Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Ashley Squires is an interior designer, hospitality design expert, and creative strategist with more than 25 years of experience across hospitality, multifamily, and private aviation spaces. She's led design work for major hotel brands, multifamily developments, and cruise lines, giving her firsthand insight into where the sourcing process breaks down for design teams. Alongside her partner Andrea, she co-founded The Stylist Group to turn that experience into a free resource other designers could lean on.

Takeaways:

• Trust the process, not just the product. When you bring in a resource like The Stylist Group, you’re not handing off your design vision, you’re getting the bandwidth to execute it faster.

• Fewer, better options beat an overwhelming library. Curated choices help you move with confidence instead of getting stuck sorting through everything a manufacturer has ever made.

• Give your narrative early and often. The more context you provide about budget, brand, and location up front, the more tailored (and useful) your first round of options will be.

• Time saved is money saved. Every hour you don’t spend sourcing materials is an hour (and a few thousand dollars) you get back for the work only you can do.

• Don’t be afraid to lean on free resources. If a service exists to shoulder part of your workload at no cost, you owe it to your project timeline to at least try it.

  

  Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

"No matter what the needs are, whether you're a big firm or you're just starting out, consider us your design resource library." - Ashley Squires

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Ashley:

• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyksquires/

• Guests Website: https://www.stylist-group.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

Matthew Boone is head of hospitality at Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), bringing 20+ years of architecture, construction and project management experience to some of the industry's most complex hotel developments. Trained as an architect, his work includes San Francisco's Huntington Hotel, a project that landed in Architectural Digest. He now leads RLB's hospitality growth across North America, pairing design instinct with financial discipline.

Takeaways:

• Think about what people need before they know they need it. Hospitality is a mindset, not a job title, and it should shape every interaction, from a boardroom to a job site.

• When you’re weighing design against budget, remember ROI decisions happen behind the walls too. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades often eat the budget before a single finish gets chosen.

• Ask for real numbers up front. Hiding a budget to protect creativity rarely works, it usually just wastes weeks redesigning to hit a number that could have been clear from day one.

• Guests rarely complain about design, they complain about systems. Prioritize hot water, Wi-Fi and room temperature if you actually want to move the guest experience needle.

• Trust your team and stay in your lane. The strongest projects happen when everyone respects each other’s expertise instead of micromanaging outside their own scope.

  Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

"Hospitality is thinking about what people need, what people want, before they even know they need it." - Matthew Boone

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Matthew:

• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mboonebayarea/

• Guests Website: https://www.rlb.com/americas/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

What does the modern guest owe a host, and have we lost sight of that half of the equation?

Colleen Rafferty is the President of Tourists, an award winning hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts that has earned two Michelin Keys and national recognition from outlets like Vanity Fair. She rose through the ranks from guest experience manager to the top leadership seat, helping build a culture so strong that her own team members have collectively logged 40 years of tenure at a hotel that has only been open eight. Beyond the hotel, Colleen is leading a new pilot childcare program funded by the state of Massachusetts in partnership with the Governor's Office, built specifically for hospitality workers whose schedules don't run Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.

Takeaways:

• Treat hospitality as a two way relationship, not a one way transaction. The best experiences happen when host and guest each bring something to the table, so give guests the space to be partners in the experience rather than just recipients of service.

• Invest in staff retention like it’s your product. When Colleen focused on generous benefits, tenured healthcare, and a real career path, her team’s longevity became the consistency guests notice most.

• Don’t try to solve every problem alone. Colleen’s biggest breakthroughs came from calling other operators to ask if they were facing the same struggles, then working the problem from the root instead of white knuckling it solo.

• Small, sensory details matter as much as big design choices. Something as simple as how a property smells can shape a guest’s entire impression, so don’t overlook the details that are easy to miss.

• Growth should protect the culture that made you successful, not dilute it. As Tourists considers new locations, Colleen’s focus stays on keeping the same close, hands on relationship between leadership, staff, and guests that built the brand’s reputation in the first place.

  

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"This isn't really about you. This is about this moment and what the space can provide and what the guest is looking for." - Colleen Rafferty

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Colleen:

• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-rafferty-88603072/

• Guests Website: https://www.touristswelcome.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

What if the best conversations aren't about being interesting, but about being present?

David Rich is the founder of Palabra, a story driven event format he has hosted hundreds of times across nearly every continent, from intimate dinners to gatherings of over 100 people. What started as a personal search for deeper friendships after moving back from Spain has grown into a platform used by corporations, families, and entrepreneurs to build genuine relationships. His approach to storytelling and presence has made him one of the most sought after voices on modern connection.

