Good Morning Hospitality

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down how demand is shifting across every segment of hospitality heading into Labor Day weekend.

The conversation opens with the latest Labor Day travel data: cruise ports and national park gateways are topping the destination list, the K-shaped spending gap is narrowing, and 77% of Americans planned to travel this summer.

From there Sarah and Steve get into how Harry Styles' Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. residency is moving NYC hotel demand in ways that look more like a major sporting event than a concert, what Generator's new CEO means when he says premium at £40 a bunk, and why Bernstein analysts are calling Airbnb's growth structural rather than transitory with shares up more than 25% since Q2 earnings.

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!

On this bonus episode of Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Wil Slickers sits down with Dan Gaertner, CEO of VayKLife, to break the news that VayKLife has acquired Xplorie, bringing gear and amenities together with local activities and experiences under one platform for vacation rental managers.

Dan walks through why the deal happened now, what the combined platform means for VRMs on day one, and why he believes pairing physical gear with curated experiences is one of the most powerful ways for property managers to differentiate in a market where AI is making every listing look the same. Backed by Fort Point Capital, VayKLife is betting that the guest experience layer, the bikes staged at the door, the $250 spending spree on local attractions, the dinner shows and golf tees, is where the next generation of five-star reviews and repeat guests actually comes from.

Learn more at vayklife.com.

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, and Michael Goldin are joined by Amy Kothari, the new CEO of StayTerra, to talk PE-backed STR consolidation, what the rollup model looks like when it actually works, and what it all means for independent operators.

From there, the crew gets into Airbnb abandoning its decade-long build-it-yourself experience strategy and partnering with Tripadvisor instead, and closes with Expedia Group cutting eight senior executives in a single week as it reorganizes around AI and what that means for Vrbo hosts.

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!

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into how the hotel industry measures success, where capital is flowing, and who controls the information guests use to make decisions.

The conversation opens with a new Skift analysis arguing that net unit growth, the metric every hotel brand has been racing to win for a decade, may have been the wrong measure all along.

From there, Sarah and Steve get into Minor International's plan for a $1 billion hotel REIT spanning its NH Hotels & Resorts, Anantara Hotels & Resorts, and Minor Hotels assets, and what a major Asian-originated hotel capital raise signals about where global hospitality investment is heading. They also unpack Google's acquisition of Spirit Airlines' reservation data from bankruptcy to train its AI hospitality recommendations, and close with what the rise of creator travel content and Substack travel newsletters tells hotel marketers about where traveler trust actually lives now.

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!

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane each share the stat from Skift's State of Travel 2026 report that hit hardest for them, with Seth Borko, Skift's Head of Skift Research, joining to close with the bigger picture on where travel is actually heading.

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!