Running a Hospitality Company Without Burning People, Bridges, or Your Own Mental Health — Alvaro Fraile, Azul Hospitality

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Alvaro Freilay. Alvaro is the CEO of Azul hospitality, a Southern California based operator that manages lifestyle hotels and destination resorts. They offer

full service hospitality solutions, including strategic marketing, food and beverage programming, and revenue optimization. He’s originally from Spain and came to the US for college, playing soccer at the University of Richmond while studying business. His hospitality journey began at AC Hotels, a Spanish brand later acquired by Marriott, where he rapidly advanced through the ranks. Starting as a junior revenue manager, he became a general manager

by 25, a regional leader by age 27, and was running operations for 70 hotels across Spain, Italy, and Portugal by age 30. After helping launch AC hotels in the US and working with Marriott for eight years, he joined Azul Hospitality as COO. And after two years in that role, he had the opportunity to become CEO, the position that he holds today.

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One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Now results vary for each company. Some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the CEO of Azul Hospitality Group, Alvaro. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Alvaro Fraile (02:16)
Anthony, thanks for the invite. I’m honored, looking forward to our chat. And ⁓ if we can help make somebody somebody’s day better or feel a bit more inspired, then it’ll be a good use of our time. So looking forward to it.

Anthony Codispoti (02:29)
I love that. Love

that attitude. Let’s jump right into it then, Alvaro. So you came from Spain to play soccer and study at the University of Richmond. And we have to point out this is a little bit unique because in Spain, if you’re pursuing soccer on a serious level, that often meant stopping your education to focus completely on soccer. So how did your sort of non-traditional decision to come to the U.S.

you think impact your life’s trajectory.

Alvaro Fraile (03:01)
For sure. So at the time I thought I wanted to keep my options open of becoming a professional. Little did I know that I probably didn’t, couldn’t make it, but at the time I thought so. I, you know, wanted to, want to keep my options open. And in Spain, think it’s probably the same all of Europe. It’s you started early on if you want to be an athlete and the path to professionalism is not through college. It’s through, it’s just you quit college, you go to one of the academies of the big teams. And so.

coming to the US ⁓ was the way to keep both options open. I think my parents were very focused on me studying no matter what. then, unbelievable experience, incredible resources here in the US and just an unbelievable college experience. And then ⁓ absolutely shaped everything in the future. Cause suddenly I’m living in a different country, opening my mind to a different culture and customs and traditions and ways of thinking and, and

it surely shaped my openness to things and to people. And so great experience and probably opened the door for me to come back in my second stint after when I joined Marriott. So much more open to it because I had had the four years at the University of Richmond.

Anthony Codispoti (04:20)
How was your English when you first came here? ⁓

Alvaro Fraile (04:23)
It was good because I was

going to an English school, a British school, but my accent was very posh. I had, I definitely, the first few years I got made fun of a lot. And I think automatically it started to change to become more Americanized. No, no, cause I never actually lived.

Anthony Codispoti (04:35)
So was that a conscious effort to change from, no, it just kind of happened. Because usually when you’re at that

age, right, it’s hard for an accent to change or to drop.

Alvaro Fraile (04:46)
Yeah, I had never lived in the UK. So it was just from going to a British school. So I guess it was still held, you know, not so tightly so it could easily morph to the American one.

Anthony Codispoti (04:55)
Okay.

All right, fair enough. ⁓ Okay, so as I understand it, though, you know, when you took your first job in hospitality, that wasn’t really your passion. What was that early experience? And then at what point down the road did you see the potential in and kind of get excited about the space?

Alvaro Fraile (05:15)
Yeah, so I was doing business just to keep my options open because I hadn’t defined my passion. So that’s what I did for my undergrad. And I took the first job I found out of college, honestly, and it was revenue manager at AC hotels. And at the time, I didn’t know much about hotels. it was, well, you know, we’ll take the first job and see where it takes me. I had done a little internship at Morgan Stanley and investment banking and realized it wasn’t really my thing. So

So this was just trying out a new thing. And I guess it was being the right place at the right time. AC, ⁓ the gentleman that founded it had sold the previous hotel chain. So he had a lot of resources. He had a lot of energy. He’s a big businessman in Spain. ⁓ And so we had funds and he had already experienced it. So he had the knowledge to just grow very fast. so joining a company like that,

was incredible for my first experience because we were opening a ton of hotels every year owned by us at the time or by him, but you know, by the company and managed by us and the brand was ours. And so there was nothing stopping us from growth. And it was just so dynamic that it captivated me. And the other thing is, even though I had a pretty reasonable academic background, it’s an industry where you can be kind of whatever you want. You see people that are, I remember the CEO of Marriott Europe.

He started as a cook at the time, at the time that when I was there in Europe, Rainer Sascha, he was the president of Marriott Europe. He started as a cook and then a chef and then a director of food and beverage. So no matter your background, your academic background, your socioeconomic background, you can really do very well in the hospitality industry. And that was super exciting. You know, it was very, very dynamic.

Anthony Codispoti (07:06)
You know, I’ve heard so many ⁓ people come on this show and say the same thing about the restaurant space and the hotel space. It’s a place where certainly an academic background can be helpful, right? You come in with some education there, but it’s not necessary, right? All kinds of folks come in and they couldn’t afford, you know, college education. Maybe it just wasn’t for them. And they come in, they work hard, they, you know, show that they’re dedicated and they’ve got the personality and they want to apply themselves and

Then you can just rise through the ranks and make a really good career for yourself.

Alvaro Fraile (07:37)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. A lot of the experience that you get operationally is having worked those jobs right on at the hotel level and those jobs normally started at the front desk or in the kitchen or you don’t need that academic education to get started in those jobs. if you have the you know, you’re somewhat ⁓ capable of learning from those experiences and obviously work hard. There’s just the potential, know, sky’s the limit there.

Anthony Codispoti (08:04)
Yeah, so you did have the benefit of education, but even still, you came in like a rocket ship, right? So you went from junior revenue manager to running operations for 70 hotels across three countries by the age of 30. What was the key to this rapid rise for you, Alvaro?

