Behind the Stays
Welcome to Behind the Stays — a podcast that shares the stories behind your favorite boutique hotels, short-term rentals, and hospitality brands and the hosts, operators, and entrepreneurs who’ve brought them to life. Every Tuesday and Friday you’ll meet the military veterans, retired flight attendants, tech entrepreneurs, school teachers, single moms, hoteliers, and real estate investors who are all, in their unique ways, shaping the future of travel and hospitality. Discover how these visionaries — from all over the world — have built stunning landscape hotels in the mountains, designed bohemian bungalows on the beach, erected eclectic off-grid and nature-immersed escapes, and so muc...
This Week in Hospitality: Google Buys Spirit’s Data, Timeshares Are Cool Now, and Alice Sherman on the Future of Hiring in Hospitality
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
On this week's episode the guys are joined by Alice Sherman, CEO of HVS Executive Search! Alice Sherman has placed some of the most powerful executives in hospitality. As CEO of HVS Executive Search, she's seen thousands of resumes, sat across from hundreds of owners, and walked the halls of Congress to lo...
The Real Reason You Can't Build a Vacation Rental Brand (It's Not What You Think) — And How to Fix It
Explore Inhaven: https://inhaven.com/
Connect with Ashley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-ching-inhaven-b56a843/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Check out Lodgify and get an exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/
—
Meet Ashley Ching — founder of Inhaven, former head of global merchandising operations at Tiffany & Co., and the person behind what might be the most important piece of research the vacation rental industry has produced in years.Here's the question Ashley keeps asking: every other hospitality industry — hotels, airlines, restaurants, car rentals — has a languag...
This Week in Hospitality: Airbnb & Trip Advisor Partner, IHG's Owner Gambit, and a Loyalty Program Worth More Than the Airline
Airbnb just partnered with TripAdvisor to bring 425,000 experiences onto its platform — a move that signals Brian Chesky isn't just dabbling in experiences anymore, he's building a second business inside the first. The crew breaks down what this means for the future of in-destination travel, why the real unfair advantage might already be sitting inside every host's guidebook, and whether this is Airbnb's best play in markets where short-term rental bans are tightening the grip on its core product. Edwin brings the European perspective: Barcelona's courts just sided with the city, 10,000 units disappear by 2029, and the ripple effects are spreading. Then the...
Why the Complaint Is the Doorway: Rachel Alday on Her New Book, "Please Do Disturb"
Read "Please Do Disturb": https://pleasedodisturbbook.com/
Connect with Rachel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelalday
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Check out Lodgify and get an exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/
—
In just a moment, you'll meet Rachel Alday, co-founder of Abode Luxury Rentals and author of the forthcoming book, "Please Do Disturb." I brought Rachel back on the podcast because she's an awesome friend of mine, but also because the frameworks and lessons she outlines in her book have guided her and...
This Week in Hospitality: Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit on The Great Hotel Owner Squeeze, Aman's YouTuber Fiasco, & Marriott's Owner Concession
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week we're joined by Sarah Kopit, Editor-in-Chief of Skift — the publication that fuels basically every episode of this show — and she came ready.
We open on the story all of hospitality shared this week: Aman's brand-new, $6,000-a-night Amanvari turning away independent reviewer Ryan Walker at the gate on night...
Sponsored Listings Are Coming to Vrbo — Plus What 2,000 Guests Actually Want from Vacation Rentals (and It's Not a Hot Tub)
Connect with Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-rosolio-434b2a98/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
—
Vrbo just did three things most operators haven't connected yet: it purged 100,000 homes, surveyed 2,000 guests across seven countries, and started rolling out sponsored listings. Put them together and you get the clearest signal yet on where vacation rentals are headed.
Tim Rosolio is VP of Vacation Rental Partnerships at Expedia Group, where he leads the supply and host side of...
