Start here:
Making the most out of The Stanza experience
The Stanza is an independent media platform discussing hospitality and culture from an investor’s perspective. “Stanza” means “room” in Italian, and the goal of the newsletter and podcast is to give you the feeling that you’re in the right room. The Stanza is not traditional journalism — you won’t find copy & pastes of press releases. Instead you’ll find insights informed by my institutional real estate investing experience, lifelong passion for hospitality, and my lived experience with the brands I talk about.
Every Friday, paid subscribers receive access to value-packed insights to make sense of what’s happening in the world of hospitality. Content is distributed in four formats:
Weekly Digest
Some popular issues:
The Business of “Eurosummer”: Is seasonal luxury hospitality a durable business?
The economics of seasonal beach restaurants, with input from Alexandre Rossoz at Loulou Restaurants and Marc Lotenberg of Dorsia.
In the context of “K-shaped hospitality” what are the crucial inputs that go into creating a true ultra-luxury hotel?
The most underutilized tool in guest curation: “Who is this hotel for?”
The case for thoughtfully curating your guest mix.
The soft power behind the world’s most booked hotels: Capital ‘D’ distribution
Similarly, the case for selective distribution and long-term thinking.
“Doing hotels” vs “doing hospitality”: What’s the difference and why does it matter?
In the midst of “hotel mania”, what distinguishes the players who are in it for the right reasons?
Who is paying these outrageous room rates?
Behind the scenes of the luxury travel advisor industry
The “factory farming of luxury hotels”
Why are there so many cheap-y hotels that are being sold as “luxury”, with prices that set unrealistic expectations?
The Classifieds
*The Weekly Digests include a Classifieds section, where you’ll find hotels or properties for sale, investment opportunities, agency listings, and other interesting things for sale. To advertise in this section, email classifieds@thestanzamedia.com
In The Room
Some recent favorites:
Building the playbook for wellness hospitality with Neil Jacobs, former CEO of Six Senses
A hotelier’s first hotel with Alex Ohebshalom
Scaling a French boutique hotel brand with Frederic Biousse and Linda Hazi of Fontenille Collection
The business of stylish Italian hotels with Valeriano Antonioli of Lungarno Collection
Buying The Standard from Andre Balazs with Amar Lalvani of Hyatt Lifestyle
2026 Partnerships
A big thank you to The Stanza’s partners who make the podcast possible:
Dorsia is building a B2B and B2C hospitality tech platform serving restaurants, members clubs, and ticketed events around the cultural calendar. I’ve been a user of Dorsia’s app for the past two years and love how convenient it is to book impossible tables in destinations I frequent. You can get access to the app here with code THESTANZA. If you’re a members club or restaurant operator interested in partnering with Dorsia, please reach out to melissa@dorsia.com.
To learn more about Dorsia, click here.
La Bottega Collective produces and distributes luxury products at the world’s best hotels — bathroom kits, robes, slippers, candles, textiles, and everything else that makes the difference between a room and an experience. In essence, they are guest experience curators and know a thing or two about creating emotional resonance in a very elegant way. What I love about them is their Italian know-how and approach to craftsmanship and beauty. In addition to hotels, La Bottega Collective supplies private residences, private jets, and yachts.
If you’d like to learn more about how La Bottega Collective can seriously uplevel your experience, click here.
SmartFlyer is one of the largest luxury travel advisory businesses in the world, booking over $1B+ of business in 2025. The secret to success is twofold: SmartFlyer has a collaborative company culture in which agents share valuable information and collaborate to deliver the best travel experiences for their clients. At the same time, you can expect SmartFlyer agents to take the time to intimately understand their clients, and the destinations and hotels they send them to. SmartFlyer agents also spend a lot of time getting to know hotel owners and GM’s, and these relationships make all the difference.
If you’re a hotel owner or operator and would like to get to know SmartFlyer, learn more and get in touch here.
Podcast
Seasonal show highlighting industry movers and shakers. Some crowd favorites:
Jonathan Goldstein: Founder & CEO of Cain
Anne-Laure Ollagnon: CEO of Airelles Group
Ian Schrager of Studio 54, Morgans Hotel Group, The Edition, Public
Jeff Klein of Sunset Tower Hotel and San Vicente Bungalows
Social Media
Find The Stanza on Instagram here.