Charles McDiarmid runs the Wickaninnish Inn on a rocky point in Tofino, British Columbia, land his father bought in the 1950s after falling for a remote fishing village at the edge of the Pacific. Three decades later, Charles has turned winter storms into the inn's signature draw and become one of seven sustainability commissioners at Relais & Chateaux, guiding the association's UNESCO-backed commitments across 580 properties worldwide.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Charles sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to trace the Wickaninnish Inn from a business plan written longhand after his kids went to bed to a property that operates eleven months a year, storms included. He talks about what Relais & Chateaux membership meant for an independent hotel at the edge of the world, the philosophy behind The Pointe Restaurant's commitment to local farmers, fishers, and foragers, and how a family compost bin turned into an electric fence strategy for coexisting with black bears. He also gets into the West Coast Sustainable Tourism Association and why he thinks the next generation of hoteliers matters as much as the next sustainability milestone.

In this episode:

• How storm watching went from a family tradition to a year-round business model
• Why joining Relais & Chateaux in the inn's first year became its "good housekeeping seal of approval"
• The financing story behind the Wickaninnish Inn, from land-rich, cash-poor to a family-owned property
• How The Pointe Restaurant builds its menu around the terroir of Vancouver Island
• What the West Coast Sustainable Tourism Association's 1% fee has funded in Tofino
• Why McDiarmid sees hospitality skills as lifetime skills, whatever career they eventually lead to

A few lines from Charles

• "We are at the end of the road. You don't wind up in Tofino by accident."
• "Sustainability was never going to be turned on like a light switch. It's a journey, and we're all on this journey together."
• "At the end of the day, it's about creating magical experiences for each and every guest you encounter."

Guest: Charles McDiarmid is the maître de maison of the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, British Columbia, and a sustainability commissioner at Relais & Chateaux. 

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. 

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Neil Gallagher runs Soneva as CEO, thirty years after the brand pioneered what it now calls barefoot luxury across three private island resorts in the Maldives, Soneva Fushi, Soneva Jani, and the newest and smallest, Soneva Secret. His focus these days is less about adding more to the guest experience and more about stripping it back to exactly what each guest needs, nothing more, nothing less.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Neil sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to explain how Soneva trains its barefoot butlers to ask guests how they want to feel rather than what they want to do, and how technology stays entirely behind the scenes to make that possible. He talks through the emotional engineering behind villa design, why retention matters more than recruitment on a remote island, and how a geographically diverse guest base helped the resorts stay full even amid regional flight disruptions. He also gets into the 24-hour chocolate and ice cream rooms that have become something of a cult favorite.

In this episode

• Why Soneva trains hosts to ask guests how they want to feel instead of what they want to do
• How villa design functions as emotional engineering, down to retractable roofs for stargazing
• Why technology stays invisible to guests even as AI shapes decisions like adding a wakeboard boat
• What staff retention reveals about trust and empowerment on a remote island resort
• How a diverse international guest base kept resorts full during regional flight disruptions
• The story behind Soneva's 24-hour chocolate and ice cream rooms, and why they never run out

A few lines from Neil

• "We're not giving you more, we're not giving you less. We're giving you just what matters."
• "Awe, for me, is when I'm stuck for words."
• "The burden of creativity sits with us, not with the guest."

Guest: Neil Gallagher is CEO of Soneva, a barefoot luxury hospitality brand operating three private island resorts in the Maldives: Soneva Fushi, Soneva Jani, and Soneva Secret.

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Nicolas Peluffo leads Awasi, a collection of five intimate luxury lodges across some of South America’s most remarkable landscapes, from the Atacama Desert and Patagonia to Iguazú, Mendoza, and the coast of Santa Catarina in Brazil. Built around the philosophy of “one villa, one guide, one vehicle,” Awasi creates highly personalized journeys designed around each guest rather than a standardized resort experience.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Nicolas sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to explore how Awasi defines ultra-luxury through personalization, human connection, and a deep sense of place. He discusses South America’s potential as a luxury travel frontier, empowering employees beyond standard operating procedures, the role of travel advisors, conservation and community partnerships, and Awasi’s new active wellness and longevity program in Brazil. He also explains why future growth will always prioritize quality over volume.

