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    Leisure

    Behind the Stays

    Welcome to Behind the Stays — a podcast that shares the stories behind your favorite boutique hotels, short-term rentals, and hospitality brands and the hosts, operators, and entrepreneurs who’ve brought them to life.

    Every Tuesday and Friday you’ll meet the military veterans, retired flight attendants, tech entrepreneurs, school teachers, single moms, hoteliers, and real estate investors who are all, in their unique ways, shaping the future of travel and hospitality.

    Discover how these visionaries — from all over the world — have built stunning landscape hotels in the mountains, designed bohemian bungalows on the beach, erected eclectic off-grid and nature-immersed escapes, and so much more.

    Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more.

    Behind the States is hosted by Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance.

    Advertise

    Copyright: © Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.

    • Apple Podcasts
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    Latest Episodes:
    This Week in Hospitality: Ideas, Stories, and Hot Takes with James McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of NIHI Hotels Jul 24, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    James McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of NIHI Hotels, joins the core four for a wide-ranging conversation on what it actually takes to build a legendary independent hospitality brand — from the jungles of Sumba to the halls of the Ritz-Carlton.

    James traces his career across some of the most storied names in luxury hospitality — Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood, the Carlisle, YTL — before partnering with Chris Burch to build NIHI Sumba, now widely regarded as one of the world's most exceptional and emotionally resonant hotel experiences. He breaks down the difference between operating inside a behemoth brand versus building something from scratch, and what it really costs — personally and professionally — to go independent.

    The conversation covers demand creation in the pre-algorithm era (think hot cookies at Malaysian airports and a chef moonlighting as a "technology butler"), how a yoga teacher ran NIHI's Instagram for its first five years, and why NIHI's most viral post — horses casting shadows on a beach at sunset — gets mistaken for AI-generated content daily. James also shares his philosophy on guerrilla marketing, the power of generosity as a brand strategy, and why scarcity may be the most underutilized asset in luxury hospitality today.

    On the business side, James gets candid about partner selection, equity, the emotional toll of betting on yourself, and what independent operators consistently get wrong: great product, poor storytelling. He argues that the GM running a flagged property matters more than the flag itself — that soul can't be systemized, only lived.

    A masterclass in brand building, emotional hospitality, and the courage it takes to build something the world hasn't seen yet.

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    Why Luxury Hospitality Is Optimizing Itself Into Irrelevance — And What To Do About It (with Colin Nagy) Jul 21, 2026
    Show notes

    Connect with Colin: linkedin.com/in/colinjamesnagy/

    Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/

    Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/

    —

    The luxury hotel boom of the last decade produced more five-star rooms, more high-end brands, and more capital chasing premium travelers than any period in modern hospitality history.
    It also produced a lot of hotels that feel exactly the same.
    Colin Nagy has spent nearly a decade covering the business of luxury travel for Skift while leading global brand strategy for Instagram and Threads at Meta. He sits at a rare intersection — deeply inside the world of brand, culture, and consumer behavior, and deeply inside an industry he genuinely loves. That combination makes him one of the most clear-eyed observers working in hospitality today.
    In this episode, Colin and I dig into why luxury has optimized itself into sameness — and more importantly, what the brands getting it right are actually doing differently. We get into the role hospitality plays in a world where AI is accelerating isolation and people are hungry for real human connection. We talk members' clubs — the ones worth betting on and the ones burning through capital without a clue. We get into the macro disruption question most operators aren't asking loudly enough. And we talk about what world building actually requires — and why so few brands are willing to do the work.
    Colin isn't cynical about any of this. He's demanding. There's a difference. And if you care about where this industry is headed, this conversation will sharpen how you see it.

    — Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of Growth at Journey. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance.

    How Cloudbeds Is Shaping the Future of Independent Hospitality with Their New Partnership with Journey Jul 14, 2026
    Show notes

    What if the technology helping independent hotels compete with the biggest brands in the world shouldn’t feel like technology at all?

