324: From Serving Aces to Serving Guests in Puerto Rico w/ Juancarlo Vasquez
A psychology graduate who volleyed his way into the realm of five-star service, he shares his personal narrative of ascension from a tennis pro in DC Maryland to the prestigious role of Director of Operations at the Vanderbilt, a historic Caribbean gem. His tale brims with anecdotes on managing the delicate dance of guest contentment, the intricacies of overseeing a property with multiple dining options, and the adrenaline rush of opening a hotel.
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00:00 - Tennis to Hotel Hospitality Transition
14:03 - Traffic, Driving, and Jobs in Puerto Rico
19:53 - Challenges in Staffing and Operations
25:26 - Club Industry and Puerto Rico
Hey everyone, welcome back to Private Club Radio, the industry's source for news updates, governance, leadership, management, food and beverage, marketing, communications, any and all the things Private Club related, and we mean Country Club, city Club, golf Club, yacht Club, athletic Club, all the clubs. I'm your host, Denny Corby. Few weeks ago I was fortunate Me, my family we went on a little trip, quick last minute trip to Puerto Rico and I tried to plan and interview some club professionals down in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately couldn't make it happen in person while I was there between a couple little plans we already had made and an excursion or two. The time he just couldn't work out. But I almost had a chat in person with my friend Juan Carlos Vasquez. He is director of operations at the Condado vendor-built hotel and I wanted to connect with him because he started off in the Metro DC area as a tennis pro and went from there into the club space, obviously, and then is the director of operations and works his way up to there over in Puerto Rico. And, silly me, we made dinner reservations for STK, not realizing that was the vendor-built his property. So we actually could have done the interview in person. But we chatted after I got back and we did it virtually At least. We still got to connect, which was really good, but he and I had a nice conversation. Juan Carlos is a psychology graduate who has been in hospitality in the club world for most of his life and even though he's not at a club currently, to me it's still a higher end hospitality. It has a club-like atmosphere and, just from somebody who spent years and time in the club world, and even though it's still a hotel, there's still a lot of obvious similarities and we can always learn from everybody. So, everyone, let's welcome all the way from Puerto Rico Juan Carlos Vazquez.
Speaker 2:No, I grew up in Puerto Rico, so I was Did you. Okay, yes, I was born in Baltimore, but I lived there, but I'm from here, so I lived pretty much up to here all my life. I went to school in DC at American University, but my plan was always to eventually come back Gotcha For a psych-pop project that was to my liking.
Speaker 1:Now did you? You went for hospitality, right, or?
Speaker 2:no, it was-. No, I studied psychology.
Speaker 1:Psychology, that was it yep. Yeah, and then how'd you end up in the hospitality realm?
Speaker 2:I always liked hotels. I always liked clubs. I played tennis all my life. I played tennis in college. So after that I pretty much after I graduated I walked to all the country clubs in the DC Maryland area until I finally got a job as a teaching pro at a Columbia country club. So that started my career path. And then, how long were you?
Speaker 1:at Columbia for.
Speaker 2:Columbia. I was probably there for about two years.
Speaker 1:And then, what was your first position there?
Speaker 2:Just a tennis pro.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yes, I started in tennis.
Speaker 1:And then we're about the same age. Right, You're about 35?.
Speaker 2:No, I turned 40.
Speaker 1:Oh snap okay, you look really good. Ha ha, ha, ha ha. So what was it like going from? Because you started off at the. Your bigger position was at the Mandarin right, so you did tennis and then the Mandarin.
Speaker 2:So I went from the tennis and I went to the Mandarin Oriental DC, which is now the Salamander, actually turned over this year, so there I worked front desk and I also worked at the club lounge. But the club lounge is a little different than most others, since we had a private membership as well, so it was a club within the hotel.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah. What was that like? So people can join.
Speaker 2:We had a lot of business people that joined. We probably had about 30 was our max membership and we had only 28 members. Members.