In this episode

• Why “one villa, one guide, one vehicle” sits at the heart of the Awasi experience
• How personalization has become Awasi’s definition of ultra-luxury
• Why South America still offers enormous potential for high-end experiential travel
• How empowered employees create deeply personal guest experiences
• Why travel advisors remain central to Awasi’s business
• How conservation and local communities are integrated into the guest experience
• How Awasi Santa Catarina combines exploration, wellness, and longevity
• Why the brand is choosing quality over aggressive expansion

A few lines from Nicolas

• “We don’t sell rooms. We sell a private way to experience and move around a territory.”
• “If I had to distill it down to one word, it would be personalization.”
• “Trust is earned, and you only earn real trust with performance.”
• “It’s not about volume. It’s about quality.”

Guest: Nicolas Peluffo is CEO of Awasi, an independently owned collection of luxury lodges across South America, focused on highly personalized travel, conservation, community engagement, and wellness.

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Darshana Jariwala grew up watching her family run hotels the Gujarati way — every guest honored, every hour of the day, no exceptions. Before she ever heard the words "Center of Excellence," she already knew what hospitality was supposed to feel like. The question she has spent her career answering is why so few hotel brands manage to deliver it consistently.

At Bridgeton Hospitality, she built the function designed to close that gap — not a department, but a strategy for making sure brand thinking is present from the very first product decision, not bolted on at the end.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Darshana sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to trace the line from a Gujarati family motel near St. Louis to Walker Hotels in Manhattan, Marram in Montauk, and Dawn Ranch in the Sonoma redwoods. She talks about what 14 years at PepsiCo, P&G, and Colgate taught her about connecting dots across a complex organization, why sustainability only works when it also makes business sense, and what she thinks hospitality is quietly getting wrong about AI.

In this episode

• Why brand strategy has to start with the product, not after it
• What Atithi Devobhava means and why it still runs through everything Bridgeton does
• The 56% statistic that made the Green Key certification decision easy at Dawn Ranch
• Why the community Darshana is building at Marram cannot be replicated anywhere else — only the idea can
• What AI gets right in hospitality, and what the industry keeps skipping
• Why she thinks the next big hospitality trend looks a lot like farming

A few lines from Darshana

• "Brand and marketing coming in as an afterthought of building the product — that's what we need to change."
• "It is not always about doing the right thing. I'm also the champion of where you're doing sustainability, how you're doing it, and what's the feasibility of doing it."
• "At the end of the day, this business is about people. We have to focus on that."

Guest: Darshana Jariwala leads the Center of Excellence at Bridgeton Hospitality, a New York City-based hotel company with a portfolio spanning Walker Hotels, Marram, Dawn Ranch, and Journey, among others. bridgeton.com

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. New episode monthly.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter met working in New York real estate and ended up running a bed and breakfast out of Lyon's own Brooklyn townhome instead. What started as a favor for friends' parents turned into a magazine feature within six months, and the two never spent a dollar on marketing after that. Twelve years later, they have four hotels, a standalone bar, and a brand built entirely on the idea that a place should feel like a home you happen to be sharing with strangers.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Jersey and Lyon sit down with Adam Mogelonsky to trace Urban Cowboy from that first Brooklyn townhome to Nashville, the Catskills, and Denver. They talk about designing spaces as personal reflections rather than templates, why every historic building they take on becomes its own mechanical and structural puzzle, and how a tagline like "arrive as strangers, leave as friends" turned into a genuine pattern of guests who met by the fire and ended up married. They also get into where Gen Z drinking habits are pushing the beverage program, and drop a hint about a Hemingway-inspired property still in the works.

In this episode

• How an organic Instagram following built an international brand without a single paid ad
• Why no two rooms across any Urban Cowboy property look the same, and why that is deliberate
• The real cost multiplier on HVAC, plumbing, and electric when converting century-old buildings into hotels
• Why the properties skip in-room TVs in favor of fire pits, saunas, and communal parlors
• How the non-alcoholic cocktail program in Nashville is evolving past an afterthought
• What a phone-free discount taught them about guests and digital detox

A few lines from Jersey and Lyon

• "We look at them as albums. Each one is a representation of where we are creatively, what we're looking for."
• "The buildings tell us a lot. The spaces themselves give us a lot."
• "Arrive as strangers, leave as friends. It's not a cheesy thing."

