269 | Poolside Peep Show

Sara Bacon is the founder of Opulist, a visual discovery platform for design-forward hotels, restaurants, and bars. With a background in hospitality, marketing, and PR, she helps travelers find places that feel as good as they look. Susan and Sara talk about beautiful spaces, scroll-stopping social content, and small design changes with a big impact. What You'll Learn - Why atmosphere influences where travelers spend their time - How design-forward destinations make the cut - What hotel photography often overlooks - How to make social posts worth saving and sharing - Why lighting deserves a second look - What makes a space memorable without a major renovation - Where historic buildings and hotel lobbies could be headed Key takeaway: Memorable hospitality experiences come from thoughtful design, compelling imagery, and personal service, not necessarily a luxury budget. Sara Bacon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-bacon-96919a43 Opulist https://www.opulist.co/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Kyle Suri is the co-founder of Acrylic, a Montreal-based company that collaborates with artists to create robot-painted artwork for hotels and other spaces. After working in finance and venture capital, he traded spreadsheets for brushstrokes and a very different kind of production line. Susan and Kyle talk about robotic reproductions, artist royalties, and remarkable hotel rooms. What You'll Learn - How robots recreate paintings one brushstroke at a time - Why artists might welcome a mechanical assistant - What separates robot-painted art from a traditional print - Who gets paid when a painting is reproduced - How local art can tell a neighborhood's story without painting its landmarks - Where to spend a tight hotel art budget - When to bring artwork into the hotel design process Key takeaway: Thoughtful hotel art starts with human creativity, and technology can help bring it to more walls without leaving artists out of the picture. Kyle Suri on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylesuri/ Acrylic https://artbyacrylic.com/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

James Kuester is a hotel designer with a background in industrial engineering and a love of hotels that goes back to childhood. He works with independent and boutique hotel owners to make sure their properties live up to what their marketing promises. Susan and James talk about branding, bathroom fixtures, and badly placed towel bars. What You'll Learn - How an industrial engineering degree became a hotel design career - Why high-polish marble at the front door is a bad idea - Why signature scents can go the way of cilantro - What a hotel's brand really is (spoiler: not the logo) - How ornate faucets quietly sabotage housekeeping - How James tests tile, faucets, and one very questionable hair-detangling shower head - Why that gorgeous freestanding tub might mostly get dusted - How to pick finishes that won't look dated in five years - Why the most impactful budget upgrade might cost nothing Key takeaway: A hotel's design is its brand, so every finish, fixture, and towel bar should deliver on what the marketing promises. James Kuester on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkuester/ Kuster Design https://kusterdesign.com/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Jacki Brown has marketed everything from household appliances to hospitality technology, including a stint leading product marketing at Amadeus Hospitality. Today, she runs a consultancy helping hotel tech companies sharpen their positioning and messaging. Susan and Jacki talk about booking barriers, buyer research, and better brand storytelling. What You'll Learn - Why hotel marketing teams struggle to do more with less - What online shopping can teach hotels about booking and upselling - How customer research exposes what buyers actually want - Why product positioning matters more than another website makeover - What hospitality gets right about collaboration - How guest conversations can become tomorrow's content - What ground rules make AI-generated writing less embarrassing - Who should be the hero of your hotel's story Key takeaway: Hospitality marketers can borrow better research, clearer positioning, and smoother buying experiences from other industries without losing the collaborative spirit that makes hospitality special. Jacki Brown on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackischroderbrown/ Jacki Brown Marketing https://www.jackibrownmarketing.com/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Damon Lawrence caught the hotel bug at the front desk while he was a student at Howard University, and he co-founded Homage Hospitality to celebrate Black culture through boutique hotel ownership. After the pandemic wrecked his deal pipeline, he moved into consulting and hotel capital markets brokerage, where weeks of spreadsheet-heavy underwriting pushed him to build Underwrote, an AI underwriting platform made just for hospitality real estate. Susan and Damon talk about tax credits, terminology tests, and too many hotels. What You'll Learn - Why watching Thompson Hotels' founders live like rock stars sold Damon on ownership - What his name spelled backwards says about his hotel dreams - Why a million dollars impresses Silicon Valley but barely moves a hotel deal - Why hotels are the hardest asset in commercial real estate to model - What FF&E has to do with your property tax bill - Why the industry guards information nobody is trying to steal - How soft costs can supersize a historic tax credit package - Why so many hotel deals only work with incentives, and whether they should happen at all - What a tired Quality Inn in Fort Wayne can teach developers Key takeaway: Hotel deals reward people who learn the language, model the details generic tools miss, and spot value in buildings everyone else has written off. Damon Lawrence on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hauspitality/ Underwrote https://www.underwrote.ai/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Adam Robinson planned to teach high school history until a friend pulled him into recruiting during the Y2K frenzy, and a later stint installing software in hotels showed him firsthand how staff turnover was hurting properties. That insight led him to found Hireology, where he has spent two decades helping hospitality employers find and keep frontline workers. Susan and Adam talk about shrinking labor pools, AI-powered pipelines, and recruiting as a profit center. What You'll Learn - How curling fax paper led Adam into hospitality - Why hotel turnover is a solvable problem - Why last year's high school class is the biggest we'll ever see - How the talent pond is about to shrink by half - Why half of all job applicants never get opened - How AI turned job seekers into resume cannons - Why 80% of candidates pick the robot interviewer - What you'll learn by applying to your own hotel on your phone - When half of all hospitality turnover happens - What agent vs. agent combat means for hiring - What senior living knows about hiring that hotels don't Key takeaway: With the labor pool shrinking, hotels that move fast, clear bottlenecks with AI, and treat hiring as a revenue driver will win the talent race. Thank you to Lodgify for sponsoring Top Floor! Access 20% off with code TOPFLOOR20 here. [https://www.lodgify.com/] Adam Robinson on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamrobinson1/ Hireology https://www.hireology.com Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Adam Arnold is a small business technology consultant who, with his wife Kara, owns and operates the Little Canyon Inn, a four-unit roadside motel near Colorado's Royal Gorge. After a scouting road trip with his oldest son, Adam found a fixer-upper with killer mountain views and turned it into a distinctive stay built on patio doors, local makers, and the great outdoors. Susan and Adam talk about pulling the plug on TVs, puppy perks, and partnering with fellow boutique moteliers. What You'll Learn - Why great hosts let guests drop their baggage without picking it up - What makes forgotten Western motels so weirdly irresistible - Where the best deals hide (hint: not on the market) - What the motel mullet is and why it works - Why ditching TVs shrinks the surface area for problems, even if a few guests bolt - How local coffee, soap, art, and board games turn a room into a memory - Why banks love lending to people who don't need the money - Why restoring an old motel to look like everything else defeats the whole point - Why OTAs make it harder for small properties to buy their own ads Key takeaway:  The more distinct your property, the less you have to compete, so lean into your character and let the wrong guests find a TV somewhere else. Thank you to Lodgify for sponsoring Top Floor! Access 60% off with code TOPFLOOR60 here. [https://www.lodgify.com/] Adam Arnold on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-arnold-bb15975/ Little Canyon Inn https://www.littlecanyoninn.com/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Genna Panagopoulos grew up in her family's restaurant, studied hospitality at Michigan State, and cut her teeth on feasibility work at Davidson Hotels before moving into development and eventually brand strategy at IHG. Now she leads U.S. and Canada development for Minor Hotels, the Bangkok-based company behind Anantara and the newly launched Wolseley, and she's the only member of her team based in North America, building the brand's presence here from scratch. Susan and Genna talk about brand building, luxury's limits, and late nights across time zones. What You'll Learn - What it takes to trade feasibility spreadsheets for brand dreaming - Why Genna calls Minor Hotels a "beautiful medium-sized company" (not about hotel count) - How brand language gets lost in translation between Bangkok, Madrid, and the US - Why Genna says no to more deals than she says yes to - What "vanilla luxury" looks like, and why Anantara refuses to be it - Why luxury hotels keep shrugging off downturns other segments