No Show

Aaron is the Executive Director of must-see destination The Neon Museum Las Vegas, a space dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs.  We talk about pushing the boundaries of a traditional museum experience, preserving history in a town that embraces demolition, and the mysterious red button in Siegfried and Roy's mansion.

https://www.neonmuseum.org/
https://www.duckduckshed.com/
https://www.instagram.com/theneonmuseumlasvegas/

Wait, the Intercontinental is related to Pan Am? Holiday Inn really came from a movie? Motel 6 was (briefly) $6 a night? Doubletree was just because the land surveyed had two trees on it? Jeff and Matt explore the naming origins of hotels big and small.

The more you know:
https://www.panam.org/about/606-across-the-pacific-film
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/holiday-inn-70th-anniversary/index.html

Does Taylor Swift really affect hotel prices? Which airport has the longest security wait times? Are international travelers favoring the east coast more than the west coast? Should you buy trip insurance? Is there really a hotel designed specifically for pilots and flight crews? Are plane tickets radically more expensive this year? Let's find out.

Dave is an award-winning professor, author, and hospitality legend, and he's the recipient of the 2023 Revenue Optimization Educator of the Year award from The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). We talk about what NOT to do in a downturn, whether promotions actually work, the reality around loyalty programs, and advice he gives soon-to-be graduates.

Dan is Director of Operations for the Andaz West Hollywood, perhaps the most storied rock and roll hotel in history. We talk about the debaucherous past of what was formerly known as the "Riot Hyatt" on the Sunset Strip, the growing focus on wellness in hospitality, what to do when celebrities walk through the lobby, and mysterious campsites of the Old West.

https://www.hyatt.com/andaz/laxss-andaz-west-hollywood
https://www.newidea.com.au/andaz-west-hollywood-hotel-review
https://www.miravalresorts.com

This week's No Show is with the one and only Susan Barry, Hive Marketing Queen Bee and host of the superb hospitality pod Top Floor. Together we live, we laugh, we grow ... and we learn. About what? How there's oversupply and "underdemolishment" in certain markets, secret cash stashes in hotel rooms, marauding parrots. The usual.

https://www.topfloorpodcast.com
https://www.hive-marketing.com

Endless Events founder Will Curran tells us about the next "Jarvis" leap forward for virtual assistants, how that's going to help travelers, and how events are going to have to evolve over the next 5 years if they want to stay relevant. Also, will humans still sit at the concierge desk? And what's the most underrated city to hold an event?

Endless Events
#EventProfs Community
Event Tech Podcast
Flighty app

Endless Events founder Will Curran has been thinking a lot about how technology will change how and why we get together. The robots are coming, for sure, and they will reshape the process of event planning, the way we network with people, the vacation choices we make, the process of booking trips, and ... well ... pretty much everything else.

Endless Events
#EventProfs Community
#EventIcons
Event Brew
Event Tech Podcast
AISIS - The Lost Tapes

Canna-tourism generated $17B+ last year, and a wave of state legalization means that number will only get higher.  Brooke is the owner of Green Bonnet Pharms in Oklahoma, a complete vertically integrated cannabis business from seed to smoke, and she takes us through the challenges and opportunities in a travel sector primed for growth (and green).

https://www.greenbonnetco.com/
https://www.instagram.com/greenbonnetpharms/
https://www.budandbreakfast.com/
https://www.instagram.com/campcana/

Once the ultimate hotel perk, the minibar was the symbol of a boozier, jet settier time - the ultimate ridiculous convenience for a ridiculous price. Today, minibars have become empty refrigerators. What happened? And are they truly dead? Could they be resurrected in an era of food delivery and streamlined costs?