Hotel Moment

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Mickey Stout, Director of Marketing at Claremont Resort & Club, to commemorate the podcast's 200th episode. With more than 20 years of experience spanning marketing, PR, brand development, and frontline hotel operations, Mickey brings an insider perspective on driving guest demand for a century-old resort spanning Berkeley and Oakland, California.


Mickey details how the Claremont shifted from keeping paranormal rumors quiet to building high-demand October activations like Witching Hour evening tea and luxury haunted tours. She also breaks down how historic properties can gather authentic stories from long-tenured employees and leverage unified CRM data to extend guest lifetime value across dining, wellness, and membership.


What you'll learn: 


● Embracing historical lore: Why moving away from treating ghost stories as taboo allowed the Claremont to build an October program that sells out in six days.


● The influencer FAM model: How hosting targeted creators for an overnight stay generated a 200-person waitlist and drove regional travel from Sacramento and Fresno.


● Lifestyle over room nights: How managing a resort with 276 rooms, three pools, and 70 weekly fitness classes requires marketing an ongoing membership lifestyle.


● Cross-selling through CRM data: Why tracking the guest journey in a CRM prevents hotels from boxing seasonal event attendees into a single category.


● Mining employee memories: How interviewing staff members who have been at the hotel for over 40 years reveals unscripted, bookable historical narratives.


● Strict seasonal boundaries: Why keeping haunted tours exclusively contained to October preserves brand prestige and creates annual booking urgency.


● Packaging F&B activations: How pairing guided resort tours with craft cocktails and evening tea boosts food and beverage spend per guest.


● Social video proof: How capturing authentic, unexpected moments on social clips, like moving carpet indents, fuels organic audience engagement.


Karen and Mickey also discuss the Claremont's origins in 1915 following a high-stakes checkers match in a local bar and ghost encounters reported on ESPN by NBA star Tim Duncan.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Connect with Mickey Stout here:

• LinkedIn
• Claremont Resort and Club

Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights:
[00:02:35)] A childhood goal comes full circle. Mickey Stout shares her personal connection to the property, having set her sights on the Claremont as a child before returning as Director of Marketing. "I told my mom that one day I was going to work at the 'White Castle on the Hill,' which was the Claremont. I think I was five years old when I first said that."


[00:04:27] A high-stakes wager creates an iconic resort. Mickey details how two investors settled the property's fate following a fire on the original residence. "On a drunken day at a local bar, they were playing checkers and decided they were going to bet the property in a checkers match. So they played checkers, whoever won got full ownership of the property, and he decided he was going to turn it into a resort."


[00:08:32] Catching unexpected evidence on social video. While filming promotional clips during a guided tour, the marketing team noticed something unusual in the final footage. "Sure enough, you see footsteps trailing the tour and you could see like the carpet moving. I think that's the first time I really saw something that kind of gave me the creeps a little bit, but it was kind of cool. Like as a marketer, I was like, 'Whoa, we really caught something that we can put on our socials.'"


[00:11:00] Generating demand through familiarization trips. Hosting local creators and media transformed a single spooky night into a major regional attraction. "Once all the posting started happening, it just blew up. It became this thing where it's like, 'This is something you have to do in the Bay Area.' People were coming from like Sacramento, from Fresno, just to come check out these tours... I think we had a waitlist of 200 by the time the season was over."


[00:16:07] Moving guests out of single booking categories. Effective CRM strategy relies on understanding broader guest interests across the entire property portfolio. "I think having a CRM and finding out what that journey is is very important. A lot of times we might get stuck in like, 'They came here for a haunted tour,' and we check that box, but we don't want to keep them in that box. We want to see what else they're interested in."


Chapters:
00:00 - Intro


00:02:35 - Returning to the White Castle on the Hill


00:04:27 - The 1915 checkers match and resort features


00:06:16 - Famous ghost sightings from Tim Duncan to Mrs. Thornburg


00:09:59 - How an influencer FAM created a six-day sellout


00:14:51 - Marketing resort lifestyle beyond hotel rooms


00:17:09 - Uncovering bookable history through veteran hotel staff






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Charlie Osmond, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of TripTease, for a far-ranging conversation on the state of hotel data, the AI booking journey, and why the industry's biggest competitive threat may not be ChatGPT, but dirty data. With more than twelve years building technology at the intersection of behavioral psychology and the direct booking channel, Charlie brings a uniquely grounded perspective to the hype surrounding AI. His core message is urgent: the hotels and vendors that get their data right now will compound that advantage exponentially as AI capabilities accelerate.


