Hospitality Daily Podcast

How Vision Guides the Moves You Make - Christine Poon, Detroit EDITION 21.07.2026 13min

In this episode, Christina Poon, the General Manager at the Detroit EDITION, shares how vision guides the moves you make as a hotel leader and throughout your career. You'll hear how Christina builds a property vision with owners and the team, why she compares each hotel chapter to making a movie, and how her yearly personal review helped lead her from New York to a construction site in Detroit. Listen to the first part of our series: The Unexpected Joy of a Career in Hospitality A few more...

The Unexpected Joy of a Career in Hospitality - Christina Poon 20.07.2026 11min

Christina Poon, General Manager of the soon-to-open Detroit EDITION, shares the story of how an unexpected career recommendation led her into hospitality and why she's never looked back. She reflects on the power of human connection, creating lasting guest experiences, and building a career aligned with your personal values. Christina also explains why she began documenting the realities of hotel leadership on LinkedIn, offering aspiring hospitality leaders a rare behind-the-scenes look at th...

What an Imaginary Hotel Can Teach Us About Awe and Hospitality - Milou Neelen 10.07.2026 25min

In this episode, Milou Neelen, the Founder of Hôtel Magique, shares why so many beautifully designed hotels leave guests feeling nothing. You'll hear why she chases awe over polish, how imperfection makes a space feel more human, and why she believes an awe-inspired hotel moves guests from memorable to transformational. She also gets into the science of awe through the work of UC Berkeley's Dacher Keltner, author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder. Connect with Milou: LinkedInInstagra...

Scaling Hospitality Without Losing What Makes You Special - Lily Wecker, Aethos 03.07.2026 11min

Scaling a hospitality brand is about more than adding new properties. The real challenge is preserving the culture, service, and sense of connection that made the brand successful in the first place. In this episode, Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, shares how the company approaches growth by investing in people first, choosing locations with intention, and expanding alongside the communities they serve. She explains why culture is the foundation for scaling and why staying true to your identity m...

Hospitality Marketing Should Feel Human - Lily Wecker, Aethos 02.07.2026 7min

Creating a memorable hospitality experience is only part of the challenge. Communicating it in a way that feels just as human is what sets great brands apart. In this episode, Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, explains how the company's human-centered philosophy shapes its marketing and communication. She shares why Aethos prioritizes people over products, how its campaigns capture the spirit of the brand rather than staged perfection, and why storytelling attracts guests who will really connect w...

The Dinner Game Aethos Uses to Build Connection - Lily Wecker, Aethos 01.07.2026 7min

In this episode, Lily Wecker, the CEO at Aethos, shares how the brand designs guest experiences around 360-degree wellbeing rather than entertainment alone. She walks through Aethos's mix of outward-facing programming, DJ nights, live sketching, listening sessions, and inward-focused rituals like a personal-question card game played after community dinners. You'll hear why Lily believes wellbeing has to include social connection alongside sleep, food, and exercise, and why she builds both dis...

Stop Guessing About AI. See What Hotel Leaders Are Actually Doing. (Nazpari Aydin, Destination AI) [Sponsor Bonus] 30.06.2026 17min

In this special bonus episode, Josiah Mackenzie and Nazpari Aydin, Founder and Managing Director of Destination AI, introduce the State of Hotel AI survey, a study designed to reveal what's really happening with AI across the hotel industry, where it's delivering results, and where it still falls short. They discuss why an honest look at AI adoption matters, how the findings will help you benchmark your organization against your peers, and what attendees will learn from the research at this y...

Why We Break the Rules to Deliver a Feeling - Lily Wecker, Aethos 30.06.2026 11min

In this episode, Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, shares how her teams break hotel brand standards to deliver a feeling rather than a checklist. You'll hear why one property has no TVs in the rooms, why she tells front desk teams to observe guests instead of predicting what they want, and how a GM in Sardinia turned beach rocks into welcome-card holders. This conversation is hosted by our innovation correspondent Matthias Huettebraeuker. Also see: Human-to-Human: Rethinking Luxury Hospitalit...

Human-to-Human: Rethinking Luxury Hospitality - Lily Wecker, Aethos 29.06.2026 12min

In this episode, Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, explains why she believes the future of luxury hospitality is shifting away from status and product, and toward genuine human connection. In conversation with our innovation correspondent Matthias Huettebraeuker, she shares how Aethos is redefining luxury through community, belonging, and a human-to-human approach to service. It's a fresh perspective on how guest expectations are evolving and what hospitality leaders should be thinking about next. ...

Listening to Yourself: A Hotel CEO on the Setback That Reset Her Leadership - Lily Wecker, Aethos 28.06.2026 6min

This episode introduces our week-long series with Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, in conversation with our innovation correspondent Matthias Huettebraeuker. She reflects on her journey and a pivotal moment that changed how she thinks about success, leadership, and listening to yourself. A few more resources: If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestionsIf you want to get my summary and actionable insights from e...

