In this episode, Roman Pedan, the founder and CEO of Kasa, shares what it took to bring Mint House onto Kasa's operating system and into its team and culture.

Roman also shares the before-and-after results, and how the pressure he wrote about in his Fortune article will drive more consolidation: AI will make the biggest companies bigger and the smallest more powerful.

See photos from Josiah's recent stay at Mint House 70 Pine by Kasa

This is Part 4 of our series with Roman Pedan this week:

• Part 1: How We Make Room for "Hall of Fame Hosting"
• Part 2: How We Built Our AI Native Operating System for Hospitality
• Part 3: How We Help Other Companies Run Hotels on Our Operating System

Roman's earlier conversations with Josiah, from April 2024: Building a More Efficient Hotel Operating Model

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Roman Pedan, the founder and CEO of Kasa, shares how Powered by Kasa can put the operating system Kasa built behind other hotel companies.

In this episode, Roman talks about his Fortune article on the "barbell effect": AI will make the biggest companies bigger and the smallest more powerful.

This is Part 3 of our series with Roman Pedan this week:

• Part 1: How We Make Room for "Hall of Fame Hosting"
• Part 2: How We Built Our AI Native Operating System for Hospitality

Roman's earlier conversations with Josiah, from April 2024: Building a More Efficient Hotel Operating Model

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Kasa founder and CEO Roman Pedan shares his take on why so much hotel AI work never shows up in the results, and what Kasa built to change that.

In Part 2 of our series this week with Roman, you'll hear why automating one task inside a fragmented tech stack just moves the bottleneck, how Kasa built its own PMS, guest-facing AI agent and housekeeping system so it could rearrange the factory floor, and how accounting and revenue management roles change once the routine work runs on its own. Roman also explains why this is still hard, even for an operator that has been doing it for years.

More from our series with Roman:

• Part 1: How We Make Room for "Hall of Fame Hosting"

Go deeper:

• Our 2024 conversation on Kasa's earlier AI work: How We Improve Service and Profits With AI
• Roman in Fortune: AI will make the biggest companies bigger and the smallest more powerful. Hotels show who gets squeezed
• Roman on The Modern Hotelier: Building a Tech-Forward Hotel Brand

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, recorded live at Destination AI, Stephen German, the head of product at Actabl, shares what hotel companies need in place for any AI project.

The research: State of Hotel AI: Fall 2026 findings 

Learn more about the technology discussed:

• Actabl Data Services: Managed Data Feed, Managed Data Warehouse, and Forward-Deployed Engineering
• How Avion Hospitality Built the Data Foundation for Hotel AI (case study)
• Good Hotel Data Is Hard to Get Right. Actabl Just Got a Patent for It.
• Hotel AI that Works: Actabl's AI platform
• ProfitSword
• Actabl Launches Forward-Deployed Engineering for the Hotel Industry

Earlier conversations with Stephen:

• AI Only Works for Hotels in This Order
• The story behind Actabl Altitude
• Stephen on the digital night audit

This episode is sponsored by Actabl

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Kasa founder and CEO Roman Pedan shares how his company creates the time and space for teams to deliver personal, thoughtful hospitality. 

Following a recent stay at Mint House 70 Pine by Kasa, Josiah and Roman discuss the hiring practices, training, and operational systems behind Kasa's commitment to being "Hall of Fame hosts." Roman explains how Kasa has expanded into more traditional hotel operations and evolved from using AI copilots to autonomous agents handling routine tasks. You'll hear how technology and operational efficiency give hospitality teams more opportunities to focus on guests and deliver exceptional service.

Watch our 2024 conversation on YouTube

See photos from Josiah's recent stay at Mint House 70 Pine by Kasa

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Richard Valtr, founder of Mews, shares the story behind the company’s name and his read on what Meta’s Muse could mean for hotels. We explore his vision of a “thinking hotel,” where connected information helps teams make better decisions and provide more personal hospitality.

He explains why your rates should follow the data even when it disagrees with your sense of what the hotel is worth, how a knowledge base that learns from guest conversations could give your team something new to say at check-in, and how agents could lower distribution costs while making it harder to oversell your location. You’ll also hear his iPhone analogy for open hotel tech and what teams can build with Mews Automations.

Related listening and resources:

• Destination AI
• Our previous conversation with Richard: Hotel Tech & AI Deep Dive
• Hospitality Is Eating the World: an earlier conversation with Richard
• Richard on the importance of friction in hospitality

This episode is sponsored by Mews

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Tom Deighton and Zach Demuth, co-founders of TBD Companies, discuss how they're using AI to evaluate opportunities, understand the value of hotel brands, and bring their experience to a two-person team. They also explain how they plan to use operating results to improve future decisions, while keeping human judgment and the guest experience central.

Earlier conversations with Zach: Tariffs, Unfolding Travel Trends, and San Francisco's Comeback, Luxury Hospitality Trends, Opportunities, and Innovation, and Top Hospitality Trends to Watch.

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this San Francisco Sundays episode, Steve Pulliam, Executive Director of Heart of the City Farmers' Market in San Francisco, shares how a farmer-run market welcomes every shopper while coordinating about 50 independent businesses without micro-managing them. You'll hear why the market keeps a waiting list instead of filling every space, and how the team rebuilt its flow after moving across the street. 

Learn more:

• Heart of the City Farmers' Market
• Steve Pulliam on LinkedIn

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Brandy Cerne, owner of O Portalzinho, shares how she built a property around connection between guests after years in brand marketing at Shake Shack and Sofar Sounds. You'll hear how she funded the opening, why she works on showing guests the value instead of cutting costs, and how a small team without uniforms makes the place feel like a friend's house.

Follow Brandy and O Portalzinho:

• O Portalzinho on Instagram 
• O Portalzinho website
• Brandy Cerne on LinkedIn

Brandy's writing on building the pousada (Brand by Brandy):

• 3 places, 3 hospitality influences, on what she took from Shake Shack, Sofar Sounds and hostels
• Pousada 101: A crash course on what this whole thing is
• O Portalzinho turns 2 months old! Here's everything I've learned so far
• O Portalzinho turns 1!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Union Square Hospitality Group and Danny Meyer's book Setting the Table
• Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
• Brett McManus of Après Inn, the Vermont innkeeper Brandy mentions: his first episode with Casey McManus and his one-year check-in

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Avi Brosh, founder and chief creative officer of Palisociety, explains how he makes small hotels work as businesses by combining design and fiscal discipline with shared operating resources. He shares how he matches costs and oversight to each property, what changed when he brought experienced operators onto the team, and where he sees AI helping while preserving personal hospitality.

Also see:

• The Innkeeper Behind Palisociety: Meet Avi Brosh
• Taste and Courage
• How Avi Brosh Built Palisociety to Provide Independent Hospitality at Scale
• Placemaking: Creating Places That Make Neighborhoods More Special

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Avi Brosh, founder and chief creative officer of Palisociety, shares how he creates hotels that celebrate their neighborhoods while bringing his own sensibility to each place. He explains why making spaces for people to use and enjoy is his way of living hospitably, and we discuss the different ways we can contribute to hospitality.

Also see:

• The Innkeeper Behind Palisociety: Meet Avi Brosh
• Taste and Courage
• How Avi Brosh Built Palisociety to Provide Independent Hospitality at Scale

Mentioned in this episode: Avi on Masters of Moments with Jake Wurzak, episode 54, “Inside the Palisociety Collection of Boutique Hotels”. 

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands