Épisodes

  • Your Marketing Is Your Hospitality | Leora Halpern Lanz

    Your Marketing Is Your Hospitality | Leora Halpern Lanz
    Nov 3 2026
    She ran public relations for a nine-figure renovation of the Sheraton New York back when it was still ITT — before “brand” was even a word anybody in this industry used. It was a chain. Getting the word out to the world meant photographs, a fax machine, and a telephone you dialed.Leora Halpern Lanz went to Cornell planning to be a broadcast journalist. One course in the hotel program changed her trajectory, taught by a professor who flew from Orlando to Ithaca every Sunday night to teach on Mondays — a detail that would matter again thirty years later.She graduated at twenty, went straight to BU for a master’s in public relations, and wrote her thesis on crisis communications for hotels. While she was writing it, a hotel fire in Puerto Rico killed everyone in the ballroom because the fire doors didn’t open. In 1987 that meant phone calls. There was no other way to find anything out. “It was a really tough lesson in not sharing information.”Then: an unpaid internship she talked her way into at the brand-new Four Seasons on Boston Common. The Boston CVB. Nine years as PR director for the ITT Sheraton hotels of New York — a portfolio that briefly included Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and the Rangers. Fifteen years at HVS as global director of marketing, helping take the firm from seven offices to forty, carrying what she now knows was imposter syndrome before anyone had given it a name. Her own firm in 2014, which opened with seven clients on day one because people follow people.And then a phone call as she landed at JFK, asking if she’d teach one semester in Boston.That was twenty-four semesters ago.Bryan sits down with her for a conversation that’s less about marketing tactics than about what’s quietly going missing. Why she thinks critical thinking is a lost art, and how she can tell in about four seconds which papers a student didn’t write. Why she bans the word “package.” What her students actually want from employers — and why the answer should worry anyone who’s lost a good young hire lately. The question one student asked that stopped her cold in the middle of her own lecture. And a wildfire in Sicily that changed what she teaches, including the response from a colleague afterward that she hasn’t forgotten.Plus the old world: Sunday New York Times ads that made the phones ring for twenty-four straight hours, PBX operators putting pins in a board, Delphi books filled in by hand, and what she calls the innocence of a property that ran like its own small city behind the walls.Her first book ends with two words. Stick around for them.IN THIS EPISODE- Cornell, broadcast journalism, and the one course that changed everything- A master’s thesis on hotel crisis PR — and a crisis that happened while she wrote it- Talking her way into the Four Seasons: “you don’t have to pay me, just take me”- Nine years at ITT Sheraton, back when it was a chain and not a brand- When a hotel company owned Madison Square Garden- Fifteen years at HVS, seven offices to forty, and imposter syndrome before it had a name- Going out on her own with seven clients on day one- The phone call on the tarmac that turned into twelve years of teaching- Why critical thinking is disappearing — and how she spots AI writing instantly- The student question that stopped her mid-lecture- What students actually want: mentorship, access, and a reason to stay- Why she won’t let anyone call it a “package”- Running the classroom as an R&D lab with real Boston businesses - Sicily, Lahaina, and the moment it stopped being abstract- Wellness, sustainability, and “responsible hospitality”- Why doing good is also good for business — and how to say so without it sounding hollow- Sunday Times ads, PBX boards, and Delphi books- The OTA predictions she got wrong, cheerfully admitted“AI is not hospitality” — and a former student in Hawaii building something smart- Why the best guest feedback is sitting with your bartender- Normandy, Prague, South Florida, and what it feels like to actually be seen- The marketing mindset books — and the two words that end the first oneCONNECT WITH LEORA HALPERN LANZLinkedIn — Leora Halpern LanzBooks — Developing Your Marketing Mindset and Marketing Mindset in Motion, available on AmazonPodcast — Marketing Mindset, on Hospitality NexusABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYANview more at checkinwithbryan.comHosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality. On your side of the table.Season 6, Episode 9Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@Check-InwithBryanSeason 6 presenting partner: ImmediaProduced by RH Media ProductionsSpecial thanks to our supporting sponsors: Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.#CheckInWithBryan #LeoraHalpernLanz #BostonUniversity #HospitalityMarketing #HospitalityEducation #HotelMarketing #Mentorship #ResponsibleHospitality #MarketingMindset #HospitalityIndustry #HospitalityPodcast #HotelPR #...
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 14 min
  • The Candidate Was Never the Problem | Read Egger, Achilles HR

