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Is the Economy Segment Turning? Red Roof President Weighs In

Season 10 Published 4 months ago
Description
Economy and midscale owners don't need shiny objects. They need tech that either drives revenue or cuts costs—period.

For NoVacancyNews, I caught up with Zack Gharib, President of Red Roof, at Hunter Conference to talk about why he's leaning into tech now while demand softens—and what he thinks starts to turn.

📲 Zack explains the guest experience platform: guests text requests, staff stops playing phone-tag, and hotels fix issues before checkout
🧠 He talks ROI discipline: Red Roof only adopts tech that clearly drives revenue or clearly cuts costs
💳 He says franchisees asked for cheaper payment processing, so Red Roof partnered with FreedomPay at about half the cost—saving hotels hundreds per month
🔗 He ties the tech stack together: PMS-first (HotelKey), then smoother integrations, faster execution, and direct connectivity that removes third-party fees
📈 He talks momentum: Q1 looks strong, March looks outstanding, and he sees the economy segment starting to shift after a long down cycle
🏗️ He adds the development note: new hotel signings ran 35% year-over-year last year
💵 He throws in a consumer indicator: IRS data shows average tax refunds up 14% year-over-year, and he expects more weekend drive trips

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