    Cloudbeds serves tens of thousands of properties across more than 150 countries — giving its team a uniquely expansive view into how independent hotels are performing, what operators are struggling with, and how the way travelers discover and book stays is rapidly changing.

    In this episode, Zach sits down in person with Rafael Blanes, Chief Growth Officer at Cloudbeds, and Sébastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships, to unpack why they believe this is one of the most exciting moments yet to be an independent hotelier.

    Rafael and Sébastien explain why the traditional PMS is evolving into something much bigger, how fragmented hotel data prevents operators from making confident decisions, and why the industry’s obsession with “AI” may be getting in the way of solving the problems hoteliers actually care about.

    They also share a look at Ask Signals, a conversational tool that could allow operators to ask questions of their property data, generate reports in seconds, receive explainable pricing recommendations, and eventually get a proactive daily briefing before arriving at the hotel.

    The conversation also explores why OTAs can actually help hotels generate more direct bookings, what independent properties must do to compete with the marketing machines of major flags, and why operators should never treat an OTA guest differently from someone who booked direct.

    Finally, Rafael and Sébastien share the story behind the Cloudbeds Collection — a portfolio of 100 distinctive independent properties around the world — and why Cloudbeds selected Journey as its loyalty partner to help those hotels share guests, strengthen direct relationships, and offer the benefits of a global loyalty ecosystem without sacrificing what makes each property different.

    You’ll also hear why the next hotel Rafael builds will almost certainly have a marina, how Sébastien prepares a five-day roast chicken, and the remarkable story of the technology partner who worked through the night to help former Sonder properties keep their doors open.

    Alright friends, without further ado, get ready to meet Rafael and Sébastien.

    —

    Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks at boutique hotels, private residences, landscape hotels, glamping retreats, and so much more.

    Behind the Stays is hosted by Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur with a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join the Alliance at journey.com/alliance.


    This Week in Hospitality: Airbnb Founder's Secret AI Lab, Bass Pro's $300M Resort Bet & The Economy Hotel Franchise Revolt Jul 03, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    Zach, Scott, and Edwin dig into three stories reshaping the industry this holiday week. First: Skift's The Big Squeeze Part 2, which spotlights a family in Iowa who let their Wyndham franchise expire, renovated their Super Eight, and beat their old revenue numbers — no flag required. With 1,200+ economy agreements hitting end-of-term by 2030, the off-ramp is more viable than ever. Then: Bass Pro Shops quietly acquiring Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys for a reported $300M — a masterclass in brand ecosystem building that's staying firmly in its lane. Finally: Brian Chesky's reported shadow AI lab, what it says about the limits of building inside a public company, and why the chat interface might be the wrong bet entirely. Spice of the week: Edwin on why budget season is the moment to rethink your AI staffing strategy, Scott on hospitality's leadership crisis (not labor crisis), and Zach on why the World Cup turned out to be anything but a non-event.

    This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey.

    Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary.

    If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

    Key Topics & Timestamps

    00:00 — Intro
    07:11 — The Economy Hotel Franchise Revolt
    24:36 — Bass Pro’s $300M Resort Bet
    35:56 — Airbnb Founder’s Secret AI Lab
    45:03 — Spice of the Week