What you'll learn:
● AI as a booking middleman: How AI search agents are collapsing discovery and booking into a single flow, requiring hotels to optimize for machine recommendations.● The impact of dirty data: Why feeding unorganized CRM and PMS data into AI models leads to poor marketing decisions and wasteful ad spend.● Defining ideal guest personas: How identifying five to ten core guest types allows hoteliers to clearly articulate property value to AI discovery tools.● Pricing parity on metasearch: Why knowing whether Booking.com is undercutting a hotel price by a single dollar completely changes ad bidding strategy.● Legacy software and closed APIs: How high integration fees and locked PMS data slow down hospitality technology innovation.
● Measuring personalization ROI: Why segmenting email lists and website messaging by guest preferences consistently outperforms generic broadcast campaigns.
● Cutting through AI search hype: Why fewer than 2% of bookings will originate from ChatGPT in 2026, making core marketing fundamentals essential.
● Scaling human hospitality online: How digital personalization tools replicate the front desk instinct of reading guest signals in the lobby.

Dylan and Charlie also talk about Charlie's experience running marathons in remote locations like North Korea and Kazakhstan, the practical capabilities of WebMCP for web agents, and how open technology partners like Mews are reshaping software ecosystem connectivity.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Connect with Charlie Osmond here:

• LinkedIn
• TripTease

Connect with Dylan Cole here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights:[00:00] Data quality determines strategy - Setting the foundation for modern hotel analytics starts with clean inputs. "Either you've got your data sorted and it's really high quality and you're going to be driving outstanding decisions, or you've got a data mess and you're just driving the wrong decisions consistently all the time."


[06:15] Capturing unexploited guest signals - Emerging web interactions offer hoteliers new opportunities to gather guest intelligence. "I think there are loads of ways in which there's a risk that the hotelier loses insight, information, data about guests who are doing things on their website, but I think most hoteliers aren't actually using those signals very well at all."


[12:15] The danger of vague targeting - Failing to define specific target personas renders marketing campaigns ineffective. "If you are not clear, and precise, and accurate with your data, then either you're going to be telling agents who are out there looking for hotels that your hotel's right for everyone, which then means it's not right for anyone and that's kind of useless. Or you're going to define the wrong ICP, and the wrong personas are going to be targeted."


[20:10] Prioritizing marketing fundamentals - Charlie advises hoteliers not to lose sight of foundational website performance amidst AI market hype. "If it's about wanting to have great performance the next 12 to 18 months, a lot of that comes down to doing the basics well."


[23:15] Long-term AI readiness - Data cleanup remains the single highest-return investment a hotel can make today. "The one thing that is coming back to where we started that you absolutely will get value from year after year after year in AI, if you start with it now, is improving the quality of your data."


Chapters:00:00 - Intro
05:20 - Protecting direct bookings against AI middlemen


08:30 - Defining ideal guest personas for AI search


10:54 - What dirty data breaks in hotel marketing


14:10 - Overcoming legacy software and closed APIs


18:26 - Measuring ROI on personalization and data


19:58 - Practical steps to protect direct revenue






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this episode of Hotel Moment, we bring you another special installment featuring a fully AI-generated conversation examining one of the defining questions facing hospitality leaders during budget season: if AI can answer the phone around the clock, why continue investing in human reservation agents?


The discussion uses findings from Revinate’s 2026 Secret Shopped Call Report, built from more than 300 mystery shopper calls across luxury and upscale hotels, as a starting point. The results reveal serious weaknesses across hotel voice operations, including limited contact capture, minimal guest discovery and low rates of proactive booking asks.


At first glance, those failures could strengthen the case for replacing human agents with automation. But the conversation argues that the underlying problem is often structural rather than human. Front desk teams answering reservation calls are frequently managing check-ins, guest complaints, key cards and lobby operations simultaneously. Dedicated reservation teams, by contrast, operate in an environment designed for sales and guest consultation.


The episode asks hotels to think beyond a simple choice between people and machines.


What you’ll learn:


● The structural failure behind poor phone performance: Why routing high-intent reservation calls to an overloaded front desk creates an environment where even talented employees struggle to sell effectively.


● Where AI genuinely excels: How automated agents can efficiently handle repetitive informational queries such as Wi-Fi details, parking policies, checkout times and other predictable requests.


● The handoff problem: Why a straightforward availability enquiry can suddenly become an emotionally significant, high-value booking involving accessibility requirements, celebrations, room preferences and premium add-ons.


● Why the happy path is misleading: How AI vendor demonstrations can underrepresent the messy, nonlinear and highly contextual conversations that make up many valuable hospitality interactions.


● The silent loyalty bleed: Why a failed automated interaction may not appear in a hotel's technical reporting but can still cause guests to quietly abandon the booking or associate poor service with the hotel brand.


