This Week in Hospitality

By thisweekinhospitality

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Episodes: 35

Description

Every Friday morning, This Week in Hospitality brings you the most important stories, insights, and innovations shaping the global hospitality industry — distilled and discussed by people who actually build within it.

Hosted by Ben Wolff, Scott Eddy, Edwin Kramer, and Zach Busekrus, this weekly conversation is crafted for the founders, operators, and dreamers creating the next generation of hospitality brands.

You’ll get more than just headlines — you’ll get perspective. Each episode breaks down the week’s most compelling hospitality stories and explores what they really mean for independent hotel owners, boutique brands, and experiential travel entrepreneurs. From brand strategy and design trends to tech disruption and capital markets, This Week in Hospitality keeps you informed, inspired, and ready for what’s next.

So grab your morning coffee, and catch up on the stories that matter — before your guests check in.

New episodes every Friday morning.

Ben Wolff
Ben Wolff is the visionary founder behind Onera, a trailblazing landscape hotel brand in the Texas Hill Country, and Oasi, a next-generation management company pioneering experiential hospitality. Known for pushing the boundaries of design, wellness, and guest immersion, Ben has become a leading voice in the evolution of high-end, nature-driven travel experiences. His work sits at the intersection of architecture, emotion, and environment — redefining what modern luxury feels like in the wild.

Scott Eddy
Scott Eddy is one of the world’s most recognized hospitality voices — a global keynote speaker, digital strategist, and content creator who has partnered with hundreds of luxury hotel brands, tourism boards, and travel startups. Named among the top travel influencers worldwide, Scott brings a rare blend of brand storytelling expertise, social strategy, and on-the-ground hospitality experience, offering a panoramic view of how digital connection drives modern guest loyalty.

Edwin Kramer
A hospitality executive with a pedigree forged at the world’s leading luxury hotels, Edwin has held senior leadership roles with brands like Four Seasons, EDITION, Campbell, Gray, Hyatt, and NOBU Hotels across multiple continents. Known for operational excellence and cultural leadership, Edwin has built and managed five-star teams that deliver some of the most lauded guest experiences in the industry. Today, he brings that global lens to the conversations shaping hospitality’s future — where service, innovation, and storytelling converge.

Zach Busekrus
Zach is on the founding team of Journey, a next-generation loyalty and storytelling platform empowering independent hotels and vacation rental brands to compete globally without losing their soul. He’s also the creator and host of Behind the Stays, one of the fastest-growing podcasts in hospitality, where he’s interviewed the visionaries behind some of the world’s most creative stays. With a decade in growth strategy and marketing, Zach brings a founder’s curiosity and contagious optimism to every conversation — always championing the builders shaping the future of independent hospitality.


Episode Date
Ideas, Stories, and Hot Takes with James McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of NIHI Hotels
Jul 10, 2026
Airbnb Founder's Secret AI Lab, Bass Pro's $300M Resort Bet & The Economy Hotel Franchise Revolt
Jul 03, 2026
Pali Society Goes Bonvoy, Hilton's Incubating 5 New Brands, and Hot Takes with Skift's Hospitality Editor, Sean O'Neil
Jun 26, 2026
CoStar’s Forecast Reversal, Marriott Hits 10K Hotels, and Amsterdam’s Tourist Tax Revolt
Jun 19, 2026
The Airbnb-Marriott Deal That Almost Happened, MGM Goes Private(?), Journey & Cloudbeds Partner, & What Premium Travelers Want
Jun 12, 2026
Sonder's Founder is Back, Hyatt's New Growth Strategy, The Human Concierge Book, and L.E/Miami Recap
Jun 05, 2026
The Uber-Hotel Hookup, Expedia Optimizes for AI Agents, and Why Americans Are Skipping Europe
May 29, 2026
Airbnb’s Super-App, Expedia’s Acquisition, The Overtourism Reckoning & Why Small Markets Are Winning
May 22, 2026
Airbnb Rethinks AI, Brands Move Into Safari, Spain’s Tourism Reckoning, Hospitality’s Human Premium
May 15, 2026
The World Cup Bust, Spirit's Collapse, Priceline is Back, and Aman's Move in the Texas Hill Country
May 08, 2026
Uber Becomes a Hotel Platform, TikTok Outperforms OTAs, and Hotels Still Don’t Own the Customer
May 01, 2026
Hospitality’s Muddy Middle Is Breaking — With Bashar Wali
Apr 24, 2026
The Hotel Owner Squeeze, Six Senses Founder's Comeback, Wyndham's Grandma Gambit, and Coachella's Dirty Secret
Apr 17, 2026
Why Direct Booking Isn’t Working, Hyatt’s Miss, and the New Rules of Demand
Apr 10, 2026
The Death of Hotel Discovery, The Rise of Food-Led Hotels, and Loyalty’s Identity Crisis
Apr 03, 2026
Hilton’s New Power Play, Marriott’s Brand Explosion, and the Battle for Who Owns Demand
Mar 27, 2026
The Hotel Restaurant Comeback, Hyatt’s Big Pivot, Rosewood Rumors, and a Brutal Outdoor Hospitality Reality Check
Mar 20, 2026
OpenAI Pulls Back, Airbnb Stalls, and Travel’s New Power Grab
Mar 13, 2026
War, The Claude Effect, Too Many Hotel Brands & Kimpton’s Big Test
Mar 06, 2026
Airbnb’s Next Big Bet, the AI OTA Showdown, and Lessons from Jamaica
Feb 27, 2026
Ultra-Luxury Ambitions, Franchise Friction & AI as the New Front Desk
Feb 20, 2026
Africa’s Hotel Surge, Economy’s Comeback Bet, and the Rise of Longevity Luxury
Feb 13, 2026
Schrager’s Hotel Reset, Accor launches in ChatGPT, Disney’s Broader Hotel Play?
Feb 06, 2026
Mews’ Mega-Raise, NYC’s Crack Down on Hotel Fees, More Airbnb Rumors, and Controversy over Hilton's New Hotel Brand
Jan 30, 2026
Is Airbnb the Next Marriott? ChatGPT Ads Debut, Kasa Acquires Mint House, and Delano’s Return
Jan 23, 2026
White Lotus in Saint-Tropez, Soho House in Trouble, Aman’s Next Move… and Marriott’s Rosewood Rumor
Jan 16, 2026
Culture Wars Hit Hospitality, Expedia’s Boom, and Loyalty Abandons the Basic Economy Class
Jan 09, 2026
The Biggest Winners, Losers, and Plot Twists of 2025 — and Predictions for What Comes Next in 2026
Jan 02, 2026
Frontier’s Reckoning, Rate Cuts Reignite Hotel Capital, and Why Europeans Are Over NYC & LA
Dec 19, 2025
The Netflix Deal, Uber’s Power Play, and Why Hotels Are Losing the Culture War
Dec 12, 2025
Corporate America Discovers Wellness, Travelers Reject Algorithms, Park Fees Trigger Travel Rethink
Dec 05, 2025
Capital One’s Hopper Play, LuxUrban’s Collapse, Google’s AI Booking Push
Nov 28, 2025
Virgin’s Identity Crisis, Chase’s 2026 Travel Predictions, and Why Hilton’s Rethinking its Honors Program
Nov 21, 2025
The Sonder Collapse, Hilton’s New Bet, and Airbnb’s Hotel Ambitions
Nov 14, 2025
Introducing "This Week in Hospitality"
Oct 30, 2025