Guests: Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter are the co-founders of Urban Cowboy, a hospitality brand with properties in Brooklyn, Nashville, the Catskills, and Denver, built around design-led, community-driven guest experiences. urbancowboy.com

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Stefano Cuoco started his hospitality career peeling apples in the pastry kitchen of the Hilton Rome, then worked his way through Starwood and Rocco Forte before private equity–backed hotels showed him a different side of the business. When Miramis Hospitality and Entertainment, a Swedish company built on a shared love of Sweden and the Tuscan coast, came calling, he found a project still being shaped from the ground up.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Stefano sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to walk through Miramis's dual identity across the Tuscan Argentario coast and Stockholm. He talks about pairing hospitality with a historic live entertainment arena, why a tomato dish can carry eight different cooking techniques, and what it means to treat sustainability as culture rather than marketing. He also opens up about a 260-year-old hotel where the Hasselback potato was invented, and a new Stockholm venue built to host a full philharmonic orchestra.

In this episode

• How a shared passion for Sweden and Tuscany shaped the entire Miramis portfolio
• Why LA ROQQA's wine list carries only Tuscan labels, and why that was a deliberate choice
• The story behind Torre di Cala Piccola's restoration, ghost included
• Why La Capitana stays at 12 suites instead of scaling up
• How Cirkus Arena and the new Gasometer venue turn entertainment into a hospitality asset
• What 15,000 saved plastic bottles reveal about how Miramis defines sustainability

A few lines from Stefano

• "It's not about pillows and plates and beds. It is really about owning the guest experience."
• "Using local product is not just a kind of marketing tool, it's a state of mind."
• "Technology should support us, not replace the emotional guest connection."

Guest: Stefano Cuoco is the CEO of Miramis Hospitality and Entertainment, a Swedish-born hospitality group with properties across the Tuscan coast and Stockholm, including LA ROQQA, Torre di Cala Piccola, La Capitana, Hasselbacken, and Cirkus Arena.

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Aslihan Ozgur sits on the board of A'ila Developments, a one-billion-dollar project on Saint Lucia built around a concept still rare in hospitality: a longevity village. At its center is The LifeCo St. Lucia, the largest resort yet from a physician-led detox and longevity brand with a 65 percent repeat visit rate built over twenty years and fifty-five thousand guests.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Aslihan sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to unpack how a hundred-key wellness resort fits into a much larger master plan of three resorts, five hundred longevity residences, and twenty restaurants. She talks through the clinical side of medically supervised fasting, the full-time team of doctors and nurses behind every guest program, and why guest education matters as much as the stay itself. She also details some of the more advanced technology on site, from AI-guided fitness devices to stem cell therapy.

In this episode

• Why A'ila Developments is calling itself the Caribbean's first longevity village
• The two medically supervised fasting paths offered at The LifeCo St. Lucia, and how they are monitored
• How autophagy drives the program's approach to cellular repair
• What separates The LifeCo's clinical depth from a typical hotel spa
• How AI-assisted fitness devices are personalizing recovery and strength training
• Why 93 branded wellness products are designed to keep guests engaged between visits

A few lines from Aslihan

• "What drives us is a transformation the guests can actually feel and measure."
• "Fasting is only half of the equation. How you break the fast, it matters just as much."
• "We are not only here for the guests, we are here for the St. Lucia too."

Guest: Aslihan Ozgur sits on the board of directors of A'ila Developments in Saint Lucia, home to The LifeCo St. Lucia, a physician-led longevity and detox resort founded by Ersin Pamuksüzer.

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Enrique Calderon has spent 27 years at Posadas, Mexico's largest hotel operator, and now runs operations across more than 200 hotels in over 60 destinations as its COO. From a company that once called its first hotel Fiesta Palace because of the nightclubs and weddings inside it, Posadas has grown into a portfolio spanning midscale, upscale, and ultra-luxury brands, all while staying rooted in a single country.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Enrique sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to walk through Mexico's regional diversity, from Oaxaca's mezcal culture to Yucatan's gastronomy, and how Posadas builds brands around specific traveler moments rather than just room types. He talks about the five senses design behind Live Aqua, the family-focused water parks at Fiesta Americana Funeeq, and the life celebration concept behind Devossion. He also gets into the Amma culture behind guest surprises, a 30-hotel development pipeline, and how Posadas is expanding into the Caribbean.

