Hospitality podcast

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.

Can a hotel run with one seventh of staff and still outperform its peers? Bob W is built for the modern traveler who wants the best of both worlds: the consistency and reliability of a hotel, with the space, utility and local feel of a short-stay apartment. But what truly sets Bob W apart is its software-first mindset. Niko Karstikko, Co-founder and CEO of Bob W, joins Matt to explain how Bob W blends apartments, hotels and automation into a new hospitality category.

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.

De L’Europe Amsterdam recently became the first hotel in the Netherlands to earn a record three MICHELIN Keys. Open since 1896, De L’Europe Amsterdam carries a long history. What makes it stand out? And what comes with running the landmark everyone measures themselves against? De L’Europe’s Managing Director Robert-Jan Woltering talks heritage, luxury and the kind of hospitality that keeps a hotel at the top.