Why Hotel Booking Engines Are Dying — And How AI Agents Will Replace Them, with Selfbook Founder Khalid Meniri
Khalid Meniri didn’t come from hospitality — but maybe that’s exactly why he was able to see its most obvious blind spot so clearly.
A designer and technologist by trade, Khalid is the founder of Selfbook, the beautifully elegant booking platform that’s quietly powering the next generation of high-end hotels.
In this episode, you’ll hear the remarkable story of how a glass cube on Fifth Avenue (yes, the Apple Store) first inspired Khalid’s obsession with design — and how years later, that obsession led him to reimagine the broken booking experience plaguing even the most beautiful hotels.
We unpack:
Why the legacy booking flow is fundamentally broken — and why most hoteliers don’t even realize it
How Selfbook is thinking about dynamic pricing, personalized rates, and the future of “invisible tech”
Why the most exciting guest journeys of the next decade won’t start on a hotel website — they’ll start in a chat window
And how Selfbook’s new partnership with Perplexity could reshape hotel discovery at the point of inspiration
If you care about hospitality tech, design-led products, or the future of direct booking, this is a must-listen.
Learn more about Selfbook
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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1:00:07
From Sales Guy to Hospitality Media Mogul: The Modern Hotelier Story with Steve Carran
Steve Carran never set out to become one of the most recognized voices in hospitality media. But what started as a scrappy experiment to engage hoteliers during his time in sales has now blossomed into The Modern Hotelier — one of the industry’s most beloved podcasts and a new video media brand that’s putting a fresh lens on hospitality storytelling.
In this episode, you’ll hear the fascinating backstory behind how Steve and his co-host David Millili launched the podcast, how they bought it back from a startup, and how it has completely reshaped Steve’s career. We also dive into the biggest trends he’s seeing across the hotel industry — from how AI and design are converging to address labor shortages, to the rise of "bleisure" lobbies, to why apartment-style hotels like Mint House are quietly winning the loyalty of the next generation of travelers.
Plus:
- Why hotel lobbies are becoming the new coworking spaces
- How podcasts have become the secret weapon for hospitality networking
- Why giving guests a choice in how they interact with your brand is the future of service
- Steve’s vision for the Modern Hotelier Media group — including their "MTV Cribs"-style hotel video tours
If you’re building a hospitality brand or just love geeking out on where the industry is headed, this episode is for you.
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn
Listen to The Modern Hotelier
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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58:21
How Ash Hotels Became the Coolest Brand You’ve Never Fully Defined
If you’ve scrolled Instagram or Design Milk anytime in the last few years, you’ve probably come across a hotel that made you stop scrolling. Not because it was just beautiful, but because it felt like a world. A story.
And chances are... that hotel was built by Ash.
In this episode, I sit down with Ari Heckman, founder & CEO of Ash — one of the most distinctive hospitality brands redefining how hotels, neighborhoods, and even guest memories are made.
Ari’s story is a masterclass in world-building. We explore how growing up in post-industrial Providence sparked his obsession with places that transform.
Why he didn’t study hospitality at Cornell (even though he was a stone’s throw from the world’s most famous hotel school). And how Ash went from a small design studio to an experiential powerhouse shaping properties from Baltimore to New Orleans.
We get into why modern travelers don’t just want design anymore — they want mythology, meaning, and discovery.
We unpack how Ash thinks about cinematic storytelling, why boutique hoteliers must learn to master revenue as much as aesthetics, and what Ari believes is the next great unlock for independent brands scaling today.
If you care about hospitality, placemaking, or just building things that matter — this one’s for you.
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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53:12
How He Built the Bloomberg of Travel: The Story of Skift with Rafat Ali
What if the future of storytelling isn't about bigger platforms — but sharper taste?
What if the real shift happening in media isn't just economic... but moral?
Today, you’re about to meet Rafat Ali — founder and CEO of Skift, one of the most respected travel media brands in the world. But his story didn’t start there.
Rafat grew up in India, a shy kid who stuttered — and somehow rewrote his future with nothing but words and a relentless eye for what others missed.
He went from studying engineering to working for tech media icon Jason Calacanis during the first dot-com boom...to later building Skift into a brand so trusted that today, CEOs and world leaders cross conference halls just to get a bro hug from him.
In this conversation, Rafat shares why legacy media is collapsing, what too many creators get wrong about influence, and how AI and independent media are re-drawing the map faster than most realize.
We talk about why design — not data — will be the real differentiator in the next chapter of content.
We dive into the hidden risks of "audience capture" — and why building something truly enduring requires the courage to be misunderstood for a while.
And we explore why Rafat believes the next great media empires won't be built by corporations — but by people, building with instinct, action, and radical authenticity.
If you care about the future of media, if you're trying to build anything magnetic, or if you just want a rare look inside the mind of one of the industry's true visionaries...you're in the right place.
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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1:04:06
From Instagram Fame to Industry Change: JourneyMore, Mike Will Travel, and the Rise of Creator-Led Hospitality
When the COVID-era short-term rental boom hit, a new class of creators quietly redefined hospitality marketing — and today, three of the best in the business join me for a conversation you won't want to miss.
In this episode, I sit down with Hayden Hughes, Nicky Hughes, and Mike Iannetta — three pioneers who helped transform treehouses, A-frames, and glamp-sites from hidden gems into viral, booked-out brands. We unpack how they redefined marketing in the short-term rental world, where the future of creator-driven hospitality is headed next, and why they’ve partnered to launch a new guided course to help hospitality brands partner with the right creators.
We get into it:
Why short-form video changed everything for independent operators
What still actually works on social today — and why trends alone won’t save you
Why UGC (user-generated content) isn’t enough anymore — and what’s replacing it
The hidden burnout creators are facing, and how the next generation of hospitality marketing will be built differently
The big opportunity no one's talking about (yet) for boutique hotels and micro-resorts
How the best operators are thinking differently about working with influencers
And why creators who want to build real businesses are starting to think beyond content
You'll also hear the story behind the Journey More Collective, a potential new playbook for scaling authentic creator-driven marketing and get all the details on the value of The STR Influencer Guide Hayden, Nikki, and Mike just released.
If you're an operator wondering how to actually work with creators (the right way) — or a creator dreaming about building a business with staying power — this one’s for you. Oh, and if you’re interested in accessing The STR Influencer Guide for Operators, you can do so in the show notes below!
Alright friends, without further ado, get ready to meet Mike, Nikki, and Hayden.
Purchase The Influencer Guide
Connect with JourneyMore
Connect with Mike from Strive Hospitality (MikeWillTravel)
Watch a Roundtable Discussion with Zach, JourneyMore, Mike, and other Unique Stay Builders
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 joinjourney.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