Is Marriott Going Too Far With 39 Brands?

On this week’s Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down Marriott Hotels’ launch of its 39th brand: a wellness-focused concept in Italy, and ask whether hyper-segmentation is a smart strategy or brand overload. During this part of the discussion, Sean O’Neill will be joining us to share his insights.

They also explore the rise of food-led hotels and why dining is becoming a core differentiator, Virgin Atlantic’s quick exit from Riyadh and what it signals about demand in emerging markets, and how rising fuel costs are already hitting cruise profits.

Finally, in the Unhinged Story of the Week, a viral TikTok shows a passenger boarding what she thought was a flight… only to end up on a bus — sparking confusion over what actually counts as air travel.

Watch This Episode

All right. So Marriott just launched its 39th brand and its two property wellness concept in Italy. So today we’re asking, how many brands is too many?

And is this actually a smart strategy or just a brand overload? We’ll also get into the rise of food led hotels, yum, Virgin Atlantic pulling a major route and fuel costs hitting cruise profits.

And of course, a viral moment where a flight turned out to be a bus. Let’s get into it. That intro music gets me every time.

Good morning.

Good morning, Sarah, I missed you last week.

I know, I missed you too. Will you tell the people where you were?

Oh, I was cruising the high seas on Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas, and was working on this beautiful golden cookie tan I have working right now. I had to say, it was awesome.

It was the first time I did a multi-generation cruise, so my parents, my brothers, my kids, it was awesome. They did a great job on Royal Caribbean, I have to say. I did a little LinkedIn post about it, but man, it was awesome.

A great, great time. It makes me want to do more cruises. I’m like, hey, can I go on my own and work for my cruise?

I know you do it all the time. I’ve got to figure it out. The port’s less than a mile from where I live, so I’m going to try to figure this out.

You could walk there.

I could.

I was thinking, traffic’s pretty bad. I may just have to roll down the street with my carry-on and hop on the next Royal Caribbean.

Well, that’s awesome. I’ve done a lot of cruises, but I have actually never done a Royal Caribbean cruise.

I was thinking, actually, oddly enough, after I’m in Miami for Sea Trade, possibly doing a little short one out of Los Angeles, so Port of Los Angeles, aka Long Beach. You inspired me. Look at you.

Yeah.

Look, I’m finally influencing Sarah. You always influenced me on travel. I’m slightly becoming an influencer here, but it was great.

I want to go to Sea Trade, so I’m going to make that happen because I’m really into this whole cruise world now.

Do that. I’m speaking one of the days. We’ll make sure that you get all set up.

You got to go to the Port Hull Cruise Party. We should have actually Bill Panoff on sometime. We should do something on cruises and have good old Bill Panoff.

He’s like the cruise man. He’s amazing. By the way, just planting the seed for that in the background.

But by the way, I also have to do a quick shout out because I worked with our dear friends over at Muse. I just came back from Seattle and I was filming some social media stuff for them with also our other friends at Stay Pineapple.

Yeah, it was really fun. What a fun hotel brand. To get to bring that to life and then also show a little bit of the behind the scenes of the Muse technology and how it just really helps make the guest experience seamless.

That’s what I just came back from, good old Seattle.

Always fun, I’ve never been to Seattle. I gotta make it happen, but I know that today we’ve got a busy, busy show. We do.

We’ve got some special things happening. What do we have special going on, Sarah? What do you tell our viewers here?

All right, well, we actually have a special guest on today.

Should we introduce Sean O’Neill?

I think let’s bring Sean on. Do we get a round of applause for him?

Come on, Sean. Come on, Sean. Woo hoo, I love it.

You weren’t expecting Matt this morning, were you Sean?

I wasn’t, I need to get a hype song, you know, some sort of power rock, you know.

Oh, I love that. I love that. So over those-

It’s a fad man supporting for him.

Yeah, so Sean, behind so many of our great stories, and actually why we have him on today is, is actually, you know, sort of our first story that we’re going to be doing a dive into.

