In this episode, Ken Cruse, Co-Founder and CEO at SCP Hotels, and Pam Cruse, Co-Founder and CMO at SCP Hotels, share their perspective on why values-led hotels are outperforming the broader industry on EBITDA, where guests are actually drawn now that a significant majority distrusts AI, and how vertical integration lets them move faster than chain-affiliated operators ever could.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Our first conversation with Ken and Pam (Nov 2024)
• SCP Mendocino Inn and Farm and SCP Mendocino Coast Lodge
• Every Stay Does Good program
• Arthur Brooks and his latest book: The Meaning of Your Life
• Shaun Tomson's The Code
• Joseph Pine's book: The Transformation Economy
• Transformational Travel Council
• One Tree Planted

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Chris McDowell, Chief Information Security Officer at Actabl, and Justin Call, Chief Legal Officer at Actabl, unpack the growing AI risk that many hotel leaders still underestimate. They explain how people across hospitality are already uploading confidential guest and operational data into public AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, why privacy and compliance rules still apply once that data enters an LLM, and why AI adoption needs to be treated as a business risk decision, not just a productivity upgrade.

Chris and Justin also break down what strong AI governance actually looks like inside a hotel organization, how technical guardrails matter more than policy documents alone, and why the quality and normalization of your data will determine whether AI delivers meaningful value at scale. The conversation also explores how hotel leaders should evaluate technology partners handling sensitive data, and why trust, security, and accountability are becoming core parts of the guest experience itself.

Also see:

• Why Our Approach to Hotel Data Earned a Patent and Prepares Hotels for AI - Clark Brayton, Joseph McGroarty & Pritesh Patel, Actabl
• Actabl's patent announcement
• HotelData.com

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, the General Secretary of Les Clefs d'Or International and Head Concierge at London's Royal Horseguards Hotel, shares an operator's view of what AI can do in hospitality: take the mundane off your hands so your team has the freedom to sit in the lobby, learn a guest's name, and build the kind of relationship where a guest becomes a friend.

If you've wondered where AI fits in a high-touch service environment without losing what makes it human, Burak's framing of "speed up to slow down" is worth your time.

Watch our full conversation here on YouTube

More in with Burak:

• Hire For The Spark - Burak Ipekci
• Energy Fit - Burak Ipekci

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, the Head Concierge at The Royal Horseguards Hotel and General Secretary of Les Clefs d'Or International, shares his case for why the hospitality industry is splitting into two distinct businesses, and why only one of them can justify calling itself a hotel. He explains the "concierge mindset" as a philosophy that should run through every role, why emotional engagement is the only thing that justifies a premium ADR, and why teams that don't feel welcomed at the door will never make guests feel welcomed either.

Watch our full conversation here on YouTube

More in with Burak:

• What It Takes to Earn the Golden Keys - Burak Ipekci
• Hire For The Spark - Burak Ipekci
• Energy Fit - Burak Ipekci

More podcasts with Burak:

• Mauricio Schuler: Concierge - The Beating Heart of Hotels
• Travel Trends Podcast: Special Hospitality Series: Inside Les Clefs d'Or with Burak Ipekci & Future Trends in Luxury Travel

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, Head Concierge at The Royal Horseguards Hotel and General Secretary of Les Clefs d'Or International, explains what the golden keys actually mean inside the concierge profession, and what it takes to earn them. He shares his journey from becoming a concierge in New York in 1999 to helping lead one of hospitality’s most respected global organizations across 85 countries.

Burak walks through the rigorous Les Clefs d'Or membership process, the emotional experience of receiving his own keys in front of hundreds of peers, and the decade-long effort to modernize the organization’s governance as it scaled globally. He also gives a behind-the-scenes look at how a distributed executive team across London, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Amsterdam, San Diego, São Paulo, and beyond coordinates a worldwide hospitality network built on trust, standards, and service.

Watch our full conversation here on YouTube

More in with Burak:

• Hire For The Spark - Burak Ipekci
• Energy Fit - Burak Ipekci

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, Head Concierge at The Royal Horseguards Hotel in London and Secretary General of Les Clefs d'Or International, shares a practical view of the decisions that shape a career in hospitality — why the boss matters more than the brand, how to read a leader's character in an interview, and why asking questions is the most underused skill in business.

Watch our full conversation here on YouTube

More in with Burak:

• Hire For The Spark - Burak Ipekci
• Energy Fit - Burak Ipekci

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, the Head Concierge at The Royal Horseguards Hotel in London and General Secretary of Les Clefs d'Or International, makes the case for why working in hospitality is worth it. He shares why the instant gratification of hotel work is unlike anything in other industries, and why the world has changed but the energy hasn't. 

Watch our full conversation here on YouTube

More in with Burak:

• Hire For The Spark - Burak Ipekci
• Energy Fit - Burak Ipekci

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, the Head Concierge at The Royal Horseguards Hotel and Secretary General of Les Clefs d'Or International, shares why hiring a great concierge isn't enough if the energy doesn't match the property. You'll hear how he advises hotel leaders opening new properties to think about the match between a person and a place, and why fit matters as much in hiring as it does in any other relationship.

Watch our full conversation here on YouTube

More on brand:

• Ace Hotel’s Early Days: Punk Spirit and Hospitality Innovation - Ryan Bukstein
• Why Hiring Artists and Musicians Transforms Hospitality - Abdul Baaghil
• The citizenM Founding Story (And What It Teaches Us Today) - Michael Levie

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Burak Ipekci, the Head Concierge at The Royal Horseguards Hotel and Secretary General of Les Clefs d'Or International, shares his view on hiring: why he decides in five minutes whether to spend 55, why great concierge careers start with someone spotting them first, and why caring for people is the one thing you cannot teach.

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Philippa Wagner, the Founder of People Places Spaces, and former head of 23 Lab at Ennismore, shares why the hotel industry's segmentation habit is breaking down, what the solo traveler actually wants, and why community can't be manufactured.

Learn more about The Future Guest Report

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands