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Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

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by Travel Media Group & Ryan Embree

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The best hotel digital marketing podcast in the hospitality industry.

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July 8, 2026

208 – Independent Hotel Show Series: Minor Hotels

Being that the 2026 Independent Hotel Show Miami is only a couple of months away, this special IHS Series episode features the VP of Development, U.S. & Canada at Minor Hotels, Genna Panagopoulos! Genna joins the Suite Spot podcast to discuss: <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Minor Hotels Brand & Special Announcements</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Independent & Lifestyle Hotel Landscape</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The 2026 Independent Hotel Show</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Creating Unique Experiences for Travelers</li> </ul> And much more. <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aJiUmgqh-Pg?si=Ecs4sA33HiVFZwER" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are here for the second season of our Independent Hotel Show series. That means we are gearing up, if you can believe it, for the Independent Hotel Show here in September and Miami Beach. I am so excited and equally excited to bring in a familiar voice. We had her on the podcast just a couple months ago in New York City, Genna Panagopoulos, VP of Development North America at Minor Hotels. Genna, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Genna Panagopoulos: Hey, thanks for having me again. Ryan Embree: Yeah, excited to have you. We were talking off camera. Typically, I usually do the virtual interview before meeting you in person, so this is a little bit more comfortable here, virtually back in, in, I think you’re in Atlanta. I’m here in our TMG headquarters in Orlando, but second time on the Suite Spot. We really didn’t get to get into your hospitality background, kind of a tradition here. Wanna introduce you to our audience a little bit more, intimately and in depth. Talk to us a little bit about your background in hospitality and the journey that led you to Minor Hotels. Genna Panagopoulos: Well, it starts a long time ago because I grew up in the hospitality industry. Typical greek immigrant story. My father came here with just a few dollars in his pocket and ended up building a pretty successful restaurant business in Detroit. So if you ever are in Detroit, if you say Jimmy, the Greek people will know him. But I went to, I obviously grew up in Michigan, went to Michigan State, really, and started studying hospitality with the intent of taking over the restaurant business. And then I did an internship for my father and realized I did not love it as much as he did. And so I ended up falling into the hotel space and specifically hotel investment, real estate development, and have just fallen in love ever since I started my career at Davidson Hotels and Resorts back when they were in Memphis, actually on their business development team. And then they moved to Atlanta, ironically, next to IHGs headquarters. So I was with Davidson for a few years, hopped in over to IHG, where I was for 10 years, did everything from feasibility to business development to even brand, which is a little bit unique. And I don’t wanna undermine that because I had a lot of people say at the time, why would a developer ever go to brand? Like, that’s, you’re where you wanna be. But for me, it was so critical to kind of unlocking new opportunities in the future because the skills I gained in a year and a half on the team work just the role that I’m in now is super helpful because it’s, it’s kind of like wearing two different hats, right? A creative versus a mathematician. So anyways, I was there at IHD for 10 years, and then this opportunity at Minor came up last summer. I was so ready and excited to take on like a new challenge and I thought that it’d be a really fun and exciting new endeavor for me with this combination of my background. So, it’s exciting. Minor’s been super supportive and it’s a little weird to go from working in an office with thousands of colleagues to being the one of one in an entire continent, but it’s been great so far. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And what a unique opportunity. We’re gonna talk about that here in a moment because I think it’s absolutely fascinating. But your story is very familiar. I mean that we hear all the time from our guests, a lot of them start in that f&b kind of space and then transition over to the hospitality side, but super comprehensive skillset, which I’m sure has set you up for success in your role at Minor Hotels. Now, we met face to face at NYU IHIF, where just a couple weeks removed. I call this kind of takeaway season where everybody’s on LinkedIn, kind of frantically typing their takeaways and what they felt about the state of the industry right now, what we’re looking back on New York City, maybe you could start kind of zoomed in version of how that event for you and then maybe back up with an industry lens on some of the biggest takeaways from your time at New York City. Genna Panagopoulos: So from a Minor perspective, we had a really successful conference. So we had tons of meetings while we were there. Really good ones too, on some deals that were hopefully perpetuating. And then we’ll be announcing maybe by the Independent Boutique Hotel Show, but it was, the energy was very live, the excitement for Minor Hotels, was very visceral people, I think, you know, hoteliers are really looking for brands that understand their position. And because Minor is, you know, I always describe it as an owner first, then an operator, now a brand, right? And we still own an owner lease a vast majority of our portfolio. So we know what it’s like to be in their shoes, quite honestly. So it was a successful, like I said, the energy was there. It’s very validating to know that a lot of our marketing is working and all of the, the word of mouth and the fact that we’re out there, iI’m having to educate people less and less with every conference about who we are. So that’s great. Zooming out on an industry lens, you know, I think, you know, even just looking at beginning of the year to NYU IHIF, this sentiment is very different, right? You know, at the beginning of the year there was so much excitement over the World Cup. You and I spoke about that at NYU and it’s, it’s obviously been tempered quite a bit, and the K economy is still happening. We’re seeing luxury, the rates of the projects that I’m working on, I’m just shocked at how high they are and, how well the competitors are doing in the upper luxury space. It’s really fascinating. So I’m definitely seeing that as well. But the sentiment, and appetite to grow is definitely there. People are still looking to place equity, not ton, not huge amounts, but we’re, we’re seeing that there are still gaps on that front. Ryan Embree: The resiliency of our industry, I think, continues, right? It just, the momentum there, every single time we see a headwind, we continue to push through, which is really, really cool to see that owner. And, and from a development, I mean, new brands, new projects being announced, this is the space that we’d love to see, you know, more and more because there’s more and more demand growing travelers continue to prioritize travel and the experience economy, which is great for us hoteliers. So we just need some more rooms here, which is obviously what you’re tasked with, right, Jenna? So, but I wanna talk about Minor Hotels. I know you talked about needing a little less education now, but educate us here on the Suite Spot. I mean, Minor Hotels, brand spanning from select service all the way up to that ultra luxury segment ton of brands. They don’t have time for all of them today, but maybe you could share some of your personal favorites and within the hotel, Minor Hotels portfolio, what makes those brands unique? Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah, sure. So yeah, like you said, we now have 12 different brands, four of which were launched last year right before I joined the company. But we have these two lineages, I think within Minor Hotels history, right? We have our roots, which come from Thailand, and Anantara and Avani are great examples of that. And then we have our European roots from acquisitions over the years. So we’ve got brands like…that came from Portugal, NH, which is a very established brand out of Madrid. The four that we launched last year, offer really unique things that we never had before in our portfolio. So as we were looking to grow, we knew that that was something we’d have to have to kind of have on our menu of options for potential hotels, because some of these brands don’t work in every asset type and not every market, though most of our brands have a lot of flexibility to be able to grow into different asset types. But I guess my favorite, and I’m really excited about the Wolseley hotel brand we launched last year. So Minor International owns, which of course, Banner Hotels Resorts is a part of, owns Wolseley Hospitality Group out of London. And there’s a really beautiful institutional restaurant called the Wolseley that’s very famous. If you ask anybody from London, they definitely know the Wolseley. In fact, most people I know that just traveled to London know the Wolseley. So we own, we own that company and decided to take that brand into the hotel space, which is interesting because it’s a restaurant moving into the hotel world. And our first one will open in New York next year, but it’s been really fast. I think it’s really fascinating. There’s a lot of membership club opportunities with that one. And so that’s kind of an new trend we’re starting to see in the luxury space. Ryan Embree: It’s gotta be great to be able to have that breadth and spectrum of property or investment type for an owner to come in and say, this is maybe the market that I’m interested in pursuing, and then figuring out and kind of curating and tailoring what asset, what brand is gonna fit best there. And we talked about this a little at NYU, but I think, again, your job is so fascinating. You have this well-established, extremely popular worldwide brand, and here you are tasked with bringing it into the North American market, right? I’m sure there’s a lot of envious developers out there, what has been kind of, and really you only get to launch a brand like this into a new market only once. So what has been kind of your approach, Jen? I’d love to get kind of the background on what’s been your approach and what kind of feedback you’ve been initially hearing. Have owners been kind of waiting for this, you know, to arrive here and, and what are you hearing from owners right now? Genna Panagopoulos: It’s a tale of two stories as they say, right? So in the luxury space, there’s so much excitement. We are very established, people in that space know us, and wanna be the first to help us develop here. So that’s where we’ve seen the vast majority of our interest. Now, when you shift to looking at some of the upper upscale through the select service brands that we now also offer franchise, which I don’t know the stat off the top of my head, but it is a large component of those properties, those segments are operated by third parties and franchised. So being that we’re newer into that space, that’s where the challenge has been. So, but yeah, in terms of the hardest thing and I have to tackle every day is where do I spend my time? Because there’s constantly deals coming my way. We have to, we have to be quite strategic and mindful about what has the most likelihood of being the best representation of our brand in our target markets. So early on, when I started, I think the first four weeks of me taking the role, I had developed a pretty cohesive development strategy of where we wanted to spend that time. And where that is really any of the top, let’s call it 20 markets in the US that have international demand. So we have top markets that don’t have as much international demand, and we’ll look at those, but we just think that our value is gonna come from driving international business into these hotels. And then totally opposite from that, with Anantara, our, you know, wellness, upper luxury experiential brand. We are really excited about finding deals in kind of everywhere else except for those urban markets, right? So hard to get to places. Last week I was driving through Utah and Colorado, six hours in between each of them. So just to give you a little flavor, we were looking at a couple different opportunities in those states. You know, Hudson Valley is somewhere we wanna be Montana, Wyoming. So, you know, it’s a little bifurcated our approach to our various brands. But we’re trying to be very diligent and strategic about it. So we don’t get distracted by things that aren’t going to help us grow here. Because once we have good examples, we really believe the first few have to be really good. Once we have those, we’ll be able to drive further, further growth at a more quick pace. Ryan Embree: Yeah, no, absolutely. And what you were talking about how best to spend your time, I think that’s a, a challenge that hoteliers have had since the dawn of this industry. But it’s very exciting and very cool to hear those different approaches because, you know, you have the privilege of having that background, of having that history and, and culture already built over an in another market, bringing that here. But you also have the exciting new flavor of providing something new, maybe in some, some very experiential markets right now, which experiential travel is just absolutely exploding another traveler trend right now. And you already have some several success stories we touched on at NYU. Let’s dive a little deeper into some of those projects, Genna. Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah, so we’ve got, I guess our next one that I’ve already kinda spilled the beans on it, but the releases are already out there, but the first Wolseley in the world will be opening next year in New York in the former Lambs Club property. And I think it’s just such a fantastic market to open the first Wolseley hotel. You know, theoretically it could have been in London and hopefully we do have one in London soon, but it’s a very special cherished brand and it’s not the one thing I also just wanna spend a moment on, even though it’s luxury and it’s this very quintessential British kind of formal service style, it’s egalitarian at its roots, it’s really meant for everybody. So you could walk into the, into the Wolseley in London and see celebrities next to politicians and you’re Joe Schmo walking in off the street, you don’t need a reservation. And so I think it’s a really beautiful evolution of the, of the history of that brand. And I’m so excited for it to land in New York. Ryan Embree: So we can announce right now in 2027. The Suite Spot will be on site. We can do nice little episode up there hopefully. Genna Panagopoulos: Next, next conference in New York. We’ll be able to do it there. Ryan Embree: Alright. <Laugh> Genna Panagopoulos: Yes. And then a little, actually, I guess the next one that’ll open in 2029 is Anantara Turks and Caicos, which is a 100% residential hotel, really, really beautiful resort heavy wellness, you’ll find with Anantara. We really lean into the wellness, longevity space. And so, we pride ourselves on always being at the forefront of the latest wellness, the direction wellness is going. And so longevity, for example, right now is very important to us. And we’re seeing that bleed into the residential space. So, you know, just the way that’s getting threaded into the residential experience, into the hotel guest experiences is very fascinating to watch. And then in 2030, we’ll also have another Anantara in Miami, very close to design district. It’s kind of at the epicenter of where design district, Edgewater and Midtown all meet the views from the hotel will be incredible. There’ll be a helipad, a 30,000 square foot spa. And then a mix of hotel rooms, residences that people are living in, and then also residences that can get rented out to hotel guests as well. So we are super excited, I think, you know, having these three hotels in these three markets, right? We’ve covered New York where we already have a hotel, by the way, the NH collection, Madison Avenue, we’ve had there for a few years, which we actually own. And then, you know, Miami, which is a key market, obviously very heavy international demand, but just if you had to tell me to pick one plate, one urban market to put it an Anantara, that would be it. And then Turks and Caicos is such a important market for U.S. leisure travel. So these couldn’t have been better, better markets for us to be entering and launching region. Ryan Embree: Congratulations. What a strong pipeline and really cool projects you’re working on, excited to kind of see those and the announcements as they start to roll in and the pictures, those views that you’re talking about. But I think, you know, the Turks and Caicos property is something we’ve been talking about on the podcast. That CALA region is also booming right now. So, you know, it’s not just, I think sometimes when we say, you know, obviously bringing into the North American market, we tend to go a little bit more domestic, but to expand that into CALA I think is gonna be absolutely critical. ’cause you’re right, so much of that US domestic travel is now spending, you know, time and money in those areas, and looking a little bit more towards that for their experiences. So exciting all around. And of course we love, you know, we’re based here in Florida, so we’d love a new project. We’ll, we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on that Miami project that you have. But this is speaking of Miami, this is our independent hotel show series. Talk to us, you know, why you feel some of the Minor Hotel brands fit within this independent and lifestyle category. And what advantages do you see independent hotels or even experiential brands and lifestyle brands have in today’s hospitality landscape? Genna Panagopoulos: I’ll answer that last question first. If you don’t have that experiential, that’s table stakes today. So, we’re, I believe we’re only gonna see that become more and more important as the years go on. Because if you look at the consumer data of what the younger demographic, where they’re spending their money, it’s not experiences. It’s not, it’s no longer on goods. So having these really cool, unique experiences that they can travel and and receive is gonna be critical in terms of what we have to offer for independent hoteliers, keep in mind this is our roots, right? We started our, our company was founded by Bill Heineke, who, fun fact, and I can’t remember if I’ve already told you this, but the reason we’re called Minor is that he went to go start his business at a very young age of 17. And when he was getting his his business license, they said, sorry, but you need an adult to sign with you ’cause you’re a minor. So he’s really one of those serial entrepreneurs, wicked smart, wicked great at launching businesses, but he was an independent hotelier. That’s how he got his start. So he’s still driving a lot of the vision of the company. And I could tell you coming from a larger brand company into this environment, it is incredibly entrepreneurial. And because we also own hotels, but also operate for a lot of our owners, we truly believe we have this, like this hotelier mindset. We’re more of an operator than we are a brand at this moment. And so I think that could help lend itself to independent owners who are looking for a little bit of support. And we’re here to lean in as much as they want and as little as they want, but there’s benefits to it, right? We can help save on OTA costs, we can help save on purchasing. We’ve got great technology to help with forecasting and revenue management and and so on. So there’s definitely places to tap in. And I think particularly now more than ever with our two collection brands that we launched last year, so I started telling you this, but I didn’t finish telling you the brands that we launched, but two of them that we launched last year are collections. One is minor reserve collection, which is in the luxury space. And then Colbert collection, which is more upper upscale, maybe entry luxury. And those are just such, they’re primed for independent hotels, right? That’s why they were launched. To be able to keep the heritage and the name of an independent hotel play off of it, but then get all the back support, all the things behind the scenes that consumers will really never see, but it’ll help make operations much more efficient and smooth. And so we think that’s where there’s a lot of opportunity and we’re, you know, we’re priding ourselves on that. We’re here to be a partner and not a brand that’s telling you have to do it this way. So that’s where we’re really thinking this is the opportunity for us in that space. Ryan Embree: Well, it says, it says a lot that, to have two collection brands dedicated to that space really shows the investment in the future of these kind of independently run or branded properties and see the opportunity there because again, looking, you mentioned the lens and view challenges about independent hotelier and brand is very different from those big brands that have the scale to kind of combat those challenges a little bit more efficiently. So, you know, independent hotels, we always talk about on this series specifically are looking for any edge or opportunity to differentiate themselves to the traveler because they are really first in line to present a one of a kind experience. If you think about it, one of those places is f&b, a trend that obviously Minor Hotels has taken and ran with, especially with converting a f&b brand to hospitality brand. How have you leveraged the f&b theme with potential owners and when you’re having these conversations with investors, as you look to bring Minor Hotels to North America? Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah, so, well first we have a, when I was doing my onboarding in Madrid and Amsterdam, I toured our Anantara in Amsterdam and they had just, maybe they, a couple months before they had just concluded a chef series where they brought I believe 20 or 30 Michelin rated chefs under their roof and had a food festival, which I had never seen that. Like how amazing to bring. I didn’t know that, that that many Michelin chefs would be side by side cooking for each other, right? But it’s a really special thing. And I think that shows you that Minor is very credible in this super experiential high end f&b space separate to that. And so we have the talent in-house. Separate from that, when you look at our brands and the way our Colbert brand, for example, our Colbert, I don’t even wanna call it a brand ’cause it’s a collection. It’s not really a brand the way we thread food and beverage into the guest experience, right? So each hotel is completely unique within the collection. We don’t want any two to really look alike, to be honest with you. But as part of the one ritual that you can, that you can count on as a guest at every Colbert is a food and beverage driven experience. So whether that’s a bespoke cocktail that’s mixed for you, right as you enter the door, or maybe, after you’ve checked in and you’re in your room, a bell cart is a food and beverage bell cart of sorts is delivering a special experience to your door something that ties back to the identity that the hotel has, but is very curated and special, right? Not something that’s like a here’s the, the chocolate chip cookies we made today. No. Right? We want something really beautiful, thoughtful, creative, and that shows the craft in it that either ties to the experience or the identity of the hotel. So I think that’s really important and those little things go a very long way. Ryan Embree: A hundred percent. And those are the little things that add up in the independent hoteliers world that can, you can have the edge, right? And I mean there’s a whole now space with food tourism. I mean, it’s got a name for it now. That’s how large this trend is. And hoteliers are looking at F&B very, very differently than they did five, 10 years ago. It was a first a place where they started to look and say, where can we cut costs? Where can we make efficiencies? Now the brands that I think are doing it right are leaning into it. They’re seeing it as a part of their guest experience and also a huge opportunity for their local markets too. I think people, you know, in locally have looked at through a different lens at what a hotel F&B experience can be. And when someone comes to town, they might not be going to that restaurant. They might be going to a hotel or a resort, and it having that experience there. So very interested to see, right. Genna Panagopoulos: It’s, I don’t mean to interrupt you. But I just wanna say, I was recently having the conversation because when I started in the industry, we would joke, you could, you could like blow a cannon through a hotel restaurant. Nobody wanted to go to a hotel restaurant. Back in the day, they were cool. And it was like, oh, I’m staying at this hotel, meet me at the restaurant. But for a while, you didn’t wanna go to a hotel restaurant. It was vanilla, it was boring, it had no identity. It was just an extension. It was just a restaurant within a hotel. Now it’s such an important driver of bringing people to that hotel, whether local or visiting from out of town. And so there’s such an opportunity. I just, I look back at the time that those hotel restaurants were not attractive. And now I’m like, no, it’s such a beautiful component to an experience and I’ve seen really amazing destination hotels that are operated by the operators, but have a totally unique identity that’s very strong and compatible with the hotel, but not homogenous with the hotel. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. It’s very, very cool to see that evolution. And I think it’s only, again, as the trend continues to grow, I think it’s only gonna get stronger. You’re gonna see more emphasis on that f&b experience. And I personally can’t wait. Because I love those types of experiences to kind of see that evolve. And we’re gonna learn a little bit about maybe some of your favorite f&b experiences within the portfolio here. So let’s do my favorite part of the episode. Some rapid fire to get to know you Genna and the Minor Hotel portfolio a little bit better. Let’s start with one of your, you talked about maybe future favorite views at your property, but right now what is one of the favorite views at your properties in the portfolio? Genna Panagopoulos: I know you’re trying to do rapid fire, but of course I’ll just story tell a little bit. Ryan Embree: <laugh> No, not at all. Please. Genna Panagopoulos: The Avani in Amsterdam, I had the opportunity during my onboarding with Minor to go to Amsterdam for a few days. Because we have a ton of hotels in Amsterdam. And I got to stay there and I woke up, I think it was a Sunday morning, and I had one of the upper level rooms and floor to ceiling windows. And I just, I watched the city wake up. It was so cool to see the sunrise from my room, but also the canals were coming to life. People were in boats and I had this cup of coffee and they had a great lounge here. And it’s not, it’s not a fancy hotel, right? It’s an approachable lifestyle of hotel. But it was really, it was so beautiful. I had this like Minor Magazine I was reading and I read the full thing. It was so lovely. And I’m actually taking my daughter there in a few, in two weeks, because I loved it so much. Ryan Embree: Very cool. Yeah. And she’ll get to have that view of the, the property as well. What about favorite fact? A fun fact about one of the properties? Genna Panagopoulos: Okay, so one of our new Colbert collections, that I believe is open now in Florence. It’s called Port Rosa, which it translates to Red Door. And it is actually one of the oldest, it might have been the first hotel actually in Italy and one of the first hotels in Europe. So it’s just so funny ’cause here we call our historic hotels 200 years old. And, and here we have like an 800 year old hotel. So I think that’s, I don’t think I could top that. Ryan Embree: Yeah, that puts it in perspective. Favorite signature dish? We talked about f&b experiences at one of the properties. Genna Panagopoulos: So I know I’m talking a lot about Amsterdam, but that was, it obviously left an impression on me, but at the Tivoli, which is one of our entry luxury brands, very well established in Europe, they really pride themselves on food and wine. And so culinary is a huge component of that experience. So I get to eat at the restaurant in the Tivoli called Ombre. And they really try to weave in creativity and art into the overall experience. And so they took it, they took inspiration from Rembrandt, and so Ombre is one of the 12 colors of Rembrandt’s palette. And so they, they had a beautiful way of weaving that into the food, the color of the food, the color of the menu, the names of the menu items. And it was just a beautiful, and you could watch the chef finish the food right at the entrance. And it was just, it was remarkable. It’s also on the canal. It was an evening candle lit room. It was beautiful. Ryan Embree: I mean the marketing team for some of these properties I’m sure has no shortage of content and storytelling. I mean, this is every hotel marketer’s dream. What about favorite guest experience or amenities at one of your properties? Genna Panagopoulos: That’s a good question. The, also in the Avani in Madrid, so, when I had wrapped up, I had trained in Madrid. I went to Amsterdam for a weekend, came back to Madrid to kind of give everybody my 2 cents of how the project or how the onboarding went. And I was only there for one or two nights. I was so tired. I had been gone for like two weeks. I missed my kids. But I came back and the Avani in Madrid as my welcome city had a smoothie set up. And I had never seen this, and I don’t even know if I’ll ever see this again, but they had a little, a little tiny, I think it’s called like a bullet blender, right? That I could blend in my room. They had the most beautiful, I don’t even know what fruit it was, but it was sweet. It was delicious. They had a variety of milks next to it that I could mix with the fruit, and then of course a little ice bucket and some honey. And it was just everything that I needed. I was so tired from being on the road and to come back and have this really like, cool, healthy, nutritious, it was so, it was like they were reading my mind of what I needed. And I’ve never been in a lot of amazing hotels. And again, Avani is not a luxury brand, but they totally nailed it. And then about an hour later after it, ’cause I had checked in fairly late in the day, they showed up at my door with this beautiful wind down tea set up, and it was, you know, tea can be hit or miss. Yeah, it was so beautifully floral and delicious. And I’m not even a tea drinker. And I loved every moment of it. And they had the most perfect cookie to compliment. Ryan Embree: It’s brilliant by the way, that smoothie, because it makes you a part of the process. It makes you feel a part of the experience. I’m sure a ton of people are sharing that on social media. They’re talking about it. I mean, how easy could it have been to just deliver a smoothie, but for you to kind of be a part of that experience, I think makes it a little bit more special. Very, very cool. I’ve never heard that either. Very cool. And then the last but not least, favorite piece of artwork at one of your properties? Genna Panagopoulos: Thats a tough one. Coming back to the fact that we have an NH hotel in Amsterdam called the Schiller, with tons of authentic Danish artwork. But I’ve also heard that the Tivoli Puerto Gaia has a lot of remarkable pieces. In fact, they have over 70 pieces of authentic art. One of my favorite artists is a Spanish artist…and his works are there. So I haven’t seen it in real life, but that’s on my bucket list. Ryan Embree: Well, I’ll tell you, this was probably the most internationally friendly rapid fire that we’ve had here. When asking these questions. You took us to Madrid, Amsterdam, Italy, all over the place. So, we’ll definitely, I can feel the hoteliers now doing some research on these hotels and planning their vacations. Let’s shift to the Independent Hotel show. It’s happening September 16th, 17th in Miami Beach. And remember Suite Spot listeners, don’t forget to use promo code Ryan26 for a complimentary registration. Genna, and I would love to see you there. Genna, you recently joined the show’s advisory board. Congratulations on that. What inspired you to get involved with this event and how do you see it supporting independent hoteliers? Genna Panagopoulos: First of all, thank you. And I’m really flattered to be on the advisory board. When we started our, when I was working through our development strategy as part of that, we were talking about the various conferences we wanted to attend. And we really think that we’re different from a lot of the big players that are already here, right? We’re trying to not be aligned with them, but a totally different offering. And so for us, it was really important that we find these independent hoteliers, boutique hoteliers that, again, are looking for somebody to help support them and maybe make their lives a little bit easier, but not be always watching over their shoulder. And so for us that this was perfect, I actually hadn’t come across it until they reached out to me. And it came about 48 hours after we had said, we need to find a show or a conference that has specifically this. And it just fell into our lap. And so we, it was, it was very serendipitous and we’re very excited. In fact, I hope we can continue to attend and I’ll be bringing my colleague from Mexico actually to help run the process with us while we’re there. So we’re excited. I also think that we could learn a lot of what independent hoteliers need and their challenges are and be able to help them out. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it’s a very, very unique event. I’ve had the privilege of being to the show since its inception a few years back. So much learning, there is something special when you put a group of independent hoteliers together in a room. The networking that goes down. It really is unlike any other event I’ve been to. So, again, hope you will join Genna and I in Miami Beach in September. We hope to see you there. As we wrap up today, we got a couple more minutes. What is your vision for the future of Minor Hotels in North America? Genna Panagopoulos: Listen, we don’t wanna be as big as everybody else that’s here, but we wanna have a really good foothold. I don’t think I mentioned this, but we have a little over 600 hotels worldwide, including in pipeline. And we’re really everywhere except for North America. And so it just feels like the right progression, of where we even have hotels in South America, in Mexico, right? So we’re really kind of closing in from all directions. And so we just wanna have good hotels here. Good representation on, fun fact, British and US travelers make up the majority of Anantara guests worldwide, even though we have no Anantara here in the U.S.. So, Norin England. So people want it, and I think once they’re here they will absolutely come. So we’re excited. We just want what we want. A good representation of hotels. Hopefully that’s somewhere around 20 to 30 hotels in the coming years. Ryan Embree: Well, you’re off to a super strong start. Congratulations again, Genna. It’s exciting to be here, kind of at the starting line of this Minor Hotel’s journey in North America. It will soon follow suit, like the rest of your brand is. So we’re excited to watch that unfold here in the upcoming years. Genna, thank you so much. We know you’re busy. You mentioned it before. We appreciate you taking your time, spending some time with us and talking about Minor Hotels and in the Independent Hotel Show. Again, we’re, we’re excited that we’ll both be attending there in Miami. And hope you will too. So Genna, thank you for your time. Genna Panagopoulos: Thanks for having me again. Ryan Embree: Alright and we’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. Thank you for listening. To Join our Loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

June 17, 2026

207 – Social Success Series: Scott Eddy

The Social Success Series is back with a brand new episode featuring a very special guest and hospitality’s no-nonsense voice, Mr. Scott Eddy! Scott Eddy joins the podcast to give audiences his perspective and insights on where the future of hospitality is headed, social media growth in hospitality, and how AI technology is the biggest innovation that the industry has ever seen. If you are looking to stay ahead of the hospitality technology curve by getting the latest hospitality information, tune in to the episode. <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Vt-R36xTV8?si=52V-qkuRfO1kF-S-" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Cassady Quintana: Welcome to the Social Success Podcast, where we have conversations with top hospitality professionals about successful digital marketing strategies, emerging trends, and how to connect with today’s travelers. I’m your host, Cassady Quintana. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Social Success series. My name is Cassady Quintana and I am the brand ambassador here at Travel Media Group. And today we have an awesome guest. I am super excited, a hospitality influencer, celebrity to me. Super excited to have the no nonsense voice of hospitality. Mr. Scott Eddy, thank you so much for joining me. Scott Eddy: Thanks so much for having me, man. Cassady Quintana: Yeah, super excited. So, right now you’re in Spain. We talked a little bit about that, but for people that may be a little bit unfamiliar with you and your history, talk us through how you got involved in hospitality and how you got to where you are today. Scott Eddy: Yeah, so I actually didn’t come from a hospitality at all. I came from investment banking, which I think gives me a very different lens of the world. So I look at hospitality through psychology, positioning, ROI, branding human behavior before I even look at aesthetics, which actually means nothing. after my banking career ended, I went to Thailand on a two week trip, and after four days I called my mom. I was like, I’m never coming home. I love this place. And I ended up living in Bangkok for 11 years. So I went over there in 99, several years before social media came out. So for the next four or five years, I basically just partied my butt off all over Asia, made a lot of friends and just getting acclimated with the region. ’cause it was just, it’s like a different world over there. So then social media came out and I started the first digital agency in Asia, and we were the biggest for five years. And all my clients were hotels. So my very first client in this industry was the first Aman property on earth. Aman…, which was in Phuket. And that really taught me the whole quiet, luxury, luxury persona. Like that whole thing. It really like it was like a, like a, like a weight in my brain that is still there today. It’s really, really stuck with me and a lot of things that I learned from that project. Really, I use it every day. Cassady Quintana: Yeah. No, that’s awesome. I feel like a lot of the people I talk to and we talk to here, it’s kind of a similar story. They fall into hospitality, they don’t realize, and it happened to me too, like I was working just in normal social media marketing before I got into hospitality. And that’s kind of how it happens for a lot of people. So you live in hotels, you’re traveling constantly. A lot of people would only dream of that. I wish I could do something like that. So for you, at what point did you realize, like, this wasn’t travel anymore, but you could kind of turn that into your brand and a business for yourself? Scott Eddy: So, okay, so as I was doing the agency, and again, I just hired really smart people that worked at advertising agencies. And just watched them. But during that time, that’s when social media first came out. And I’m very early on every platform. I was probably first 2000 people on Twitter. And Twitter was it back then. So that’s actually where I built my brand. And I was the first American expat in every Asian country to have a million followers on Twitter, which back then got me headline news, which got me speaking gigs, which got me consulting gigs. So after a while, all my business was coming through my social media. And again, this is back when there was no term influencer, there was no term personal brand. There was no, that might have been a thing, but it wasn’t a thing. So eventually I just decided to sell the agency because it just made no sense to me to have a brick and mortar office paying 37 full-time employees when the clients are coming through my phone or my computer. Like, it just didn’t make sense. So I sold it and started traveling around. In total did 11 years in Thailand, one year in Philippines, one year in Sri Lanka, four years in Spain, one year in Portugal, and one year in London. And then I came back to the US in 2015, thereabouts. And that is when I literally blew up because that is when real budgets were starting to be applied to social media marketing. And I was approached by a PR agency as soon as I came back to be the travel host for the first video, for the first travel show that was gonna be a lifetime. And it was like a Anthony Bourdain type show. It was called Video Globetrotter. So that solidified me in the U.S. Then I just started doing just huge campaigns with F1, with Air New Zealand, with like, all these big brands. I was a brand ambassador for Lexus for two years. I mean, it was, it was very, very cool. But when I, before I came back to the States when I was in Europe, I was just looking at like what was gonna happen when I went back to the States and I was like, well, I don’t want to get a lease and like have like a normal life. I haven’t had a life for a very long time. So I ended up selling everything that I own while I was in Europe and even now. So I was born in Michigan, but I was grow, I grew up in Fort Lauderdale since I was little. I used to only have a storage unit in South Florida. So I used South Florida as a base in between all my trips. But I’m there two, three days. Like, I was just there this past weekend. I went to F1 and then I came to Europe right away. That’s awesome. So, yeah, I mean, it just happened. When did it happen? Who knows? But it just, I’ve been in the trenches of hospitality marketing for 17 years, since day one of social media. Not that we were doing social media strategies on day one. Back then it was like websites and SEO and graphic design. Remember when people paid for that? Cassady Quintana: Yeah. Scott Eddy: So the services side is very different now. But it’s fun. But it’s fun and hospitality, like it’s the greatest people in the world. Cassady Quintana: I couldn’t agree more. I mean, how could you not be happy with being able to travel to all these places and meet new people and stay in different hotels and you’ve experienced, a wide range of different hotels. So when you think back of all these places you’ve stayed at, for you what makes a memorable stay versus one that’s kind of forgettable? Scott Eddy: And I’ve had both. The difference is emotional impact. That’s it. Most luxury hotels today are physically beautiful. And emotionally empty. The industry has been become obsessed with that whole polished and everything else. But forget humanity. Guests don’t remember the sink design or the way the lobby looked. They remember how your people made them feel. And I’ll give you a perfect example, and this is not to put them down, but I just left Tulsa. I was there for eight days. I mean, you’re talking about Tulsa, Oklahoma. Like it’s not New York City, it’s not Paris, it’s not Hong Kong, it’s Tulsa. And I was at the Marriott there. And again, this is not a ultra luxury property, I’m telling you right now, I stay over 300 nights in hotels and have done so for the more than eight, nine years. This was the best employees, the best staff that I’ve ever met in my life, ever. And I’ve lived in Asia for 13 years. And Asia has, I mean, the best of the best. But I mean, it, it was crazy. Like the finance lady coming out and she’s like smiling and laughing with the staff. Have you ever seen finance person smile? Like that’s where the creativity goes to die. That’s the person who’s telling me, no, no, no, we don’t have the money for this. Like, it was unbelievable like every day I was just like pinching myself. I’m like, is this real? It was just, it was really crazy that the best experience that I’ve had ever in hospitality just happened. Cassady Quintana: Oh, that’s awesome. And I feel like this is something that a lot of hotels should be posting about on social media because I always say like, your hotel and the way it looks is part of the experience, but what makes it memorable or what makes it terrible for people is how the service was. So, and that can be hard to translate online. So when you are looking at a hotel, social media page for you, like what makes something make you gravitate towards it and wanna engage with it, rather than it being a promotional or sale. Like how can hotels translate that inhuman experience and how awesome their staff is and how awesome their staff makes you feel to social media so that potential guests can feel that through the phone? Scott Eddy: I mean, first off,I browse through social media profiles of hotels every day. I mean, I’m, I’m talking dozens and it’s, it’s honestly most of it just makes me wanna throw. It is ridiculous. We are in the most feel good, fuzzy warm feeling industry in the world. And they can’t stop taking these gorgeous pictures of rooms and dead pictures of an empty swimming pool. And like, it’s unbelievable. Most hotels, social media feels like it was approved by seven people in a boardroom and a legal department. That’s the problem. Everything is safe, polished, filtered, and emotionally flat human beings connect with people, not corporate perfection. When are you gonna wake up? Like, I don’t understand. It’s 2026. It’s almost as if they don’t have a calendar. Like show it, show the chef, show the bartender, show the housekeeper, show them, show humor. I mean, like, it’s crazy. Cassady Quintana: And I think that’s the thing, like when Instagram first came out, it was that opposite, right? We need the perfect photo, we need the perfect shot. We have to use the perfect filter. And now it’s, it’s kind of gone to the opposite. And maybe this is with AI becoming so pertinent in all of these things, but people want to see that real moment. Because it’s hard to imagine yourself in a perfect photo of a hotel room. Like, I wanna see someone enjoying their coffee, or like you said at the pool, things like that. So obviously you’ve followed this since it’s started and it’s changed. We’ve seen new trends. We’ve seen Instagram change its algorithm completely. So beyond that human emotion, is there anything else that you think hoteliers are still getting wrong in 2026 with their social media? Scott Eddy: I mean, the biggest mistake hotels are still making is thinking that content is the strategy. Content is not the strategy. Content is the vehicle. Emotional relevance is the strategy. Anybody can create content. Now, do you have a phone? You can create content, you have AI, it can create content. So the value is no longer in simply producing the content. The value is in perspective, storytelling, culture, trust, leadership, and emotional connection. That is the number one. Most hotels still have no clear voice online. What I love to ask hotels. I love to say, what is your brand personality? They don’t know how to answer. Like, how do you not know that there’s no founder visibility, there’s no staff involvement, there’s no community building. God help you if you can find a GM. They’re heading in the office. There’s no understanding of platform psychology. I was talking to a guy who is part of a group of a hotel group, and they own 11-17, they owned a bunch of hotels. And I asked him about one of the properties. So before we hopped on the call, I went on every platform to see where they are, how active they are. That way I have the ammunition. We get on the phone and I ask him, what about X, Y, Z property? I couldn’t find them on TikTok. Why aren’t they, oh, I don’t like TikTok. That wasn’t a question. Cassady Quintana: Right. Scott Eddy: And then, with me, I dive deeper. I’m like, why don’t you like it? kids dancing. Come on. That’s the way it started. I said, the average, the average age demographic that’s most active right now is 38 to 57. Luxury brands are killing it on TikTok. I love when people say can’t sell luxury on social media. What? These are the people that aren’t on their phones. Right. Come on, man. Cassady Quintana: No, and I love that you mentioned that because especially TikTok, it had that, that image, especially in 2020 of just being that platform where people dance. But it goes beyond that now because we’re starting to see integrations with, Booking.com on TikTok and Expedia on Instagram. Like, there the conversation of is important is long gone. Now it’s, why are you not on this? It’s kind of almost weird and embarrassing if you’re not on social media. Like, what do you mean you’re not on social media? ’cause that is, and especially my, I’m older, gen Z, but as these new demographics start to have buying power, this is where we’re searching. Likeand it, and like you said, TikTok is now that age group of 30 to 50. Like those are the people with the most buying power. So what do you mean, like that it, and it’s hard to get people to see that sometimes because when they have that preconceived notion of what social media is, to try and get them to a point of believing in it is tough. But I mean, the proof is in the pudding. We can show them how important that is. So kind of in that same world, I mean we’re seeing a lot of influencers in hospitality now. And we actually, I did an exercise last week where I was searching, hotels and the most viral videos and most of them came from influencers. So where do you see the value with influencers in hotels and maybe where do you see that continue to go? Scott Eddy: The problem with the whole influencer space, and I hate that word so much. Just because influencers ruined, just like marketers ruin the term marketing. Influencers have ruined the term influencers. I mean, it’s just such a egotistical. Ridiculous word. It’s just such a saturated market. So much so that I don’t even work in South Florida and I rarely work in Florida. And if I can avoid it, I rarely work in the U.S. I’d much rather work overseas. South Florida, it’s like all the big cities are just saturated. So, I mean, of course in between all my trips I get offered to do a million free things and I’m like, bro, I’ve been building my brand for 17 years. Like I’m not in the intern stage right now. Like, I already built my brand. I don’t, I don’t need your $20 meal for Instagram posts. I appreciate it though. But I mean, most hotels, they still evaluate influencers completely wrong. They