Hotel Moment

Episodios

• 
  Why the first 10 seconds make or break a guest's stay 19.08.2026 22m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Andrew Shepherd, General Manager of Resorts at The Malcolm Hotel. Drawing on more than 25 years leading luxury hotels, resorts, and casinos, Andrew shares how proactive service transforms initial arrival moments into lasting loyalty. He explains why digital channels shape first impressions long before check-in, how front desk agents read body language when exhausted families arrive, and why logging details like a guest's favorite dessert turns software into real human connection. Andrew also breaks down how building 154 employee housing units in Canmore sustains service standards during industry labor shortages.
• 
  The blueprint for iconic hotel F&B 12.08.2026 22m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens talks with Ami Alexander, Managing Partner at Barrel Aged Management. Drawing on two decades of experience with brands like Hakkasan Group, Sydell Group, and Virgin Hotels, Ami breaks down how guest expectations shifted from standard corporate consistency to local, intentional storytelling. She explains why developers must underwrite F&B concepts early to avoid forcing operations into poorly planned kitchens. Ami also outlines what allows concepts to scale without compromising design, and how tailored management support helps hotel teams deliver authentic experiences.
• 
  The end of beigification: Why travelers are searching for something real 05.08.2026 22m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO of Preferred Travel Group, home to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the world's largest independent hotel brand with over 625 hotels in 80 countries. Lindsey shares her unconventional path from change management consulting into hospitality, the key findings from Preferred's Luxury Travel Report on heritage travel and hyper-personalization, and why she believes "beigification," the sameness across branded hotels, is losing out to authentic, independent experiences. She also explains why AI visibility, not just adoption, is the single biggest opportunity independent hotels have this year.
• 
  Why the best luxury hotels don't sell exclusivity — They build connection 29.07.2026 20m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director, EMEA, Revinate, sits down with Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, a next-generation hospitality brand built on experiential luxury and meaningful connection. With leadership experience at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Lily shares how a personal health scare reshaped her definition of luxury, from material ownership to internal validation, and why Aethos designs its properties for "high emotional density" instead of privacy. From the brand's emotion-first marketing philosophy to its new London restaurant Mitsu, Lily makes the case that the future of luxury hospitality is connection, not seclusion.
• 
  Recast: Immersive hotel experiences: Bridging technology and human connection 22.07.2026 35m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, we're bringing back one of our favorite conversations where Karen Stephens engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Bashar Wali, founder and CEO of Practice Hospitality and This Assembly. Bashar, with over three decades of experience in hospitality, shares his passion for creating memorable hotel experiences that transcend the ordinary. He discusses how hotels can balance technology and human connection, why points aren't true loyalty, and how the industry should look outside itself for innovation. With candid insights and practical examples, Bashar challenges hoteliers to focus on making emotional connections with guests rather than chasing trends.
• 
  Why great guest experiences start before check-in 15.07.2026 17m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Lydia Bates, Director of Sales and Marketing at Dream Inn Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz's only exclusive beachfront hotel. Lydia explains why independent lifestyle hotels win on storytelling rather than transaction, how Dream Inn's on-site reservations team begins curating the guest experience from the very first call, and how targeted email campaigns convert OTA visitors into loyal repeat guests. She also shares how Dream Inn fights seasonality with creative campaigns like "Ride Out the Storm" and leverages sister property partnerships through Ensemble Hospitality to build cross-property guest loyalty.
• 
  How AI uses personalization to beat pricing and win bookings 08.07.2026 28m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Chris Anderson, Professor at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, who has spent more than two decades studying how pricing, distribution, and revenue management shape global hospitality. Chris explains why pricing guests differently based on willingness to pay is heading for legal prohibition, why AI will shift customization from price to offer set, and why being in the AI consideration set is already harder to earn than a first-page Google ranking. His central argument: hotels that are still waiting for AI to settle before acting are already behind.
• 
  Keeping an authentic voice when AI can't read the room 01.07.2026 25m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, host Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Dina Niekamp, SVP of Brand and Marketing at Aparium Hotel Group, a lifestyle hospitality company known for building hotels that feel deeply rooted in the neighborhoods around them. Dina explains why emotional connection, not just amenities, has become the new standard for luxury travel, and why she believes AI will never replace the most important skill in hospitality: reading the room. Dina shares the story behind Aparium's "As Told By" campaign, which puts local collaborators and small business owners at the center of each property's marketing, and breaks down the philosophy of "translocal" spaces, where a business traveler and a neighborhood local can feel equally at home at the bar. She also introduces Aparium's "fifth meatball" mindset, a simple internal philosophy that empowers every team member to create small, unscripted moments of delight. With eight hotels currently operating across cities like Seattle, Fargo, Kansas City, Detroit, and Alexandria, Virginia, and several more in the pipeline, Aparium offers a clear blueprint for building hospitality brands that feel genuinely local rather than mass-produced.
• 
  How hotels turn data overload into profit growth 24.06.2026 19m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Jeff Michael, Area Director of Revenue Management at Sage Hospitality Group, who brings more than 25 years of hospitality experience spanning operations and commercial leadership. Jeff explains why the explosion of hotel data has created a new kind of paralysis, why "commercial alignment" so often fails when departments chase different incentives, and how AI is finally turning guest lifetime value into a metric hotels can actually use. His core message: stop drowning your team in reports, tie every department back to one profitability goal, and let AI take on the analyst work so revenue managers can think like strategists again.
• 
  The AI booking shift: What hoteliers need to do now 17.06.2026 27m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO at Revinate sits down with Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, to unpack the most consequential shift in hotel distribution in years: the rise of AI-powered booking discovery. With insights from leaders at Starwood Hotels, Highgate, and Twilio woven in, Karen and Dylan trace the arc from Google's Universal Commerce Protocol announcement to the not-so-distant future of agent-to-agent vacation planning. Their message is direct: properties that invest in clean data, direct booking infrastructure, and first-party data strategy now will be positioned to compete before everyone else starts scrambling.
• 
  Recast: How Swiss Deluxe Hotels redefines luxury hospitality with tech | with Wilhelm Luxem 10.06.2026 22m

