

12 Aug 2026 · 37m · 15 chapters

Hospitality industry updates plus a viral luxury-hotel controversy.
Sarah (co-host; runs/works in hospitality management; discusses AI/PMS integrations and responding to guest reviews) and Steve (co-host; discusses travel/tech tools and hospitality operations; mentions using Google/Slack/Notion/AI briefings).
IHG is not cutting owner fees like rivals; it argues its technology and PMS will improve owner economics via marketing, training, and property-level savings. Google is adding agentic AI to Maps/Hotel Search for natural-language trip planning with live availability/pricing and personalized recommendations, but hotels must keep listings/reviews accurate. Controversy: Aman allegedly threatened to call police on creator Brian (Ryan) Walker after a luxury hotel opening in Mexico; despite prior emails and a confirmed booking, staff said his reservation was missing and security demanded he leave.
IHG tech rollout (4,000 hotels on new PMS; “150 million pricing calculations/day” for 160M loyalty members); Google examples include “best hotel in Miami Beach under $650” returning Standard Spa Miami Beach, Carillon, and Miami Beach Edition; “Whose brand is it anyway?” reveals “Vibe by Best Western.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes.
Discussion about the challenges and joys of being a new puppy owner.
“No, I wasn't trying to draw attention so people can stalk you.”
Hosts transition from personal stories to the sponsor read.
“This episode is brought to you by StayFi.”
Exploration of IHG's approach to owner economics amidst industry changes.
“While rivals have been cutting fees, IHG is taking a different route on owner economics.”
Discussion on Google's new AI features for travel and hotel searches.
“Well, why don't we go into our next topic, if you were okay with that.”
Learn how responding to TripAdvisor reviews is crucial for hospitality businesses.
“month, whatever your TripAdvisor score was and where you were ranked in TripAdvisor for the city?”
Discover how Google is changing the way travelers search and book accommodations.
“So, I mean, it, in this time where everybody is fighting for a piece of the pie of where can they keep those travelers that are looking for inspiration and looking to book.”
Get insights into the controversial incident involving Aman and a content creator.
“So I feel like everybody is probably aware of this in one way or another.”
Explore the details of the creator's experience with Aman and the surrounding issues.
“But he does very detailed reviews of luxury hotels, yachts, restaurants.”
Discuss the impact of criticism from reviewers on hospitality businesses.
“Yeah, it was not handled well by the hotel side.”
Learn about the importance of positivity and constructive feedback in hotel reviews.
“where you're putting yourself out there.”
Explore how hotel reviews and influencer content affect brand perception.
“It's not to be disrespectful to those individuals, but I have a real hard time when I see, across all platforms.”
The hosts introduce a fun segment guessing the parent brand of a sub-brand.
“Why don't we go to your favorite segment, sir?”
Participate in the guessing game and learn about brand connections.
“Let's see which sub-brand are we guessing today.”
Discussion about Best Western's new urban boutique hotel concept.
“I don't have much information on it, but it looks to be a nice.”
The hosts discuss current trends and overused phrases in the hospitality industry.
“Lou saying the new word is vibey for all fun things.”

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.
On Good Morning Hospitality, what are the key points of this episode?
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.
0:25Good morning. Good morning, Sarah. How are we doing today?
0:31Sarah Dandashy: Doing all right. How are you? I love it when you have like a little bit of a different background. Yeah, we got the Miami background. That's the Paramount building. I live right next to it in the Edgewater neighborhood, everyone. So if you want to come stalk, I'm right over here. Oh, my gosh. No, I wasn't trying to draw attention so people can stalk you. The home background today, not in the office. One, they're doing construction again in the office. They're trying to, they're building a podcast studio. So we'll see how it actually looks over there. So maybe I could use that. But I also got, we got the puppy here.
1:03Ryder the puppy is sleeping in his crate. He's on nap time and he may wake up during the show. I don't know. We'll have to see what happens on this live show.
1:09Sarah Dandashy: We'll see if he starts howling. Oh my God. Let me know. Oh my goodness. So you have been a proud puppy owner for how many days now? It is going on to day five right now. Woo! Very successfully, I'd like to say. I think part of the hospitality training, also uh parent training has got me ready for this it's like having a toddler yeah people are like ah you know it's different no it's about the same keep them on a schedule gotta feed them at the same time put them in that time we get it going and i'm carrying him around in a puppy satchel if people see me in miami because he doesn't have his shots yet i'm just carrying him around a little satchel around town i know you got your little puppy puppy purse yes my puppy purse or just like in uh the movie the hangover my satchel like indiana jones yeah your satchel your satchel okay but it's been fun i've been fun having adding a dog to the world haven't had one since uh my mid-20s so it's good to add it this time i that's very fun and so i'm trying to think he might need his own instagram i don't know we got to get him to the hotels we got to figure that out so i'm gonna have to ask you for some help and how you became such a big star.
2:22I got to figure that out for this dog. This mother fluffer.
2:26Sarah Dandashy: Oh, mother fluffer. Oh my goodness. This is exciting. Yes. I'm very excited to have the dog. But what about you? You were having some fun. It looks like, were you out and about? Oh yeah. What did I do? I don't know. What have I done? You were with some very cool people. Oh, you mean last night I was with some friends from Miami actually. I know. So it's a big travel week in Las Vegas. It's virtuoso travel week. But this is not the reason why these individuals are in town. But yeah. So Andrea's here, our good friend Andrea from the Tourism Lab and some others. And so it was great. We ended up getting together for dinner last evening, which was fun.
3:14Sarah Dandashy: Oh my God. That's right, Paul. I think I'm going to make this a podcast about pets and hotels. And I'm going to be one of those guys are like how pet friendly is this hotel what do we get do they think of everything do they think of the dog bowl bowl do they think of a proper bed yeah i mean i definitely overspent on mine i went a little crazy so if you can't see it i have a yeti bed and a yeti dog balls for this dog did you just not know any better or were you oh just like i'm gonna lay around i want to see something cool and Okay, okay, okay. Okay, all right, all right. That's fair. That's totally fair.
3:50Sarah Dandashy: Oh, my goodness. All right, enough coffee talk. Let me get my last sip. You want to talk coffee talk? It's puppy talk. Puppy talk. That's what that is. But listen, Sarah, honestly. Yes. About this. This episode is brought to you by StayFi. Okay? StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded Wi-Fi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools that turn one-time bookers, what do they do? Into repeat guests, Sarah. So start growing your direct booking revenue today at stayfi.com backslash goodmorninghospitality. That's stayfi.com backslash goodmorninghospitality.
4:29It's a pro transition. I don't know if you've seen that.
4:32Sarah Dandashy: That was fantastic. Fantastic, my goodness. Ad king, I'll take it. if anybody if anybody wants to have any bedtime stories read to them steve is available i listen i'm ready to do it sarah wants me to do if she has her favorite book she wants me to read i got it no oh my gosh i can't uh anyway well with that why don't we go ahead and get into um our first topic here this is kind of interesting it's actually kind of um uh going on from our topic from last week for IHG. While rivals have been cutting fees, IHG is taking a different route on owner economics. So we talked last week about Marriott launching a rebate program, Hilton also cutting fees across seven brands last week, but IHG is basically taking a different approach.
5:27Sarah Dandashy: So rather than reducing what it charges, IHG is arguing that it's technology, basically the technology that they have is actually the real answer to owner economics. So I kind of appreciate this approach. They're saying they're better to save man. The money you're giving us, we're actually investing. And how are we investing it? We're putting it into social media. We're putting it into marketing. We're putting it into training. We're putting it into these programs that help save you money at the property level so you don't have to hire them. And I like that kind of idea where they're saying, hey, we're here to support you.
