Behind the Stays

Airbnb just partnered with TripAdvisor to bring 425,000 experiences onto its platform — a move that signals Brian Chesky isn't just dabbling in experiences anymore, he's building a second business inside the first. The crew breaks down what this means for the future of in-destination travel, why the real unfair advantage might already be sitting inside every host's guidebook, and whether this is Airbnb's best play in markets where short-term rental bans are tightening the grip on its core product. Edwin brings the European perspective: Barcelona's courts just sided with the city, 10,000 units disappear by 2029, and the ripple effects are spreading.
 
Then the conversation shifts to IHG, which is taking a completely different approach to the owner economics pressure wave sweeping the industry. While Hilton cuts fees and Marriott rolls out rebates, IHG is pitching a full services package — marketing, digital support, training, group booking — and telling owners to trust the value. Edwin's challenge is sharp: don't tell me the service has value, show me the PL. The panel explores whether regional marketing studios could actually be the unlock and what happens when brands start making owners more dependent on infrastructure they don't control.
 

The big closer: Blackstone just paid $2.5 billion for a 25% stake in AeroPlan, valuing Air Canada's loyalty program at $10 billion — more than the airline itself. Scott calls it a data and credit card gold mine. Ben says the airline business is a commodity and loyalty is where the differentiation lives. And somehow the whole thing detours into a love letter to Blackstone CEO John Gray's Instagram and why the best business development tool in 2026 might just be a jog through Central Park with your phone out.

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This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey. Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary. If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

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Special Guest:

Sarah Kopit — Editor-in-Chief of Skift

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkopit

 

Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

 

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

 

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

 

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/

Read "Please Do Disturb": https://pleasedodisturbbook.com/

Connect with Rachel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelalday

Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/

Check out Lodgify and get an exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/ 

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In just a moment, you'll meet Rachel Alday, co-founder of Abode Luxury Rentals and author of the forthcoming book, "Please Do Disturb." I brought Rachel back on the podcast because she's an awesome friend of mine, but also because the frameworks and lessons she outlines in her book have guided her and her team in building Abode Luxury Rentals into one of the most respected vacation rental management companies in the country.

Early in this conversation, Rachel tells a story about a guest family that called her team constantly with complaints — and then asked to extend their stay. What her team discovered when they stopped being defensive and started being curious became the foundation for everything she's built since.

She breaks down the framework behind it: three deceptively simple commitments she and her co-authors spent years uncovering — show up, make room, and build belonging. We get into the service recovery paradox, a concept Tim Ferriss personally pushed her to put in the book, and why managing a mistake well can create a more loyal customer than a flawless experience ever could.

Rachel makes a sharp case for why outsourcing guest communication to AI might be the single worst place to cut corners, and where she thinks AI actually belongs in vacation rentals instead. We talk about the real cost-benefit of writing a book while running a business, what a breathing coach taught her about leading under pressure, and why presence — the kind where the rest of the world genuinely disappears — might be the most underrated competitive advantage in hospitality leadership right now.

Friends, you're going to love this conversation. Be sure to order her book, "Please Do Disturb," wherever you get your books. You can pre-order it now, and there's a link in the show notes below. Without further ado, get ready to hear from Rachel Alday.

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Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more.
 
Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of Growth at Journey. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance.

Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts:

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality

 

This week we're joined by Sarah Kopit, Editor-in-Chief of Skift — the publication that fuels basically every episode of this show — and she came ready.

We open on the story all of hospitality shared this week: Aman's brand-new, $6,000-a-night Amanvari turning away independent reviewer Ryan Walker at the gate on night two, then calling the cops on his driver. Scott and Sarah are inclined to give Aman the benefit of the doubt. Ben isn't — he thinks it might be the canary in the coal mine for a brand scaling faster than it ever has.

From there we get into The Squeeze, Sarah's reporting on the crisis crushing America's small and mid-scale hotel owners. Record brand profits, owners barely cash-flowing, and a franchise model showing real cracks. We dig into why owners are revolting, what deflagging really costs, the financing fears keeping them locked to their flags, and the gut-punch of learning the Google reviews you spent eighteen years building don't belong to you — they belong to the brand.