Alvaro Fraile (08:25)
⁓ I know this is going to sound very typical to say, but kind of the right place at the right time, because the company was growing so fast that, you know, suddenly we had hotel openings and it was much easier to promote within for the company. So suddenly I’m offered the opportunity to be a GM at 25. And, and I was obviously excited and jumping at the opportunity. then eventually, you know, now we need, you know, we’re up to 20 hotels in Madrid. So we need a regional.

to oversee those properties. And I was doing well at my hotel. So I got the opportunity to be a regional overseeing those hotels. then the eventually a couple of years later, the director of operations for the whole company was doing a horizontal move within the company. who’s the next guy, you know, and I, and the company was based in Madrid. So being the regional of the Madrid region allowed me that exposure. it’s kind of, it’s, it’s funny how things work, but exposure is just so important. You know, you can be performing

well, you can have a good professional image, but at the end of the day, exposure or being in the right place, knowing the right people. It’s just bit of luck, guess, ultimately, you know, because sometimes you’re stuck in a geographical location where you get less exposure and you might be performing incredibly well, but you might be less top of mind to the people that are making the decisions. Right. So there’s a component of luck or you maybe you have to force a bit of your exposure, but that is

key in getting good opportunities and obviously not making dumb decisions along the way that put you in a negative spotlight.

Anthony Codispoti (09:59)
So that’s

interesting. you were obviously you good at what you were doing, but you were in a geographical location where it was easier for you to get noticed. I wonder if kind of having that perspective, folks are listening and they’re like, well, I’m in a place where I don’t really have the opportunity to get noticed in that same way. Any suggestions for folks on how to force that exposure?

Alvaro Fraile (10:20)
100 % yeah, you just have to be vocal. You have to be vocal because now in my position, we’re constantly thinking, okay, who’s, you know, who’s the, need talent. We need, we love to promote within who, who do we have top of mind and, and inevitably you’re to go to the people that you’re closest to, you’re thinking of, you’re, you’re spending more, more time with. So if you’re not in one of those locations where you’re automatically spending time with the decision makers, make that time, make those trips to the corporate office in our, in our industry, especially with hotels out

We have hotels all over the field, primarily in the west of the country. And so if you are further away from the corporate office, make sure you are heard. Make sure you make your trips to the corporate office, find excuses to get exposure to the right leaders. Cause ultimately I’m not sure if it’s a hundred percent fair, but it does happen that way. It’s the top of mindness that you know, can get you to the right place. Of course, if you’re performing always, right? That’s, that’s, that’s the expectation, but if you’re performing, you have to expose yourself. So.

put yourself out there with the decision makers.

Anthony Codispoti (11:22)
Yeah. So you clearly had a lot of opportunities to learn as you were rising through the ranks there. I’m sure you could, you know, spend days kind of going through the lessons that you picked up. But if you were to single out one big learning occasion, one big lesson that you pulled away from your time there, what would that be?

Alvaro Fraile (11:44)
Um, with AC hotels, you’d say, hmm. Um, AC hotels was, an unbelievable crazy period because we were opening 12, 15 hotels a year. Um, I think one lesson that I learned is it’s all about reputation and both for the company and for you as an individual. You always want to do the right thing, um, by people.

Anthony Codispoti (11:47)
Mm-hmm.

Alvaro Fraile (12:14)
And it is a very small industry. Even in the US, it’s a very small industry. It’s so easy to get references from people to reach out and find out somebody that’s worked with somebody that’s worked with that person. so just don’t burn any bridges, you know, and the same thing for your company. Like if you at one point don’t treat people right or a partner right or a client or whoever, it comes around so easily. So

First, because that’s human decency, right? Do the right thing and take care of people and treat people right. But also just selfishly, like don’t burn the bridges because people are gonna find out and then it’s not gonna help you. So just always do the right thing and long-term it plays out. The short-term mentality won’t really get you where you wanna go long-term.

Anthony Codispoti (13:04)
So maybe some people who are a little bit conflicted and having a hard time doing the right thing all the time, sort of the warning message is, hey, even if you think somebody’s not watching, ⁓ or even if you think that, that person could never have an influence on my career, if you’re that person’s just sort of wired to think selfishly, like you never know when that’s gonna come back around, when that karma is gonna come back, huh? No.

Alvaro Fraile (13:26)
Yeah, 100%.

And then you realize later on your career how so-and-so at one point said something nice about you that connected with somebody else. And then suddenly you have this new business or you have this new potential associate that you’re trying to hire that has heard great things or whatever it is. You just, you just never know. So, ⁓ yeah, just, just be selfish in that regard. Like it’s, it’s an investment in your own brand, if you want to call it, or your own reputation.

Anthony Codispoti (13:53)
Yeah, if you need a selfish reason to do the right thing, that’s the way to frame it. So how did the opportunity to join Azul come about?

Alvaro Fraile (13:57)
Yeah, exactly.

So AC hotels in Spain was acquired by Marriott. So now it’s one of Marriott’s brands and it’s been a successful ⁓ launch for Marriott both in the rest of Europe and the US. So I was offered the opportunity to come to work with Marriott in the US to launch ⁓ AC and also work with some other brands eventually. So I did eight years with Marriott. One of my roles was in franchise operations was to have the relationship with management companies like Azul.

What people don’t realize sometimes in the hospitality space, there’s the brands don’t typically own the hotels. In some cases they do, but they’re trying to go with more asset light ⁓ strategies, most of the brands. So they don’t typically own the hotels and they don’t typically manage the hotels. again, some do, but those profiles tend to be decreasing for most of the major brands. So then there’s a third, exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (15:00)
So it’s more of like a franchise kind of setup.

Alvaro Fraile (15:02)
100%. So then the, some owners are also owner operators, but in some cases there’s, there’s cases like us where we’re a management company, right? And so strictly a third party management company. So we manage hotels for others. So for the brand and for the actual owner of the building. And so in my role with Marriott, I had the relationship with many of these management companies where I would help them operate successfully and also kind of hold them accountable for running great hotels for Marriott. One of those companies was Azul hospitality.

⁓ And I really respected the culture, the leaders, ⁓ the portfolio they were building. So it was right after COVID or in between COVID that the opportunity came about. I was starting to consider actually going back to Europe with Marriott. But it was such a great opportunity to join Azul. I really respected them. I wouldn’t have left for too many groups and Azul was probably one of the very, very few.

great opportunity, knew the leaders and the culture and just was a really good fit for me. So that’s how it went. And I had been working kind of with them from the other side, from the Marriott side for eight years. So, you know, we had really good relationships already established. So again, it’s a small industry can’t burn any bridges because you never

Anthony Codispoti (16:05)
That’s how it went and I have been working kind of working from where it happened.

And so to understand a little bit more about, excuse me, how the dynamics of these different relationships work, right? You’ve got the brand, like a Marriott. Sometimes they own and manage their own properties, but not as often. Sometimes they own a property and they’ll hire a third party company like Azul to manage it for them. And then other times there’s another owner, somebody who’s ⁓ bought the franchise rights to that name.

⁓ They’re the ones who own the physical building and the land and etc. And they’ve done the development. And then they’ll bring in a third party company like Azul to run that for them because this is really your area of expertise, right?