6:04This is where your money is going. And it's also a way for them not to cut those fees and show them, hey, we're actually creating value for you. Yeah. So I'm curious to see which one goes where I'm just cutting fees because sometimes I see that it's almost like a race to the bottom. It's, you know, like, all right, and keep cutting fee, cutting fee, cutting fees. So Marriott does it, Hilton does it, Hyatt does it. But I was just saying, no, no, no, we're not going to cut. We're going to show all the value we're creating for you. Totally.
6:30Sarah Dandashy: Well, and then that's where the challenge is. I mean, I love that you brought brought that up is, I mean, basically the challenge with that is that for owners that need that sort of like financial relief. Now, this might be a nice thing to like nice talk, but they're like, we need relief now. We're not necessarily looking for relief in two years, three years. So that, that is a challenge, but I do, that being said, I do love that there is that longer term approach that IHG has, because obviously this better technology is really going to save the owners more money and generate more revenue over time, which is the greater goal.
7:03Sarah Dandashy: So for those that are having that longer view and approach, I think it's kind of great. Also, what's been interesting is that IHE has been more selective in adding hotels. And so, and it's because it's, again, it's very strategic, not to say that adding more is not strategic, but for them, they want to make sure that it really is the right property and it adds value. And it's with every new property that they're actually increasing profits as opposed to just making the company look bigger just because they have more rooms. So it's very specific. I'm a fan of IHG and they're growing in areas that we mean like specifically.
7:45We always think like Intercontinental and Six Senses and some of the high-end brands, but they have holiday inns and that's where they're seeing a lot of growth too. But one thing I'm curious to see is that they're rolling out their new PMS. So by the end of the year, they're saying 4 ,000 hotels should have their new PMS in place that they built from the ground up, adding all this technology. And so they're running, they said 150 million pricing calculations a day using that software and personalization tools for 160 million loyalty members that are all designed to make the individual hotel more profitable.
8:15So not just a system. And I can tell you, I think that's going to speed up. Like we've just started doing that in my little management company where we're connecting everything into AI so we can see, you know, we use Slack to communicate. We have different tools that tell us what's going on in our rooms. We have our PMS. We have our internal SOPs and we connected everything. So it's giving us real time solutions based off of what's happening in the day, using our SOPs and personalizing it for the guest conversation. So it's wild to see how powerful this can be in just my little company. So I'm excited to see what happens when you plug this into 160 million people or the 300 million that Marriott has or the China H world that has, you know, the four or 500 million.
8:55So it's going to be incredible to see what these tools can do as technology gets faster and faster.
9:01Sarah Dandashy: Totally. And I'll do a quick shout out to an IHG property because I was just in New York for a bit of time and I stayed twice. I stayed two weekends in a row at the Kimpton Era Hotel. It was great. It was a brand new hotel. They opened in March and it's right across from Rockefeller Center. fantastic property. And they, you know, I don't have, I mean, I don't have a huge number of points or nights with IHG, but I really enjoyed staying there and I thought that they just, they really delivered. To the point that I was like, oh, because I'm going back to New York, not this weekend, but the following weekend, I'm like, oh, should I do that?
9:42Sarah Dandashy: Like, again? You know? Or try another one of the properties? Because I really, really I'm a big fan of Kempton. I mean, they've just, they've obviously done a great, I haven't met a Kempton I didn't like. Let's just put it like that. Yeah, one of my faves is right here on Miami Beach, the Kempton Surf Comber. So shout out to their gentleman, Mohan Koka. He does a great job. They're a fantastic property. They do a great job. A lot of Kempton love here today. Yeah, Kempton, IHG, all the love. Well, why don't we go into our next topic, if you were okay with that. I was going to try and play around with this before.
10:18Sarah Dandashy: Thank you. Oh, my gosh. So Google is bringing agentic AI to Maps and Hotel Search. So Google basically is launching agentic AI capabilities inside Google Maps and Hotel Search. So allowing travelers to basically describe a trip in natural language and then receive end-to-end planning assistance, including hotel recommendations with, I love this, live availability and pricing. Also things to do, navigation, all of that within a single conversation interface. So did you play around with this already? I did. You have to do a little search for it. So if you have the Google Maps app on your phone, there's a little button at the top that says AI question or AI if you see it when you get in there.