In this episode

• How Posadas built distinct brands around specific traveler moments instead of one-size-fits-all hotels
• Why Live Aqua is designed as a five-senses experience from the moment of check-in
• What the Amma culture is, and how it built an 80,000-member fan community around one property
• The thinking behind new brands Devossion, Explorean, and Fiesta Americana Funeeq
• Why Posadas relaunched its flagship Fiesta brand with a more efficient prototype
• How the Posadas Foundation supports employee families and disaster recovery in Mexico

A few lines from Enrique

• "We're not longer selling rooms, we are selling experiences that include the room."
• "There's a room for international standard with a little topicalization of what is truly the feel and the vibe of the country."
• "We see that bright zones after the mountain."

Guest: Enrique Calderon is the COO of Posadas, Mexico's largest hotel operator, with brands including Fiesta Americana, Live Aqua, Fiesta Inn, Devossion, and Explorean across more than 200 hotels.

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Jason Zvatora leads commercial strategy and performance for Outrigger Resorts & Hotels across Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean, a brand born in 1960s Waikiki that has stayed exclusively focused on beachfront resorts ever since. With properties spanning Hawaii, Fiji, Mauritius, the Maldives, and soon Thailand, the brand's growth strategy still runs through one core idea: cultural authenticity over standardized delivery.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Jason sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to unpack how Outrigger builds a distinct sense of place into every destination, from Fijian chiefly village architecture to luxury longtail boats in Thailand. He talks about balancing family and romance personas within the same resort, why food and beverage makes up more revenue than rooms at some properties, and how the brand is adapting its content strategy for AI-driven travel search. He also gets into geopolitical disruption, seasonal staff exchanges between properties, and what a 45 percent annual return rate at one Fiji resort says about guest loyalty.

In this episode

• Why Outrigger calls its staff hosts and its guests family, not customers
• How master planning separates romance and family personas without losing a shared sense of community
• Why 54 percent of Outrigger's revenue comes from food, beverage, and activities rather than rooms
• How rerouting Thai chefs to a Fiji property during low season created an authentic guest experience
• What Outrigger discovered about content gaps when testing how LLMs answer travel questions
• How diversified source markets let the brand pivot quickly during regional travel disruptions

A few lines from Jason

• "Without a top line, there's no bottom line."
• "The more our guests stay with us, the more they love us."
• "We can never let a crisis hold us back, because in every crisis comes opportunity as well as challenge."

Guest: Jason Zvatora is Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Performance for Outrigger Resorts & Hotels, overseeing properties across Fiji, Mauritius, the Maldives, and Thailand. 

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. 

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. New episode monthly.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/

Markos Chaidemenos runs Canaves Collection as a family-owned business built on the idea that Greek hospitality cannot be scripted, it comes from the people themselves. On Santorini, an island with sharp edges and strict constraints, he treats luxury as something that has to sit lightly in the landscape rather than dominate it.

In this episode of Brand Insiders, Markos sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to talk about what boutique scale allows a family-run brand to do that larger operators cannot, and why proximity between guests, teams, and decisions matters as much as design. He explains the thinking behind Canaves Epitome, from volcanic stone landscaping to a goal he calls optical silence, and draws a clear line between sustainability guests can see and the infrastructure they never notice but still feel.

In this episode

• Why Chaidemenos sees Greek hospitality as a temperament rather than a set of standards
• How family ownership shapes long-term decisions about protecting a destination brand
• What optical silence means for the design of Canaves Epitome
• Why boutique scale creates unavoidable accountability, and why that is a strength
• The difference between visible sustainability and the technology working behind the walls
• How restraint, in scale, design, and operations, defines the Canaves guest experience

A few lines from Markos

• "Greek people are the very center of Greek hospitality."
• "I think that this is true luxury, to be in an environment not only with the view and the design, but to be in an environment of nature."
• "There is what you see and there is also what you do not see."

Guest: Markos Chaidemenos leads Canaves Collection, a family-owned luxury hospitality group on Santorini known for properties including Canaves Oia and Canaves Epitome. 

Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. 

Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

Visit Hospitality Net: www.hospitalitynet.org

Explore the latest Hotel Yearbook: www.hotelyearbook.com

Follow Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hospitality-net/