Speaker 1:Do you have a waiting list Like what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. It was a. I don't know if you've heard of the rich Colton. They always have their, their club level, so it's always busy. So we we couldn't really get any get any more than that, but it was, it was fun. It was a lot of you know some government officials, ceos of big companies.
Speaker 1:And then what was it like going from there to Baltimore country club?
Speaker 2:Then I was looking. I moved a little further up north with my wife to to Maryland so I started looking. There was no luxury hotels at the moment in the Baltimore area. They created a four seasons a little a few years after, but the Baltimore was probably the the best spot to work at in Maryland Baltimore area.
Speaker 1:And then, where did you start off?
Speaker 2:Start off as a reservations manager, so reservations on front desk manager there.
Speaker 1:And then, what was, what was your final position when you, when you left Baltimore?
Speaker 2:That was reservations and events manager there.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, so okay. So that's that's, and you were there for about four years, if I remember correctly. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think about a little over four years. I loved it there. It was a blast.
Speaker 1:And then, how did this opportunity for the for the Vanderbilt come up?
Speaker 2:So Vanderbilt is actually the first luxury hotel in the Caribbean that opened in 1919, but it was closed for the longest time. It was closed for a little over 10 years and it was due to reopen at the end of 2014. So I always had sort of my eyes set on this hotel. So once they renovated it and they were about to open, I came down here to apply for to help open the hotel.
Speaker 1:So what did you apply for, like, what was like your hopes then at that point? Cause you went from the tennis you're at, you know, mandarin, you're now at a club. Now you're kind of switching a little bit, like switching gears a tiny bit. So what did you apply for? What did you end up getting? And then what's that progression been like? Cause you've been there for what? 10 years now?
Speaker 2:It'll be 10 years in September.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I got the position I applied for, but I was willing to get any management position. To be honest, to help open the hotel, I started as a front office manager here. Then I went to director of front office and now I've been about a year and a half as the director of operations here.
Speaker 1:And what does like. What does a typical day for you look like as director of operations at the Vanderbilt Cause? That's a. It's a big property.
Speaker 2:It's a big property, yeah, Five restaurants. So it's a lot of walking pretty much, making sure our guests are happy, our employees are happy. Just walking around all day making sure everything is. Everything is how it should be.
Speaker 1:Now I was at the STK on your property. Now, how does that fall under your jurisdiction? Like so is that? Is it like a frantic? How does that work and what control do you have over that aspect of?
Speaker 2:It is a franchise, but we run it a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:So it is one of our restaurants. The employees are our employees, so it's it is ours and we pay the franchise.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, gotcha. No, I wasn't sure if it was like an outside group or if you guys also ran it. Okay, so that's also part of your I don't want to say jurisdiction, but that's your jam as well, it is. Is that the like, the in terms of the other restaurants on property? How does that rank? Is that like one of your like? How does that rank in terms of the other restaurants?
Speaker 2:That's probably at night. That's definitely our busiest. We have our Ola Ocean from Beeswitz, our all day restaurant. That sort of breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, casual. We have tacos in Tequila. We have 1919, which is our fine dining restaurant. The chef there had two Michelin stars. That's Secretary of Chef in New York, so that's probably the most high end, best restaurant in Puerto Rico. And then we have STK, which is sort of a fun vibe dining steakhouse. It's not your typical steakhouse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a great time there. I went to the one in Vegas and the one here was here there where, with you, it was just as good. It was really really good, and you, do you have any anything to do with the casino also, or is that a whole different set of operations, cause the hotel has a casino?
Speaker 2:yeah, the hotel it's the we're the Condelo Collection as a whole, the company which has three hotels. You have the Condelo Ocean Club, next door is the adults only boutique hotel, and La Concha Resort, which has the casino. Is there about to be an autograph collection this year? Oh wow, it's just the same management company, same ownership, but not inside our property.
Speaker 1:Now how? What was it like going from cause? Baltimore was member owned right.