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    This Week in Hospitality: Pali Society Goes Bonvoy, Hilton's Incubating 5 New Brands, and Hot Takes with Skift's Hospitality Editor, Sean O'Neil Jun 26, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    Sean O'Neill of Skift joins the roundtable this week for a conversation that cuts straight to the fault lines running through the hotel industry right now — distribution versus identity, brand proliferation versus brand meaning, and the wellness promise versus wellness delivery.
    The panel leads with Pali Society's decision to bring its 16-property California portfolio into Marriott's Design Hotels ecosystem — the single largest addition in the program's history. Edwin draws the line everyone in the independent space is afraid to say out loud: using Marriott as a marketing channel is smart; slowly operating for Marriott guests instead of your own is how you lose the thing that made you worth joining in the first place. Scott is blunter: "Every owner in the world loves independence until they have empty rooms."
    From there, Sean's own Hilton story lands on the table. Hilton's new CDO is signaling five or six organic brands are coming — and a trademark filing, locked domain, and placeholder social accounts are already pointing toward a lifestyle concept called "Tortoise." The group debates whether the major brand groups, Hilton included, are actually delivering on their supposed superpower. Sean's take: in an AI-discovery world, the question isn't how many brands you have — it's whether any of them mean anything.
    The conversation gets sharper on wellness — a category where nearly everyone claims the space and very few actually own it. Ben makes the obvious argument: if Oura can sync with fitness apps, why can't Canyon Ranch pull your health data? Edwin adds the counterweight — the freedom to do nothing is the next frontier that nobody's building for.
    Plus: Soho House gets called out for failing to remember Edwin's green tea order after ten years, Scott's Venice discovery about a pool built in feet instead of meters, and Zach's verdict on San Antonio as the most underrated hotel market in America.

    This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey.

    Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary.

    If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

    Key Topics & Timestamps

    00:00 — Intro
    38:13 — Story #1: Palisociety Joins Marriott’s Design Hotels
    49:52 — Story #2: Hilton’s New Brand Factory
    01:01:51 — Spice of the Week

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    This Week in Hospitality: CoStar’s Forecast Reversal, Marriott Hits 10K Hotels, and Amsterdam’s Tourist Tax Revolt Jun 19, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    This week opens in full TWIH chaos: Zach and Scott are somehow a mile apart in San Antonio and still not together, Ben is on the Connecticut shore debuting smarter-looking glasses, and Edwin is back in Barcelona sweating through a muted AC situation.

    Then the guys get into the real stories moving hospitality. CoStar and Tourism Economics upgrade 2026 RevPAR forecasts, but the panel is skeptical. Luxury keeps pulling away, select service is stuck below inflation, and Ben argues the real problem is product-market fit: too many boring midscale hotels charging more without giving guests a reason to care. Edwin warns that the rush into luxury could create a wave of copy-paste properties that look expensive but mean nothing. Scott lands the bigger question: are we measuring industry health while ignoring the health of the guest experience?

    From there, Marriott hits 10,000 properties with the JW Marriott Ranthambore in India — and the milestone becomes a debate about scale, owner trust, Bonvoy economics, and whether loyalty programs are quietly becoming financial institutions. Edwin points to owners pushing for a bigger slice of Marriott’s credit-card and loyalty revenue, while Ben argues younger hoteliers may not see the same value in flags that previous generations did. The crew digs into whether AI, better data, and a more independent-minded generation of owners could start cracking the big-brand moat.

    In What’s in Your DMs, Ben is seeing a wave of narrative-driven independent hotel projects, Scott hears from a travel advisor whose clients are bringing AI-generated itineraries for human validation, Edwin is getting flooded by designers looking for work, and Zach admits he built a Claude agent to help find better podcast guests.

    Finally, Edwin breaks down Amsterdam’s tourist-tax fight, where the city is pushing toward a 20% tax by 2030 and hotel leaders are moving from dialogue to lawsuits. The group debates overtourism, whether cities want visitor revenue without visitor relationships, and why Europe is starting to feel materially more expensive for travelers.

    Spice of the Week closes with World Cup infrastructure chaos in Miami, six-hour stadium commutes, and Ben’s Messi doppelgänger moment.

    This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey.

    Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary.

