Behind the Stays

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Andrew Humphries — Bridge Hospitality Partners

This week, Zach Busekrus, Ben Wolff, Edwin Kramer and Scott Eddy are joined by Andrew Humphries, partner and co-founder of Bridge Hospitality Partners. After decades in luxury hospitality, Andrew brings an operator's perspective to the hotel investment conversation, fresh from the GIOHIS conference.

We start with the Middle East: resilient demand, the growing role of regional travelers, Asian investment, branded residences and emerging co-living concepts. Andrew explains why Saudi Arabia's hotel ambitions may take longer to deliver without disappearing, and why the Maldives and Seychelles remain part of the investment conversation. We also get into interim general managers, brand proliferation and where AI can help hotel operations without replacing the human side of luxury.

Then it's the week's headlines. What does the Amex-Airbnb partnership mean for luxury hotels, distribution and the relationship with the guest? And does BWH's move to the WorldHotels name change anything meaningful for travelers, or is the real audience the hotel owner?

In Spice of the Week, Scott asks whether an AI assistant could become hospitality's most powerful gatekeeper. Ben weighs the brands' identity crisis and Hilton's tech ambitions. Zach shares a lesson from his Pendry conversation about scaling a distinctive hotel brand. Edwin wants owners to sleep in their own rooms. Andrew makes the case against over-amenitization: get the core experience right before adding more.

Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

PriceLabs

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This Week’s Guest:

Noelle Homsy, Co-Founder, ENVI Lodges

Your Host:

Zach Busekrus - Journey

Noelle Homsy's friends still aren't sure how she ended up in hotels. She studied architecture, and at 24 found herself the one left in charge of a construction site with four hundred workers. Then came years in dispute resolution, managing egos, reading the fine print, planning for the worst, before an MBA at INSEAD, weekend trips through Southeast Asia's locally run eco-lodges, and a hotel operator job in Dubai eventually led her to co-found ENVI Lodges with Chris Nader in 2021.

ENVI is an asset-light brand and operator of luxury eco-lodges: long-term management agreements, villas-only, low-density properties designed to disappear into their environment. The first lodge, ENVI Paje in Zanzibar (22 keys), opened this summer as proof the model works. Guests choose community excursions over the tourist menu, pack donations for local schools through the Pack for Paje program, and leave, as Noelle puts it, a little kinder than they arrived.

We get into why she believes sustainability is the byproduct of experiences that make people happy, not the goal; why taking care of the local community creates more impact than protecting a single plot; how ENVI wins owners away from the big brands; and what it takes for a lodge to earn the ENVI name. Plus: two lodges coming to Saudi Arabia, one on the shores of Oman, and where the brand goes next.

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Fifty episodes in, we're skipping the news and handing out the hospitality awards nobody asked for.

Zach, Ben, Edwin and a returning Scott Eddy each nominate, defend and vote across five categories. For "The Hotel I'd Steal," Scott and Edwin both take Marina Bay Sands - Edwin to bankroll a portfolio of tiny rural hotels with its profits - while Ben makes a play for Vermejo, Ted Turner's half-million-acre New Mexico reserve, and Zach stays closer to home with San Antonio's Hotel Emma and the Pearl District it anchors.

For "The Biggest Bet," Edwin backs Soho House's post-buyout second act as a wellness-driven lifestyle community, Ben doubles down on farm hospitality, Scott picks Ennismore's ecosystem approach, and Zach makes the case for Sloan Dean's AI Hospitality Group and its plan to rebuild the hotel management company from scratch.

The "Most Overrated" round goes after membership clubs, loyalty programs that measure points instead of genuine loyalty, brand proliferation nobody can explain, and the industry's obsession with capturing demand instead of creating it.

"Sleeping Giants" covers hotel staff as personal brands, the 45-to-65 first-time independent hotel buyer, the industry's missing attribution layer, and the day-guest economics of ResortPass.

And on "Hills We'll Die On": hospitality brands built on belonging rather than hotels, every hotel company thinking like a media company, ripping out the front desk, and why tech talent should be pouring into IRL experiences. Plus Edwin's Airbnb ad read that is absolutely not an Airbnb ad read.

Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

PriceLabs

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This Week’s Guest:

Connect with Janice Stitzer

Your Host:

Zach Busekrus - Journey

Four cabins had private saunas and cold plunges. Three didn't. And within the first few months, the bookings were telling Janice Stitzer she'd made a mistake.