This Week in Hospitality: Sonder is back, Fora hits a $1B valuation, The Odyssey drives travel & Google’s AI booking grab
Sonder is back — sort of. Eight months after going bankrupt and stranding guests mid-stay, the brand name has been bought by a Vancouver affiliate firm that paid for one thing: search equity. The buildings are gone. The trademarks and 70+ domains remain. And because large language models still route travelers to Sonder’s optimized pages, that name is now targeting $100M in gross booking value over the next year. We get into what it means when a dead brand outlives the company that built it.
Then: Fora’s $1B valuation. The travel advisor platform keeps scaling the human-agent model...
The Godfather of Hospitality Podcasting Has Notes: Disney, Virgin, and the Quest to Be Original with Glenn Haussman
Connect with Glenn: linkedin.com/in/glennhaussman
Explore "No Vacancy": https://novacancynews.com/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
—
Meet Glenn Haussman — thirty years in hospitality media, a decade helming No Vacancy News, and one of the most recognized voices this industry has ever produced. He's been in the rooms, on the stages, and behind the microphone longer than most people in this industry have known what a podcast was. He's not just a journalist. He's a mi...
This Week in Hospitality: Hot Takes on Hilton, What Hotels Should Learn from the World Cup, and Shark Tank for Route 66's Last Surviving Motels
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta went on record defending the brand's 28-property portfolio — and the panel has thoughts. Is the multi-brand arms race really about guests, or is it just an elaborate play for developers and distribution?
Edwin makes the case that independent hotels have a competitive advantage no loyalty alg...
This Week in Hospitality: How Norwegian Air Went Viral for Losing, Should Airbnb and Ennismore Hook Up? and the Slow Death of Organic Discovery on Vrbo
This week, the squad breaks down Norwegian Air's World Cup Instagram stunt that cost next to nothing and generated more brand equity than campaigns with budgets a hundred times the size. Eivind Hammer Myhre, who leads comms and marketing at Norwegian, joins us live to walk through exactly how it happened — the 25-minute brainstorm, the one phone call to get sign-off, and what came after when the whole thing blew up overnight.
Then we get into the Ennismore story. Skift's Rafat Ali floated a thought experiment this week that reads less like an op-ed and more like a...
This Week in Hospitality: Ideas, Stories, and Hot Takes with James McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of NIHI Hotels
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
James McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of NIHI Hotels, joins the core four for a wide-ranging conversation on what it actually takes to build a legendary independent hospitality brand — from the jungles of Sumba to the halls of the Ritz-Carlton.
James traces his career across some of the most storied names in...
Why Luxury Hospitality Is Optimizing Itself Into Irrelevance — And What To Do About It (with Colin Nagy)
Connect with Colin: linkedin.com/in/colinjamesnagy/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
—
The luxury hotel boom of the last decade produced more five-star rooms, more high-end brands, and more capital chasing premium travelers than any period in modern hospitality history.
It also produced a lot of hotels that feel exactly the same.
Colin Nagy has spent nearly a decade covering the business of luxury travel for Skift while leading global brand strategy for In...
How Cloudbeds Is Shaping the Future of Independent Hospitality with Their New Partnership with Journey
What if the technology helping independent hotels compete with the biggest brands in the world shouldn’t feel like technology at all?
Cloudbeds serves tens of thousands of properties across more than 150 countries — giving its team a uniquely expansive view into how independent hotels are performing, what operators are struggling with, and how the way travelers discover and book stays is rapidly changing.
In this episode, Zach sits down in person with Rafael Blanes, Chief Growth Officer at Cloudbeds, and Sébastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships, to unpack why they believe this is one of the m...
This Week in Hospitality: Airbnb Founder's Secret AI Lab, Bass Pro's $300M Resort Bet & The Economy Hotel Franchise Revolt
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Zach, Scott, and Edwin dig into three stories reshaping the industry this holiday week. First: Skift's The Big Squeeze Part 2, which spotlights a family in Iowa who let their Wyndham franchise expire, renovated their Super Eight, and beat their old revenue numbers — no flag required. With 1,200+ economy agreements hitting end-of-term by 2030, the...