Alvaro Fraile (17:01)
Exactly. companies like Marriott really, really don’t own pretty much any hotels at this point. You know, they used to, but less and less. So they will only own something if they strategically buying certain hotel or certain portfolio hotels, but eventually they’re going to sell it off, you know. So, yeah, there’s always an owner that typically is not the brand. And then there’s the brand and then there’s us as operators. And so we work with the owner and the brands to, run the best possible.

Anthony Codispoti (17:08)
Okay.

Alvaro Fraile (17:30)
operations, you want to keep the brand happy that you’re complying with the standards, you’re respecting what the brand is about and how to perform and take care of the guest experience and the satisfaction. And at the same time, give a great return to the owners of the hotel. So that’s kind of how our role is ⁓ interjected in between all.

Anthony Codispoti (17:49)
And so you

guys are brought in and are you paid like a flat fee? Is it like a percentage of gross? Is it sort of a combination of the two?

Alvaro Fraile (17:57)
Typically there’s a percentage of the gross revenues and also typically an incentive based on profits, right? Because we are responsible for top line performance and also how it flows to the bottom line. So there’s both components typically.

Anthony Codispoti (18:13)
Okay, and then walk us through, we talked a little bit about it in the intro, but give us kind of more specifics what it is that you guys do in terms of managing these hotels for folks.

Alvaro Fraile (18:24)
Well, pretty much the whole operation, if you look at a profit and loss statement, everything kind of is our responsibility. So from hiring the staff and the talent and the leaders to making sure we’re delivering the the right guest experience at every level. So obviously in the rooms and the food and beverage operations, and then any other amenity that the hotel has, whether it has, you know, a spa or, or obviously the parking and resort fees, what are you offering to the guests?

right? And then all the expenses accordingly. So, you know, your sales and marketing teams and your, and your IT and your maintenance of the building. Cause at the end of the day, you’re also kind of protecting the building for the owner, right? These are, these are multimillion dollar assets. So, all that all the way to the bottom line. And then, and then after that bottom line, there’s an owner that has a relationship with some sort of lender that has typically lent the money to do the business. And so we have to make sure that

our last bottom number helps them to pay the lender and get some profit out of it. but yeah, the whole, the whole show, the whole experience and the associates are our associates. So we, we, we take care of them. We, we try to help them grow and promote and get trained and learn and, and, ⁓ yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s what we do.

Anthony Codispoti (19:30)
So, that’s experience of our social media policy.

And so

when you joined Azul, how many properties were under management?

Alvaro Fraile (19:49)
I want to say probably low 30s, low 30s. We’re at 50 hotels across the west of the country, primarily Marriott Hilton, some Hyatt, some independents as well. And ⁓ I think we’re specializing, we do all brands, but we’re specializing in the lifestyle brands that Marriott and Hilton have or independent brands that have a uniqueness to them. So.

Anthony Codispoti (19:51)
low 30s and where are you today? How many?

Alvaro Fraile (20:16)
We do have some of the prototypical brands as well, but right now the brands have come out with these soft brands, Autograph with Marriott, Curio with Hilton Tribute, Tapestry. They’re brands where you can be kind of your own thing, your unique independent feel of hotel, but you’re still plugged into.

Anthony Codispoti (20:32)
The standards

aren’t quite as boxed in, is what you’re saying? Okay.

Alvaro Fraile (20:35)
Exactly. It’s more

quality of standards, but you don’t have to comply with a specific design of your room or the exact offering and food and beverage or things like that. So you can create your own thing, of course, in communication with the brands to make sure that it’s ⁓ the right quality. ⁓ But you can be unique. It’s kind of like creating your own independent hotel. But you’re still plugged into a Marriott engine, right? A booking engine like a

a strong one like Merida or Hilton. So it’s really the best of both worlds. And we’re doing a lot of those. And I think with a lot of success because that’s kind of what the guest is asking us now. It’s more of an experience and a uniqueness.

Anthony Codispoti (21:13)
Do you enjoy this because maybe the margins are better for you guys or the creativity that you get to employ is is better? I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvaro Fraile (21:22)
it’s the creativity. It’s definitely a lot more work because you’re having to reinvent the wheel every time.

But the team is here super creative and we all enjoy it a lot. So yeah, it’s that excitement of like you’re creating a whole new kind of independent hotel every time. And of course there’s learnings along the way and things that you know work or don’t work and then you can apply to a different one. But you’re always trying to be innovative with a different design and different concept and you know, so it’s, fun.

Anthony Codispoti (21:51)
Give me an idea of some of the different dials that you turn when you’re making one of these new sort of pseudo custom environments. Like is it just like I know the color of the wallpaper or paint a picture for me.

Alvaro Fraile (21:56)
Thank

Everything from the branding, so the naming of the hotel, the brand that you’re creating, what it stands, are you focused on the local experience and some component of the local market that you’re putting into the whole guest experience? ⁓ So the color of the wallpaper, just what it looks like ⁓ from a guest satisfaction standpoint, and then all the amenities.

The biggest one probably is food and beverage because you’re deciding, okay, do we do a cool coffee concept? Do we do a full service, you know, three meal restaurant? Do we have a rooftop bar? We’ve been very successful doing rooftop bars. ⁓ What does it make sense to maximize each square footage of the asset to get the most profitability, but at the same time, a great experience for the guests. it’s a long-term, you’re positioning the asset to be very successful for many, many years. You don’t want to be trendy.

So it’s that balance between being innovative and original and a bit different, but also don’t be trendy because then that could be good for a few years, but then you might be out of, right, right, right. So we like the blue suits where you can just change the tie and the shirt, but there’s still a classic blue suit. That’s how we like to put it to say, you know, cause that’s more timeless.

Anthony Codispoti (23:12)
And then you gotta redo the whole thing. Yeah. And that’s not efficient.

So, you know, I’ve talked to other folks in the hotel space recording this the end of 2025. We had government shut down economies kind of, you know, questionable for a lot of folks. So a lot of the folks I’m not going to ask you for your numbers, but a lot of folks tell me that, you know, hotel business overall has been down recently. Do you find that that’s at all different in sort of the higher end hotels that maybe the demand there has stayed up or is there some fluctuation happening there, too?