● The visibility gap: Why hotels cannot intelligently automate, coach or optimize a voice channel they cannot consistently record and analyze.


● Revenue inventory: How reservation-agent capacity can be viewed as a finite number of opportunities to convert high-intent guests rather than simply an hourly payroll expense.


● The double acquisition cost: Why losing a caller after spending marketing dollars to generate the lead can become even more expensive if the same guest later books through an OTA.


● Split the work, not the team: Why hotels can use AI to remove low-value repetitive work while deploying skilled humans where empathy, context and commercial judgment create the greatest return.


● The next workforce challenge: How successful automation could remove the easiest calls from human workloads and leave reservation specialists managing a much higher concentration of emotionally demanding and complex interactions.


Ultimately, the episode argues that the strongest hotel voice strategy is not about defending humans from technology. It is about designing a system where technology provides context, automation and efficiency while trained people deliver the consultative service required to convert high-value hospitality demand.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Download the secret shopped call report here
Connect with Dylan Cole here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights
[04:27] Uncaptured direct leads - A staggering metric from 308 secret-shopped calls highlights how luxury properties miss basic contact details during sales conversations. "92% of connected calls ended with absolutely no contact details captured. No name, no phone number, nothing."


[07:35] Front desk operational reality - Routing phone calls to front desk staff creates a severe structural bottleneck during peak operational hours. "You are punishing the reservation's budget line for what is actually a staffing and routing bottleneck. The front desk isn't failing at sales. They were never resourced or positioned to sell in the first place. Their primary function is crisis management and logistics. It's not consultative revenue generation."


[10:45] High-value reservations and margin - Profit margin in luxury hospitality relies on handling complex, emotional booking details rather than standard date checks. "Your profit margin isn't in the predictable call. Your margin is in the awkward, complex, highly emotional reservation."


[16:03] Viewing voice capacity as inventory - Treating reservation agents as revenue-generating slots changes how hotel leadership views payroll costs. "If you want to save your human team, you have to adopt a revenue inventory strategy. You must force the room to stop treating the voice channel as an operating or payroll cost and start treating it as inventory."


[17:19] The double-payment trap - Failing to secure direct caller details drives prospective guests to online travel agencies where properties pay high commission rates. "IF the caller hangs up without giving you a way to follow up, they're going straight to an OTA to compare prices, and if they end up booking your hotel through that OTA platform? You have just paid twice for the exact same guest."



Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
03:34 - The reality of luxury hotel call handling


06:03 - Front desk bottlenecks vs dedicated CRO routing


08:53 - Handling complex requests and the AI handoff


11:00 - Why AI deployments fail on the P&L


15:14 - Framing voice capacity as revenue inventory


22:16 - Preparing human teams for complex conversations






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

Recast: Building relationships through reservations: Insights from The Broadmoor


In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Sarah Stephens, Room Reservations Manager at The Broadmoor Hotel, the world's longest-running Forbes Five-Star property. Managing a team of up to 15 reservation agents at the 65-year Five-Star resort in Colorado Springs, Sarah brings 14 years of leadership experience shaping the guest journey long before arrival.


What you'll learn:
● The voice channel advantage: Why phone conversations enable special touches and memory-making moments that email and online bookings cannot replicate, illustrated through heartwarming guest stories
● Technology evolution in reservations: How Sarah's team transitioned from manual Excel tracking to real-time dashboards that empower agents to see their impact on revenue and conversions
● Training for five-star service: The month-long training process that includes dining experiences and property tours to ensure agents authentically share The Broadmoor's offerings
● Outbound call strategy success: How Sarah's team generates nearly $1 million in revenue over three months through strategic follow-up calls, turning conversations into bookings
● Listening as a superpower: Real examples of how agents pick up on guest comments (like Doritos or Melissa Manchester) and create personalized surprises that cost little but mean everything
● Quality assurance practices: How self-scoring, monthly coaching sessions, and call reviews maintain Forbes Five-Star standards while building team accountability
● AI and luxury hospitality: Sarah's perspective on why five-star properties may be among the last to fully embrace AI due to the irreplaceable value of human connection
● Career inspiration: Sarah's journey from a family Disney trip to studying in Croatia, discovering The Broadmoor, and building a 19-year career in luxury hospitality


Sarah also discusses The Broadmoor's 65-year Forbes Five-Star history, training agents to upsell ancillary services authentically, and why service excellence will remain the competitive differentiator as guests become increasingly price-conscious.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Connect with Sarah Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• The Broadmoor

Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights:
[02:42] Uncovering guest preferences - Maintaining a 65-year Forbes Five-Star rating requires reservation agents to tune into every conversation for subtle details that elevate the stay. "Something that we always have top of mind are guest interactions. How can we make it special for our guests? What little clues can we pick up on that they're sharing with us in the calls to go above and beyond for our guests?"