Takeaways:

• Great conversations need a container. Without intentional structure, people default to small talk, so David designs prompts and formats that give people permission to go deeper.

• Listening is a skill, not a given. Most people listen to respond rather than to understand, and creating space without distractions like phones changes the quality of connection almost instantly.

• Stories unite, opinions divide. Palabra events stay opinion free by design, which is why people from wildly different backgrounds can leave a dinner feeling more connected rather than more divided.

• Vulnerability doesn’t require drama. A good event isn’t measured by tears or big reveals, it’s measured by whether someone normally closed off opened up even slightly more than usual.

• Let humans do human things. As AI takes over more of daily life, David believes the analog, in person moments of genuine storytelling are becoming more valuable, not less.

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

"A good event isn't that someone cried, so it was a good event. It's that people become a little bit more of themselves." - David Rich

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with David:

• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjrich/

• Guests Website: https://www.palabra.co/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

What does luxury actually mean once you strip away the thread counts and marble bathrooms? Dan sits down with Diarmaid O’Sullivan, Director of Marketing at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, a Fairmont Hotel in Bermuda, for a conversation about connection, patience, and the moments that turn a guest into a regular. Diarmaid brings more than 30 years of international experience in hospitality marketing, tourism strategy, and luxury brand building, and has spent over a decade shaping some of the industry’s most talked about lifestyle partnerships, including collaborations with Steamline Luggage and a custom fragrance created with Bermuda’s oldest perfumery. The two dig into what luxury means as a moving target, how far patience can take a brand partnership, and why the first five minutes of a stay might matter more than the room itself

Takeaways:

• Luxury isn’t about amenities anymore. It’s about the human connection a guest feels the moment they walk through the door, and that connection is what turns a one time visitor into a lifelong regular.

• The strongest hotel partnerships aren’t rushed. Diarmaid’s team spent over two years developing their Steamline Luggage collaboration and nearly three years creating a custom hotel fragrance, proof that patience often outperforms speed.

• Great mentorship means being willing to let your best people leave. Promoting from within and supporting team members who outgrow their role builds a culture people want to return to, even after they’ve moved on.

• The arrival experience matters more than the room itself. A guest who feels genuinely welcomed can forgive almost anything else about their stay, but a cold check in is hard to recover from.

• Community isn’t a marketing tactic, it’s a business strategy. Hamilton Princess treats local Bermudians as part of the guest experience rather than keeping them out, and that openness has become one of the property’s biggest sources of loyalty.

  

Luggage Collab with Streamline Luggage https://steamlineluggage.com/collections/the-hamilton-princess-hotel

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"You can teach someone the skills to operate a system, how to make a bed, how to make a dish. But you cannot teach someone to have empathy, to connect with people, or just be happy." - Diarmaid OSullivan

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Diarmaid:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diarmaidosullivan/

• Website: https://www.thehamiltonprincess.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

In this episode of Defining Hospitality, Dan sits down with Adam Lara, principal at KTGY Interior Design and Branded Environments, to talk about career, culture, and what it really takes to build a studio that works. From formative early experiences to his latest chapter leading a growing team in Chicago, Adam offers a grounded look at what shapes great design work over the long haul.

Adam Lara has spent nearly three decades moving across architecture, interiors, and brand side operations, giving him a rare, well rounded view of the hospitality design world. His career has included time at Hyatt, a formative stretch under acclaimed designer Jordan Mosher, and now a leadership role at KTGY. That range makes him one of the more thoughtful voices working in hospitality design today.

Takeaways:

• Spending time on the brand and ownership side of the business, not just the design side, gives designers a sharper sense of priority and impact. Understanding how a hotel actually operates, from food and beverage to back of house, makes for better design decisions down the line.

• Great design is built on process, not ego. A strong, repeatable process naturally produces unique results because every project brings a different set of inputs.

• Culture is intentional, not accidental. Small planning decisions, like how an office layout encourages teams to mix, can be just as important to culture as any stated value.

• In person collaboration builds trust and understanding that remote work cannot replace. Body language, tone, and the small moments between meetings carry information that Zoom calls miss entirely.

• The best leaders are made in the transition from doing the work to developing the people who do the work. Soft skills like listening and communication matter as much as design talent when someone is stepping into a bigger seat.

"It's not just design, it's basically problem solving." - Adam Lara

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Adam:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-lara-aia-leed-ap-ishc-7aa04751/

• Company Website: https://ktgy.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

Dan Ryan sits down with hotelier Ryan Diggins to talk about building boutique hotels that lead with food and beverage instead of treating it as an afterthought. They dig into why the smallest design details can make or break a property’s identity, how Ryan thinks about revenue differently than most developers, and what it takes to keep a project’s soul intact as it scales. They also touch on what the future of hotel discovery looks like as AI starts to reshape how travelers decide where to stay.

Takeaways:

• Treat food and beverage as its own business, not an amenity. Ryan pitches investors by assessing the F&B program as a standalone concept first, then layering in the hotel. When both perform well independently and even better together, it makes a much stronger case than leaning on room revenue alone.

• Look at revenue per square foot, not just RevPAR. RevPAR can undersell a property that’s optimizing every inch of its footprint for guest experience. Shifting the conversation to total revenue production tells a fuller story of how a property actually performs.

• Small, unconventional buildings can hide big opportunities. Municipal Grand started as a vacant city building that didn’t fit neatly into any traditional real estate category. Being willing to look past a classic hotel site or a classic multifamily building is often where the best deals are found.

• Build the vision before you build the team. Ryan and his partners write an internal concept document before ever reaching out to architects, designers, or branding agencies, so every consultant they bring on is executing a clear point of view rather than shaping one from scratch.

• Keep your circle of decision makers small. The more lenders, investors, and stakeholders touch a project, the more diluted the original vision becomes. Protecting a tight, aligned group of decision makers is what keeps a project’s fingerprint intact as it grows.

  

"If we can't answer what is this here for or why are we doing this, well now you're just a Pinterest board." - Ryan Diggins

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Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Ryan:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-diggins-8a1297a/

• Company Website: https://www.theramblehotel.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

In this episode, Dan sits down with longtime industry counterpart Carl Long for a conversation twenty years in the making. They dig into how relationships compound like interest, why hospitality has resisted disruption from AI, and the vocational program Carl helped build at Richardson High School that's giving students a debt free path into the industry. It is a candid, reflective talk about risk, trust, and what actually keeps people in this business for the long haul.

Takeaways:

• Hospitality is best defined as an active verb, not a noun. It means asking how you can make someone’s experience memorable, comfortable, and safe, whether that is in a hotel, a restaurant, or your own home.

• Relationships compound the same way interest does. The trust built over years of working through hard projects together is what makes the next hard project easier, and it cannot be rushed or faked.

• The best leaders “enter the danger” instead of avoiding it. Being willing to name the uncomfortable issue in the room, rather than letting people talk around it, is often the fastest path to a real solution.

• Hospitality has resisted disruption because it is a high risk, low margin business built on granular, local relationships. AI can automate tasks, but it cannot replace the consultative trust required to get a project delivered on time.

• Vocational paths into hospitality, like the program at Richardson High School, offer a real alternative to college debt. Students can walk out of high school trained, employed, and on a steep career trajectory without ever taking on a loan.

"Those relationships, they have to start somewhere. It comes over time, it comes over effort, and when you do that, relationships are what make great projects easy to move ahead." - Carl Long

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Carl:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-long-pmi/

• Company Website: https://pmiconnect.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Episode Transcript

To celebrate over three years of Defining Hospitality, Dan Ryan pulls together some of the most powerful moments from the show's history into one episode. From the etymology of the word "hospitality" itself to the sacred duty of welcoming strangers, this compilation revisits the ideas that have shaped the conversation around design, service, and business in our industry. Guests reflect on the moments that changed them, the leaps of faith that built their careers, and the small human details, like how a rendering makes people feel, that separate good hospitality from great hospitality. It's a reminder of just how much wisdom has passed through this mic, and why the question "what does hospitality really mean" never gets old.

Takeaways:

• Hospitality is an ancient, sacred duty. The word shares roots with “host,” “guest,” and “hospital,” rooted in the tradition of welcoming and caring for strangers on their journey.

• Design should start with the human experience. The real test isn’t whether something looks good, it’s whether it feels right for the people who will actually use it.

• Respect has to be earned, not assumed. Honoring others and following through consistently builds real credibility, no title can substitute for it.

• Growth often comes from leaps of faith. The biggest career moves rarely follow a straight line, they come from stepping into the unfamiliar without a clear roadmap.

• Forgiveness and gratitude are underrated leadership tools. Letting go of grudges and staying grateful creates space to lead with more clarity. This work is heart work, not brain surgery.

