DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
065 | Going Against the Grain with Hotel Impossible Designer Blanche Garcia
DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
Blanche is a certified Interior Designer with over 18 years of experience in residential and commercial design and is the owner of B. Garcia Designs based in Montclair, New Jersey. She is also a principal designer featured in the popular Travel Channel reality series, Hotel Impossible.
Blanche is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) as well as a “Green Design” LEED Accredited Professional through the United States Green Building Commission.
In This Episode, Blanche Talks About …
- How she found her love of construction while volunteering at the age of 12 for nonprofit building projects around the country with her mother.
- Setting goals, then taking deliberate action to achieve them. And she shares one of her early career goals – to be on TV – and how that ultimately manifested in her life.
- Her first television appearance back in 2011 as a contestant in season 6 of the interior design reality competition series Design Star on HGTV.
- Being approached to do an episode of a new hotel design show … now known as Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible … and how that single show morphed into a role as principal designer where she helps tackle the job of revamping hotels along with host, Anthony Melchiorri.
- The differences between a decorator and a designer, and she shares several simple things hotels can do to improve the design of the properties, that don’t cost a lot of money.
- Some of the mistakes that hoteliers make, and what you can do to avoid them.
If you’ve seen Blanche on Hotel Impossible or visited her website, then you know she’s extremely talented. However, what I didn’t realize until we connected is how authentic she is. Whether you read her blog or social media posts, or watch her “how to” videos or on TV, you get the same, real person, and she’s a riot.
Resources & Links
Blanche Garcia
B. Garcia Designs
B. Garcia Designs
551 Valley Rd. #170
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
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346 | Repositioning For Recovery: Hotel conversions to outpace new builds
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
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345 | ‘Rosy View of Future’: Hotel industry sees unleashing of pent-up investor demand
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.