Global Luxury Hotel Trends Part 2 with Emily Goldfischer and Marlene Poynder

Luxury hotels don’t win by doing more. They win by noticing more and by building teams with the time and confidence to act on what they see.

In this episode, we’re joined by Emily Goldfischer, founder of Hertelier, and Marlene Poynder, Managing Director of The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel in New York City. Emily shares the inspiration behind Hertelier, a platform dedicated to elevating women in hospitality leadership, and highlights a striking industry reality: just 19% of Forbes Travel Guide hotels and related companies are led by women. Drawing from her work interviewing leaders across the industry, she unpacks what truly drives advancement, what barriers still exist, and why better systems, not just resilience are key to change.

Marlene brings the perspective of leading one of the world’s most iconic luxury hotels while evolving it for a new generation of guests. From multigenerational travel to longer stays, she explains why today’s luxury traveler values thoughtful, personal touches over grand gestures—and how cultivating a strong local community in New York has become a powerful driver of loyalty and referrals.

The conversation also explores the role of technology and AI in luxury hospitality. The takeaway is clear: the goal isn’t to replace human connection, but to enhance it. From improving responsiveness to capturing guest preferences more effectively and even rethinking how leadership spends time, Emily and Marlene share practical ways hotels can use technology to elevate service while keeping it deeply personal.

Together, this episode offers a thoughtful look at leadership, culture, and the future of luxury hospitality, grounded in real-world experience from two leaders shaping the industry.

Thanks to GuestOS.ai for sponsoring this series!

👉 Global Luxury Hotel Trends Part 2

🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 7 Title Sponsors for their Support: Bokun, Civitatis, Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic and Protect Group

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode two of our luxury hotel series on season seven of Travel Trends. This is your host, Dan Christian. I'm thrilled to be back and to have two special guests with me today that I'm excited to introduce you to. We have Emily Goldfisher, who is the founder of Hertelier, and we have Marlene Poinder, who is the managing director of the Carlisle in New York City, a Rosewood Hotel. Before I bring them in, I just wanted to highlight that our friend Stuart Grife from Forbes Travel Guide is going to be joining us next week. And he actually kindly recommended both Emily and Marlene. Emily, I've known for a number of years because she has also been at the Forbes Travel Guide and she was there this year at the summit. And both Emily and Marlene were on the same panel and did an excellent presentation that Stuart was raving about. So I was very keen to have them on the podcast to be a part of this luxury hotel series. And then I also just wanted to highlight to all of our listeners that our luxury hotel series is brought to us in partnership with our good friends over at GuestOS. GuestOS is a multilingual AI concierge built by hoteliers for hoteliers. It answers guest calls and messages around the clock in your brand voice, supports operational consistency, and helps guests discover more of what makes your property exceptional. And for more information, you can visit guestOS.ai. And thanks again to Jesse and the team for sponsoring our luxury hotel series. But let's get right into the conversation and bring both Emily and Marlene in the conversation. So, Emily, welcome back to Travel Trends and Marlene, welcome to Travel Trends. Great to have you both here.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here. Thanks, Dan.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

And I understand you're both in New York City today, is that right?

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Yes. I'm based in London normally, but uh here in New York visiting my mom, and I'm gonna visit Marlene tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Emily brought the rain with her from London. Yeah. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

But as you can hear, Emily's originally from the US, but has been in how long have you been living living in London now, Emily?

SPEAKER_03 2:02

15 years. Yeah. I haven't picked up the accent. Uh I think I I don't know why, but I haven't. Not even as much as Madonna did when she lived there.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yeah, well, the um your husband is English though, is that right? Is that the connection with moving across to the UK?

SPEAKER_03 2:22

No, he's actually Argentinian, but works for a French bank. So uh yeah, just random relocation that we really loved. We were meant to stay there for two years, but uh really loved living in the UK. And yeah, now my kids were raised there and uh we've put down roots.

Emily’s Path And Hertelier’s Mission

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yeah, it's fantastic. Well, London's such a great city, and obviously we can talk about London, we can talk about New York, we're talking about luxury hotels. And last week we had Jonathan, who's based in London. Um, and this week, obviously, we're gonna be talking a lot about global travel trends around luxury, but you can obviously speak to both markets. I think it would probably be helpful, Emily, just to give all of our listeners a bit of background on Hertelier and your role in in uh hospitality.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Great. Yeah, I um when I'm well we moved to London in 2010, and prior to that, I was the head of communications for Lowe's Hotels for about a decade. And um yeah, so when we moved, I decided, oh well, I'll flip and start writing about luxury travel as you do. And um, I started writing for Questex for luxury travel advisor. And when I worked at Lowe's, I actually was quite uh ahead of its time. Jonathan Tisch is the CEO, and I'm sure many of your listeners will know John. He's a legend in the industry. And he had amazing women in the C-suite, uh was about was gender balanced. Um so this was in the you know, in the 2000s, late 19th, I joined the company in 1999. And um and so when I started writing about luxury travel living in England, I was like, wait a minute, where are all the women? I literally like at one point I was like, I I don't see many women running these luxury properties. Uh, you know, I was mainly writing about London and the UK, and then also some somewhat about Europe. And um, and then fast forward and the pandemic hit, and uh I said, it would be interesting if we could have a website and a platform that was just committed to writing about women, sharing their stories, so that we would know who's running these hotels and who's leading the companies, um, and maybe that would encourage the next generation and inspire them. And um, and so I started it during the pandemic without much of a business plan, but uh it took off. And now actually we've just celebrated five years, and it's been a real joy and an honor to share the stories of women doing amazing things in hospitality, um, particularly people like Marlene, who is the first woman to lead the Carlisle. Um, and one of the most popular stories and interviews that I've done on her tell your That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Thanks, Emily. And obviously, you have a very impressive background. You went to Cornell, which obviously is a school renowned for hospitality. So, and you you are a part of the female founders in hospitality as well. And you also co-host Hospitality Daily uh with Josiah McKenzie, who's uh so you're you're very active in this space. And yeah, obviously, Hertelier, it's one of the things that I really admire about you. We sat next to each other at dinner last year, and I got to learn much more about who you are and what you do, and I was just so immensely impressed. So I've been looking forward to having an opportunity to bring you on the podcast. So I'm I'm thrilled you're finally here for this conversation.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

You're very kind, Dan. And um, yeah, I mean, we've we've interviewed over, or we've either interviewed or written articles specifically for women in hospitality, though we do have about a 30 to 40 percent readership that's male. And we've done, I think now 815 different articles. So we have quite uh a robust bit of content there. So I encourage your listeners to check us out at uh www.hertelier.com, uh, which is spelled just like hotelier but with a her.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Perfect. Uh many people multitask listen to our podcast, so I'm glad that you called that out now. But uh Marlene, what I'm keen to bring you into the conversation too, given the obviously the introduction there by Emily. But for your background, you've worked at the Hilton and Conrad, you've obviously been very closely involved in the tourism industry in New York City. You're a board member with New York City Tourism and the Hotel Association of New York City, and you've been leading the Carlisle for a little over four years now, which is obviously the landmark hotel in in uh in New York City. So thrilled to have you here as well. Um, tell us a little bit more about your background and your current role.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Thank you, Dan. Uh yes, well, and thank you to Emily, because apart from her podcasts and newsletters, she also holds events in cities, which we've uh partnered with her on too, to ensure that we bring the young women of the industry together so that they can benefit from all of her experience and uh the wisdom and sharing that she provides as well. I actually, as you can tell from my accent, am not a New Yorker. I'm Australian by birth, and so have spent most of my career in Asia and the last uh since 2015 in the US, uh, Chicago a couple of years, and the rest of that time in my favorite city, New York. And I moved to uh the Carla, which of course is a Rosewood Hotel, which is owned, and our CEO is a woman. And Sonia did uh want uh a female leader for the first time. It's our 95th year this year, so I joined in our 91st, 92nd year. So uh it's it's been a fantastic opportunity for me. There are aspects about the Carlisle Hotel that I guess many people who don't know it don't understand. And I think the most important thing is yes, we're an icon, but we're not trying to be all things to all people. Uh the Carlisle is for people that really want that great New York experience, and I think it's accepting and managing and knowing that we are a specific type of legendary hotel that now is relevant to a new generation, which of course brings um its challenges with your legacy guests as well. So we walk a fine line, um, particularly in this luxury segment between what repeat guests want and what the next generation wants. So it's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

