Brand Insiders

Hospitality Net

The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving, varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, amenities, heritage, and many other attributes. For hoteliers who live and breathe this industry, this variety is a rich tapestry to help travelers of all types discover new destinations. For everyone else, this multiplicity can be dauntingly confusing! Brand Insiders gives a voice to innovative hotel brands. Episodes focus on what makes hotel brands unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. It’s a series for all to learn about industry trends, trendsetting brands, growing categories and emerging markets.

  1. Jul 28

    Darshana Jariwala of Bridgeton on Connecting the Dots Between Brand, Product, and Experience

    Darshana Jariwala grew up watching her family run hotels the Gujarati way — every guest honored, every hour of the day, no exceptions. Before she ever heard the words "Center of Excellence," she already knew what hospitality was supposed to feel like. The question she has spent her career answering is why so few hotel brands manage to deliver it consistently. At Bridgeton Hospitality, she built the function designed to close that gap — not a department, but a strategy for making sure brand thinking is present from the very first product decision, not bolted on at the end. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Darshana sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to trace the line from a Gujarati family motel near St. Louis to Walker Hotels in Manhattan, Marram in Montauk, and Dawn Ranch in the Sonoma redwoods. She talks about what 14 years at PepsiCo, P&G, and Colgate taught her about connecting dots across a complex organization, why sustainability only works when it also makes business sense, and what she thinks hospitality is quietly getting wrong about AI. In this episode Why brand strategy has to start with the product, not after itWhat Atithi Devobhava means and why it still runs through everything Bridgeton doesThe 56% statistic that made the Green Key certification decision easy at Dawn RanchWhy the community Darshana is building at Marram cannot be replicated anywhere else — only the idea canWhat AI gets right in hospitality, and what the industry keeps skippingWhy she thinks the next big hospitality trend looks a lot like farmingA few lines from Darshana "Brand and marketing coming in as an afterthought of building the product — that's what we need to change.""It is not always about doing the right thing. I'm also the champion of where you're doing sustainability, how you're doing it, and what's the feasibility of doing it.""At the end of the day, this business is about people. We have to focus on that."Guest: Darshana Jariwala leads the Center of Excellence at Bridgeton Hospitality, a New York City-based hotel company with a portfolio spanning Walker Hotels, Marram, Dawn Ranch, and Journey, among others. bridgeton.com Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. New episode monthly.

  2. Jul 15

    Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter of Urban Cowboy on Nostalgia, Community, and Building Hotels That Feel Like Home

    Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter met working in New York real estate and ended up running a bed and breakfast out of Lyon's own Brooklyn townhome instead. What started as a favor for friends' parents turned into a magazine feature within six months, and the two never spent a dollar on marketing after that. Twelve years later, they have four hotels, a standalone bar, and a brand built entirely on the idea that a place should feel like a home you happen to be sharing with strangers. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Jersey and Lyon sit down with Adam Mogelonsky to trace Urban Cowboy from that first Brooklyn townhome to Nashville, the Catskills, and Denver. They talk about designing spaces as personal reflections rather than templates, why every historic building they take on becomes its own mechanical and structural puzzle, and how a tagline like "arrive as strangers, leave as friends" turned into a genuine pattern of guests who met by the fire and ended up married. They also get into where Gen Z drinking habits are pushing the beverage program, and drop a hint about a Hemingway-inspired property still in the works. In this episode How an organic Instagram following built an international brand without a single paid adWhy no two rooms across any Urban Cowboy property look the same, and why that is deliberateThe real cost multiplier on HVAC, plumbing, and electric when converting century-old buildings into hotelsWhy the properties skip in-room TVs in favor of fire pits, saunas, and communal parlorsHow the non-alcoholic cocktail program in Nashville is evolving past an afterthoughtWhat a phone-free discount taught them about guests and digital detoxA few lines from Jersey and Lyon "We look at them as albums. Each one is a representation of where we are creatively, what we're looking for.""The buildings tell us a lot. The spaces themselves give us a lot.""Arrive as strangers, leave as friends. It's not a cheesy thing."Guests: Jersey Banks and Lyon Porter are the co-founders of Urban Cowboy, a hospitality brand with properties in Brooklyn, Nashville, the Catskills, and Denver, built around design-led, community-driven guest experiences. urbancowboy.com Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

  3. Jun 23

    Stefano Cuoco of Miramis on Blending Italian Soul with Swedish Precision, and Why Hospitality's Future Is Entertainment

    Stefano Cuoco started his hospitality career peeling apples in the pastry kitchen of the Hilton Rome, then worked his way through Starwood and Rocco Forte before private equity–backed hotels showed him a different side of the business. When Miramis Hospitality and Entertainment, a Swedish company built on a shared love of Sweden and the Tuscan coast, came calling, he found a project still being shaped from the ground up. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Stefano sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to walk through Miramis's dual identity across the Tuscan Argentario coast and Stockholm. He talks about pairing hospitality with a historic live entertainment arena, why a tomato dish can carry eight different cooking techniques, and what it means to treat sustainability as culture rather than marketing. He also opens up about a 260-year-old hotel where the Hasselback potato was invented, and a new Stockholm venue built to host a full philharmonic orchestra. In this episode How a shared passion for Sweden and Tuscany shaped the entire Miramis portfolioWhy LA ROQQA's wine list carries only Tuscan labels, and why that was a deliberate choiceThe story behind Torre di Cala Piccola's restoration, ghost includedWhy La Capitana stays at 12 suites instead of scaling upHow Cirkus Arena and the new Gasometer venue turn entertainment into a hospitality assetWhat 15,000 saved plastic bottles reveal about how Miramis defines sustainabilityA few lines from Stefano "It's not about pillows and plates and beds. It is really about owning the guest experience.""Using local product is not just a kind of marketing tool, it's a state of mind.""Technology should support us, not replace the emotional guest connection."Guest: Stefano Cuoco is the CEO of Miramis Hospitality and Entertainment, a Swedish-born hospitality group with properties across the Tuscan coast and Stockholm, including LA ROQQA, Torre di Cala Piccola, La Capitana, Hasselbacken, and Cirkus Arena. Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

  4. Jun 9

    Aslihan Ozgur of TheLifeCo on the Caribbean's First Longevity Village, Physician-Led Detox, and the Future of Health-Integrated Hospitality

    Aslihan Ozgur sits on the board of A'ila Developments, a one-billion-dollar project on Saint Lucia built around a concept still rare in hospitality: a longevity village. At its center is The LifeCo St. Lucia, the largest resort yet from a physician-led detox and longevity brand with a 65 percent repeat visit rate built over twenty years and fifty-five thousand guests. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Aslihan sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to unpack how a hundred-key wellness resort fits into a much larger master plan of three resorts, five hundred longevity residences, and twenty restaurants. She talks through the clinical side of medically supervised fasting, the full-time team of doctors and nurses behind every guest program, and why guest education matters as much as the stay itself. She also details some of the more advanced technology on site, from AI-guided fitness devices to stem cell therapy. In this episode Why A'ila Developments is calling itself the Caribbean's first longevity villageThe two medically supervised fasting paths offered at The LifeCo St. Lucia, and how they are monitoredHow autophagy drives the program's approach to cellular repairWhat separates The LifeCo's clinical depth from a typical hotel spaHow AI-assisted fitness devices are personalizing recovery and strength trainingWhy 93 branded wellness products are designed to keep guests engaged between visitsA few lines from Aslihan "What drives us is a transformation the guests can actually feel and measure.""Fasting is only half of the equation. How you break the fast, it matters just as much.""We are not only here for the guests, we are here for the St. Lucia too."Guest: Aslihan Ozgur sits on the board of directors of A'ila Developments in Saint Lucia, home to The LifeCo St. Lucia, a physician-led longevity and detox resort founded by Ersin Pamuksüzer. Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