"It wasn't about, hey, we have these great finishes on the walls. It was about what does it feel like to be in that place." - Bruno Viterbo

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with The Guests:

• Bruno Viterbo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-viterbo/

• Chelsea Hershelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-hershelman-a0639656/

• Eileen Madigan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileenamadiganasid/

• Ian Sharpe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianstuartsharpe/

• John Duffield: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjduffield/

• John O’Sullivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-o-sullivan-6719551/

• Margot Stern: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margot-stern-67a0a97/

• Steve Fortunato:https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-fortunato-3b990516/

• Dan Ryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

Gary Brandeis, CEO of Scholar Hotels, joins Dan Ryan to talk about a strategy most hoteliers never even consider: betting everything on college towns. Gary explains why a large public university like Penn State makes for one of the most stable demand drivers in hospitality, and how his company has grown to nearly 1,000 rooms in State College alone. The conversation dives into his real estate investor first, hospitality operator second philosophy, the wild 16 month renovation of the historic Nittany Lion Inn, and his new Regulation A offering that lets everyday fans, not just accredited investors, own a piece of the hotels they love to visit. It is a masterclass in finding your niche, going deep instead of wide, and turning community passion into capital.

Takeaways:

• Gary treats his company as a real estate investment firm first and a hospitality company second. He believes if you get the real estate deal right, everything downstream, from staffing to guest experience, gets easier to execute well.

• University markets are busy far beyond football weekends. Penn State alone drives demand nearly 11 months a year through move ins, arts festivals, high school campus tours, and the school’s academic calendar.

• Gary’s thesis is that income backed by a stable public university deserves a lower cap rate than income from typical hospitality demand drivers. Predictability, not just profitability, is what makes an asset more valuable.

• Choosing the right design partner can define a project’s success. Gary credits his relationship with architect Craig Kolatian, someone willing to design to budget and hold him accountable, as central to the Nittany Lion Inn’s transformation.

• Regulation A offerings let companies raise capital from non-accredited investors, not just the wealthy few. Gary sees it as a way to let passionate fans of a university actually own a piece of the hotels they already love to stay in.

"If we don't make a profit and we don't invest well, our ability to provide a good experience for our guests is significantly hindered." - Gary Brandeis

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Gary:

• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeis/

• Guests Website: https://www.scholarhh.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

In this episode, Dan Ryan sits down with Michelle Finn, longtime industry fixture and the driving force behind Alis Design Plus, to trace the evolution of hospitality trade events from HD Expo's chaotic 1990s launch (earthquakes, riots and all) to today's design and investment ecosystem. Michelle unpacks her "dinner party" philosophy of hosting, the power of relationships over transactions, and how she scaled that intimacy from a dozen guests to thousands of attendees without losing the human touch. The conversation moves through mentorship, the rise of owner involvement in design, the new Alis Cala expansion into the Caribbean, and even a few fun detours into what a Vogue or Garden and Guns hotel might look like.

Takeaways:

• Great hosting scales the same way whether it’s twelve people at a dinner table or twelve thousand people at a trade show. The fundamentals never change: anticipate needs, create the right environment, and make people feel seen.

• Word of mouth is the most powerful and hardest metric to engineer. Trust and reputation compound over time, and there is no shortcut to earning them.

• Identifying a market need before it is obvious is a repeatable skill. Michelle built HD Expo, BDNY and Alis Design Plus by watching where the industry was headed, not where it had already been.

• Resilience is built through relationships, not avoiding setbacks. Canceled shows, earthquakes and a citywide verdict-day shutdown did not end her career, the trust she had built with customers and leadership did.

• New attendees get the most value from events by being intentional. Set a goal to meet ten people you do not know, attend the educational sessions, and stay open to the unplanned conversations too.

"Identify a need, see something that doesn't exist. That's pretty much what we did." - Michelle Finn

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Michelle:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alis-design-plus

• Guests Website: https://www.alisdesignplus.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

In this episode, Dan sits down with Adrienne Scribner, principal and managing director of hospitality at Baskerville, to unpack what three decades in hotel design has taught her about the unglamorous work that actually makes projects succeed. They dig into why there is no "coordination fairy" waiting to catch your mistakes, how typing specs into a purchasing system in the early '90s built the foundation for her entire career, and why mentoring the next generation means being approachable rather than intimidating.

Takeaways:

• There is no coordination fairy waiting to fix what falls through the cracks. If a task doesn’t have a clear owner, the job defaults back to you. Figuring that out early saves everyone from an expensive surprise later.

• Skipping the model room might feel like a time saver, but it rarely is. It’s far cheaper to fix a problem on one lamp than to find the same issue in 300 rooms. That small upfront step gives ownership a real preview of what’s coming.

• Great mentorship has less to do with authority and more to do with approachability. Walk your team through exactly how you solve a problem, but stay open to a faster or better way. People learn more when they feel safe asking questions instead of pretending they already know.

• Brand standards bend more than most people assume, especially once you understand them well enough to have an actual conversation instead of just following a checklist. A clear reason and a good relationship can open doors that seem locked from the outside. Knowing the rules well enough to explain them beats knowing them well enough to just follow them.

• Inspiration images and concept boards are a starting point, never the finished plan. What matters is understanding why a client likes something, then making it work given the budget, the building, and sometimes the sunlight needs of a hydrangea. Reality always gets a vote in the final design.

"Your reward for good work is more work." - Adrienne Scribner

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Adrienne:

• Adrienne’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrienne-scribner-265b045/

• Company’s Website: https://www.baskervill.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

Dan Ryan sat down with Alexa d'Argence, senior interior designer at Ken Fulk Inc., to explore what it really means to design spaces people fall in love with. Alexa pulls back the curtain on KFI's work at the Huntington Hotel in San Francisco and the Beverly Hills Hotel. sharing how a strong concept and cinematic vision guide every decision from the big picture down to the smallest detail. The conversation gets reflective too, touching on why slowing down is sometimes the only way forward, and what it means to truly love the work you do.

Takeaways:

• Start every project with a visioning workshop. Getting all stakeholders aligned on goals and values upfront saves time, reduces costly misalignment, and gives your team a clear trajectory before a single design decision is made.

• Niching down feels limiting but it’s actually freeing. The more clearly you define who you are and what you do, the easier it becomes to deliver exceptional work and attract the right clients.

• Branding isn’t a finishing touch, it’s the foundation. When a strong brand identity is established at the start, every design decision from architecture to case goods has a through line to follow.

• Build sustainability into your values, not just your specs. Committing to it in practice means applying it across every decision you make, including the ones that seem small.

• Don’t fake expertise you haven’t earned yet. Lean into the people around you who can teach, ask honest questions, and let the learning happen rather than performing a confidence you don’t have.

  

"It's a calling, a vocation for me. So there's a lot of love that goes into it. This is a job where you are working long hours, and if you don't love it, you're gonna burn out." - Alexa d'Argence

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Alexa:

• Alexa’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexadargence/

• Company’s Website: https://www.kenfulk.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Audio Links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

This week, Dan Ryan sits down with Alex Kuby, Associate Principal at Dyelot and a lifelong student of how built environments shape human experience. From his early days at HBA in Santa Monica to helping lead a studio through a full brand transformation, Alex has spent his career asking what it really means to make people feel seen, supported, and cared for inside a space. Together, Dan and Alex explore approachable hospitality, the power of integrated services, and what niching down actually looks like when you are doing it from the inside.

Takeaways:

• Start every project with a visioning workshop. Getting all stakeholders aligned on goals and values upfront saves time, reduces costly misalignment, and gives your team a clear trajectory before a single design decision is made.

• Niching down feels limiting but it’s actually freeing. The more clearly you define who you are and what you do, the easier it becomes to deliver exceptional work and attract the right clients.

• Branding isn’t a finishing touch, it’s the foundation. When a strong brand identity is established at the start, every design decision from architecture to case goods has a through line to follow.

• Build sustainability into your values, not just your specs. Committing to it in practice means applying it across every decision you make, including the ones that seem small.

  Don’t fake expertise you haven’t earned yet. Lean into the people around you who can teach, ask honest questions, and let the learning happen rather than performing a confidence you don’t have.

“Hospitality is the humanity in the built environment, that is the way in which we express care and facilitate all of those great high touch point, high emotional engagements that the best hospitality spaces are known for.” - Alex Kuby

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Thomas:

• Alex’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akuby/

• Company’s Website: https://dyelot.com/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Audio Links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

Dan Ryan talks with Thomas Paterson, founder and lighting designer at Lux Populi, about one of hospitality's most overlooked design disciplines… light. Thomas explains why lighting designers need a seat at the table from day one, not after the drawings are done, and shares his take on how light shapes a space's emotional experience. The conversation covers the gap between the 2% of projects that engage a true lighting specialist and the 30-50% that probably should, what it means to design from the inside out, his unconventional path from Australia to Mexico City, the sustainability case for old-school screw-in bulbs, and why asking the right question at the right moment is the smartest move a lighting designer can make.

Takeaways:

• Bring your lighting designer in early, even before architectural drawings exist. You’ll get more value from questions about the experience and atmosphere than from someone reviewing finished plans.

• Think about lighting in terms of contrast and tone rather than fixture types. Ask how much contrast the space needs and how warm or cool it should feel for its purpose.

• Choose screw-in light bulbs over integrated LED fixtures whenever possible. When integrated systems fail, you have to replace the entire fixture instead of just the bulb.