And your hotel, I haven't had the good fortune to stay at the Carlisle itself, but I'm very familiar with uh the uh Upper East Side of New York and the iconic building that it is. And I was doing some research before I had the great uh privilege to stay at the Peninsula Hotel when I was in New York in January for the uh um for a conference, and it was truly extraordinary. Uh my wife and I had the a weekend there, kind of a wellness weekend, and it gave me a whole new appreciation as part of what helped inspire this series, because when you stay at a luxury hotel in a destination like New York City, uh, but London, Tokyo, take the top cities of the world and stay in an extraordinary luxury hotel, it really defines the whole experience. I mean, the concierge service, the recommendations for restaurants, for getting tickets for shows. We had moved from a very basic hotel, I won't call it what it was, to the uh peninsula for the weekend. And it was extraordinary. It was like this is the way you want to experience New York. And so the Carlisle is the way you want to experience New York. But t tell everyone about uh the Rosewood Hotel. Like, what is the connection with Rosewood Hotels? When did they take over managing the Carlisle Group? And just tell us a little bit about the connection between those two, if you wouldn't mind.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Sure. Well, Rosewood Hotels uh was started in Dallas, Texas. Um, so really is truly one of the earliest luxury American hotel brands, and it was Caroline Hunt at the mansion on Turtle Creek. And it was just uh past the year 2000 that uh the Carlisle in New York in 2002 became a part of Rosewood. Prior to that, it was a freestanding hotel, the Carlisle, it didn't belong to any group. And then in 2011, the Rosewood Hotel Group was sold and bought by the Chang family out of Hong Kong. And uh Dr. Chang then said to his young daughter, Sonia Chang, uh the Rosewood Hotel Group is is your group to run. And Sonia has been CEO uh for all those years. It's over 12 years now, and in fact, going into 14, and incredible young woman who has grown the Rosewood Hotel Group from the handful of American hotels to now a global hotel chain, uh still small, still growing, but uh all luxury. We only have one sort of tier, we don't have different brands. So we now have 41 operating hotels. We had 27 when I started four years ago.

The Data On Women Leaders

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Amazing. And it's I mean, the uh Red Carnation group is about 15 properties, and so one of the things I was asking Jonathan, and we're gonna come back to this in a moment, is really understanding how boutique or family-run hotels compete against some of the larger groups that are out there offering luxury experiences. One of the things I want to kick off with is the Forbes Travel Guide Summit that you've both been at in Monaco just recently. And I know you guys not only did you uh host a panel together, but you had done some research before that. So, Emily, tell us a bit more about the research you had done with Forbes Travel Guide and Hertelier leading into that conference about women in travel. I think that's going to be really interesting to our audience. And then I'd love to talk through some of the little highlights from your panel.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Yeah, I so we did uh we Hertelier partnered with Forbes Travel Guide to understand more about women leading luxury hotels, so part of the Forbes Travel Guide ecosystem. They've they have 19% of the Forbes Travel Guide hotels and related companies are run by women. So that's the baseline, that's the set point. Now we know uh the percentage that are run by women. Of course, we hope that that will increase as time goes on. Um, and one of the ways that we felt was important to do that was to really speak to the women and understand women like Marlene better, why how they've gotten to these leadership positions, um, and what maybe obstacles they've run into in their careers, and then what we can do to reshape what hospitality looks like and to make it more inclusive for women. So we surveyed 99 uh women, and I'd say if we were to boil it down to three things that we really learned are some of the three most interesting things that we found is that women are succeeding largely because of their personal resilience, and nearly 80% cited mindset and resilience as the primary drivers of their success. Um, but when we asked about the barriers, the answers then shifted more towards the structural issues like flexibility or promotion bias, and then you know, there's also gendered leadership expectations. So the real question for the industry is whether leadership should depend more on extraordinary individuals or better systems. And, you know, it's sort of like the takeaway being that resilience is what got women to the top. And as we look forward, you know, we think that it's the systems that will determine whether more women can follow. Um, and then, you know, one of the other big findings was that the model of leadership itself is changing. Um, so that one of the other big themes was that the archetypes of leaderships are expanding. Um and, you know, we're seeing different routes to get to leadership positions. Um and, you know, I'd say the third big takeaway that we heard from the survey as well was that we need the future of hospitality leadership to be more human. And I know Marlene has a lot of to say as well about her personal experience, but also you know, what we found in the survey and how it resonated with her and her career.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

That's great. Thank you, Emily. And I'm very keen, Marlene. Please jump in. It sounds like you've you've got a lot, you clearly you prepared for this panel and clearly shared on the panel. So yeah, take us through some of the things that you were excited to discuss and some of the highlights for you.