But again, Sean, thank you so much for joining us. I know that you are certainly busy. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.

Yeah, no, Sarah and Steve had long time, long time listeners, first time visitors.

I really appreciate you having me on today.

That’s great.

Well, we love what’s going on here, what you’re writing about. We got Marriott, the big news, their 39th brand that they’re putting out there into the world. And this one’s a little bit different.

Why don’t you tell listeners and viewers, what are they creating? What’d you write about?

Yeah, so they decided they wanted to create a luxury wellness brand.

And so their team went up into the hills of the Dolomites in Italy and found this husband and wife couple that have spent the last two decades creating this luxury wellness brand called Le Fay. It is doing very well.

It’s just two resorts, but those two resorts with less than 200 rooms, generate like $50 million worth of revenue last year with profits. And so Marriott is now going to start, they created a joint venture with this Le Alli family.

And that joint venture is hotels are going to appear on Marriott site and app. And they’re going to try to scale this up globally. So I think it’s really exciting to get that cool luxury wellness into the portfolio.

Yeah, I like it.

I think this is unique because it’s not as another soft brand that they’re putting out into the world, right? It’s not like, oh, let’s create a soft brand and collect as many hotels. This is like we found this ultra unique property.

And I was looking at the website and listening to the views that you haven’t, make sure to check out what they’re doing at Lafay because it’s beautiful.

And I saw that there was also the family that sold Lufthansa Airlines, like they built and sold Lufthansa, so they know how to build the brand, right? I’m sure that’s what Marriott saw as well.

Yeah, they built an airline called Air Dolomiti and sold it to Lufthansa. And then they used that cash to help create this new brand, Lafay. And it has like a Michelin star restaurant in the Michelin Keys.

It’s got very good DNA. And so, just to your point, Steve, I agree.

Like, they didn’t let go out and say, okay, we need to tick the box on wellness and let’s have Ritz-Carlton Wellness and just have like a big spa on Ritz-Carlton and call that a brand.

Instead, they went out to these people who really tried to understand the micro segmentation here and deliver something special.

Yeah, it’s, I actually, what I’m loving about this is that it is something that it’s, they’ve tapped into something that’s already kind of there.

And it’s interesting because there’s, there’s actually another hotel brand that’s kind of done something similar in that region.

So I think it goes to show you that, you know, it brands are looking at it a little bit differently and more strategically. And I also love that they’re tapping into the, I mean, it’s like family design, family run.

And that that brings a very different and intimate experience compared to just a boutique brand, which, by the way, not just a boutique brand. We all, you know, we’re definitely fans of boutique hotels. But this is taking it to that next level.

And I love that they’re kind of bringing it into the ecosystem. And again, for those, you know, Marriott fans that have all their points. And, you know, it’s a great way to explore it, right?

I mean, that’s the point of it, isn’t it?

Yeah, I think it is.

But Sean, where do you see this brand kind of competing? Where when you’re writing about this and kind of doing the background, where do you see this brand fitting in, in the world of Marriott?

Yeah, so, I mean, I think it’s the luxury wellness segment. So the only sort of like comparable is like Hyatt has its Miraval sort of brand, which is more on the all-inclusive side.

And then Minor International has Anantara, which has sort of like a major wellness component. But I think it’s sort of there’s often this question of like, are there too many brands? And I can understand where people get to that perspective.

But to me, there’s not enough brands. Like to me, the big problem is most people, it’s not, when I talk to them at the barbecue, it’s not like, oh, Marriott has so many brands. I don’t understand the difference.

It’s like the last half dozen hotels I’ve been at have kind of sucked. And so, you want to find that experience of a hotel where you really vibe with it, where you really like all the details. And it doesn’t have to be luxury.

It could be you really like the height of the beds or where the desk is. As you know, always know reliably like the desk is going to be a certain way.

And I think what’s great about this example of what Marriott did is they really were thoughtful and intentional about what they’re doing. Whether they can execute and scale it up successfully is a separate question.

With W when they acquired it, they kind of ran it into the ground and now they have to try to turn it back around. So it’s hard to scale them up.

But I do think if I could go on for just a little bit more, I follow like we live in a different world now for discovering brands.

It’s not like the old days where you have to go board in Times Square and say, this is the Lafay brand and everyone has to know it. Instead, I can follow Sarah on Instagram or I can follow Steve on social media.

And if I’m following one, I know, I’ve got a certain vibe and I will be fed content. The brands will get surfaced to me. The hotel recommendation that will most be resonating with me will come that way.

And it will be a different experience depending on the two of you.

I might get Four Seasons if I’m visiting Washington, DC, or Peninsula in California if I’m following Sarah, or maybe it’s going to be an agritourism resort in South Florida if I’m following Steve.

And so I think in that world, if Marriott adds 30-night brands or has 130-night brands, it doesn’t matter as long as they can get that brand directed to you via digital media. And so that will be a good thing.

So if I’m really passionate about wellness, my chance of actually finding a hotel where I really vibe with is really going to increase. So I’m super, super excited about this.

I love your point of view. I think a lot of us, we say, man, another brand coming out, it’s another one. But you’re saying that there could be 100.

And I see what you’re saying, because now in this world of you’re being fed what you like and you start consuming that content, you get the direct bookings, like one of my partners in my project. That’s what he does.

He said, man, we get 80% of our bookings through Instagram because we’re making content like a TV show. And that’s what people want to go experience.

There’s a lot of brands who’d be super jealous of having that high of a level.

Yeah.

Well, and it’s also very specific, and it’s interesting because I actually do a lot of work with the PR team from Marriott, so I can speak to this directly and just even understanding a bit of the strategy and also understanding the consumer’s

mindset. So interestingly enough, almost the everyday consumer is not necessarily realizing, oh, Ritz-Carlton, W, Sheraton, Weston, they know those brands individually, and then they might have to dig a little deeper to be like, oh, yeah, yeah,

that’s right. They’re all under Marriott.

So also, once you get into, whether it’s Marriott or any of the hotels, their ecosystem and you’re in the app, and you’re searching for places, again, kind of to your point, Sean, it’s like, okay, well, I’m in, like, I’m going to Miami, and I’m like,

I’m going to be using, true story, I’m going to use my points. Where can I stay with my points? And I discovered a whole bunch of different brands, and I’m like, oh, oh, I could do that.

I mean, I normally like the Moxie, but this is a brand I don’t know. Let me look at the rooms. Oh, I could vibe with that for a couple of days.

So just even in how, that’s another way of sort of being introduced to individuals where especially when you’ve got such a small, small Italian run, I mean, that’s such a specific location that yeah, they’ll either find them on social media or

they’ll literally be perusing. And maybe they get fed up, fed up the suggestion and on the front page of the app, or maybe they’re like, oh, well, I want to go to this region and, and they’re kind of introduced to it that way.

But no matter how you slice it, I mean, I think the average consumer is not going to be like, oh, that’s too many. If anything, they’re going to be like, oh, great. I can use my points towards this, you know, get points, right?

Where do you see the wellness industry going now?

Because it seems like some people are starting to double down into it. It seems like we hear that all the time. How are you seeing this now?

If Marriott is getting involved at this ultra high level?

Well, it’s interesting. Like I said, my colleague Luke Martin earlier a few months ago, like looked at some reports that have been done on the financials. And I think the big problem is it’s hard to execute.

These are labor-intensive, they’re cost-intensive, but they aren’t always run at capacity.

If you think about it, if you go to a gym, for example, or you run a movie theater, there’s certain hours a day it’s not being used, but then there’s certain hours where it’s very intense.

And so trying to figure out the economics to make it profitable is tricky. And so on the back end, as it were, in order for wellness to really grow and have very successful brands, you have to sort of figure that out.

Equinox, it seems to have had figured out a good model, but it has had trouble sort of scaling. And so trying to have that execution as you grow is difficult, as you know.

Can I also say, not every brand needs to scale in the sense that some need to be precious. You know, some need to be like, I’m thinking, and I’m not to throw out another brand, but I’m thinking about like Amman Hotels, for example.

And I met with them and then finding out way so many more hotels that they had than I even really realized because they’ve got their city properties as well as their famous resorts. And they also have one as well in Italy.

And it’s interesting because it’s this fine balance with luxury is like, how much is too much when it comes to scale, because you do want to sort of keep it a little bit more, you know, special and rare. But obviously, I get it.

They also want to be in different markets and appeal to different travelers, too. So that’s a very fine balance.

And Sarah, in Ultra Luxury, we did an analysis and we said, like, you know, hotels that have an average rate above, you know, $1,000 a night. Yeah. About 36 brands around the world.

Oh, you know, excuse me. There’s a, I don’t remember the exact up-to-date number, but it’s between 30 and 40. And the average is only about 33 in the number of property portfolios.

You know, four season skews at high, like 120. But a lot of these are very small, Niche, Auberg, et cetera, Arielle. And so, exactly to your point, you know, if you’re going to get it really right, you need to keep it small.

Otherwise, it’s not an intimate special experience anymore.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And there’s also a little bit of that, like, FOMO.

And I feel, going back to what you were bringing up with Econox, there was definitely that element of it when they started even just as a gym. It was like, oh gosh, there aren’t that many.

Oh, if there’s one in your area, I have to join and be exclusive because we have one in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, but they might not have it in Dayton, Ohio. Nothing wrong with that. Just as an example.

So, yeah.

I don’t get all the hate mails from Dayton. Thanks, Sarah. Everyone’s going to write me from Dayton.

Nothing but mad love.

I’ve actually never even been there.

I was there. Sean, I know you have to run. I figure, what’s one thing that we should know from this?

What should we take away from what Marriott’s doing here? What do you think?

I think they are leading in luxury right now compared to all the other hotel groups, both in terms of property count and in terms of number of brands and in their effort to grow.

Hyatt is up and comer, but Hilton needs to improve its ground game if it wants to stay competitive.

You heard it here first. That’s excellent. Couldn’t agree more.

Well said.

Well, Sean, thanks so much for joining us. You’re welcome back here anytime. I love having you here.

Thank you, Steve.

I hope we can be here the entire time.

It would be awesome.

Awesome. Exactly. Please come back anytime.

Next time, we’ll have another great breaking story. We’ll definitely be sure to have you on. But we know you got to get going because you got more work to put out there.

He’s got breaking news to cover.

Very cool.

Good luck with the rest of the show. Take care, guys.

Thank you. It’s so great. By the way, I love when we’re able to have Sean on and some of the other editors, because again, it just brings, hopefully for you all that are tuning in, it brings a little bit more of the humanness behind the stories.

I mean, these are the people that are out there doing the research, putting it together and helping bring this. You’re working hard. Yeah, exactly.

Working hard. But I do actually want to quickly address one of the comments. I don’t know if that it popped up from Curtis, which I just thought this was funny because we should plant the seed.

I know that this was done before. 30 Day Break, we should definitely do a game show. Let us know by the way.

Maybe we should just do like a fun series one day, like an extra show where we have a little bit of a fun game like this. Yeah.

What brand is this hotel group? I think we should do that.

Totally, totally.

We should do that today. Will, you can do it. Find us one random one.

We’ll say what group is this for at the end.

Yeah. Good luck. Good luck.

I also wanted to address Ben who mentioned tuning in from Tahoe. It’s slow out here. Travel.

Yeah. I mean, it definitely is. Understandably that it’s slow.

But let us know, are you joining us from the California side or the Nevada side? We love both sides. Okay.

Well, why don’t we continue on here with our stories? That was great. Let us know also, by the way, if you want us to have Sean on some more, some of their other editors that are putting together these stories.