    If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

    Key Topics & Timestamps

    00:00 — Intro
    06:51 — Story #1: CoStar’s Hotel Forecast Reversal
    24:00 — Story #2: Marriott Hits 10,000 Hotels
    46:50 — What’s In Your DMs: AI Travel Planning & Independent Hotel Momentum
    1:00:13 — Story #3: Amsterdam’s Tourist Tax Revolt
    1:11:22 — Spice of the Week

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    This Week in Hospitality: The Airbnb-Marriott Deal That Almost Happened, MGM Goes Private(?), Journey & Cloudbeds Partner, & What Premium Travelers Want Jun 12, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    Two of the biggest casino operators in the world became takeover targets in the same week — and the squad has thoughts.
    Barry Diller's People Inc. just offered $18 billion to take MGM Resorts private, days after Fertitta agreed to buy Caesars. MGM's own CFO didn't argue the company was fairly valued — he argued investors aren't doing the work. Ben, Scott, and Edwin debate whether public markets are simply too lazy to underwrite experience-driven hospitality, and what the next-generation casino actually looks like.
    Then: the deal that almost rewrote the industry. On a recent podcast, Airbnb's former Chief Strategy Officer Chip Conley revealed that Marriott and Airbnb spent six months negotiating a major partnership in 2016 — including talk of earning and burning Bonvoy points on Airbnb stays — before Marriott's owners killed it. Was it the most expensive "no" in hospitality history?
    Plus: Zach got access to Odesia, the AI travel search platform from Sonder's co-founder that just landed $6M from Sequoia — and it's the best AI trip-planning experience he's seen, full stop. And a new survey of 2,000 travelers reveals what premium guests will actually pay more for: quiet rooms, verified sustainability, and tech that connects rather than dazzles. Spoiler — it's a home-field advantage for independents.
    Spice of the Week covers a sandwich shop that turned away revenue over a tiny dog, why full hotels fool owners into thinking their marketing works, the OTA-fee budget shell game, and Zach's big announcement: Journey's new strategic partnership with Cloudbeds.

    This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey.

    Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary.

    If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

    Key Topics & Timestamps

    00:00 — Intro
    05:08 — Story #1: MGM’s Take-Private Bid and the Value of Live Experience
    16:31 — Story #2: Marriott and Airbnb’s Partnership That Never Happened
    33:43 — Story #3: Travelers Will Pay More for Quiet, Calm, and Credibility
    44:54 — Spice of the Week

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    This Week in Hospitality: Sonder's Founder is Back, Hyatt's New Growth Strategy, The Human Concierge Book, and L.E/Miami Recap Jun 05, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    This week opens at LE Miami — which Scott describes less like a travel conference and more like Coachella for hotel nerds — before the guys dive into the real industry tension underneath the party.

    Hyatt tells investors to stop counting rooms and start counting fees, arguing that “empty calorie” growth is the wrong metric. But the panel digs into the contradiction: the premium story is Park Hyatt, Andaz, Thompson, and Alila — while the actual growth engine may be Essentials, all-inclusives, and credit card economics. Translation: hotel companies are increasingly distribution platforms, loyalty machines, and maybe even banks.

    Then Hilton’s Undergraduate by Hilton gets a second look. The name still gets roasted, but the strategy starts to make sense: college towns are wildly underserved, Graduate doesn’t pencil everywhere, and tired select-service boxes are begging for conversion. The question is whether this is lifestyle innovation — or just another brand solving an owner pipeline problem.

    The guys also react to Sonder co-founder Francis Davidson’s new AI travel startup, Odessia, and debate whether dedicated AI travel agents can win when ChatGPT and Claude already own so much user context. That leads into a bigger conversation about trust, human travel advisors, preference passports, and why overwhelmed travelers may want fewer options — not more.

    Finally, Minor Hotels makes the case for “asset-right” hospitality, arguing that brands need more skin in the game if they want owner trust. The crew closes with DMs, celebrity hotel speculation, World Cup demand anxiety, and Ben teasing a possible conversion-brand play of his own.

    This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey.

    Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary.

