Weather-Guarantee Funding, Winter Chaos, Airbnb Meals & Skift Megatrends
Good Morning Hospitality
01/26/26
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On this morning’s Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Wil Slickers is joined by Michael Goldin and Jamie Lane for a quick-hit look at the stories shaping travel and hospitality to start the week.
The team covers WeatherPromise’s latest funding round, the massive winter storm disrupting U.S. flights, and what it could mean for short-term rental demand, and Airbnb’s newest services push with ready-to-heat meals from celebrity chefs.
They also touch on Mews’ recent momentum and wrap the episode by digging into a favorite Skift Megatrend and why it matters right now.
This episode is brought to you by Guesty!
Connect with Skift:
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Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.
Previous Episode
Mews just raised $300 million in a Series D, valuing the company at $2.5 billion — one of the largest hotel tech raises ever. But this conversation isn’t about hype.
In this GMH exclusive, Wil Slickers sits down for a third time with Richard Valtr, Founder of Mews, to unpack what this funding actually unlocks and why Richard believes much of hospitality technology has been built on the wrong assumptions for decades.
They dig into why hotels still struggle with data ownership, how PMS platforms became gatekeepers instead of enablers, and why AI will only work if the industry fixes its foundations first. Richard also explains why RevPAR may be the industry’s “original sin,” why guest experience should be a measurable output, and why fully autonomous hotels are the wrong goal.
This is a wide-ranging, philosophical, and practical conversation about:
• What Mews’ $300M raise really changes
• Why hotel tech copied the wrong SaaS playbook
• Data standards, open APIs, and industry gatekeeping
• AI agents, automation, and what should (and shouldn’t) be automated
• Why hospitality is more human than ever, even in an AI world
Extra Links Related or Mentioned in This Episode:
- My first episode with Richard in 2021
- My second episode with Richard in 2023
- Skift Article around the $300M fund raise
Connect with Airline Weekly
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/airline-weekly/
X: https://x.com/Airline_Weekly/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/airlineweekly/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/
WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/
Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the airline and travel industries.
Next Episode
We’re sharing a preview of a new podcast from Skift called Skift Take Sessions.
Skift Take Sessions is a weekly, journalist-led podcast built from the most important conversations shaping the global travel industry. Each episode features candid interviews with CEOs and senior leaders across airlines, hotels, and travel platforms, recorded live at Skift events and expanded with context around why the conversation matters now and what we learned.
Hosted by Wil Slickers, the show brings listeners inside executive-level thinking from leaders at companies like Hilton, Expedia Group, Airbnb, JetBlue, and more.
New episodes drop every week.
Listen and follow Skift Take Sessions:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/skift-take-sessions/id1871511773
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4oKApv7z0I65VpySjh9rqP?si=2e8f1e3e83e8459d
Skift.com: https://skift.com/skift-travel-podcasts/
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