No Show

The industry veteran and co-founder of Travel Again Advisory dives in to biggest question facing the travel industry. And can we please come up with an alternative to the term "revenge travel?" And what's going on with American Airlines, and the state of loyalty programs in general?

https://www.travelagainadvisory.com

Today Hilton is comprised of 17 brands, with more than 5,900 properties in 114 countries around the world. Marriott International controls over 7,000 properties in 131 countries, including the Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis luxury brands. But...were they really competing with each other over the last century, or competing with the world?

In this episode we're going extremely meta in a review of another podcast you should absolutely listen to. Also, we investigate the intriguingly named "bed wars" of the late 90s.

Lise is Chief Program Officer of the National Park Foundation, leading program and partnerships teams responsible for delivering more than $89 million in grants and other support to national parks. We talk about the NPS' overall economic impact on communities and regions, keeping a healthy symbiosis between public and private interests, combatting overtourism, and hidden gems in the park system.

National Park Foundation
Leave No Trace
Recreate Responsibly
NPF Instagram

The award-winning associate professor from Penn State's School of Hospitality Management talks about the possible (?) demise of those dreaded resort fees, how local economies depend on NCAA football weekends, and gives us the state of the union for the hotel industry heading into 2024.

https://hhd.psu.edu/contact/breffni-noone
https://www.investopedia.com/college-football-provides-an-economic-boost-7964994

The chance to speak with someone who has visited 191 countries was just too good, which is why academic, entrepreneur, advisor to world leaders, and world traveler David Goldberg joins us. What are tips for traveling in a fraught world? What's the hairiest travel situation he's been in? What's an underrated country you should visit? Did he know from an early age he'd become an international man of mystery?

Amtrav CEO Jeff Klee sheds light on New Distribution Capability (NDC), a transformative schema that's changing the way we travel. NDC is reshaping the landscape of airfares, third-party technology, and personalization in unexpected ways. We also talk about Southwest's unique (and longstanding) stance on third-party sales, and how NDC elevates the importance of price assurance tools in hotel distribution.

https://www.amtrav.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amtrav/

Are major hotel brands taking over the world? Does office attendance directly correlate to hotel occupancy? What's the worst day for occupancy at hotels? And how do you handle travel to places that have recently experienced a disaster?

https://www.highatlasfoundation.org/

Summer may be winding down, but the road to adventure lives forever in our hearts. Or does it? People still take road trips, but where they go and why has changed drastically over the last 30 years, and the coming wave of EVs is going to alter our idea of a road trip even more.

So, do gas prices matter at all? Do sky-high airfares impact our willingness to sit in a car for 20 hours? Did roadside hotels see a post-pandemic dip or boost in summer occupancy? What's the worst state to drive to? And are people still driving cross-country, Griswold-style?

How exactly to airline loyalty programs work, and is there any way to game the system? Credit cards play a huge factor, but do any of them give you the edge? We use American Airlines as our case study example of how plane perks and credit cards are so intertwined.

The more you know:
https://cwsi.net/aa.htm
https://viewfromthewing.com/trumps-team-discloses-they-violate-airline-rules-use-throwaway-ticketing-site-skiplagged-for-airfare/
RocketMiles.com
https://lpcalculator.com/#/landing

Hotel data people: prepare for enlightenment as we sit down with Jan Freitag, CoStar's National Director of Hospitality Analytics. How does 2024 look? Why is occupancy still still trailing 4% below pre-pandemic levels? What data sources does he use? What's his new podcast about? Is he actually a wizard who can predict the future? YES.

News you can use:
https://www.costar.com/
https://str.com/
https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/apisi-92-monitor
https://www.hatchshowprint.com/
https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/