This Week in Hospitality: Pali Society Goes Bonvoy, Hilton's Incubating 5 New Brands, and Hot Takes with Skift's Hospitality Editor, Sean O'Neil
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Sean O'Neill of Skift joins the roundtable this week for a conversation that cuts straight to the fault lines running through the hotel industry right now — distribution versus identity, brand proliferation versus brand meaning, and the wellness promise versus wellness delivery.
The panel leads with Pali Society's decision to bring its...
This Week in Hospitality: CoStar’s Forecast Reversal, Marriott Hits 10K Hotels, and Amsterdam’s Tourist Tax Revolt
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week opens in full TWIH chaos: Zach and Scott are somehow a mile apart in San Antonio and still not together, Ben is on the Connecticut shore debuting smarter-looking glasses, and Edwin is back in Barcelona sweating through a muted AC situation.
Then the guys get into the r...
This Week in Hospitality: The Airbnb-Marriott Deal That Almost Happened, MGM Goes Private(?), Journey & Cloudbeds Partner, & What Premium Travelers Want
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Two of the biggest casino operators in the world became takeover targets in the same week — and the squad has thoughts.
Barry Diller's People Inc. just offered $18 billion to take MGM Resorts private, days after Fertitta agreed to buy Caesars. MGM's own CFO didn't argue the company was fairly valued — he ar...
This Week in Hospitality: Sonder's Founder is Back, Hyatt's New Growth Strategy, The Human Concierge Book, and L.E/Miami Recap
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week opens at LE Miami — which Scott describes less like a travel conference and more like Coachella for hotel nerds — before the guys dive into the real industry tension underneath the party.
Hyatt tells investors to stop counting rooms and start counting fees, arguing that “empty calorie” growth is the wr...
This Week in Hospitality: The Uber-Hotel Hookup, Expedia Optimizes for AI Agents, and Why Americans Are Skipping Europe
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Mews embeds Uber directly into its PMS, promising seamless guest transportation and a cut of ancillary revenue hotels have long been leaving on the table. The guys are skeptical — cool concept, questionable adoption, and the real winner might just be Uber’s data team.
Then Expedia announces B2A — a marke...
How an Engineer-Turned-Michelin-Chef Built Epicurate, the Experience Platform for Luxury Stays
Explore Epicurate: https://epicurate.vip/
Connect with Max: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-porterkhamsy/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
—
Every once in a while on this show, I get to share news that I'm personally invested in — and this is one of those episodes.
A few weeks ago, Journey acquired Epicurate, a private chef and experiences platform that has become one of the most beloved platforms in the luxury segment of the short-term rent...
This Week in Hospitality: The World Cup Bust, Spirit's Collapse, Priceline is Back, and Aman's Move in the Texas Hill Country
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
The hospitality industry was supposed to print money during the 2026 World Cup. Instead, nearly 80% of hotels across the eleven US host cities are pacing significantly below forecasts, with Kansas City operators calling it a non-event and Boston, Philly, and San Francisco not far behind. On this week's episode, Zach is joined b...
This Week in Hospitality: Uber Becomes a Hotel Platform, TikTok Outperforms OTAs, and Hotels Still Don’t Own the Customer
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week’s conversation pulls apart a reality the industry has been circling for months—but is now impossible to ignore: travel demand is no longer being created, shaped, or captured by the companies that actually deliver the experience.
It’s happening upstream.
What starts as a discussion around...
He DJ'd for Jay-Z and Kanye — Now He's Rewiring Sound for Aman, Hyatt, and Jose Andrés
Explore Raina Music: https://rainamusic.com/
Connect with Vikas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikassapranyc/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
—
In just a moment, you’ll meet Vikas Sapra—DJ, tech founder, and the guy who’s quietly rewiring how the world’s best hotels and restaurants think about sound. Vikas has played for A-list celebrities like Jay-Z and Kanye, just to name a few. He’s collaborated with Mark Ronson and Questlove. He’s the rare DJ wh...
