Hotel Tech Insider

What if buying a hotel no longer meant inheriting fourteen-hour days, outdated systems, and a business that owns you?

In this episode of Hotel Tech Insider, Simona Eicher, CEO and owner of Hotel ÜJA in Switzerland, shares how she and her partner bought an under-digitized independent hotel from a retiring owner and rebuilt it around a more modern operating model.

With a background in McKinsey, software procurement, and venture buildin...

What happens when an experienced hotel technology leader uses AI to extend what his team can build, analyze, and improve?

In this episode, Bill Legrand, Executive Director of Commercial Applications at VAI Resort in Glendale, Arizona, shares how he has used AI-assisted development to build roughly a dozen internal applications while preparing one of the industry’s most ambitious new resorts for opening. VAI combines hotel oper...

What if the biggest opportunity in hotel technology isn’t making your team more efficient - but removing entire workflows from the equation? Kurien Jacob (KJ) of Highgate Technology Ventures argues that nearly every major hotel software category is now vulnerable to AI-driven disruption.

Few people have had a better vantage point on that shift. Before helping lead Highgate Technology Ventures, KJ spent roughly 15 years buildin...

What if the biggest competitive advantage for the next generation of hotel owners is knowing when not to fly a flag?

In this episode, Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit - formerly a managing editor at Bloomberg - joins Hotel Tech Insider to unpack why more hotel owners are questioning the economics of traditional franchise relationships. Her reporting reveals a surprising shift: while actual de-flagging remains relatively limited, th...

How do you modernize the technology behind 70 hotels without overwhelming the people responsible for running them?

In this episode, Peter Twachtman, CEO of Lark Hospitality, explains how one of the fastest-growing independent hotel management groups is building a scalable technology and operating model across more than 70 properties in 22 states, Mexico, and Canada.

Lark specializes in independent and branded hotels with fewer th...

What if your front desk could generate millions in incremental revenue - without adding staff or compromising the guest experience? In this episode, Geoffrey Toffetti, CEO of Frontline Performance Group (FPG), shares how his company evolved from a hospitality consulting firm into a SaaS platform now used by nearly 3,000 hotels to improve frontline performance, increase guest satisfaction, and unlock measurable revenue through AI-dr...

What happens when the biggest threat to hotel owners isn't brands, OTAs, or labor costs—but AI? In this episode, Sloan Dean, former CEO of one of the largest hotel management companies in the United States, shares why he believes the hospitality industry's incentives are fundamentally broken, which hotel technologies actually move the needle, and why many operators may be underestimating the disruptive force of AI.

During ...

What if your hotel ran itself - an “army of AI agents” handling everything from reservations to check-in - while your staff focused entirely on guests?

In this episode, Aejaz Sodawala, CEO of Yanolja Cloud Solution, shares a forward-looking blueprint for how hotel tech is evolving - from fragmented systems to unified, AI-driven platforms powering over 33,000 hotels globally.

Takeaways:

•  Why data silos are quietly ...

In this episode, Amano Group Managing Directors share how a 1,300-room urban hotel operator executed a full-stack overhaul—switching PMS, rethinking integrations, and redesigning the guest journey around automation, not tradition.

This isn’t theory. It’s a live case of what happens when you treat your tech stack as infrastructure, not tooling.

Key Takeaways:

• How to rebuild your tech stack around integrations, not...

Most hotels are trying to deploy AI on top of broken data. In this episode, the founder of Nomse—managing 26 independent hotels—explains why fixing your data layer is the real prerequisite to turning insights into daily decisions.

• Why AI fails in most hotels: Without clean, connected data across PMS, marketing, finance, and operations, AI outputs lack context and produce little value.
• How to turn data into daily decis...

Most hotel tech stacks are overbuilt and underused. This one isn’t. In this episode, Harmeet Mann—CEO and cofounder of a 30+ property management firm—breaks down how her team runs high-performing hotels using simple systems, tight workflows, and a stack that’s largely not hotel-specific.

Key Takeaways:
• How to eliminate operational silos across properties by structuring communication and task ownership i...

What if the biggest mistake hotels make with technology isn’t adopting it too slowly—but using it to reinforce outdated assumptions about how guests want to interact with your property? In this episode, Matt Dybing, Co-Founder and COO of Nuvho, shares a candid look at how leading operators are using automation, revenue systems, and smarter distribution strategies to outperform competitors.

Nuvho advises nearly 200 hotels...

What if 70% of your guests are willing to upgrade—but your pricing strategy is leaving that revenue on the table? In this episode, Erik Tengen, President of Hospitality at Plusgrade and former co-founder of Oaky, explains why the future of hotel profitability isn’t RevPAR—it’s total revenue, frictionless upselling, and becoming “agent-ready."

Experienced hotel operators, GMs, commercial leaders, and own...

What if your busiest check-in nights didn’t require a front-desk line at all—even when most guests booked through OTAs? In this episode, Fabio Passos, Owner & CEO of QDI USA Developments (a multi-property operator with hotels across Florida and Brazil) breaks down the practical playbook he’s used to modernize arrivals, improve security, and squeeze more signal out of property data—without waiting for a b...

What if the fastest way to improve service, upsells, and loyalty isn’t adding staff—but redesigning how guests communicate with your hotel?

In this episode, Greg Nawrocki, Director of Online Marketing at Linchris Hotel Corporation (30+ hotels across urban, resort, branded, and independent properties), delivers a rare, operator-level breakdown of how modern hotel marketing actually works in the wild—where technology...

How do you scale hotel operations across brands, countries, and systems - without losing control or culture?

 In this episode of Hotel Tech Insider, we sit down with Øyvind Bøhm Frisak, Chief Commercial Officer at CIC Hospitality, to unpack how a fast-growing Nordic hotel operator is using AI, data, and unconventional guest-facing tech to drive efficiency, improve service, and prepare teams for the future.

 This conversatio...

Guest reviews aren’t just social proof anymore—they’re quietly becoming the backbone of pricing power, AI-driven discovery, and automated guest communication. In this episode of Hotel Tech Insider, Ben Jost, Founder and CEO of TrustYou, shares how nearly two decades of working with the world’s largest hotel brands has shaped his view on where reputation management is headed next—and why many hoteliers ...

What if removing your front desk—and doubling down on the right integrations—was the key to keeping your hotel profitable after COVID?

In this episode of Hotel Tech Insider, Roberto Pacaccio, Revenue & Expense Manager at GWT Hotels, shares how a five-property independent hotel group in San Francisco survived near-shutdown, rebuilt its operating model, and lowered its breakeven point by rethinking technology from the ...

What happens when a boutique hotel director builds a fully personalized “signature tech stack” from the ground up—and proves you don’t need to be a tech native to run one of the most digitally advanced 70-key properties in Berlin? In this episode, Tini Diekmann, Hotel Director at the acclaimed Hotel Oderberger, reveals the real-world tools, workflows, and mindsets that transformed her operations.

 This e...