[07:18] Empowering agents with data - Giving reservation agents real-time visibility into their call metrics and revenue generation builds genuine team investment. "The buy-in from that really allows a team to feel like they're a part of something, they're actually making a difference. And prior to that, they just came in and took calls, and they never had any knowledge of who or what they were really doing at the end of their shifts."


[11:26] Authenticity over digital booking - Taking agents to dine at resort restaurants enables them to describe property amenities with firsthand enthusiasm. "You're getting a special experience by talking to an agent versus going online or doing it via email, where those additional little things may be left out."


[16:39] Turning unbooked calls into revenue - Following up with callers who did not commit on the initial inquiry turns missed opportunities into substantial commission-free revenue. "It's been a huge tool that's really come back tenfold, and I think in the last three months we were almost close to a million dollars in revenue just in outbound with the team and them making those calls following up."


[21:30] Service as the primary growth driver - Personalization remains the single most powerful factor in guest retention for luxury properties. "Service is going to be the way forward, and if you want to be the best, you have to have that personalized service with each and every guest."


Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:01:46 - Maintaining a 65-year Five-Star legacy


00:06:27 - Evolving reservations from spreadsheets to live data


00:08:06 - Turning phone conversations into memorable guest touches


00:13:23 - Coaching reservation agents with call self-scoring


00:15:10 - Generating $1M in outbound call revenue


00:20:39 - The future of service-driven hotel reservations






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Brent Sanders, Sr. Customer Education Specialist at Revinate, is joined by Colton Bean, Director of Reservations at Suncadia Resort, to break down Revinate's Secret Shopper Call Report, original research on what actually happens when guests call luxury and upscale hotel reservation lines. Drawing on 308 secret-shopped calls to 135 unique properties, Brent and Colton expose three operational gaps quietly draining revenue: missed contact capture, skipped discovery, and weak infrastructure. Along the way, Colton shares the specific coaching, role-play, and follow-up tactics that have made Suncadia's reservations team a model for the industry.


What you'll learn:


● The contact capture gap: Why 92% of unbooked luxury calls end with zero contact details collected, and how a simple opening script (name, reason for stay, phone number) captures all three in under ten seconds.


● Reframing the ask: How positioning contact capture as a personal favor rather than a marketing opt-in makes agents, and guests, more comfortable sharing information.


● The discovery and engagement gap: Why 56.6% of calls skip discovery questions altogether, rising to 74% at the front desk, and what that means for guest experience.


● Verify then trust: How the rise of AI research changes the reservation call itself, since guests now arrive already armed with facts and expect a conversation, not a recitation.


● The three-recommendation rule: How Suncadia requires agents to offer at least three personalized recommendations per call, drawn directly from what the guest shares.


● Securing the booking without pressure: Why a simple credit card hold, with no deposit required, converts roughly 75% of undecided callers into confirmed bookings.


● The infrastructure gap: How 26% of after-hours calls land in voicemail and 59% of calls go unrecorded, and why both quietly cost hotels revenue.


● Coaching without call recordings: Why Colton says managing a fully remote team without recorded calls is like "not having a right arm."


● Extending coverage with RezForce: How outsourced, trained agents fill after-hours and overflow gaps without losing the personal touch.


Brent and Colton also touch on automated call scoring, cross-training through fam stays, and how a strong lead form keeps every follow-up organized and personal. Their conversation is a reminder that in a world where AI can answer any factual question, the human conversation is still what converts a caller into a guest.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Download the secret shopped call report here
Connect with Brent Sanders here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Connect with Colton Bean here:

• LinkedIn
• Suncadia

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights
[00:07] Getting the data is only half the battle - Colton explains why capturing a contact detail means nothing if it never makes it into a usable system. "Getting the data was just half the battle, and then getting it into the CRM to be able to be used later is the other half." It's a distinction that separates a nice conversation from a real, working lead.


[00:09] Why people buy from people they like - Colton unpacks the philosophy behind Suncadia's approach to non-booked calls. "At the end of the day, people buy from people they like. So if you just say, 'I got an in for you, I made this a personalized experience that nobody else got today,' they're gonna be like, 'Wow, that's really cool.'" Even a caller who doesn't book that day remembers being taken care of.


[00:25] Verify then trust: what AI means for reservation calls - Colton shares a takeaway from a recent industry keynote on how guest behavior has shifted. "People don't trust anymore, so they're verifying, and then they're trusting." Because callers now arrive pre-armed with facts from AI, he says, the agent's job is no longer to recite information but to personalize it.


