FNA 220: Glenn’s Wife Has Some Complaints
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Release Date: 08/29/2026
Relational Wellness Is Next Big Hospitality Trend
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
I’m calling it now: Relational wellness is the next major hospitality trend. The opportunity is we’re spending more time with screens and less time with each other. Hospitality reverses that by bringing people back together. My proof is the Evermore Orlando Resort, purpose-built for connection. Families and friends stay together instead of scattering across separate hotel rooms, with large homes, shared kitchens, big gathering spaces, private pools and room around the table for everyone. For years, we’ve talked about wellness through spas, sleep, fitness and nutrition. Relational...
info_outline
How Hotels Use AI Without Losing Control of Guest Data
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Hotel employees already juggle enough. They don’t need 10,000 system steps standing between them and the guest. Kevin King, CEO of Shiji Group, joins me on No Vacancy to talk about how #AI strips away that complexity so hotel teams spend more time focusing on hospitality. But Kevin keeps coming back to another issue: protecting the enormous amount of guest data powering all this technology. As hotels ask AI to do more, they also need to know exactly where that information goes and who gets access to it. That puts #Hospitality in an interesting spot: move fast enough to capture the upside,...
info_outline
How Hotels Cut Laundry Costs by 30%
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Hotels spend a lot of time and money dealing with linens, from buying and storing them to running equipment and making sure housekeeping always has what it needs. Bart Begley with Integrity Laundry Services joins me on No Vacancy to explain a different model: total linen management. Instead of owning the linens and managing the laundry operation in-house, hotels use a system that adjusts supply based on occupancy and keeps backup inventory available. Bart says some properties are seeing up to 30% savings in annual laundry and linen costs, but what interested me just as much is the operational...
info_outline
They Turned a 12th-Century Monastery Into a Luxury Hotel
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Most people don’t look at a 12th-century monastery in rural Umbria and think, “We should turn this into a hotel.” Cathi Lutjens and Fred Kubierschki did. They left the corporate hospitality world, took a chance on an unlikely opportunity and created Vocabolo Moscatelli around a simple idea: build the kind of place people would travel specifically to experience. They shaped it around the monastery, the region, the food, the local culture and the kind of hospitality they wanted to create themselves. What I love about this story is the courage behind it. They didn’t just open a #Hotel....
info_outline
Where Hotel Growth Is Happening Next
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
The next wave of hotel growth won’t look like the last one. Bruce Ford with Lodging Econometrics joins me on No Vacancy to look at how the global #HotelDevelopment pipeline is shifting — and where the industry’s next big opportunities are starting to emerge. Conversions increasingly drive growth in mature markets, while new construction tells a very different story across Asia, the Middle East and other parts of the world. Bruce also makes a strong case for why India could become one of the most important #Hospitality growth stories in the years ahead. The numbers get even more...
info_outline
What Luxury Hotel Guests Really Want
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
True luxury means not having to think about the details. Almando Rigby, general manager of Windjammer Landing in Saint Lucia, joins me on No Vacancy to explain why today’s #LuxuryTravel guest expects a hotel to understand what they want before they ever have to ask. That creates an interesting challenge. Hotels now have more technology, data and AI at their disposal, but Almando argues that the most memorable #GuestExperience still depends on something much more human. His perspective on what technology should do — and where people still make the difference — says a lot about where...
info_outline
What Hotels Stop Knowing After the Guest Checks In
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Hotels spend years collecting guest data, then lose sight of what people want the moment they’re actually staying in the room. Kevin Rohani, founder and CEO of Camo Hospitality, joins me on No Vacancy to talk about that blind spot. Guests order food, transportation, entertainment and other services during their stay, but much of that activity happens outside the hotel’s ecosystem. So the property sacrifices more than revenue. It also misses valuable insight into what guests actually want while they’re on site and how to create a better experience the next time they return. Kevin makes...
info_outline
Labor Day Flashback: Marriott Vacations Worldwide Launches Experience-Driven Ownership: Inner Circle
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Live experiences drive operating success because they create reasons to travel, reasons to spend, and reasons to come back. That’s why Marriott Vacations Worldwide is building Inner Circle around them. During , I talked with , President and COO of , about what changes when the offer expands beyond the villa and into the full trip. 🎟️ Inner Circle launches June 22 and centers music, culinary, sports, and TV experiences 🎸 Launch example: a Lee Brice show in Orlando for about 300 owners 📊 Only about 6% of eligible North American households own vacation ownership today 🏨 The ...
info_outline
Holiday Flashback: How Wyndham Uses Experiences to Drive Direct Bookings
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
To ease us into the holiday weekend, here's a rerun of a fun video I recorded in a Puerto Rican rainforest! Wyndham Rewards pushes beyond hotel nights into experiences, and Michael Shiwdin, Global VP of Loyalty at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, explains why: engagement drives direct bookings, and direct bookings drive owner value. I talked with Michael at Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Rainforest Beach & Golf Resort about how Wyndham Rewards Experiences works and what it means for hotels in the portfolio. 🌿 Members earn points on experiences through Viator, including activities like kayaking...
info_outline
Holiday Rerun: How Starwood Makes Its Hotels Feel Different: Nature, Soul, and Experience
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
To ease us into the holiday weekend, here's one of my favorite chats from the year: Starwood Hotels operates 1 Hotels, Treehouse Hotels and Baccarat Hotels & Resorts around one idea: products need emotion and soul, not templates. While hosting Starwood’s annual conference, I talked with Raul Leal, CEO of Starwood Hotels, about differentiation through nature-led design, human experience, and AI-driven personalization that stays human. 🌿 Raul says nature-led “hardware” sets the tone the second guests walk in 🤖 He uses AI to understand preferences and deliver...
info_outlinePutting my wife on Friday Night Audit seemed like a good idea.
It was not.
Helene Stein joins Craig Sullivan, Dr. Producer Suzanne Bagnera and me, and very quickly discovers the real purpose of the show: publicly correcting me while drinking.
She gets into my travel habits, my complete lack of home-repair skills and hotel pet peeves, right as our Worst Hotel Pet Peeve bracket hits a semifinal showdown: Water Pressure Roulette vs. Constantly Hidden Lamp Switches.
See which hotel annoyance wins — and how much damage Helene does to my reputation along the way.
Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might’ve missed from #NoVacancyNews? Text HOTEL to 66866.