• Use lighting as an editing tool to emphasize what you want guests to notice and conceal what you don’t. Small choices like dimming over mechanical ducts can transform how a space feels.

• Render your spaces in both day and night mode during design. If you only see one, you’re probably missing how lighting will shape the guest experience at different times.

"Lighting design is an editing tool. Emphasize, de-emphasize, reveal, conceal." - Thomas Paterson

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Thomas:

• Thomas’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tpaterson/

• Companies Website: https://luxpopuli.com/New/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Audio Links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

This week, Dan Ryan sits down with Larry Traxler, a 30+ year veteran of architecture and design, former SVP Global Head of Architecture & Design at Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and founder of Traxworks Hospitality Collaborative, to make the case that great hospitality design isn’t about replicating what’s trending, it’s about understanding place, people, and purpose. From breaking ceramic tiles on job sites in Japan to navigating 102 countries and opening 1,000 hotels a year at Hilton, Larry has spent his career building bridges between creative vision and business reality, and now, finally free to say no, he’s going deeper than ever. 🏠

Takeaways:

• Start every project with a narrative. Before you pick a material, a mood board, or a color palette, define the story. The design follows; the narrative leads.

• Move toward the business case, not away from it. Crossing over to the developer or brand side isn’t selling out. It’s how you gain the control to actually protect and execute the creative vision.

• Resilience isn’t optional. When the market turns, put your head down and do the hard work. Complaining about bad timing has never moved a project forward.

• Sameness is the real threat to hospitality. If your luxury mountain resort looks like your beach hotel, you’re already losing. Designing for place and cultural specificity is what keeps guests loyal.

• Don’t wait for AI to catch up to you. Treat it as a toolkit, not a threat. The creatives who stay essential are the ones who use it to iterate faster while bringing taste, context, and cultural judgment that machines can’t replicate.

  

“It’s those people that have a fear of the future that get held back. Sometimes you just have to jump off the bridge and leap into those entrepreneurial waters.” - Larry Traxler

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Larry:

• Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrytraxler/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Audio Links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

This week, Dan Ryan sits down with John O'Sullivan, hospitality executive, published poet, painter, and Regional Vice President & General Manager at Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, to make the case that great hospitality isn't a service standard, it's a soul practice. A GM at just 25 who started peeling potatoes in a small Irish hotel at 12, John has spent over three decades opening and leading luxury properties across seven countries, building a career on the radical belief that belonging is borderless, failure is just success in progress, and heart intelligence will always outperform artificial intelligence. 🏠

Takeaways:

• Don’t just manage people, create space for them. The leaders who have the biggest impact are usually the ones who don’t know they’re doing it, because they’re acting from the heart, not from a need for credit.

• Treat creativity as a business tool, not a luxury. Business alone is a tunnel; business paired with creativity is a funnel. The two feed each other if you let them coexist instead of competing.

• Surround yourself with people who are better than you. This isn’t a cliché, it’s a survival strategy, especially when you’re young and leading people who have more experience than you do.

• Empower your team to fix problems without asking permission. Remove the roadblocks, replace what’s broken, apologize sincerely, and then go learn why it happened. That’s the whole process.

• Clear your hard drive. Forgive everyone, stop carrying mistakes that have already taught you what they can, and keep only the lessons. Victims ask “what if.” Leaders ask “what did we learn?”

  

"Hospitality is the almost sacred act of seeing another human being and saying, without words, that you authentically belong here." - John O’Sullivan

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with John:

• John’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-o-sullivan-6719551/

• John’s Company’s Website: https://www.fourseasons.com/puntamita/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

The opening montage played like a highlight reel: “This is where capital meets execution.” “Opportunity favors investors who sharpen their edge.” “Drive alpha and unlock value to lead the next cycle.” The music hit right. The energy in the Marriott Marquis ballroom was high. Two thousand two hundred delegates. Seven hundred equity investors. Alexi Khajavi called it the strongest investor attendance cohort in forty-eight years of this conference.

Then, one minute later, Alexi said something quieter: “Capital is not flowing broadly.”

That sentence was the first gear of the day. Because everything that followed, across four sessions and roughly eight hours, lived inside the tension between those two ideas. Smart capital is here. And it is pointed at a very specific part of the market.

The K

Anthony Scaramucci, fondly called the Mooch, named it twenty minutes into his fireside chat. “We are operating in a K, ladies and gentlemen.”