10:59I asked the exact question that the article asked, and it showed me a couple of great properties. And then I got even a little further into it. I said, you know what? I don't want to stay there. I want to stay at the best hotel in all of Miami and Miami Beach. And I was curious to see what it would serve up. If it was just one answer, if it would give a lot. And I kind of gave it my general area that I was staying in. And they gave up four hotels.
11:22Sarah Dandashy: Number one, Fauna. Number two, the Four Seasons Surf Club. Number three, the Satay. And then number four, I forgot what they had mentioned. but i was like all right it knows it's reading guest reviews so it shows you i'm reading guest reviews i'm reading sentiment i'm looking for the star ratings and then where is it on the google maps you have to do on your app on your phone oh so i'm on my desktop i can't do it i don't know i didn't try it so i don't want to get us in any kind of trouble with google uh but if you go to your google app let's see if i can show there's an ask maps button right at the top oh there you go So ask maps.
11:55Sarah Dandashy: There you go, guys. And then you can ask them what you want to ask them. And it pulls up. So best hotel in Miami beach for under, I don't know,$650. I love a great spot. Let's see what it does again for the great spot. And we hit search and then it starts thinking, let's see what it does here, everybody. Let's see what it pulls up for us. And it goes through. What did it pull up here? the elite wellness hydrotherapy sanctuary at the standard spa, Miami beach. So, all right. I said, I wanted a spa, good value under$650. It gave me the standards. Then it gave me, you know, one of my favorites, the carillon right underneath.
12:41Sarah Dandashy: Yep. And what is that? Great property, by the way. Backwards for me. Look at this. Oh, no boo. My old hotel. Yeah. Let's have a great spa. So, and then fine under that. And then Miami beach edition. So it gave us some rankings. It shows it on the map, shows you the guest reviews. So I like it, but it's hard to find. That's the one thing you just said, like, where do you find it? Yeah, well, I will say this because I just happen to be on my computer. But there was something on my computer that also ties into this. I could easily find, when I toggled on the left side, your preferences. And that actually ties into this, is that what's great is that basically it's learning your preferences over time.
13:20Sarah Dandashy: So they will actually prioritize hotels that match what you generally prefer, which is great that they're doing. And so, yeah, but why this is also important for hotels is that you need to make sure that your information is up to date. Because if anything that you have about your property is outdated or incomplete, the AI platform that they will have on Google Maps may actually overlook it entirely. So again, another reminder. Your reviews are big. So just to go back to where we were, you know, I hate to age us, but when TripAdvisor was the big thing and you have to have a good TripAdvisor score or you were going to fall apart.
13:59Would you ever have that in your hotels where it was like, that was the main focus of the month, whatever your TripAdvisor score was and where you were ranked in TripAdvisor for the city?
14:07Sarah Dandashy: I had to respond to the TripAdvisor reviews, which is not exactly part of what a concierge normally does. but I was told that I write good. So I, uh, would, well, you write good. You should answer these messages. Thanks for picking up when I was laying down there. Uh, but yeah, so I just remember being like, why am I responding anyway? But yeah, but it's so, it's so definitely super important when it, when it comes to that. Uh, and you know, it's interesting because I don't know how many people already go to like Google flights or are just already looking at, at booking their travel through Google.
14:47Sarah Dandashy: I feel like a lot of people, a lot of, depending on how you search and how you like to look for places and inspiration of places to stay. Um, the point is, is that this will probably increase more users booking and searching through Google. So, I mean, it, in this time where everybody is fighting for a piece of the pie of where can they keep those travelers that are looking for inspiration and looking to book. I mean, this is a really big move for Google, for sure. No, it's huge. They want to control it, right? There's so many players out there. But I think they're in a great shape. If you have Gmail, I don't know what you use, but I use Gmail and the Google Calendar and Google Drive.