    The Candidate Was Never the Problem | Read Egger, Achilles HR
    Oct 27 2026
    Most GMs don’t wake up thinking about last night’s rate or where occupancy landed. They wake up thinking about one thing: who’s actually going to show up today?A housekeeper quits Tuesday. The job posts Wednesday. By the time anyone calls her back, she’s down the street folding towels for somebody else.Read Egger thinks the industry has been blaming the wrong thing. Not the labor market. Not the pay. The process.He came up in frontline hiring — oil and gas, manufacturing, construction, then years at Traba building labor supply in new markets and personally interviewing the people nobody else was calling back. What he kept finding wasn’t a shortage of candidates. It was a master forklift operator who’d been at the same job eight years and hadn’t updated his resume because he’d never needed to, working off an Android phone, applying through a career site that wanted him to attach a document he didn’t have. It was a hiring manager who needed someone today and got back to the scheduling request nine days later, by which point the candidate was gone.In 2024 he co-founded Achilles HR with Ben Shagel and Owen Mahoney to close that gap. Their AI recruiter, Sam, texts an applicant within minutes of them clicking apply — at 7pm, at 11pm, whenever — runs a dynamic phone screen built around the property’s own questions, scores it, and drops a vetted interview onto the hiring manager’s calendar.Bryan takes him through the parts owners actually care about. What HR does versus what a recruiter does, and why having the first doesn’t give you the second. Who’s really running your phone screens — usually an F&B manager or a banquets manager with a 2,000-person event on the floor. Why your frontline job posting reads like you’re hiring a director of engineering when the candidate just wants to know the schedule, the pay, and what they’ll be doing. The 30 to 40% markup you’re handing a staffing agency that could have been a raise. What to do about candidates whose first language isn’t English and who’ve never been able to finish your application. And the gold mine most properties don’t know they’re sitting on — one customer couldn’t fill an AV tech role, searched their own pile of past applicants, found someone with an associate’s degree in audiovisual technology who had applied to be a housekeeper, and hired them two days later.Then they play Two Truths and a Lie: Frontline Hiring Edition, and Read’s reasoning on the ones he gets wrong is better than most people’s reasoning on the ones they get right — including a firsthand case against earned wage access that cuts directly against the marketing.IN THIS EPISODEWhy the candidate was never the problem — the process wasFrom oil and gas and construction to frontline recruitingWhat Traba taught him about the people nobody calls backThe master forklift operator who never updated his resume65% of applicants never hear back from anyoneWhere 85 to 92% of frontline applicants drop off — and why it’s your career siteHR versus recruiting, and why having one isn’t having the otherWho’s actually doing your phone screensHow bias creeps in through a piece of paperWriting a frontline job posting for an actual frontline candidateIndeed’s shift to pay-to-play — and whether reposting still worksCraigslist, apparently, is still aliveThe 30–40% staffing agency markup that could have been a pay raiseCandidates who don’t speak English, and applying by text or phone callWhat happens when a candidate gets angry at the AIMulti-property groups: shared candidate pools and not poaching your own staffThe AV tech who was already in their systemWhy free ATS software that came with payroll isn’t freeWhat’s next: reference calls, sourcing, onboardingTwo Truths and a Lie — frontline hiring editionThe honest case against earned wage accessCONNECT WITH READ EGGERAchilles HR — https://achilleshr.com/ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYANHosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality. On your side of the table.Season 6, Episode 8Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@Check-InwithBryanvisit checkinwithbryan.com for moreSeason 6 presenting partner: ImmediaProduced by RH Media ProductionsSpecial thanks to our supporting sponsors: Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.#CheckInWithBryan #ReadEgger #AchillesHR #HotelStaffing #FrontlineHiring #HospitalityJobs #HRTech #Recruiting #HotelOperations #Turnover #HousekeepingStaffing #TalentAcquisition #HospitalityPodcast #AIRecruiting
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h
  • Can AI Even Find Your Hotel? | Georgie Downie, Watermelon Ghost

    Can AI Even Find Your Hotel? | Georgie Downie, Watermelon Ghost
    Oct 20 2026

    For twenty years the playbook didn’t change. Get on the OTAs. Rank on Google. Build a website you’re proud of. Put a light over the front door so people can find you.

    Then someone opens ChatGPT and types: find me a boutique hotel near this venue, walkable, good with my dog.

    The machine names three. If you’re not one of the three, you don’t exist — and this time there is no page two.

    Georgie Downie founded Watermelon Ghost to tell hotels the truth about whether that machine can actually find them. She spent fifteen-plus years in marketing and advertising agencies working on hotels, then built a network of ten thousand creators producing paid content for some of the world’s biggest brands. Now she runs a three-person company that she says does the work of twenty.

    She’s deliberately focused on independent hotels, and her reasoning is the most interesting argument in the episode: this is a gap independents can finally close. The big brands have an enormous voice that will dominate AI conversations — but at the property level, one Courtyard is hard to tell from another. Independents have something to say. That’s exactly what makes a model recommend them.

    What actually breaks? Almost always the same thing. Your OTA profile says one thing, your website says another, your Google Business Profile says a third. Different room counts, different restaurant hours, a different description of who you are. “It creates doubt in the AI’s mind,” Georgie says, “so it’ll just skip over you and go to something it can be more sure about.”

    Bryan takes her through the rest of it: what happens to a hotel that changed flags and never cleaned up the old listings. Why old press matters and how to get a magazine to update a chef’s name. Why Reddit is now a genuine authority — and why you should observe it rather than touch it. Why reviews feed sentiment rather than facts. And why a beautiful six-figure website full of gorgeous copywriting can be less legible to an AI than a plain one, because fluffy prose gives the machine nothing to hold onto.

    Then they play Ghost or Toast — Georgie against ChatGPT on four real traveler prompts, from a $400 anniversary night near Central Park to a dog-friendly hotel in Austin. The pet-policy answer alone is worth the segment.

    Her cheapest fix, for anyone who wants to start tonight: run the query yourself. Most GMs never have.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • From agency marketing to a 10,000-creator network to a three-person AI company
    • Why independent hotels have more to gain from AI search than the brands do
    • More than half of travelers now plan trips with AI — and the four platforms that matter
    • Using one model to grade another’s work (and Bryan’s humbling experience with it)
    • The inconsistent digital footprint that makes a hotel disappear
    • How authority actually works, and why doubt gets you skipped
    • Flag changes, AKAs, and cleaning up the hotel you used to be
    • Getting old press updated — and why it’s worth the email
    • Top two or three results, and the booking-likelihood number behind them
    • Why it’s not AI instead of the OTAs — the LLMs are training on OTA data
    • Reviews, Reddit, and sentiment: what the model is really reading
    • “Don’t touch Reddit if you’re not experienced with Reddit”
    • Soft brands, loyalty programs, and how the majors are responding
    • Europe versus the US — and who people are actually loyal to
    • The two ways a hotel website fails, including the expensive way
    • Why AI builds the shortlist but doesn’t yet take the booking
    • Credit cards, Apple Pay, and the barrier we’ve already crossed once before
    • Ghost or Toast — Georgie versus ChatGPT on four traveler prompts
    • The single cheapest fix a small hotel can make this week
    • Where this all goes in 24 months

    ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYAN

    Hosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality. On your side of the table.

    Season 6, Episode 7

    Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@Check-InwithBryan

    visit checkinwithbryan.com for more

    Season 6 presenting partner: Immedia
    Produced by RH Media Productions

    Special thanks to our supporting sponsors: Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.