can't escape - How ultra-remote luxury hotels skip the competition entirely - What Anantara's Miami project is quietly building toward - Where hotel wellness is headed next, and it's not another spa menu - Why Genna thinks the hotel industry has too many brands Key takeaway:  The brands that win the next decade of luxury hospitality will be the ones disciplined enough to say no, stay distinct, and resist adding just one more lookalike to the shelf. Thank you to Lodgify for sponsoring Top Floor! Access 20% off with code TOPFLOOR20 here. [https://www.lodgify.com/] Genna Panagopoulos on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/genna-panagopoulos-726a7525/ Minor Hotels https://www.minorhotels.com/en Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Jessica Gidari's career started in interior design before widening into branding and eventually hospitality. She made stops at Rockwell Group and LDV Hospitality before landing at Union Square Hospitality Group, where she led the consulting division and developed concepts for clients like JPMorgan. She is founder of Porcelain Collective, an agency that handles everything from menu writing to branding to full concept development for restaurants. Susan and Jessica talk about hotel dining, high heels, and hatch chilies. What You'll Learn - How a Phoenix restaurant opening turned an interior designer into a hospitality lifer - Why bouncing between Rockwell Group, LDV Hospitality, and Union Square Hospitality Group added up to one throughline instead of three separate careers - What pushed Jessica to trade a stable job for the risk of starting her own agency - How Jessica balances rigid process with gut instinct when building a new concept - What trick Jessica uses to keep clients' personal taste out of a design that has to perform - What most hoteliers overlook when their vision meets their actual budget and floor plan - Why so many hotel investors assume a restaurant will fill itself once the doors open - What changes when you're designing a menu for travelers instead of diners - The one question Jessica says every hotelier should ask before touching their restaurant concept - What cuisine Jessica is still waiting for someone to nail outside its home turf Key takeaway:  The best hotel restaurants succeed by dropping the hotel-restaurant label altogether, standing on their own as distinct brands built with real structure and genuine hospitality. Thank you to Lodgify for sponsoring Top Floor! Access 20% off with code TOPFLOOR20 here. [https://www.lodgify.com/] Jessica Gidari on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-gidari-65906120/ Porcelain Collective https://www.porcelain-collective.com/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club

Annie Holcombe has spent her career refusing to pick a side in the hotel versus vacation rental debate, working her way through property management, Expedia during the HomeAway and Vrbo years, channel management, and business development for Marriott Homes and Villas. She is now founder of Annie & Co, coaching independent vacation rental operators on distribution and growth, while also serving as a brand ambassador and US market consultant for Booking.com, sitting on the VRMA board, and co-hosting the podcast Alex and Annie: The Real Women of Vacation Rentals. Susan and Annie talk about convergence, consistency, and commissions. What You'll Learn - Why the early job Annie's most grateful for wasn't the one you'd guess - What it took to finally convince Annie to bet on her own business instead of someone else's - What happened to the company Annie and her husband ran together before this one - How Annie decides what gets her time between consulting, board seats, a podcast, and her own company - Why hotels and vacation rentals used to feel like separate worlds, and what's pulling them together now - What a converted roadside motel reveals about where hospitality is headed - How the OTA relationship changes depending on which side of the lodging industry you're standing on - Why rate parity gets complicated the moment you're not a thousand-room hotel chain - Why the vacation rental industry can't seem to agree on standards, and whether that could ever change - What conventional wisdom Annie wants new rental operators to ignore, and what she'd tell them instead - Where Annie predicts the hotel versus vacation rental rivalry actually lands Key takeaway:  The hotel and vacation rental worlds are converging, whether the industry likes it or not, and the winners will be the ones who stop fighting over turf and start listening to what guests actually want. Our sponsor, Lodgify [https://www.lodgify.com/], has a special Labor Day promo from August 25th to September 8th. Using code TOPFLOOR60, our audience will get 60% off their Professional and Ultimate plans (one- or two-year plans). This is a huge deal, so jump on it quickly! Annie Holcombe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-holcombe-vrgal/ Annie & Co. https://anniecosolutions.com/ Join the Top Floor Mail Club https://www.topfloorpodcast.com/mail-club