No Vacancy Live!

From October 2025   Recorded live at the Southern Lodging Summit this past August as part of the keynote luncheon, Mitch Patel, President & CEO of Vision Hospitality Group, sat down with Glenn Haussman to share his journey from a single $3,000 investment to leading one of the most respected hotel companies in the U.S. In this conversation, Mitch explains: Why operational excellence and team cultur...

Quite frankly we're scared about this one. Fortunbately the iconic Dorraine Lallani is back to bring class to this mess of a happy hour show. Glenn, Craig and Suzanne are a bit scared for the quick return of Pink Pony Club founder Patty Jefferson because they're worried they don't have what it takes to horse around.

Conversions still beat new construction in a lot of markets right now, so I wanted to get specific on what Bruce Ford sees across the Americas pipeline. I talked with Bruce Ford (SVP, Lodging Econometrics) about where projects are moving, where they're stalling, and what owners/operators/investors should watch in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the U.S. for #NoVacancyNews. Here's what we...

To kick off the week, I wanted a hard look behind the numbers. We hear a lot of takes—so what's real and what's not? I called our buddy Bruce Ford (SVP, Lodging Econometrics ) to pressure-test World Cup demand, international travel, and the conversion-brand land grab for the hashtag # NoVacancyNews crowd. Here's what we put numbers on: ⚽ 2026 World Cup: 48 teams across the U.S., Mexico, and Canad...

We're exploring maximizing hashtag # hotel Customer Journey opportunity!!!! To kick off this 6-part Customer Journey series, I wanted to start at the top: why this matters now and how leadership turns better service into an actual company-wide plan. We'll be focusing on how CoralTree Hospitality is leveraging tech to connect with customers. In Chapter 1, I talk with Tom Luersen , President of Cora...

Puerto Rico rainforest on one side. Ocean on the other. A 607-acre resort in the middle. I talked with Chris Sariego, COO of LionGrove , at Wyndham Grand Rio Mar about how they used a $70 million reinvention to reposition the property around eco-experiences, expand amenity appeal, and keep more spend on-property. 🌿 Chris explains how they stopped treating it like "just a big hotel" and rebuilt it...

A speakeasy bar with an actual vault door sits off the casino floor at Wyndham Grand Rio Mar. I walk in, meet Michael "Mac" MacDonnell, Vice President of F&B & Entertainment with LionGrove , and we turn it into a "quick chat" that somehow includes popcorn in a martini. #NoVacancyNews 🍸 Mac breaks down the Vault Martini: Belvedere vodka, yellow Chartreuse, orange bitters, popcorn, plus a tableside...

Black Desert Resort shows what "demand drivers" look like when you actually build them. Today we look at Modern luxury on #NoVacancyNews I walk the property with Nicholas Gold, Managing Director, in Ivins (greater St. George / greater Zion), Utah. 🏨 Nick gives the basics: ~600 keys, restaurants/banquets, pool, spa, and a serious golf operation ⛳ They opened just over a year ago and already hoste...

Hotels train teams to spot human trafficking and other suspicious activity. Training alone doesn't solve the handoff problem. #NoVacancyNews I talk with Georgine Muntz (CEO) and Patty Jefferson (Chief Revenue Officer) at Visual Matrix about building reporting into the workflow so staff can act fast without leaving their job to go hunt down a manager. 🧠 Georgine says customers asked for better tra...

I'm recording this from a hotel room because that's where I live now. I keep hearing "AI" in every hotel conversation, so I pulled in Kevin Duncan, Executive Vice President, Product at Cendyn to talk about what actually works—especially at the front desk.  🤖 Kevin explains how Cendyn connects guest data across CRM, CRS, and other systems so teams work from one guest profile instead of disconnecte...

Wahlburgers cleans up the messy parts of growth so quality stays non-negotiable.  I'm in Las Vegas with Randy Sharpe, CEO, President, and board member of Wahlburgers. He breaks down what he changed, what he cut, and how he plans growth without letting the brand drift. 🍔 Randy talks about meeting Mark Wahlberg through a luncheon tied to a tequila investment—and how that turned into the CEO role 🧑...

This week I attended CoralTree Hospitality 's Leadership Forum at Black Desert Resort and spent time with Andre' Fournier , Chief Commercial Officer, about what this event should accomplish once people go back to their hotels on hashtag # NoVacancyNews . Andre explains why CoralTree brings its leaders together, how the company onboarded more than 100 new leaders this year, and how Affinity Teams s...