Alvaro Fraile (23:59)
You’re actually right, exactly right. The luxury segment has done particularly well. Everything underneath and the lower you go once you get to the economy brands, they’ve struggled more and more. So for some reason, yeah, the consumer sentiment is affected and people are traveling less. And I think it’s the uncertainty. Everybody’s kind of on the lookout to see, what exactly is going on here? Because between government shutdowns, tariffs,

it’s just been a year of it hasn’t been a bad year. We’ve still grown slightly revenues, but at times not enough to offset the growing expenses. Expenses have at times been higher than the growth of revenue. So we it’s been not the best year. I wouldn’t say it’s been a recession kind of year, but it hasn’t been the best. So 2026 we’re hoping for some more stability and ⁓ and you realize also interest rates are very impactful in our industry because

Sometimes also what people don’t realize is, know, interest rates, when you have a lot, when you’re a hotel owner and you own the building, your loan, typically your interest rates is, the loans are much more short term. When you own a house, there can be a 30 year mortgage, right? And you might have a fixed interest rate, but in hotels, your loans are typically five years or there’s a reset every six months or it’s more variable. So when interest rates go much higher, it impacts hotels.

much more quickly than it would in your own house, right? So suddenly you see the stress of our clients where what a good job look like from a management standpoint and a financial performance standpoint, what a good job look like, you know, four years ago does not get them to the place where they need to be right now. And so you can, you can understand the stress and you’re trying to help them to, to, ⁓ just perform as best as we can, as efficiently as we can to get them the biggest number to the bottom line. So they don’t.

have that stress in the bottom.

Anthony Codispoti (25:55)
any levers that you’ve been able to pull in that respect to help kind of squeeze out some extra percentage points.

Alvaro Fraile (26:03)
Yeah, we like clustering. So once we’re in a market and we have a few hotels, if we can share resources, sometimes it’s even across clients. It’s surprising, Anthony, how there’s a lot of openness to that. And if you are, you might have a competing hotel over there, which we happen to manage and they’re open to sharing a role. Maybe it’s a controller, maybe it’s a sales effort even and ⁓ or a general manager and, and you share and you kind of spread out the cost a little bit to kind of write out the

just to reduce expenses at the end of the day. ⁓ obviously we’re always trying to find new creative ways to drive revenues, but expenses, it can be very impactful. So if we can cluster markets when we have enough hotels in the market, that’s a great way to reduce some expenses.

Anthony Codispoti (26:45)
Mm.

You guys have been around a little bit. Obviously, you’ve got a great reputation in the space. You’ve got some clients that you work with regularly. I’m sure as they’ve got new projects, you know, you guys are collaborating with them on that. If you’re sitting down with a new perspective client, why do they ultimately choose Azul? What sets you guys apart?

Alvaro Fraile (27:14)
⁓ I want to say, first of all, we have great talent. I would put our team against any team in the industry. ⁓ There’s been a lot of consolidation in the management space. So management companies buying each other or investing in each other or capital investors taking a stake in. And so there’s a lot of focus for growth in a lot of our competitors. And I think at times that size is not really

competitive advantage because at the end of the I mean, you might get some the ability to purchase things a little cheaper, but we’re already at that level with most of the vendors. You’re already kind of in the higher tier of whatever discounts you’re getting with our 50 hotel size. So I think size is not always better in a management company space. You want to be important to us, right? We want to, we

The moment you’re at 150 hotels, the attention you might be able to give to your hotels is a little bit more diluted. Whereas we are extremely hands on with our clients and with our hotels and just we’re very close to every business. So I’m not saying we don’t wanna grow, but we’d rather grow very, very mindfully and we don’t wanna be the biggest. Maybe we can add a few hotels here or there, but I think our size is kind of a sweet spot in that we have enough.

to have all the resources needed to support the hotels as best we can. But we’re also extremely hands-on because we’re not diluting the focus because we have 300 hotels like some of our competitors who do a great job, but it’s a bit of a different model. And they’re very focused on growth and adding new hotels. We’re typically adding hotels because our existing clients are growing their portfolios and we grow with them, but we’re not typically adding too many new relationships.

Anthony Codispoti (28:51)
I don’t know if it will go far, but we’ll see the bigger the different matter. And it will focus on will and how to do it. But we’ll put the whole item ourselves.

⁓ Okay.

If you are adding a new relationship, what’s sort of the checklist that you’re looking for to make sure that you guys are aligned?

Alvaro Fraile (29:16)
The biggest, most important thing is the cultural alignment with the client, the sponsor, with the owner of the hotel. We’ve realized that we talk about it internally a lot. We’d rather do business or take on a deal with an excellent owner, even if the project might be, I don’t want to say mediocre, but just, you know, a medium project than the opposite. A killer project with a mediocre owner is not going to be a good fit long-term for us because we’re very protective of our culture.

of how we treat people and a known owner can be disruptive to that if they’re not, if we’re not culturally aligned. So that’s probably the most important thing. And we’ve turned down a lot of deals because we could just sense that the, that cultural alignment wasn’t really there. So I would say that’s the biggest thing. And then of course, an exciting project with a great brand, a great unique market location, um, and anywhere where we can unlock value also, because not to say that we won’t take on

I don’t know the opportunity to manage a courtyard or a Hampton in a secondary market. But typically what we were talking about before, we like to add value. So if we can take over management of a hotel because we think, Hey, let’s reposition this, let’s change the brand or let’s add a new food and beverage concept, or how can we maximize the value of the asset here? That’s what really gets us excited. And so that’s probably the things that we look at the most quality of the sponsor and then the ability to add value.

Anthony Codispoti (30:43)
Yeah, and be you’ve mentioned multiple times in our conversation, the importance of the culture that you guys have there and the alignment that you want to have with your clients. You guys your philosophy is, you know, I think awesome, but a little bit different in that you prioritize doing the right thing over just pure economic gain. And as I say that, it’s words and you’re nodding your head and you’re like, yeah, absolutely. That’s what we believe.

But I wonder if you can share a specific instance where that principle over profit came into play and ⁓ just kind of help illustrate that point for folks.

Alvaro Fraile (31:24)
Yeah. Well, the biggest way we show it and it’s part of like protecting our team is when there hasn’t been a culture alignment with past. I think right now our portfolio is in a great, great place ⁓ from the client pool that we have. We have very collaborative clients. Of course, they hold us accountable to deliver results, but it’s collaborative, it’s respectful. When that hasn’t happened in the past,

We were aware of it, but it’s a very hard decision to say, do we walk away from this business? Do we walk away from managing these hotels? Because yeah, it’s a fee. It’s it’s it’s revenues for us as a management company walking away from deals. Right. And, and that affects how many resources we can have at the corporate office. It affects the bonuses that we can pay out to our teams, but ultimately we know that it’s the right thing to do. so making those decisions has been tough, but clearly the right.

decision long term. So that’s probably the more clear way where we’ve walked the talk of, if we’re saying we don’t do business ⁓ with certain behaviors, then let’s act on it. And even if it meant walking away from fees. And then also with existing clients, if we know that they’re stressed out and we can help by adjusting our fee or things like that, we’re gonna do that. ⁓

if needed, of course, we don’t want to create expectation all the time. if we have to, we’re very ⁓ shoulder to shoulder with our clients. If they’re successful, we’re successful and the same and vice versa. that’s probably the best way where we walk the talk of our culture, I think.