Then Marriott's new rebate: a real concession, or breadcrumbs tossed to the good boys who hit their guest-satisfaction scores? Sarah makes the case that the credit card companies are now the biggest force in travel, and that Amex and Capital One are building their own soft brands in plain sight.

We close with a game — the hotel accounts winning on social, and the 99% still getting it wrong.

This one's loaded. Come hang.

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This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey. Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary. If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

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Key Topics & Timestamps

00:00 — Intro
09:49 — Story #1: The Great Hotel Owner Squeeze
33:05 — Story #2: Aman’s YouTuber Fiasco
44:41 — Story #3: Marriott’s Owner Concession
55:01 — Hotel Social Media Game
01:06:23 — Spice of the Week

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Special Guest:

Sarah Kopit — Editor-in-Chief of Skift

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkopit

 

Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

 

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

 

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

 

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/

Connect with Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-rosolio-434b2a98/

Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/

Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/

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Vrbo just did three things most operators haven't connected yet: it purged 100,000 homes, surveyed 2,000 guests across seven countries, and started rolling out sponsored listings. Put them together and you get the clearest signal yet on where vacation rentals are headed.

Tim Rosolio is VP of Vacation Rental Partnerships at Expedia Group, where he leads the supply and host side of Vrbo. He's also a Vrbo host himself. In his return to Behind the Stays, Tim and Zach get into what that survey actually revealed — and it wasn't what the industry has been selling.
Quality isn't luxury. It isn't the private chef or the infinity pool. It's accurate photos, verified reviews, a fully stocked shelf, and linens and silverware worth touching. 81% of guests said they'd pay more for a stay they can trust to be consistent.

Then there are the sponsored listings landing this summer — a pay-only-if-you-book model that lets hosts buy visibility without gaming the algorithm. Tim explains how it works, why bad operators won't be allowed in, and where it goes across Expedia next.

The conversation also covers the "coach up or coach out" program behind the purge, why the future of discovery is personalization instead of a star-rating system nobody trusts, expanded distribution across Expedia's 70,000-business B2B network, and the one fear keeping every VRM up at night: owner retention in a market where 2022 numbers aren't coming back.
Reach out to Tim on LinkedIn — he's an open book.

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Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more.
 
Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of Growth at Journey. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance.

Sonder is back — sort of. Eight months after going bankrupt and stranding guests mid-stay, the brand name has been bought by a Vancouver affiliate firm that paid for one thing: search equity. The buildings are gone. The trademarks and 70+ domains remain. And because large language models still route travelers to Sonder’s optimized pages, that name is now targeting $100M in gross booking value over the next year. We get into what it means when a dead brand outlives the company that built it.

Then: Fora’s $1B valuation. The travel advisor platform keeps scaling the human-agent model — but the team digs into the product it hasn’t built yet, and why the “ShopMy for travel” affiliate layer is still wide open for creators who aren’t full-time advisors.

We also break down Google’s AI travel play. Fresh off its Q2 earnings call, Google is using travel to sell Wall Street its AI ad story — Direct Offers, IHG partnerships, AI Mode crossing a billion users, and checkout infrastructure that could let travelers book without ever leaving the search box. The question for operators: is Google becoming rented land, and a direct-booking competitor, at the same time?

Plus, The Odyssey effect. From Petra to the “White Lotus Four Seasons” to Bangkok’s Hangover Hotel, we get into how films turn destinations into demand — and what hoteliers should actually do about it.

Hosted by Zach Busekrus with Ben Wolff, Scott Eddy, and Edwin Kramer.

Like, subscribe, and let us know which story you’d unpack further.

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This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey. Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary. If you’re an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance

—

Key Topics & Timestamps

00:00 — Intro

06:02 — Story #1: Sonder's Brand Gets a Second Life Through AI Search

17:51 — Story #2: Google Wants to Own the Entire Hotel Booking Journey

32:16 — Story #3: The Odyssey Is Creating the Next Travel Boom

45:11 — Story #4: Is Fora Really Worth $1 Billion?

59:22 — Spice of the Week

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Your Hosts:

Zach Busekrus — Journey

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/

 

Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/

 

Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/

 

Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/