15:31Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. It starts to learn everything about you. And so soon I can really see it and say, hey, we're recommending we see you're traveling to this conference. Here's the flight and hotel. I think it's going to get to that point. Whether this year or early next year, it's already seeing it in my world where I've asked for every day to get a daily briefing of what's in my email and my Slack channels and Notion and all these places, and it gives it to me every single morning. Like, here's what's important. Here's what you need to work on.
15:57Sarah Dandashy: Are you talking about with chat? Myself, yeah. I'm just saying. So because of our conversation a couple days ago, I linked all, not all, but I linked a bunch of extra, extra things and it has been very useful. So thank you for, I'm publicly thanking you for that. I'm happy to educate and coach you along anytime, Sarah. And if any listener wants to see how I do it and how you could operate, let me know. I'm happy to answer any questions because it really has saved me hours a day. It is super, it's super helpful. Well, before we go on, I'm going to take this over here. Let's see everyone. So before we move on, we're going to do a quick shout out to our sponsor, Built.
16:38Sarah Dandashy: They are helping restaurants and hotel F &B teams better understand their guests and create more personalized experiences that drive repeat visits. So if you care about loyalty and guest experience, it's worth checking out. Head to joinbuilt.com backslash gmh. That's joinbuilt.com backslash gmh. Thank you, guys, Built. So there you go. Maybe my little bedtime reading stories. I think we created our own app. You can choose Sarah or Steve to read you a bedtime story. Yeah, right. Totally. Totally great. All right. This is a good one. This is a hot topic. So I feel like everybody is probably aware of this in one way or another.
17:15Sarah Dandashy: If you have been living on social media. Wow. Our good. Aman. Aman threatened to call the police on a creator and the industry should be paying attention. So quick backstory. Do you want to actually do the quick. backstory on this? Yes, I'll do this one. So we've got a creator, Brian Walker. He's a YouTuber, you know, a personal brand expert. Hasn't worked in hotels or hospitality before, according to his background and bio. But he does very detailed reviews of luxury hotels, yachts, restaurants. Some are good and some are well-balanced. Others are scathing. um and so that's the background of who we have here uh aman opened up their newest hotel um what was the name of this one sarah you gotta help me i'm on uh i'm in vari yeah so brand new hotel he booked it he pays he booked it for six thousand a night so big number yeah um in advance said hey i want to come and film and they sent him an email saying hey they'll help him get everything set up for him.
18:25I'm sure he was talking to the marketing department, got everything taken care of. And then upon arrival to the gate, they said, you know, you have to check in at the gate because it's a very exclusive place. They say they don't have his reservation available for him. This is what are you talking about? Here's my emails. I even got one, you know, this morning saying, welcome to the hotel. The security officer says, I'm sorry, we don't have one. Asked to talk to his supervisor, the supervisor comes out for security. They say, you don't have a reservation here. You are not welcome to come in, which then brings a third person out who says they're going to call the police if he doesn't leave.
19:01The second person said in the video, hey, we sent you an email the night before. Take a look at that email, which basically said, hey, the hotel is, you know, we're not fully ready. We had to cancel some reservations. And unfortunately, your reservation has been canceled the night before. So hotel didn't handle it great.
19:19Sarah Dandashy: The hotel did not. Also for those that are great at all, not good. Maybe he did not book properly and he absolutely did because I watched the video also. And as soon as he pulled up and, and they were, his driver was checking in, by the way, the property is not close to the airport. So it's a solid, I think it was like two hour ish drive, um, you know, into the specific part of Mexico. So there's that too. But one of the first guys that came up to him was like, oh yes, I know who you are. So, so I mean, this is what I know happened. I know I can guarantee happened. Okay. So I happened to stumble upon this guy.
20:03I don't know him. I was, I watched, you know, tours of hotels and videos on the weekend with the morning coffee. Yeah.
