Meet today’s artisan, Michelle Barnet, who is the Founder & Chief Pineapple Officer of Staypineapple!
Generation: Generation X
Hometown: Bellevue, WA
Day Job: To envision, design, disrupt and redefine.
Night Job: Traveling with family, including pups.
Headquarters: Hospitality is 24/7, so headquarters is wherever I am at the moment.
Instagram: @staypineapple
Tell us what you create: Staypineapple is a collection of boutique hotels created to be a disruptive platform that focuses on guest experiences and anticipating guests’ needs. In our culture, we strive to answer before being asked, provide before requested, and constantly intuit peer and guest needs before they even appear.
Tell us your mission: I love to design, I love to vision and I love to disrupt in a continual effort to make the seemingly impossible not only possible but amazing for those around me.
Tell us your most noteworthy achievement in hospitality: The Maxwell Hotel in Seattle, a new build from the ground up and named after my son, was a true labor of love.
Tell us how your hotel impacts the world in a positive way: In 2012, Staypineapple was one of the first hotel brands to adopt the use of refillable guest room soap dispensers, eliminating the need for single-use plastic bottles. And we are dog-obsessed. Our mascot, Dash, The Pineapple Pup, who welcomes each and every guest into the world of Staypineapple, is available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds being donated to non-profit animal rescue organizations. And we have some big commitments over the next few years, one of which being to increase the percentage of renewable energy used in operating our hotels from the current 70% renewable energy to 90% renewable energy by 2026. It may not be the cheaper option, but it is the right option.
If you had one day to experience your hotel, what would you do?: I would choose our hotel in New York City. Being in Midtown Manhattan is such a prime location for a full day of fun. We are within a couple of blocks of Penn Station and Madison Square Garden to see a concert or catch a game. Or take a short walk to the theatre district to take in a Broadway show. I would have to do some world-class shopping and with the subway just a short walk from the hotel, I have my pick of where to go. And sometimes it’s fun to take a cab to see the sights along the way. Of course, there would have to be an award-winning meal at any number of restaurants. It’s always so hard to choose. I love the sights and sounds of the Big “Pine-Apple.”
Tell us what your favorite part of being a boutique hotel operator is: Memory making is the elemental currency of success in hospitality. A successful hotel stay culminates with the guest taking away a personalized, wholly positive experience that they can tuck away as a great memory, hopefully, to be repeated often as we love our return guests. This process of idyllic memory creation for each guest is the essence of the Staypineapple brand.
Something that is coming up in the pipeline: 2023 is the year we will share Staypineapple with our fellow industry leaders and professionals. We are the Lifestyle Sponsor of the upcoming 2023 Boutique Hotel Investment Conference. Our executive leadership team will present our newest venture, Staypineapple Hotels Inc., a powerhouse of property management capabilities. There is magic in what we’ve created, and it is time we share it with the rest of the hospitality industry.
Staypineapple hotels are cherry-picked approved boutique hotels.