    #CheckInWithBryan #GeorgieDowney #WatermelonGhost #AISearch #HotelMarketing #IndependentHotels #GEO #HospitalityIndustry #HotelTech #DirectBookings #HospitalityPodcast #AIforHotels #BoutiqueHotels #Podcast
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h
  • There's No Roof Rack on the Casket | Daniel Lesser

    There's No Roof Rack on the Casket | Daniel Lesser
    Oct 13 2026

    At twelve years old, Daniel Lesser had a leaf-raking business in Queens. Then he noticed something: he had the clients. His friends had the free time. So he put them to work, paid them a little less than he collected, and kept the difference. He called it “the vig.”

    Six years later, in his first finance class, he learned the real word for it. Leverage. He’d been doing it since middle school.

    He found this industry in a book in 10th grade — Your Career in Hotels and Motels, with ten pages of black-and-white hotel photographs in the middle — and decided that was the whole plan. Cornell rejected him. Twice. He went to Lausanne instead, reapplied a third time, and got in. He now calls the rejection the best thing that ever happened to him, because it meant he got both.

    What followed was two years at the 2,000-room New York Hilton learning every sub-department of front office and F&B, the realization that he loved hotels but didn’t want a career in them, and then a phone call in 1981 that made him the first hire at a brand-new firm founded by Steve Rushmore — the company that became HVS. Thirteen years there. Eleven at Cushman & Wakefield. Four at CBRE. And then, in mid-December 2010, a decision that became LW Hospitality Advisors three weeks later with no business plan, no models, and nothing to work with except a phone that was already ringing.

    “We’re not hiring CBRE. We’re hiring Dan Lesser.”

    Fifteen years on it’s 45 professionals, headquartered in New York with boots on the ground in every major market, across three lines of business — valuation and litigation, asset management and receivership, and LARC, the predictive analytics platform that backtests at close to 80% when most forecasters struggle to clear 15.

    Then Bryan gets him onto the part that costs people money. Why you make it on the buy and never on the sale. The newbie who proudly bought a hotel at $50,000 a key and didn’t understand that the brand management contract he couldn’t escape had made the brand his partner at 5% of gross and 20% of GOP — before the PIP nobody mentioned added another three or four million. The owners who’ll spend $40 million on an asset and refuse to pay for an environmental inspection. DocuSign, and what happens when you click sign, sign, sign. The ego buyer who’s “stayed in a lot of hotels.” Where 2026 actually landed versus where everyone thought it was going in January.

    And the line Bryan hasn’t stopped thinking about since they sat down: there’s no roof rack on the casket.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • The leaf-raking arbitrage at 12 — and finding out in finance class it had a name
    • A 10th-grade library book, ten pages of hotel photos, and a career decided
    • Rejected by Cornell twice, Lausanne instead, and why he’s grateful for it
    • Two years at the New York Hilton, and why he walked away from operations
    • Being employee number one at the firm that became HVS — and how VisiCalc changed hotel valuation forever
    • Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, and building the same practice three times
    • Launching LWHA in three weeks with no plan — “we’re not hiring CBRE, we’re hiring Dan Lesser”
    • The three silos: non-advocacy valuation, asset management, and LARC
    • Court-appointed receiver over 45 assets during COVID
    • Why you make your money on the buy and never on the sale
    • The $50,000-a-key “bargain” that was anything but
    • Why hotels are nothing like a 10-story office building with 10 creditworthy tenants
    • Ego buyers, auction fever, and the people who skip the inspection on a $40M asset
    • What newbies get wrong — and why Daniel is glad they keep coming
    • Reserves, PIPs, and the conversations that make Bryan want to pull his hair out
    • How to actually negotiate with a brand (hint: don’t lead with your own problem)
    • Expert testimony 40+ times, and why it all comes down to credibility
    • Where 2026 really landed: operations, distressed capital stacks, and who’s buying
    • The rapid-fire round — and “there’s no roof rack on the casket”

    ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYAN:
    Subscribe → / @check-inwithbryan

    For more - check out our website at: checkinwithbryan.com

    Season 6 presented by Immedia.
    Produced by RH Media Productions.