obsess over follower accounts instead of trust and audience alignment. I can’t tell you how many times, so if somebody doesn’t know me, they don’t follow me on LinkedIn or a lot of other platforms and they just look from the outside looking in and they just see a big audience. So the first thing they’re gonna say, okay, this guy’s an influencer. Which I don’t mind. I still being an influencer, I hate it. But doing that is still a lot of what I do. Because yes, I travel with a video guy. They’re get and a photographer, one of the top photographers in hospitality by the way. And they both arrive here on Friday and we’re going on a cruise. So I do travel with a video guy and we do long form storytelling. We do a lot of things and we do complete photo shoots and this and that, but they always want my distribution. So like, I would never run away from that because I have a very good audience. I’m deep in the wine world. I’m deep in the finance world. I mean, my audience spends, so I know creators with massive audiences that couldn’t drive a booking if their life depended on it. Meanwhile, smaller niche creators, which strong trusts absolutely crush it because their audience actually listens to them. Listen, it’s the micro influencers that are killing it right now. Their engagement rates are in the teens, people like me, people with over a million followers, generally if you have a anywhere from one to 3% engagement rate, you’re killing it. I get very high engagement. So I mean, I just figured it out two days ago because I’m launching a new website and new media kit and whatnot. I just did my media kit or my engagement rate on Instagram so far in 2026 and I’m at 6.5%. Oh, that’s awesome. I mean, that’s like top tier, right? For somebody in my space. But I mean, most macro, most big, I think they call ’em mega like over one, two, 3 million. You’re lucky if you get one to 2%, but the numbers still work out to somebody who has 20,000 who’s getting an 11% engagement rate. Things like that. So, I mean, hotels need to stop treating creators like vending machines. Here’s a free room now, make us viral. It’s not a strategy. I can’t tell you how many hotels tell me that they want to go viral if I can help them. And I, and I asked them, I’m like, what is getting going viral gonna do for you? And they can’t answer going viral 90% of the time, does nothing. My photographer that I traveled with, he did a hyperlapse video on a river cruise that we were on of like a locks opening up and closing. It was very cool. I think it got like 12 or 15 million. I’ve never even gotten those numbers. I mean, he’s still sitting, like, he didn’t gain a hundred thousand followers. He didn’t get 10,000 brands commenting oor wanting to work with him. Viral does nothing without a proper strategy attached to it. What I mean? So the, the problem is these brands, they don’t do the research. I can’t tell you how many times I get reached out to and they’re like, Hey, we want you to do this campaign. And I’m like, this is not even my niche. Oh, sorry. It was a copy and paste email. Well, no kidding. Of course. It was like, it just, listen, over the next few years, creators are gonna evolve into, and they already are full blown media companies, production, distribution, consulting, storytelling, community building, all of it. The creator economy, let me tell you, and I’d much rather call it that than influencer space. It’s becoming one of the most powerful engines in hospitality because the bigger AI gets, and listen, a lot of these companies will go to the wayside. But AI, the technology is here. The bigger AI gets, the more valuable humans are gonna be. Cassady Quintana: Absolutely. We, we say that all the time, especially because AI is gonna fuel the tech. But at the heart of hospitality is the people and it will always be the people. And you can’t replace that people to people emotion. And like you said earlier in this episode about how that’s what you remember the most right. Is how the staff made you feel. And AI will never be able to do that. So I’m glad you brought up AI because we are seeing that start to shape the traveler journey. Like I mentioned with the integrations with Expedia and Instagram and their AI agents that are building these itineraries. So where do you think AI and social media and hospitality are headed now and in probably the next couple of years? Scott Eddy: I honestly think that most of the hospitality industry still underestimates how massive this shift is. This is bigger than social media. This is big tech, bigger than mobile phones, bigger than websites. AI is fundamentally changing how humans make decisions, right? We’re moving from search behavior to recommendation behavior. And that changes everything. Your website is no longer the front door to your brain. AI is becoming the front door. Yeah. Travelers are increasingly asking ai what hotel fits their personality, what cruise line matches their lifestyle, where they should go for a specific emotional experience. Yeah. So now your digital footprint matters more than any more than ever. Consistency matters more than ever. The brands that survive this next era are gonna be the brands that feel the most human, have the clearest voice and create the strongest emotional connection online, generic corporate garbage. You’re done. Cassady Quintana: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, and we’re already in the middle of that. I feel like we know a lot of us, we don’t necessarily know how big AI is gonna be and where we’ll be this time next year. I mean, I bet in just a few weeks we could be having this conversation again and it would be something new. So course it’s definitely always changing and I recommend everyone that’s listening to this episode to follow you because this is the kind of stuff that you’re talking about and you’re following and it’s, it’s super important. Hotels are busy and a lot of the time they don’t have the time to do the research. So if they can find people like you to get that information from, it’s extremely helpful because it’s, it’s changing every single day. So if you can stay up to date and understand it and what’s going on and how you need to adjust your social strategy and your marketing strategy as a whole, you’re gonna be ahead of the pack. And so with that, thank you for all that awesome information. I kind of wanna shift gears to get to know you a little bit more Sure. With some rapid fire questions. So first thing that comes to mind that you can think of. So favorite hotel you’ve ever stayed in? Scott Eddy: I have a couple, but let’s say Kuda Duke in Maldives. Cassady Quintana: Alright. I love that. Scott Eddy: It’s insane. Insane. Cassady Quintana: Okay. And then what do you think is the most underrated destination right now? Scott Eddy: Right now? Sri Lanka. I lived in Colombo for a year. It’s seriously underrated. I think it’s, I mean, and it’s already bubbling, right? But I think it’s just gonna explode soon. Cassady Quintana: Is there a best time of year to visit there? Scott Eddy: Just like, you’re in Orlando, right? Cassady Quintana: Yeah, I’m in Orlando. Scott Eddy: So, so just like us, winter time is their high season just like Florida. Cassady Quintana: Okay. Noted. Perfect. Okay. Do you have any travel habits that you swear by? Scott Eddy: Yeah. I, and this is a life habit. I mean, just ’cause my whole life is travel, but I wake up super early every day and I’m up for the sunrise and I go for sunrise walks. If you ever follow, especially my Instagram stories, I’d post sunrise almost every day. I think there’s no better way to start the day. I think it’s impossible to have a bad day when you start the day like that. Cassady Quintana: Right. That’s why they recommend you get 10 minutes of sunlight every morning. Right. There’s, there’s something to that. So definitely everyone follows Scott’s Instagram so you can get that morning motivation for your walks. Okay. One hotel that is crushing social media right now, or one that you’ve seen recently that you loved? Scott Eddy: Wow. That is a great question. Wow. That’s a good question. <laugh>. You can, there’s a lot out there you can tell. I didn’t really go over your notes, <laugh>. Cassady Quintana: That’s okay. Scott Eddy: I never do. ’cause that’s like the, that’s when you get the raw answers? Cassady Quintana: Exactly. And then you overthink it. Scott Eddy: Let’s go back to that. Let me think about that for a couple minutes. Cassady Quintana: Okay, perfect. Well that was the last rapid fire question I had. So maybe people just need to follow you and find out later.. Scott Eddy: But let’s talk about brands as a whole. So like, I love, I love fun luxury and I guess they would call them luxury lifestyle or whatever, but I love the one hotels. Okay. All over. I really love, so if you really follow, I used to be, I used to do a lot of work with Ritz Carlton pre pandemic and now they’re just garbage. But horse, the guy who co-founded it started Capella. Capella Hotels is really cool, really fun. It’s just, I like brands that don’t take themselves too seriously. I mean, I hate the whole corporate stuffy stuff. And listen, I’m titanium bonvoy, like I stay in Marriott properties all over the world. Just so I can hit that status. Right. It’s easy because they’re large, they’re boring. The marketing is, I mean it’s, it’s so vanilla, it’s so beige. It’s so like, like it’s forgettable in 10 seconds. Never used to be, and it’s interesting. I remember when W first came out when they were Starwood. W was awesome. I mean fun, great, great, great. Like the marketing was like, just so off the chart and now they just look like any other hotel. Cassady Quintana: Which is so interesting. ’cause social media is like the place to be crazy and be fun because there are really no rules. And like why wouldn’t you be, especially if you were that at one time and your competitors are doing that. Why? I wanna, I wanna know like what the logic is behind that. Like are they trying to keep an image or? Scott Eddy: No? Well, well the ones that are that fly a big flag like Marriott and Hilton and that, they always hide behind, oh, well I can’t do that. ’cause of brain guidelines. Right? So you can’t show fun. Of course you can, right? They just hide behind the rule book and everything takes 15 approvals. So by the time you do have a good idea and you want to execute it, it’s gone. Cassady Quintana: It’s too late. The trend is over. Scott Eddy: It’s about speed. Cassady Quintana: Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I’ll definitely go check out those brand Instagram pages. ’cause that’s the kind of stuff I like to look at. I mean, that’s what makes me as a traveler, I don’t really have much brand loyalty. So I like to do research and look at their Instagram pages and social media, and I’m gonna pick the one that looks the most fun to me. So super important. Okay. Well as we wrap up, Scott, I’m so excited we had this conversation, but for anybody that’s listening, what are you up to next? Where can they find you? You have any campaigns or exciting things coming up? Scott Eddy: I mean, I’m pretty much, I mean, you’re all of this month I’m going, so the, the the top vacation club company and now they’re transforming into just hotels. Nice. But, it’s called Ante in Mexico. So they just launched their ultra luxury cruise line here in the med couple weeks ago. And we’re going out there to film and, and to shoot. That’s the cruise we’re joining on Saturday. And then I’m spending the last two weeks this month in Rome. And then next month I, I’m going to Ellie Miami the first week of June. And then I go to Sicily to speak at a conference. And yeah, so I’m going nonstop and at the same time I’m doing a whole rebrand. So in the next few days I’m launching new website, new logo, new everything. So it’s fun. Cassady Quintana: Well, perfect. By the time this episode comes out, you’ll have your full rebrand. Scott Eddy: There you go. Cassady Quintana: So when people listen to this and they find you, you’ll be ready. So, perfect. Well, I’m excited to, to watch your travels and of course I’m connected with you on LinkedIn and love to see everything that you’re up to. I’ll make sure to follow your Instagram too so I can get that morning inspiration for my Sunrise walks. But thank you so much for taking a little bit of your time out of your day. I know you’re super busy with travel and things going on, so I really appreciate it and I know our listeners do. So thanks for joining me. Scott Eddy: Thanks for having me, man. Cassady Quintana: All right, cool. Well, thank you everybody for listening to another episode of the Social Success Series, and we’ll see you next time. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast so you don’t miss an episode. The Social Success Podcast is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Cassady Quintana, and we hope you enjoyed this episode.