But this is like your domain. I mean, I got a lot to say about the two, but the rush to build hotels around food. I’m like, is this new?

I mean, isn’t food always?

It’s semi-new. And I think I was lucky enough to be part of the first, one of the first, but this is also Sean’s article.

And they were saying that hotels are now increasingly building around food as the main attraction to get people into that hotel and to fill out that hotel. If you get the right big brand name to do this, it really takes off.

So I was lucky enough to work at the third, second, third Nobu Hotel. So I opened in Miami Beach. So everyone knows Nobu Restaurant.

And if you don’t know the story, famously one of their main partners is Robert De Niro, who would always eat at Nobu’s restaurant in LA. And he’s like, man.

He’s the original, the OG.

I got his book on my bookshelf here. And so Chef Nobu was like, no, no, no, I don’t want to do it. And then slowly he built his first Nobu.

And then that restaurant group exploded and it’s, you know, world wide known. And they were always doing it within hotels. And then they said, why do we keep partnering with hotels when we can create our own hotel with our own restaurant?

And the guests of those restaurants trusted the service so much and that hospitality they always felt. They said, let’s do it. And so that really was where it took off.

And I got to see it firsthand really explode. And now I think that hotel group has 46 hotels and 20 residences and just exploding. But now more and more, we’re starting to see it.

And Sean talks about it, that they’re making big bets on this with Minor Hotel, which he mentioned, taking a big step into that world with 15 culinary hotel restaurants or hotels. And they’re starting to see it more and more pop up.

And I really love it because where do you go when you’re on a trip? Yes, you pick the hotel, maybe it’s a spa, but you’re usually exploring new restaurants and exploring places to stay. And if you have that driver in there, it starts to take off.

And then those hotels that do have that luxury restaurant, get higher ADR because you want to be a part of that world.

So definitely. And imagine at the beginning or hopefully if it continues on, it’s hard to get reservation.

And there are some hotels and restaurant brands that it’s like, okay, well, I know that if I’m staying there, it’s going to kind of give me a, I’ll be higher up on the list to be able to make a reservation and get a reservation there.

And people are like, okay, cool. I’ll book, we didn’t even talk about this a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know.

Or I was just talking about this with somebody else where, yeah, they were like, hey, I booked a hotel so I could specifically dine at this restaurant. So yeah, that’s absolutely part of it.

And as you mentioned, where, yes, people are looking for restaurants, certainly when they’re traveling, but also all too often it’s like, I’m just going to eat at the restaurant at the hotel.

And bonus when it’s a great restaurant and they can make it a foodie experience. I mean, I was at the Rithe Hotel in Brooklyn and La Crocodile was their restaurant, which is a Michelin star restaurant at the hotel.

Like, what a wonderful way to kind of experience that along with the property.

Yeah, what I like seeing here too is what Minor Hotel is doing.

They are looking for destinations like cities that are buzzy cities and up and coming cities that don’t have a hot restaurant, creating that hot restaurant within their hotel and really driving people to stay at their property.

So it’s interesting to see what they’re doing. But there’s so many, like Cipriani restaurants. I think Miami has a lot of Cipriani, has Mr.

C Hotels, now Mr. C Residences. I just love it because you can understand if you like that vibe, you’re in that restaurant, you feel cool.

You’re like, all right, I would love to stay in a hotel like this. And then you like that hotel and it becomes a residence. And then you live that lifestyle.

It’s just something I love seeing. I’m a big fan of that for many years.

Yeah, no, no, I agree. And I think that this is, I mean, it’s smart. It makes sense.

We’ve been seeing it for some time, but definitely seeing more brands kind of lean heavily into this.

I mean, it just makes sense because if you do it right, it can completely change the bottom line of a hotel where normally FMB doesn’t necessarily do much for the hotel. So if it’s done right, it can change the game.

I think it’s a first hand where we were in that brand. So that brand, I’m telling you, it works. And if you’re not a hotel brand that has a big name, chef, it really does drive significant revenues.

So if you can make that investment, try to do it.

