Alien Explainers

Simone Puorto has been abducted. His captors are a delegation of aliens who plan to open the first hotel on Earth, and they have set one condition for his release: he must teach them what human hospitality actually is. The trouble is that the industry has rarely had to explain itself. Why do humans open their doors to strangers? Why do we call the people who pay us guests? And what exactly is a guest paying for?

In this launch episode of Alien Explainers, Simone calls on Alan Young and David Poprawka of Infor to answer the aliens’ questions from first principles. The conversation moves from Bedouin desert law and a monastery on the Camino de Santiago to the front desk, the housekeeping cart, and the fully autonomous hotel. Along the way, it asks what is left of hospitality once the transaction takes over.

In this episode

• Why humans open their doors to strangers, and what the Bedouin rule of three days has to do with it
• Marcel Mauss and The Gift: a theory of why money entered hospitality in the first place
• Who really holds the power between a guest and a host, and why “the guest is always right” makes no sense to an alien
• Whether a smile can be trained, and how a two-minute check-in can score 10 out of 10 and still fail the guest
• Why one night costs 50 euros and another 5,000, and what a branded glasses cloth reveals about luxury
• How cashless travel quietly cost housekeepers their tips
• Whether a hotel run entirely without humans can still be called hospitality

Guests: Alan Young is a VP, Industry Solutions and Strategy at Infor, a technology strategist and keynote speaker known for turning difficult concepts into easy-to-understand ideas. David Poprawka is an Innovation Strategist at Infor, with a background in hotel technology and revenue management and a focus on how AI will reshape guest engagement and service.

Host: Simone Puorto is a techno-philosopher and consultant with over 25 years of international experience, the author of five best-selling books on technology and travel, and Head of Emerging Trends & Strategic Innovation at Hospitality Net.

Alien Explainers is a Hospitality Net original. A delegation of curious aliens wants to launch the galaxy’s first interstellar hotel brand, and Simone Puorto will not be released until he can explain how hospitality works. In each episode, the people who build and run this industry explain one concept in language anyone could follow, because if the aliens do not understand it, the explanation is not good enough.

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