At CoralTree Hospitality 's Annual Leadership Forum, I talked with Tom Luersen , President of CoralTree Hospitality, for hashtag # NoVacancyNews about what the company expects leaders to do once everyone leaves and goes back to their properties. We get into why they bring people together in the first place, how they use Affinity Clubs to keep projects moving, and how they track progress without tu...

Friday Night Audit: the minisode where karma finally collects… with teeth. #NoVacancyNews   Craig Sullivan and Dr. Producer Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED join me for happy hour storytelling starting with "four time zones in one day" and ends with me getting bitten by something, I never even saw. After 200+ episodes of me slinging insults, I consider this a performance review from the universe.  ...

A $70M reinvestment only matters if guests feel it. I'm in Puerto Rico at the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar with Andro Nodarse-Leon , CEO of property owner Lion Grove , for #NoVacancyNews . Andro walks through how the team rethought this 30-year-old resort around how people actually spend time on property—what they do, where they go, and why they stay. Andro explains how the rainforest, beach, and golf co...

Luxury doesn't mean more steps. It means fewer problems before guests even notice them. Suzanne "Dr. Producer" Bagnera, PhD, and I spoke with Mourad Essafi , General Manager of Impression Isla Mujeres (a Hyatt all-inclusive), on #NoVacancyNews about what ultra-luxury actually looks like when you stop adding layers and start removing friction. Mourad talks about how his background in sales and oper...

Most hotels want F&B to drive more revenue. A lot of them still make it harder than it needs to be for guests to actually order. Narda Malakzad and Andrea Laderman, co-founders of Goldi, joined me on #NoVacancyNews to talk about something most hotels underestimate: how dietary needs, allergies, and food preferences quietly kill both guest experience and check size. We talk about what actually happ...

This episode of #NoVacancyNews looks at how a hotel management merger came together — the conversations, timing, and decisions that led up to it. I spoke with Len Wolman, Chairman & CEO of Waterford Hotel Group, and Bob Habeeb, Founder & CEO of Maverick Hotels and Restaurants, about how their relationship developed, how long the process took, and what needed to line up before they moved forward. T...

The gap between luxury hotels and everyone else keeps getting wider — and ignoring it won't make it shrink. Suraj Bhakta, CEO & Chief Legal Officer of NewGen Advisory, and I spoke on #NoVacancyNews about what's driving that divide. More important, we talked through actionable insights owners outside the luxury segment can actually implement. Suraj and I get into why upper upscale and #luxury conti...

Food and beverage does more than fill seats — it creates memories, reasons to return, and stories guests take home. That's the focus of this episode of #NoVacancyNews, filmed across Resorts World Las Vegas. I'm joined by Josef Wagner, Senior Vice President of Food & Beverage at Resorts World Las Vegas, for a walk-and-talk look at how a modern integrated resort uses F&B to drive engagement beyond g...

Most hotels look good. That's not the problem. The harder part is giving people a reason to stay longer, spend more, and remember why they were there in the first place. In this episode of #NoVacancyNews , I talk with Alexis Readinger , Founder of Preen , about food-and-beverage design and how often hotels get it almost right — and why "almost" usually isn't enough. Alexis and I get into why so ma...

What hotel owners and investors are doing matters more than what gets said on stage. In this episode of No Vacancy , Glenn Haussman connects with Bruce Ford , SVP at Lodging Econometrics , as he reports from ALIS in Los Angeles. Bruce shares what he's seeing in the data and hearing in off-the-record conversations. The discussion focuses on how owners weigh new development versus conversions, how c...

This Day 3 ALIS update focuses on what the data shows — not predictions, not sentiment. In this episode of No Vacancy , Glenn Haussman connects remotely with Bruce Ford , SVP at Lodging Econometrics , who is on the ground at ALIS in Los Angeles. Bruce walks through current pipeline data and how it lines up with conversations happening at the conference. The discussion stays focused on pipeline mix...

Regional casino resorts don't win anymore by adding square footage — they win by designing experiences that keep guests longer and spending more. That's the focus of this episode of #NoVacancyNews . I'm joined by Kelly Devine , Principal and Partner, and Emily Marshall , Principal and Interior Design Leader at HBG Design , and guest host Dr. Suzanne Bagnera to talk about the evolution of regional...

Hotel loyalty gets talked about a lot. This conversation focuses on how it actually works. For this #NoVacancyNews , I spoke with Chris Hartley , CEO of Global Hotel Alliance , about what loyalty looks like when you stop chasing vanity metrics and start paying attention to repeat behavior, engagement, and direct bookings. Chris explains how GHA approaches loyalty across a global portfolio of indep...