The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the speakers as of the date of the conference, are subject to change without notice, and are provided for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this article constitutes investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Investors should consult their own tax, legal, and financial advisors before making any investment decision.

WATCH PRESENTATION>>

Summary: Chad traces Realberry’s long-term approach back to a roadside strawberry stand: build something people value, and they come back. The conversation covers experience, market cycles, luxury hospitality, supply, and risk.

Every business has a first lesson. For Realberry, it came from a roadside strawberry stand in Southern California, long before the firm was a real estate company. Can a stand like that teach anything about luxury hospitality and long-term real estate? In Chad’s view, the answer is yes, and it starts with one simple idea.

Chad McWhinney shares that perspective in a fireside chat at the Stansberry conference in Las Vegas.

Where the Name Comes From

Realberry’s name is a nod to where Chad and Troy began: running a roadside strawberry stand. The lessons from that stand were simple. Quality, service, and connection matter, and so does creating an experience that makes a customer say wow.

The early lesson in demand followed. Build something people value, take care of them, and they come back. Chad describes the core idea as understanding what people want, creating something valuable for them, and thinking long term.

From Berries to Buildings

How did a strawberry stand become a real estate firm? Chad points to the same customer-first idea. He saw migration and growth in the Mountain West early, and he applied that idea to real estate: understand what people want, create something valuable for them, and think long term.

A foundational moment was Centerra, an investment Chad describes as the beginning of what became Realberry. Growth, he says, was the outcome of creating a quality product, not the starting objective.

Experience Is the Product

Fast-forward 35 years, and the portfolio spans multiple asset classes and markets. What connects them? Chad’s answer is a phrase Realberry uses often: “experience is the product.” A property is not only the physical building. It is how people experience it. Growth, in Chad’s telling, follows from getting that right.

That idea runs across a diversified portfolio, and it shapes how Realberry thinks about durability. Real estate ultimately competes for people: residents, tenants, guests, employers, and customers. Commodity product is easier to replace, while memorable, well-located, highly experiential places can be harder to replicate. Long-term ownership supports the approach because it encourages better design, better locations, and continuous reinvestment. Owning for the long term, in Chad’s view, changes how a team designs, operates, and reinvests in a property.

Timing the Cycle, or Not

Real estate has had a difficult few years, and every cycle tempts owners to call the peak or the trough. Chad’s view is that no one can do that reliably. Realberry focuses instead on owning assets it believes can remain relevant over long periods.

He reframes the question. Rather than asking where exactly we are in the cycle, he asks what people may continue to value during it and on the other side of it. His answer points to durable demand and to differentiated, memorable places. When supply grows or conditions weaken, he says, differentiated experiences matter even more, and quality and durable demand become especially important when capital is tighter. None of this removes risk. It is a way of deciding what to own while conditions change.

If not timing, then what is Chad looking for? He looks for durable demand and for assets that can remain relevant over long periods. Differentiated, memorable, highly experiential places can be harder to replicate than commodity product, and that applies to an asset and potentially to an entire sector.

What Luxury Means Now

Luxury once meant expensive finishes, five-star service, and beautiful rooms. Chad sees a broader shift. Affluent consumers are placing greater value on memorable experiences, and travel, wellness, food and beverage, programming, and connection are increasingly part of the luxury proposition. He describes luxury as increasingly about how a place makes you feel, not simply expensive finishes. Wellness, personalization, authenticity, and a sense of place are increasingly important too.

Is this just affluent consumers spending more, or a structural change in how they choose to spend? Chad says the shift is broader than having more money. The move toward experiences over things is showing up directly in real estate.

Are guests paying for the room or for how the place makes them feel? The room is only one piece of the overall experience. Food and beverage, wellness, events, programming, and communal spaces deepen engagement, and consumers are increasingly placing value on differentiated, memorable experiences.

Supply, Scarcity, and Where to Look

Demand alone does not make a good real estate investment, Chad notes, so supply matters too. High-quality luxury hotels are expensive, complex, and slow to build, and high-barrier markets restrict supply further. Customized design and programming are harder to replicate than standardized hotel product. Together, constrained supply and durable demand may support pricing for differentiated assets, though neither is a guarantee of results.

Scarcity is part of the thinking. A developer can build another hotel but not another Aspen, Lake Como, or stretch of Hawaiian oceanfront. Truly special locations can be difficult or impossible to replicate, Chad says, and the product itself can be harder to reproduce when design, programming, and experience are highly customized. In effect, the thinking underwrites two things together: durable demand for luxury experiences and constrained supply in high-barrier markets.

Supply is not frozen, though. CoStar reported that U.S. hotel rooms under construction fell for a 15th consecutive month in March 2026, yet luxury had the largest share of rooms under construction relative to its existing supply, at 4.5 percent. That is why Chad looks for markets where long-term consumer demand, scarcity, and barriers to new supply reinforce one another, and for quality assets positioned ahead of durable demand instead of simply following consensus. Thinking in ten-year terms rather than two, he keeps identifying long-term consumer shifts and positioning ahead of them.

Design That Answers to Its City

Chad points to Proper as an example of this thinking. Proper’s design-forward, highly localized experiences are central to the brand, and each property responds to its city and location instead of following a single template. Realberry’s relationship with Proper supports the portfolio’s growing focus on this demand.

Why not repeat one formula in every city? Customized design and programming create a more authentic sense of place. The product is harder and more expensive to execute, but also harder to reproduce.

The experience extends beyond the room. Food and beverage, wellness, events, and communal spaces can add revenue centers that contribute to the economics while strengthening the guest experience. Proper Presents extends a property beyond overnight stays through programming, giving guests and locals more reasons to engage. The model fits Realberry’s long-standing view that experience is the product.

How can anyone test whether guests pay a premium for this? Chad suggests RevPAR, or revenue per available room, and RevPAR index, which compares a hotel’s RevPAR with that of its competitors. Comparing luxury performance with broader hotel performance shows whether differentiated properties are capturing a premium. He points to Austin Proper and Santa Monica Proper as portfolio examples.

What Could We Be Wrong About?

Chad asks the harder question himself. Hospitality is operationally intensive as well as capital intensive, so execution matters. Demand, supply, operator quality, asset quality, and basis, the price paid for the asset, all have to be considered together. A good theme alone is not enough.

What has to go right? The right market, location, design, operator, and programming all matter. The property has to deliver a differentiated experience consistently, not just look differentiated at opening. Revenue centers such as food and beverage, wellness, and programming need to support both engagement and economics.

What separates a great hotel from a great hospitality investment? A great hotel still has to translate differentiation into durable financial performance. RevPAR, RevPAR index, contribution to net operating income, and performance across revenue centers help test whether the thesis is working, alongside market, asset quality, operator quality, supply constraints, and investment basis. Can a project with the right market, hotel, and operator still be a poor investment because the buyer paid too much? Yes, Chad says. Basis still matters, and differentiation does not remove the need for disciplined underwriting and a long-term view of returns.

Ten Years Out

Looking ahead a decade, Chad expects experiences to become more central to luxury. Wellness, connection, design, sense of place, and programming may matter even more, and the scarcity of truly special locations is likely to remain important. The amenities built into key hospitality projects need to reflect those evolving expectations, he says.

What might the market be underestimating? Chad names the growing importance of experiences as part of real estate value, and the need to identify long-term consumer shifts and position quality assets ahead of them. The strategy evolves, but the principle holds: understand what people value and create something meaningful around that demand. It is the strawberry stand’s lesson, at a larger scale.