No Vacancy Live!

During the recently held DUETTO PERFORM , I interviewed Jesse Sturges, Director of Strategic Marketing at Mohegan Sun , about how one of the world's largest casino resorts uses loyalty, influencers, and faster recognition to connect guests to tailored experiences . 🎸 Mohegan Sun marks 30 years at the property and 25 years for the arena, with Metallica booked for two nights 📣 Jesse uses influence...

Renovations and conversions are about to outpace new builds by a lot — and that changes who suppliers should sell to. Glenn Haussman talks with Bruce Ford, SVP at Lodging Econometrics, in Las Vegas while Choice Hotels International's convention and HD Expo run in the same building. 🔁 Transactions drive conversions: trading hotels unlocks renovation + repositioning decisions 🏗️ Bruce puts numbers...

Choice's loyalty refresh goes the opposite direction of most programs: easier to earn, easier to reach status, easier to redeem. During Choice Hotels International's 70th Annual Convention in Las Vegas, I talked with Noha Abdalla, Chief Marketing Officer at Choice Hotels, about the Choice Privileges refresh, the Keegan-Michael Key campaign, and why owners should care. 🎭 Keegan-Michael Key helps C...

Matt McElhare , Vice President & Segment Lead, Extended Stay at Choice Hotels International , says extended stay leads new hotel development right now, while conversions let owners move faster than new builds. I talked with Matt in Las Vegas about what Choice has in the pipeline, why conversions matter right now, and why he thinks extended stay still has a long runway. 🏗️ 2026 milestones: Choice e...

David Pepper, Chief Development Officer at Choice Hotels, says Q1 turning RevPAR positive brought buyers back into the market. Glenn Haussman talks with David from Choice's annual convention about why transactions drive conversions—and why extended stay keeps leading new builds. Conversions need transactions: buyers have to trade hotels for conversions to happen Q1 momentum: industry up, Choice up...

Hotel restaurants lose revenue in boring ways—slow first drink delivery, late refills, and servers who don't know what they leave on the table. Geoffrey Toffetti, CEO of Frontline Performance Group , and Sloan Dean, former CEO of Remington Hospitality , break down CheckMax and the coaching system that uses POS data, leaderboards, and short training to drive stronger F&B performance. 🍸 Geoffrey ta...

During DUETTO PERFORM in Fort Lauderdale, I talked with Bob Matsuoka, Chief Technology Officer at Duetto , about AI in hotels the only way that matters right now: practical, operational, and money-saving. 🤖 Bob draws a clean line: machine learning does the work; AI makes it accessible 🚫 He warns against treating AI like an "answer machine" because it can hallucinate 🔁 He says AI wins today on o...

HotelKey's self check-in kiosk scans an ID, runs face verification, and issues keys without a front desk line. I talk with Aditya Thyagarajan , co-founder of HotelKey , and Fareed Ahmad , co-founder and CEO of HotelKey, about why kiosks only work when they connect directly to the #PMS . 🪪 Guests scan ID, complete face verification, pick an available room, and check in 🔑 The kiosk handles check-i...

Axel Hotels runs 12 properties across four countries with nearly 1,000 rooms , and the brand focuses on the LGBTQ+ community. I talk with Efrain Castro, COO of Axel Hotels , about how the brand creates community-driven hotels and where the team wants to expand next. 🏳️‍🌈 Efrain calls Axel the largest hotel chain focused on the LGBTQ+ community, built as a "space of freedom" that welcomes anyone w...

Starwood Hotels builds 1 Hotels, Treehouse, and Baccarat around one idea: products need emotion and soul, not templates. While hosting Starwood's annual conference, I talked with Raul Leal, CEO of Starwood Hotels , about differentiation through nature-led design, human experience, and AI-driven personalization that stays human. 🌿 Raul says nature-led "hardware" sets the tone the second guests wal...

Caesars launched its first non-gaming Caesars Republic in Scottsdale, and the property built the guest experience around F&B partnerships like Lisa Vanderpump's Wolf . Glenn Haussman talks with Joe Iturri, SVP of Business Development at HCW , about what that launch required and what owners expect from hands-on management right now. 🐺 Joe says Wolf changed the vibe fast and validated the F&B strat...

Priyank Patel owns four Red Roof properties , and he built the portfolio over nine years after starting out as an engineer. During AAHOACON 2026 , where No Vacancy was the official podcast , Glenn Haussman talks with Priyank Patel, Red Roof owner , about why he chose hotels as an investment strategy to reach long-term goals—and why he kept buying Red Roof. Why he moved from engineering into hotel...

