103 – TMG Hospitality Trailblazers: Pete Sams

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

Travel Media Group’s Hospitality Trailblazers podcast series is going full speed ahead! Marketing Director and Host of the Suite Spot Ryan Embree sits down with a very special guest, Chief Operating Officer of Davidson Hospitality Group, Pete Sams! In this episode, Pete really gives a breath of fresh air to the hospitality industry and provides a behind-the-curtains look at everything going on at Davidson Hospitality Group and what these initiatives mean for their business partners and guests. Suite Spot Podcast · 103 - Hospitality Trailblazers: Pete Sams Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. 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, and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot podcast. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. Got a great episode continuing our Hospitality Trailblazers series. This is the second episode of this series. For those listeners that might not know what this is, we are highlighting and showcasing some of the industry's best and brightest and people and the groups that we're gonna talk about today that are pushing our industry forward. Right? We did a similar series last year where we talked about some of those hospitality heroes, those going above and beyond during the pandemic. Now, as we have a little bit better news and outlook on the future for our industry, we're bringing some of those key members. And with me today, I've got a great guest. He's Chief Operating Officer at Davidson Hospitality Group, Pete Sams. Pete, this is your first time to the Suite Spot. Welcome in. Pete Sams: Yes. Yes. It's comfortable. Thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: Awesome. Well, let's jump right into it. And it's the first question. Sometimes my favorite, especially with our new guests, you know, we're such in a unique industry where people's stories, you know, really can come from anywhere, right? With hospitality backgrounds. So give us a little bit about your journey and how you ended up here at Davidson Hospitality Group. Pete Sams: Well, first and foremost, again, great to spend time with you, Ryan, and thanks for including me with such esteemed company. I don't know if Trailblazer is code for vintage or nice way of saying old, but, apparently, as you could see by the white in my beard, I've been around a little while. It's been an amazing journey to be sincere with you, Ryan. I wake up sometimes and just wonder how, how it all came together. But to give you a little bit of color on, on my background, my history, I've surpassed quarter century in the space, probably a little closer to almost 30 years at this point, which is, again, hard to fathom. Like many of my colleagues in our industry, I did not initially anticipate working in, in the hospitality space full-time. And, and as a career, my first role in hotels was I'd gone into the military out of school, served in the, in the US Army overseas, did a tour, drove an M1A1 tank, which I always say prepared me well for a life and hospitality, but getting aside, it's, you know, a spirit to serve. And I do believe in servant leadership and putting others above yourselves, being part of amazing teams. And I think it translates in, in a lot of ways. So, when I exited the military, I had gotten the GI Bill College Fund monies to put myself through school, and I was working as a server waiting tables. I was waiting tables as I was finishing my degree in finance at Corpus Christi, Texas. The first leg of my, my career kind of goes in thirds, first 10 years of my career were in the finance discipline. I got my degree in finance. And while I was finishing school, I actually became a part of the Leader in Development program ...