{"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: The Hotel Owner Squeeze, Six Senses Founder's Comeback, Wyndham's Grandma Gambit, and Coachella's Dirty Secret","slug":"this-week-in-hospitality-the-hotel-owner-squeeze-six-senses-founder-s-comeback-wyndham-s-grandma-gambit-and-coachella-s-dirty-secret","published_at":"2026-04-17T10:08:08+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810/this-week-in-hospitality-the-hotel-owner-squeeze-six-senses-founder-s-comeback-wyndham-s-grandma-gambit-and-coachella-s-dirty-secret","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810","url":"https://behindthestays.podbean.com/e/this-week-in-hospitality-the-hotel-owner-squeeze-six-senses-founders-comeback-wyndhams-grandma-gambit-and-coachellas-dirty-secret/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/569ii5fvf3zcbxp3/TWIH_2296aow.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 The hotel industry is telling two very different stories right now — and this week, the squad unpacks both.First up: a Skift deep dive exposes the brutal math crushing America's hotel owners. Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt are posting record profits while the people who actually own the buildings are hemorrhaging cash — franchise fees, loyalty fees, F&B fees, spa fees, stack an OTA commission on top and owners could be handing over 40% of revenue before paying a single employee. The panel doesn't hold back. Edwin calls it a deadlock. Ben calls it a hostage situation. Scott says the cracks show up the moment growth slows — and right now, they're everywhere.Then: the man behind Six Senses is back. Bernard Baumgartner's new venture, Discover Collection, ditches OTAs entirely for a membership-based model with 32 villas in Oman and a bombshell incentive — travel advisors earn 12% commission on lifetime guest spend. It won't scale. That's the point.Wyndham makes a surprise appearance with a genuinely clever social campaign — a $20K Route 66 road trip giveaway pairing grandparents with grandkids, comp stays at Days Inn and Super 8, full content documentation required. The most valuable guest isn't the highest spender — it's the best storyteller.And Coachella? Ben drops a reality check. It didn't sell out in 2023. Random April weekends outperformed festival weekends at his Palm Springs hotel. Justin Bieber saved it this year. The takeaway: demand anchors are powerful, but they're lineup-dependent, not…","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":4325,"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-the-hotel-owner-squeeze-six-senses-founder-s-comeback-wyndham-s-grandma-gambit-and-coachella-s-dirty-secret/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-the-hotel-owner-squeeze-six-senses-founder-s-comeback-wyndham-s-grandma-gambit-and-coachella-s-dirty-secret.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}