What if the best sign of great hospitality is that nothing ever gets in your way? Dan Ryan sits down for a live recording of Defining Hospitality, set in a podcast studio tucked inside a former 1930s sandwich shop at Rockefeller Center. The conversation moves from frictionless guest experiences to the habit of saying “we” instead of “I,” with stops along the way for world building, big stakeholder rooms, and the fears that grow as a business does. It’s candid, funny, and built on a friendship that came before any business did.

Drew Stewart is an architect, interior designer, and occasional developer, and a founding partner and director of construction and development at INC Architecture & Design. He has spent 20 years growing the New York studio into a powerhouse, earning a spot in the Interior Design Hall of Fame along the way. His work includes the TWA Hotel, 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, and the Atlas Hotel at Harvard, and he is celebrating the milestone with a monograph, Us Is More, hitting shelves TODAY October 14th.

Chapters:

00:00 Why Hospitality Matters

00:35 Meet Drew Stewart

01:22 Recording at Rock Center

03:00 A Designer’s Eye for Detail

04:09 Defining Frictionless Hospitality

05:44 Managing Mega Projects

11:19 Tech That Aligns Stakeholders

14:52 Hall of Fame Moment

19:07 Us Is More and The Book

34:38 Spending Your Own Money

35:10 Fine Tuning Design Value

35:54 New Empathy For Developers

37:06 Entrepreneurship And Risk

38:04 Fear Grows With Success

39:08 TWA And World Building

41:06 Rockefeller Concourse Redesign

47:29 Building 1 Hotel With Barry

50:51 Book Future And Farewell

Quote of the Show:

“Having creative, thoughtful people across the table turns out to be the single most important thing about any project.” - Drew Stuart

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-stuart-22bb286/
• Guests Website: https://inc.nyc/
• Us is More Book: https://a.co/d/01ctnv2F
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

What if the biggest advantage in hospitality design isn't having more options, but fewer, better ones?

On this episode of Defining Hospitality, Ashley Squires walks through how The Stylist Group is rethinking the front end of design sourcing. She breaks down how her team narrows a project down to a tailored "starter kit" pulled from dozens of premier manufacturers, why a fast turnaround can save a firm real time and money, and how she's working to bring a sense of joy back into a process that too often feels like a grind.

Ashley Squires is an interior designer, hospitality design expert, and creative strategist with more than 25 years of experience across hospitality, multifamily, and private aviation spaces. She's led design work for major hotel brands, multifamily developments, and cruise lines, giving her firsthand insight into where the sourcing process breaks down for design teams. Alongside her partner Andrea, she co-founded The Stylist Group to turn that experience into a free resource other designers could lean on.

Chapters:
00:00 Stylist Group Promise

00:24 Show Mission Intro

00:48 Sponsor Message

00:57 Meet Ashley Squires

01:23 Time Is Money Setup

02:57 Defining Hospitality

03:25 What Stylus Group Does

04:50 Library Space Problem

06:24 Curating From 27 Makers

09:26 Designer Testimonials

11:26 Fast Turnarounds

15:33 How Palettes Get Picked

18:25 Christmas Day Unboxing

19:54 Sustainability Break

20:19 Measurable Time Savings

22:06 How To Get Started

25:12 Recent Project Wins

33:27 Wrap Up And Contact

Quote of the Show: "No matter what the needs are, whether you're a big firm or you're just starting out, consider us your design resource library." - Ashley Squires

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyksquires/
• Guests Website: https://www.stylist-group.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

Matthew Boone joins Dan Ryan to break down what it actually takes to turn a hospitality project from blueprint to guest ready. They dig into the tension between design vision and hard budget numbers, why cost estimating works so differently around the world, and the on the job lessons that shaped how he leads projects today.

Matthew Boone is head of hospitality at Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), bringing 20+ years of architecture, construction and project management experience to some of the industry's most complex hotel developments. Trained as an architect, his work includes San Francisco's Huntington Hotel, a project that landed in Architectural Digest. He now leads RLB's hospitality growth across North America, pairing design instinct with financial discipline.

Chapters:
00:00 Architectural Digest Moment

00:56 Meet Matthew Boone

02:31 Architecture Roots

04:17 Defining Hospitality

07:12 Front vs Back of House

07:57 ROI and Budget Tradeoffs

10:07 QS vs US Project Model

16:13 Transparency and True Costs

23:50 CapEx and Aging Systems

31:07 Shower Controls Code

32:10 Sponsor Sustainability Update

32:35 RLB Roots In Hawaii

35:10 Hilton Hawaiian Village Lessons

37:59 Clift Hotel Crunch Renovation

41:59 Erin And RLB Culture

43:38 Mainland Growth Markets

47:51 LA Olympics Hotel Conundrum

54:19 Wrap Up And How To Connect

Quote of the Show:

"Hospitality is thinking about what people need, what people want, before they even know they need it." - Matthew Boone

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mboonebayarea/
• Guests Website: https://www.rlb.com/americas/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

Hospitality has ancient roots, and this week's guest traces her own path in the industry back to something surprising: a master's degree in philosophy. What started as bartending to pay for grad school became a full blown philosophy of service, one built on presence, reciprocity, and treating every guest interaction as its own small act of care. From building a team that turned an old motel into a two Michelin Key destination to launching a groundbreaking childcare pilot for hospitality workers, this conversation covers what it really takes to scale a business without losing the soul that made it special in the first place.