[00:37] The card hold that clinches the booking - Colton describes a low-pressure tactic Suncadia's hotel agents use to keep a hesitant caller from walking away empty-handed. "Let's go ahead and get it held just because I only have a few of these left." He notes that 75% of the time, guests take the offer rather than risk losing the room.


[00:43] Flying blind without call recordings - Colton reflects on managing a fully remote reservations team without the ability to review calls. "It's kind of mind-boggling at this point... it's like not having a right arm." Call recordings, he explains, are the only way to coach behavior and catch guest service issues before they escalate.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
05:03 - Closing the contact capture gap


16:28 - Simple tactics to gather guest data


24:00 - Moving beyond robotic rate quoting


36:40 - Securing holds and mastering follow up


42:15 - Fixing infrastructure leaks and voicemails


52:10 - Scaling agent coaching with AI






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Sky Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Basecamp Resorts, to discuss her remarkable journey from being fired to building a thriving modern hospitality enterprise in Western Canada.


Sky shares the story of how getting fired after just 27 days at her "dream job" led her to make a bold decision never to work for anyone else again. Using an unexpected $38,000 from a BMW financing deal, she purchased her first piece of land in Canmore, Alberta — the future site of the first Basecamp Resort. Through determination and creative financing, she transformed that initial investment into what is now a $600 million hospitality company.


Throughout the conversation, Sky offers insights into her business philosophy, from hiring "people smarter than you" to her approach to sustainability and the development of the Everwild Nordic spa concept. She also shares candid advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing that starting a business requires total commitment and cannot be treated as a "side hobby."


What you'll learn:

• 
  How adversity can spark entrepreneurship and lead to unexpected opportunities
• Creative approaches to raising capital when traditional financing isn't available
• The importance of hiring people smarter than yourself in areas where you lack expertise
• How to develop new hospitality concepts like the Everwild Nordic spa to enhance guest experiences
• Practical ways to incorporate sustainability into both construction and operations
• Why entrepreneurship requires complete commitment and "jumping off the cliff"
• How to match team members' skills and desires with business needs for optimal results
  
  

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.


Connect with Sky here:

• LinkedIn
• Basecamp Resorts

Connect with Karen here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] The $38,000 gamble - The episode opens on the moment that started it all: a BMW dealership buyback offer Sky turned into seed capital. "I end up with a check for $38,000 from Bimmer. And I'm like, done, sold, give me the loan, I'll take the check... and I'm gonna take that check and buy a piece of dirt in Canmore, which is the land where the first Basecamp Resorts now sits."


[04:03] The origin story - Sky recounts how getting fired after just 27 days at her "dream job" led her to vow never to work for someone else again. "I got walked out of that office with one of those brown boxes, and see ya later... I went home that day and I was like, absolutely never on the face of this earth am I going to work for someone again." That land purchase became an $8 million project, now grown into a $600 million enterprise.


[09:10] The Everwild renaming lesson - Sky shares why Basecamp's Nordic spa concept isn't called Wildwood, its original name: the trademark wasn't available in the US. "If you're ever starting a business, check the name, check the name again, get a lawyer, it's worth the money." A practical lesson wrapped inside the story of how Everwild's thermal-cycle spa concept came to life.


[13:52] Commitment to sustainability - From land acquisition through construction and operations, Sky details Basecamp's approach to environmental responsibility. "We always endeavor to replace what we've taken out, if not more. So in the case of this spa here, there's actually gonna be a lot more trees than we took out." The company also pursues Built Green certification, sources sustainable materials, and partners with Protect Our Winters.


[17:46] Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs - Sky offers candid advice to aspiring hospitality entrepreneurs: "There's no right time. So just do it." She emphasizes that entrepreneurship requires complete commitment: "It's not a side hobby. There's no side hobby if you're starting a business." Sky acknowledges entrepreneurship isn't for everyone, but for those who know it in their soul, she encourages them to take the leap.


Chapters:
00:00 - The $38,000 gamble that started Basecamp 
02:54 - Introducing Basecamp Resorts and its brands 
04:03 - Getting fired and buying land in Canmore 
08:02 - Hiring philosophy: building a 300-person team 
09:10 - The Everwild Nordic spa story 
13:52 - Building sustainability into every project 
17:46 - Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs




If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this episode of Hotel Moment, we bring you a special installment featuring an AI-generated conversation analyzing the 2026 secret shopped call report. Built on 308 mystery shopper calls placed across 135 luxury and upscale hotel properties, the study provides an objective baseline of how unmanaged voice channels perform under real-world operational pressure.


