{"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":"This Week in Hospitality: Pali Society Goes Bonvoy, Hilton's Incubating 5 New Brands, and Hot Takes with Skift's Hospitality Editor, Sean O'Neil","slug":"this-week-in-hospitality-pali-society-goes-bonvoy-hilton-s-incubating-5-new-brands-and-hot-takes-with-skift-s-hospitality-editor-sean-o-neil","published_at":"2026-06-26T11:28:50+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810/this-week-in-hospitality-pali-society-goes-bonvoy-hilton-s-incubating-5-new-brands-and-hot-takes-with-skift-s-hospitality-editor-sean-o-neil","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810","url":"https://behindthestays.podbean.com/e/this-week-in-hospitality-pali-society-goes-bonvoy-hiltons-incubating-5-new-brands-and-hot-takes-with-skifts-hospitality-editor-sean-oneil/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/b3f7y8fy8wwtz7ej/TWIH_326th4e.mp3","summary":"Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUyApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality Sean O'Neill of Skift joins the roundtable this week for a conversation that cuts straight to the fault lines running through the hotel industry right now — distribution versus identity, brand proliferation versus brand meaning, and the wellness promise versus wellness delivery.The panel leads with Pali Society's decision to bring its 16-property California portfolio into Marriott's Design Hotels ecosystem — the single largest addition in the program's history. Edwin draws the line everyone in the independent space is afraid to say out loud: using Marriott as a marketing channel is smart; slowly operating for Marriott guests instead of your own is how you lose the thing that made you worth joining in the first place. Scott is blunter: \"Every owner in the world loves independence until they have empty rooms.\"From there, Sean's own Hilton story lands on the table. Hilton's new CDO is signaling five or six organic brands are coming — and a trademark filing, locked domain, and placeholder social accounts are already pointing toward a lifestyle concept called \"Tortoise.\" The group debates whether the major brand groups, Hilton included, are actually delivering on their supposed superpower. Sean's take: in an AI-discovery world, the question isn't how many brands you have — it's whether any of them mean anything.The conversation gets sharper on wellness — a category where nearly everyone claims the space and very few actually own it. Ben makes the obvious argument: if Oura can sync with fitness apps,…","meta_description":"Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUyApple Podcasts - https:…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4486,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/behind-the-stays-3506810/episodes/this-week-in-hospitality-pali-society-goes-bonvoy-hilton-s-incubating-5-new-brands-and-hot-takes-with-skift-s-hospitality-editor-sean-o-neil/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/this-week-in-hospitality-pali-society-goes-bonvoy-hilton-s-incubating-5-new-brands-and-hot-takes-with-skift-s-hospitality-editor-sean-o-neil.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}