    Special thanks to our supporting sponsors: Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    54 min
  • From a Bridal Side Hustle to a Travel Empire

    From a Bridal Side Hustle to a Travel Empire
    Oct 6 2026

    Most people start a side hustle to make a little extra on the weekends. Barbie Patel turned hers into a company.

    It started about eighteen years ago, for the least glamorous reason imaginable: she was getting married and couldn't find a makeup artist who could match her skin tone. So she learned to do it herself — and then for everyone else. Cinderella Brides was born out of a gap in the market nobody was serving.

    What she did next is the part most founders skip. She didn't quit. She kept the corporate job and banked her entire salary for three years, living off the side business until the math made leaving a decision instead of a gamble. She walked away from corporate in 2018. When COVID took her husband's food businesses, the plan they'd built held.

    Today Lux Escapes is three divisions and three and a half years old — and Barbie joins Bryan to talk about what the job actually looks like when you're the person clients call at 2am from another time zone. Why AI can plan an itinerary but can't tell you that not everybody's your client. The décor budget that's in a dumpster by 8pm. What she looks for on a site visit that no brochure will ever show you — including the renovated closets too shallow to hang a garment bag, and the one hotel that got the hair dryer right. Plus the Instagram destinations that don't survive contact with reality, and the lemonade stand in Flushing Meadow Park that taught her everything about work ethic before she turned fourteen.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • Why Cinderella Brides started with a problem she couldn't solve for herself
    • The three-year runway: banking a full salary while building the business on nights and weekends
    • Leaving corporate in 2018 — and what happened when COVID hit the family's other businesses
    • Buying a travel franchise, abandoning it, and getting their own IATA instead
    • "Think of yourself as the nucleus" — the mentor advice that reorganized how she builds
    • Iceland, a New Jersey wedding, and the photo shoot that shouldn't have worked
    • AI versus the human travel advisor — and why "not everybody's your client" is the real skill
    • Décor budgets in the trash by 8pm, welcome bags, and what guests actually keep
    • What earns her trust on a site visit: closets, drawers, and the details that reveal the whole property
    • Bryan's check-in police rant, straight from the rooms division
    • Overhyped on camera, underwhelming in person — the destinations and restaurants that don't hold up
    • Inside the Lux Travel Advisor Program and the Wedding Planner Partner Program
    • Immigrant parents, a lemonade stand at 13, and Claire's Accessories
    • "You can always tell the character of a person by the way they treat a service staff person"
    • Workcations, balance, and buying your weekends back — the oxygen mask rule

    ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYAN

    Hosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality. On your side of the table.

    Season 6, Episode 5

    Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@Check-InwithBryan

    Season 6 presenting partner: Immedia.
    Produced by RH Media Productions.

    #CheckInWithBryan #LuxuryTravel #TravelAdvisor #Hospitality #DestinationWeddings #LuxEscapes #Entrepreneurship #SideHustle #HotelIndustry #TravelIndustry #WeddingPlanner #Podcast
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    53 min
  • The Forrest Gump of Real Estate

    The Forrest Gump of Real Estate
    Sep 29 2026

    At 27, Russ Flicker walked into Trump Tower expecting an introduction. He walked out having negotiated his own salary — in the room, on the spot, with no idea the meeting was an interview.

    He'll tell you he negotiated it badly. He also started two weeks later, spent five years there, and eventually inherited the office of the man who ran development.

    From there: the hospitality development team at Blackstone, then chief investment officer at the Ian Schrager Company. Then, in 2010 — with a 35% RevPAR decline behind the industry and two young children at home — he and two partners launched AWH Partners with no cycle to lean on and everything to prove. More than $2 billion into hotel real estate later, plus a management company of their own, he calls himself the Forrest Gump of real estate: somewhere in the corner of a lot of important photographs.