Confidence Traps And Self-Advocacy

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Look, I I think obviously I've had a fantastic career across different continents, but I can say probably the last 10 years have been the best years of my career as far as me being competent as a leader. I wished that I had had some mentors 20, 30 years ago that would have helped me along the way, as I am diligent about helping young women these days, and also young men from minority groups because they do suffer from the same consequences as we do normally. But also I understood after thankfully having a company that you know sent me to leadership courses for women to try and understand what was that issue. And you know, as Emily said, you're resilient if you get to the top. And I went to this business school, and out of 28 women, this is just one example, 28 women, two of us were from hospitality, and the rest were, you know, generals in the army, the head of America Post, you know, there were people from all different aspects of life, and every single one of us were, I say, not a shrinking violet. We were all pretty strong women, but we all had issues with dealing with one type of man, an alpha male, who would make us feel this big, and all of a sudden we totally lost our self-confidence, and we all had these amazing stories to tell. And so it was interesting that it didn't matter what business we're in, we all had the same issue. And we had this male professor that came in and said, Stop it. You know, the problem with you women is that uh it was interesting because it was a women's business course. He said, The problem with you all is women take things personally. Take yourself out of the situation, look at the problem that this alpha male has and stop taking it personally and just solve his problem, and it will be much easier. Oh my god, it's so simple, it was amazing. But um it is something that I tell women these days because we do take things very personally, I think, as a gender, and the other thing that we don't do well enough, that men do incredibly well, is sell ourselves. So for the next job opportunity, whether it be a upwards, whatever, we feel that we need to have 90 to 95 percent of the job description under control and be good at it before we apply for a job, just in case we get knocked back. Whereas a guy will go, I can do 30% of that, and they sell themselves. Good on them, nothing wrong with that. I think it's just our approach is different, and it's not about being resilient, it's also about teaching us how to be more open and creative. And I think the final point that unfortunately I I learned later in life and not earlier, is I was told early in my career to dress conservatively like a guy in a suit. Don't show your emotion, don't get upset, don't cry. Oh my god. That was probably the worst advice I could have been given because then I wasn't being myself true to myself. And I found quite often I got into sticky situations because I wasn't living by my values. And once I turned around and thought, I'm over this, you know, they want to sack me, they want to sack me one day, but I have to be true to myself, and I think that's where uh you know, we really just have to encourage women to be like that and not conform to be something that we think is going to help us. And if you're in a company that you do have to conform, then maybe you shouldn't be there.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah. Well, I've got a lot I want to say. You've you've shared a lot there, and I just want to unpack a a few aspects of that, and then um I'm gonna be keen to bring you back into this, Emily, and and especially given the panel that you the two of you guys were on together, uh, to share some more of those insights. The one thing I just wanted to highlight, and it's obviously refreshing to have this conversation because you know, for me, I was raised by a single mom, and for my mom didn't have the opportunity to go to university. And she, when my uh my dad left, she had to go back to work and figure out what she was going to do with her career. And she worked at a royal bank as a teller and eventually worked her way up within the bank. She put enough money away for me to be able to attend university. She stayed very diligently. And I certainly owe a huge amount to everything I've accomplished to my mom and have a very close relationship with my mom. It's amazing that's you know, uh one generation behind. And you see the opportunities today in the travel industry. There, it's still, like many industries, they're still catching up to modern times. And with the the thing about travel, as you both know, most women make the decisions on travel in the household, and many men uh you know have the executive roles within travel. And and so just acknowledging that, so I'm I'm uh uh glad obviously you're have that you had this conversation and we're having this conversation. But then the other thing I just wanted to highlight that I only came to understand from being at the Forbes Travel Guide Conference in Vegas then in Monaco, is how many men are in general manager roles. And so I had to be very conscientious and Forbes travel guide to their credit as well. They aligned the uh 10 people I'd have for the first series and then the second series. And so I interviewed Shannon McCallum, who is the general manager at um the VP of hotel operations at uh the Resorts World in Las Vegas, who I know is there with you again, who's extraordinary. She happens to be Canadian, so there's an interesting connection there. Uh and then I also, the other person that I had the uh the privilege to be able to sit down and speak with was the um the GM, Sarah McIntosh, the hotel manager at the Mayborn Beverly Hills. Um but those were just two. Every other GM was male. And even for me, standing all of five eight, um, most of the men fit a certain description too. They are, you know, they look they look like you know, some of them will be guarding the hotel. They look the other six. Too, they're you know tall, handsome men. These are the the the GM has a certain look about them as well. And I think it's one of those things that has it's it's evolving. Um, but tell me more about the panel. I want to and I want to learn a bit more about the research. So, Emily, um, going back to some of those insights, I know you shared a few, but what did you want to do on that panel then with bringing Marlene in beyond the research? Who else was part of that panel? What else did you want to share about the world as it is today?

SPEAKER_03 22:26

Yeah, we wanted to have a conversation around some of the topics. So the the barriers that women have faced. We also had a gentleman on the on the panel, and I feel that that's really an important thing, not just because he's terrific. His name's Frank Sabil, and he's the area VP for Hyatt uh in their luxury division, um, and he's also the general manager of the Hyatt, the the Park Hyatt Marrakesh. Um but and Marlene will say this as well, and she said this on the panel, but men have been very instrumental in helping women get ahead as well. Of course, we need our male allies, of which Stuart Grife is one of them as well, and like yourself, Dan. Um so I think it was also about that, and we did have a lot of guys in the audience for this for this panel and session, this discovery session at the Forbes Summit. So I think that was one of the things is like this isn't a women's issue. It's actually you see this time, and again, not necessarily in the research that we did, but McKinsey does research every year, and companies that are diverse, not just necessarily gender diverse, but diverse in various metrics, are something like 35% more profitable than companies that aren't. So there is a strong business case for diversity as well. And then, you know, in terms of what we talked about on the day, you know, Marlene shared some of the stories that she shared just now. But uh we also had Charlotte Weatherall, who's the GM of the Corinthia London. So she talked about her journey. And you know, she's married with two young, uh, sorry, with three young children. And she said when she she's recently been appointed general manager of the Corinthia in London, and she said when she was going for the job, they said to her, you know, you're not gonna be able to like be with your kids that much. You're gonna have to make sacrifices. And she said, uh, like hell I am, and I'm gonna do it my own way, and I'm gonna take this job, and I'm gonna change what it means and what it looks like to be a general manager. And I thought she was terrific. Um, and then also on the panel was Sylvia Nauta, who is the VP of I'll tell the CX at Forbes Travel Guide. Um, and she does training for different businesses uh that need to have hospitality as part of their service experience. Um so she's done everything from luxury car companies to um different businesses, Harris and London and different places. Um but she said when she also when she was pregnant and she had been working in hotel operations, they said to her, Oh, well, you know, that you can't be a GM, so you might as well go work in HR. So it's just kind of these, you know, just openly talking about these challenges that women have faced and like, and and then coming up with solutions on how do we bring more flexibility, how do we change the norms around what it means to work in hospitality? Because it's not, and Frank actually brought this up on at the panel is that it's not really such a gender thing anymore, it's also a generational thing. The the young people coming into the business, they don't they're not interested in a job and a career that's like totally consumed your life. And Marlene, I'm sure, has a lot to say about that.

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SPEAKER_01 26:00

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SPEAKER_02 28:07

And now back to the show. One thing I just want to ask you, Marlena. My sister-in-law is a uh lawyer at uh uh Bay Street, which is Canada's Wall Street. So like uh she's a uh it works in uh mergers and acquisitions, she's a partner at a at a top firm. She has three young children, and that firm has done everything to try and make sure more women become partners because they realize that less than half of the women became partners, more than 90% of the men. Men are also, and I can say this being a man, that men are um uh one of the things that continues to keep men in their profession is the status and prestige. And so men very heavily gravitate to status and prestige and put that ahead of a lot of other things. And so um becoming a partner is kind of whereas they see that women are more focused on their families. And it's like, well, actually, that's not always the case. And you can also have a family and be a partner at the same time. And so they've done a lot to make sure that that is the case. I would love to know, Marlene, from hotels, because you also mentioned you mentioned so many interesting things in your introduction. You mentioned about the leadership style, also trying to understand how female leaders can mentor other young people. So I'm I'm hoping with this, I'm thinking even with my younger daughter who wants to get into the hospitality space, and she's you know taking her first job this summer after a first year university. Um, our son's becoming a pilot, so they both want to be in this industry. But giving her the right advice and counsel to know uh the right management style she should gravitate to and the likelihood. So, what has changed in the last 10 years to now finally have having the breakthroughs for you to take on this role and to know that more uh female executives will have the opportunity by virtue of understanding the journey they need to go on, who they need to connect with, what they need the knowledge to attain those positions. Because it's uh yeah, tell tell us a little bit what what's changed and what you'd recommend.

