The Lights On Podcast

Marco DiDomizio is a licensed hospitality broker, consultant, and strategist with InnAdvisors. He spent twenty years in corporate finance, first as a CPA and then running global finance for agencies including Ogilvy and Grey, before he and his husband bought a nine-room inn on Cape Cod. Over nine years they built it into the number one bed and breakfast in the United States on both TripAdvisor and...

Jennifer Miller is Director of Revenue Management at Guest Services, Inc., a hospitality company more than 100 years old. She has been in hospitality for almost 35 years, starting at the front desk of a Radisson on Marco Island, Florida, and has spent 21 years with Guest Services. She served as General Manager from 2013 to 2015, overseeing several communities and a condo-style hotel in the Orlando...

Kim Herrlein is the Chief Leisure Officer of Purveyors of Leisure and co-creator of The Fainting Couch, an 18-room maximalist boutique hotel in Northern California. She sold a high-performing vacation rental to fund the property's acquisition, then renovated it and built an operating model that runs with no on-site front desk staff. Before hospitality, she produced festivals in the Feather River C...

Andrew Hopson is the Dining Room Manager at The Inn on Biltmore Estate, the Forbes Four-Star hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. His path in food and beverage began with pre-high school admission to Johnson & Wales University's Charleston campus in culinary arts, and an internship at Charleston Place Hotel drew him into hotels. He has since led F&B across full-service premium and luxury properties...

Laurean Sahilices is the founder of The Hotel Marketing Lady and a strategic hospitality advisor with more than fifteen years of experience leading marketing across global hotel brands, including IHG, Accor, Marriott, and Minor Hotels, across the Maldives and New Zealand. She marketed New Zealand's first JW Marriott while the property was still under renovation. Today she works with independent an...

Jan Freitag is the National Director of Hospitality Analytics at CoStar Group, a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces. He is a recognized hospitality data expert and works with CoStar's STR platform, whose benchmarking reports are widely used by hotel owners, operators, and investors to measure performance. Jan is a sought-after speaker and is fre...

Brian Reising is the Market Vice President for the US and Latin America at SiteMinder, the world's leading hotel commerce platform that helps hotels reach more guests, manage booking channels, and optimize revenue. SiteMinder serves 56,000 hotels across 150 countries, connects properties to more than 450 distribution channels, and facilitates around 140 million reservations annually. Brian helps h...

Mina Singson-Brightman is the Co-founder and CEO of HotelBlock.ai, an AI-powered platform helping hotels respond to group inquiries faster, automate repetitive sales tasks, and convert more group business. HotelBlock.ai was selected for Plug and Play's Travel & Hospitality Batch 21, building on Mina's experience with 40hammocks, which participated in the Techstars Atlanta program in 2024. Before l...

Neil Shah is the President and Founder of Inntech Management, a hotel ownership and management company operating 10 properties across Arizona and California. With more than 25 years of hospitality experience, he has grown his portfolio through strategic acquisitions, operational improvements, and property repositioning. Neil is also the Founder of InnTrend AI, a hotel intelligence platform that st...

Anthony Tokosky is the Owner and General Partner of The Marlo, a 24-room boutique hotel in Solvang, California, blending Danish-inspired design with modern comfort and serene gardens. He is also the Owner and President of Priority Doors and Windows, a company providing high-quality door and window products directly to homeowners and construction professionals. Anthony leads The Marlo's acquisition...

Dina Belon is the President of Staypineapple Hotels, a boutique hospitality company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, known for its collection of uniquely designed and guest-focused hotels in major US cities. Under her leadership, the company is expanding its third-party management and brand licensing model while helping independent hotels preserve their individuality and compete with larger...

Jason Brandt is the President and CEO of the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association (ORLA), the leading business association representing Oregon's foodservice and lodging industry. ORLA represents just over 2,800 members and advocates for an industry of more than 10,000 foodservice establishments and over 2,000 lodging properties, some 12,000 small business locations employing close to 220,000 Or...

Stephanie Leger is the Founder and Chief Excellence Officer at First Rate Hospitality, a consultancy specializing in hospitality training, service evaluations, and operational improvement. With over 20 years of global hotel industry experience — including work with The Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, AAA, and Forbes Travel Guide — Stephanie has trained more than 20,000 hospitality professionals....

Melissa Benhaim is the Founder of Benhaim Public Relations, a Miami-based consultancy specializing in travel and hospitality PR for independent hotels and tourism brands. Since launching her firm in 2019, she has helped clients earn coverage in outlets such as  The New York Times ,  Business Insider , and  Travel + Leisure .  Melissa is a three-time Smart PR Best Pitch winner and an HSMAI Adrian A...

Nick Slavin is the CEO and Co-founder of Curacity, a hospitality technology company that transforms media visibility into measurable hotel bookings and revenue. Under Nick's leadership, Curacity has generated $2 billion in verified bookings and revenue and established partnerships with Preferred Hotels & Resorts and The Leading Hotels of the World. The company recently launched VISTA, a platform t...

Sean Dee is the Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at OUTRIGGER Hospitality Group, a Hawai'i-based company specializing in iconic beach resorts across the globe. He leads the company's global commercial strategy across marketing, sales, revenue management, brand, and distribution. Sean was named HSMAI's 2022 Corporate Marketing Professional of the Year and serves as Chairperson...

Kiana Beimes is the General Manager of the OUTRIGGER Waikiki Paradise Hotel in Honolulu, a boutique property known for authentic Hawaiian hospitality. Under her leadership, the hotel rose from #58 to as high as #3 on Tripadvisor and completed a ten-month renovation while maintaining guest satisfaction and keeping her entire 60-person team employed. Kiana was named the 2026 Hawaiʻi Women in Lodging...

Travis Weber is the Vice President of Sales for the Americas at Duetto, a leading revenue management platform that helps hotels maximize profitability through dynamic pricing and data-driven insights. Duetto has been recognized as the #1 Revenue Management System in the HotelTechAwards for four consecutive years, reflecting its strong reputation in hotel technology. Travis brings a unique perspect...

Bernard Tan is the Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Castle Resorts & Hotels, a Honolulu-based hospitality management company operating a diverse portfolio of hotels, condominium resorts, and vacation rentals across Hawaii and New Zealand. With over 20 years of hospitality and consulting experience, he leads commercial strategy across revenue management, distribution, digital m...

Michael Russell is Co-founder of Howzit Hostels and Malama Capital, where he focuses on hospitality investing, hostel operations, boutique lodging, and experiential real estate. He has experience across short-term rentals, commercial real estate, and hospitality assets, with a focus on acquisitions, repositioning, operations, and portfolio growth. During COVID, Michael acquired a distressed one-st...

Kevin Aucello is the Principal at Powell & Aucello, a Honolulu-based hotel brokerage and advisory firm specializing in hotel investment, transactions, and development across Hawaii, Micronesia, and the South Pacific. With over 30 years of experience in Hawaii's hotel investment market, he has been involved in more than $1.5 billion in hotel real estate projects and is recognized for his deep marke...

Josh Graham is the Head of Market Development for North America at Cloudbeds, a leading hospitality technology company that provides unified, cloud-based solutions for hotels and other lodging businesses. In his role, he drives market awareness and helps hoteliers adopt unified, data-driven solutions to modernize their tech stacks and improve performance. Before Cloudbeds, Josh spent over a decade...

Jessie Fischer is the Founder and CEO of GuestOS, an AI-native communications platform that powers real-time, multilingual guest engagement across hotels, destinations, and global events. Under her leadership, GuestOS has gained rapid traction through industry referrals, with its AI teammates handling up to 30% of hotel calls and freeing staff to focus on in-person guest experiences. Drawing on he...

Susan (Sue) Graves is the Founder and CEO of Experience Alive, a hospitality technology consultancy that helps hotels, restaurants, and convention centers implement sustainable tech solutions to optimize operations and guest experiences. Under her leadership, the company has achieved measurable outcomes, including a 30% increase in sales revenue and a $140 million renovation for a major convention...

Rodger Wada is the Senior Regional Director of Revenue Management at Springboard Hospitality, a leading third-party hotel management company that specializes in driving revenue and operational success for independent and branded hotels across the US. With nearly two decades of experience in hospitality, he has built a strong reputation in the Hawaii market, leading revenue strategy across prominen...