So she ordered three more saunas.

I love that story because it gets at what this conversation is really about. You can have the beautiful renderings. You can have the cabin that looks incredible on Instagram. But at some point, the guest has to choose you, and the business has to work.

Janice is back on Behind the Stays, and she is one of my favorite people to talk to about the actual work of building these places. She comes from finance, including time at Disney and Fox Studios. She and her husband, a third-generation contractor, have spent years buying, renovating, and building real estate. Then they built Backcountry A-Frame in Colorado, and that opened the door to something bigger.

Her latest operating project is Frontcountry in Salida: seven micro-cabins on one acre. And that one acre came with some very expensive lessons. A well, parking requirements, setbacks, and septic all competed for the same little piece of land. The septic system alone ended up costing ninety thousand dollars.

We get into all of it. Why she chose an established destination over a more remote piece of land. What she learned about the amenities guests will actually pay for. And why, when someone asks her how many cabins they should build, she starts with a different question: what revenue does this business need to support the life you want?

Her starting point is roughly a million dollars in annual revenue, then working backward. That's her planning framework, not a promise that every project can get there.

We also talk about Vista Meadows Ranch, the farm-and-workshop experience she's building next, and why she's starting with the experience before the overnight stays.

If you've ever looked at a beautiful little resort and thought, "I could build something like that," this is the conversation I'd want you to hear before you buy the land.

Please enjoy my conversation with Janice Stitzer.

This Week's Guest:

Alex Cabañas

What happens when the hotel front desk disappears, but hospitality gets more personal?

This week, Zach Busekrus, Ben Wolff and Edwin Kramer are joined by Alex Cabañas, executive chairman of Pyramid Global Hospitality and founder and CEO of Astound Ventures, for a conversation about the changes that could actually improve hotel margins.

Alex explains why he's investing in hospitality's own problems, from energy management and distributed power to the workflows that keep hotel teams buried in admin. His test for innovation isn't whether it sounds impressive. It's whether it helps owners make money and frontline staff do their jobs better.

They explore a future with lobby hosts instead of agents stuck behind screens, AI tools that put repair answers in an engineer's hand, and automation that connects sales contracts with banquet operations. They also ask what hotels should build themselves, what they should buy, and who has time to sort through the endless startup pitches.

Then the conversation turns to Expedia's rate-parity lawsuit. Ben explains why his direct guests generate higher average daily rates without a lower direct price, while Alex challenges the parity model and considers what AI-driven recommendations could mean for intermediaries.

Finally, Minor Hotels' Life Longevity concept sparks a debate about wellness beyond the stay. Should hotels collect guests' health data, connect with their wearables, or leave diagnostics alone? Alex closes with a different vision of personalization: guests control their data and share it when they want a better experience.

Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

This Week’s Guest:

Shawn Cioto - Vice President of Operations, Dovetail + Co

Your Host:

Zach Busekrus - Journey

Shawn Cioto, VP of Operations at Dovetail + Co, explains why the owner of seven hotels is taking management in-house: large management companies often miss the small, on-brand details that make independent lifestyle hotels special, from coffee sleeves and key cards to scent, lighting and music. He describes how Dovetail decides between growing its Wayfinder brand (Waikiki, Newport and Bishop) and launching new concepts like its high-design pod hotel, and the whirlwind three-to-four-week takeover of Collective Retreats in New York. With guest acquisition costs climbing through OTA commissions, accelerators and paid media, Shawn's focus is monetizing guests once they're on property. One example is adding a casual second restaurant concept at a remote hotel so guests stay the second night instead of leaving for dinner. He talks about leaning on specialist marketing partners, a creative director and a brand lead, a viral video with their Catskills pizza chef, and surprise-and-delight touches for kids like Tiny the Turtle. With co-host Ben, he digs into balancing brand standards with fun content: standardize back-of-house processes, never the soul of the hotel.

Explore Ascend: www.joinascend.com

Connect with Zach Resnick: [email protected]

Connect with Cameron Resnick: [email protected]

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Follow Behind the Stays on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

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

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Zach Resnick could show business owners how to get far more value from their miles and points. The problem? Even people who paid for the advice often didn't have time to follow it.

That lesson helped turn Easy Point into FlyFlat, and eventually Ascend, a membership travel concierge that handles flights, hotels, and trip changes through WhatsApp. In this episode, Zach and Cameron Resnick explain why better deals got customers in the door, but having someone available when travel goes wrong became the deeper value.

