Behind the Stays

Hotel sales in the US are up 28% in the first half of 2026 — and a meaningful chunk of that activity is chasing bad Yelp reviews, not trophy assets. JMI Realty executive Drew Bridges joins the show to break down how his firm is using AI to source acquisition targets off terrible guest feedback. The specific deal: a Hilton Garden Inn in Austin bought for $100K per key that reviewers called "janky" and "a complete nightmare." Drew walks through the renovation math, why he's keeping the brand, and why only 184 of 789 US submarkets have outpaced CPI since 2019 — a stat that underpins his thesis that a massive basis reset is underway across the industry.

Then the crew digs into Rafat Ali's latest column arguing that independent boutique brands have effectively become the outsourced R&D labs of the global flags. Graduate, Nomad, Standard International, Ace, CitizenM — all absorbed in the last two years. Edwin pushes back: maybe the right size for a great independent brand is just smaller than anyone wants to admit. Scott says 95% of what the public hotel companies do is shareholder theater. Ben says the Edition model — bring in a founder, protect the brand — is the playbook nobody's replicated.

Spice of the week: Scott on Google's move toward agentic hotel booking and what it means for distribution. Zach on United's cinematic route reveal and the coming shift from performance marketing to storytelling. Ben on why the real risk isn't a failed bet — it's doing nothing in an industry full of dinosaurs.

 

About the Guest: Drew Bridges
Drew Bridges joined JMI Realty in 2011 as a Financial Analyst, where he underwrote new development, acquisition, and financing opportunities. Today he leads Investment Management for JMI's developed assets, overseeing property management, implementing capital expenditure and value enhancement strategies, and managing investor relations.

A graduate of Cornell University, Mr. Bridges began his career at Archon Group in Dallas, where he worked on initiatives ranging from the acquisition of non-performing loan portfolios to the spin-off of what became Pillar Hotels and Resorts.

Drew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbridges/

 

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/

Check out Lodgify claim your exclusive discount: https://www.lodgify.com/behind-the-stays/ 

—

Explore FerebeeLane: https://www.ferebeelane.com/

Connect with Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ferebee-2287566/

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

—

Twenty-five years ago, a kid with an English degree and a freelance gig writing about furniture realized something. People didn't want to just know what the sofa looked like. They wanted to know how it was made, who designed it, how many hands had touched it before it reached the showroom. The descriptions of the piece were fine, but it was really the stories that sold it. That kid was Matt Ferebee. And that instinct, that the story behind the thing is more valuable than the thing itself, became the foundation of FerebeeLane.

Boutique, brand, and guest experience agency that he co founded with his partner Josh Lane over two decades ago. Their first big client was Hickory Chair, a premier furniture company in North Carolina that was fighting to stay relevant in a rapidly commoditizing market. Matt and Josh launched a magazine for them called Timeless, profiling watchmakers from Cartier and interior designers to contextualize the brand among the greats. That caught the attention of BlackBerry Farm.

At the time, maybe 22 keys, hard to categorize, and often dismissed as a charming bed and breakfast. Matt interviewed founder Chris Bell, and within 18 months, FerebeeLane had assumed full responsibility for their marketing. To this day, BlackBerry Farm does no paid advertising. They're celebrating their 50th anniversary, and Matt's team is still right there beside them.

In this conversation, we trace the arc from furniture copywriting to shaping the narrative identity of some of the most revered hospitality brands in the world. Matt talks about what he learned watching Blackberry Farm scale without ever compromising on guest experience, why he believes the current wave of rustic minimalism is often just a cash grab dressed up in Scandinavian language, and how his team brought Canoe Place in.

A site dating back to 1697, America's oldest inn, turned nightclub, turned forgotten asset, back to life with a story rooted in place. We also get into what it means for a 15-person agency to land on Marriott Luxury Portfolio's approved list alongside publicly traded global firms, what that signals about where the major flags are headed, and why Matt believes the future of branded hospitality looks a lot more like.

Treating a 90-room Ritz-Carlton as an independent boutique property, not the other way around. This is a fascinating conversation. You're really gonna love Matt. He and his team have done incredible work. So, friends, without further ado, get ready to meet Matt Ferebee.

—
 
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

 

On this week's episode the guys are joined by Alice Sherman, CEO of HVS Executive Search! Alice Sherman has placed some of the most powerful executives in hospitality. As CEO of HVS Executive Search, she's seen thousands of resumes, sat across from hundreds of owners, and walked the halls of Congress to lobby for the industry. Her message to the business? You're still hiring wrong.
 
Years of experience is the most overrated qualifier in the industry. Cover letters are dead. And the best talent isn't chasing the big brands anymore — they're running toward independent, luxury, and boutique properties where they can actually build something. Alice breaks down what a modern resume should look like, why the Chief Commercial Officer is the new CEO succession play, and what happened when she went to Capitol Hill and realized most lawmakers had no idea hospitality employs more hourly workers than any other industry in America.

Then the crew gets into the stories. Google just scooped up Spirit Airlines' entire operational data set — pricing models, booking curves, 100 million emails — for $10 million. That's less than Spirit spent building its headquarters. Why didn't anyone in travel bid $11 million? Timeshares are back, and Gen Z is driving the bus. 92% satisfaction. 80% occupancy. And the generation that hates commitment is apparently fine with shared vacation ownership. And Disney just invented a new metric to make sure Wall Street sees what's really happening: the cruise business is surging, and $12 billion says they're just getting started.

 

About the Guest: Alice Sherman
Alice Sherman is the CEO of HVS Executive Search, where she leads the firm's global executive placement practice across hospitality, restaurants, and private equity.

She started her career on the floor, running operations in fine dining restaurants and boutique hotels, before moving through recruitment, training, openings, development, and brand communications. She joined HVS as an Associate and worked her way up, eventually overseeing the entire Americas practice before stepping into the global CEO seat in 2026.

Alice advises ownership groups, C-suites, and boards on leadership architecture, succession planning, and organizational design, and is always glad to be a resource for stakeholders navigating an executive change.

Alice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicesherman5 

 

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/

Explore Inhaven: https://inhaven.com/

Connect with Ashley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-ching-inhaven-b56a843/

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

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

—

Meet Ashley Ching — founder of Inhaven, former head of global merchandising operations at Tiffany & Co., and the person behind what might be the most important piece of research the vacation rental industry has produced in years.
Here's the question Ashley keeps asking: every other hospitality industry — hotels, airlines, restaurants, car rentals — has a language of trust. Quality tiers that tell the consumer what they're buying before they arrive. Vacation rentals don't. And that single missing layer is behind almost every structural problem the industry can't seem to solve — from review manipulation to failed scaling attempts to the reason you still can't build a transferable property management brand.

Ashley walks us through the Reasonable Hospitality framework her team developed alongside property managers and Steve Joyce, the former CEO of Choice Hotels. We dig into why service standards matter more than furnishings in determining where you fall on the quality spectrum, this care coverage ratio concept that quantifies what "boots on the ground" actually means, and why every attempt to put standards at the individual property level has failed. She makes a compelling case that most operators calling themselves luxury probably aren't — and that's not an insult, because only 3% of US hotel supply is actually luxury, and there's excellence at every tier. We talk about the luxury fallacy, why a Hampton Inn with an 8.2 rating doesn't mean it's better than a Ritz-Carlton with a 7.8, and what this industry could look like in ten years if it finally gets the foundation right.

—
 
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.

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.

—

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

—

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/