The data backed him up. The economist on the main stage showed the split: upscale and upper midscale demand is up 9.3% relative to 2019. Midscale and economy? Still down 8%. Consumer sentiment hit the lowest reading in 75 years in April. But spending from the top hasn’t slowed. Fifty-one percent of leisure travel spending in lodging comes from households making $150,000 or more. That’s 19% of American households driving more than half the revenue.

That is bananas to me.

The top 1% has seen nearly a doubling of net worth as a share of household income. Hotels with an ADR over $1,000 have tripled since 2019. Wealth has not tripled since 2019. (Barbara Muckermann dropped that line on the luxury panel, and it landed.)

Meanwhile, international visitation to the U.S. is sliding. Overseas travel is down 4.3% through April, on top of a 2.5% decline last year. Canadian travel fell 25% in 2025 and another 11% in the first four months of 2026. RevPAR is forecast to grow 2.8% this year, but when FF&E costs are up 25% and labor is up 40 to 50% since 2019, you start to wonder how much of that growth is real.

Scaramucci put it plainly: “The median income in the United States right now is eighty-three thousand dollars. The median house price is four hundred and thirty-two thousand. You can’t buy the house.” And then, because he’s Scaramucci: “Knicks in five.”

(He also said the Constitution hasn’t been meaningfully amended in 59 years, that the country is “very, very fixable,” and that he got fired from the White House in eleven days, not ten. Don’t hurt his feelings.)

What Do Guests Actually Need?

The luxury panels asked the right question. Jack Ezon, who doesn’t need a microphone to fill a room, said it best: “Ninety-nine percent of what we sell, people don’t need. The only thing they really need is to feel loved.”

Barbara Muckermann from Kempinski pushed back: people want to leave in a better state than they came in. But then she said the quieter thing: “If I cannot explain why you should come to our hotel versus another, I’m just selling a bed. And then Airbnb is the clear winner.”

That’s the tension at the top of the K. The capital is flowing to luxury. The branded residential pipeline has 1,077 projects globally (the U.S. accounts for 23% of that market). But the proliferation of luxury brands is outpacing the consumer’s ability to tell them apart. Tiffany Cooper from Mandarin Oriental asked the obvious follow-up: is there a bubble?

What is separating the winners? Not marble. Tiffany said luxury has moved away from opulence and excess toward “approachability of service, connecting with people on a very human level.” Jake Pinsof from Marriott talked about dedicated directors of culture and entertainment at W and Edition properties. Leanne Harwood from IHG made the point I keep coming back to: programming is everything. “If we don’t bring the brand to life with active programming, we’re not going to get the rate, and then we don’t get the revenue, and then it just becomes a whopping great big spiral down to the bottom.”

The metric is shifting too. RevPAR used to be the only number that mattered. In luxury and lifestyle, TRevPAR (total revenue per available room) is becoming the benchmark, because so much of the revenue lives in food and beverage, wellness, experiences, and programming. Not just the room.

But I’ll be honest: I’m not 100% sold on this from a valuation perspective. From my experience, RevPAR still outweighs TRevPAR. I’d like the latter to be true, especially in complicated experiential properties. But I think the former still rules the roost. I’d love to be wrong here.

Sweating the Asset

I really enjoyed “Sweating the Asset,” moderated by Esther Hertzfeld. Sarah Gulla from Pebblebrook, Paul McElroy from Highgate, and Jess Conroy from ROH.

Paul said something that sounds obvious until you sit with it: the most impactful investment in a guestroom right now might be better blackout drapes, better soundproofing, and a better mattress. Not necessarily a flashy lobby bar. Not a new spa. A good night’s sleep. “When they leave, they don’t feel like they need a vacation from their vacation. They actually feel restored.”

I’ve never heard an asset manager talk about blackout drapes before. Thank you, Paul. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer.

Sarah made the FF&E point that anyone in the casegoods business should hear: “If you buy good enough quality case goods, you can refurbish them, you can change the toppers, and they can last way longer than a typical lifecycle.” Pebblebrook is challenging brand PIPs on exactly this basis: is a renovation driven by condition, by guest demand, or just by the calendar? That’s a conversation that saves owners real money, and it’s one BERMANFALK has with owners every day.

Jess nailed the operational side: “If you have old piping and you put pristine water through it, the water gets mucky.” Revenue generation is great. But if the financial infrastructure underneath the hotel can’t move the dollars efficiently, the top line never hits the bottom line.

And aside from the Mooch’s Knicks fever dream, Jeff Stulmaker from KHP Capital Partners made the best statement of the day. When asked how he gets LPs to invest in private hotels versus public REITs, his answer was direct: “We do a public market equivalent analysis. How does an investment with us work versus the public markets over the same duration? We crush them every time.” (I like that line.)

