Shows / Brand Insiders
Brand Insiders
The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving, varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, amenities, heritage, and many other attributes. For hoteliers who live and breathe this industry, this variety is a rich tapestry to help travelers of all types discover new destinations. For everyone else, this multiplicity can be dauntingly confusing! Brand Insiders gives a voice to innovative hotel brands. Episodes focus on what makes hotel brands unique, how their…
Episodes
- Brand Insiders
Kenan Simmons of Small Luxury Hotels of the World on Independent Spirit, the Hilton Partnership, and the Resurgence of Boutique Luxury
Running a 25-key hotel carries many of the same departmental costs as running a 400-room one, yet the small hotel has to find its guests on a fraction of the…
- Brand Insiders
Niels and Thijs van der Valk of Baoase on Family Hospitality, the Art of Saying Yes, and Building the Caribbean's Number One Resort
Niels and Thijs van der Valk didn't inherit a hotel. They inherited a father's love letter to an island — five villas built for five children who never showed…
- Brand Insiders
Charlotte Weatherall of Corinthia London on Leading From the Heart, the TMT Programme, and What It Really Takes to Run London's Most Central Luxury Hotel
Charlotte Weatherall spent years forming strong opinions about Corinthia London — what it was doing well, what it could do better, and what she would change if…
- Brand Insiders
Xavier Mufraggi of Generator on Affordable Lifestyle Hospitality, Keeping the Host in Hospitality, and Building the Future of City Travel
Xavier Mufraggi spent twelve years at Club Med, ran YPO - the world's largest CEO peer network - and then took the top job at Generator, the affordable…
- Brand Insiders
Eivind Hjulstad of Citybox Hotels on Scandinavian Design, Budget Done Right, and Why the Middle Market Is Running Out of Time
Eivind Hjulstad has spent fifteen years building City Box Hotels since joining in 2010, taking a Bergen-founded budget concept and expanding it into ten hotels…
- Brand Insiders
Sloan Dean of AI Hospitality Group on Rebuilding Hotel Management From First Principles
Sloan Dean spent eight years as CEO of Remington Hospitality, one of the largest third-party hotel management companies in the United States. Then he walked…
- Brand Insiders
Charles McDiarmid of the Wickaninnish Inn on Storm Watching, Sustainability, and What It Really Means to Be a Relais & Chateaux Member
Charles McDiarmid runs the Wickaninnish Inn on a rocky point in Tofino, British Columbia, land his father bought in the 1950s after falling for a remote…
- Brand Insiders
Neil Gallagher of Soneva on Bare Luxury, Just What Matters, and the Evolution of Ultra-Luxury in the Maldives
Neil Gallagher runs Soneva as CEO, thirty years after the brand pioneered what it now calls barefoot luxury across three private island resorts in the…
- Brand Insiders
Nicolas Peluffo of Awasi on Ultra-Luxury Lodge Travel, One Villa One Guide One Vehicle, and the Last Untouched Frontier in Luxury Travel
Nicolas Peluffo leads Awasi, a collection of five intimate luxury lodges across some of South America’s most remarkable landscapes, from the Atacama Desert and…
- Brand Insiders
Darshana Jariwala of Bridgeton on Connecting the Dots Between Brand, Product, and Experience
Darshana Jariwala grew up watching her family run hotels the Gujarati way — every guest honored, every hour of the day, no exceptions. Before she ever heard…
- Brand Insiders
Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter of Urban Cowboy on Nostalgia, Community, and Building Hotels That Feel Like Home
Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter met working in New York real estate and ended up running a bed and breakfast out of Lyon's own Brooklyn townhome instead. What…
- Brand Insiders
Stefano Cuoco of Miramis on Blending Italian Soul with Swedish Precision, and Why Hospitality's Future Is Entertainment
Stefano Cuoco started his hospitality career peeling apples in the pastry kitchen of the Hilton Rome, then worked his way through Starwood and Rocco Forte…
- Brand Insiders
Aslihan Ozgur of TheLifeCo on the Caribbean's First Longevity Village, Physician-Led Detox, and the Future of Health-Integrated Hospitality
Aslihan Ozgur sits on the board of A'ila Developments, a one-billion-dollar project on Saint Lucia built around a concept still rare in hospitality: a…
- Brand Insiders
Enrique Calderon of Posadas on Mexico's Hospitality Boom, Experiential Innovation, and Building Brands That Outlast the Competition
Enrique Calderon has spent 27 years at Posadas, Mexico's largest hotel operator, and now runs operations across more than 200 hotels in over 60 destinations as…
- Brand Insiders
Jason Zvatora of OUTRIGGER Resorts & Hotels on Cultural Authenticity, Commercial Strategy, and Building the World's Most Iconic Beachfront Brand
Jason Zvatora leads commercial strategy and performance for Outrigger Resorts & Hotels across Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean, a brand born in 1960s Waikiki…
- Brand Insiders
Markos Chaidemenos of Canaves Collection on Family Leadership, Nature, and Sustainability
Markos Chaidemenos runs Canaves Collection as a family-owned business built on the idea that Greek hospitality cannot be scripted, it comes from the people…
- Brand Insiders
Mark Owens on Colliers International and the New Economics of Hotel Deals
Mark Owens leads the hospitality practice group at Colliers International as Vice Chair, working across capital markets, debt advisory, structured finance, and…
- Brand Insiders
Namron Hospitality: Comfort, Design, and the Human Kind of Personalisation
Yves Naman never set out to work in hospitality. A business school trip from Canada to Mexico left him struck by the country's creativity and its way of…
- Brand Insiders
Swire Hotels: “Houses, Not Hotels” and the Art of Staying Different
Dean Winter runs Swire Hotels, the Hong Kong hospitality arm of a fifty-year-old property developer built around two brands, Upper House and EAST, and a…
- Brand Insiders
Hilton Grand Vacations COO Gordon Gurnik on Innovating Timeshare Experiences and Expanding Global Horizons
Gordon Gurnik runs day-to-day operations at Hilton Grand Vacations as COO, a standalone public company closely affiliated with Hilton Worldwide that now serves…
- Brand Insiders
Health Is the New Wealth: How Equinox Hotels Is Redefining Luxury Through High-Performance Living
Chris Norton runs Equinox Hotels as CEO, building the brand's first property in New York around a single conviction: health is the new wealth, and a new…
- Brand Insiders
Beyond Luxury: Ori Kafri’s Vision of Human-Centered Hospitality at J.K. Place
Ori Kafri represents J.K. Place, a family-founded boutique brand that defines boutique not through design trends but through personal, tailor-made hospitality…
- Brand Insiders
Building the Future of Hospitality: An Interview with Niko Karstikko, Co-Founder & CEO of Bob W
Niko Karstikko co-founded Bob W after running into the same frustrations most travelers know from short-term rentals: no standardization, no trust, and…