Behind the Stays

PriceLabs https://hello.pricelabs.co/global-property-manager-report/?utm_source=partner-social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=behindthestays_podcast Code: BTS15 30-day free trial plus 15 percent off Dynamic Pricing for the first 3 months.   Modbeans Coffee Code for 15% off: BTS15 https://modbeans.co/bts   This Week’s Guest: Noelle Homsy, Co-Founder, ENVI Lodges Website: envilodges.com (liv...

Modbeans Coffee Code for 15% off: BTS15 https://modbeans.co/bts     Fifty episodes in, we're skipping the news and handing out the hospitality awards nobody asked for. Zach, Ben, Edwin and a returning Scott Eddy each nominate, defend and vote across five categories. For "The Hotel I'd Steal," Scott and Edwin both take Marina Bay Sands - Edwin to bankroll a portfolio of tiny rural hotels with its p...

  PriceLabs https://hello.pricelabs.co/dynamic-pricing/?utm_source=amb-youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=oct26_amb_bts_podcast_ep1 Code: BTS15 30-day free trial plus 15 percent off Dynamic Pricing for the first 3 months.   Modbeans Coffee Code for 15% off: BTS15 https://modbeans.co/bts   This Week’s Guest: Connect with Janice Stitzer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janicestitzer...

This Week's Guest: Alex Cabañas Executive Chairman, Pyramid Global Hospitality Founder and CEO of Astound Ventures https://astound-ventures.com/   What happens when the hotel front desk disappears, but hospitality gets more personal? This week, Zach Busekrus, Ben Wolff and Edwin Kramer are joined by Alex Cabañas, executive chairman of Pyramid Global Hospitality and founder and CEO of Astound Ventu...

This Week’s Guest: Shawn Cioto - Vice President of Operations, Dovetail + Co LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-cioto-914264b/ Your Host: Zach Busekrus - Journey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/ Shawn Cioto, VP of Operations at Dovetail + Co, explains why the owner of seven hotels is taking management in-house: large...

Explore Ascend: www.joinascend.com Connect with Zach Resnick: zach@joinascend.com Connect with Cameron Resnick: cam@joinascend.com — Follow Behind the Stays on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/ Connect with Zach Busekrus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/ — Zach Resnick could show business owners how to get far more value from their miles and points. The problem? Even...

Sponsored by: Modbeans Coffee Code for 15% off: BTS https:// modbeans.co/bts Sponsored by: https://Lake.com Michael Wolf thought his career would be in government. He spent every summer in Washington, DC, and wanted the FBI. Then Bain came to campus, and he took a detour that turned into 15 years of startups. Today he is the CEO of ResortPass, the world's largest marketplace focused on getting hot...

This Week’s Guest: Dina Belon-Sayre - President, Staypineapple Hotels LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinabelon/ Explore Staypineapple Hotels: https://www.staypineapple.com/ Your Host: Zach Busekrus - Journey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/ Dina Belon-Sayre, President of Staypineapple Hotels, opens with a story from a P...

Scott is in Sicily, so Zach, Ben Wolff and Edwin Kramer take the docket. Edwin checks in from a new boutique hotel on Spain's Costa Blanca, and Ben is fresh from the glamping show. The first story: Hilton's CIO says AI assistants have put online travel agencies under real threat, yet he expects personal AI agents to become commissionable channels too. The crew asks what "direct" even means when an...

https://roompricegenie.com/ Checkout code for 25% off: WISH26   This Week’s Guest: Jennifer Barnwell - President, Curator Hotel & Resort Collection LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-barnwell-a8689ba/ Explore Curator Hotel & Resort Collection: https://www.curatorhotelsandresorts.com/team/jennifer-barnwell/ Your Host: Zach Busekrus - Journey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in...

https://roompricegenie.com/ Checkout code for 25% off: WISH26   This Week's Guest: Heidi Zimmer — Founder, Wild Rice Retreat Connect with Heidi: https://heidi-zimmer.com/ Explore Wild Rice Retreats: https://wildriceretreat.com/   Your Host: Zach Busekrus — Journey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/ Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera &...

The full squad is back. Royal Caribbean is taking a 50% stake in Sandals Resorts for roughly $3 billion, and the crew breaks down why a cruise line wants an all-inclusive hotel brand. Edwin runs the numbers on who is really serving whose guests, and Scott, who has known the Stewart family most of his life, explains why cruise companies can't build ships fast enough and are coming ashore instead. T...

Check out Lodgify claim your exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/ Femme House website: https://stayfemmehouse.com/ Femme House on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femmehouseaz/ — Vanessa Aguirre was in her bridal era when the idea for Femme House found her. A disappointing experience with her own wedding venue, a travel blogger's eye for what makes a stay shareable, an...

Fresh off Independent Hotel Show Miami, Zach and Ben break down two days of conversations with eight owners, operators, and investors from across independent hospitality. Before the full interviews roll out on This Week in Hospitality, this is the recap — the ideas that kept surfacing across every mic session, the moments that caught us off guard, and what these conversations say about where indep...

Check out Lake.com claim your exclusive discount: https://www.lake.com/partners/behind-the-stays — Every few weeks, someone emails me a vision for a stay they want to build. Edoardo is one of the rare ones who actually went and built it. Before Nature Nooks, he was a startup co-founder and product manager who'd done a stint as a senior program manager at Dollar Shave Club. Then he walked away from...

Blake Danner has spent his career inside the rooms where lifestyle hospitality was invented. Eleven years alongside Ian Schrager opening the Clift, Sanderson, and Shore Club. Seven years as founding COO of the Sydell Group, where he helped create Nomad, The Line, and Freehand — 11 hotels in seven years. A stint running operations at Proper Hospitality. And now, as COO of AKA Hotels & Hotel Res...

Check out Lodgify claim your exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/   — In just a moment you'll meet Austin Allison — co-founder and CEO of Pacaso, the co-ownership platform that's reimagining how people buy, use, and think about second homes. Austin's dad was a carpenter. They lived paycheck to paycheck in a home with unfinished plywood floors because they couldn't afford c...

TikTok Go was supposed to turn creators into a hotel distribution channel. Instead, a Skift investigation found dozens of AI-generated fake videos attached to real properties — fabricated suites, nonexistent amenities, faceless accounts — with one Sedona luxury resort racking up 17 flagged videos. The kicker: the hotel doesn't even sell through TikTok Go's booking partners. Scott says forget the A...

Check out Lodgify claim your exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/   — In just a moment you'll meet Lauren Blanford from Lost Woods — a glamping retreat and event property built on 160 acres of northern Michigan that started with two bell tents, a porta potty, and homemade bagels hand-delivered at sunrise. Lauren and her husband Jason were living in Chicago's Lincoln Square...

Hotel sales in the US are up 28% in the first half of 2026 — and a meaningful chunk of that activity is chasing bad Yelp reviews, not trophy assets. JMI Realty executive Drew Bridges joins the show to break down how his firm is using AI to source acquisition targets off terrible guest feedback. The specific deal: a Hilton Garden Inn in Austin bought for $100K per key that reviewers called "janky"...

Check out Lodgify claim your exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/   — Explore FerebeeLane: https://www.ferebeelane.com/ Connect with Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ferebee-2287566/ Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/ — Twenty-five years ago, a kid with an English degree and a freelance gig writing about furniture realized something. Peop...

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 s...

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...

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 A...

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, "Pleas...