Colleen Rafferty is the President of Tourists, an award winning hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts that has earned two Michelin Keys and national recognition from outlets like Vanity Fair. She rose through the ranks from guest experience manager to the top leadership seat, helping build a culture so strong that her own team members have collectively logged 40 years of tenure at a hotel that has only been open eight. Beyond the hotel, Colleen is leading a new pilot childcare program funded by the state of Massachusetts in partnership with the Governor's Office, built specifically for hospitality workers whose schedules don't run Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.

Chapters:
00:00 Housekeeping Meltdown

00:36 Podcast Mission Intro

01:09 Meet Colleen Rafferty

01:50 Berkshires Festival Vibes

03:32 Defining Hospitality Xenia

06:35 Philosophy to Hospitality

13:57 Tourists Growth Michelin Keys

19:28 Scaling Culture and Structure

26:58 Childcare Pilot for Workers

33:02 Funding and Coalition

33:47 Red Tape Worries

35:23 Pilot Program Unknowns

36:10 Universal Pre-K Lessons

37:14 Michelin Inspector Details

38:10 Sing for Your Slumber

41:01 Tourists Expansion Plans

44:11 Scaling Without Losing Magic

48:28 Mentors and Gratitude

Quote of the Show:
"This isn't really about you. This is about this moment and what the space can provide and what the guest is looking for." - Colleen Rafferty

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-rafferty-88603072/
• Guests Website: https://www.touristswelcome.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

What if the best conversations aren't about being interesting, but about being present? In this episode, Dan sits down with his close friend and mentor to explore why so many of us struggle to truly connect, even with people we've known for years. The conversation covers vulnerability, the difference between listening to respond and listening to understand, and why removing performance from a room changes everything.

David Rich is the founder of Palabra, a story driven event format he has hosted hundreds of times across nearly every continent, from intimate dinners to gatherings of over 100 people. What started as a personal search for deeper friendships after moving back from Spain has grown into a platform used by corporations, families, and entrepreneurs to build genuine relationships. His approach to storytelling and presence has made him one of the most sought after voices on modern connection.

Chapters:

00:00 Stories Over Opinions

00:53 Meet David Rich

02:00 What Hospitality Means

03:42 Palabra Born in Spain

07:27 Designing the Container

09:53 Conversation First Format

13:03 Vulnerability and Story Prep

15:58 Listening With Heart

23:32 Opinion Free Safe Space

31:16 Sales Through Trust

32:34 Sponsor Sustainability Note

32:59 Forum Style Story Learning

34:34 Introverts Love Structure

35:57 Long Tail Impact Stories

38:13 Scaling Palabra Formats

39:58 Everest Circle Experiment

43:36 Analog Connection In AI Age

48:42 Guardrails And Closing Reflections

Quote of the Show:

"A good event isn't that someone cried, so it was a good event. It's that people become a little bit more of themselves." - David RIch

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjrich/
• Guests Website: https://www.palabra.co/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

What does luxury actually mean once you strip away the thread counts and marble bathrooms? Dan sits down with Diarmaid O'Sullivan, Director of Marketing at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, a Fairmont Hotel in Bermuda, for a conversation about connection, patience, and the moments that turn a guest into a regular. Diarmaid brings more than 30 years of international experience in hospitality marketing, tourism strategy, and luxury brand building, and has spent over a decade shaping some of the industry's most talked about lifestyle partnerships, including collaborations with Steamline Luggage and a custom fragrance created with Bermuda's oldest perfumery. The two dig into what luxury means as a moving target, how far patience can take a brand partnership, and why the first five minutes of a stay might matter more than the room itself.

