Ed Elson

And I think this is, I think GOP, I mean, I've said this before, I think GOP ones are bigger than AI.

So I think that this is, sure, I'm sure it's something about the franchise model, interest rates, all that, you know, labor, inflation, I'm sure all their concerns are real.

But if everybody was eating more,

That would roll over the anomalies in the franchise model.

This is the oxygen is being sucked out of the room.

And there's just, it's like when a company is shrinking, everybody starts blaming each other and they're questioning the business model.

And it's like, no, people just aren't buying newspapers any longer.

They're reading, they're getting news from different sources.

So I'm open to pushback here, but I think this is more a story of GLP-1 as opposed to the franchise model doesn't work.

You know who's probably adopted the franchise model at a greater scale than fast food restaurants is hotels.

Very few hotels are owned by the flag.

Four Seasons owns one of its property, its flagship property, its headquarters in Toronto.

Every other Four Seasons is owned by a rich guy who thinks, I'd like to own the local Four Seasons.

And then they come in, it's a much better model.

They plant the flag, they let them tap into the reservation systems.

They have a very onerous owner agreement around

You have to have someone 24 hours a day at the check-in desk, you have to clean the rooms twice, whatever it is, and they take eight to 12% of top line proceeds.

And the owner of the Four Seasons in New York, I think had to give it back to the bank because they had to maintain these onerous standards when no one was checking in.

But it's an amazing model.

And by the way, in the hotel business, it's still working because people love the idea of owning the six senses.