Anthony Codispoti (33:12)
How does that, how do you, what’s the question I’m trying to ask here? I want to understand how you keep that culture. your organization, you know, you’re not enormous when it comes to, you know, management companies, but you’re pretty good size. You guys have got, you know, a lot of properties under management. When you think about the hundreds of employees that are under your umbrella, and how do you think about hiring them?

sort of filtering through that hiring process. Once you’ve got somebody good, how do you hold on to them? Like, what does that internal process kind of look and feel?

Alvaro Fraile (33:47)
Yeah, I think ultimately people, again, it goes back to the culture, but people when they feel comfortable, they feel valued, they feel appreciated, they’re loyal. Compensation is very important. Of course, we’re all trying to grow our personal finances and have to support our families and so on. But when people have a sense of belonging, when people feel that they are important to the company, and we’re in a size where we can still

everything’s still to be invented or to be supported. So we always tell everybody, hey, any idea that you have, no matter your role, no matter, we’ll embrace it because we’re all growing, we’re all learning. And so there’s ideas that you’ve gotten from another management company or from thoughts that you have, like, let’s bring it to the table. And I think people feel that that’s, that’s a reality of, how we like to treat people. You know, we don’t have, we don’t have yellows, we don’t have screamers. ⁓ it’s a very flat organization. There’s not much hierarchy.

Anthony Codispoti (34:41)
That’ll be awesome.

Alvaro Fraile (34:44)
And, there’s not much egos either. And honestly, the same thing that we have talked about the clients with the culture alignment, we are very selective with who we bring in as leaders of our hotels. Because at the end of the day, Anthony, when you have a hotel three hour flight away from the corporate office, you can have a great culture here. But how does that trickle to that property that, you know, you’re only visiting X amount of times or so frequently, or, or, you know, it comes down to who you hire to be the leaders of those.

Anthony Codispoti (34:47)
Honestly, the same thing that we have talked about with clients, with the customer line, we’re both selective with food and the labels of our places. We can’t go out and do anything. I love it though. We outside of work, we can about this, we can have a good talk before, but how does that sort of, through that property that we’re only living in, that’s not a kind of social thing where we’re…

Alvaro Fraile (35:13)
properties and because then that’s, that’s, they’re going to be the ones hiring for that property. And so they have to really drink the cool it of this culture or be aligned with it naturally. And then, and then, you know, kind of translate that to their, their hires and their training and the way they treat people. So it doesn’t matter if you’ve been with a company for a long time or a short time, we just don’t, we won’t allow, ⁓ people that don’t align with that way of treating people. And it’s not a,

Anthony Codispoti (35:24)
And then, you know, from central bank to their higher, mid-level, low-speed people. it doesn’t matter if you’ve with a company for a long time or so, can’t stop without allowing people to get around your bank. And it’s not

a crazy amount of trouble. People are happy with what you but what you’re doing is very simple, and that’s what works for people. And it’s not really, you don’t allow for a thing.

Alvaro Fraile (35:43)
crazy magic sauce is just treat people how you like to be treated, right? Like we always say, it’s very simple and that’s what the expectation is. And we’re really, we don’t allow for a thing.

When we’ve had incidents of people not aligning with that, we jump on it very quickly. It’s like you’re with your kids. If you look the other way, the first time you see something, you’re starting to allow a behavior that’s just not gonna be okay with it.

Anthony Codispoti (35:54)
We’ve had an incident of people not aligning with that.

Yeah. Now you yourself you you you started out as a COO at Azul. And within just a couple of years, you moved into the CEO role. How did that transition take place?

Alvaro Fraile (36:27)
So the founder of the company, Rick Manser, he was CEO president since the start of the company and he was looking to scale back. So I don’t know when he brought me in as a COO. I don’t know if he already had the intention in mind, but ⁓ yeah, just again, luck timing. He wanted to slow down a little bit. ⁓ And when you come from operations, probably it’s the easiest.

Anthony Codispoti (36:45)
Glad to

Alvaro Fraile (36:57)
or the most apt path to go to CEO, not always, right? You can come from finance or accounting, but operations, at the end of the day, we’re operating hotels, so it’s the closest thing to the business. So maybe because of that, ⁓ it was the most natural path from a title standpoint for, ⁓ but yeah, I mean, just being the right place at the right time. And there’s incredible leaders here at the corporate office. So I feel very fortunate to have the role and.

and help the team in whatever way I can to continue the success of the company.

Anthony Codispoti (37:31)
What was the most challenging part about that transition for you?

Alvaro Fraile (37:36)
I think at times believe believing in it, you get this imposter syndrome, but that’s happened no matter when when you promote, it always feels like you’re pre you’re pre promoting, you’re promoting too early. Every time in my career, it’s felt that way. You kind of have to allow yourself to make mistakes and and and obviously believe in yourself and but at the same time, not take yourself too seriously and and just be patient because, you know, part of it is learning the

Anthony Codispoti (37:47)
every time I do it.

Alvaro Fraile (38:05)
the path, right? And I’m still in that phase, you know, I’m, I hope that I can be a great CEO, but I’m not there right now, most likely. So it’s just, gotta be patient with yourself and, not put too much pressure, you know, because if, if you think you’re the first day you’re a CEO, you’re going to be a great CEO, probably not realistic. So, and, and having, know, luckily I’ve had leaders in Rick Manchin, the founder who just gives you

Anthony Codispoti (38:12)
So, this is what we decided to have fun with.

you know luckily ⁓

Alvaro Fraile (38:35)
doesn’t micromanage you, lets you run with it and be like, hey, own it, make mistakes and just believe in it and be patient.

Anthony Codispoti (38:46)
Well, you know, I talked with a lot of my guests about this idea of imposter syndrome. ⁓ And, you know, even people who have reached the pinnacle of their career ⁓ continue to question themselves every day. am I, you know, almost like waiting for people to figure out that they’re a fraud, that, you know, like, I don’t really know what I’m doing as much as everybody thinks that I do. And so from your perspective, you know, as you think about, you know, the quick

Alvaro Fraile (39:06)
Exactly. 100%.