Mentors And Leading As Yourself

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Okay. Uh you know, I think for me, where I started to see the change, even before I was a GM, I was a director of sales and marketing for many years. I was lucky. I had a GM who was also a regional VP working in Hyatt in Asia, where he was totally supportive of women. So all my mentors have been men, just because there were no women really in those positions, and there were a couple that were, but they weren't back in those days very helpful to other women, which is also a problem that we have sometimes, but not anymore. But I I found hiring a married man or women with children, even back then, was the smartest move I could take, whether it was the guy or the lady, because they had priorities, their family life was important, they never wasted time, they were so um on point with the work that they did because they had something else to do afterwards, so they didn't stretch their day out, you know, to have more fun doing something else. So I always found that women and men that had families uh to me were always the most organized team members anyway. So I always um looked at that as a positive. I think the other thing is once I started to realize that showing my emotions and I don't mean crying every day at work, but showing my emotions and dressing uh as a woman, but professionally, obviously, you have to, allowed me to feel more comfortable in my shoes. So it gave me the confidence to lead in the way that I naturally do. You know, I'm a very inclusive leader, although it's funny when you you talk to some of my executive committee from 20 years ago, and they'll say, You were the best boss I had, but boy, were you tough. And I'm like, I wasn't tough. And they went, Marlene, you never raised your voice, but we certainly knew when something wasn't right, it had to be done. So, you know, you do get the message across in a certain way, you can still, I think the important thing is still holding people accountable for what they do. And my style is very open and inclusive until I only micromanage for two reasons. I'm new in the job and I don't know the business, or I've lost a little bit of faith in what they're doing and I micromanage. And you know, that's what you have to do in any business. But you know, I think finally luxury hotels were made for women. I mean, we're intuitive. You want to wrap your arms around the team and you want to have, you know, a very personalized experience. I mean, we're good at that, it comes naturally. So it makes sense that there should be more women in luxury because it's just uh intuitive in just being a female.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Well, let's talk about that connection because you've already mentioned a few points that connect to luxury. You've mentioned one of the things that we certainly saw from our series is that luxury is much more emotional and personalized, um, along with the lines of emotional wellness is obviously a big factor. And wellness is obviously mental health, is obviously a major part of um overall wellness. Um, and so, and when you think about female having empathy and some of the amazing uh attributes uh that women um um uh may be much stronger in, I guess, and that's where I want to actually lean into is looking at the connection between luxury and then also female leadership, because it would seem to be the case that you've already made the point that you know having female uh leaders running luxury hotels is a um there's a strong connection between the type of leader they are and the type of experience they're gonna offer. And the the one last thing I'll say, because this I found this fascinating from being at the Forbes Travel Guides Summit last year with a presentation that was put on uh by two consultants, and they highlighted the number of solo female travelers that were 50 plus, that were uh widowed or divorced, and many of them on GLP one, so they actually are looking good and feeling good. And they're, you know, they're arriving to these hotels with a very different mindset for the type of holiday they're looking for. Um and so these very much, you know, the um female-led guest experiences. And so um, but tell us a little bit more about the leadership and the connection. And maybe, Emily, given that you put that panel together, you did that report, and you've been to Forbes Travel Guide a number of times, and you know, we know you know Amanda Fraser, Jennifer uh Kester, these are the people that I've worked close to with to put these series together. And they've always been mindful about having female leaders. They have strong female female leaders inside their organization, they have great uh female executives speaking on stage, and obviously even have this having this panel. Stewart, obviously, we both know, and he's an incredible ally. But yeah, I'm keen to know, Emily, since you've had a few exposures now to Forbes Travel Guide to Summit. Um, what would I mean it is a luxury event? These are you know four and five-star, but a lot of these are five-star. These are the best hotels in the world. And so you're bringing together the best of the best in hospitality for a Forbes travel guide event. What do you see when you think about luxury and female leaders? What are some of the connections there that stand out to you?

SPEAKER_03 35:33

I mean, it's interesting because you brought up a couple of things that I think are worth repeating. And one is that the travel customer, you know, we wrote we we wrote up a research report, not research we had done, but one I had uh gotten a press release on. But it said that 82% of travel decisions are made by women. So yes, that is definitely a thing. I saw one recently, I think, out of maybe Chase Travel that said, you know, their their number said it was 64%, but either way, it's still the majority of the purchase decisions are being made by women. Certainly, right now, we're in the process of this the greatest wealth transfer in history. Um, that is of the baby boomer, the the silent generation to the baby boomers, and then now to their children. And the beneficiary of that is primarily going to be women. So, yes, you have more women than ever before with more money in their hands. And yes, they are looking at experiences. I think the session you were referring to about the GLP ones, and she spoke again this year was Allie Furman from uh Price Waterhouse Coopers. Um, and she did another presentation again this year, and she said one in five Americans are on a version of GLP ones or that now, and and it is changing how they're traveling, um, male and female. I don't think that would that was that was a gender issue, but um yeah, there's a more active traveler, they're looking for different kinds of experiences, um wellness space, they're feeling good about themselves, so they want to be more active. Um, at the same time, I've also seen, and and um Marlene can probably speak to this better than me, but I've seen a lot of research and writing about how just because you're on GLP1s doesn't mean you don't want to eat out. It's like you still want to eat out. It's about the experience, it's about being in a setting with other people, it's being more social. Um, and still the food is important. It's just, you know, they're gonna be eating less, so they want it to be even more delicious. And I think that that certainly happened at the Forbes Travel Guide Summit. They took over the hotel de Paris. I mean, that party was incredible, Marlene. It's like, I still can't believe those, you know, the desserts by the Cedric Rollet desserts and the uh the the caviar and the cognac, and they just had all these different areas. Um, and it was like every different space was like an experience that you wanted to talk about. I mean, what how what did you think of that party? I mean, you're the you're the pro.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

It was an amazing party, and I but I think what was so good about it, and obviously, if they don't get the pitch right to the audience, then none of us have a chance. But Forbes did it so well as did the hotel, in that it was extremely high quality and beautiful, but it wasn't obscenely volumes of food piled up, it was elegant, and I think that's the difference. And gosh, we've seen it here. We've had to change the operating hours of our restaurant and open earlier because people want to eat at five o'clock, which is unheard of in New York. Uh we've seen that you know, you have two groups of two beautiful women eating together, and they'll have a martini, but they'll share all of the food. So they're eating less, but they still want to try everything. We're selling a lot more caviar than we ever used to. Um so they still have that luxury, but of course, it's on a much smaller scale. You know, I think a lot has changed because of because of that. Um, and you know, people are drinking less. They want to have a great martini, but obviously we still have the people that will go to Bemblemans and have the sidecar and drink that. But you know, quite often you hear men and women say, Can I just have half a martini? And you know, you would never have heard that uh a year ago. So we're adjusting at a fairly rapid pace all the time with what the market is is wanting uh in that luxury space. It's not about the money, it's they still don't have a problem with spending the money. It's about how they enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

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How Luxury Guests Are Changing

