{"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 World Cup Bust, Spirit's Collapse, Priceline is Back, and Aman's Move in the Texas Hill Country","slug":"this-week-in-hospitality-the-world-cup-bust-spirit-s-collapse-priceline-is-back-and-aman-s-move-in-the-texas-hill-country","published_at":"2026-05-08T07:28:35+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810/this-week-in-hospitality-the-world-cup-bust-spirit-s-collapse-priceline-is-back-and-aman-s-move-in-the-texas-hill-country","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/behind-the-stays-3506810","url":"https://behindthestays.podbean.com/e/the-world-cup-bust-spirits-collapse-priceline-is-back-and-amans-move-in-the-texas-hill-country/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/tzvt2k5wfvrsbwki/TWIH_257s9fz.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 hospitality industry was supposed to print money during the 2026 World Cup. Instead, nearly 80% of hotels across the eleven US host cities are pacing significantly below forecasts, with Kansas City operators calling it a non-event and Boston, Philly, and San Francisco not far behind. On this week's episode, Zach is joined by Edwin Kramer, Scott Eddy, and Ben Wolff to unpack what went wrong — visa friction, FIFA's extortionate ticket pricing, geopolitical headwinds, and a hospitality industry that mistook the World Cup logo for a marketing strategy. Edwin offers a sharp European perspective on why the math was always going to be brutal for international travelers, while Scott levels a familiar critique: hotels keep believing their own projections instead of doing the basic work of telling guests how to actually get to the match.From there, the conversation moves to Priceline's surprisingly sharp William Shatner TikTok play (and what booking's parent strategy says about the OTA wars), Under Canvas's CEO transition and the missing middle in outdoor hospitality, and the slow death of Spirit Airlines — a story that opens up a wider debate about whether the ultra-low-cost carrier model can survive in the US the way it has in Europe. Ben, calling in from Onera Fredericksburg, makes the case that commodity businesses can't run on razor-thin margins forever, and Edwin walks through the European low-cost graveyard nobody's talking about.The episode closes on Aman's reported move into the Texas Hill C…","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":3787,"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-world-cup-bust-spirit-s-collapse-priceline-is-back-and-aman-s-move-in-the-texas-hill-country/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-world-cup-bust-spirit-s-collapse-priceline-is-back-and-aman-s-move-in-the-texas-hill-country.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}