Totally, totally. All right. Well, why don’t we quickly go on here to our other topics?

This is kind of a big deal. It all depends on how much you guys are really following the airlines, oil prices, jet fuel, all of that. Virgin Atlantic pulls the Riyadh route less than a year after launch.

And for those that don’t know where Riyadh is, it is in Saudi Arabia. This is sort of suggesting deeper challenges, by the way, just beyond timing and necessarily geopolitics, political reasons.

But it raises questions about demand, hype, all of that. To me, it’s not a big surprise.

Actually, I don’t know if I’ve actually said this on air here, but for those that may not know, I actually lived in Saudi Arabia for the first six years of my life. I’ve got cousins, uncles that live there. My dad does a lot of business there.

I’m half Lebanese, etc. So I have a lot to say on the Saudi push, that we could totally get into another time. But this to me is not surprising.

I feel like there’s a lot built into the hype, and definitely Saudi wanting to make themselves the next Dubai. I personally believe that there are some challenges to that. Do they have the money to make things amazing and incredible and mind-blowing?

Absolutely. But again, it’s still convincing the everyday traveler, or not even the everyday traveler, those of a certain cash flow, that this is like the next place to go to. So yeah, interesting.

I don’t know. Do you have any thoughts on that before I go off on my whole thing?

I’m here in Miami. They’re making a big push here to make people want to go there. And there’s a big boat series, racing boat series, called E1, that Mark Anthony and Will Smith and Rafa Nadal own the boats, and it’s all sponsored by Saudi Arabia.

And they made sure it was well known. This is a Saudi Arabian sponsored event, and they handed out all their gear and things like that. So people want to go there.

They want people to go there, but it’s not on my list. They go, hey, let’s shoot on over to Riyadh and see what’s going on.

But interesting, so case in point. So I wrote a couple of things on this. So I feel like the average American’s viewpoint is not like, that’s not really high on my list.

I would like to go back, but it’s also been since a long time since I’ve been there, and I have a personal tie to it. But I love their play.

If we, because again, they have deeper pockets than many other parts of the world, they’re like, well, if we can help fund these awesome events, you’re going to go because you want to go to that event.

And then that’s going to be your sort of like introductory experience to it. And then hopefully you’ll be like, oh, I want to come back and explore a different part of the country. So, I mean, no shame in that game.

That makes a lot of sense and it’s a smart way to kind of attract new travelers that might have a different notion as far as what Saudi Arabia might be like. And they’re like, no, no, we’re, we’re cool. Come join, come hang.

So, but again, you’re not canceling flight routes if you’re, if you’re making money.

So, correct, you’re not.

And that’s where I think, I think it’s a myriad of reasons. I think obviously like the hype around it. But then, I mean, look, it’s tough out there right now for the Middle East.

Not a lot of people are going to, I mean, I was supposed to be going in three weeks because I was going to go to the travel mart there. And I was still going to go if flights were more readily available.

And I think Emirates is now even going to be pulling a flight from LA to Dubai or some of them, which is huge just because of demand right now. So that’s going to be a whole other topic for another day.

But yeah, it just goes to show you lots of things are changing right now.

And quickly, yes.

Yeah. All right. Moving on.

Carnival.

Yeah.

Yeah. Carnival cuts. Yeah, exactly.

We could talk about fuel for days. It’s a problem. Carnival cuts profit forecasts on fuel shock.

So Carnival cuts full year profit outlook due to rising fuel costs tied to the Iran War. Unlike competitors, Carnival does not hedge fuel. So they’ve got increased exposure to the sort of changing prices in fuel.

But, yeah, what are your thoughts on this? Especially after being on it.

It’s great what it is, right? Like you’re pushing a giant ship through water and you need oil and gas to do it.

If you’re not hydrogen powered, like we had talked about a couple of months ago, I forgot what cruise line that was where he wanted to have natural gas and all those things. It’s a lot of money and just you see it every day, listeners and viewers.

