Stay ConnectedThe hospitality industry is constantly growing, changing, and innovating! This podcast will bring you the top news and topics from industry experts in different hospitality fields. Good Morning Hospitality publishes two thirty-minute weekly episodes, starting Monday and Wednesday at 7 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. EST. Presented by StayFi.
This podcast is a part of Skift. Go to Skift.com to hear and see more industry-leading content!
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In this sponsored episode of Good Morning Hospitality, Wil Slickers introduces a conversation between Skift’s Darren Frei and Elizabeth Mullins, President of Evermore Orlando Resort, about why human connection is becoming a bigger part of the hospitality and wellness travel conversation.
Elizabeth explains Evermore’s approach to relational wellness, how the resort was designed around togetherness, and why the company is working with social health expert Kasley Killam to shape guest experiences, employee culture, and long-term strategy. The conversation also explores what hotel, resort, and vacation rental leaders can learn from Evermore’s model as travelers seek more meaningful shared experiences.
This episode is presented by Evermore!
00:00 Show Intro
00:24 Why Connection Matters
01:53 Evermore Origin Story
03:15 Interview Begins
03:50 Relational Wellness Explained
05:31 Designed for Togetherness
06:54 Meet Kasley Killam: Leading social health expert
08:50 Building Staff Connection
11:17 Hotels Meet Rentals
12:41 On Property Experiences
15:20 Balancing Me Time
16:27 Advice for Operators
17:59 Measuring Success
19:21 Closing Thoughts
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into four stories about where premium experience is being redefined across the industry.
The conversation opens with a one-year check-in on what actually happened after Marriott International bought the citizenM hotels brand. The answer: 50% of CitizenM occupancy now comes from Marriott Bonvoy members and all of it is incremental demand. From there Sarah and Steve get into IHG Hotels & Resorts becoming the third major hotel group to launch AI search after Hilton and Marriott, with a detail every franchisee needs to hear: IHG is now asking hotel owners to upload floor plans, videos, and updated imagery or risk being invisible in AI-driven search. They also dig into why Travel + Leisure Co. paid $343 million for two timeshare companies and why the CFO said they bought the deals for 100,000 owners, not the resorts. And they close with Southwest Airlines signaling that lounges are coming, the latest step in the carrier's full premium pivot.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wifi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools. Visit https://lnkd.in/giZWR52y to learn more.
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane get into three stories about where the STR industry is headed now that the FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States is behind us.
The conversation opens with Airbnb's partnership with CarTrawler for car rentals in five countries, the latest step in Airbnb's quiet transformation into a traditional OTA. It already has homes, hotels, experiences, services, and airport pickups.
The crew digs into what that means for hosts who built their business around a platform that was supposed to be different. They also run through the final World Cup numbers for STR operators: rate gains were real across host markets but occupancy told a different story, and hosts who priced too high too early paid for it. They close with the Freddy Effect and what a German tourist who fell in love with Waffle House, Inc. House and Buc-ee's, Ltd.'s teaches operators about authentic guest experiences and word of mouth that actually moves markets.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt. StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wifi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools. Visit https://lnkd.in/giZWR52y to learn more.
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into how hotels earn money and keep it.
The conversation opens with Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta making the case that 28 brands is a data-driven strategy not sprawl, and calling out the hotel industry's default fix for unhappy guests: a pile of loyalty points at checkout. He says AI can catch the problem while the guest is still in the building. From there Sarah and Steve get into why Accor, Melia, and The Social Hub are circling student housing as a four-income-stream asset class, why micro-creators with under 20,000 followers are now driving real hotel bookings through affiliate deals, and close with Skift's Rafat Ali on the quiet reinvention of the hotel tax and the fight over who controls where that money goes.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt. StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wifi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools. Visit stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality to learn more.
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin get into three stories making headlines across the STR industry.
The conversation opens with Casago having sold nearly all of Vacasa's 32,000 units in just over a year, what the franchise model means for STR at scale, whether the Vacasa brand can become a real consumer platform, and how many units it actually takes to build a recognizable national STR brand. They also react to Airbnb paying $81.5 million for its first ever building in New York City, in the city where it is mostly banned, and close with Barcelona's pledge of not one tourist more and what the 2028 vacation rental ban means for operators watching overtourism regulation spread.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/ to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down who controls hotel demand and what it costs.
Skift's Rafat Ali lays out the deal thesis nobody has written yet: why an Airbnb and Ennismore partnership could close the $2 billion gap in Ennismore's IPO valuation.
From there, they get into Accor and H World International's plan to link 430 million loyalty members, what the official government data says about FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States inbound tourism, and the one earnings metric that will tell operators whether hotel profits are truly broadening when Marriott International, Hilton, and Hyatt report Q2 this week.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/ to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin break down three stories about who is building the next layer of travel distribution and what it means for STR operators.
The conversation opens with a Skift scoop: Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is forming a formal B2B unit bringing together Booking.com, Agoda, and Priceline to take on Expedia Group, where B2B already grows at three times the rate of its consumer business.
From there, Brandy and Michael dig into what Airbnb's hiring of OpenAI's first global VP of creative says about the company's bet that brand is its moat against AI flattening. They close with a Visa Economic Insights deep dive on the great wealth transfer — $8 trillion in inherited boomer wealth heading toward travel over the next 20 years, and what that means for who STR operators will be serving.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/ to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down a week where the infrastructure of hospitality is being rebuilt from every angle.
They open with the news of Mews cutting 15% of its staff and pointing to AI and what that means for hotel operators who depend on its platform. From there, the conversation digs into why extended-stay demand just hit a four-year high while the supply pipeline thins, a setup that could open real pricing power in 2027.
They also unpack Hilton's new direct booking connection with Navan that bypasses GDS middlemen, and close with how British Airways, Delta Air Lines, and Cathay Pacific are wiring loyalty programs into concert venues and theaters and what hotels should be taking notes on.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/ to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin break down who is actually controlling the relationship between a traveler and a booking right now.
The conversation opens with the race among Expedia Group, Booking.com, and Trip.com Group to become the trusted infrastructure layer for AI agents and what that means for STR operators who depend on Airbnb and Vrbo for distribution.
They also dig into how Airbnb outreached Marriott International on FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States impressions while spending less, what Expedia's shoppable IShowSpeed video says about whether creator marketing actually converts, and what Cabo Verde's 800% surge in U.S. searches teaches operators about turning attention into bookings.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/ to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk are joined by Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit to break down a question that is reshaping the hotel industry: is the brand still worth the price?
Sarah Kopit joins for a special segment on her investigation into why hotel owners are quietly dropping the big brands as more than 1,200 franchise agreements expire by 2030.
From there, Sarah and Steve dig into BWH Hotels' attempt to reverse years of room count decline by going upscale and overseas, Visa's new consumer travel portal that puts the payment network in direct competition with the banks it powers, and Sandals Resorts International's executive chairman shutting down sale rumors while committing $225 million to renovation at $1 million per key.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/ to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.
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