This episode features a fully synthetic discussion created to explore real hospitality research while reflecting on the value of human podcasting. The AI voices analyze critical leaks across the direct booking funnel, offering practical insights for hoteliers looking to capture more direct revenue.


What you’ll learn:


● The lost remarketing lead: Why hanging up without capturing an email or phone number permanently wastes the digital ad dollars spent making the phone ring.


● The missed opportunity scenario: How polite rejections for fully booked dates fail to build cancellation waitlists or collect guest details for future marketing campaigns.


● The rate quoter trap: Why 55.6% of calls feature zero qualification questions, leaving agents reading price lists instead of building emotional momentum.


● Lobby triage vs sales: Why front desk teams ask zero discovery questions 74% of the time while managing physical check-in lines and desk requests.


● The silence after the price: How agents sit in dead air nearly 80% of the time rather than proactively asking callers to secure the room reservation.


● The evening traveler bottleneck: Why routing after-hours calls to standard voicemails causes 26.3% of high-intent callers to hang up and book with competitors.


● Root cause vs hiring: Why widespread phone performance gaps stem from coaching blind spots and accountability gaps rather than a lack of baseline front desk talent.


● Semantic AI call scoring: How natural language processing transcribes and evaluates context across 100% of call volume without requiring manual headphone review by managers.


The conversation also covers how automated concierges like Ivy reduce front desk pressure and why off-site overflow teams protect late-night revenue.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Download the secret shopped call report here
Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights
[04:13] Uncaptured contact details - Failing to collect caller contact information shuts down future marketing efforts. "92.2% of these mystery calls ended with zero contact details captured."


[05:10] Marketing economics on phone lines - Ending a polite call without collecting contact data erases the return on paid advertising spend. "By hanging up that phone without securing a name, an email, or a callback number, the hotel has permanently lost the entire marketing cost it took to generate that inbound lead."


[09:19] Skipping guest discovery - Reading room prices without asking about the trip destroys the emotional excitement of booking a luxury getaway. "55.6% of calls featured absolutely zero discovery or qualification questions from the agent."


[12:06] Order takers vs sales closers - Leaving room reservations to caller initiative creates friction in the booking process. "In nearly 80% of the interactions, the agent simply stated the price of the room and then sat in complete silence, just waiting for the guest to take the initiative and volunteer their credit card."


[18:50] Modern speech analysis - Natural language processing allows software to judge actual intent rather than matching basic words. "Modern automated call scoring utilizes Natural Language Processing, or NLP, combined with semantic analysis. It doesn't just listen for isolated words. It understands the context of the entire sentence."



Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
03:50 - The 92% contact capture gap


07:55 - The discovery and engagement gap


09:49 - Front desk vs central reservations performance


12:06 - Why 80% of calls end in dead air


13:52 - After-hours voicemails and technical bottlenecks


18:26 - Fixing revenue leaks with semantic AI scoring






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Andrew Shepherd, General Manager of Resorts at The Malcolm Hotel in Canmore, Alberta. Drawing on more than 25 years leading luxury hotels, resorts, and casinos, Andrew brings deep operational perspective shaped by starting in hospitality at age 14 and managing luxury destinations in the Canadian Rockies.


Andrew explores how modern luxury resorts can combine traditional architecture with modern technology to deliver personalized guest experiences. He breaks down why operational excellence relies on human observation, how CRM data should drive authentic touchpoints rather than form emails, and why investing directly in staff housing protects hotel culture.


What you'll learn:


● First impressions before arrival: Why digital media and reviews shape expectations before guests step into the lobby


● Anticipatory cues in ten seconds: How observing tired families arriving in rental Suburbans drives personalized service


● Turning notes into memories: Why logging a guest's offhand comment about fudge creates powerful return visits


● Balancing keyless and personal touch: Where mobile entry serves convenience without removing luxury interactions


● Empowering frontline decision making: Why setting resolution budgets gives teams confidence to fix issues on the spot


● Solving mountain town housing: How constructing 154 staff housing units protects service standards during labor shortages


● Reading hotel culture in seconds: How body language and brisk movement distinguish efficient teams from frantic environments


● Blending tech with human skills: Why modern software must support staff intuition rather than replace hospitality manners


Karen and Andrew also get into the historical inspiration behind King Malcolm, the crystal-clear waters of Spring Creek, and how hospitality leaders can mentor younger staff to treat hotel work as a lifelong career.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Connect with Andrew Shepherd here:

• LinkedIn
• The Malcolm Hotel

Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights
[04:17] The online arrival - Guest expectations form long before someone reaches the front lobby. "The first impression starts when somebody's online. You need to make sure all of your digital media is polished."