20:08Sarah Dandashy: And it's Ryan Walker, by the way, Ryan Walker, sorry, Ryan Walker. Yeah. I watched it. I just happened to stumbled across his video of the four seasons yacht brand new experience i have some friends that worked hard on it for years put their heart and soul into it he got on on the very first voyage and tore it apart like everything was terrible there was not one good thing about it it got millions of views and impacted that four seasons yachts bookings and revenue going forward right so it just shows you the power of one person and what they can do sure and i look back and say man this is someone i guess i understand you're paying thousands and thousands of dollars to go to an opening but we all understand that in an opening it may not be perfect i've opened hotels many times and it is the hardest thing you could ever do and you really want to do a good job and put out there the best everybody knows you got to work out the kinks and it takes anywhere from six months to a year to really destroy everything that's what this four seasons video that he did on his yacht um which got him the most views of any of his videos because in our world of headlines negativity and big things like that with big names usually grab those views so I will guarantee I'm not a part of that Amon team but they and you know you worked in a luxury hotel the executives meet the day before who are VIPs checking in who do we have coming in got to Ryan Walker who is this guy Ryan Walker is filming a video and I didn't approve filming any video let me see this YouTube video of the four seasons absolutely not coming into this place I oh I'm sure yeah But I do feel like it could have been handled.
21:42Sarah Dandashy: I mean, we all. Yeah, it was not handled well by the hotel side. They sent him an email. There was no phone call. There should have been a phone call ahead of time. Like actually. He tried to call the hotel. He tried to call the hotel from his phone. It kept going straight to voicemail. Then he used his photographer's phone and it went straight through. And then they're like, oh, so-and-so is not available to GM. So that part definitely not handled well. If you're going to do that. I've kicked people out of hotels. You show up face to face and say, you're no longer welcome here for how you're behaving.
22:11Right. And you've got to show your face and you've got to have that call and make that happen.
22:15Sarah Dandashy: And yeah, as uncomfortable as that is, it's like, hey, look, you know, based off of your whatever your recent videos, this we feel like if you came right now, it wouldn't be a fair representation just because we are so newly open. We would love to extend you to come back. I would almost, what I would probably do is as a hotel owner or the GM is say, we understand that this is last minute. We would cover your fees. We will invite you back for a complimentary two-night stay in whatever, like in a month or so, two months, whatever. And you handle it that way. I mean, but obviously they notoriously do not give out comp stays.
23:00Sarah Dandashy: That's not the type of property that they are. But as I'm building a property, you know, I'm putting, I put in that three years into this and we're starting demolition and we're starting to build and hopefully open in a year. Like I can only imagine if Ryan Walker showed up to my first week open and then try to destroy everything I built with negative review from his point of view, never working in a hotel, never having spent time in operations, just trying to build his personal brand and viewership to, you know, get the revenue from his videos. and he says I'm warning people not to come. I'm trying to give a very clear view of what it is.
23:36I just don't love people like that. And I hate to say it like this. We were talking a little bit backstage. It's almost like the athletes that go out there and play sports and then have these people comment that's never played the sport. And so I get a little bit on that sometimes. I know you have a different point of view on it too. So I get a little violent about someone like that.
23:53Sarah Dandashy: I will say this. Just because you have an opinion does not make you an expert. And we have a very easy, I see this a lot because I'm obviously in the travel creator space. And I actually kind of alienated a couple of people several years ago. And this was in coming out of the pandemic because I would see travel creators getting complimentary stays or this or that. And then they would talk about things. And I'm like, wait a second. Like you're, I understand that you want to point out faults or things that aren't great because then that makes you sound like you're more of an expert, but it just sounds like you're complaining and you're a whiny little, you know?
24:44Sarah Dandashy: And I remember I actually made that comment on a story of mine. And I remember several of the individuals that saw it, because it wasn't just one person that inspired me to go on this, make this comment. There were several people that I saw in a row and I'm like, all you guys are on free trips and like, you're, you're, you're kind of complaining. Like what, what do you don't even know what it takes to operate a hotel. Um, and so, and, and trust me, I've also thought about this when it comes to my content is because people are like, Oh my gosh, you're always so nice. And you don't really, you don't, you don't say anything bad about the properties.