June 12, 2026

206 – NYU IHIF 2026: Key Takeaways

NYU IHIF 2026 was full of insights and thought leadership from some of the best and brightest hospitality professionals in the industry. In this episode of the Suite Spot, you will get to hear from some of the most influential and biggest names in hospitality in the exclusive interviews we were able to cover at the event. NYU IHIF is the epicentre of hospitality brands, capital, and fast-paced dealmaking – opportunity moves fast, and so should you. This is where the rebound takes shape, where leaders uncover what’s next, and where relationships turn into real transactions. <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nim6fXYuv3c?si=1FDnEKs_JdDY3MuE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree and VP of Marketing here at Travel Media Group. Cassady Quintana: And I’m Cassady Quintana, Brand Ambassador here at TMG. Ryan Embree: And today we are fresh back from NYU IHIF 2026. My second time in attending this incredible event. Cassady, your first, what were your thoughts? Cassady Quintana: Yeah, I thought overall was a great event. A lot of optimism, especially as we’re heading into the summer season. So I thought, you know, the conversations that we heard on the panels and the ones that we were having with people were awesome, and a lot of you know, good things coming out of that. I feel like the biggest topics that I heard, there were three major takeaways I took from a lot of the panels and people we were talking to, but one being that K-shape economy that we’ve heard a lot about, right? We know that luxury is still outperforming while economy segments are feeling a little bit more of that pressure especially as we head into this summer season and looking at some of those trends. And then I think one of the biggest topics we have been talking about since the beginning of this year is the World Cup and how international travel we thought was gonna be booming. We were expecting a lot of busy hotels, but it’s kind of been on the softer side, and we’ve actually seen international travel dip a bit. So I think right now we’re kind of in that wait and see period of maybe you know people are waiting to see if their teams make it out of the group stages and then they’ll plan on booking a hotel. So keeping an eye on kind of that last minute travel. But the biggest topic that we were talking about a little bit last year, but the biggest one this year is AI and how hotels are using that within their systems. You know, there’s a lot of trends around using that for more personalization and being able to use it to look at your, you know, revenue optimization and how you’re performing online. So finding ways that we can use AI that doesn’t take the hospitality out of hospitality and doesn’t replace that human element. But that kind of went with that overarching theme of the entire event, which was sharpening the edge. So the thing I took from that is that the hotels that are really gonna win are the ones that are understanding their guests and using AI to further that, to further get to know their guests, to make that experience a little bit better. Ryan Embree: You know, and we had some incredible conversations and interviews with some professionals that we’re gonna share here in a second. But just to kind of jump on what Cassidy’s saying, we’re at a really cool inflection point in our industry right now as we go gear towards the busy travel season. So it’ll be interesting to see, you know, we had the opportunity to meet with development person from Minor hotels who’s looking to bring their brand into US and Canada, which will be very interesting. We know how they have a huge global footprint, a lot of interest early on in getting into the Americas. Uh, we then visited with AHLA and Kevin Carey and his team doing such wonderful work over there advocacy for our industry and some really cool initiatives that we were able to sit down with Kevin for a few minutes and chat about, uh, Jan Freitag from STR our hotel Data North Star and compass. They just released a revised forecast for the hospitality industry. So we went over some major points of that revised forecast and finally we got the opportunity to sit down with president and CEO Best Western Larry Cuculic. What a wonderful conversation about the best Western brand and how they are implementing, um, some of that AI and technology into their brand, and capitalizing on not only the World Cup, but also America 250. So wonderful insights that you’re only gonna find here on the sweet spot. Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoy these exclusive interviews from NYU IHIF 2026. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Sweet Spot. We are live on location at NYU IHIF 2026 here with Genna, the VP of US and Canada Development for Minor Hotels. Genna, thank you so much for taking the time to stop and the busy big apple and talk with us today. Genna Panagopoulos: Thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: Excited about, this show. A lot of energy, a lot of buzz. You know, when you come to an NYU talking to ownerships, a lot of capital here, what are the conversation kind of stem around, and what does a successful NYU show look like as you head back to your home base? Sure. Genna Panagopoulos: Successful NYU would really be finding some deals, perpetuating some deals. So hopefully advancing some opportunities and it’s really all about for right now because we’re relatively new into the region. Educating our owners and the, the broader development community. So, you know, some of, some of the players do already know us, but in the luxury space, but there’s a lot of people we gotta get out in front of and introduce Minor hotels to. Ryan Embree: And this is a great place and, obviously a great city to do that in. What has been kind of the feedback? I mean, you’ve been tasked with this enormous job. We have such a great brand, worldwide, you’re bringing it here to us, Canada, and North America. What have been some of those initial conversations and hearing that and initial interest and feedback from owners? Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah, we’ve had a lot of feedback and interest on Anantara. So some of our, you know, established luxury brands that are pretty well known when you know the luxury hotel space in a global environment. Sure. So those owners have actually come to us saying, we’re really excited about the opportunities here. So that’s one piece. Of course we have NH Hotels, NH collection, and NH, which are very well known brands, especially in Mediterranean, Europe. Yeah. And, Central and South America. So there’s excitement around that too. Ryan Embree: Does it help, I mean, having such an international brand, we got the World Cup here, right? In a couple months. You kind of using that as maybe some momentum as you kind of come into, and introduce this brand into the Americas. Genna Panagopoulos: Absolutely. There’s a lot of, you know, I’m also educating Minor of the markets we wanna be in and so that’s definitely helping as well and putting some places on the map. Ryan Embree: And let’s talk about that because there’s been some announced projects already right here actually in New York. Talk about that project a little bit. Genna Panagopoulos: Yes. Thanks for asking too. We have a Worsely Hotel that’s opening, here next year. It’s gonna be super exciting because Worsely is a restaurant brand that we are taking into the hotel space. So it’s the first of its kind and nowhere better than to start in New York comes from London. So there’s a lot of correlation between the two markets. Ryan Embree: One of a kind hospitality venue and a one of a kind city, so. Exactly. But another project we’re really excited about just ’cause we’re home based, obviously in Orlando right down the road, a bright line away in Miami. Talk to us a little bit about that project and how that’s different. Yeah, Genna Panagopoulos: It’s a high rise building built in Miami. Hasn’t started construction yet, but it’ll open in 2030. It’ll be an Anantara hotel with branded residences, both private branded residences and, um, ones that will be able to be rented to hotel guests as well. Super wellness oriented. There’s gonna be a really extensive spa. Right. Very experiential. Wonderful for the residents that are gonna be buying, the residence. Ryan Embree: It’s incredible. It sounds like you guys are really taking care of all of the kind of popular travel trends right now. Right. FMB has really had this resurgence in hospitality with the project here. Wellness, obviously a huge piece of what hospitality is leaning into and what travelers are looking forward to. So having that flexibility between the brands too, I’m sure is a definitely a fun place to be when having these conversations with owners. But you talked about another project in Turks and Caicos. Genna Panagopoulos: Turks and Caicos. So we have an Anantara in Turks and Caicos that I believe will open in 2029. So in order we’ll have one in New York next year, and then 29 on Ontario trips and Caicos 2030, Miami. Ryan Embree: So no shortage of news on the Minor Hotel side. Congratulations to you and your team. Thank you. As you wrap up, I mean, what’s your vision? What’s your goal? As you bring Minor Hotels into the North American region? Genna Panagopoulos: Yeah. Well, if I think about next year at NYU, I hope people, more people are coming towards us. Excited about us being a different brand a different mindset. So we offer, we think of ourselves a little bit differently from the parent brands that are already established here because we have, you know, ownership still of most of our portfolio or we lease most of our portfolio. Um, so I hope there’s more inbound traffic coming towards my way. I hope people generally just walking down the street know us a little bit more. Certainly. You know, white Lotus helped us with Anantara, so there’s a lot of people who Oh, yes, are are diehard Anantara fans because of that. But that’s what I’m hoping for. And eventually we’d love to have an office here. So as long as we do our, our, our work, right, we, we get a strong pipeline, we’ll be able to have an office, a regional office in, in North America. Ryan Embree: Incredible. Well, super exciting. Can’t wait to catch up on all the exciting projects that you have at Minor Hotels. This is the first of a couple collaborations we’ll be doing with Minor hotels, so make sure you stay tuned. Congratulations again, Genna. And thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Genna Panagopoulos: Thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. We are live on location, New York City at NYU IHIF. I’m here with Kevin Carey, President and CEO of the AHLA Foundation and COO of AHLA. Kevin, not your first time on the Suite Spot. Appreciate you taking some time and joining me here today. Kevin Carey: It’s lways a pleasure to spend time with you. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it’s fun.Incredible event so far. NYU obviously AHLA, AHLA Foundation Forward has a huge presence here. What does, you know, when you come to the event like this, we always talk in hospitality, these events are always going to exist no matter what. Technology comes down the pike because hospitality, we’re people, right. We like connecting. What is a successful NYU IHIF look like for you and your team? Kevin Carey: Well, It’s always an important period of time in the year at, as we approach midyear to check in with our members, to have that conversation about the advocacy issues we’re leading on behalf of the industry to hear how the business performance is tracking as well. And just to build enthusiasm and engagement for the events and the initiatives that we’re leading, not only in the association, but with the foundation as well. Ryan Embree: And none more important than the No Room for Trafficking initiative that you and your team have done some fabulous work on. I mean, we have all sorts of brands up on stage, sometimes with differing opinions here and there, but one cause that everyone in our industry has really gotten behind, and it’s the work of you and your team, is this No Room for Rrafficking? We always like to spread awareness of this. Talk to us a little about, about on that front and the progress you’re seeing and making. Kevin Carey: Well, this is a longstanding commitment that the industry has to human trafficking prevention and awareness. It started in 2019 with the development of the No Room For Trafficking Initiative and its focus on training and expanded in 2022 to include the Survivor Fund. So this is an area where AHLA and the foundation specifically serves as a convening entity to bring the industry together to rally around this important issue to work, to build awareness that’ll drive prevention of human trafficking, and also to gather funds to help support survivors. So this is a commitment not only on a longstanding basis, but also on a going forward basis as well. Ryan Embree: And such inspiring stories that you’ve told over the years. And people, you know, hoteliers and other people listening to this can really get behind and encourage people to kinda look at that initiative. Another kind of initiative that you’ve done in these events that, when we’re talking about these events is forward. We had a record breaking attendance a couple months ago in the spring. Talk to us about how that is. And you actually have some of those the forward initiatives here at NYU. Kevin Carey: We do within the foundation, our mission is to advance the workforce of the industry. And we do that through a focus not only on the current workforce, those over 2 million associates and colleagues who deliver hospitality day to day, but also how do we attract the future workforce to the industry. I talked about being a convening entity. The foundation brings together the industry across all segments. And there’s two areas where we believe we can make a difference. One is around human trafficking that we just spoke about, but also around the forward initiative which is geared towards, and its purposes to advance women in the hospitality industry and in leadership roles in the hospitality industry. So we were delighted to host our most recent forward conference in Atlanta, back in April. And the results were outstanding but really the momentum and the impact that that forward is having is really, which has us so enthusiastic and committed to this initiative moving forward. Ryan Embree: Yeah, that’s gotta be so cool to see industry leaders in hospitality raise their hands and want to be a part of this movement and really see the results from that. Kevin Carey: Well, it’s grown from just being a conference, that started in 2018 and had about 150 people at the first event to now over 1100 attendees. But as it as it has expanded from a conference to a leadership development curriculum. And you mentioned the forward exchange, which took place, here in New York earlier today, where it brought together over a hundred early and mid stage career and professionals of women and some men who are participating along with their peers to focus on networking and building those relationships so they can be well suited and take on roles, over time in the industry. Ryan Embree: Really cool to see. And again, probably some incredible stories coming from that over the years as the as the initiative matures. One thing that, that hospitality in general, really looking forward to, we got big summer, right? We’re usually really excited about summer is just ’cause of the travel season, kids being outta school. But this summer in particular, we’ve been looking forward to for a couple years. We got World Cup on the horizon, finally. We played just a couple miles from here and in America 250. What are you kind of hearing from hoteliers and how are AHLA really, gearing up for these big events, showcasing our industry? Kevin Carey: Well, these are really defining opportunities, for the industry to support those guests to welcome that demand, to drive the hospitality infrastructure over time. So there’s a lot of enthusiasm around the potential that that represents and as we’ve seen on stage already today the results in the first part of the year for the industry have been positive. a number of the outlooks are increasing the Revpar and ADR and other industry metrics, here with the these large events we are still waiting to see some of the demand materialize and we’re in a critical period of time right now, about 10 days out before the games to see that hopefully what’ll be a late surge in bookings, then translate into further business success for the industry. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Hopefully, and hopefully see that international travel continue to come back to North America, you know, a lot of hoteliers, hoping for that. Zooming in a little bit on a AHLA summertime, also time for interns, right. Come in and we’ve talked about this before. I mean, internships, mentorship in hospitality. So critical. I mean, throughout the years we’ve had these staffing shortages and we’ve talked about getting creative, our industry, getting creative on ways to fill those roles, internships being one of them. Talk about a little bit about the AHLA internship program and what these interns are are ready for this summer. Kevin Carey: Well, it’s not new. We’ve had a well established program from a number of years now. And, and we’re excited annually to bring a number of interns into our team across each function. we’ll have an interns in the government affairs team, in marketing, in the foundation. it’s so refreshing to engage them in our work to see their enthusiasm about their future to see them pick up valuable skills and experience of being in an office environment, learning more. And you know what? They, they have a real impact. They have some fun along the way as well and we have a wonderful session at the end where they get to present the results of some of the work in the initiatives that they’ve been working on. So it’s an annual opportunity that we look very forward to. And they’ll be starting just in about a week’s time. so it’ll be a great another repeatevent for us. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Love to see it. You know, again, any way that we can have more exposure to all sides of hospitality. Beause as we know, it’s not just, you know, the front desk. There’s so many elements to it and there’s none more demonstrated by how big our hospitality industry is than by the hospitality show that you put on. And this year is gonna be right in our backyard. In Miami, Florida. Get us a little bit excited about what we can expect at this year’s fourth annual. This is our fourth Hospitality Show, correct? Kevin Carey: So we started in Vegas, went to San Antonio, we’re in Denver last year. A lot of enthusiasm coming out of Denver for the content. And then what’s unique about the hospitality show is it’s really the only conference in the industry with a focus on operations and how operations is driving profitability. So there’s a terrific enthusiasm and people are looking forward to being in Miami, coming together in Q4, all segments of the industry represented. So we’ll have the brands we’ll have management companies, owners, service providers, suppliers, independent hotels also play an important role in the industry. So we’re about to open registration and that’ll really kickstart, the focus on November 2-4 in Miami. Ryan Embree: Well we’re looking forward to it. We’re hoping to go 4/4 on covering the hospitality show. Especially with it being right there in our backyard. Kevin, we know you’re busy. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today on some of these important initiatives. And hopefully we’ll see you in Miami in just a few months. Kevin Carey: Hopefully I have something else on. Ryan Embree: Alright. Appreciate it. Thanks. Kevin Carey: Thank you so much. Ryan Embree: Hello everyone. Ryan Embree. here live at NYU IHIF 2026 here with Jan the National Director of Hospitality Analytics at CoStar. Jan, you were just on a panel. Thanks for taking the time to jump off and speak with us. Jan Freitag: Absolutely. Ryan Embree: State of the state, love the name obviously you’re the north star of hospitality data out there. Jan, revised forecasts just came out. Talk to us a little bit about those points that you were sharing with the audience today. Jan Freitag: So we’re suggesting that RevPAR this year is gonna grow 2.8%, which is very different from the way we looked at the world at the ALIS Hotel Investment Conference. First quarter performance was much more stronger than we had expected than the public traded companies had expected the brands or the …. And a lot of them have revised their year end forecast up. So, you know, we followed suit. Now they, most of them just revised their forecast by the outperformance of Q1. But we’re suggesting No, no, there’s momentum. So we actually took our forecast up by a lot more to 2.8%, 2% driven by ADR and 0.8 by occupancy, which is really good to see. ’cause it implies that demand is outpacing supply. You know, so we get occupancy gains and then some pricing power. Ryan Embree: Love to see that. I mean we were here a year ago with Amanda who is talking about trying to decipher through the noise, a lot of noise right now. But great to see the momentum with those revisions and so important to have those revisions because the landscape can change ever so rapidly as you know. But talking about the supply, talk to us a little bit, go into a little bit more in depth and then obviously every market is different. What markets right now are running a little bit hot on supply? Jan Freitag: Yeah, so fational forecast for Supply goes to 0.4%, not a whole lot. Right. The long run average is 1.6, so we’re well below that. The number of rooms in construction used to be between, we know, 150,000 – 160,000. It’s now 140,000. So it’s sort of staying there. It’s just so expensive to get anything done. And interest rates are still high and could go higher. Who knows, we’re not making interest rate forecast. But you know, there’s definitely no longer this idea of how we should cut, you know, interest rates twice this year or so. I think those days are gone, you know, and so now the question is, okay, so where are people getting things done? And you can look at it by markets. So a couple of them are usual suspects. So Nashville, very strong, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Phoenix. So those are markets sort of in the smile states, sort of in the Sunbelt that still get a lot of people moving there. And you know, migration determines the economic performance. And so we’re seeing a lot more room supply growth there, but there’re just a lot of markets where it’s very, very hard to get anything done because of that higher cost of construction and of the higher interest rate. So I would single out those markets, but overall the picture is rather muted. On the supply side. So what that means then, for existing owners is the time to renovate is right now percent. Because you want to be the new kid on the block with the new hotel, there’s not a lot of new competition coming. This is time to renovate and really put your best foot forward. Ryan Embree: A hundred percent. And you know, one of the other topics we talked about, or you talked about rather on stage was segments right now luxury, doing very, very well leading the way. Obviously a lot of bifurcation, that K-shaped economy. What are you seeing across the segments right now? Jan Freitag: Yeah, I mean there are no wrong answers in luxury, right? I mean, luxury last year was the winner. This year is the winner. We’re projecting, very healthy RevPAR growth double of what we’re saying for the nation. We think the luxury class can materialize. And then what’s really nice to see is that for upscale upper midscale midscale, there’s also RevPAR growth there, which we hadn’t seen last year. And to me that speaks to the strength really of the American economy. But it sort of permeates toward all income classes. Now the exception is was and unfortunately will be likely the economy sector now even there we’re suggesting RevPAR’s growing, but it’s just, you know, 0.8% call that flat for all intent and purposes. Ryan Embree: International travel too, obviously World Cup on the heels of this. What are you see any interesting data points there you wanna share just right ahead of the America 250 and World Cup? Jan Freitag: There are two very different vibes coming from the panel that I was on. Adam Sacks prior to US presenting was talking about, oh wow, international inbound is really still quite a bit lower than it was in 2019. But the gentleman from the NTTO, the National Travel Tourism Organization was like, no, we’re projecting rock and roll, really strong growth of international inbound. The truth is probably gonna somewhere in the tween this year. World Cup is gonna drive a lot of international