    This conversation goes where most investment interviews don't. He says the thing nobody says on a panel about select service. He explains why owning the management company means there's nobody left to blame. And he gives the single best piece of acquisitions advice in the season, which is essentially permission to not buy anything.

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • The Trump Tower meeting he didn't know was an interview — and walking in the next week to "who the hell are you, and why did he hire you?"
    • The dot-com venture that failed at 25, and the business partner he's now been married to for 25 years
    • What Blackstone taught him about rigor, and what Ian Schrager taught him about starting from a white sheet of paper
    • Why 2010 — the worst moment in a century to raise money for hotels — turned out to be the right one
    • Brand proliferation: "they have undergraduate now. When is middle school coming out?"
    • The honest answer nobody gives on stage — select service absolutely competes with full service, same brand family included
    • Marriott–Starwood, the most generous loyalty program ever built, and the college essay written about gaming it
    • Why Hyatt has the opposite problem from Hilton right now
    • Points-night economics, and why dropping rate at 1pm can make you more money by midnight
    • Why they bought their own management company — "if there's a problem, I can't blame anyone. Ask Russ. I'm at fault."
    • When AWH is deliberately not the right buyer, and why they won't bid
    • Trophy assets, older supply that should come out of the market, and the proliferation of debt letting people hang on
    • "You're not paid to acquire. You're paid to run through our process. If the process says red light, you've done your job."
    • Why the story is what makes anyone believe the numbers — and what his sister, who works in lending, says about the decks she receives
    • GAME — Buy, Sell or Hold: 60 seconds, 12 prompts, no hedging

    CONNECT WITH RUSS FLICKER
    AWH Partners → https://awhpartners.com

    ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYAN
    Hosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality — conversations with the owners, operators and creators shaping hospitality. On your side of the table.

    Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@Check-InwithBryan
    Check out our website for more: checkinwithbryan.com

    Season 6 presenting partner: Immedia.
    Produced by RH Media Productions.

    Special thanks to our sponsors: Immedia, Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.

    #HotelInvestment #Hospitality #CommercialRealEstate #HotelRealEstate #AssetManagement #HotelBrands #PrivateEquity #HotelDevelopment #CheckInWithBryan
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    59 min
  • He Turned Down JP Morgan for a Restaurant Job

    He Turned Down JP Morgan for a Restaurant Job
    Sep 22 2026

    Will Dasco got demoted the summer he was a bartender on Cape Cod. Bartender down to server — a punishment, on paper.

    He made more money, he was better at it, and it set the direction for the next decade.

    A few years later he finished an accounting degree at Suffolk and had two comparable offers in hand: JP Morgan Chase and Hillstone Restaurant Group. He took the restaurant job. His family hated it. "I got a lot of stern talking-tos" — but finance didn't feel right in his core, and hospitality did.

    What followed was ten years of saying yes to everything: Boston to Beverly Hills to San Francisco to Boca Raton to Orlando to Pompano Beach, where he was promoted to general manager a week after his 24th birthday. Then Miami, then Atlanta six weeks before the pandemic, then Denver. He saw more of the country in his twenties than most people see in a lifetime, one transfer at a time.

    And then, just before 30, he hit the question that ends a lot of good runs: is this it?

    IN THIS EPISODE

    • The demotion that changed his trajectory, and why serving paid better than the bar anyway
    • Turning down JP Morgan for Hillstone, and the conversations with family that followed
    • Why saying yes to every transfer is the whole game in your twenties — "if you don't say yes, they'll move on to the next person"
    • Becoming a GM at 24 and feeling the weight of it immediately
    • Moving to Atlanta six weeks before the pandemic, and what that kind of isolation does to you
    • The manager who gifted him a snowboard as a parting shot — and how falling down a mountain taught him to adjust in public
    • The night he wrote a resignation letter, made himself a Negroni, drank it, and hit send with nothing lined up
    • "I couldn't decide what was next until I decided that this wasn't it"
    • Getting walked out ten days into a three-month notice, and how he thinks about that now
    • Why he started Hospitality by Will, and the video about needing an hour of silence after a shift that went everywhere
    • Chasing a viral moment and catching yourself doing it
    • What AI genuinely can't replace — and the moment every one of us starts shouting "agent, agent, agent" into a phone tree
    • Reader stories from the industry, including a guest locked out of their room at 3am with no clothes on

    CONNECT WITH WILL DASCO
    Instagram → https://instagram.com/hospitalitybywill

    ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYAN
    Hosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality — conversations with the owners, operators and creators shaping hospitality. On your side of the table.
    Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@Check-InwithBryan
    check out more at checkinwithbryan.com

    Special thanks to our sponsors: Immedia, Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.