During DUETTO PERFORM , I talked with Katie Moro, VP Data Partnerships at Amadeus , about a real problem for hoteliers right now: data everywhere, decisions nowhere. 🛫 Katie explains using airline search and booking signals to separate intent from real demand 📊 She compares booking curves across hotels, airlines, and short-term rentals and adjusts for lead-time differences 🎯 She uses age-range...

Bruce Jordan gives three simple revenue ideas that don't require a renovation—just better packaging and pricing. During AAHOACON , I talked with Bruce Jordan, creator of Hotel Guest Management , about ways hotels can add income when margins feel tight. 👶 Child safety room: charge $30–$50 per night for a childproof setup 👥 Protect group revenue: upgrade the group and lower the rate instead of los...

Red Roof Chief Development officer Matt Hostetler kicks back with Glenn, Craig and Dr. Producer Suzanne as they kick off the weekend with some drinks, stories from the road and another round of our Hotel Pet Peeves.

Food and beverage drives nearly half of annual revenue at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort. Glenn Haussman tours Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort with Michael Cook , Director of Sales & Marketing. The property is managed by our friends at Davidson Hospitality Group ! 🩴 The flip-flop entrance sets the tone and drives social content 🏖️ The boardwalk + beach location fuels energy and local...

Front desk upsells didn't just add revenue — they cut turnover by 40% in one operator's portfolio. In video 2 of this series, Geoffrey Toffetti, CEO of Frontline Performance Group , and Sloan Dean, former CEO of Remington , break down how hotels train front desk teams to build rapport, tailor offers, track performance, and pay incentives that actually keep people. 🧠 Train the conversation: ask a...

Hotels don't need another system; hotels need the systems they already run to talk to each other. I talk with Alex Zoghlin, CEO of Duetto , during Duetto PERFORM about profit-first revenue decisions and connected hotel data. 🧩 Disconnected systems force teams to act on partial data 💰 Profit-first decisions require coordination across departments 🔗 Better access to existing data beats adding "on...

Profitability keeps getting squeezed even after years of strong revenue growth, so hotels can't live on RevPAR alone. I'm at Duetto PERFORM at Margaritaville Resort, and I talk with Michael Grove , CEO of HotStats , about what his data shows right now—and what hoteliers can actually do about it. 📉 Michael says cost pressure stays the story: labor, wage inflation, loyalty costs, and credit card co...

Oliver Shah is a first time guest, and we suspect after having drinks with Glenn, Craig and Suzanne itll be his last. Join us for some laughs and Happy Hour fun where Glenn is at Margaritaville Resort Hollywood Beach.

I'm at Duetto PERFORM at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort , and I grabbed Olly Lynch , CMO at Duetto, to explain what Duetto built this event to do. 🚀 Duetto built PERFORM to give "hotel performance" its own space—not a back-room trade show conversation 📈 Olly lays out the idea: connect revenue and profit into one operating model, one story, and ultimately one technology 🧠 Duetto pulled in...

Last week, Suzanne Bagnera brought one of 11 student teams from nine schools to the AAHOACON Collegiate Championship , and the students ran the kind of decisions real GMs deal with. During AAHOACON 2026 , where No Vacancy was the official podcast , I interviewed Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED about the competition and what she saw as the professor who brought the students. 🎓 Year three of the Col...

Public-private hotel deals don't run on a private equity playbook. Cities use them to create demand and pull outside dollars into the market. Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED joins me, and we talk with Walter Peseski, Senior Vice President of Asset Management at Garfield Public/Private , about how these projects get financed and why brands matter. 🏛️ Why cities build headquarters hotels and conventi...

They flipped the first Sonesta hotel in a couple of hours . That's what a real partnership looks like when the operator needs speed and the vendor shows up. During AAHOACON in Philadelphia, I talked with Patty Jefferson from Visual Matrix and Chris Trick from Sonesta about how they built the relationship, scaled it, and kept it practical for hotel teams. 🤝 They started with trust, then proved exe...

Two hotels on one piece of land, two separate buildings, two separate lobbies—and the demand mix flips in a way you wouldn't expect. During AAHOACON 2026 , No Vacancy is the official podcast , and I caught up with Hanan Anand , a Red Roof owner, on the show floor to talk about his dual-property setup in Cortland, New York , and what actually drives the business. 🏨 Hanan runs Hometowne Studios and...