Anthony Codispoti (39:13)
ascension that you’ve had in your career and each time you rise into a new role kind of doubting yourself and thinking, oh, I’m here too early. I’m not ready for this. Like, how do you work through that? Like, what’s been a helpful process or a I don’t know if you’ve got like a coach or a mentor or like a book that you’ve read that’s been like helpful and sort of like giving you that confidence to stay on track and that you’ve got this.

Alvaro Fraile (39:40)
⁓

I’m going to say, I don’t, I don’t know that there’s one thing just again, putting things in perspective and say, okay, these people are trusting me. Maybe I’m not that bad or maybe I got to believe in it, but, ⁓ I really like, ⁓ Charlie Munger, know, Charlie Munger, the, the Warren Buffett’s, ⁓ long time partner because he puts things so bluntly and simply, and it’s all about, yeah, I’m just, you know,

I don’t try to be the smartest or the most intelligent. try to just make less dumb decisions or less, you know, because you read so many when you’re trying to be a good leader, you read so many books or quotes or things of incredible CEOs out there and people that are I wake up at four in the morning and I work out and then I do my meditation and then I do all these things and then I, know, and then they’re giving these incredible speeches and they do and it’s it’s it comes it can come across really complex and they’re, you know, there’s

incredibly brilliant people out there that are doing incredible things, right? And if you’re constantly benchmarking on that, you’re probably never going to win, right? So you got to take those readings or those lessons with a grain of salt a little bit. Say, okay, you know, if I can get a learning here or there, I get it, but I don’t have to aspire to be, you know, the best here in the world or the most intelligent. And Charlie Munger always puts it in a very simple way. Hey, just don’t make dumb mistakes. Just don’t make decisions. Just don’t fall for

for envy or things like that that you know, that sometimes hold people. There’s so many ⁓ personality traits that hold people back and they might be very intelligent. They might be brilliant and technically very apt. And then there’s something in their personality that doesn’t click well. just be a stable, emotionally stable human being and listen to people. And I think that’s gotten me somewhat success so far.

Anthony Codispoti (41:36)
Yeah, I like that. Okay, this is the time in the show where I ask my favorite question, because we’ve talked about big meteoric rise, lots of success that’s being experienced. But everybody who’s, you know, found their way to some level of success has also had some level of hardship and learn from some of that hardship to Alvaro, what’s something really challenging that you’ve had to overcome in your life? And how did you get through that?

Alvaro Fraile (42:03)
Um, I always think of the year 2009, 10, um, I had, everything comes in threes at times and I had just gotten married and suddenly was finding myself with a divorce that I absolutely did not expect. Luckily, no kids involved in the, you know, the, from a, a, from a traumatic standpoint, it was the least possible because there was, there weren’t too many attachments, but still obviously emotionally very painful. And then at the same time,

My dad was diagnosed, ⁓ cancer, lymphoma, and, and maybe the least of the important things, but I like playing soccer. I tore my ACL. So I was going through surgery and on crutches and all that. So, that’ll happen in the span of three months. So you’re, you’re emotionally affected by a divorce. You’re physically affected by a ACL tear and surgery and all that and recovery. And then my dad at the same time is, is starting.

And first there was the uncertainty of the diagnosis of what is this? Cause it takes a little bit of time to figure it out. First it was, my back hurts. And then it’s something more. then, ⁓ wait a second. This could be something worse. And then a couple of misdiagnoses at the beginning where it seemed like it was even worse than it eventually was, which was still pretty tough. So he went through chemo and radio for a whole year. ⁓ and luckily, you know, he, he made it and he’s somewhat reasonably healthy.

Anthony Codispoti (43:11)
A couple of years back, most of the beginning were seen as even worse and we went through a tough time. So, she went through a few more rules over the whole year and luckily, she made it. Some were even healthy.

Alvaro Fraile (43:30)
what 11 or 15 years later. I can’t, know, now you look back and you’re very pleased with the results in the, it’s just a path of what had to happen and the path of life. But when you’re in it, right, you’re, you’re experiencing these two or three things at the same time. And, and it’s just so easy to get down and to think, okay, it’s the end of the world, right. And, and nothing’s going my way. What else can happen now? And, and

Anthony Codispoti (43:38)
results in that. And it’s just a half of what happened and a half of what’s when you’re in it.

Alvaro Fraile (44:00)
Sometimes in life it just happens, comes a few things together at the same time or one really bad thing that happens and you just have to remember pretty much everything is temporary, ⁓ except death, everything else is temporary. And so you just have to kind of write it out and not get down and be patient and just stick to your own values and things.

Anthony Codispoti (44:01)
just happened to come together.

Alvaro Fraile (44:25)
come around and then you can get a good cycle where things are happening that are really positive. But at the time, it might feel like it’s the end of the world. It might feel like my whole world is falling apart and I don’t deserve it and this is unfair. And there’s so many circumstances that we can’t control that you just have to know that sometimes things are going to happen that are not ideal and you just have to write it out. And pretty much everything is temporary and you can.

get through it if you’re just a little patient and yeah, stick through it.

Anthony Codispoti (44:59)
I’m curious how you got through it. Because, you know, when somebody goes through one of those difficult things, say, you know, the ACL tear, and you you couched it as being maybe the least important of the three. But let’s be honest here, you know, you had aspirations to play professional soccer. And that was a big part of your identity. And so now the ACL tear seemingly

robs you of that it takes away a part of your identity so so you got something you want to say

Alvaro Fraile (45:31)
Well,

reality had already robbed me of that because this was post. Yeah, so this was when I was already 30. ⁓ So I was already, I probably still believed I could make it. No, just kidding. ⁓ But ⁓ yeah, it was later. But even still, absolutely. I still played and was active and wanted to continue playing and enjoying it. And so it was my time for myself, your enjoyment.

Anthony Codispoti (45:35)
Okay, so this was post, you had, okay.

Okay. But even still, like…

Alvaro Fraile (45:59)
friends and everything. so taking that away, um, mentally doesn’t help you that you just can’t be out there playing and you have to deal with a recovery and going to the PT every day and crutches and all that, just all that discomfort. So, um, yeah, I just, I, I, I don’t know. It helps obviously when you’ve been lucky to be having, you know, a good childhood and raised by good parents and you’re just emotionally in a good place where, Hey, you can just dig deep and,

and be patient and, but yeah, and having great friends and family that obviously is key and talk a lot, talk a lot to people, talk, talk, even if you bore them, even if you, even if you’re annoying, but just talk it through and people give you their perspective. And many times if they don’t give you their perspective, but you’re, you’re kind of venting out, you know, and getting it out of your system. And it feels better to just share what you’re going through with people. then

Hopefully they can give you some good advice or not, but just them listening to you and feeling for you a little bit. It kind of helps to get through it. If you’re trying to do it all yourself and take it in and just suck it up and don’t share it, like that’s gonna come out in bad ways at some point, whether it’s with a illness or yeah, exactly. It’s not healthy.

