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Hotel Moment

Revinate

Welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast, presented by Revinate, where we discuss how hotel technology shapes every moment of hoteliers’ experiences. Join us as we explore cutting-edge technology that is transforming the hospitality industry and hear from experts and visionaries who are shaping the future of the guest experience. The Hotel Moment podcast features insights and interviews with top players in the hospitality industry across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Once a week, we speak with hospitality professionals who have a real sense of what it’s like to work in this industry and what the direction of travel and consumer trends mean for the world right now.

Technology is changing the hotel industry faster than we know. Tune in to the show to discover more about how the latest developments in AI and other technologies are shaping hospitality, and enjoy hearing from our community of hoteliers.

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28 episodes
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Avg 27 min
English

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#198
Wednesday · 25 min
The hidden revenue opportunity in your hotel budget
In this episode of Hotel Moment, we bring you another AI-generated conversation examining what hotel leaders should consider before replacing reservation teams with voice AI. Using findings from Revinate’s 2026 Secret Shopped Call Report, the discussion looks at why overloaded front desks struggle to convert callers, where automation genuinely improves efficiency, and why hotels need better visibility into their voice channel before making major staffing decisions. It also explores a less obviou
#197
September 16 · 22 min
Recast: Building relationships through reservations: Insights from The Broadmoor
In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Sarah Stephens, Room Reservations Manager at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs — the world's largest and longest-running Forbes Five-Star hotel. With 14 years of managing a 13-15 person reservations team, Sarah shares how the voice channel creates unforgettable guest experiences through personal connections. From surprising guests with Doritos and handwritten notes to generating nearly $1 million in outbound call revenue over
#196
September 9 · 59 min
The lost art of a reservation call: How to build trust, capture data, and close bookings
In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Brent Sanders, Sr. Customer Education Specialist at Revinate, sits down with Colton Bean, Director of Reservations at Suncadia Resort, to unpack Revinate's Secret Shopper Call Report, which analyzed 308 calls to 135 luxury properties. The findings are stark: 92% of unbooked calls collected zero contact details, and 56.6% skipped discovery questions entirely. Colton shares how Suncadia trains agents to ask the right questions, secure bookings before guests
#195
September 2 · 20 min
Recast: Sky Mitchell on succeeding in modern hospitality
In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Sky Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Basecamp Resorts. From getting fired and using a car loan to buy her first piece of land to building a $600 million hospitality empire, Sky shares her remarkable journey of entrepreneurship. Listen as she discusses her approach to staffing, the development of her new Everwild Nordic spa concept, sustainability initiatives, and her candid advice for aspiring entrepreneurs to succeed in the moder
#194
August 26 · 23 min
We secret-shopped 300+ calls. Here’s what we found.
In this episode of Hotel Moment, we bring you a special AI-generated conversation dissecting the 2026 secret shopped call report. Based on 308 secret-shopper calls placed across 135 luxury and upscale properties, the discussion explores why 92.2% of calls fail to capture guest contact details and why staff ask zero discovery questions over half the time. It examines how lobby check-in chaos forces front desk teams into triage, why evening voicemail loops destroy paid ad spend, and how semantic A
#193
August 19 · 22 min
Why the first 10 seconds make or break a guest's stay
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Andrew Shepherd, General Manager of Resorts at The Malcolm Hotel. Drawing on more than 25 years leading luxury hotels, resorts, and casinos, Andrew shares how proactive service transforms initial arrival moments into lasting loyalty. He explains why digital channels shape first impressions long before check-in, how front desk agents read body language when exhausted families arrive, and why logging details like a guest's favorite des
#192
August 12 · 22 min
The blueprint for iconic hotel F&B
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens talks with Ami Alexander, Managing Partner at Barrel Aged Management. Drawing on two decades of experience with brands like Hakkasan Group, Sydell Group, and Virgin Hotels, Ami breaks down how guest expectations shifted from standard corporate consistency to local, intentional storytelling. She explains why developers must underwrite F&B concepts early to avoid forcing operations into poorly planned kitchens. Ami also outlines what allows concepts
#191
August 5 · 22 min
The end of beigification: Why travelers are searching for something real
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO of Preferred Travel Group, home to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the world's largest independent hotel brand with over 625 hotels in 80 countries. Lindsey shares her unconventional path from change management consulting into hospitality, the key findings from Preferred's Luxury Travel Report on heritage travel and hyper-personalization, and why she believes "beigification," the sameness across branded hotels, is
#190
July 29 · 20 min
Why the best luxury hotels don't sell exclusivity — They build connection
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director, EMEA, Revinate, sits down with Lily Wecker, CEO of Aethos, a next-generation hospitality brand built on experiential luxury and meaningful connection. With leadership experience at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Lily shares how a personal health scare reshaped her definition of luxury, from material ownership to internal validation, and why Aethos designs its properties for "high emotional density" instead of privacy. From the brand
