Plus: Where green choices drive ROI | The real cost of exclusion
What do efficient check-ins, sustainable luxury and accessibility all have in common? They all reveal where hospitality absorbs (or avoids) responsibility.
In this week’s newsletter, we examine how operational friction quietly costs guests, why environmental choices are moving from feel-good to financially sound, and how the disability tax exposes design and policy gaps hiding in plain sight.
The through line is accountability. Guests notice when hotels get it right… and when they don’t.
❤️ Valentine’s isn’t a day. It’s a window. Valentine’s demand jumped ~42% last year, and most of that intent is short-haul, high-emotion, weekend-ready travel—yet it's still marketed like another Tuesday in February. Stretching the stay and anchoring offers in dining or experiences turns a single peak night into a multi-day revenue play.
Modernizing the mobile key. Acquiring OpenKey lets Canary Technologies stitch mobile access into its wider guest journey play—check‑in, messaging, tips, upsells and all.
Spendable extras worth their weight in ADR. Guest spending is on pace to crack nearly $805 billion in 2026, even if GOPPAR still hasn’t fully caught up to 2019 levels. That rising spend signals demand resilience even while costs bite, so it's beyond time to think bigger than base-rate revenue.
Square footage you’re sleeping on. Rolling out another generic all‑day café won’t cut it in today’s crowded market. Guests want reasons to linger and locals want reasons to show up.
If you have to say it... When hospitality needs a qualifier, something’s gone sideways. Lobby Riot nudges the industry to stop naming the magic and start delivering it again.
Architecture as currency
Perched above San Francisco on Nob Hill, The Huntington Hotel lets the building do the heavy lifting. Tall Georgian windows, generous room proportions and restored plasterwork nod to a more gracious pace, while the 1924 structure—the first steel-and-brick high-rise west of the Mississippi—reminds us this place was built to last. The latest revival simply sharpens that history.
Why it matters: The Huntington’s update underscores what happens when architecture is treated as a respected asset rather than a constraint. Through a partnership between San Francisco-based Flynn Properties and Highgate, the refresh leans into space planning, light and original materials to reestablish the hotel as a true urban sanctuary. For hoteliers, the takeaway is clear: design choices rooted in strong bones age better, require less reinvention and create guest experiences that feel intuitive. (Hozpitality Plus)
A guestroom at The Huntington Hotel. (Courtesy)
The cost of exclusion
Disability advocate Tiffany Yu—CEO/founder of Diversability and author of "The Anti-Ableist Manifesto"—breaks down the real-world impact of the disability tax and offers insight into accessibility in hospitality. She deftly unpacks how accessibility, representation and inclusive leadership create better experiences for guests and healthier workplaces for teams.
Why it matters: Inclusion is operational, full stop.
Guests experience accessibility long before arrival, from booking flow, to room layout to service interactions. Yu's insights in this Bed & Butter podcast episode connect personal experience with practical guidance operators can actually use. (Bed & Butter)
The guest-facing cost of operational friction
Guests adore warm welcomes and artisanal chocolates, but they judge a hotel on the entire system... and too often your operational seams show. When tools don’t talk and staff are stretched thin, good intentions get lost before they ever reach the guest.
Why it matters: Consistency and confidence from check-in through check-out are commercial fuel. Streamlining workflows and clearing out friction points directly improves review scores, upsell conversions and RevPAR (and, you know, generally makes your team’s life easier). On the guest experience front, that shows up as fewer hiccups, clearer communication and protecting moments that should remain unequivocally human. (HOTELS Magazine)
"Nature is our economy here. If we don't take care of that, everything falls to pieces." - KURT BJORKMAN, COO, THE RANCH AT LAGUNA BEACH
When nature informs the business plan
At The Ranch at Laguna Beach (Calif.), sustainability is woven into the guest experience, the culture and the P&L. COO Kurt Bjorkman shares how Beyond Green certification and community stewardship translate into operational clarity and elevated stays.
Why it matters: Sustainability shows up consistently at The Ranch at Laguna Beach, from bamboo room keys to plastic-free ops. In this conversation with Greenluxe founder Amy Wald, Bjorkman breaks down how environmental choices are shaping luxury experiences and delivering real returns. Guest expectations around sustainability have shifted from “nice to have” to “quietly assumed,” he says, and sustainable choices are increasingly cost-competitive and resonant with guests who want their stay to mean something.
(The Conscious Check-in)
Thanks for reading today's edition! You can reach the newsletter team at newsletter@mintpillow.co. We enjoy hearing from you.
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Mint Pillow is curated and written by Jennifer Glatt and edited by Bianca Prieto.
