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I want to thank the roughly 300 people who attended my roundtable discussions in the 20 or so communities I visited this spring.
I've been seeking feedback on key issues that are facing the industry:
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Local government affairs
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Skyrocketing insurance rates and availability
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Class-action lawsuits
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The state of the industry
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Ideas on how we can repair our broken business models
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A potential partnership with restaurantowner.com
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The impact of federal policies on tourism here in Washington
The feedback was wonderful and rich, and I can't express my appreciation enough. This will help us develop our strategies and our priorities in the coming years.
The biggest areas that we really learned about were the state of the industry and what to do with local government affairs.
State of the Industry
More than 90% of roundtable attendees agreed with the state of the industry presentation that we laid out. These are tough times, and the industry model is broken. We have to reinvent the way we do business or face a future with fewer hospitality businesses across Washington state.
That presentation was given with the optimism that we could find change and through a combination of new policies, ideas and technology, help create a new model.
The uniformity of agreement I heard about the state of the industry was telling. But so was the reality that not everyone in the industry is going through the same thing.
Vancouver seems to be doing better than much of the rest of the state, benefiting from the demise of Portland’s hospitality climate and a phenomenal re-imagination of the city on the northern side of the river.
Businesses that have managed to reduce server-related costs by adopting hybrid counter-service models or other alternatives appear to experience less stress compared to those sticking with traditional full-service setups. Meanwhile, all full-service establishments are actively discussing the future of tipping models.
National branded quick-service franchisees talked a lot about how we can educate national franchisors about the different realities in Washington, Oregon and California compared to the other 47 states and the need for more flexibility and technology. Meanwhile local counter service owners were seeking technology ideas to lower labor costs at the counter.
Lodging members were interested in all the above but were also consistently concerned about a lagging average daily rate.
It was interesting that all three elements of the industry—quick-service, full service and lodging—seem to be united in their sense that these are difficult times.
Local Government Affairs
On the local government affairs side, we are seeing more and more cities adopt their own minimum wage and restrictive labor laws, but hiring lobbyists outside of Seattle and Spokane and waging individual campaigns against these efforts becomes cost prohibitive. How should the association tackle local government affairs?
There was healthy disagreement and concern and ideas on how we might approach this. But the differences could be summed up in five groups.
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Many folks wanted local lobbyists in their community defending them against bad labor policies and were supportive of additional fees on their dues to cover the costs.
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Others strongly didn’t want to see the costs of the association increase any more than they are today and were okay in risking that their community would not follow the other seven cities to date that have started down the local labor law path.
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Still others were willing to pay higher dues but thought that we need to get away from lobbying and shift towards grassroots and social media education of the public about our industry.
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An emerging group felt that local issues should be left to local organizations like chambers, and the state association should stay focused on state issues. We could go broke trying to lobby 30 to 40 cities around the state. Maybe there could be support of the local chambers on messaging and legal efforts.
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And still another, although the smallest percentage of the five, felt the association needed to get out of the way of local issues and let Darwinian evolution play out. Cities that adopt such policies should feel the devastating economic results of doing so to their city budgets, city economy and community. By stepping back completely, we’ll eventually see economically intelligent cities rewarded for smart policies, and the situation would fix itself, albeit with martyrs of existing operations in the devastated cities.
We took all of this healthy and engaged feedback and presented it to our board this past month.
They had an equally heavy debate.
With everyone’s engagement and feedback, the board selected a new direction for local government affairs. And in next month's CEO Newsletter, we'll talk about that new direction.
We will also take the input on liability insurance, the threat of class action lawsuits, the impact of new federal policies, and restaurantowner.com and share that with our GA and Business Development teams.
So, thank you. Your attendance and engagement made a difference.
As always, it’s an honor to serve you. |