Chapters:

00:00 Show Mission Intro

00:35 Meet Diarmaid

02:01 Hospitality Means People

05:25 Bermuda Move Story

07:30 Partnership Playbook

11:09 Fairmont Brand Legacy

15:32 Redefining Luxury

20:10 Curated Art Experiences

23:57 Tech Versus Human Touch

32:53 Mentoring With Honesty

34:12 Helping Staff Move On

35:11 I Want Your Job

36:13 Six Months To Prove It

38:01 Boss As Your Guide

40:38 Networking On A Small Island

43:56 Bermuda Awareness Challenge

47:52 New Opportunities And Partnerships

50:21 Measuring Wins And Wrapping Up

Quote of the Show:

"You can teach someone the skills to operate a system, how to make a bed, how to make a dish. But you cannot teach someone to have empathy, to connect with people, or just be happy." - Diarmaid OSullivan

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Luggage Collab: https://steamlineluggage.com/collections/the-hamilton-princess-hotel
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diarmaidosullivan/
• Guests Website: https://www.thehamiltonprincess.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

In this episode of Defining Hospitality, Dan sits down with Adam Lara, principal at KTGY Interior Design and Branded Environments, to talk about career, culture, and what it really takes to build a studio that works. From formative early experiences to his latest chapter leading a growing team in Chicago, Adam offers a grounded look at what shapes great design work over the long haul.

Adam Lara has spent nearly three decades moving across architecture, interiors, and brand side operations, giving him a rare, well rounded view of the hospitality design world. His career has included time at Hyatt, a formative stretch under acclaimed designer Jordan Mosher, and now a leadership role at KTGY. That range makes him one of the more thoughtful voices working in hospitality design today.

Chapters:

00:00 Why Hospitality Matters

00:35 Meet Adam Lara

01:55 Defining Hospitality

02:53 Career Pivot After 9/11

04:22 Inside-Out Design Thinking

05:29 Why Architects Avoid Interiors

07:26 Hyatt HQ Memories

08:31 Brand Side Lessons at Hyatt

10:27 Ops and Owner Mindset

13:40 Jordan Mozer Maker Culture

16:27 Micro to Macro Design

18:40 Joining Simeone Deary

20:25 Merging Into KTGY

22:44 Learning From Gina and Lisa

24:48 New Office and Integration

28:49 Venetian Bars Storytelling

34:59 Leadership and Culture

45:06 In-Person Collaboration Finale

Quote of the Show:

"It's not just design, it's basically problem solving." - Adam Lara

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-lara-aia-leed-ap-ishc-7aa04751/
• Guests Website: https://ktgy.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/

In this episode, Dan Ryan sits down with Ryan Diggins, founder and operator of The Ramble Hotel and co-founder of Gravitas Development, to unpack how his company, Midnight Auteur, builds boutique hotels that lead with food and beverage instead of treating it as an afterthought. Ryan walks through the thinking behind properties like The Ramble in Denver and Municipal Grand in Savannah, why smaller hotels can outperform bigger ones when you optimize for revenue per square foot instead of RevPAR alone, and how staying involved in the smallest design details, right down to how brass patinas on a toilet handle, keeps a project from losing its soul as it scales. The conversation also dives into how Ryan finds overlooked real estate opportunities, how he builds teams around a fully formed vision instead of the other way around, and what the future of hotel discovery looks like as AI reshapes how travelers find where to stay.

Ryan Diggins is a real estate development veteran with over 15 years of experience building in Denver and beyond, and he's spent that time proving that boutique hotels can compete with, and outperform, some of the biggest names in the business. As founder and operator of The Ramble Hotel and co-founder of Gravitas Development, he leads hotel concepting, development, and operations through his company Midnight Auteur, marrying serious development chops with a hospitality first sensibility. His latest project, Municipal Grand in Savannah, was recently named one of the top 19 places to travel in 2026 by Architectural Digest, cementing his reputation as one of the industry's sharpest voices on design-driven, food and beverage anchored hospitality.

Chapters:
00:00 Real Estate vs Purpose

00:22 Show Mission Intro

00:55 Guest Spotlight Ryan

02:26 Defining Hospitality

04:00 Placemaking Through Hotels

06:43 Artfulness Over Formula

10:42 Why Secret Sauce Gets Lost

16:25 F&B Led Hotel Economics

26:04 Staying Curious While Scaling

31:34 Process Without Strangling

33:23 Design For The Picky Guest

35:22 Thoughtfulness As True North

37:23 Values Shape The Team

40:58 Winning Over Investors

44:29 Choosing Design Partners

48:22 Future Markets And Pipeline

50:53 Marketing In The AI Era

55:04 Death And Co Origin Story

Quote of the Show:

"If we can't answer what is this here for or why are we doing this, well now you're just a Pinterest board." - Ryan Diggins

Building a hotel, brand, or guest experience? Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.

Links:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@defininghospitality?sub_confirmation=1
• Substack: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
• Guest’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-diggins-8a1297a/
• Guests Website: https://www.theramblehotel.com/
• Dan Ryan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailydanryan/

🏨✨ Defining Hospitality is Sponsored by Berman Falk https://www.bermanfalk.com/ - Check out their impact page! 🌍🌱 https://www.bermanfalk.com/impact/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Amazon Music: ​​https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8c904932-90fa-41c3-813e-1cb8f3c42419
• Transistor: https://www.defininghospitality.live/