Hospitality podcast

It’s time to reflect on industry trends and plan budgets for the year ahead. This session of Matt Talks will spotlight four key global trends set to shape the hospitality sector: AI adoption, shifting staff productivity, reduced reliance on OTAs and a move into unexpected property types. We hope this information will equip you with the information you need to plan for a successful and prosperous 2025.

Upselling is an important part of any hotel's revenue strategy but, as Matt knows from first-hand experience, it can be awkward for staff and guests. This week, he explores the best opportunities to upsell, how to leverage technology to be more successful, how to make it feel natural - and even personalized, and the importance of training teams to succeed and feel confident.

Rogier Braakman, founder of Mr. Green Boutique Office Collection joins Matt to talk co-working, sustainability, and how hospitality can build greener communities. They explore how integrating sustainable practices can enhance guest experiences and operational efficiency in hospitality.

Matt catches up with Joe Pettigrew, a commercial leader in hospitality and CCO at L+R Hotels, to chat about what’s shaping hotel investment right now – from value-add plays to private capital and exit strategies. They get into guest types, loyalty without the points game and what hotels should be thinking about for 2025.

Matt sits down with Michael Fitzsimmons, VP of Growth at Mews, to talk about how hotel websites function as digital business cards. They explore how structure, content and design influence whether a website visitor converts into a paying guest.

What can hospitality learn from superstars like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift? In this episode, Matt uses his love of pop culture to tell you about 9 ways the entertainment industry can inspire hospitality to build better guest experiences.

The hospitality industry is undergoing a shift as technology and AI reshape traditional roles. Positions like night auditors and reservation agents are changing. This week Matt caught up with George Barker, Senior Director of Communications, to see what it takes to thrive in this new reality.

Ett Hem, a beautiful hotel in Sweden, is one of Matt's favorites and for good reason. Ever stayed at a hotel that feels like home? Creating a homey feeling for guests is top priority for Ett Hem. Matt talks to Nicole Torbiörnsson, Director of Sales and Reservations at the hotel, who shares what their staff does to turn every stay into something personal and memorable.

It’s a time when hotels are short on staff. Costs are up. Talent’s scarce. How do you keep things running without burning out your team – or affecting the guest experience? In this episode, Matt gets into the real talk: what actually works when you have to do more with less and which parts of the job are best handled by technology and AI.

Hotels love to talk data. But what does that look like in making pricing and revenue decisions? In this episode, Matt sits down with Henry Blackman, Director of Product GTM Strategy at Mews, to talk about data and testing as a fuel for smarter revenue strategies. They break down why you don’t need perfect data to act and why knowing your guests is the foundation of good pricing and packaging.

Matt doesn’t usually talk sports, but Wimbledon made him break his own rule. In this episode, he looks at how the tournament’s mix of tradition, innovation and excellence mirrors serving in hospitality. Anticipating needs before they appear. Turning every detail into a moment guests remember. Building dedicated teams and performing under pressure. Hotels and tennis might look different, yet they share a lot of the same values. Tune in.

Have we over-engineered the basics in hotels? Bashar Wali, Founder of Practice Hospitality and This Assembly, argues that true hospitality is human-led even as automation, AI and dynamic pricing become the norm. The tools may evolve, but the heart of great service stays the same. Bashar explains what hotels should protect as they modernize.

What happens when you hire for personality? That’s how Staypineapple built a culture where staff aren’t afraid to be themselves at the front desk, where genuine interactions win over guests and where hospitality feels authentic, not scripted. The hotel group’s president Dina Belon explains how that same culture kept the staff resilient when Staypineapple overhauled most of its tech stack – PMS, POS, CRM, housekeeping and guest communication tools.

We’re celebrating. Matt Talks Hospitality turns one and hands over the mic to Ella McCann-Tomlin, VP of ESG at Mews. On this 50th episode special, Matt is the guest. He shares how the podcast began as a creative spark during a rough patch, how it turned into a weekly ritual, and what he learned from fifty weeks of honest conversations with hoteliers and industry leaders. Along the way, Ella gets Matt’s podcasting tips and tricks as she gears up to launch her own show, The Future is Human.

A five-star hotel and a MICHELIN restaurant that welcome dogs? There’s a big difference between a hotel that embraces pets and one that simply tolerates them. Dean Culpan, General Manager of South Place Hotel in London, has built a dog-friendly approach that even drives more revenue: fuller weekends, higher on-property spend and loyal guests who return because their pets are treated well. He joins Matt to talk about the rising demand for pet-friendly stays and how his team delivers a luxury experience for both guests and their fluffy companions.

