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A room can look calm in a photo and still be biologically combative for the person sleeping in it. In this Mental Wellness in Hospitality roundtable, part of The Sustainable Stay, host Arjan Eikelenboom explores mental wellness through design and architecture with Rod Eggleston of Delta Air Lines, Henri Munyengango of IHG, and Keith Dickey of Youmind. They cover why travelers arrive already anxious, the arrival experience and wayfinding, a 2021 study that put HVAC noise at the top of what drives sleep satisfaction, the trade-off between quiet rooms and owner ROI, how staff stress transfers to guests, and what happens when personalization turns into private health data. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NLxsOvK0OxU Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/biologically-combative-when-hotel-design-works-against-the-guest/ More from The Sustainable Stay: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWa-1xBFeqLw The Sustainable Stay is powered by YouMind. Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

A lease can do more than collect rent. It can create value across an entire hold. Adrian Flück co-heads hotel investment at Invesco Real Estate, which owns 34 hotels across Europe, every one held on a lease rather than a management agreement. Using the Tivoli Oriente in Lisbon as a case study, he unpacks a 2019 sale-and-leaseback with Minor Hotels, a hybrid lease that pairs a minimum guaranteed rent with a turnover top-up, and a two-phase refurbishment that lifted rate and performance. What you will take away: - Under a lease the tenant carries the operating company and the staff, the landlord carries the building, the rent and the turnover. - A hybrid lease protects the downside with guaranteed rent while a turnover top-up shares the upside. - The demarcation list ends the who-pays fight, here close to fifty-fifty, by splitting refurbishment between the FF&E reserve and the landlord's technical works. - ESG becomes real when you collect 100 percent of energy data and benchmark it with BREEAM and GRESB. "It will not change your ADR, but it helps with your tenant engagement and your employee satisfaction." Inside Hotel Asset Management, for hotel owners, investors and asset managers, and for students weighing a career in the field. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rFoDLagqFx0 Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/how-a-hybrid-lease-creates-hotel-value-the-tivoli-oriente-case/ More from Inside Hotel Asset Management: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXd-mdvWGkso

Sleep is the one thing every guest will do in your hotel, yet almost no one measures it. In the second Mental Wellness in Hospitality roundtable, part of The Sustainable Stay, host Arjan Eikelenboom talks again with Jeremy McCarthy of Leisure Alchemy, wellness strategist Javier Suarez, and Keith Dickey of Umind about whether sleep should be a KPI. They dig into the first night effect, what poor sleep does to the brain, and why the biggest wins come from not interfering with sleep, preparing guests before they arrive, and training every department to understand recovery. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OnsymlaSprk Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/sleep-as-a-kpi-what-hotels-get-wrong-about-guest-recovery/ More from The Sustainable Stay: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWa-1xBFeqLw The Sustainable Stay is powered by YouMind. Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

You are already resilient; you just have to decide to act on it. Mohamed Massaquoi built his identity as an NFL wide receiver, then lost his hand in a 2017 accident and had to rebuild from the ground up. In this conversation he shares how he moved through the adversity in stages, redirected his competitive fire into leadership and speaking, and learned from a championship-winning high school coach and turbulent years in Cleveland what it really takes to lead people well. His message for anyone in the middle of something hard: if you live through it, there is an opportunity for an amazing life. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UWnd2mug-8Y Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/responding-to-adversity-resilience-leadership-and-purpose/ More from Unscripted Hospitality: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcxrIHh1V3-c Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

The best asset in that portfolio was the one nobody was watching. Pierre-Louis Bellanger and Maxime des Monstiers of Capital Hospitality Europe take Luc Boschmans through the full cycle of La Perouse, a nineteen thirties boutique hotel above the Baie des Anges in Nice. The institutional owner was busy with its big boxes. It took seven letters of intent, in the middle of COVID, before they were granted exclusivity. Almost every call after that went against the instinct of the market. Rooms came out instead of going in, 56 down to 53. An F&B outlet was added instead of closed. The refurbishment ran seven months while building costs rose 30 percent, and the doors opened two days before the Monaco Grand Prix. What followed: a four star beating five stars on revenue per available room, and EBITDA that moved from roughly 1.5 to 1.7 million at acquisition to close to 4 million at the sale. The part most owners skip is how they timed that exit, and what they deliberately left on the table for the buyer. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rZ-aT6HrTyE Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/fewer-rooms-more-value-repositioning-la-perouse-in-nice/ More from Inside Hotel Asset Management: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXd-mdvWGkso Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