SPEAKER_02 42:21

And now, back to the show. Having recently spoke at a few of the Virtuoso conferences, which are focused on luxury, and the average price per night for their customers is$2,000, which, you know, for most people that's inaccessible. But for highly affluent travelers, that is, you know, the average room night that they're spending. And clearly to be at a beautiful landmark hotel in New York, you're going to be in that type of price range for that type of experience. I what I'd love to understand, Marlene, from your point of view, as you were kind of starting to highlight guest expectations and how they've changed in recent years, whether it's people staying longer, especially like the example of my wife and I, I'm staying, you know, I'm there for a conference, but I stay over the weekend. One of the big trends that we've certainly seen in luxury travel has been family, uh, immediate family travel or multi-generational travel. Um, but tell us a little bit about some of those changing guest experiences. And I'm keen, you know, obviously the gender question is incredibly important to understand, but but in terms of the guest experience, I'm also keen to talk about personalization and technology and leadership and some of the things that apply um across the board. But yeah, tell us a little bit about how the the luxury guest has changed from your perspective in New York or just seeing what you're seeing every day at the Carlisle Group.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Sure. The luxury guest, I can remember 15 years ago, Matthew Utchurch at Virtuoso saying multi-generational travel will be big for the next decade. I think the only mistake he made is not the next decade, it's going to be several decades. They are the first room type to Sell out a two-bedroom suite will sell out before a standard room does in the hotel. So that gives you an idea. Um, multi-generational travel is um a big segment. I don't think it's gonna change, I think it will continue. Longer stays is something that you know it depends on what the market. New York is interesting because quite often you get people that are moving into the city and will stay in a hotel for two to three months. But on average, for us, uh it's uh just over two nights, but then again, 80% of our business is American here. But you know, a third of our business is more than seven nights as well. So, you know, people come into town for various things. I think what happens now is rather than coming in three or four times a year to do multiple things, it might be Broadway, it might be, you know, a show, a concert. We find now they're coming into town and they'll stay for a longer period of time and they will just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, have a lot of experiences all at once. And it was interesting at first to think, you know, why are they doing it that way? But they're doing one or two less vacations a year, but they're choosing a single destination and then they're doing because it's all about the experience, right? You know, we had you know, when I started here, we had three people in our guest experience team. We now have eight in our guest experience team, which includes the Sweden ambassadors, etc. And that's because we reach out to as many guests as we can prior, during, and it's all about personalization, you know, they don't want and it's not about the big grand gestures anymore, you know, because these people they get the best of the best wherever they go, and sometimes a grand gesture is warranted, but quite often it might be a personal note from a dormant or a housekeeper that doesn't always have a lot to do with the guest that has just picked up on something, particularly you know, we always aim at the children. I mean, you get to everybody's heart through the children, and normally granddad and grandma are paying for the hotel experience. So if the grandchildren are happy, they are. But uh, you know, we have people coming here for all sorts of reasons, medical and what have you. And some of them, it's it's a very sad reason to come here. So we're also making sure that we're not generic in what we do, it has to be personalized.

First-Time Guests And Personal Questions

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Well, just on this topic of personalization and service, I want to ask a follow-up question for you, Marlene, and keen to get your take on this too, Emily, because when I spoke to Jonathan last week, who I've known for years, and one of the, but there's always I always get new highlights when I have conversations with him because just trying to understand the magic behind the hospitality. And one of the things that he'd mentioned to me that they always drive towards is those magic words, is your room is ready. And one of the things that he specifically tries to avoid is making sure that his team members ever ask the question, how is your journey? No one ever wants to talk about how their journey was. That was not the joy of getting there. You're so relieved together. You just want to know your room is ready. So he always makes sure that the team don't ask like, how is your journey? and just focus on getting the room ready and personalizing as much as the experience as they can. And from my understanding about New York City, I love New York City, I love traveling to New York City. And I know from a lot of friends and colleagues, they have their hotel in New York City, that is, they're home away from home. They're traveling there a lot for work, they want to be in a certain neighborhood, they know the restaurants, and they, you know, they they uh that team at the hotel is an extension of their family. They welcome them back. So knowing how important it is for you to build repeat, uh, tell us a little bit more about how you deliver on the personalization and the types of services that luxury guests are looking for and how important that human touch is today, more than ever, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Well, I think for us, what we've noticed um, and we have a very robust first-time guest program. And the reason we have that is because we have do have guests here that have stayed over a thousand stays, not room nights, but stays, and many in the several hundreds. And I think you stand in the lobby long enough on any given day, you can always tell a repeat guest because they're generally hugging one of the staff members on the way into the hotel to say hello. And so you see that with repeat guests. There's an amazing relationship with the line staff. So we had to concentrate on our first-time guests because they come in, they see it, they want to be treated the same way, and you know, they could basically be invisible. So we spend a lot of time on our first-time guests to ensure that they feel that Carlisle, Upper Eastside, New York expression because we need them to be our future repeat guests. You know, when you're a 95-year-old hotel, I mean, you do have to keep adding that younger generation, and we know they're all not going to be just the grandchildren of the people that have stayed here for the last 90 years. We have to keep putting new blood in. So for us, the first-time guest is important, and you write that question of how is your journey? Where we pose it a different way because we have to be careful, people come to this city for a lot of different reasons, and they're not all joyous. So, you know, and sometimes they're repeat guests and they're coming in for a different reason. So it's generally, and and what's on your agenda for this day, or what is important for you on this day, uh, rather than are you here for to have fun? Are you going to see the Yankees again? We really need to understand because even for our repeat guests, it could be a different stay this time. And the last thing we want to do is, you know, write a note that says, have a wonderful time in Manhattan, and they're coming to have an operation, you know. I mean, um so the way we ask the questions is very important.

Local Community As Luxury Strategy

SPEAKER_02 50:13

For sure. And one of your colleagues, uh Pradeep Rahman, who I spoke to, who uh works at the Surrey um nearby, one of the things he highlighted to me that stood out was that their doormen make a specific effort to get to know the uh local pets. And so even just to try and ingratiate themselves into the neighborhood. And I guess their success rate was trying to get a 35% repeat rate by um making genuine connections. Their focus was on recognition, warmth, and memory making rather than the amenities because it's an older property. Um, but the interesting thing was actually getting to know locals in the neighborhood who would then recommend their family and friends stay there because they don't have space for them, but they've become familiar with the doorman and they're like, have you and they suggest it to family and friends. So the importance of even just being uh part of the community in a neighborhood obviously is is key to offering that luxury service, it would seem.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

Totally. I mean, we have you know three outlets here. Obviously, Bemmelman's is very popular, Cafe Carlisle, the Supper Club, and then Dowling's and and our gallery. 90% of the business that goes into those food and beverage outlets is local. Only 10% is hotel guests. So for us, the relationship with the local community and the relationship that we have with them is vitally important because what you say is exactly right. They don't want their family staying with them, they don't want mum and dad with them over Christmas New Year. They want them staying at the hotel so that they can come around to the house. And sometimes mom and dad don't want to be in the apartment either, they want to have their space, and quite often, you know, because we're dog-friendly hotels in New York, of course, we have a lot of our permanent residents that have dogs, and our get a lot of our guests bring dogs as well. So um that the dog community is definitely, you know, I know Pradeep and the Surrey team and and the MAC team as well, we're all the same. We all have treats. Um, because you know it's it's an inexpensive preferred marketing program, really.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Yeah, well said. That's a great way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

Referral, yeah.

AI That Frees Staff For Service

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Emily, given this topic of personalization, how this comes up for you all the time in conversations and also in the writing that you do, I would love if you wouldn't mind to weigh in on how technology, even AI, not that we have to go deep into AI in this conversation today, but just in terms of how technology is enhancing personalization or service, where it's useful and where you might actually want to avoid trying to, you know, there's certain elements that there's friction for a reason because it causes human interaction. Um, where do you see the benefits and where would you encourage hoteliers to avoid automation?