Speaker 2:Baltimore. Yes, it is member owned.
Speaker 1:Member owned. Was it like going from a member owned club to working for a for a for-profit organization?
Speaker 2:Again, I don't see it too different. To be honest, it's still the hospitality service industry and others. The main difference is the connections you make at a club are a little closer knit, a little longer lasting, since you're there with daily, when you see them weekly same people for years and years. At a hotel. It's just three days and a brand new set of 600 to a thousand people come in. That's the biggest difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, big challenge and probably very exhausting too, but also very happy, because you don't have to deal with certain members every single day. It's like these people are all going to be here for like two or three days and then they're gone Exactly and luckily with the member, only then for profit.
Speaker 2:luckily, we have a great ownership group that reinvests a ton into the property. So it's a lot of hotels that you'll see. They need a lot of TLC. This is we have a ownership group that likes to spend and maintain their property and upkeep it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was absolutely gorgeous when we all walked in and it's from being in the club space in the hospitality world. You see and experience so much. And now the place was absolutely beautiful. It was very, very, very well maintained. All the staff was fantastic. Now, in terms of the organizational chart, is there? I don't know if this is getting too personal now, but is there room to grow within that organization? So, like from where you're at at that level, what else is like around? Like is like a GM position? Next, like what sort of level? Now, you know, because it's private club radio, so I'm just trying to bring it over to now, to now this space.
Speaker 2:It's pretty similar to the organizational structure as a club. You know, the following position would be a I guess assistant general manager. Here would be a hotel manager and then after that would be GM.
Speaker 1:So, there's now. Is that the route that you're looking to go as well? Most, definitely Most definitely, and now would the next level be at, because you're one of the top places on Puerto Rico. So what's like the next step then? Is it like staying within that organization, like, is it going back to a club? Where do you think the progression is going to go? Or are you just kind of taking a, taking it each?
Speaker 2:day by day. You're right, there's not many positions that I'm looking forward to. There's probably maybe we have a St Regis here, the same ownership group. There's a Ritz-Caulton Reserve and Dorado Beach Country Club. It's also on par with us, but it's probably maybe you know three to four jobs that I would be interested in for as my next step. But I still consider the one in the Vanderbilt is the city hotel. Lots of energy, FNB is great, so it's to me it's where we're not above, but obviously there's not much room to grow.
Speaker 1:But there's still something. I was over at the St Regis for our stay in Puerto Rico and that was absolutely gorgeous and so funny. As part of the same group, yeah, yeah, you know the whole, so I can just imagine from what I experienced in the time that I had in the hospitality. You can definitely see the similarities between both hotels groups, which makes sense because it's the same owners. Have you ever spent any time over at the St Regis?
Speaker 2:I love to go there. I'd probably go there maybe once a year. Get away. It's a beautiful property. You know, just played by the pool. It's probably 40 minutes from us, so it's a nice getaway without having to travel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will say, though it took like when we were coming in for dinner there was a bunch of traffic. We left during rush hour and I can get what what what road it is, but coming from like the St Regis it was horrible traffic. And then we get to this one point and it was just because this one exit, the four lanes, everybody was trying to cut over at the last second I forget what exit it was, but like once we passed that it was smooth sailing. It was so annoying because it was just all these people just trying to, trying to cut over.
Speaker 2:Driving Puerto Rico is no fun. It runs the traffic always.
Speaker 1:It was. It was definitely a unique drive because you're in it's the, the, the measurement is kilometers but the speed limit is miles per hour, exactly Like which I thought I was going crazy and I'm like I'm smart enough to be dangerous, but I'm like pretty like dumb. So I was, I was in my head, I'm like is it just me or are we doing kilometer? But then also it's miles per hour. And then what killed me is we were going to the rainforest tours. We had somebody come come pick us up. It took took the six of us where we were going into the rainforest and there was police, had this intersection, this whole area blocked off because there was a funeral going by and there was a dude on the side of the street who was like filming the entire thing and I made a joke about something. And the driver goes oh yeah, that's our mayor. He was like live streaming the funeral, like the funeral possession. He goes yeah, he's on social media a lot. It was such a fun trip, such a fun experience. So that's.
Speaker 2:That's Puerto Rico for you.
Speaker 1:Now, would you like to stay there? Would you like to move like what? What would be your ideal? Or is it more a position that would pop up would probably be a factor, or are you looking to stay on on the island?
Speaker 2:I have two, two babies. One is two and two and a half, the other is four, five it's five months Probably looking to stay for the for the time being. Obviously there's more, many more opportunities in the U? S, but probably for the next few years at least, stay here and hopefully there's. There's a lot of properties on the pipeline here in Puerto Rico as well Luxury, so hopefully we'll get a few more in.
Speaker 1:And and this is me just talking out loud, but I would assume you know, being at that level where you're at as well, in that hotel and the prestigious the, the prestige, it has in the in the name, you know it's probably not even so much of an importance to need to move, so to speak, because you're at such a I don't want to say it's such a, such a prestigious level. But that would probably be my point of view a little bit too, is it? You know, probably at your level at that point, it's not so much of importance to need or want to move. Yes, no, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree, I'm not. I love this property and I'm not desperate for right for any other property. At the end of the day, I know there's there's very few properties that are as great as this one at the end of the day, with the four restaurants that we have, the history, that we have the architecture, it's so I don't and. I'm not jealous of any property in the US or elsewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I'm trying to go through the like you know, I'm trying to think in peace through, you know, what you shared with me and the experience and it's like, well, you know, to get up to that level. You know there's I was talking to I think he just worked around the hotel in the front area doing you know, the shuttles and just you know, helping out out front and the he drove us. We went to go play golf over at the is it Baye Beach? Baye Beach, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so we went over to play some golf and we were talking to the driver and he said he applied for something like six months just to get to his position. Is the waiting list that long? Is the talent pool? That's strict to work at one of your properties?
Speaker 2:Oh, so he's not in the back, not anymore. When we opened when we were open in 2014, we had a job fair and that was thousands of people shut up. It took several days to interview everybody. Yeah, but that's definitely not the case. Have we seen, especially post post pandemic here in the Europe and the US? It's the same as not not a huge talent pool, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, so maybe he was just a little. He was a bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 2:I'm kidding. Sometimes your resume does get lost, I guess, but but now the talent pool is not. It's not an industry that people are flocking to at the moment.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of the, the, the talent pool and work and stuff you know, post pandemic, what, what's that been like for you in Puerto Rico and the in the in the Vanderbilt? Uh, could you also have a fairly, I mean, compared to. So I'm in Pennsylvania, your minimum wages higher in Puerto Rico than Pennsylvania. I think we're like seven and change and you're what? Nine something, almost 10, 10 bucks an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were at seven the 725 until about maybe three or four years ago. We had been that forever. Yeah, so it's a little higher, though I've seen the salaries here don't compare to the ones in the in the US, especially in the high end hotel in the city where we're not close yet in the.
Speaker 1:Puerto.
Speaker 2:River, but I mean post pandemic it was. It was crazy, to be honest. The first couple year and a half we couldn't find anybody because they were making way more money from an employment than than what we pay.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then, coming back, a lot of people are becoming sort of mini entrepreneurs, which is which is great, but the talent pool is definitely lagging. But things have normalized. Probably in the last year or so. They have definitely normalized and this is the. The new normal is we're not going to have a waiting list of six months for for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so what, what, what, what are some of the current challenges that you've had with staffing and trying to get people?
Speaker 2:The main, probably in the kitchen is probably the most difficult one. The level of our restaurants is pretty high and can. Getting cooks is probably the most difficult. Cooks and and housekeepers, you know, if they go through Airbnb they can definitely make make more money on their own time. So that that's. That's a challenge for the housekeepers and cooks. You know they're working in food trucks or something that they'll get paid cash.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're probably the two most challenging areas.
