{"podcast":{"title":"Behind the Stays","slug":"behind-the-stays-3506810","podcast_index_feed_id":3506810,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/behindthestays/feed.xml","website_url":"https://www.behindthestays.com/","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/10635360/BTS-Artwork-1400x1400.jpg","author":"Zach Busekrus","episode_count":368,"summary":"Welcome to Behind the Stays — a podcast that shares the stories behind your favorite boutique hotels, short-term rentals, and hospitality brands and the hosts, operators, and entrepreneurs who’ve brought them to life. Every Tuesday and Friday you’ll meet the military veterans, retired flight attendants, tech entrepreneurs, school teachers, single moms, hoteliers, and real estate investors who are all, in their unique ways, shaping the future of travel and hospitality. Discover how these visionaries — from all over the world — have built stunning landscape hotels in the mountains, designed bohemian bungalows on the beach, erected eclectic off-grid and nature-immersed escapes, and so much more. Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. And I’m your host, Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance. Alright friends, enjoy the show!","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T04:18:26.153492+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810"},"episode":{"title":"How Cloudbeds Is Shaping the Future of Independent Hospitality with Their New Partnership with Journey","slug":"how-cloudbeds-is-shaping-the-future-of-independent-hospitality-with-their-new-partnership-with-journey","published_at":"2026-07-14T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810/how-cloudbeds-is-shaping-the-future-of-independent-hospitality-with-their-new-partnership-with-journey","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810","url":"https://behindthestays.podbean.com/e/how-cloudbeds-is-shaping-the-future-of-independent-hospitality/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/9du3hi6bbj9qesyf/BTS_142_cloudbeds7s4al.mp3","summary":"What if the technology helping independent hotels compete with the biggest brands in the world shouldn’t feel like technology at all? Cloudbeds serves tens of thousands of properties across more than 150 countries — giving its team a uniquely expansive view into how independent hotels are performing, what operators are struggling with, and how the way travelers discover and book stays is rapidly changing. In this episode, Zach sits down in person with Rafael Blanes, Chief Growth Officer at Cloudbeds, and Sébastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships, to unpack why they believe this is one of the most exciting moments yet to be an independent hotelier. Rafael and Sébastien explain why the traditional PMS is evolving into something much bigger, how fragmented hotel data prevents operators from making confident decisions, and why the industry’s obsession with “AI” may be getting in the way of solving the problems hoteliers actually care about. They also share a look at Ask Signals, a conversational tool that could allow operators to ask questions of their property data, generate reports in seconds, receive explainable pricing recommendations, and eventually get a proactive daily briefing before arriving at the hotel. The conversation also explores why OTAs can actually help hotels generate more direct bookings, what independent properties must do to compete with the marketing machines of major flags, and why operators should never treat an OTA guest differently from someone who booked direct. Finally, Rafael and Sébastien share the story behind the Cloudbeds Collection — a portfolio of 100 distinctive independent properties around the world — and why Cloudbeds selected Journey as its loyalty partner to help those hotels share guests, strengthen direct relationships, and offer the…","meta_description":"What if the technology helping independent hotels compete with the biggest brands in the world shouldn’t feel like technology at all? Cloudbeds serves ten…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2955,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/behind-the-stays-3506810/episodes/how-cloudbeds-is-shaping-the-future-of-independent-hospitality-with-their-new-partnership-with-journey/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810/how-cloudbeds-is-shaping-the-future-of-independent-hospitality-with-their-new-partnership-with-journey.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}