  In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Wilhelm Luxem, head of quality commission at Swiss Deluxe Hotels and former GM of the iconic Baur Au Lac hotel. With 50 years in luxury hospitality, Wilhelm shares his philosophy on technology adoption in five-star hotels, emphasizing that tech should always complement service DNA while staying in the background. From his experience with a seven-generation family-owned hotel to his insights on evolving guest expectations, Wilhelm offers valuable perspectives on maintaining luxury standards while embracing innovation.
• 
  How to win direct bookings with AI search | with Jarrett Tomback 03.06.2026 21m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, sits down with Jarrett Tomback, Vice President of Digital Strategy and CRM at Starwood Hotels, for a conversation that moves from rethinking loyalty to the most urgent distribution question in hospitality: how do hotels win direct bookings in a world where AI search models give guests three to five recommendations instead of pages of links? Across 1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotels and Resorts, and Treehouse Hotels, Jarrett has built guest engagement strategies grounded in purpose, clean data, and a human-first AI approach that keeps the brand at the center of every interaction.
• 
  Why luxury hotels should focus on revenue, not cost-cutting | with Robert-Jan Woltering 27.05.2026 29m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Robert-Jan Woltering, Managing Director of De L'Europe Amsterdam, to make a case the luxury hotel industry needs to hear more often: cutting costs is easy, but it is the wrong strategy. With more than 30 years across five continents and a 130-year-old Amsterdam landmark celebrating three Michelin keys under his leadership, Robert-Jan shares why top-line revenue maximization, authentic guest experience, and entrepreneurial ownership thinking are the only levers that actually build a luxury hotel's long-term position.
• 
  Will guests trust AI with their travel plans? | with Aaron Miller 20.05.2026 23m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens welcomes back Aaron Miller, Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing and CRM at Highgate, for a grounded conversation on AI's real role in hospitality. Drawing on more than 20 years across brands like The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, Trump Hotels, and Turning Stone Enterprises, Aaron explains why the direct booking renaissance depends on hotel-owned content, why guests still want a curated website over a chat window, and how Highgate is pivoting its FIFA World Cup demand strategy from inbound international travel to local markets, staycations, and packaged offers.
• 
  How to prepare for hospitality's AI future: Inside NAVIGATE 2026 13.05.2026 21m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, and Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, recap NAVIGATE 2026, the annual Revinate customer conference held this year at the Wigwam in Phoenix. Featuring clips from CEO Bryson Koehler, Suncadia's Colton Bean, Pyramid Global's Abby Waski, Cote Hospitality's Angelo Fernandes, and Noble House's Jennifer Barnhart, the episode moves from the opening question that set the tone: 75% of the room had used ChatGPT to book travel in the last six months, through the AI strategies, product roadmap reveals, and customer perspectives that defined a conference where hoteliers arrived anxious about artificial intelligence and left with a plan.
• 
  2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report: The voice channel playbook | a Revinate webinar 06.05.2026 33m

