How He Built Mews — And Rewired the Modern Hotel Stay (With Richard Valtr, Founder of Mews)
Richard Valtr didn’t just build hotel software—he rewired what a stay could be. Before Mews, he was designing a 60-key hotel in Prague with a brazen brief: make every guest feel five-star without hiring an army. He imagined stays like playlists—moods, moments, choices—then realized the industry lacked the pipes to power it. So he built them: an open-API PMS as the backbone for personalization at scale.
Today on the show, I’m joined by Richard Valtr—founder of Mews, hotelier-turned-systems architect, and one of the sharpest minds pushing hospitality past “heads in beds.”
In this episode, we:
Explore how that 60-key Prague experiment became a prototype for Mews—and whether a “playlist for your stay” can actually scale.
Discuss why the real upside may live in the 16 waking hours, and how RevPAG could nudge P&Ls beyond a bed-only mindset.
Explore what changes when spend is posted to the guest, not the room—and whether that unlocks offers people actually want next time.
Discuss how personalization might honor your different modes—parent, partner, road warrior—with AI helping dial convenience vs. high-touch.
Explore what an open-by-default stack could enable—and what the future relationship between OTAs and operators might look like (and how it could benefit everyone).
Connect with Richard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-valtr-79541410/
Explore Mews: https://www.mews.com/en
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
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 the Journey Alliance. 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.
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How He Built Europe’s Largest Luxury Home Collection: The Le Collectionist Story
A host who always pushes for “one last drink.” A curator who unlists homes to protect the flag. An operator who builds taste—and then bolts on logistics. That’s Max Aniort.
Max is the co-founder of Le Collectionist, a luxury home brand that chose curation over scale, local operators over generic platforms, and a repeat-guest flywheel over one-and-done bookings. He started by solving for owners—people with extraordinary homes but zero appetite for late-night texts, staffing headaches, or inconsistent standards—then expanded destination by destination, partner by partner, standard by standard.
Le Collectionist now stewards 3,000 handpicked homes across a hundred-plus destinations, but the center of gravity hasn’t changed: taste first, always. They keep a waitlist and aren’t afraid to quietly unlist a house if it drifts from the standard, because the promise is as much about who you let in as where you send them. Guests come back because the experience feels personal—an advisor who remembers the floor plan your kids loved, a fridge that’s stocked the way you actually eat, and a local team with gold-key caliber pull who can turn a last-minute whim into an effortless memory.
In this episode, we cover:
How Max built Le Collectionist by solving owner pain first—protecting the asset with standards, service, and guests who respect the home—before ever chasing scale.
Why the brand chooses curation over growth at all costs, keeping a waitlist and telling owners “not yet” when a property doesn’t strengthen the flag.
How a local-first operating model, including acquisitions of destination experts, unlocks the “impossible” in places like Ibiza through a gold-key caliber concierge team.
How service is designed to fit the house, with baseline housekeeping and thoughtful touches for every stay and à-la-carte upgrades when “hotel-like” service truly adds value.
How a single advisor follows a family across trips as a travel PA, building deep profiles and trust that naturally moves guests between destinations.
Why longer, rooted stays—from multi-week summers to school-year relocations—are reshaping inventory strategy, staffing, and pricing.
Connect with Max Aniort: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaniort/
Explore Le Collectionist: https://www.lecollectionist.com/en
Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/
Apply to join the Journey Alliance: http://journey.com/alliance/
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 the Journey Alliance. 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.
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From Pandemic Lakehouse Purchase to Building Lake.com — How David Ciccarelli is Tapping a $20B Vacation Rental Opportunity
We’re live at Skift with a builder proving the future isn’t generic search; it’s purpose-built marketplaces for travelers who already know their stay type—a lake house.
I’m Zach, and today I’m joined by David Ciccarelli, co-founder of lake.com. After a startup exit during the pandemic, David and his wife (and co-founder) Stephanie bought a lake house—he grew up on Lake Superior, she on Lake Erie. A few months in, they hosted a 25-person family reunion to put the place to use—and that’s when the opportunity snapped into focus: the nearby hotel was priced for peak season, and the close-enough rentals you’d want for a shared trip weren’t surfacing. Conversations with local trades who service waterfront homes confirmed the pattern—plenty of beautiful, generational places sitting unused most of the year.