  5. May 26

    Enrique Calderon of Posadas on Mexico's Hospitality Boom, Experiential Innovation, and Building Brands That Outlast the Competition

    Enrique Calderon has spent 27 years at Posadas, Mexico's largest hotel operator, and now runs operations across more than 200 hotels in over 60 destinations as its COO. From a company that once called its first hotel Fiesta Palace because of the nightclubs and weddings inside it, Posadas has grown into a portfolio spanning midscale, upscale, and ultra-luxury brands, all while staying rooted in a single country. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Enrique sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to walk through Mexico's regional diversity, from Oaxaca's mezcal culture to Yucatan's gastronomy, and how Posadas builds brands around specific traveler moments rather than just room types. He talks about the five senses design behind Live Aqua, the family-focused water parks at Fiesta Americana Funeeq, and the life celebration concept behind Devossion. He also gets into the Amma culture behind guest surprises, a 30-hotel development pipeline, and how Posadas is expanding into the Caribbean. In this episode How Posadas built distinct brands around specific traveler moments instead of one-size-fits-all hotelsWhy Live Aqua is designed as a five-senses experience from the moment of check-inWhat the Amma culture is, and how it built an 80,000-member fan community around one propertyThe thinking behind new brands Devossion, Explorean, and Fiesta Americana FuneeqWhy Posadas relaunched its flagship Fiesta brand with a more efficient prototypeHow the Posadas Foundation supports employee families and disaster recovery in MexicoA few lines from Enrique "We're not longer selling rooms, we are selling experiences that include the room.""There's a room for international standard with a little topicalization of what is truly the feel and the vibe of the country.""We see that bright zones after the mountain."Guest: Enrique Calderon is the COO of Posadas, Mexico's largest hotel operator, with brands including Fiesta Americana, Live Aqua, Fiesta Inn, Devossion, and Explorean across more than 200 hotels. Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences. Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

  6. May 19

    Jason Zvatora of OUTRIGGER Resorts & Hotels on Cultural Authenticity, Commercial Strategy, and Building the World's Most Iconic Beachfront Brand

    Jason Zvatora leads commercial strategy and performance for Outrigger Resorts & Hotels across Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean, a brand born in 1960s Waikiki that has stayed exclusively focused on beachfront resorts ever since. With properties spanning Hawaii, Fiji, Mauritius, the Maldives, and soon Thailand, the brand's growth strategy still runs through one core idea: cultural authenticity over standardized delivery. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Jason sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to unpack how Outrigger builds a distinct sense of place into every destination, from Fijian chiefly village architecture to luxury longtail boats in Thailand. He talks about balancing family and romance personas within the same resort, why food and beverage makes up more revenue than rooms at some properties, and how the brand is adapting its content strategy for AI-driven travel search. He also gets into geopolitical disruption, seasonal staff exchanges between properties, and what a 45 percent annual return rate at one Fiji resort says about guest loyalty. In this episode Why Outrigger calls its staff hosts and its guests family, not customersHow master planning separates romance and family personas without losing a shared sense of communityWhy 54 percent of Outrigger's revenue comes from food, beverage, and activities rather than roomsHow rerouting Thai chefs to a Fiji property during low season created an authentic guest experienceWhat Outrigger discovered about content gaps when testing how LLMs answer travel questionsHow diversified source markets let the brand pivot quickly during regional travel disruptionsA few lines from Jason "Without a top line, there's no bottom line.""The more our guests stay with us, the more they love us.""We can never let a crisis hold us back, because in every crisis comes opportunity as well as challenge."Guest: Jason Zvatora is Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Performance for Outrigger Resorts & Hotels, overseeing properties across Fiji, Mauritius, the Maldives, and Thailand.  Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.  Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. New episode monthly.

