Extended Stay Wins in Volatility: High Occupancy, Lean Model
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
is President and CEO of as and he’s successfully scaling Premier Suites in the middle of one of the hardest building environments we’ve seen in years. 🏗️ Greg launched Extended Stay America Premier Suites in 2021, and the company invested in the first 15 hotels as proof of concept—then built the franchising system so owners could scale it 📈 Premier Suites now sits north of 50 hotels and keeps climbing, and Greg expects 100 in the next few years 🤝 Greg leans on the owner-operator advantage: Extended Stay America still owns and manages about 70% of the portfolio, so they...
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Hotel Investment in 2026: Why Buyers and Sellers Hit Pause
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Suraj Bhakta doesn’t sugarcoat the moment. He sees a strong Q1, then watches geopolitics and travel costs squeeze demand again. No Vacancy is the official podcast of AAHOACON, and I talked with Suraj Bhakta of New Gen Advisory on the show floor about how owners react when the Fed shifts, travel gets expensive, and buyers and sellers hit pause. 📈 Suraj says he saw a strong first quarter, then geopolitical issues started weighing on activity ✈️ He points to Sun Belt impact: less Canadian and overseas traffic in some areas 🏦 He expects a standstill if rates don’t fall—sellers...
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Red Roof at AAHOACON: Growth Strategy, RIDE, and Franchise Support
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Red Roof treats AAHOACON like the Super Bowl, and Matt Hostetler explains why: owners, franchisees, and partners all show up in one place. No Vacancy is the official podcast of AAHOACON, and I talked with Matt Hostetler, Chief Development Officer at Red Roof, about growth, franchisee support, and how Red Roof helps owners win when the economy tightens. 🚀 Growth strategy for 2026 and why multi-unit owners keep driving momentum 🤝 RIDE program Road to Inclusivity, Diversity, and Entrepreneurship with Lina Patel and She Leads 📲 Tech focus: tools that cut costs or drive revenue, plus an...
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How Hotels Raise Guest Scores and Upsell Revenue Together
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Sloan Dean put a number on it: Frontline Performance Group drove a 3–5% RevPAR lift in the hotels where he used it—so he expanded it across the portfolio. I brought in Geoffrey Toffetti, CEO of Frontline Performance Group, and Sloan Dean, former CEO of Remington and now a fellow podcaster, to kick off a 3-part series on how hotels activate the front line to grow revenue and improve the guest experience at the same time. 📈 Sloan shares what surprised him: he still saw lift even in hotels that already used Nor1 🏨 He also saw real upside in select-service hotels because teams stopped...
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MyPlace Hotels Hits 125 Properties: How They Keep Growing in Extended Stay
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
MyPlace just hit 125 properties. That milestone matters even more now, because extended stay keeps getting more competitive. During the , I talked with , VP of Franchise Development at , about how they keep growing, where they’re expanding next, and what he sees heading into 2026. 🏨 Eric says MyPlace planted its flag in extended stay early—before everyone chased the category 🗺️ He shares the growth snapshot: openings in Arizona and California, plus expansion into Florida 📅 He previews the next owner/GM conference: September 22 in Miami at the JW Marriott, with collaboration...
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Hotel Demand Shifts: Blowout Trips, Meetings, and “Value”
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Bruce Ford keeps coming back to one idea: the next traveling economy will book and spend differently. He tracks the data as SVP at Lodging Econometrics, so he sees the shifts before they feel obvious. 📈 He talks “blowout trips” and experience travel, where guests spend big on the moment and stop sweating the room rate 🏨 He breaks down meetings demand: more meetings, smaller meetings, and a bigger need to capture total spend through #HotelOperations ⛽ He flags the cost ripple: diesel prices flow into everything, and operators feel it fast 🎟️ He talks incentives and loyalty...
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Adaptive Reuse That Pencils: Historic Tax Credits Explained
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The Lantern has been open four weeks, and already talks about it like a platform, not just another hotel. During the , I talked with Grey Raines, CEO and Managing Partner of , about what they’re building next, why they’ve exited some management relationships, and why adaptive reuse keeps showing up in their deals. 🏨 Grey shares why The Lantern is mission-focused and how the partnership with the shows up early 🏗️ He says the next Lantern is under construction in Rock Hill, South Carolina, with two more behind it 🤝 He explains the management churn: they walked away from...
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How AI Frees Up Hotel GMs and Sales Teams to Execute
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, President of , keeps AI simple: give hotel teams time back so leaders spend less time buried in admin and more time actually operating. During the , we talked about what that looks like in real life, plus why their growth focus shifts away from new builds and toward acquisitions and third-party management. 🤖 Justin frames AI as support, not stress—tools that help people operate better 📋 GM example: cut the report grind so GMs stay on the floor with guests and associates 📞 Sales example: cut prospecting time so sales teams spend more time selling 🏗️ He says new builds feel...
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Customer Journey 6: Property-Level Execution
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Final chapter. In Chapter 6 of this CoralTree Customer Journey series, we take everything from the last five weeks and put it at the property level. Customer journey work only matters when a hotel team can execute it in real time. This chapter shows what that looks like on the ground. I talk with Curtis Bova, General Manager of Hotel Polaris, about how he turns guest journey strategy into real moments on property - from reading context clues at arrival to training teams for perceptive hospitality and building experiences guests can only get there. Here is what we cover: ...
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1026: How Women Advance in Hospitality: The Data and the Playbook
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Women enter hospitality at the same rate as men. Then the numbers thin out hard at the top. That gap isn’t about “pipeline.” It’s about progression. Suzanne co-hosts #NoVacancyNews with me, and we talk with Emily Goldfischer of Her Tenure about the leadership study she and her team did with Forbes Travel Guide and what it reveals about what helps women advance—and what still gets in the way. 📊 Emily shares the benchmark: women lead 19% of Forbes Travel Guide partner hotels, and Her Tenure heard from 99 women leaders to dig into what drives advancement 🧭 She frames the core...
info_outlineThirty years in, PM Hotel Group still thinks like an owner-operator—and that matters right now.
While I was at the Hunter Conference, I talked with Paul Sacco of PM Hotel Group about how they protect margin when RevPAR growth slows, costs climb, and rate resistance shows up. #NoVacancyNews
🎉 PM Hotel Group celebrates its 30th anniversary this fall—and Paul talks about evolving from owner-operator to a top 15 third-party operator with a diverse ownership base
📈 Paul focuses on getting more than “fair share” even when markets don’t accelerate: commercial tools, RPI gains, and strong revenue discipline
💰 He leans into TRevPAR thinking—total revenue per available customer—and why the guest who spends on-property matters
🧠 He talks intent-based search and how AI changes the way guests describe trips (Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.)
🏨 He says lifestyle and independent hotels show up well in those searches, especially through Modus by PM Hotel Group
🤝 He notes they’re a little over a year past the merger with Sightline, and he calls out Kirk Pedersen stepping into the COO role
📌 He tees up smart growth: independently owned, not growing for growth’s sake, and looking for the right national deals