    Season 6 presenting partner: Immedia


    Produced by RH Media Productions.



    #Hospitality #FoodAndBeverage #HospitalityByWill #RestaurantIndustry #CareerChange #ContentCreator #HotelIndustry #CheckInWithBryan
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    53 min
  • I’ll Build It So They Can’t Tell Me No

    I’ll Build It So They Can’t Tell Me No
    Sep 15 2026

    Sarah Dandashy of Ask a Concierge got a flat "no" from a major brand two weeks before we taped this. Her response: build something they can't turn down.

    In her third visit to Check-In with Bryan, Sarah opens up about the rejections behind a career that looks effortless from the outside — the year-long TV development deal that died, the brands that passed, and the mindset that carried her through all of it: "It's not rejection, it's redirection."

    Sarah made her professional debut at 14 as a fairy sprite at the Georgia Renaissance Festival — eight hours a day on her feet, inventing a character and pulling strangers into a world that didn't exist. She still calls it the best hospitality training she ever got. From Jeddah to London to Atlanta to Washington D.C., she trained at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service pointed squarely at diplomacy, and landed in hospitality instead.

    In 2012, working the concierge desk in Beverly Hills, she started filming what-to-see-and-do videos in Los Angeles and took her advice off the desk and onto the internet — years before anyone called it a content strategy. "I was creating reels before other people were creating reels." In 2015, Les Clefs d'Or International named her Best Young Concierge in the world. She has since written the bestselling HOSPITALITY FROM WITHIN, spoken on the TEDx stage, and now spends more than 200 nights a year on the road.

    IN THIS CONVERSATION

    • Why rejection is a redirect, not a verdict — and why "the rent is too expensive" to keep living in that feeling
    • The passage from HOSPITALITY FROM WITHIN that stopped Bryan cold: "Follow the yeses."
    • Turning concierge tenacity on your own career — if you'd find a guest a Plan B, C and D, do it for yourself
    • The year-long TV development deal that ended in a no, and what she built so it couldn't happen again
    • Why she turns down content ideas that would probably perform well
    • Telling a brand their idea will fall flat without making anyone feel stupid — and having no ego about whose idea wins
    • Content creation as a legitimate small business, and why the "influencer" eye-roll is about a decade out of date
    • Filming since age seven on her grandfather's camera, including interviews with rocks
    • The audience she never expected to find: not tourists, locals looking for a date night idea
    • Bryan's own first stage role, which involved an elf costume and tights

    Then we close the way every episode this season closes — with a game. Tyler reads real hotel guest reviews and Sarah and Bryan guess how the guest actually rated the stay. Black mold, a cockroach in the bed... and a two out of five.

    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    CONNECT WITH SARAH DANDASHY
    Ask a Concierge → https://askaconcierge.tv
    Instagram → https://instagram.com/askaconcierge

    ABOUT CHECK-IN WITH BRYAN
    Hosted by Bryan Fish, CEO of Reliance Hospitality — conversations with the owners, operators and creators shaping hospitality. On your side of the table.

    For more - check out our website at: checkinwithbryan.com

    Season 6 presented by Immedia.
    Produced by RH Media Productions.

    Special thanks to our supporting sponsors: Regency Group, Avalon Risk Management, Arcstone Insurance Advisors, and Achilles HR.

    #Hospitality #ContentCreator #AskAConcierge #Concierge #HospitalityFromWithin #GuestExperience #CheckInWithBryan
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    37 min