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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21 episodes
Updated Today

Episodes21

Newest first

Today · 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
May 6 · 33 min
2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report: The voice channel playbook | a Revinate webinar
In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Amanda Wasco Brown, Director of Revenue at Old Edwards Hospitality Group, for the final session of the 2026 Benchmark Report Leadership Series, focused entirely on the voice channel. Amanda has spent eight of her 14 years at Old Edwards embedded in reservations, managing a team of seven agents who handle rooms, dining, spa, and golf across four hotels and three golf courses. Together, she and Bai
April 29 · 37 min
Capture and convert FIFA World Cup demand and win more direct revenue | with Adam Mogelonsky
In this episode of Hotel Moment, host Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, welcomes back Adam Mogelonsky, Partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting Ltd, to discuss preparing for FIFA World Cup 2026, which will bring 72% ADR premiums to 16 host cities. Adam shares how pandemic-era refundable policies created lead time volatility making labor forecasting difficult despite increased service expectations at premium rates. He explains the science of balancing non-refundable versus refundable rates through data
April 22 · 47 min
2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report leadership series: Unlocking revenue from the guest data you already have | a Revinate webinar
In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Gitti Hernández, Digital Marketing Manager at Casa de Campo, one of the Caribbean's most iconic luxury resorts to unpack what the 2026 Revinate Hospitality Benchmark Report reveals about database health, and what Casa de Campo's decade of data work looks like in practice. From a pre-arrival itinerary program that lifted guest satisfaction scores by 40%, to merged guest profiles that made a target
April 15 · 33 min
Why hotel branding is the most underused revenue strategy in hospitality | with Tomas Bäcklund
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Tomas Bäcklund, Chief Marketing Officer at Elite Hotels of Sweden, for a wide-ranging conversation on the most overlooked revenue strategy in hospitality: brand. Tomas arrived in the hotel industry from a creative agency background and has spent five years making the case that as costs rise and margins compress, the hotels that can charge more — without guests feeling overcharged — are the ones that h
April 8 · 46 min
2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report leadership series: Email strategies that drive revenue | a Revinate webinar
In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Christine Malfair, Fractional CMO for Independent Hotels at Malfair Marketing, to translate the 2026 Revinate Hospitality Benchmark Report's email findings into actionable strategy. With 2.8 billion emails analyzed globally in 2025, the data is unambiguous: cart abandonment campaigns hit 63% open rates and 6.8% conversion, targeted segments under 5,000 recipients convert at ten times the rate of
April 1 · 24 min
From concept to culture: How passion shapes hotel design & guest loyalty | with Diego Calvo
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Diego Calvo, CEO and Co-Founder of Concept Hotel Group, to explore what it really takes to build a hotel brand with genuine cultural soul. Diego has spent 25 years in hospitality and founded a group of nine distinctive brands on the island of Ibiza, where he grew up — achieving 35 to 43% direct bookings not through marketing spend but through brand identity so compelling that guests search properties
March 25 · 21 min
Is hotel marketing broken? Why siloed data won't drive more revenue | with Evan Crawford
In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, welcomes back Evan Crawford, Vice President of Marketing at Pyramid Global Hospitality, for a wide-ranging conversation on guest data strategy, AI adoption, and the marketing habits that actually move revenue. Evan makes the case that mass outreach without segmentation is a shrinking asset. From connecting OpenTable reviews to hotel CRM profiles, to his grounded take that Revinate emails still outperform ChatGP