What specific AI-related things are good hotel commercial leaders actually doing today? Great question! It's already everywhere, so we got deep and practical for this episode. We talk about:

• How Al agents are starting to handle everything from customer service queries to qualifying sales leads, reshaping the whole workforce
• How AI is elevating guest experience through customer data, CRM, and audience management
• Where AI is getting all its hotel data
• The coming drop in search engine volume
• Tools you can use to optimize your website and format your content for AI readability

AI's true impact on travel remains deeply speculative, with companies scrambling to stake claims while few concrete applications deliver true transformation. But everyday uses like dynamic pricing, translation tools, chatbots, and trip planning assistants like ChatGPT show AI is already here.

We talk about the staggering potential of agentic AI to automatically rebook flights, arrange rides, or sign up for the best rewards programs. AI will directly challenge Online Travel Agents, whose dominance rests on aggregating inventory and managing transactions at scale. Yet AI’s iterative, user-driven planning capabilities expose the weaknesses of OTAs in handling complex, personalized itineraries.

How will the online travel booking sites survive? What will happen to marketing and SEO over the next 2 years? What's a neural travel marketplace? Should we ignore Public Enemy's sage advice and believe the AI hype?

How has Tiffany Cooper been so successful for so long? By bringing mind, soul, and spirit to the hotel industry. She's Head of Development, Americas for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, which for 5 decades has been owner and operator of some of the world's most luxurious hotels, resorts and residences.

We talk about MO's ambitious global expansion plans, how the brand sets itself apart in the ultra-luxury category, the increasing importance of branded residences, wellness and spas as amenities and revenue drivers, and the iconic "I'm a Fan" campaign.

As founder and creative director of the boutique interior design firm AIDT Designs, Tonya is changing the way we think about boutique hotel, resort, and lifestyle design. Whether design property in the Keys or reimagining a resort brand from the ground up, her work is layered, luxe, and never, ever forgettable.

We talk about her early career working under Las Vegas visionaries Steve Wynn & Roger Thomas, what most designers get wrong about hotel rooms, collaborating on Margaritaville, sourcing one-of-a-kind local finds, and elevating design on a tight budget.

For more on Tonya and AIDT visit https://www.aidtdesignsinc.com/

Lyon Porter is one of the most talked-about hoteliers of our time. Alongside co-founder and partner Jersey Banks, he transformed a five-room Brooklyn townhouse into the first Urban Cowboy. 

The industry, and the media, pay close attention to the brand, which now spokes into hotel properties in the Catskills, Nashville, and the newest location, a Gilded Age Denver mansion, which opened within the last year.

We talk about the origins of Urban Cowboy, catching cities and regions at the right time, the unique method of sourcing items for each property, how big hospitality chases (and fails to catch) boutique authenticity, and what's next for the brand.

There are dream jobs, and then there are jobs like Ben Hill's. Ben's Baseball Traveler newsletter is part culinary adventure, part architecture column on stadiums new and old, part biography series on characters of the game, part observer of the wild and wacky situations that occur nightly in cities coast to coast, part troubadour of the joys and heartbreaks inherent in Minor League Baseball.

But where does he go, what does he see, what stories does he tell, where does he stay, how did he get into this business, and what are his favorite minor league team names? Oh, and why are travel and minor league baseball such a beautiful match?

To see more adventures from America follow Ben on Instagram.

From New Delhi to the Yucatan Jungle, from the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean, Rocco Bova has crisscrossed the world, defining what luxury hotels are and can be. The My Humble House founder talks about building a profit-sharing hospitality company, creating change in a change-averse industry, working within nature, finding the right investors, and offbeat destinations in Italy and Mexico.

https://www.instagram.com/rocco.bova/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/my-humble-house/

Jeff and Matt speak with Heather Heverling, President and Managing Director of Audley Travel, about the stratospheric rise of bespoke travel, the purchasing power of solo female travelers, the growing desire for unique in-country experiences, the need for local connections, the trip that totally subverted her expectations, and what makes Audley Travel different in the travel market.

https://www.audleytravel.com/

https://www.instagram.com/audleytravel/

Glenn Haussman's podcast No Vacancy is essential listening for anyone in the business, featuring notable names in the industry, coverage of major events, and reportage on ideas and economics. He joins us to talk luxury, labor costs, practicing the art of optimism in 2025, sustainability, and, of course, Phish.

https://novacancynews.com/

https://www.instagram.com/travelingglenn/

Questions like:

What's the secret number hotel people really care about?

Is the hotel market oversaturated in the U.S.?

Are there any markets that really are oversaturated though?

What's an underserved luxury market?

Who are the hotel winners in 2025? Who's making lemonade?

And is the hotel concierge truly dead?