This Week In Hospitality: Hospitality’s Muddy Middle Is Breaking — With Bashar Wali
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Luxury hospitality has a credibility problem: the industry keeps charging more while delivering sameness, ceremony, and aesthetic shortcuts that increasingly feel hollow. Joining the quad this week is Bashar Wali—hotel operator, industry veteran, and one of hospitality’s most outspoken critics—known for pairing irreverence with sharp, experience-backed insight. He wastes...
Inside the Vrbo Where George Washington Stayed — and the Operator Turning Savannah Into a Historic Luxury Destination
Connect with Corey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-jones-a66a004/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
—
His tenant stopped paying rent. When he went to investigate, he found guest books, five-star reviews, and a listing on VRBO — for his own home. That's how Corey Jones stumbled into vacation rentals. No business plan. No grand ambition. Just a house he couldn't sell in 2009, a tenant who saw an opportunity before he did, and a New York Times travel feature he never...This Week in Hospitality: The Hotel Owner Squeeze, Six Senses Founder's Comeback, Wyndham's Grandma Gambit, and Coachella's Dirty Secret
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
The hotel industry is telling two very different stories right now — and this week, the squad unpacks both.
First up: a Skift deep dive exposes the brutal math crushing America's hotel owners. Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt are posting record profits while the people who actually own the buildings are hem...
This Week in Hospitality: Why Direct Booking Isn’t Working, Hyatt’s Miss, and the New Rules of Demand
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week, Scott, Ben, and Zach discuss the growing disconnect between industry strategy and traveler behavior.
New data from Cloudbeds shows OTA share continuing to rise for independent hotels, even as operators double down on direct booking initiatives. At the same time, Hyatt tied executive compensation to improving direct c...
How a Health Crisis, a Divorce, and a Thai Monk Led Her to Create the #1 Spa in the World: Meet Diana Stobo of The Retreat Costa Rica
Explore The Retreat Costa Rica: https://www.theretreatcostarica.com/
Connect with Diana: https://dianastobo.com/
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
In just a moment you'll meet Diana Stobo, the founder and visionary behind The Retreat Costa Rica — a 25-room luxury wellness destination and healing center with three farm-to-table restaurants, about an hour west of San José. Condé Nast just named it the number one destination spa in the world.
But rewind about 25 years and Diana is 3...
This Week in Hospitality: The Death of Hotel Discovery, The Rise of Food-Led Hotels, and Loyalty’s Identity Crisis
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week, the guys unpack a massive shift happening across hospitality — and what it means for who actually owns demand.
Hotel executives are finally admitting what’s been true for years: discovery is no longer happening on their platforms. It’s happening on social, in group chats, and increasingly through AI. If you’...
This Week In Hospitality: Hilton’s New Power Play, Marriott’s Brand Explosion, and the Battle for Who Owns Demand
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Hilton just rewrote the rules on growth—without buying brands. Marriott keeps flooding the market with more flags. And underneath it all, a bigger question is emerging: who actually owns demand in hospitality?
This week, we break down Hilton’s Yotel deal and what it signals about the future of “platfor...
He Built the Most Iconic Cocktail Bar of a Generation. Now Death&Co's Founder is Coming for Boutique Hotels.
Connect with David
Connect with Zach
Apply to join the Journey Alliance
David Kaplan didn't come up through the industry the traditional way. He went to art school, never tended bar a day in his life, and opened Death & Co in New York's East Village on New Year's Eve 2006 with a vintage cash register and zero business experience. What followed was twenty years of one of the most influential runs in American hospitality — a craft cocktail institution that helped shape how a generation drinks, thinks about bars, and expects to be taken care of.
This Week In Hospitality: The Hotel Restaurant Comeback, Hyatt’s Big Pivot, Rosewood Rumors, and a Brutal Outdoor Hospitality Reality Check
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week in hospitality, three big shifts are colliding — and none of them are getting enough attention.
Hotel restaurants are no longer an afterthought. What was once a margin-draining “amenity” is now becoming one of the most powerful demand drivers a hotel can have. So what changed… and why are lenders suddenly...
