Small Hotels, Big Margins - Ryan Diggins - Defining Hospitality

In this episode, Dan Ryan sits down with Ryan Diggins, founder and operator of The Ramble Hotel and co-founder of Gravitas Development, to unpack how his company, Midnight Auteur, builds boutique hotels that lead with food and beverage instead of treating it as an afterthought. Ryan walks through the thinking behind properties like The Ramble in Denver and Municipal Grand in Savannah, why smaller hotels can outperform bigger ones when you optimize for revenue per square foot instead of RevPAR alone, and how staying involved in the smallest design details, right down to how brass patinas on a toilet handle, keeps a project from losing its soul as it scales. The conversation also dives into how Ryan finds overlooked real estate opportunities, how he builds teams around a fully formed vision instead of the other way around, and what the future of hotel discovery looks like as AI reshapes how travelers find where to stay.

Ryan Diggins is a real estate development veteran with over 15 years of experience building in Denver and beyond, and he's spent that time proving that boutique hotels can compete with, and outperform, some of the biggest names in the business. As founder and operator of The Ramble Hotel and co-founder of Gravitas Development, he leads hotel concepting, development, and operations through his company Midnight Auteur, marrying serious development chops with a hospitality first sensibility. His latest project, Municipal Grand in Savannah, was recently named one of the top 19 places to travel in 2026 by Architectural Digest, cementing his reputation as one of the industry's sharpest voices on design-driven, food and beverage anchored hospitality.

Chapters:00:00 Real Estate vs Purpose

00:22 Show Mission Intro

00:55 Guest Spotlight Ryan

02:26 Defining Hospitality

04:00 Placemaking Through Hotels

06:43 Artfulness Over Formula

10:42 Why Secret Sauce Gets Lost

16:25 F&B Led Hotel Economics

26:04 Staying Curious While Scaling

31:34 Process Without Strangling

33:23 Design For The Picky Guest

35:22 Thoughtfulness As True North

37:23 Values Shape The Team

40:58 Winning Over Investors

44:29 Choosing Design Partners

48:22 Future Markets And Pipeline

50:53 Marketing In The AI Era

55:04 Death And Co Origin Story

Quote of the Show:

"If we can't answer what is this here for or why are we doing this, well now you're just a Pinterest board." - Ryan Diggins

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1 
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/ 
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-diggins-8a1297a/ 
• Guests Website: https://www.theramblehotel.com/ 
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/ 

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