SPEAKER_03 52:58

I mean, it definitely was a big topic at the Forbes Travel Guide Summit. Uh, they had several speakers about talking about the technology, specifically AI. And I think to sum it up, it was really about how do you use technology to free up people to do better service. So, for example, actually, Shannon McComb and her talk about AI, it was all about the different ways where resorts over the last year they've deployed a lot of new technology new technology. I think she changed her entire tech stack. And um it's really about doing getting technology to do the jobs that they struggle to fill anyway. So call, you know, repeat calls on things like, you know, what time's this restaurant open, or it now I think with AI, it can even successfully do bookings. And so she was speaking about how with this new AI assistant that can answer very simple questions and do very basic bookings, um, that their their call drop rate went from 30% to like 3%. So that means that the computer was actually doing uh a better job. And and what this does allow is really to make it so that the frontline employees aren't on the phone when there's guests up at the desk, that they can really be attentive and let their intuition guide them in terms of what the customer wants and needs and be more engaging face to face. Um, so I think that that is one thing is like how do you use technology to free up staff so that they can spend more time with the guests and personally get to know them better. I'd say the second thing is then to feed that information back so that if you know Marlene's coming and she has a dog that, you know, this is her dog, she'll be coming with the dog's name when they go out in the morning, when they come out at night, what kind of restaurant she likes to eat at. Um, so it's to capture that intel, and then again, that allows the person serving um to be more knowledgeable about what's actually meaningful to the guest. And I mean, ultimately, it seems that in the luxury and ultra-luxury space, it's like Marlene and you were saying that it's all about how do you give the people the experience that they want and um and make it tailored to them and not a generic, well, it's a fancy hotel, so you must want a bottle of champagne in your room when you arrive. It's actually like this person doesn't drink, they're super healthy, and they'd rather just have whatever, a protein shake or something. So uh I think that's and then I would say the the other bits of where I think luxury is using technology is in in the marketing funnel and and making again those outreaches more meaningful when they've gone and stayed at the car well. Now through AI, there's more meaningful ways you can try and get them to come back, you know, something again that's tailored to what they did while they were with you. Um and then the other thing that I think is interesting about AI that I've I've written about and also seen is just how it can be used to help with things like food waste and scheduling employees and that I think that actually the scheduling bit is really one that then ties back into the gender topic because if you can have housekeepers that could do like a four-hour shift if you were able to be flexible or you know, working in a restaurant, if you can offer people the kind of flexibility that they need to also have a life, I think that then becomes more inclusive by design.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

Well, it's interesting. One I just want to call out one particular point that you mentioned. I think it's really important uh because what I did before our conversation, I took all the transcripts from the 30 plus interviews we had done for Forbes Travel Guide, and I used Chat GPT to synthesize them and to try and actually pull out some of the most uh and I wanted to kind of test some of those points to see if they still stood true in 2026. And one of them was the the recurring industry position in the series was that the winning luxury brands will use technology to free up humanity, not automate it away. And so it's really interesting what you just shared there, which is very much along those lines, is that you know, that using tools like you know, obviously guestOS is one of the sponsors of our series, but their platform is designed to automate a lot of the things that, you know, more towels to the room or you know, just quick questions concierge. But if you need to speak to someone, you can zero out right away and speak to somebody because people obviously are going to be frustrated if they're not able to get access to someone that can really understand their unique needs. And um, and Marlene, that does relate to you because what what you just walked us back to is leadership. And that actually was one of the also the interesting outcomes is that one of the big takeaways from the entire series is that luxury hospitality remains a relationship business, not just for guests, but for leaders that are shaping the sector. And so for me, going to a Forbes Travel Guide conference, which I didn't realize the very first year, was the number of people that would be in new positions the next year. And so uh because they had achieved that point in their career, they've achieved the status and they're there at the conference and they're ready to, you know, to take new offers to lead new other hotels around the world. So it's really a recruiting opportunity. And um, I heard that at the end of the second one, and then sure enough, half of the people I spoke to the following year were at new hotels, you know, leading new renovations or new openings. And so clearly relationships, leadership. So, Marlene, given that you are a very successful female executive, um I would love to go back to you to talk about, you know, to finish our conversation on leadership and what's really needed today to lead luxury hotels and um and what you're seeing the trends for not just 2026, but the next, as you mentioned, multi-generational, that's a long-term trend. And I think a lot of things we're talking about now will be the same in the next three to five years. So tell us from a leadership point of view, when it comes to luxury hotels, what is the successful path forward? What are some of the things you're paying attention to and you'd recommend others do as well?

Cutting Meetings And Returning To Floor

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Sure. We just actually finished uh last week a two-day executive strategy retreat to talk exactly about this and what our pain points were and how we could change it. And we are using AI. I've been using uh Claude to just for me, I need to free up my time. And the executive committee, when we look at the number of meetings we have, we have made a commitment to each other. I won't go into the long sessions that we have, but the commitment that we walked away with is that we will look at our diaries and reduce our meetings by 50%. Now that may be cutting meetings out altogether, but it is also reducing the meeting time. And you know, so by the week after next, we are regrouping, and everyone's calendar has to have reduced by 50%. For the exact reason you say, Dan, is we have the tools now to free up ourselves to be out there with the customer, but importantly to be out there with our team to support them. And we need to get back to being on the floor, being able to meet guests at a certain time of the day. It's I think we've all got caught up in meetings. Uh, so we want to have more conversations, less emails. But when we do have a meeting, use the technology. It's amazing. You know, when I send through the summary notes and action plans, or any of us do, it's taken me two minutes to do, whereas it would have taken me or somebody an hour. That's another waste of time. You know, I think technology is doing exactly what we wanted it to do in luxury travel. AI is obviously useful, you know, in purchasing in the backup house as well. But if but if there isn't a leader taking advantage of that at the moment, then they're going to be behind the game very quickly, very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:28

Well, I appreciate that perspective. And that's uh actually quite encouraging to hear. I think their expression management by walking around was something that we were familiar with for many of us who worked in offices. And I've had some great leaders that and mentors that I've worked with who have explained to me their process of walking around the building and getting to know everyone. And even when I spoke to Shannon McCallum, it was very similar with the world of hospitality because so many people, when I checked into Resorts World, were had a huge affinity for her. I mentioned I was going to be interviewing Shannon, and they all had personal stories to tell about how Shannon got to know them, got to know more about their families, and made that time and put that effort in. So I think what you're highlighting is all the more important to be able to spend that FaceTime, that quality FaceTime, not be rushing to meetings, consumed in meetings, always overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:13

We're expecting our people to have those conversations with our guests so that we give them a great personal experience. If we're not prepared to do it for them and give them the time on the floor, how could we expect them to do the same?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

Yeah, very well said. And Marlene, I know you're gonna have to leave us in a moment. And so what I wanted to ask you, and then I'll come back to Emily, um, but in terms of one of the takeaways, given you've obviously shared a lot of valuable advice in this conversation and clearly have a lot to offer, if there was one kind of big takeaway when it comes to luxury travel in 2026, whether it's a trend you're paying attention to or something that you are continuing to develop and work on, or uh what would you be, what would be one of the insights you'd like to leave with all our listeners for? And then I'll make sure that people can find out more information and connect with you as well after this.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

I think the biggest trend that we're looking at for luxury is to not go for volume, but to really give ourselves the space for communication with our community. Um, because that is the big trend. I mean, you know, we've been creating experiences for years. To me, the word experience has become a bit like luxury travel now. It's so overused. Uh but to be able to make a difference to someone's life without throwing gifts at them, I think is the most important thing, and that's human connection. And so it is the most important trend, and it's the hardest thing to do. It is because you have to commit to it and you have to walk the talk. It's not easy. So that is for me the biggest trend.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:01