    If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

    Key Topics & Timestamps

    00:00 — Intro & L.E/Miami Recap
    05:52 — Hyatt’s New Growth Strategy
    16:35 — Hilton’s Undergraduate Brand Bet
    24:25 — Sonder’s Founder Is Back: Odessia and AI Travel Planning
    33:35 — The Human Concierge Is Making a Comeback
    50:00 — What’s In Your DMs?
    59:25 — Spice of the Week

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    This Week in Hospitality: The Uber-Hotel Hookup, Expedia Optimizes for AI Agents, and Why Americans Are Skipping Europe May 29, 2026
    Show notes

    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

    Mews embeds Uber directly into its PMS, promising seamless guest transportation and a cut of ancillary revenue hotels have long been leaving on the table. The guys are skeptical — cool concept, questionable adoption, and the real winner might just be Uber’s data team.
    Then Expedia announces B2A — a marketing function built not for humans, but for AI agents. Scott doesn’t mince words: AI is about to expose how hollow most hotel marketing actually is. Ben connects the dots to the accelerating rise of independent, story-driven properties that LLMs will increasingly favor over generic flag brands.
    Americans aren’t canceling travel — they’re shortening trips, going domestic, and scrutinizing every dollar. Scott just did seven hotel site visits in Tuscany. Not one was at capacity. The Smoky Mountains are not having the same problem.
    Finally, a sharp op-ed on the structural dysfunction between hotel owners and operators sparks a broader debate about why the aligned owner-operator model is the decade’s single biggest competitive advantage — and why capital still hasn’t caught up.

    This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey.

    Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary.

    If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

    Key Topics & Timestamps

    00:00 — Intro
    02:28 — Story #1: Mews embeds Uber into the PMS
    15:28 — Story #2: Expedia’s B2A strategy for AI agents
    37:17 — Story #3: Travelers trade down, not out
    50:04 — Story #4: The owner-operator information gap
    56:36 — Spice of the Week

    Your Hosts:

    Zach Busekrus — Journey

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

    Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

    Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

    Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/


    How an Engineer-Turned-Michelin-Chef Built Epicurate, the Experience Platform for Luxury Stays May 13, 2026
    Show notes

    Explore Epicurate: https://epicurate.vip/

    Connect with Max: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-porterkhamsy/

    Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/

    Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/

    —

    Every once in a while on this show, I get to share news that I'm personally invested in — and this is one of those episodes.

    A few weeks ago, Journey acquired Epicurate, a private chef and experiences platform that has become one of the most beloved platforms in the luxury segment of the short-term rental world. If you operate in the high-end residence rental space, there's a good chance you've either used Epicurate yourself or you've stayed somewhere that does. The platform powers private dining, in-home wellness, gear rental, grocery delivery, and a growing list of curated services for some of the most respected vacation rental brands in the country — AvantStay, Abode Luxury Rentals, and Red Cottage just to name a few.
    The man behind it is Max Porterkhamsy, and his story is one of my favorite kinds. A would-be patent lawyer who walked away from mechanical engineering to go to culinary school. He went on to work at a storied michelin star restaurant in New York, then designed and executed a 7-course tasting menu for a tasting room in Sonoma, to cooking private dinners and running concierge for vacation rental guests staying at some of the most coveted homes in wine country. And then, Max started noticing something the rest of us in this industry had been drowning in for years — concierge is broken. The relationships are there. The talent is there. But the tooling underneath it all is a tangle of spreadsheets, email chains, and tribal knowledge that doesn't scale.

    So Max built the platform he wished he'd had as a chef. And six years later, it's become the connective tissue between operators who want to deliver hotel-grade hospitality and the local providers who actually make that magic happen.

    In this conversation, we get into all of it — Max's path from growing up in farm in New Hampshire to how covid rocked the hospitality industry but accelerated Epicurate’s growth, what hotels can learn from the private external concierge model, and why Journey acquired Epicurate.

    Alright friends, without further ado, get ready to meet Max.

    — Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of Growth at Journey. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance.

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