Part 2 of the live "A Night on Ski Mountain" recording shifts from market data to the people behind it. Tom Goodwin brings up three Mountain Laurel Chalets team members representing a combined 60-plus years with the company: Corey Hawks, COO, general contractor, and real estate broker, with 20 years at Mountain Laurel Chalets; Kay King, Director of Owner Services, with 37 years at the company; and Kelly Haas, the newest addition as Director of Guest Services — and, notably, a former repeat guest herself, who stayed at Above Laurelwood with her husband and daughters before relocating to Gatlinburg and walking into the office to ask for a job.
Tom poses each panelist a question rooted in their role. Kay speaks to what genuinely protects an owner's investment day to day — inspections, staging every detail before a guest arrives (lights on, soft music, every pillow "just wow"), and battling the season's unusually persistent stink bug infestation. Kelly, drawing on her unique vantage point as both former guest and current staff, describes what keeps guests coming back: feeling like family, feeling welcome, and having a real person — not an automated door code and silence — to call in an emergency, something she contrasts directly with competitors who never open a physical office. Corey shares a stark before-and-after story: a newly onboarded property that took a cleaner three to four days just to deep-clean after years of neglect, and a separate five-bedroom home in North Chalet Village so neglected by an absent owner and prior operator — two plates, three forks, holes cut into walls left unrepaired — that bringing it up to Mountain Laurel Chalets standards required an estimated $85,000 in cosmetic repairs alone.
The conversation turns philosophical when Tom asks the panel a deliberately provocative question: owners first, or guests first? Kay answers unequivocally for owners, arguing she can't do her job without owners' support and their willingness to reinvest in mattresses, couches, and updates. Kelly leans toward guests, since without them "we wouldn't be making an income." Tom offers the synthesis: owners are the foundation, guests are the purpose — neither can be sacrificed for the other, but the foundation has to come first, since without owners entrusting their homes to the company, there's no vacation experience to offer guests at all.
The segment closes on a warmer note: the introduction of the Dot and Ralph Ogle Memorial Award, established at the company's 40th anniversary to honor an owner who embodies the heart and spirit of hospitality and generosity — named for Mountain Laurel Chalets' founders — alongside a quick note on the company's transition to new property management software, Guesty, replacing a smaller local platform that could no longer keep pace with integration needs.
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- Staging is detail work, down to the pillow. Kay describes preparing a home before every single guest arrival — lights on, soft music playing, every pillow arranged — as core to the "wow" experience the company aims to deliver.
- A former guest now leads guest services. Kelly Haas stayed at Above Laurelwood with her family before relocating to Gatlinburg and walking into the Mountain Laurel Chalets office to ask for a job — she's now Director of Guest Services.
- Real people answer the phone, even at night. Kelly contrasts Mountain Laurel Chalets' emergency response (naming maintenance staff like Clint who show up in person) against competitors who rely entirely on automated door codes and text messages with no live follow-up.
- Neglect has a real, quantifiable cost. Corey describes a five-bedroom North Chalet Village home — left unattended by an absent owner and prior operator for five years, down to two plates and three forks in the kitchen — that would require an estimated $85,000 in cosmetic repairs to bring onto the Mountain Laurel Chalets program.
- Deferred maintenance compounds like a neglected rental car. Corey uses the analogy that guests "consume" a home the way people treat a rental car — without a management company actively maintaining it over years, deterioration accelerates.
- Owners are the foundation, guests are the purpose. Tom's synthesis of the "owners vs. guests" debate: both matter, but without owners entrusting their properties to the company, there's no experience to offer guests in the first place.
- A new software transition is underway. Mountain Laurel Chalets is migrating from Brightside, a smaller local platform, to Guesty starting May 4th, citing the need for deeper integrations, including emerging AI tools.
- The Dot and Ralph Ogle Memorial Award honors the company's founders. Established at Mountain Laurel Chalets' 40th anniversary, the award recognizes an owner who embodies genuine hospitality and generosity — reflecting the founders' own legacy.
- Guests treat the relationship as family, not a transaction. Tom shares that the company has received a call simply to inform them of a guest's passing, and a wedding save-the-date magnet mailed directly to the office — gestures reflecting relationships that go beyond a typical booking.