The two share a last name, but aren't related. They met in the Points Guy's Facebook group and built a business out of their shared obsession with understanding travel's rules, rewards, and workarounds.

We get into the shifting relationship between airlines, hotels, credit card companies, and travelers. Cameron explains how transferable points created a kind of free agency. Zach argues that personal agents and concierges could become the relationship travelers trust most. Cameron offers a different view: geography and access to real-world experiences still give travel brands something hard to replace.

For hotel owners, Cameron's wedding story brings the discussion home. He helped guests book around thirty rooms at the Grand Hyatt Kauai using points, but says the hotel missed the opportunity to build a relationship with the group and earn more of their spending.

We also talk about the growing competition for award seats, using points to keep travel options open, and why a great booking experience means little if nobody can help when the trip breaks.

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Michael Wolf thought his career would be in government. He spent every summer in Washington, DC, and wanted the FBI. Then Bain came to campus, and he took a detour that turned into 15 years of startups.

Today he is the CEO of ResortPass, the world's largest marketplace focused on getting hotels more revenue from day guests. The idea starts with perishable inventory: hotels have mastered revenue management for the room, but an empty pool, fitness center or spa today is revenue that never comes back. ResortPass now works with nearly 3,000 hotels, sent a million people to hotels this past summer, and about 40 percent of its hotel partners are independents. More than 95 percent had never offered day access before.

In this episode, Michael explains why the day guest is the same guest who books an overnight room, just for a different part of the stay. We talk about why ResortPass often performs best when a hotel is at high occupancy, how the company built its own system of record because a PMS has no place for a day guest, and why ancillary revenue feels like a win here and a penalty in the airline world.

He also shares how premium hotels use ResortPass to test new products, why the biggest results come from hotels with an internal champion, and his contrarian view on how little innovation there is in an industry this size.

If you run a property with a pool, a spa or a gym that sits quiet some days, this one is for you.

This Week’s Guest:

Michael Wolf - CEO of ResortPass

Your Host:

Zach Busekrus - Journey

This Week’s Guest:

Dina Belon-Sayre - President, Staypineapple Hotels

Your Host:

Zach Busekrus - Journey

Dina Belon-Sayre, President of Staypineapple Hotels, opens with a story from a Portland snowstorm when she waited tables herself, fed a stranded hotel and received a thank-you check from a guest. Her point: any Staypineapple employee is empowered to make the same call. She traces her unusual path from theater, psychology and criminal justice studies through hotel design, construction and a decade in sustainability consulting, to spotting a five-story painted pineapple from her Seattle office window and joining the company ten years ago. She rose from director of real estate to president. Dina explains the upside of a playful, edgy brand (the "Naked Experience," no navy blazers or scripts) and the occasional offended guest, and why it's fine not to be for everyone. She describes hiring for emotional intelligence, critical thinking and a willingness to be authentic. On growth, she notes owners are risk-averse, Staypineapple hasn't franchised without management because service is the brand's through-line, and the company may package tools for other independents. Her soapbox: AI and LLM booking could run over independents within 18 months, and collections may need to become their AI intermediary at a fair cost.

Scott is in Sicily, so Zach, Ben Wolff and Edwin Kramer take the docket. Edwin checks in from a new boutique hotel on Spain's Costa Blanca, and Ben is fresh from the glamping show.

The first story: Hilton's CIO says AI assistants have put online travel agencies under real threat, yet he expects personal AI agents to become commissionable channels too. The crew asks what "direct" even means when an agent that never sleeps keeps rate-shopping after the booking is made. Edwin says post-booking shopping could be a bigger disruption than the booking itself. Then Booking.com tightens how much guest data, including phone numbers, it passes to hotels.

Next, Lola, the new AI travel assistant from Kayak's co-founders, wholly owned by Booking Holdings. It has a free tier, a $5 a month membership and a $25 a month VIP plan, and both paid plans need a 12-month commitment. Edwin thinks it could make the OTA stronger. Ben is highly skeptical that anyone will pay up front for perks.

Then Choice Hotels buys RV club Harvest Hosts for a reported $130 million. The crew talks about farm hospitality, RVers who eventually want a real bed, and what IHG and Wyndham do next.

The closer: Europe's new anti-greenwashing rules took effect September 27. Edwin explains why they are hard to police and why hotels may go quiet about sustainability instead.

Plus spice of the week: a hot September in southern Europe, and why this is the moment to experiment.

Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM