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PODCAST

Skift Take Sessions

Skift Take Sessions is a weekly podcast built from the most important conversations shaping the global travel industry. Each episode features candid, journalist-led interviews with CEOs and senior leaders across airlines, hotels, travel platforms, and experiences. Recorded live at Skift events, these conversations go beyond headlines to explore how decisions are made, how companies compete, and how the industry is evolving. Hosted by Wil Slickers, Skift Take Sessions adds the context that

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All Episodes

15:09

Growth Under Pressure: The Decisions Hotel Brands Are...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/10/03

Recorded live at Skift Global Forum 2026, Jeremy Kressman talks with Heather Balsley, Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer at IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Peter Manoogian, Partner at ZS, about hotel owner profitability, conversions and the changing economics of hotel growth.They also discuss how AI is reshaping hotel search, loyalty and distribution, and why machine-readable, accurate and consistent hotel content is becoming a critical demand driver. The conversation closes with a look at where

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18:41

When AI Books the Trip, Who Owns the Customer?

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/06/23

At Skift’s Data + AI Summit, Wil Slickers sits down with Rob Drotar, Industry Principal at Thoughtworks, to unpack one of the next major shifts facing travel: the rise of AI agents as a new customer interface.The conversation moves beyond chatbots and automation to the bigger commercial question: what happens to customer ownership when an AI agent starts discovering, comparing, recommending, and potentially booking travel on behalf of the traveler? Rob explains why business-to-agent matters, how

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6:54

Aven Hospitality CEO on Building AI First from Day One

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/06/10

Recorded at Skift's third annual Data and AI Summit in New York City, David Peller sits down with Teresa Mackintosh, CEO of Aven Hospitality, to talk about what it actually looks like to build an AI-first company from the ground up.Just 11 months after being carved out of Sabre, Aven Hospitality is already seeing tangible results from its proprietary AI-powered Unified Hospitality Engineering Execution Platform, CodeNova, including a 30% increase in development capacity and over 50% improvement in

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28:45

Intrepid Travel’s Secret: Purpose, Profits, and Why...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/04/28

Intrepid Travel is proving that you can build a mission-driven travel company and still be more profitable than ever.In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers tees up a Skift Global Forum conversation moderated by Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit with Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton. Thornton breaks down how Intrepid uses a balanced stakeholder model and its B Corp framework to keep value in local communities while delivering an outstanding customer experience. He explains what is

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36:21

Destination Marketing Is Now AI Marketing: Brand USA...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/04/21

Destination marketing is changing fast, and this session makes it obvious why.In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers sits down with Skift tourism reporter Bailey Schulz to unpack the biggest takeaways from Skift Global Forum, where Skift CEO Rafat Ali speaks with Fred Dixon, CEO of Brand USA, and Miguel Sanz, President of the European Travel Commission and Director-General of Turespaña. Wil and Bailey break down the three shifts that matter most right now: why the next battleground is

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39:59

Sierra AI CEO Bret Taylor on Agents, Loyalty, and...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/04/14

AI is becoming the new front door to travel, and consumer behavior is moving faster than most companies can keep up. In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers sits down with Skift Head of Research Seth Borko to break down what matters most from Rafat Ali’s Skift Global Forum conversation with Sierra AI CEO Bret Taylor, who also chairs the OpenAI board. Wil and Seth unpack why distribution is the first battleground, why travel brands need to start building and cleaning up their data now,

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35:58

Prism’s Motel 6 Bet: Ritesh Agarwal’s IPO Setup and...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/03/24

OYO is now Prism, and the strategy is bigger than a name change.In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers sits down with Skift hospitality reporter Sean O’Neill to break down what Prism CEO Ritesh Agarwal is really building after years of pivots: a business that is now essentially split between India and the U.S., anchored by the Motel 6 acquisition and a push to modernize the budget experience with a tech rebuild. Wil and Sean unpack why “iconic” matters for Motel 6 despite its

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29:33

IHG CEO: “Growth Is Moving East” + The Ruby Bet and...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/03/17

In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers sits down with Skift hospitality reporter Sean O’Neill for a quick, high-signal setup on what mattered most from IHG CEO Elie Maalouf’s Skift Global Forum appearance. Wil and Sean break down three big themes listeners should be paying attention to: why IHG believes the center of gravity in travel is moving east and what that means in real numbers, the playbook differences in Japan versus India, and why IHG’s Ruby acquisition is a strategic bet on

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28:30

Alaska Airlines Under Pressure: IT Outages, Hawaiian...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/03/10

Alaska Airlines is in one of the most important transition moments in its modern history, and it is happening under real operational pressure.In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers opens with a quick setup conversation with Skift Airlines reporter Meghna Maharishi before rolling into the on-stage session with Alaska Airlines COO Jason Berry from the Skift Aviation Forum. Meghna and Wil break down what matters most: why Alaska’s recent IT failures became a leadership-level issue, what

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29:18

JetBlue’s Reality Check: Joanna Geraghty on...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/03/03

This episode starts with a quick setup conversation between Wil Slickers and Skift’s airlines editor Gordon Smith, teeing up why this JetBlue session hits differently: it opens with a real-time operational disruption and a leadership test you cannot spin your way around.Then we roll into Gordon’s on-stage conversation from Skift Aviation Forum with JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty, covering what happened, what JetBlue learned, and how the airline thinks about making high-stakes calls when customers

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33:29

Is ChatGPT the New Travel Gatekeeper? Glenn Fogel on...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/02/24

If AI becomes the front door to travel, who wins and who pays?Wil Slickers sits down with Dennis Schaal for a sharp, no-fluff breakdown of the biggest takeaways from Skift Global Forum, including the question everyone is asking: Is ChatGPT a paid marketing channel yet, or just the start of a new distribution shift? Dennis and Wil unpack what matters for the future of travel discovery, how monetization pressure could reshape the funnel, and what it means for platforms like Booking when the

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31:07

Breeze Airways Explained: David Neeleman on...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/02/17

In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers opens with a quick conversation with Skift’s airlines editor Gordon Smith to break down the real story behind Breeze Airways, and why most people misunderstand what the airline actually is. Then we roll into Gordon’s on-stage session from the Skift Aviation Forum in December 2025 with Breeze founder and CEO David Neeleman. Neeleman walks through Breeze’s thesis of connecting overlooked secondary cities to major leisure hubs, shares his view on how

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42:59

Airbnb: Services, Hotels, and Why Chesky Thinks AI...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/02/10

In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers opens with a quick conversation with Dennis Schaal to break down what mattered most from Skift Global Forum, before we roll the full on-stage session featuring Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in conversation with Skift CEO Rafat Ali at Skift Global Forum.Wil and Dennis tee up the two storylines listeners should watch closely: Airbnb’s push into services and experiences, plus the bigger strategic play around hotels, and Chesky’s belief that AI will turn

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29:20

Southwest’s Big Reinvention: Assigned Seats, Bag...

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/02/03

Southwest Airlines is rewriting its identity, and the story is bigger than “assigned seating” and “bags fly free.”To kick off the first episode of Skift Take Sessions, Wil Slickers sits down with Skift airlines reporter Meghna Maharishi for a quick pre-session breakdown of why these changes are happening now, including activist pressure from Elliott Investment Management and the post-pandemic shift toward premium demand. Then we roll into a live session from the Skift Aviation Forum in December

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0:42

What is Skift Take Sessions?

Skift Take Sessions ·

2026/01/23

Skift Take Sessions is a new weekly podcast for anyone who wants to understand how the global travel industry really works.In this trailer, host Wil Slickers introduces the show and explains what listeners can expect each week — candid, journalist-led conversations with CEOs and senior leaders across airlines, hotels, and travel platforms, recorded live at Skift events. Rather than headlines or press releases, Skift Take Sessions focuses on how decisions are made, how companies compete, and what

en

15 results

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