  In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Amanda Wasco Brown, Director of Revenue at Old Edwards Hospitality Group, for the final session of the 2026 Benchmark Report Leadership Series, focused entirely on the voice channel. Amanda has spent eight of her 14 years at Old Edwards embedded in reservations, managing a team of seven agents who handle rooms, dining, spa, and golf across four hotels and three golf courses. Together, she and Bailey translate the benchmark data into a practical voice channel playbook: inbound call volume for staffing, conversion rates as a coaching diagnostic, non-booked lead spikes as a revenue intelligence tool, and outbound calls generating $1,164 in incremental revenue per room annually.
• 
  Capture and convert FIFA World Cup demand and win more direct revenue | with Adam Mogelonsky 29.04.2026 37m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, host Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, welcomes back Adam Mogelonsky, Partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting Ltd, to discuss preparing for FIFA World Cup 2026, which will bring 72% ADR premiums to 16 host cities. Adam shares how pandemic-era refundable policies created lead time volatility making labor forecasting difficult despite increased service expectations at premium rates. He explains the science of balancing non-refundable versus refundable rates through data harmonization that associates guest sentiment with rate plans. The conversation covers packaging strategies that balance operational delivery against OTA channel friction while leveraging fenced offers for direct bookings. Adam reveals how the voice channel is the most data-rich but least harmonized, with call recording and speech-to-text building FAQ content for AI search while capturing non-booker leads for callbacks. He introduces the story-driven guest concept, which transcends luxury definitions to encompass boutique properties delivering bespoke experiences that attract lookalike audiences.
• 
  2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report leadership series: Unlocking revenue from the guest data you already have | a Revinate webinar 22.04.2026 47m

  In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Gitti Hernández, Digital Marketing Manager at Casa de Campo, one of the Caribbean's most iconic luxury resorts to unpack what the 2026 Revinate Hospitality Benchmark Report reveals about database health, and what Casa de Campo's decade of data work looks like in practice. From a pre-arrival itinerary program that lifted guest satisfaction scores by 40%, to merged guest profiles that made a targeted Ultra VIP anniversary segment possible, Gitti demonstrates that the real value of a clean database is not storage, it is what you can finally do once the data is reliable.
• 
  Why hotel branding is the most underused revenue strategy in hospitality | with Tomas Bäcklund 15.04.2026 33m

  In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Tomas Bäcklund, Chief Marketing Officer at Elite Hotels of Sweden, for a wide-ranging conversation on the most overlooked revenue strategy in hospitality: brand. Tomas arrived in the hotel industry from a creative agency background and has spent five years making the case that as costs rise and margins compress, the hotels that can charge more — without guests feeling overcharged — are the ones that have invested in brand strength. Under his leadership, Elite Hotels has grown its direct website booking share by nearly ten percent. His framework is simple and backed by data: strengthen brand, fix your website, and think beyond the five percent of guests who are ready to book today.
• 
  2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report leadership series: Email strategies that drive revenue | a Revinate webinar 08.04.2026 46m

  In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Christine Malfair, Fractional CMO for Independent Hotels at Malfair Marketing, to translate the 2026 Revinate Hospitality Benchmark Report's email findings into actionable strategy. With 2.8 billion emails analyzed globally in 2025, the data is unambiguous: cart abandonment campaigns hit 63% open rates and 6.8% conversion, targeted segments under 5,000 recipients convert at ten times the rate of mass blasts, and confirmation emails are generating $93 per booking in upsell revenue. Christine's fifteen years working with independent hotels, including a decade as a hotel GM, give every benchmark number a practical context that marketing teams can act on immediately.