#189
July 22 · 35 min
Recast: Immersive hotel experiences: Bridging technology and human connection
In this episode of Hotel Moment, we're bringing back one of our favorite conversations where Karen Stephens engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Bashar Wali, founder and CEO of Practice Hospitality and This Assembly. Bashar, with over three decades of experience in hospitality, shares his passion for creating memorable hotel experiences that transcend the ordinary. He discusses how hotels can balance technology and human connection, why points aren't true loyalty, and how the industr
#188
July 15 · 17 min
Why great guest experiences start before check-in
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Lydia Bates, Director of Sales and Marketing at Dream Inn Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz's only exclusive beachfront hotel. Lydia explains why independent lifestyle hotels win on storytelling rather than transaction, how Dream Inn's on-site reservations team begins curating the guest experience from the very first call, and how targeted email campaigns convert OTA visitors into loyal repeat guests. She also shares how Dream Inn fights season
#187
July 8 · 28 min
How AI uses personalization to beat pricing and win bookings
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Chris Anderson, Professor at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, who has spent more than two decades studying how pricing, distribution, and revenue management shape global hospitality. Chris explains why pricing guests differently based on willingness to pay is heading for legal prohibition, why AI will shift customization from price to offer set, and why being in the AI consideration set is already harder to earn t
#186
July 1 · 25 min
Keeping an authentic voice when AI can't read the room
In this episode of Hotel Moment, host Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Dina Niekamp, SVP of Brand and Marketing at Aparium Hotel Group, a lifestyle hospitality company known for building hotels that feel deeply rooted in the neighborhoods around them. Dina explains why emotional connection, not just amenities, has become the new standard for luxury travel, and why she believes AI will never replace the most important skill in hospitality: reading the room. Dina shares the story b
#185
June 24 · 19 min
How hotels turn data overload into profit growth
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Jeff Michael, Area Director of Revenue Management at Sage Hospitality Group, who brings more than 25 years of hospitality experience spanning operations and commercial leadership. Jeff explains why the explosion of hotel data has created a new kind of paralysis, why "commercial alignment" so often fails when departments chase different incentives, and how AI is finally turning guest lifetime value into a metric hotels can actually us
#184
June 17 · 27 min
The AI booking shift: What hoteliers need to do now
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO at Revinate sits down with Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, to unpack the most consequential shift in hotel distribution in years: the rise of AI-powered booking discovery. With insights from leaders at Starwood Hotels, Highgate, and Twilio woven in, Karen and Dylan trace the arc from Google's Universal Commerce Protocol announcement to the not-so-distant future of agent-to-agent vacation planning. Their message is direct: prope
#183
June 10 · 22 min
Recast: How Swiss Deluxe Hotels redefines luxury hospitality with tech | with Wilhelm Luxem
In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Wilhelm Luxem, head of quality commission at Swiss Deluxe Hotels and former GM of the iconic Baur Au Lac hotel. With 50 years in luxury hospitality, Wilhelm shares his philosophy on technology adoption in five-star hotels, emphasizing that tech should always complement service DNA while staying in the background. From his experience with a seven-generation family-owned hotel to his insights on evolving guest expectations, Wilh
#182
June 3 · 21 min
How to win direct bookings with AI search | with Jarrett Tomback
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, sits down with Jarrett Tomback, Vice President of Digital Strategy and CRM at Starwood Hotels, for a conversation that moves from rethinking loyalty to the most urgent distribution question in hospitality: how do hotels win direct bookings in a world where AI search models give guests three to five recommendations instead of pages of links? Across 1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotels and Resorts, and Treehouse Hotels, Jar
#181
May 27 · 29 min
Why luxury hotels should focus on revenue, not cost-cutting | with Robert-Jan Woltering
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Robert-Jan Woltering, Managing Director of De L'Europe Amsterdam, to make a case the luxury hotel industry needs to hear more often: cutting costs is easy, but it is the wrong strategy. With more than 30 years across five continents and a 130-year-old Amsterdam landmark celebrating three Michelin keys under his leadership, Robert-Jan shares why top-line revenue maximization, authentic guest experience
#180
May 20 · 23 min
Will guests trust AI with their travel plans? | with Aaron Miller
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens welcomes back Aaron Miller, Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing and CRM at Highgate, for a grounded conversation on AI's real role in hospitality. Drawing on more than 20 years across brands like The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, Trump Hotels, and Turning Stone Enterprises, Aaron explains why the direct booking renaissance depends on hotel-owned content, why guests still want a curated website over a chat window, and how Highgate is pivoting it
#179
May 13 · 21 min
How to prepare for hospitality's AI future: Inside NAVIGATE 2026
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, and Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, recap NAVIGATE 2026, the annual Revinate customer conference held this year at the Wigwam in Phoenix. Featuring clips from CEO Bryson Koehler, Suncadia's Colton Bean, Pyramid Global's Abby Waski, Cote Hospitality's Angelo Fernandes, and Noble House's Jennifer Barnhart, the episode moves from the opening question that set the tone: 75% of the room had used ChatGPT

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