Fantastic. Thank you. I'm obviously thrilled that you're able to join us. I now fully understand why Stuart and Emily were so keen for you to be a part of this conversation. Um, just as you sign off, I want to make sure that anyone who wants to connect with you or the team, obviously they can check out the Carlisle Rosewood Hotel, your website, connect with you on LinkedIn. Any other ways you'd suggest that people reach out if they want to partner with you, work with you, or many people maybe book that hotel stay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

Yes, I think LinkedIn, obviously, from a uh just talking about partner um perspective. Um booking-wise, same thing. Come through to us. Obviously, it's industry people that are probably listening to this podcast, or you might have a wider audience, um, but certainly on the Rosewood website or your favorite luxury travel advisor, because it is our still our biggest booking segment, is the luxury travel advisor.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

You're having a round of applause from hundreds, if not thousands, of listeners at the moment that are so because it is B2B, and overwhelmingly, our listeners are travel advisors. And so it's one of the things I'm gonna ask Emily about is the relationship between travel advisors and GMs from hotels, because that important relationship, like Eli Wagner, who runs Wagner Bespoke Travel, she's a great example of that. She wants to develop relationships with GMs so she can get the VIP experiences for her guests and have that personal relationship. So I know I know you have to go, Marlene, so I'll be mindful of time. But thank you again for joining us. A real pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Thanks, Emily. Thanks, Dad.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:32

Emily, that was fantastic. Thank you for having Marlene join us.

Retaining Talent And Career Phases

SPEAKER_03 1:05:35

Yeah, she's amazing. Uh such an inspiring leader. And I would say also one of the other things that I think is so incredible about female leaders like Marlene, um, and one of the biases also that they sometimes run against is um is that I think they're all really have an amazing business acumen. And and she made a point at the panel, and I wish she was still here. To talk about it. But uh, you know, she's always been on top of her PL, and that was advice that she got early on was like always own a PL and make sure that you're delivering on the business. And I think that's also I I interviewed this morning Sophia Vandele, who's the the GM, uh actually the regional for I IHG uh luxury lifestyle in in New York. And um, you know, these women are exceptional business people, and I think that's that's also the one of the things that has brought them their success.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:36

Sure. One of the things you see, because you interview so many people in this space, I've got a few specific questions that I'm really keen to ask you while we have this time together. And one of them is along these lines. Like you see someone like Marlene, you spot incredible talent and you see all the commonalities that would be interesting for a wider audience to um obviously these hotels they have to be able to attract, but also retain great talent. So I mentioned about people moving. A lot of people do stay with companies for many years, like look at Jonathan Reagan or most of the GMs at Red Carnation hotels. Um you look at hotels that are having success attracting and retaining people, are there some commonalities that of interest for the owners in a hospitality that might be listening to this to say, this is what we need to do to attract people like Marlene or keep people like Marlene?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:22

Yeah, I you know, when you see successful leaders and they they will always talk about their team and the care that they put into the employee experience. And and certainly those people and those companies that focus on the employee experience and how they can grow. Um, which reminds me actually one of the things Shannon was speaking about when she was talking about AI was that where they're using AI is actually in a lot of the roles that were difficult to fill and keep filled, because if you had someone who is ambitious, you know, they only want to work in a call center for like four or six months and then they want to move on to something else. Um, so yeah, again, I think that's where it's an interesting intersection of the technology and and um and service is that and and the employee retention is like you want to be able to keep challenging your people, you want to be very transparent in what the path to leadership looks like. I think that's also where you see success in employee retention. Um and um, you know, I think there is a myth now of that you have to move from company to company to keep climbing the ladder. And, you know, we've interviewed people who've, you know, been with companies 10, 20 years and like they continue to get challenged and they continue to grow alongside the company. I mean, particularly in luxury that has seen tremendous growth in the last five, 10 years. Um, if you're ambitious, then you definitely can can keep moving with with a good company.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:01

Yeah. On a lighter note and a more kind of uh reality of life, one of the recruiters who was there, I won't call him out by name, but he highlighted that actually one of the main drivers of people relocating is divorce. And so the first thing, the first question he'll get is how quickly can you move me to a new destination? And so, you know, it's it was really nice to hear about the family and stability and overall leadership, because you know, there are instances where that is necessary clearly, but at the same time, for someone that does have a stable family life and you know, wife and kids and wants that stability and wants a stability in their employer, and their employer wants that stability in them. And so it's wonderful to hear. And I think that um I think you're right. A lot of companies are still seeking that today, especially in hospitality. It's not it's not been lost in the world of hospitality, how important tenure and loyalty is.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:51

Yeah, I think there's also like this idea now that people kind of view their career in phases. I mean, or maybe it's just I'm getting older and the people I talk to are getting older. But like, you know, even at the panel at the Forbes Travel Guide Summit, Frank Sabile, who was uh on the panel from Hyatt, he said, you know, he specifically when his kids were young, he said to his boss at the time, he said, Look, I can't, I can't be on the road all the time. So if that means I have to stay put in this position or do a different job, I want to do that for the next five, 10 years when my kids are little, and then you know, resume, which he did, and then he ended up being, you know, an area VP. But I think people are more interested in sort of viewing their careers on a long-term horizon and and and seeing like, okay, this is my time to really grind it out, and then this is my time to you know have a bit more balance.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:54

Yeah, that's great. I know a couple last questions just to finish off together. Given that you've been at the the summit in Monaco, and clearly you were attending sessions and running sessions, and I know from having met you multiple times just how intellectually curious you are, so like you're always paying attention. What were some of the other standouts from this year's event? Obviously, I've loved being there the last couple years. Unfortunately, the scheduling conflict I couldn't join this year, but I um I'm such a big fan of Forbes Travel Guide and the event they pull off each year. So, what are some of the other takeaways that you're still beaming about?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:27

Yeah, interestingly, I actually also spoke with Amanda Fraser this morning, and we were reflecting on on what were the big themes this year. And and she said something interesting, and I think it it she was very successful in this. Of course, she manages the whole process of organizing the summer. Um she said it was really about ha having interesting conversations and getting people to engage in that way. And so the variety of speakers, like one of the keynotes was Chris Gardner, who was the man who wrote the book Pursuit of Happiness, which became the movie with Will Smith. Um and they had uh Futurist who spoke, they had um uh Brian Kelly from The Points Guy who spoke about you know what you know loyalty and how that has a place in the luxury market. Um, and then you know it they had a woman called Alba Larson who's 17 years old, and she's an F1 Formula Academy racer, and she's actually started a charity to get more girls in Formula One racing. So it's like it really ran the gamut, and I think that diversity of different topics and things to think about had everyone talking. I think another thing they did um that was terrific uh during this, and I hadn't experienced this before at a conference or any kind of a meeting, was they had this they called it an all-day marche, and it was like kind of like a French marketplace inspired, sort of an all-day grazing opportunity where there were a lot of, and it was really beautiful, like yellows and flowers and you know, pretty colors. And they just like it was just like a really good thing because if you know you're if you were really busy, you could go in and quickly get something actually substantial to eat, not just like a croissant that would actually kind of keep you full and and keep you going. And um, or if you had time to meet with someone, it was quiet enough that you could have a meaningful conversation. Um so I think they also had brain dates for people to meet one-on-one. There were different discovery sessions from anything from like intergenerational leadership to inspiring journeys. They really had a few different things involving music and the arts. So I think it's a much it's a very thoughtful curation of topics and experiences, which, you know, of course the pressure is on. And that was one of the things Amanda and I spoke about. It was like, it's a lot of pressure to put on an event for these people who run the finest hotels and resorts in the world and to make them want to talk about something and learn something. So uh I, you know, I think they did a beautiful job. I really think they did even if you know, as amazing as last year was this year, I think it was even better. We actually did, we kicked it off with a uh um an event sponsored by her tellier and force travel guide and I'll tell your CX, which is their division that does training for non-hospitality businesses that have a hospitality element. Um and it was like kind of a women's event, but like everybody was welcome, and we had a lot of guys show up. And um, we had a brief talk by Laise Larry, who's the head of quality uh for the Atlantis in Dubai, and about her career journey and and how actually the most meaningful um mentor for her was a man by the name of Todd Tom Rollins, who actually now works in um a different part of the Middle East at a different hotel, but they've stayed in touch. So I think full circle is like it's just a great environment for appreciating the connections in hospitality and how you know these careers are so intertwined.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:30

