The Motel that Never Sleeps: Inside John Hildebrand’s Always-On Operation

Dan Bova (0:00)

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What's the big advice you give to people who want to get into the hospitality and specifically the lodging industry?

John Hildebrand (1:26)

I mean, if you want to do it out there, what we just talked about, then yeah, go.

Dan Bova (1:37)

Hey everyone, welcome to a special episode of How Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor at entrepreneur.com.

A lot of guests on this show talk about the importance of unplugging and taking a break. But what if the business you run has no off switch? Like say, running an independent motel, from booking systems and security to I need more towels, motels never close. And here to talk about running a 24-7 business is John Hildebrand, travel lodging expert and owner of the Billy Motel in West Virginia, and the founder of Hilda Homes. Welcome, John.

John Hildebrand (2:23)

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Nice to chat with you this morning. I'm excited.

Dan Bova (2:27)

Yeah, excellent. And just to give everyone a peek behind the curtain, in keeping with the theme of our show, John says a refrigerator might get delivered in the middle of this chat. So I'm kind of hoping it does at this point. I'd like to see that.

John Hildebrand (2:45)

Man, I know. What are the odds of that? I'm like, okay, the refrigerator broke last night. Now we got to jump on and get it fixed.

Yeah, it is what it is.

Dan Bova (2:53)

It is what it is. So let me start by saying, my wife and I have been rewatching Schitt's Creek. And the more I watch it, the more I kind of want to live in a motel for the rest of my life.

So what drew you to this industry, the travel lodge industry and owning an independent motel?

John Hildebrand (3:15)

Man, to be honest, I didn't think I would ever be in this space of hospitality because it is 24-7 and so tricky. But my background was photography and marketing. And I was just rounding people all the time and traveling all the time and staying in hotels or short-term rentals or whatever. And to be honest, photography became pretty difficult with the digital space and whatnot. And one thing led to another. And I was like, I do enjoy being independent. I like being my own boss.

And I was traveling. I turned my house that I was living in to a short-term rental because it was just sitting there empty when I would travel. And that's what snowballed everything from that point on. I was like, oh, wait a minute. I can make money by just renting my house out and go snowboarding for the weekend. I'm like, this is pretty cool.

Dan Bova (4:05)

Yeah, that's that's fantastic. And it's a thing that people like you take advantage of. And people like me are like too stupid to take advantage of. So it's it's pretty cool. So running a motel, a lot of work, I'd imagine I've never run one.

But you said that you think that the success comes down to connectivity. So what was a moment that you realized, you know, Wi-Fi and systems updates were just as critical as giving people clean sheets?

John Hildebrand (4:41)

Times have changed, for sure. I learned this really, really quickly. When I first started short-term rentals, Wi-Fi used to be at the top of this little highlight button where it's like, we have Wi-Fi. It was like this huge thing.

Now it's mandatory. You can't even have Wi-Fi. You have to have the fastest internet you can possibly get your hands on and pay the money. So I was lucky enough to learn that really early. And I was always like, how can I make the guest experience better, especially nowadays with people traveling, work from home, they're staying longer, they're on their computer 24-7 and their phones, they're connecting with family, businesses, whatever it is. So having strong connection was at the top of the list of priorities. So once I started understanding what the guest avatar was a little bit more, it was like, okay, we have to get the fastest, most reliable internet. That's a step one possible, just as much as I would be like, hey, we need the best mattress and sheets as possible. It's kind of goes hand in hand.