25:18Sarah Dandashy: And there's a couple of things. And how I tend to focus my content is it's like, look, there's going to be something for everyone. Yeah. I may not like the style of X, Y, Z property. It's not quite my vibe, but it's clearly somebody's vibe. So I'm going to focus on what they are doing. And if that resonates with you, then perfect. I'm not going to sit here and be like, okay. And I've been actually to properties where it hasn't been ready. And there's been issues from plumbing issues, like big, big issues. And I wasn't the only press that was there. But again, it's how you, you handle it gracefully because you just have to understand that there is, there is, it takes time to get things up and running and you just have to be gracious and going in and And pointing out faults does not make you an expert.
26:13Sarah Dandashy: I always like to say, those who can't create are critics. I like it there. And so I really think that's what this guy had happen. It was his comeuppance, right, for being, I think, ultra negative on that review. And he has a lot of balance. I watched after I saw the article. He has a lot of balance reviews and he talks about things. But listen, you have to understand when you start putting things out there, you're not going to be welcome everywhere. when you start to tear down what people are building and working on. And I like what Patrick put up here. It's a long quote, but it's Teddy Roosevelt's quote.
26:45And it's about from the man in the arena. And I'll read one part of it. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, but who does actually strive to do the deeds. I do like that quote. It's a long one, but Teddy Roosevelt says, you've got to be the man in the arena. And I preach that all the time. Sarah, I know you probably have that mindset too, where you're putting yourself out there. We do it all the time, creating.
27:15We have haters and things that happen, but I get fired up about this. Create something. Don't tear something down.
27:22Sarah Dandashy: I have a problem with this with, there's actually, there's a couple of creators even on LinkedIn that love to come in and be like, you know, if you're doing X, Y, Z, you're doing it wrong. Now, okay, I get it in a nutshell. that that creates clicks. But until you've actually been behind the scenes and you've actually moved a property to hit certain goals, that's, I mean, it's just, it's a lot of hot air. It's a lot, and I mean that respectfully. It's more theory than practice. That is what I'm saying by hot air. It's not to be disrespectful to those individuals, but I have a real hard time when I see, across all platforms.
28:09Sarah Dandashy: But I know that we definitely see a lot of it on LinkedIn just because, you know, it's more. I mean, I posted something like three years ago and I still think about it because I was like, man, was that negative? I didn't talk about the hotel. I just saw something that was really poorly done. It was like, I forget what the menu. It was called the menu mayhem. The menu was rusty. Everything was kind of peeling. Yeah, we've all been there. We've all seen that. And I posted it and I was like, you know, saying, hey, here's how you can make this better. Here's the little effort you can show to get it better.
28:35I had people write to me privately saying, hey, don't tear down people like this. Don't do that. Stay positive. I was like, I didn't feel like I was tearing it down. But then I was like, you know what? That's when I did the 50 hotels and 50 day video challenge I did. And I purposely came from that saying, I'm going to find one positive thing in each one of these hotels and highlight it that they're doing for us. And I walked in some terrible ones, but they still were putting in that effort to try to help people. I want to highlight those people that are doing it. Totally.
29:01Sarah Dandashy: I will just say this is that the bigger question is like, can, should influencers just be able to come and film? Look, at the end of the day, you're going to have guests that are going to be coming and filming. And that is your quote unquote free marketing. And if you don't like what the creator or the guest is posting, that they are a real time reflection of the product that you have created. So if you don't like what they're doing within reason, like if it makes sense, then maybe that's a signal to you that you all need to change what you're doing so that, yeah, whatever the experience that you were trying to create is accurately reflected because that's when you know what you're doing is operating on all cylinders.
29:44Sarah Dandashy: is that whether it's a creator, like a regular guest, whatever this thing is at your property, they can capture it. And you're like, yeah, that's what we're trying to do. Then you're doing it right. And that should be your goal. As opposed to - I think those reviews are the answers to the test. I always say it's not rocket science. Read the reviews. Your guests are telling you what's good, what's bad. Try to fix those things. So if you're doing something good, do more of it. If you're doing something bad, do less of those things. And just kind of keep it going from there. But we talked about this one for too long.