[05:11] The human core of hospitality - Beyond physical amenities, true memorability comes down to personal connection. "Every hotel in the world is exactly the same. It's got four walls, it's got a bed, a window or a view, a bathroom, and everything else. But what really makes that memory is the human interaction."


[06:02] Limits of artificial intelligence - Technology can streamline workflow, but it cannot perceive human emotion. "AI is wonderful. It's here. If we embrace it, all of us will be smarter. But AI can't watch a human and figure out what they need before they even know that they need it."


[08:47] Targeted guest segmentation - Software tools provide the structure for capturing guest history. "Revinate makes it easy to enter as much or as little information as we want, and segment that data."


[10:05] Human effort behind software - Modern CRM platforms require thoughtful operational input to drive results. "There has to be that blend of the technical side with the actual human use of AI. You only get as much as you put in. If you don't put anything in, that's what you're going to get out."



Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
05:11 - Where guest impressions actually begin


07:25 - Turning guest preferences into memories


10:47 - Balancing keyless tech with human touch


13:17 - Empowering staff to solve guest problems


15:53 - Overcoming labor and housing challenges


18:21 - Spotting healthy hotel culture in one minute






If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, sits down with Ami Alexander, Managing Partner at Barrel Aged Management. With over 20 years of experience across luxury hotels, restaurants, and lifestyle brands — including Hakkasan Group, Sydell Group, Montage, Pendry, and Virgin Hotels — Ami brings a deep operational perspective on building concepts that resonate with modern guests. She breaks down the evolution of traveler expectations, explaining why hotel guests today value authentic narrative and local detail over predictable brand standardization.


What you'll learn:
● The evolution of guest expectations: Why younger travelers look for design, narrative, and local story rather than identical amenities across properties.
● Early F&B underwriting: Why bringing culinary strategy into hotel development three to five years before launch prevents costly kitchen and bar compromises.
● Committing to the concept: Why hotels must align every detail — from menus and music to tableware — around a single clear narrative.
● White-label F&B support: How resource-strapped hotel groups can access specialized culinary and beverage expertise on a flexible project basis.
● Protecting brand standards during expansion: What growing restaurant brands must safeguard in design, buildout, and FF&E quality when entering new markets.
● Keeping mature venues creative: How simple, low-cost touches — like turning an unused coat closet into a member candy station — keep established spaces feeling fresh.
● Emerging market opportunities: Where elevated lifestyle dining is taking hold in secondary coastal destinations and new international concepts.
● Practical AI in operations: How automated market research and menu analysis can take administrative workload off restaurant managers to reduce burnout.


Karen and Ami also get into upcoming food trends, highlighting West African culinary concepts heading to New York and non-traditional beach markets along the East Coast.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Connect with Ami Alexander here:

• LinkedIn
• Barrel Aged Management

Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights
[05:49] What modern travelers look for - Ami contrasts older preferences for standardized amenities with what younger guests expect today. "The traveler that was traveling 20, 30 years ago wanted to know what they were expecting, what they were getting with that brand. The younger traveler today has more of an eye for design, for aesthetic, for narrative."


[06:25] Creating emotional connections through intention - Ami explains why bespoke, local touches resonate much more than generic hotel amenities. "A welcome amenity is not just a fruit bowl. It's the local fruit from the Santa Monica farmers market that the chef went and got that morning. There's way more of a draw and an emotional connection when you feel like there's more intention behind something, and today's traveler is absolutely looking for that."


[16:40] Pulling the narrative through every detail - Ami highlights the necessity of staying true to a restaurant concept across all guest touchpoints. "I think it's really important that the narrative gets pulled all the way through. What resonates with guests when they really feel like they're experiencing something that's authentic?"


[17:45] Safeguarding standards during expansion - Ami emphasizes why growing brands cannot afford to compromise on design or space quality. "You have to stay true to your brand. If your concept is high design and beautiful spaces, then you shouldn’t open a space that isn’t beautiful and works for the concept."


[18:50] Keeping established spaces fresh - Ami shares how operators can maintain excitement in mature venues through continuous micro-creativity. "How can you maybe step into your restaurant that you've owned for two years, three years, or your space and go, what can we do differently this week, or what should we do that's fun?"



Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:01 - Ami Alexander's background in hospitality and F&B 
04:30 - How guest expectations shifted toward narrative 
08:20 - Moving from operator to independent business owner 
11:25 - Why early F&B underwriting benefits developers 
15:32 - Carrying brand stories through every guest touchpoint 
20:29 - Using practical technology to support restaurant teams



If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill
  
  

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO of Preferred Travel Group, home to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the world's largest independent hotel brand. With over 625 hotels across 80 countries under the Preferred umbrella, Lindsey brings a rare perspective shaped by an unconventional path into hospitality and years spent working across nearly every department of the business.