A hotel is an investment first, and someone has to protect its value for twenty years. Rastko Djordjevic, Managing Director of JLL Asset Management EMEA, joins Luc Boschmans to explain what hotel asset management really is: maximising an asset's value across the whole holding period, not running the day to day. He separates owner, operator, and advisor, then shows the work through real cases, a renovation phased to the Olympics that lifted suite ADR by more than 40 percent, a hotel taken standalone during COVID, and how he matches a general manager to the moment a property is in. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/na9K41XsWuw Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/owner-operator-advisor-what-a-hotel-asset-manager-really-does/ More from Inside Hotel Asset Management: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXd-mdvWGkso Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

The fastest repositioning plans are built around the exit from day one. Learn how a five-year hold, direct operations, and a deliberate no-brand decision turned a Barcelona hotel into a leisure-led asset. In this episode Luc Boschmans interviews Emmanuel Dissez, head of asset management for Schroders Hotels, and Dario Filippone, one of the asset managers at Schroders Capital who has overseen the Grand Hotel Central in Barcelona since 2021. - Build value against a defined hold period so the five-year story becomes a sale - Keep optionality by not attaching a global brand, the flexibility the next owner pays for - Take a hotel to direct operations to gain control over the repositioning - Read the operation, not just the P&L, because the numbers are always late Emmanuel and Dario share how they moved RGI from 64 to 108 and brought the hotel to market with the exit in mind. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nXPkQpighxs More from Inside Hotel Asset Management: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXd-mdvWGkso Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

AI does not fix a bad pricing strategy, it just runs it faster. Roz Hunter and Charles Pinard, pricing and revenue-management consultants at Simon-Kucher, break down how they read a revenue team from the inside and why most pricing problems are about trust and alignment, not the systems. - Cut the morning screen count from eight to ten systems down to one source of truth and two screens - Escape the one-brain trap where the whole company waits to be told to raise or lower prices - Treat a room as a room on a date, so peak weeks like July or Christmas can carry a far higher price - Build the price increase into the start of the booking curve instead of starting high and crashing it - Use AI to challenge your thinking, with human oversight, because a black box is as bad as no box Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GkFFBEGT_IQ Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/pricing-strategy-revenue-teams-and-where-ai-actually-helps/ More from The Revenue Playbook: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHwS1iL3BLZA Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

The rebrand only adds value once the segmentation and product are fixed. Learn how a bold wholesaler cut rebuilt rate quality and moved RGI from 81 to 110. In this episode Luc Boschmans interviews Sophie Richard, who leads European asset management for M&L Hospitality and chairs HAMA Europe. - Cut a low-rated wholesaler base, accepting 13 percent occupancy loss to rebuild higher-quality rate - Sequence segmentation and product before rebranding so the brand change adds value - Treat aging product as a cleanliness and rate problem, not just a renovation line - Review segmentation yearly rather than every five years Sophie shares the full Brussels Midi case, from the segmentation cut to the four-star classification. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ShorHzWY1Mo More from Inside Hotel Asset Management: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXd-mdvWGkso Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

Sustainability lives or dies by what guests actually do. Learn which initiatives survive daily operations and which quietly fail after a pilot. In this episode Cesar Wurm interviews Gavin Fraser, Remco Groenhuijzen, Chrys Filimegkas, and Eric Van Lambalgen, four hotel leaders working across operations, finance, and sustainability in Amsterdam. - Account for behavior, since keycard heating and biodegradable products fail on how guests use them - Chase fast ROI, with opt-out room cleaning saving roughly 200,000 euros a year - Treat certifications as a diagnostics tool rather than a sales label - Focus upstream on scope 3 with suppliers, the largest share of the footprint The group tests whether sustainability in operations delivers real impact or stays an illusion. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vc64_NWG4sY Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/sustainability-in-hotel-operations-what-works-and-what-fails/ More from The Sustainable Stay: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWa-1xBFeqLw The Sustainable Stay is powered by YouMind. Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