Armen Melkonian was forced to flee war-torn Syria and then Lebanon, until he rebuilt his life from scratch in the Netherlands through UNHCR’s resettlement programme. He opens up about finding safety as a member of the LGBTIQ+ community, the challenges of acclimatizing to a foreign culture and how his experiences shaped a deeply personal approach to service. To Armen, hospitality starts with something small –⁠ a greeting, a moment of acknowledgment, the thing that tells someone they’re no longer invisible.

How do you build a revenue strategy for a hotel that melts away every spring? When the temperatures fall in Finland, Maria Mänty, Sales Director at Snowhotel Family, and her team shape memorable stays out of snow, freezing nights and the glow of the Northern Lights. They build extraordinary ice rooms, set up ice sculpture workshops and even snow saunas. Maria joins Matt to talk about what it takes to keep their Arctic SnowHotel & Glass Igloos thriving when what you sell only exists for a few months of the year.

For this end-of-year special, Matt is joined by Mews founder Richard Valtr. Except this time around, they both ask each other questions. What was the first app they opened this morning? What advice have they ignored? What decision looked smart at the time but almost broke the company? From there, they talk about the drivers behind great hotels, the core of hospitality and the 13 years of working together to shape Mews into what it is today.

What can the hospitality industry expect in 2026? Especially given the rapid development of AI and the fact that a third of travelers already use LLMs to search and get travel inspiration. Wouter Geerts, Director of Market Research at Mews, joins Matt to break down the 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook report, shaped by conversations with 18 industry experts, including hoteliers, tech vendors, consultants and investors. You’ll hear about the changing AI use cases in hotels, new guest behavior patterns and what determines which hotels get surfaced and booked in 2026.Download 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook

Survival requires food and water, but the spirit craves community. By building sports clubs inside refugee camps, KLABU creates places where people can gather, play and regain a sense of normal life amid displacement. KLABU’s Founder Jan van Hövell explains how these clubhouses are set up in crisis zones, why sports help build communities and how KLABU and Mews are collaborating to support indigenous Venezuelan refugees in Boa Vista, Brazil.

Cocoons and capsules sit at the heart of Zedwell Hotels’ London city-centre vision, where rooms are designed around sleep, efficiency and the realities of urban life rather than tradition. In this episode, Matt speaks with Halima Aziz, Head of Hotels at Criterion Hospitality, which owns and operates Zedwell Hotels, about turning forgotten city spaces into some of London’s most profitable hotel real estate, all while removing TVs, kettles and even windows from the rooms.

When hotel GMs receive hundreds of emails from software vendors claiming to be the best, judging new tech becomes difficult. That exact problem led to Hotel Tech Report, one of hospitality’s most-trusted review platforms. Its co-founder Jordan Hollander joins Matt to talk about what goes into hotel tech buying decisions. The episode lands as Mews wins Best PMS for the third year in a row and Best POS at the 2026 HotelTechAwards, run by Hotel Tech Report.

Hotels have spent years trying to convince guests to skip daily cleaning through towel reuse signs, drink vouchers or loyalty points. Having run large city hotels, Floris Licht saw firsthand how none of those ever worked. He ended up founding Hotels for Trees, a non-profit that turns skipped room cleans into forests. One skipped clean –⁠ one tree planted, with over 800 thousand trees planted so far. Floris joins Matt to explain how Hotels for Trees fits into hotel operations, from door hangers to the digital guest journey with Mews.

Can a hotel brand successfully scale while building social impact into its business model? The Social Hub, now certified as a B Corp, is built on the belief that a hotel can serve its city as much as its guests. The Social Hub’s Founder and CEO, Charlie MacGregor, shares what it takes to keep profit high and purpose alive as the company scales.

Vicky Irwin has spent over six years shaping how Mews looks, sounds and feels as the company's Creative Director. In light of Mews launching a new identity, she joins Matt to talk about branding in hospitality. What is a brand when you strip away the logo? What makes hotels feel disconnected from their own identity? And when does a rebrand become necessary? Listen in.

How do you grow from one hotel into a group and don’t become a rigid chain? Inge Decuypere, Owner of C-Hotels, breaks down the operational choices and technology decisions that enabled their growth from a single property to a multi-hotel group along the Belgian coast. Inge also shares how walking away from a global franchise meant gaining control over their own operations, without sacrificing the occupancy they'd built.