Why a Marketing Executive at Accor Became the CEO of a Luxury Villa Brand — Meet Scott Wiseman of Nocturne Luxury Villas
In this episode of Behind the Stays, Zach Busekrus sits down with Scott Wiseman, CEO of Nocturne Luxury Villas, to explore what luxury vacation rental brands can learn from hotels — and where the villa category is building a playbook all its own.
Drawing on leadership experience across Accor, Abercrombie & Kent, Cox & Kings, Apple Leisure Group, and now Nocturne, Scott shares a clear-eyed perspective on brand building, loyalty, service, acquisitions, and the future of luxury travel. From why recognition matters more than rewards to how Nocturne balances local brand identity with platform-scale infrastructure, this conversation is a thoughtful lo...
This Week in Hospitality: War, The Claude Effect, Too Many Hotel Brands & Kimpton’s Big Test
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
This week’s episode of This Week in Hospitality starts on a deeply human note, with the crew reflecting on the escalating conflict in Iran and the ripple effects being felt across the Middle East and global travel. Edwin, Scott, Ben, and Zach share firsthand accounts from friends and colleagues across Du...
From Developing Aman to Building The Stanza: How Nadine Choe Built a Media Brand Where Taste Is the Moat
Explore The Stanza: https://www.thestanzamedia.com/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
Before she built one of hospitality’s most thoughtful media brands, Nadine Choe was underwriting some of the most ambitious luxury developments in the world — including Aman Beverly Hills, a $5B project years in the making.
She understands air rights, entitlement risk, capital stacks, branded residences, and why the “flag” can make or break a deal.
And then she walked away.
Moved to Europe. Started publishing ideas on the internet. Went viral by dissecting how lifestyle brands b...
This Week in Hospitality: Airbnb’s Next Big Bet, the AI OTA Showdown, and Lessons from Jamaica
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
The episode opens with a “ground truth” dispatch from Jason Henzell of Jake’s Hotel in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, laying out how community tourism, agritourism, and repeat-guest loyalty can anchor a destination—then how two major hurricanes force an operator to turn resilience into strategy.
From there, the hosts dissect A...
How to Build a Category-of-One Hospitality Brand in the Age of AI
In an era where AI is optimizing everything—from pricing to property descriptions—the real competitive advantage in hospitality may no longer be data. It may be identity.
In this episode, Janice Wilson, founder of the luxury forest retreat Menizei, and experiential designer Paula Oblen, founder of Hotelements®, break down what it actually means to build a “Category-of-One” hospitality brand. Drawing from Janice’s background in large-scale AI systems and Paula’s two decades designing high-performing experiential properties—including Casa Tierra with Bobby Berk—they argue that optimization alone leads to sameness.
Instead, they explore how identity, emo...
This Week in Hospitality: Ultra-Luxury Ambitions, Franchise Friction & AI as the New Front Desk
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
Accor isn’t just polishing the Orient Express legend — it’s trying to industrialize it. With LVMH in the mix, the play shifts from “luxury assets” to a full ecosystem built on narrative: trains, hotels, yachts, and a throughline of romance and mythology. Scott sees the upside in that long-game brand equity, but...
From Pilot to Expansion: How Arcana is Scaling a Nature-Driven Hospitality Brand
Meet Jeremy Hill, Co-Founder and CEO of Arcana — a next generation nature resort complete with seasonally immersive science-based experiences that help guests feel nature’s true restorative powers.
In this return episode, Jeremy shares what’s changed (and what hasn’t), plus Arcana’s biggest leap yet: a newly acquired 56-acre property that gives the brand the zoning, septic capacity, and infrastructure required to scale — without diluting the Arcana promise.
In this conversation, Jeremy and I discuss:
How Arcana performed in the real world after launch (and why the early guests helped propel the waitlist) Wh...This Week in Hospitality: Africa’s Hotel Surge, Economy’s Comeback Bet, and the Rise of Longevity Luxury
Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality
In this week’s episode, the guys jump from Sub-Saharan Africa to budget roadside America to biohacking on a Caribbean beach—and somehow tie it all together. The throughline? Hotel groups are searching for growth in a market that feels mature at home and increasingly demanding everywhere else.
The...