Anthony Codispoti (47:13)
It just eats you up inside. Even if you think you’re being

the tough soldier and you’re on a good face today, there is going to be a point in the future where that pops up in a way that is going to shock the heck out of you and not in a good way.

Alvaro Fraile (47:27)
Yeah, exactly.

And you know, and then you hear people that tell you their stories of things they’ve gone through and then you can relate and then you see them doing better later in life. And they’re telling you about something that happened kind of like today. And you’re like, okay, well, wait a second, you know, you can get through this, you can get past it, you can get back to normal or much better or, know, so yeah, just sharing. think sharing is key. Just opening your.

Anthony Codispoti (47:51)
Yeah, and it’s

great that you had, you know, a group of friends that you could rely on like that, because you’re going through the ACL thing. And then, you know, the people that you might normally go to for support when now you’re going through divorce, right? That’s gut wrenching. And your father has got, you know, this huge health concern. So probably another place that you would typically go. Now you need to find another outlet for all of that stuff to unload. And it sounds like you had a great support system behind you. Great friend.

Alvaro Fraile (48:19)
I did, this was back in Spain at the time and I had a great friend, know, great base of friends there and some other family. But, you know, there were two guys from college that flew in to just, you know, out of, in a very short notice, they just flew in, kind of surprised me and spent a week with me and stuff. I was just very lucky to have those kinds of friendships and they, those things stick with you for life, you know, when things people do that for you when you’re in a, in a…

period that’s not the best and they just support you.

Anthony Codispoti (48:50)
Yeah. As you think back on that time, Alvaro, do you find any purpose in it?

Alvaro Fraile (49:01)
I definitely think that I feel like if you can get past situations like that, then everything else becomes a bit easier. You know, I think it’s, it’s, ⁓ you look back and you’re like, okay, well, if we got through that, just gives you, you know, maturity and, and, ⁓ and strength to overcome anything. So now the smaller things don’t become as important anymore. And, and, ⁓ you can.

Just putting things in perspective, you once you’ve gone through tough things like that, everything seems a little lighter and it’s not that bad.

Anthony Codispoti (49:37)
So it’s given you a new perspective, things that would have been really bad before now they pale in comparison to some of really big life challenges that you’ve already overcome.

Alvaro Fraile (49:49)
Yeah, for sure. For sure. You just become a little stronger once you go through tough times,

Anthony Codispoti (49:54)
Yeah. Okay, so as we look forward to the future of Azul, what can we expect? What’s some things that you’re excited about?

Alvaro Fraile (50:03)
So we’re working on really great projects for us. We’ve recently been approved to operate JW Hotels, which is a luxury brand that we weren’t in that space before. So we have that excitement in front of us with a couple of new projects in that space. And yeah, I think stability would be great. We’ve opened 17 hotels in the last two years. So 26 will be…

will be, we have less openings. They’re mostly coming later in 27 and later. So it’s a good time to kind of get a breather and make sure that we’re really performing well for our clients. It’s going to be 26, I think it’s going to be not the healthiest from a macroeconomic standpoint. So I’m hoping that we just become really creative and we just perform for our existing clients. We focus on that. And I don’t care if we don’t grow much next year because

Anthony Codispoti (50:48)
and a network and an expansion. So I’m hoping that we’ll just become more global.

Alvaro Fraile (51:01)
I know we have growth coming later on, but just really make sure that our processes are in great place and our SOPs and our performances there, because we’ve taken on a lot the last few years. Our existing clients have been growing and so we’re growing with them, but it’s been a lot. So yeah, just stability and…

Anthony Codispoti (51:13)
⁓ Take a deep breath,

kind of turn the dials, just kind of really hone in on those efficiencies this year.

Alvaro Fraile (51:24)
That’s right.

That’s right. That’s our goal for 26.

Anthony Codispoti (51:30)
I gotta ask, everybody talks about AI. You guys using it in any fun and creative ways?

Alvaro Fraile (51:37)
Well, I’ll tell you something that’s becoming very apparent. That’s exciting, but we got to figure it out, right? When you think of AI, think that everybody talks about robots and things, but right now the way it’s impacted our business the most is with revenue management and how you sell, how you price for the system to be pricing automatically, things like that, and marketing and how you sell. What’s really interesting is

outside of the direct channels, like if you go to merrier.com or Hilton.com, you’re going and booking a room directly. Otherwise, typically, unless you’re a corporate client or a group that you’re getting a quote, but otherwise, if you’re a leisure client, which is the biggest segment is leisure for the most part, you might be going to one of the so-called OTAs. So Expedia or booking.com or one of those sites. And

That’s how typically people have looked for hotels or you go on Google search and you say, okay, I’m going to this destination. What’s a closest hotel to this, to this place more and more now people are doing their searches on some sort of AI platform. Chai GPT are one of those. And typically they’re starting to say, okay, I want to be close to this, but I also want to do this ⁓ activity and my price points. So and so, and, ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (52:33)
I’m going to to the point of us, but the was so tough for this, for this program. More and know, people are doing their searches on some sort of a live background.

I want to do hostables, but I also want to do this activity and my post on Twitter.

Alvaro Fraile (52:58)
going with my family or I’m going with my kids. And so it’s, it’s becoming a whole new way of searching for hotels. And more and more, it’s going to be that way. So now those platforms, AI platforms are figuring out, okay, how do we monetize this? Or can you book through chat GPT? You’re to be able to book eventually a room through it or not. What does that look like? Who’s paying any sort of commissions? You know, what are expedient booking going to do as the major.

Anthony Codispoti (53:20)
But it’s more simple. What are student-based people to do as a neighbor

or as many others? What are they going to do because now there more people in the world to get social justice? And then how do we march it outside to do a different of possible, mean, completely different platform? Because the role we, sort of our hotels, can do a track for when we overcome the student-based kind of business. It’s very, very different from how it works.

Alvaro Fraile (53:25)
OTAs, but there’s many others, right? But what are they going to do? Because now more and more people are going to go to these search engines. And then how do we market ourselves to be as attractive as possible in a completely different platform? Because the way we set up our hotels to be attractive on Meri.com and Expedia.com and Booking.com is very, different to how AI works.