If you’re going to go fill up your car with gas. I mean, look, I only filled up halfway yesterday because I’m like, hopefully this will come down a little bit more in the next couple of weeks. Right?

Really?

A couple of weeks?

I can only imagine. Yeah. I can only imagine the cost to fill a ship.

I’m curious if any of our listeners or cruise experts, how much does it cost to fill one of those? Because we were just talking about a yacht and a yacht is like 200,000 on like a little tiny yacht here.

I’m curious what it costs to fill those giant ships. But each one of those ships, if they’re operating well, is making a million a day on top line. So your biggest cost is labor.

And you know, I’m sure fuel now is definitely up there. So the cost of those cruise lines is going to get higher and higher because they got to cover it somehow.

Yeah, it’s wild to me. I saw somebody posting the other day, a travel influencer who was like, the prices of airfare are so expensive. And I was just like, do we not know what’s going on?

I actually think that, and maybe we can file this for next week. We should actually talk about some of the fuel costs and how it’s impacting the travel industry.

Just a little bit more because I think it’s really easy for us as Americans to just be like, oh yeah, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s a freaking big deal. It’s a little bit more insulated for us.

Yes, obviously we’re seeing higher fuel prices at the gas tank. But I mean, you’ve got countries that are like, they’re straight up cutting flights because we don’t have enough jet fuel and what that is doing for the local economy.

I’ve got some friends of mine in the Philippines and gas has quadrupled, quadrupled. So what’s going on here? Well, we know what’s going on.

Anyway.

David Turk is doing some research, look at him, a journalist.

I would love to see.

A waste of the seas is said to hold 30,000 to 35,000 gallons on that ship. So just as one ship out of their entire fleet, I’m sure they have a good deal on their gas.

But man, that just starts adding up very quickly to get that thing filled up, which is unreal. Well, we have a lot of interesting travel stories. You want to talk about this one?

This one’s pretty funny.

Let’s go into this. We’ll get to our final Unhinged Travel Story of the Week. And I love this.

You booked a flight, but you end up finding out it’s actually a bus. So a passenger went viral, by the way. I love that this is new news for some people, because it ain’t for me.

But a passenger went viral after discovering her flight was actually a bus ride, booked through the airline.

She boarded through the gate and walked outside, got on a coach bus instead of a plane, and then the bus left the airport and drove the route instead of flying it. So let me know, guys, has this ever happened to you?

It’s pretty hilarious. I was going a little further into it after watching the video today.

She booked it through work thinking it was American Airlines, and it said, oh, it’s $400 to go from Chicago to somewhere, and she booked it, got to the airport, had to go through TSA, had to do all the screening, got to the gate, was looking at the

window, was like, oh, there’s a bus there. I guess it’s just going to take me to my plane, walk down to the bus, and then the bus started going down the runway, and then made a right-hand turn at the airport, and then she realized, like, uh-oh, I’m

not going to a plane, I’m taking this bus. And they were serving cookies. She realized when they started serving cookies, like they would on the plane, and here’s your coffee, and here’s your snack.

Oh my gosh, they did the whole service. I’ve actually never opted for this, but that’s hilarious. So yeah, let us know, by the way, in the comments, have you ever, have you ever done this?

It’s not uncommon for me, because for those that know, I’ve got family that are in Allentown, good old ABE airport, and it’s a smaller airport, not a lot of flights fly there.

So it was not uncommon for me as an option, or even like my aunt would fly in from Portugal into Newark, there’s an option from Newark that then you fly in to Newark, and then you get on the next plane, which is the bus that takes you to Allentown,

or flying in to Philly, and then you get on a bus. Actually, my mom just did this two weeks ago. She flew from Las Vegas to Philly, got on a bus, and I’m like, how is that, Mom? Because I personally have always avoided it.

I’m like, no, no, I can’t.

But I can see how you get faked out. Like when I went to Italy last year, like I had to switch to Germany, you get on the bus, and then they take you to the plane. So I was like, all right, I’m just getting on the bus.

But then I sit there and realize, what, I just paid $400 to take a bus out of the airport. But takes it to the other airport, it’s pretty interesting. It’s called Landline by American Airlines.

So it’s pretty cool.

It’s wild, wild. So let us know, crazy stuff happening in travel. But yeah, let’s just do a quick real-time recap.

I think we deserve a real-time recap this week because you were just out there, not even the streets of hospitality, you were out there in the waves of hospitality, the streets of hospitality.

Yeah. I talked about it in our opening here, but definitely on Royal Caribbean, and I want to give them a shout out because their app that they use, I learned a lot.

I pre-booked almost every single thing that I did on that ship, leaving some windows of time to relax, but I didn’t have to stress.

I had a cabana, luckily to split with my family when we got to their private island, I had restaurant reservations done, spa appointments done, stuff for my kids done, and it made it very, very easy to cruise, and it made me even more excited now.

How many times did I go on the waterslide? I was on that waterslide seven or eight times. My brother David, who was just commenting, went on with my daughter a hundred times.

We hit everything up. I ziplined, I did all the time.

I love it, I love it.

It sounds like a proper family vacation, and I love that you were able to have your parents on, your kids on, like the whole fam.

Yeah, one of the ports we didn’t even get off. At NASA, I’ve been there many times, so we just stayed on the ship and enjoyed the ship while everyone was out there running around. So for me, Royal Caribbean, big fan.

I’ll be out there again soon. Hopefully, I think Alaska is what I want to do next. So I’m looking forward to that.

Yeah, definitely do that.

Highly recommend that. All right, cool. Well, I mean, again, like I kind of mentioned that at the beginning, but definitely worthy of mentioning again, got to stay at a Stay Pineapple hotel, the Maxwell in Seattle.

And this is my second time staying at Stay Pineapple. First time was in 2019, and I didn’t even know the brand. And I got to San Francisco to go on a cruise, actually a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Oh, not a Royal Caribbean, sorry. Oh my gosh, it’ll come to me.

She’s losing it, people. She’s losing it.

I’m losing it. I’m losing my memory. Celebrity, a celebrity cruise.

So, but it’s such a fun brand. Like they really are playful. And that’s to me is just such a great reminder of just the fun that you’re able to have with boutique hotels.

You know, we’re also, I’m not sure if you know Dina from Stay Pineapple, but we should probably have her on. Dina’s amazing. She really gets the guest experience.

And what I love about what they do is they give so much ownership to the employees and the staff that work there that, you know, they can, they have, in actually, in essence, they have an unlimited budget to do something, to fix or to wow guests.

And she says, she’s like, nobody’s ever, like, done anything so outrageous that we’ve had to put a cap on it, which I think is really interesting to see. But again, the Maxwell, wonderful, fun property.

They’ve got their afternoon delight where they come out with these, like, pineapple cookies. And, you know, it just, it’s fun.

And then in the room, they have this whole, like, get naked theme where they’ve got their bathrobes and they have two separate beddings for both sides of the bed. So a couple of sleeping in beds can have their own comforter.

So there’s no, like, tugging at the comforter. I mean, again, it’s just fun. And it’s also family friendly and very much kid friendly too.

So I love that they’re able to play into, like, the cheeky side of things. But then hopefully that goes over the heads of some kids. But it’s great.

So big fan of the brand.

All right. Shout out State Pineapple. I got to check them out.

Yeah, definitely.

Wow.

We flew by.

We went over our time. We had a special guest today. We caught up on everything quickly.

And listen, listeners and viewers, we thank you very much. I see you all sharing and commenting and reposting. We love seeing that.

And if you haven’t done that yet, take the time, pause this, send this podcast or video to someone. They’re going to appreciate it. And again, I always say, if you haven’t subscribed yet, why not?

It’s free and it helps us. Make sure you don’t get anything free in life. So make sure to subscribe to us.

And then listen, until next week, what do we say, Sarah?

Stay hospitable.