Tune in as they discuss:

• An unlikely path into hospitality: How a background in change management consulting, and her family's acquisition of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, shaped Lindsey's approach to leading the brand today
• The end of beigification: Why Lindsey believes the "sameness" of branded hospitality is losing out to travelers seeking something unique, authentic, and rooted in community
• What the Luxury Travel Report revealed: Why heritage travel and hyper-personalization are two of the fastest-growing trends among luxury travelers, and why loyalty now means recognition, not just points and perks
• The rise of the "power broker": Why Lindsey believes travel advisors are more relevant than ever in the age of AI-generated itineraries
• Unscripted hospitality: Real stories of independent hotel staff going off script, from a doorman driving guests to catch a ferry to a GM inviting kids into the kitchen to bake with the pastry chef
• Data, loyalty, and AI: How Preferred is investing in its loyalty platform and AI-friendly systems so independent hotels can recognize repeat guests and show up where travelers are searching
• What Preferred looks for in a new hotel: How location, quality assurance, and an annual, unannounced inspection process shape the brand's Integrated Quality Assurance score
• Why AI visibility matters now: Lindsey's practical warning that AI can't read PDFs, and what that means for hotel websites, spa menus, and restaurant menus
  
  

Lindsey also shares why she believes reviews, even negative ones, build trust with both guests and AI, and closes with her outlook on what she calls "the golden era of travel" for independent hospitality.


If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Connect with Lindsey Ueberroth here:

• LinkedIn
• Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Connect with Karen Stephens here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

Follow the podcast here:

• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights
[04:49] Beigification and the case for independent hotels - Lindsey explains why independent hotels resonate so strongly with today's traveler. "We all want to be independent, unique, different than the person next to us, but yet you want to be connected and you want to be part of a community. And independent hotels, that's exactly what they are." She contrasts this with what she calls "beigification," the sameness that comes from branded conformity, and argues that easier access to information has pushed travelers toward authenticity instead.


[06:39] Loyalty beyond points and perks - Drawing on Preferred's Luxury Travel Report, Lindsey reframes what loyalty actually means to today's traveler. "Now they're looking for a hotel that remembers them, recognizes them, knows their personal preferences, and is going to tailor that experience to it." She notes that travelers increasingly view a loyalty program itself as a quality-assurance signal, a sign that a hotel is equipped to know them.


[08:50] Why data is the key to guest loyalty - Asked how personalization varies across generations, Lindsey points straight to data. "Data becomes so important. So hotels that can really know their guests and cater to those different audiences, they win. Because you want every part of that travel group or family to walk away saying, 'I can't wait to come back.'" It's a line she returns to throughout the conversation as the throughline connecting loyalty, technology, and guest experience.


[09:52] The unscripted moments that make independent hotels unforgettable - Lindsey shares a story about a doorman who noticed her group was about to miss a ferry to Bellagio. "Come with me, get in my car, I'm going to drive you there myself." She points to moments like this, along with a housekeeper personalizing a stuffed animal's turndown or a GM inviting kids to bake with the pastry chef, as proof that independent hotels have the autonomy to do things "not part of the driver's manual."


[19:43] Why AI visibility should be the top priority for 2025 - When asked what a single hotel owner should focus on this year, Lindsey doesn't hesitate. "Honestly, it would be in the AI space. I think hotels who don't believe it's a thing are going to be disappointed." She adds a practical warning: "If you have PDFs on your website, AI can't read PDFs," meaning spa and restaurant menus in PDF form are effectively invisible to AI search.



Chapters:
00:00 - Intro 
02:47 - Lindsey's unlikely path from consulting to Preferred Hotels & Resorts 
04:49 - Beigification and why independent hotels are having a moment 
06:39 - Inside the Luxury Travel Report: heritage travel and hyper-personalization 
09:52 - The unscripted moments that make independent hotels unforgettable 
12:45 - How loyalty data and AI help independent hotels compete 
19:43 - Why AI visibility should be every independent hotel's top priority




If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here and follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss a moment! 
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so


Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.


Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.

If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:

• Innovation in hospitality technology
• Guest experience transformation
• Revenue optimization strategies
• Emerging industry trends

Express your interest in being a guest →
Check out the three most downloaded episodes:

• Revinate’s new CEO — on a mission to empower hoteliers with data-driven technology | with Bryson Koehler 
• Guests define what luxury means today | with Shannon Knapp
• Your commercial strategy as an evolution and not a revolution | with Jennifer Hill