  7. Feb 10

    Markos Chaidemenos of Canaves Collection on Family Leadership, Nature, and Sustainability

    Markos Chaidemenos runs Canaves Collection as a family-owned business built on the idea that Greek hospitality cannot be scripted, it comes from the people themselves. On Santorini, an island with sharp edges and strict constraints, he treats luxury as something that has to sit lightly in the landscape rather than dominate it. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Markos sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to talk about what boutique scale allows a family-run brand to do that larger operators cannot, and why proximity between guests, teams, and decisions matters as much as design. He explains the thinking behind Canaves Epitome, from volcanic stone landscaping to a goal he calls optical silence, and draws a clear line between sustainability guests can see and the infrastructure they never notice but still feel. In this episode Why Chaidemenos sees Greek hospitality as a temperament rather than a set of standardsHow family ownership shapes long-term decisions about protecting a destination brandWhat optical silence means for the design of Canaves EpitomeWhy boutique scale creates unavoidable accountability, and why that is a strengthThe difference between visible sustainability and the technology working behind the wallsHow restraint, in scale, design, and operations, defines the Canaves guest experienceA few lines from Markos "Greek people are the very center of Greek hospitality.""I think that this is true luxury, to be in an environment not only with the view and the design, but to be in an environment of nature.""There is what you see and there is also what you do not see."Guest: Markos Chaidemenos leads Canaves Collection, a family-owned luxury hospitality group on Santorini known for properties including Canaves Oia and Canaves Epitome.  Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.  Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers.

  8. Jan 27

    Mark Owens on Colliers International and the New Economics of Hotel Deals

    Mark Owens leads the hospitality practice group at Colliers International as Vice Chair, working across capital markets, debt advisory, structured finance, and joint venture equity for hotel owners navigating a market where operating performance and financing costs are pulling in opposite directions. In this episode of Brand Insiders, Mark sits down with Adam Mogelonsky to unpack how the pandemic accelerated demand for experiential and lesser-known destinations, and why brands like Aman have proven the value of building where there is nothing else around. He talks through what RevPAR does and does not capture, how cap rates are behaving amid competing valuation pressures, and what owners need to understand before heading into a refinancing conversation. He also breaks down how ESG considerations, from green bonds to CPACE financing, are shaping real capital decisions rather than just brand positioning. In this episode How Covid broadened institutional demand toward secondary markets with genuine experiential appealWhy RevPAR alone misses the resilience and positioning behind a hotel's rateWhat is driving the gap between recovered operating performance and reset capital costsWhy refinancing today is a feasibility and lender appetite conversation, not just a rate conversationHow green bonds and CPACE financing are changing the economics of certain hotel dealsWhy Owens sees ESG as fundamentally a capital story, not only a values storyA few lines from Mark "We span the gamut.""There are a number of markets that may have been thought of as second, third tier, that have unmatched beauty and aren't well known.""It is dollars and cents."Guest: Mark Owens is Vice Chair and Leader of the Hospitality Practice Group at Colliers International, advising hotel owners on capital markets, debt structuring, and operational strategy. Host: Adam Mogelonsky is a hospitality strategist, author, and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting, focused on helping hotels build stronger brands and better guest experiences.  Brand Insiders is a Hospitality Net original. The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving — varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, and heritage. Brand Insiders gives a voice to the innovative brands shaping that landscape, exploring what makes each one unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. New episode monthly.

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About

The world of hotel brands is beautifully diverse and constantly evolving, varying by guest profile, scale, region, design, amenities, heritage, and many other attributes. For hoteliers who live and breathe this industry, this variety is a rich tapestry to help travelers of all types discover new destinations. For everyone else, this multiplicity can be dauntingly confusing! Brand Insiders gives a voice to innovative hotel brands. Episodes focus on what makes hotel brands unique, how their operational playbooks generate returns for owners, and how they are meeting the evolving needs of modern travelers. It’s a series for all to learn about industry trends, trendsetting brands, growing categories and emerging markets.

Information

  • Creator
    Hospitality Net
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Brand Insiders
  • Show Website
    Brand Insiders