Hooray for some recent examples: One Hotel Seattle, Hotel Viking, The Jay in San Francisco, and a couple more in development that I’ll keep on the down low.

The Edge

“Sharpening the Edge” is the conference theme this year. After Day One, I think the edge is simpler than people are making it.

The edge is knowing which side of the K you’re building for. The edge is active programming, not just beautiful product. The edge is a good night’s sleep (seriously). The edge is case goods built well enough to refinish instead of replace. The edge is asking whether your guest needs to be transformed, or just needs to feel loved.

I’m curious to find somebody who’s solved for the lower part of the K, because I heard the phrase “pitchforks and torches” more than three times throughout the day. Gilded ages can be fun, but the hangovers are not: hello, Marie Antoinette. Hello, Teddy Roosevelt and the trust busters. I heard “let them eat cake” more than twice across the sessions. That should make us all pause.

And for the people who actually deliver the guest experience (the designers, the purchasing agents, the manufacturers), the edge is execution speed. When the renovation window opens, it opens once. A manufacturer set up to deliver casegoods, seating, and a model room fast enough to keep pace with the construction calendar is the edge that shows up in the guest review, not the earnings call.

More tomorrow from Day Two.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

Most firms put their names on the door. David Shove-Brown put his philosophy there instead. Fifteen years, two offices, and over 70% repeat business, built not on a pitch deck, but on the belief that human connection is the only strategy that actually compounds. This week, Dan Ryan sits down with the partner at //3877 on why your tombstone won't say which hotels you designed, what a Green Beret father teaches you about building in uncertain territory, and why losing a mentor was the best thing that ever happened to his leadership. 🏠

Takeaways:

• Reframe networking as relationship building. People can sense when you’re selling, but trust compounds over time, and over 70% of David’s work comes from repeat clients and referrals.

• Build a peer group with your competitors. Sharing knowledge on fees, proposals, and market trends with similar firms removes the vacuum of entrepreneurship and makes the whole industry stronger.

• When you lose a mentor, become one. Instead of looking for a replacement, turn what you’ve learned into guidance for the next person coming up behind you.

• Listening is a skill, and it’s more valuable than talking. Ask hard questions like why you didn’t get the job, then actually absorb the answer instead of just checking the box.

• Let your team run with things. Micromanaging stunts growth for everyone; the firm’s best leaps forward came from trusting people and stepping back.

• Normalize mistakes on your team. Good mentorship means guiding direction, not dictating method; people grow faster when they know screwing up is part of the process.

• Keep perspective on what actually matters. Your tombstone won’t list your projects, so invest in people, relationships, and community the way you invest in your work.

  

"Networking always had this underlying idea of sales, we flipped it. For us, it's really relationship building." - David Shove-Brown

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with David:

• David’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsb3877/

• David’s Company’s Website: https://www.3877.design/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386

Episode Transcript

Most designers pick a market. Christine McGinnis picked a direction on the map and just kept going. A Canadian who plotted six countries in six years and never stopped, she's spent two decades designing storied hospitality spaces, from a termite eaten Bangkok mansion blessed by monks, to a beachside Aloft in Bali, to a restaurant on a volcanic island off the coast of Africa where she drafted every line in Spanish. This week, Dan Ryan sits down with a globe circling designer who got the hospitality bug at the Waldorf on the worst day in recent history, to talk about why "why" is the only question that matters, and what the return of film cameras tells us about the future of human centered design. 🏠

Takeaways:

• Ask "why" before anything else. Most teams rush past it, but that one question will save you more headaches than any brief or budget ever will.

• The most innovative work comes from assembling people who don't belong together on paper, resist the obvious hire every time.

• You only need one word to define great hospitality: openness. It's not about doors or decor, it's about whether people feel genuinely welcomed the moment they walk in.

• People come once for the design. They come back for how you made them feel. Build for the return visit, not the first impression.

• Just go. Whether it's a new country or a new market, inertia is the only real obstacle the paperwork is always figured out.

• Be present wherever you land. If you're always yearning for somewhere else, you'll miss everything the place in front of you is trying to teach you.

• Pay attention to the analog craving. When younger generations reach for film cameras and darkrooms, they're telling you exactly what's missing from the spaces you're designing, serendipity, texture, and the chance for a wonderful mistake.

"People come to your joint once for the design, but they come back for the service and how you made them feel." - Christine McGinnis

Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Impact estimates vary by project. For the most up-to-date figures, please refer to the transcript

Connect with Christine:

• Christine’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemcginnis/

• Wave Design’s Website: https://www.wave.global/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by BERMANFALK

https://www.bermanfalk.com/

Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/