Hotel Moment

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, sits down with Chris Koehler, Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio, for a candid conversation on what personalization in hospitality actually requires — and what is still getting in the way. With over 25 years across marketing, customer success, and product leadership, Chris arrives not just as a technology executive but as a frequent luxury traveler with high expectations and very specific preferences. From Twilio's State of Customer Engagement data showing only 45% of consumers agree brands deliver good engagement, to a hotel still asking a ten-time guest if he has ever stayed before, Chris reveals why the personalization gap is a data activation problem — and how AI is about to change every part of the equation.

The 2026 Revinate Hospitality Benchmark Report is live, and this episode brings the headline numbers to life. Brenna Turpin, Marketing Coordinator at Revinate, and Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, walk through channel-level findings drawn from 2.8 billion emails, 4.3 million phone calls, 22 million text messages, and 28 million guest reviews analyzed globally in 2025. From cold lead emails converting at 6.5% to outbound voice generating $1,164 per room annually, the data makes one thing clear: the hotels winning in 2026 are the ones communicating with intent and building the database health to back it up.

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate, sits down with Charlie Osmond, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of TripTease, to explore what data quality really means in an AI-driven hospitality landscape. With over twelve years building technology at the intersection of behavioral psychology and the direct booking channel, Charlie argues that clean, unified data is not just an advantage, it is the difference between outstanding decisions and consistently wrong ones. From guest persona strategy to vendor API lock-in, Charlie reveals why the hotels that invest in data infrastructure today will be the ones positioned to thrive as AI reshapes the booking journey.

In this episode of Hotel Moment, host Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, welcomes back Agnelo Fernandes, CEO of Cote Hospitality, to discuss Revinate's 2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report findings for the voice channel. With only 16-34% of inbound calls being actual reservations, Agnelo shares how Cote treats voice as premium inventory requiring protection through CDP connection and call triaging into revenue versus service categories. He describes two-layer staffing separating highly trained revenue closers from service support staff, unified guest data's paramount importance transforming calls from negotiations into booking experiences, only 56% of profiles containing phone numbers representing missed opportunity, and AI's structural fix role by filtering service calls to give sales protected capacity with CDP data preventing information fishing while handling FAQs for booking confirmations and housekeeping requests.

Read Revinate’s 2026 Benchmark Report here: Revinate.com/hospitality-benchmark-report/

In this recast episode of Hotel Moment, we’re revisiting Bryson Koehler, CEO of Revinate, conversation with Matthijs Welle, CEO of Mews, to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of hotel data security. Matthijs shares insights on how cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their tactics, and why education is the hotel industry's strongest defense against data breaches. From phishing attempts to AdWord exploitation, they explore practical strategies for protecting guest data and the importance of building a security-focused culture within hotel operations. This conversation offers valuable guidance for hoteliers looking to strengthen their security practices while maximizing the benefits of their technology stack.