How Cloudbeds Is Shaping the Future of Independent Hospitality with Their New Partnership with Journey
About this episode
Zach Busekrus discusses the future of independent hospitality with Cloudbeds executives Rafael Blanes and Sébastien Leitner, focusing on technology, data management, and competition in the hotel industry.
What if the technology helping independent hotels compete with the biggest brands in the world shouldn’t feel like technology at all? Cloudbeds serves tens of thousands of properties across more than 150 countries — giving its team a uniquely expansive view into how independent hotels are performing, what operators are struggling with, and how the way travelers discover and book stays is rapidly changing. In this episode, Zach sits down in person with Rafael Blanes, Chief Growth Officer at Cloudbeds, and Sébastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships, to unpack why they believe this is one of the most exciting moments yet to be an independent hotelier. Rafael and Sébastien explain why the traditional PMS is evolving into something much bigger, how fragmented hotel data prevents operators from making confident decisions, and why the industry’s obsession with “AI” may be getting in the way of solving the problems hoteliers actually care about. They also share a look at Ask Signals, a conversational tool that could allow operators to ask questions of their property data, generate reports in seconds, receive explainable pricing recommendations, and eventually get a proactive daily briefing…
More episodes of Behind the Stays
- Why Luxury Hospitality Is Optimizing Itself Into Irrelevance — And What To Do About It (with Colin Nagy)
- This Week in Hospitality: How Norwegian Air Went Viral for Losing, Should Airbnb and Ennismore Hook Up? and the Slow Death of Organic Discovery on Vrbo
- This Week in Hospitality: Ideas, Stories, and Hot Takes with James McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of NIHI Hotels
- This Week in Hospitality: Airbnb Founder's Secret AI Lab, Bass Pro's $300M Resort Bet & The Economy Hotel Franchise Revolt
- This Week in Hospitality: Pali Society Goes Bonvoy, Hilton's Incubating 5 New Brands, and Hot Takes with Skift's Hospitality Editor, Sean O'Neil
- This Week in Hospitality: CoStar’s Forecast Reversal, Marriott Hits 10K Hotels, and Amsterdam’s Tourist Tax Revolt
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Behind the Stays podcast page.