Yeah, and Tom Rollins has actually been on our podcast, and he was one of the people that have moved have moved to another hotel. And um, but he's he's great at launching hotels. It's one of his like signal.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

Yeah, that's what he's doing. He's he's launching a big hotel in the Middle East. And now I didn't want to say what it was because I was like, I'm probably gonna mess up the thing.

Emily’s Advice: Curiosity And Joy

SPEAKER_02 1:15:47

Oh, good. Um, but given your perspective, and I I so I'm thrilled to hear that for uh for Amanda, Jennifer, Stewart, and we'll have Stuart on next week, and we'll get into a bit more from his perspective because you know, talking about AI, I know it's in very much in his wheelhouse. So we'll talk a bit more about technology and some of the partners that come together for the conference. But given that you have such an expertise in luxury hospitality, you know, you have been growing, the fastest growing platform for women in lodging. You're the top five social media influencer in hospitality. You've got so much to share on these topics. What would be one piece of advice for hotel leaders that are preparing for the next era of luxury hospitality? What would be something you point out to them? Obviously, female leadership is incredibly important. So um clearly that is definitely one, if not the most important. But yeah, tell us what else would stand out to you for advice you'd you'd you'd like to share.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:44

Yeah, uh, thank you for the opportunity, and of course, those kind words, um Dan. And you know, I have tremendous respect for you and love this podcast, so it's really an honor for me to be here with you today. Um it's interesting, we now are at five years with Hertelier. This March actually is our fifth year anniversary, and we've done a bit of introspection and looking over the, you know, like I said, we've done over 800 different stories and interviews. And when I look at the women who we've spoken to who've really made their mark in hospitality, if I had you you've asked me to pick one thing, I'm gonna pick two things that I think are uh traits of these um really uh successful women um that could apply across any gender or anything, is um they're really curious. Like, like these women are super, super curious. They're always learning, they're always trying to either you know make sure they're reading books, listening to podcasts, taking courses, um, and just really letting their curiosity guide them, whether that means it's a new role or it's digging deeper into new technology or or you know, how to create exceptional experiences for their guests, um, or finding efficiencies and you know, back of house, whatever it is, I think uh they're very curiosity-led. And then I would say the second thing is really that they've found something where that brings them a lot of joy. So people think about work and whatever, but like people work in hospitality, they love it, and so it's not just like, oh, I love it for the people or whatever, like they also um try to lean into the things that they are good at. So, you know, if you're really good at numbers, then and you find joy in that, lean into that and don't don't focus on the things that don't come as naturally to you and try and find people who complement your skill set.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:50

Those are excellent pieces of advice. Thank you. Yeah, and now this is where I know you have so much to share. I know you've got a you have your newsletter that I subscribe to. So I want to make sure that for anyone that is just getting to meet you for the first time, obviously we've mentioned hertelier.com. Obviously, there's two different ways to pronounce it. I throw in that little keybecrois, French Canadian. Uh Hotelier.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:10

Yeah, Hertelier, Hertelier, it's H-E-R-T-E-L-I-E-R dot com. So you can find us there. Definitely find us on LinkedIn. Uh, we post content a couple times a week. We're always resharing things. Please tag us. If you have an amazing woman on your staff that you think I should interview, please reach out. Uh, you can find me on LinkedIn, it's Emily Goldfisher, and my last name has a strange spelling, and it's Gold and then F-I-S-C-H-E-R. Um, and yeah, we do have a free newsletter that's weekly. Uh, this if you go onto the site, it'll prompt you to sign up or reach me by LinkedIn and just DM me and I'll I'll I'll sign you up. So it's uh it's really just been great to chat with you, Dan. And we missed you this year at the Four Shadow Guide Summit. So I hope that you get the dates early and block out your calendar so that you can be there next year because it's back in Monaco, and I think I can only imagine how amazing next year is gonna be after this year's event. And the other thing that we did that I, you know, I think might that uh there were they have about 30, there were about 30 journalists that came this year. So I was also part of that cohort, and they took us to the cellar, the wine cellar of one, not the Hotel de Paris, the one right next door, and I'm blanking on the name, but it's this, it's the oldest wine cellar in in France, and they had they have 300,000 bottles, and they had wines that actually survived World War II. Not I don't think it was because of the bombing, it was because that area actually was occupied. Um, and somehow they hid these bottles, and then there was a great story about how you know they kept the bottles hidden, and then after the war, you know, Churchill came and they drank wine together. But uh, but definitely uh there's just so many unique and interesting, there's so much interesting history in Monaco, and I think that it's a great place for that event.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:16

Fantastic. Well, I know how special it was last year, and I'm thrilled that obviously they're gonna be back again because you know, when you create the magic, it's very difficult when you move to a new destination. So the fact they're gonna have a third year in the same place. So hopefully, yes, I will see you there next year if we have an opportunity to uh crack one of those but those bottles and enjoy a glass of wine. Yeah. But I'm sure I'm gonna see you over the course of the year. I look forward, you know, whether it's in London at WTM or one of the focus right of conferences. I know you're incredibly well connected in the industry, so likely we're gonna see each other at some of the events over the course of 2026. And I just encourage all of our listeners to get to know more about Emily Goldfisher, Hartelier, and all the great work you're doing. So I'm sure many people will reach out after this. And I certainly will, you know, I cannot believe this is the first time you've been on the podcast. We're gonna have to correct course and bring you back again even sooner. But yeah, it's been a real pleasure, Emily. Thanks so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:10

All right. Thank you, Dan. I appreciate it.

Next Week Preview And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 1:22:12

And thanks again. So Emily and Marlene. Obviously, it's wonderful to have had you both join us for episode two of our luxury hotel series. And next week in our luxury travel series, we'll be continuing the conversation with Stuart Grife, the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Forbes Travel Guide, who I've mentioned a couple times in this episode. So we'll continue the conversation on Forbes Travel Guide in Monaco, but also from his role and experience where the industry is headed, especially around technology and AI. So we can look forward to that conversation next week. And I just wanted to say thanks again to our friends at GuestOS for sponsoring this series, Jesse and the team. GuestOS, of course, is a multilingual AI concierge built for hoteliers by hoteliers, and they answer guest calls and messages around the clock and your brand voice, support operational consistency, and help guests discover more of what makes your property exceptional. So to learn more, check out guestOS.ai. And next week we launch episodes every Wednesday. So one more luxury hospitality series, and then we move into our sun holiday series. We're really just getting started on season seven, so don't forget you can subscribe on any streaming platform of your choice to be notified when new episodes go live. And then we do post clips and highlights on our social channels at Travel Trends Podcast on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Thanks again for joining us. And until next week, safe travels.