And so the language is very different. So now people might be searching for a whole trip that they’re going to

Anthony Codispoti (53:49)
The language is very different. So now people might be searching for a foot book book and going to

Alvaro Fraile (53:55)
somewhere in Europe here over Christmas. And it’s, okay, I’m taking my two kids and we want to do these kinds of activities and we want to be close to here. We want to see some sightseeing, but also some kids activities and we want to eat in these kinds of local restaurants. And then it’s going to craft it all out for us. And then of course you can adjust it, but

Anthony Codispoti (53:55)
somewhere new at 4 hours of Christmas and it’s a good idea to make foot books and we want to do this kind of foot book. We want to be close to here. We want to see some South thing but also some foot book activities and then we can do this kind of local restaurants and then it’s going to practice our app for us. I wonder if we can adjust foot book.

Alvaro Fraile (54:16)
it’s just a completely different way of traveling and planning your trips, right? So.

Anthony Codispoti (54:17)
So, that out, I think for

us, is very important to be a little bit more frank, to have the opportunity as a searchable and attractive as possible.

Alvaro Fraile (54:22)
Figuring that out, think for us is very important to be ahead of it for our clients to have their hotels be as searchable and attractive as possible in a completely new platform

⁓ language. So ⁓ maybe that was not the most exciting way of AI, but it’s key for what we’re doing.

Anthony Codispoti (54:40)
No, I think it’s super interesting because

I have similar conversations with folks across a wide variety of industries where right like they had learned sort of the game I’m going to call it using air quotes of how do we get ranked highly in Google search results as well as you know, how do we make use of Google ads different social platforms and now there’s this whole new thing.

AI, where people are going in and instead of searching in Google, they’re searching there. And how do you get your result to show up now at the top of AI? People had a formula they would follow for that on Google, and now we’re trying to figure that out on a whole new platform. And as you say, as you hint at, there are more capabilities coming. And so at some point, you have to expect that you’ll have the ability to book directly through the AI. And you guys want to be right there at the front edge of that, ready for that.

Do you think that is something that we’re gonna see in 2026?

Alvaro Fraile (55:41)
Probably late, probably late 26. Yeah, because I know of a lot of different people working in that direction where, you know, other companies that are helping you get to be the most sellable in there. And they’re already have been working on that for a while. So yeah, I I think like 26, it’ll happen. And it’s going to be interesting to see how the Expedia’s and Bookings reinvent themselves and the Meriden Hilton and who’s talking to the OTAs because maybe they can use their own platforms.

Anthony Codispoti (55:43)
Okay.

Alvaro Fraile (56:10)
in there. So you go through their platforms to book. ⁓ So anyway, it’s going to be a interesting, you know, see what happens.

Anthony Codispoti (56:20)
sure. Alvaro, what’s your superpower?

Alvaro Fraile (56:26)
⁓ I think one, ⁓ is emotional stability. You see some people that just get very emotional with things that happen and affects their performance or affects their approach to something because they take things very personally. And most of the time people have their own thing they’re going through or whatever, and it’s not personal towards you and just being able to put that aside and just have that stability. think that

might sound like something pretty simple, but I consider that a superpower when you look at how shouldn’t people react to things. and, and I think being ethically impeccable, I’m proud to say that that’s, you know, some, good attribute that I’ve had all my life. And I don’t sound arrogant when I say it because it’s just doing the right thing. You know, it’s one of our pillars at Azul is doing the right thing. And, and personally, I’ve always felt that way. And again, as we,

started talking about it, it comes around. So it’s even a selfish way to handle yourself. It’s just do the right thing, take care of people, be a nice person. That’s a superpower, I think.

Anthony Codispoti (57:39)
I agree 100%. And we were talking before we went live, I know you’ve got at least one son, younger, right? More than one? Two boys, okay. And their ages? Eight and five. Okay, so I’ve got 11 and nine. As you think about that superpower that you have, how do you think about teaching that to your children?

Alvaro Fraile (57:47)
Two boys, two boys, two boys, eight and five, eight and five.

Yeah. I just, more and more, I realized that the words, you know, when you, when you see those movies or something, it’s, oh, my dad had this quarter, my dad had the same. don’t believe so much in that. Those impactful sentences or phrases at the end of day is just replicating how you behave at home and leading by example. That’s what they’re going to see every day. That’s what’s going to ingrain in their brains more than any particular quote, right? How you behave every day with them and with.

other people they’re watching and they’re looking at how you interact with whoever. So to me, that’s way more impactful because they’re seeing it every day than any quote or anything. So just just try to and of course, when you’re in front of them, you put the extra effort to try to be the you know, behave a certain way and make sure that because they’re watching 100 % and it’s not easy because you know, there’s time for there’s a lot of stress at home with with ⁓ activities and you know,

Anthony Codispoti (58:49)
the best version of yourself.

Alvaro Fraile (58:59)
time crunches and things like that. So it’s not easy. But just always going back to thinking that way, because they’re watching and learning and that’s creating what’s ingrained in them for the rest of their lives probably.

Anthony Codispoti (59:17)
Aside from soccer, what’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Alvaro Fraile (59:22)
Now it’s all family, so just playing with the kids. We go in the room and play for hours and and you know, that’s that’s the funnest thing. So yeah, soccer and family.

Anthony Codispoti (59:36)
I like it. Just one more question for you today, Alvaro. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things. First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with our guest today, we will have both his LinkedIn profile link and his email address in the show notes, which you can find on our website, inspired stories podcast.com. Their company azul hg.com azul hg.com

And as a reminder, if you want to get more hotel employees access to benefits that aren’t going to hurt them financially and carries a financial upside for the company, reach out to us at adbackbenefits.com. Finally, if you’ll take just a moment, pause, leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast app. You’ll hold a special place in my heart forever. Thank you very much. So last question for you, Alvaro. A year from now, you and I reconnect and you are celebrating something big. Very excited. What’s that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from today?

Alvaro Fraile (1:00:36)
⁓ it’s been such busy few years. So from a personal standpoint, just that, that internal piece with, with family and, and everybody healthy and, and continued, you know, growth for the kids and just a healthy environment for them. ⁓ that’d be great. And then professionally, what we were mentioning before, just that stability and just a good performance year. think it’s going to be somewhat challenging in the sense of a little bit of a softer market. ⁓

and just performing for our clients the best we can. I don’t care if we don’t grow, but ⁓ just have a good performance here and helping them out with some of these rocks they need to move this next year to be as successful as possible. just nothing big, just stability in both fronts. Yeah, that’s right.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:24)
Keep it steady. like

it. Alvaro Freilay from Azul Hospitality Group. want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Alvaro Fraile (1:01:39)
Anthony, what a pleasure and honor and thank you for what you do. I think this is a great initiative and I hope people ⁓ really appreciate it and enjoy it and hopefully this one also does for them. So thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:50)
Thank

you for those kind words. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.