Instead of optimizing for everyone, David optimized for the traveler who already knows the experience they want. He acquired lake.com, built discovery around thousands of lakes and parks, and set a simple rule—on the water or within 15 minutes—so results stay on-vibe. On the back end, he scaled supply by integrating directly with property management systems so calendars and pricing stay in sync; on the business side, he kept incentives clean with shared success (a flat commission only when hosts get booked). The result: a fast-growing, lake-first inventory measured in the tens of thousands.
In this conversation, you’ll hear:
How that reunion turned a personal headache into a thematic OTA
Why curated, stay-type discovery beats generic search in a GenAI world
The domain-as-distribution bet behind lake.com
The PMS integration play that actually scales supply (and prevents double bookings)
What “within 15 minutes of the water” does for expectations, filters, and conversion
Explore Lake.com at, you guested it... www.lake.com ;)
Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidciccarelli/
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 the Journey Alliance. 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.
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From Luxury Retreats to Building the Future of Vacation Rental Management at Gather with Andreea Grigore
It’s 2008. The financial world is crumbling, Wall Street is bleeding jobs, and a brand-new finance grad named Andreea Grigore is staring down a recession with no clear path forward.
Then, at a birthday party in Montreal, everything changes. She meets the founder of Luxury Retreats, one of the world’s first platforms for high-end villas, private islands, and over-the-top vacation rentals. A casual conversation turns into an unexpected offer — and what was supposed to be a stopgap job becomes a nine-year masterclass in luxury travel, entrepreneurship, and scaling a global brand that Airbnb would eventually acquire to form its Luxe division.
Fast forward, and Andreea is now the CEO of Gather Vacations, a company reshaping the playbook for property management. Instead of asking local managers to give up their independence, Gather powers them with the back-end systems, tech, and support they need so they can focus on what matters most: homeowners and guests.
In this conversation, you’ll hear:
How a recession detour became a once-in-a-lifetime break into luxury hospitality
The inside story of scaling Luxury Retreats and watching it become part of Airbnb Luxe
Why Hawaii was the perfect test bed for rethinking property management
How Gather’s model challenges the franchise status quo and sets a new standard for partnership
What the future of vacation rentals looks like when brand, consistency, and local expertise collide
Explore Gather Vacations: https://gathervacations.com/staff/andreea-grigore/
Connect with Andreea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreea-grigore-081a6418/
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 the Journey Alliance. 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.
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How an Athlete-Turned-Actor-Turned-Entrepreneur Built a $30M Bourbon Trail Hotel
What do a high school jock turned Danny Zuko, a lung-collapse survivor in the middle of the 2008 crash, and a bourbon-country hotelier have in common? Will Hardy.
In this episode, Zach sits down with Will — a creative entrepreneur, real estate maverick, and placemaker behind The Trail Hotel in Bardstown, Kentucky — to unpack a life defined by bold pivots, relentless grit, and audacious vision.
From sneaking into a high school audition that would change his trajectory, to flipping 800+ homes, to nearly losing it all during the housing collapse, Will’s story is a masterclass in resilience and reinvention. You’ll hear how desperation sharpened his creativity, how a hustler’s spirit turned $100 into a flipping empire, and how faith, grit, and a little bourbon fueled his latest masterpiece: a $30M boutique hotel on the Bourbon Trail that’s redefining Kentucky hospitality.
But this isn’t just a story about bricks, bourbon, and business. It’s about a man who refused to be boxed in — who chased acting gigs in LA, launched a film production company, produced a feature on Milton Hershey, and still found the courage to start over (multiple times) with his wife and kids by his side.
If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to chase audacious dreams, survive catastrophic setbacks, and build something truly lasting — this conversation will light a fire under you.Expect stories of mimosa-fueled negotiations, clown costumes that saved real estate deals, and the kind of visionary thinking that transforms abandoned Holiday Inns into Napa Valley–level destinations for bourbon lovers.
Explore The Trail Hotel: https://www.thetrailhotel.com
Follow The Trail Hotel: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailhotel
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 the Journey Alliance. 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.
Welcome to Behind the Stays — a podcast that shares the stories behind your favorite boutique hotels, short-term rentals, and hospitality brands and the hosts, operators, and entrepreneurs who’ve brought them to life.
Every Tuesday and Friday you’ll meet the military veterans, retired flight attendants, tech entrepreneurs, school teachers, single moms, hoteliers, and real estate investors who are all, in their unique ways, shaping the future of travel and hospitality.
Discover how these visionaries — from all over the world — have built stunning landscape hotels in the mountains, designed bohemian bungalows on the beach, erected eclectic off-grid and nature-immersed escapes, and so much more.
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.
Behind the States is hosted by Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance.
Ireland