Apr 18, 2026
Last week, Suzanne Bagnera brought one of 11 student teams from nine schools to the AAHOACON Collegiate Championship, and the students ran the kind of decisions real GMs deal with.
During AAHOACON 2026, where No Vacancy was the official podcast, I interviewed Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED about the competition and what...
Apr 16, 2026
Public-private hotel deals don’t run on a private equity playbook. Cities use them to create demand and pull outside dollars into the market.
Suzanne Bagnera, PhD, CHA, CED joins me, and we talk with Walter Peseski, Senior Vice President of Asset Management at Garfield Public/Private, about how these projects get...
Apr 15, 2026
They flipped the first Sonesta hotel in a couple of hours. That’s what a real partnership looks like when the operator needs speed and the vendor shows up.
During AAHOACON in Philadelphia, I talked with Patty Jefferson from Visual Matrix and Chris Trick from Sonesta about how they built the relationship, scaled it,...
Apr 14, 2026
Two hotels on one piece of land, two separate buildings, two separate lobbies—and the demand mix flips in a way you wouldn’t expect.
During AAHOACON 2026, No Vacancy is the official podcast, and I caught up with Hanan Anand, a Red Roof owner, on the show floor to talk about his dual-property setup in Cortland, New...
Apr 13, 2026
Wyndham Rewards pushes beyond hotel nights into experiences, and Michael Shiwdin, Global VP of Loyalty at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, explains why: engagement drives direct bookings, and direct bookings drive owner value.
I talked with Michael at Wyndham Grand Rio Mar in Puerto Rico about how Wyndham Rewards...