Where AI Actually Pays Off in Hospitality, and What Owners Should Demand - Ben Rafter, Hotel Equities 26.06.2026 11min

In this episode, Ben Rafter, CEO of Hotel Equities, shares where he believes AI is already delivering measurable results in hospitality and why operational applications are advancing faster than guest-facing experiences. He explains how Hotel Equities evaluates and tests new technology through HE Labs, the questions hotel owners should ask when selecting a management company, and where he sees AI driving hotel performance in the years ahead. Learn more: HE Labs by Hotel EquitiesHotel Eq...

How AI Addresses the Biggest Cost in a Hotel: Labor (Ben Rafter, Hotel Equities) 25.06.2026 10min

In this episode, Ben Rafter, CEO of Hotel Equities, shares how his team is using AI, data, and real-time operational insights to improve labor management, often the largest controllable expense in a hotel. He explains how better scheduling and smarter decision-making create opportunities to improve efficiency while maintaining the guest experience. You'll also hear why data alone isn't enough and how intelligent recommendations help hotel leaders think more like owners. Learn more: HE L...

Why Hotel Ownership Is Becoming Unsustainable, and What We're Doing About It - Ben Rafter, Hotel Equities 24.06.2026 11min

In this episode, Ben Rafter, CEO of Hotel Equities, shares why he believes today's hotel operating model is becoming increasingly unsustainable for owners. He explains the growing pressure from labor, insurance, and other operating costs, why healthy hotel ownership is essential for the entire industry, and how Hotel Equities is responding through its problem-first innovation initiative, HE Labs. If you're looking to better understand the economic challenges facing hotel owners and how leadin...

How Hotel Companies Turn AI Into Competitive Advantage - Steven Moore & Joseph Benjamin, Actabl [Sponsor Bonus] 18.06.2026 30min

The use of AI is one of the biggest strategic questions in hospitality, and many hotel leaders face the same challenge: they believe in the potential, but need a clearer path from experimentation to measurable results. In this episode, Actabl CEO Steven Moore and CTO Joseph Benjamin explain Actabl's new forward-deployed engineering offering for the hotel industry. They discuss why data foundations matter, how AI might help hotel companies improve profitability, and why custom workflows matter...

Hospitality's Perspective Problem - Martin Soler 18.06.2026 10min

Martin Soler shares one of the most common challenges in hospitality: seeing the industry only through your own perspective. Drawing on his experience as a hotel operator, technology leader, and advisor, Martin explains why great ideas often fail when we don't fully understand other viewpoints. He shares practical ways to adopt different viewpoints, make better decisions, and evaluate opportunities more effectively. Hospitality leaders will come away with a simple framework to avoid blind spo...

Personalization Is an Art - Martin Soler 17.06.2026 10min

Personalization is one of hospitality's most important goals, but is it really a technology problem? In this episode, hospitality advisor and former hotel general manager Martin Soler explains why guest preferences are far more contextual and dynamic than many systems assume. Drawing on examples from both hospitality and everyday consumer technology, Martin explores the limits of hyper-personalization and why the most memorable guest experiences often come from observation, empathy, and human...

The PMS Wars: AI Changes the Interface, Not the Foundation - Martin Soler 16.06.2026 8min

Martin Soler returns to explore "The PMS Wars," his ongoing series examining one of the most important shifts in hotel technology. What started as a race from legacy systems to cloud-based PMS platforms is now evolving into a conversation about AI, data infrastructure, and the future of hotel operations. In this episode, Martin explains why hospitality adopts technology differently from other industries, why changing a PMS remains one of the hardest decisions a hotel can make, and why AI will...

The Paradox of Hospitality Innovation - Martin Soler 15.06.2026 12min

Hospitality is often criticized for lagging behind on technology. Martin Soler sees it differently. In this episode, he explores the paradox of hospitality innovation, arguing that hotels have frequently been ahead of other industries while also becoming burdened by technology that adds complexity rather than removing it. This conversation examines how AI could reverse that trend, freeing hospitality professionals from administrative work and allowing them to spend more time creating meaningf...

Where to Start with Hotel Technology - Martin Soler 14.06.2026 12min

In this episode, Martin Soler shares where hoteliers should focus as technology and AI reshape the industry. Recorded ahead of HITEC 2026, Martin explains why strong data foundations matter more than the latest AI tools, how to evaluate technology vendors through the lens of integrations and APIs, and what hotel leaders should prioritize today to prepare for what's next. If you're trying to make smarter technology decisions in a rapidly changing environment, this conversation offers a practic...

AI That Works for Hotel Leaders Is Finally Here: The Story Behind How Actabl Built Altitude to Turn Data Into Answers You Can Trust - Stephen German, Actabl [Sponsor Bonus] 12.06.2026 18min

This episode is sponsored by Actabl. Learn more about its new product, Altitude, here. For years now, AI has promised hotel leaders something it hasn't delivered: the ability to ask a question and get an answer you can actually trust. Today, that changes with the launch of Actabl Altitude. In this episode, I sit down with Stephen German, Actabl's SVP of Product, to tell the story behind it. We get into why most AI answers fall apart the moment you check them, what it really takes to tru...