Revenue managers do not set the price. The guest does, and the rate is just where you move up or down. Learn how independent hotels run occupancy, distribution, and forecasting without a brand playbook handed to them. In this episode Tim Boersma interviews Rogier Ensel, owner of RevGen and former group revenue director at Cycas, on revenue management for unbranded properties. - Run occupancy first and let ADR follow as the measurement up or down - Avoid the parity trap you build yourself with Genius and resold discounts - Start forecasting small: fill in one day, look back, and do it again - Treat pricing as risk management, not a number you decide alone A practical playbook for owners and revenue managers pushing margin on their own terms. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aSkxnRNIC8o Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/occupancy-first-adr-second-revenue-management-for-independents/ More from The Revenue Playbook: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHwS1iL3BLZA Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

Handed millions and a great location, all three pick independent. Learn where independents still beat the chains and where AI actually belongs. In this episode Balve Bains interviews Klaus, Frank, and Panagiotis Kalogeridis, three hotel leaders running independent and family-owned properties across Europe. - Use speed as the independent edge, since a menu or a fix lands faster than any chain can approve - Recognize that claiming AI is not using AI, as most owners who say they use it have not started - Place AI in the back of house in revenue, kitchen, and engineering, not the front desk - Watch distribution as the battlefield, where hidden costs take owners out of the driver's seat Each leader is handed 10, 15, and 20 million euros and a location, and all three choose independent. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1n9IlZX2SdU Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/independents-vs-chains-in-2026-where-the-human-touch-wins/ More from Lead the Experience: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWi9yJoo_rPo Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

New graduates are fluent in AI, but fluent is not the same as competent. Learn how to hire, onboard, and train hospitality talent for an AI-first industry. In this episode Brian Hicks interviews Michael Goldrich and Mike Gamble on the future talent pipeline report. - See why the confidence and competence gap shows up the day new grads start - Apply the four T's of AI adoption: tone, tools, training, time - Use onboarding as a recruiting weapon, not an afterthought - Keep EQ and human skills at the center, at every level A practical playbook for leaders building an AI-ready hospitality workforce. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IAkb-XuVlOU Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/closing-the-ai-gap-in-hospitalitys-talent-pipeline/ More from Next Gen Hospitality: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbrIzrW99o14 Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

Guests check in carrying stress the front desk cannot undo on its own. Learn why wellness belongs across the whole hotel and why staff wellbeing sets the ceiling. In this episode Arjan Eikelenboom interviews Keith Dickey, Jeremy McCarthy, Simone Puorto, and Javier Suarez, a neuroacoustics co-founder, a former group wellness director, a technology consultant, and a spa consultant. - Treat arrival as layer zero, since guests check in carrying accumulated stress - Account for the first night being disrupted by design, so the first stay rarely delivers real rest - Care for staff wellbeing, because a depleted team transfers that state to the guest - Prioritize the basics of sleep, less noise, and human contact over longevity gadgets The panel makes the case for wellness as something lived across the whole hotel, not sold inside the spa. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UcgWdFrh880 Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/mental-wellness-in-hospitality-the-nervous-system-layer/ More from The Sustainable Stay: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWa-1xBFeqLw The Sustainable Stay is powered by YouMind. Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality

The tech experience belongs in the back of house, not the front. Learn where restaurant innovation pays off and where it breaks the guest experience. In this episode Gabriella Gomes Branco interviews Robin Vromans, who runs several hospitality venues and built BUNKR in Eindhoven, the first AI restaurant in the Netherlands. - Keep tech in the back, since front-of-house automation breaks the premium experience - Read your own numbers by combining all purchasing into one data sheet - Connect reservations, POS, finance, and purchasing into one overlay AI can read - Stay open to failure, because experiments that always work teach nothing Robin separates the hype from what actually works after building an AI-driven restaurant. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9mCyqirrdwg Key takeaways: https://futureofhospitality.org/episode/inside-the-netherlands-first-ai-restaurant-where-the-tech-actually-pays-off/ More from The F&B Advantage: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFpxjW-_315A The F&B Advantage is powered by After The Table. Follow The Future of Hospitality for weekly insights into hospitality, hotels, and guest experience. Disclaimer: This podcast shares stories, experiences, and opinions from hosts and guests. They are personal perspectives only and not statements of fact or official advice from The Future of Hospitality