Speaker 1:And now is that what you were talking about when it? When it comes to people being more entrepreneurial and having their own thing, is they could have their own cleaning business and do you know, have one, meet one person who has five Airbnb properties, and I even think about that. That's yeah, that's definitely a challenge. So, so, how? So what? What happened? So I don't get to talk to too many people in this aspect in terms of like the hotel, so when it comes to that, you have X amount of cleaners and you need more, whatever. How do you handle that with the demand of now the rooms being flipped? In terms of an operational standpoint, that sounds like chaos. How do you, what do you do for that?
Speaker 2:I mean things have normalized a little bit, like I said, the new normal but at first we couldn't sell 100%. We couldn't sell every room. Even if we had, you know, people willing to pay a ton of money, we couldn't sell every room Over time, six days a week, seven days a week. Whoever wants a lot of people are obviously are always willing to get that double pay, so that that definitely helps, but a lot of overtime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then now do you have like in place where you know you can tell the staff early if you don't want house clean, you know keeping up and all that stuff as well, which I'm assuming would probably help a little bit. Like I know, when I check into hotels I don't like people coming into my room anyway, but just you know having the ability to get some extra points or whatever and not have staff come through, I'm sure that probably saves time as well, knowing who wants service and who doesn't.
Speaker 2:Yes, but here at this kind of hotel, most people do want service. Obviously you'll get a few that I don't, but most people they want their day service. They're willing to turn down service, that's they want service another time as well. Yeah, we'll provide it.
Speaker 1:I guess I'm one of the opposites. Like I put my do not disturb sign on, I don't want people in my room.
Speaker 2:I don't need my stuff changed every day.
Speaker 1:I was talking to somebody recently about that. They're like every day I want brand new towels, this and that, and I'm like I've been to your house before. You don't use the same towels every day and you don't make your bed, so why are you so picky about hotel doing it?
Speaker 2:Most aren't like that, but we do get the guys that want their she's changed every single day. We're happy to make them happy.
Speaker 1:Going back to your club experience. What has been some of like the biggest maybe takeaways or learning experiences that you've taken from the four years at Baltimore to bring over to the hotel and side. What do you think you've learned the most from there?
Speaker 2:Definitely, like I said, the club. You make connections with the guests. It takes a little longer to get to know them, but you get to know their family, you get to know their friends, pretty much all details about their life. So those connections are incredible With the staff as well. You see, at the club the staff stays a lot longer. At the BCC we had staff members there for 50 years At a hotel.
Speaker 1:Five, five zero.
Speaker 2:One of our reception is I think she just maybe 40, she's been there for about 40 years now. She's people in the kitchen for 50 years. So you do get way more of that. So the tight knit, the staff, is way more of a family. Same with the membership Hotels. You don't see that too often. It's way more turnover. There's many more hotels to choose from. So of all people jump from one hotel to another. So that's part of it. So you get to know more people. But that bond from a country club is incredible.
Speaker 1:Well, sir, I don't wanna take up too much of your time. I just wanted to thank you so much for being on. Thanks for coming on. I wish you could have done it in person, but schedules didn't fully align down there as a last minute trip as well. But thank you for sending some insight. I really appreciate it. And anything else you wanna add to our little conversation.
Speaker 2:No, thank you for your time. It's always great to talk about clubs. I love the club industry, so it's incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much for sharing. Really really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your time and if you wanna come back to Puerto Rico, let me know. We'll take care of you.
Speaker 1:Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did Wish we could have done it in person, but that just means I might have to go back to Puerto Rico to make that happen. As always, if you are enjoying the content, any support is greatly appreciated. Like share, subscribe, cost, nothing means the world. If you have not done so already, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter and over to privateclubradiocom Straight there at the top. Until next time, and da ya flippa, flippa.