30:13We went along on this.
30:15Sarah Dandashy: Why don't we go to your favorite segment, sir? My favorite segment. The only reason I do this show every day other than seeing Sarah is whose brand is it anyway? The game show where we show a sub-brand, and we have to try to guess who the parent brand is of that sub-brand. So get your ideas ready. Let's see which sub-brand are we guessing today. Is that Vibe? Without a meme? Very 1990s, I feel like. Or Vib. I don't know. This feels like something. No, don't, don't go there. Something in Europe. I am going to guess. A core is my guess today. Who are you going with? Damn it. Whenever I don't know, I'm always like, it's a core.
31:06Yeah. Lou says ISG. Who do you all say? You all have five seconds to guess whose brand is it anyway?
31:13Sarah Dandashy: I'm going to say minor hotels. Oh, good guess. Good guess. All right, ladies and gentlemen, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Boats are in. Who do we have?
31:28Best Western. We go way off. Wow. Best Western. Let me look this place up here. Vibe by Best Western. All right. All right. I see it. Let me pull this thing up here. Can we get it on the screen? I'm curious to see. I don't have much information on it, but it looks to be a nice.
31:51Sarah Dandashy: An urban boutique hotel. Yeah. Urban boutique hotel. Yeah. A modern new hotel where guests enjoy signature luxury and technology amenities designed for today's connected travelers. Very nice. Here it is up on the screen. Yeah. See? Looks like something very much overseas. Oh, they got one here in Springfield. turkey you name it they're all over yeah look kind of like a mix again i feel a lot more of these the yotel moxie yeah kind of vibe um citizen by the way i'm a big fan of this style of property especially when i'm traveling for work you know because it's it's it's simple it's clean it's new but i like the modern feel yeah it shows that we talked about best western right they're trying to push more and more into like the higher end of their properties so i think that that's what they're doing here with this one.
32:44Nice job. We learned something new today. That's why I do this show.
32:48Sarah Dandashy: Lou saying the new word is vibey for all fun things. I like that, Lou. But which, by the way, I have absolutely noticed that. I've talked with so many different brands, not just hotel brands, but destinations. And like, it's just when they don't know what to say, it's just a vibe. I've caught myself saying, I was like, it's a vibe. it. Now all the new kids are saying it's chic. It's chic when, oh my gosh, it's great. Let's go ahead and ruin all different words from the English language by just overusing them on social media. Last year was demure. Now it's chic. And yes, I feel very strongly about this.
33:26Well, you're very chic and you have a vibe, Sarah. And I think for all of you watching and listening, you all have a vibe and we appreciate you listening and watching every single week, especially our live viewers we love having yon here and being a part of the show and really you know pushing us to do our best every week and so since we're doing our best make sure to share this with one of your friends hit that share button send this link on over to them you know they're going to appreciate it and if you haven't yet make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss any of our updates but sarah great show great show until next week stay hospitable
34:08We'll be right back.
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into four stories about how hotels earn and protect their position right now.
The conversation opens with IHG Hotels & Resorts taking a deliberately different approach to the owner economics conversation that Marriott International and Hilton started last week. While rivals cut fees and launched rebate programs, IHG is arguing that its eight-year technology overhaul is the real answer.
From there, Sarah and Steve get into Google's new agentic AI inside Maps and hotel search and what hotel operators need to do right now to make sure their properties show up correctly.
They also dig into Aman's decision to threaten a paying creator guest with police involvement, a video that reached 15 million views and became a case study in what happens when brand protection tips into brand hostility. And they close with how Spain built a full tourism strategy around a solar eclipse and what that model teaches hotels about manufacturing demand in slow periods.
This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt.
If you’re ready to start turning today’s guests into tomorrow’s direct bookings, head to stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality and use code GOODMORNINGHOSPITALITY to get 50% off your first three months.
And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more for GMH listeners!