travelers. What I’m wondering about though is are some of those travelers basically stealing from 2025 and from 2027 and now they’re saying, oh, let’s not go in 25, let’s go in 26. And then when next year comes around, they’re like, we just went to the us you know, and not go in 27 either. So I just hope that the more positive spin from the government comes true and this and, and not that we’re just sort of packing everything into this year and then international inbound is gonna deteriorate. Ryan Embree: So many interesting data points. Anyone in particular you have your eyes on where, you know, obviously we love a nice rosy outlook and try to look for opportunities through all of the data that’s out there, but anyone’s that are like unexpected data points or something that you’re at least keeping an eye on right now? Jan Freitag: Yeah, so there are a couple, but the one that I’m really focused on is consumer price index. Everything is getting more expensive and so that means that hotels will see their cost increase. And the big question then is how much of that cost increase can they pass on to the customer? And I just told you that our ADR forecast for this year is 2% and inflation is gonna be what, 3.5 or something? I mean, it’s gonna be much more than that outpacing that. So that’s really the crux and I think that’s what we here at NYU, to talk to owners and investors and management companies have figure out, okay, so how can we keep our margins expanding even maybe how do you do that in this environment where top line growth may be not keeping pace with with inflation. So the CPI number is really something I’m keeping an eye on. Ryan Embree: Yeah, pretty challenging time right now. when it comes to margins and hospitality that we, again, trying to suss out and figure out here, what are those maybe opportunistic data points that you’re seeing that you’re saying this, this is really good, maybe unexpected on the other end of the spectrum? Jan Freitag: Yeah, I think the Americans are wealthier than they ever have been. And Adam Sachs has this fascinating data point where he shows at the emerge that the middle class in America is shrinking, but part of it is because a lot more people are rich. So people are moving up the income chain and that allows ’em then to spend more money on experiences, very clear that people favor experiences over goods. And we are right in that Suite Spot. Ryan Embree: That continues to be the experience over stuff. We love to see that. And then you’re kind of here celebrating an anniversary/birthday of your podcast, is it? You know you’re, you’re usually, typically used to be in the host, not so much the guests, so thank you. Tell us a little bit more and maybe where our hotel audience can find the insights that you provide. Jan Freitag: Yeah, and thank you for having me. So we have our own podcast. My colleague Isaac Collazo from STR and myself get together once a month. It’s called Tell Me More, A Hospitality Data podcast. And three years ago at juniors across the street over cheesecake, we sort of hatched the idea. And so now we’re, I don’t know, like, you know, almost 30 episodes into it. And we get together once a month and we just sort of riff on the data and hopefully you can join us. Ryan Embree: I love it. That’s awesome. Well, Jan, thank you so much. Very busy time. Appreciate you stopping by and talking to us. Jan Freitag: My pleasure. Thank you so much. Ryan Embree: Alright. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot. We are live at NYU IHIF 2026 here with Larry Cuculic, President and CEO of BWH Hotels. Larry, thank you so much for taking time outta your busy schedule to join us here on the Suite Spot. Larry Cuculic: It’s my absolute pleasure. Thank you for the invitation and for allowing me to share some thoughts with regard to the success and BWH hotels. Ryan Embree: Yeah. We’ve got a lot to cover cause you’ve got a lot going on right now. But let’s start with this event, right? NYU IHIF, lot of major brands here what does a successful NYU look like for you and your team? Larry Cuculic: To us, a successful NYU is interacting with developers and investors such that they’re aware of what BWH has become. We’re now 18 brands, over 4,000 hotels in over a hundred countries and territories from premium economy up to luxury hotels. We acquired world hotels about six years ago. And so it really is continuing to educate about the possibilities of their associating with BWH hotels because we would be singularly focused on their success if they partner with us. And you’re also in a powerhouse panel tomorrow, the Executive Exchange Hospitality Performance Strategies for Success give our audience a little bit a sneak peek of what you’re gonna be talking about on stage. Larry Cuculic: Well, we’re gonna be talking about of course, the economy near term as well as long term projections for what that looks like. we’ll be talking about the importance of loyalty programs. We’ll be talking about the impact of really the economy and things like labor insurance and how we as brands need to focus on the success of our hotels by offering them programs to really offset that impact on net RevPAR. Ryan Embree: And I’m sure one of the subjects and topics that we brought up on your panel, certainly something we talk about these hospitality events is, AI and technology. And we had the privilege of having SVP and your CTO Bill Ryan on at the Hospitality Show a couple months in October, gave us a little bit of lay of the land when it came to AI and technology. How do you feel personally that this technology is really changing the way that travelers choose hotels, but also how they have their hotel experience, their guest experience? Larry Cuculic: Sure. So the first thing we’re doing is we’re reinvesting in our .com as well as our app. And we want them to be easy to use intuitive, but we also wanna make sure they have content that convinces guests when they’re shopping that our hotels will provide them kind of that customization and personalization. ’cause it’s not about a commodity, a hotel room, it’s about all those things that we can offer. By way of example we’re partnering with an AI agency to kind of harvest content with regard to where our hotels are located in those communities. At the same time, we’ll take that harvested content and we’ll filter it through our hoteliers who live in those communities and create the content that will be the AI answer when somebody’s looking for a place to stay. And they’ll know that we want them to have the best possible time while we’re in that community, not just staying with us as a hotel, that we recognize that people don’t want just to stay, they want really a journey. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Something that we aspire in hospitality to provide that not just a hotel stay, but an experience. And we talked to Joelle Park about the power of storytelling and how that can play a component in one of the best stories, obviously that you just had a really exciting announcement with is America 250 and the story of this great nation. So talk to us a little bit about that partnership and what BWH Hotels is doing with America 250. Larry Cuculic: Well, we are a sponsor of America 250, and we’re encouraging our hoteliers to embrace the 250th anniversary of the birth of our nation. And part of that is not just USA 250, we also have the 100th anniversary of Route 66. We have hotels that have been with us, believe it or not, we have a hotel that’s been with us 75 years. And it speaks to the heritage of our brand. So we’ll be leaning into the history of this great country. At the same time we’ll be leaning into the history of our great brand and encouraging people to travel and see the United States and all that it has to offer no matter where you go. And the beauty of our hotels we have 2200 of them in North America and wherever they’re going to go, we want them to know that we have a hotel that will meet their travel leads such that they can experience really the 250th anniversary of USA. Ryan Embree: Yeah. It’s a really exciting partnership right in at an inflection point with the World Cup as well. So introducing maybe some international travel also to the brand and the nation. You know, you’re a great following on LinkedIn. I encourage our audience, if you haven’t, make sure you follow Larry, but one of the things you’re reflecting on your North American regional conferences that you’ve done up to this point in 2026 and you quoted to say that you want BWH hotels to become the most welcoming brand in the world. What does that mean to you and how is your team working to achieve that? Larry Cuculic: Well, welcoming means that we’re gracious hosts, but it also means that we’re, I’ll call it easy to do business with understanding, being flexible and recognizing that we are somebody you’d want to be partners with. Whenever anyone walks into a hotel we should tell them, you know, welcome, we’re glad you’re here by way of example. But I used to think of it that way in terms of being gracious host and everything that happens at the hotel, but when I think of welcoming, I also want to think about our new.com and app. Again, it’s that ease of use and personalization so that when you go there, we know it’s you and we want to help you make good decisions with regard to travel. So welcoming is about ease of.com, the app we’re redoing our loyalty program. I think Joel probably talked to you about that. And we want the loyalty program to be welcoming as well. Well, what does that mean? Well, that means that when you interact with us, you’ll know how many points you have. You’ll know they never expire. You’ll know that you can use them to buy down the price of a room at any point. That you don’t have to, to have as many points for a full stay to leverage those points. It’s a value of the program. And of course welcoming. I always lean into the importance of being not just a gracious host, but somebody that appreciates our guests. To me, that’s welcoming because you have to recognize that people, they’re traveling with their families, it’s something that you wanna leave a terrific impression on them and their family. And you also want them to know that we appreciate that they’ve spent their hard-earned money staying with us. To me, that’s being appreciative gracious hosts. And that’s part of the welcoming. It’s not, the welcoming doesn’t just happen when they enter. Welcoming has to be entire stay. Ryan Embree: So key. And the brands that kind of make that connection with their travelers, especially in a time where, I mean, we just talked about in this interview AI technology, there’s way more places become disconnected, to find that connection, that human to human connection. Very important right now. So as we wrap up the interview, obviously at these events we’re always, whether it’s the hospitality data we’re looking into, whether it’s a conversation, we’re always trying to take a glimpse into the future, trying to predict that future. Larry what do you see, what’s your vision for the future of BWH Hotels. Larry Cuculic: People will always wanna travel. And for us, if we can become that welcoming brand that appreciates our guests, we will build that loyalty. When we build that loyalty, that program will grow. Our revenue delivery brand direct will grow which is the lowest cost for us in terms of that reservation for our hoteliers but what I think I would also offer to you is we’re also very focused on thoughtful growth. And what that means is if you grow your loyalty program, you also wanna make sure you have hotels that are in locations where guests want to go. Be it London, be it Rome, be it Frankfurt, be it Bangkok, no matter where it is around the world. And so, you know, we have a, a focus goal of 5,000 hotels, which means we will grow thoughtfully, but with our guests in mind. And because when we have a hotel join us, our sole focus is the success of that hotel as well as having a quality hotel where guests want to go. Ryan Embree: That’s awesome. Well, we wish you nothing but success. Hopefully maybe can join the Suite Spot when that 5,000 hotel opens and we can celebrate that together. But in the meantime, thank you, Larry, for taking the time out of your day to join us here on the Suite spot. Larry Cuculic: Well, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Very much appreciate it. Speaker 2: To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

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