I love having the opportunity to.[00:15:00]

make something better. And it's something that we take so seriously to make each person's experience the best. And when it isn't, how do we even make that better? How do we take that opportunity and turn it into a positive?

And you went by it really fast, but my antenna went up when you use that term guest recovery.

And I'm sure in the business, everyone says, Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Tell us more about why it's called recovery.

Because to me, the loss of a guest in the sense that they would never, that they would have an experience that would make them not want to return is literally heartbreaking to me.

And that has zero to do with financial things. It's and I don't know if that sounds believable or not, but that does not bother me. But the thought that someone would walk away from an experience that I put my heart and soul into creating and say, gosh, it wasn't good. I. It doesn't sit with me. I can't handle it.

And to me, [00:16:00] guest recovery is right. Recovering a situation literally where we're coming in and saying, gosh, something went wrong and the guest was made aware of it. And so that's completely unacceptable. And so how do we make this situation better? How do we recover? So that all I care about is that the guest would leave and say, and maybe they'll never have the opportunity to or want to, but that yeah.

They would say in their mind, gosh, that's a place I would like to stay again. And if something did go wrong, it was handled appropriately and warmly. And it made me feel seen and heard and important because everyone is, every single person that stays in any of our properties is the most important guests we've ever had.

Yes.

And I wondered if we could extend that term and that idea, certainly in hospitality. You didn't have a good meal. What can we do? You didn't have a good stay. What can we even to shopping experiences? But what if you say I didn't like the movie? I didn't like the movie theater. I didn't like the concert.

I didn't like the artist. Every now and then I notice I'm [00:17:00] getting, we'd like your feedback from Ticketmaster. How was the show? Or even from the arena. How was the arena experience? And I guess I never thought about this idea of if you've got something to say we'd like to hear it because it wasn't always that way.

It's so important. Feedback is so important because I can be in my own little loop and say, oh, my goodness. I know this property in and out. I know this unit in and out and I've gone over it with a fine tooth comb and I've stayed there and I've experienced it. And I know it's perfect. And then I'll see feedback from a guest that says, gosh.

I could really, I really could have used an extra shelf when I was there because I really didn't have anywhere to put my towel and it made my experience less comfortable that could have been and it'll blow. It'll blow me over. Sometimes I think, oh, my gosh, I never would have thought of that. And It's brilliant.

It's genius. It's makes everything so much better. And so I live for feedback from guests because a lot of guests are going to be a lot more creative than I am. And they're going to think of solutions that I [00:18:00] never would have thought of in a million years. And so when I get an email that says, Hey, wanted to, just want to had a great stay, but wanted to give you some feedback.

I'm like, yes, this is awesome because you, the more perspectives, the better, honestly.

Well, Shannon, as we look ahead the future of your own company, the Carolina Experience but this landscape of this industry all, taken together what do you see coming? What do you see as either new experiences?

Yes. But even the new trends of what travelers and what people looking for places to stay might be expecting.

I think that it's going to be a back to basics. I think that folks are wanting to get back to more of a boutique experience, more of a personalized experience more of a personalized connection that we're not.

And look, I think that there is going to be so much technology growth in this industry in the next, in the future that we won't know what hit us. I think this time next year, there could probably be things that, I [00:19:00] can't even anticipate. But I. I personally think and plan to continue to push forward the idea that no matter how much technology there is to make a stay or an experience or hospitality, engagement better that it will never stop being important to personalize.

This day and to have direct human interaction and someone caring about your experience and someone and it's not just, an AI chat bot saying, Hey, hope it was a great time that there's a, I have a property manager at one of my properties named Olivia and she is the embodiment of hospitality.

She just, she cares. She cares so deeply and. I hope there's always an Olivia. I hope there's always an Olivia saying, Hi, Mrs. Smith. I'm here. If you need anything, I want to engage and I want to help. And maybe there's some really great tools already in the unit or a part of your stay, but that we don't lose that.

Because to me, that's really just the [00:20:00] genuine base of hospitality. Yes.

And I've loved all these terms. We've used hospitality and guests, and I want to go back to an early word that you said, and that is. Kindness. It is a key ingredient in all of these things, isn't it? And I would have to say giving and taking.

It's great that you would give, but it would be nice if more of us guests would also express some kindness to the people serving us. That's my bully pulpit for today.

We appreciate that. I have to say too, that my team knows that. Kindness is the number one on our list. So we have a list of important things and we go over and every team meeting and kindness is the number one and we talk about a lot.

Something that you mentioned that folks might be having a bad day and that might not be our fault, but it doesn't. It doesn't matter. We're interacting with that person and we could change that bad day. We could be the reason that bad day turns around and maybe we won't be. But we'd sure like to try and [00:21:00] even if that's just having a conversation or acknowledging, or maybe we give an upgrade because we can and the person seems like they're having a bad day.

And, they could use a little sprinkle of kind of fairy dust from the Carolina experience. We're going to do that. Because that, that matters to me. And I've worked for companies before in the past that were wonderful companies, but. But didn't prioritize being kind to people. And I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I'll never put my time into a company again, that doesn't make people and how we treat people.

The most important thing. And so it's part of why I've been so happy and found a home at the Carolina experience because everyone from my housekeeping team up to the C suite team, that's. What they care about most, and they'll hear me be on my soapbox about it all day, but they they're with me on the journey.

Yeah it's good to have those kind of collaborators on your journey and supporting you personally as a creative hospitality probe. Absolutely. Shannon, I cannot thank you enough. It's been a fantastic [00:22:00] conversation, and I'm quite encouraged that the short term rental, it sounds so clinical when we call it these markets.

But you've really added it. That fingerprint of kindness and hospitality to it. I really appreciate your conversation with me today.

This was wonderful. Thank you so much, Mark. I really enjoyed the time and I've been loving listening to the podcast. I drive to all of our properties across the state and have gotten locked in on some of your wonderful conversations.

So thank

you. Oh, I appreciate that. And listeners, if if you're hooked as well, maybe you can subscribe and leave us a review on our podcast. But most of all, like we've said today with Shannon we explore creativity into what could be measured and what could be proved. Yes. But what are these intangibles?

So think about your own creative explorations and how can you add a dose of more hospitality, more guest service, more kindness, even that we've talked about today. But most of all, stay curious. Keep exploring all those limitless possibilities of your creativity. [00:23:00] That's what the podcast is all about. So until next time, I'm Mark Stinson, and we'll keep unlocking your world of creativity.