Next Gen in Lodging by CoStar News Hotels

The episode is primarily a personal lifestyle and travel conversation between friends with almost no density of actionable or novel insights for B2B hotel operators. A handful of isolated data points surface (the LA Pride split, Philippines LGBTQ statistics, Kimpton's daily social hour) but they are surrounded by extended personal anecdote, filler, and off-topic chat.

“the Philippines is actually um, tied with the United States and Israel as the largest percentage of people who identify as lgbtq. Um, which was very shocking.”

“post Covid, uh, they wanted to move that out of West Hollywood... West Hollywood came back by saying they don't want it to leave their neighborhood. So ever since then, starting in 2021, WeHo does its own pride and then LA does its own separate pride the week after that”

The episode recycles standard DEI-and-visibility talking points without adding any novel framing or first-principles analysis. The most original observation - that corporate rainbow-washing on LinkedIn is hollow without real community investment - is a widely circulated critique, not a fresh take.

“it is, you know, stereotypical thing. You know, come June, all The businesses on LinkedIn changed their. Their photos to the, you know, Rainbow Pride photos...until we actually see what their, um, I guess, investment is to the community and giving back to our community, it doesn't mean as much”

“this whole, um, you know, attack on DEI and the workplace has also really made some companies a little bit afraid to be, um, out there”

Justin Henry is a genuine working GM with prior Hyatt experience and real on-the-ground perspective, including having built an employee LGBTQ network at a prior property - he has done the thing. However, he runs a small boutique property and the conversation rarely draws out his professional decision-making; most airtime goes to personal travel preferences.

“I kind of spe. Headed a, um, LGBTQ network, um, for employees within that company to kind of get involved with local efforts”

“I have the smallest of the four properties. Uh, so we had eight from my property. And then in total between the four, uh, close to 40. 40 colleagues, uh, marched in Pride”

There are a handful of concrete specifics - IHG's 2017 acquisition of Kimpton, parade headcount, the 5-to-6pm social hour, four LA properties - but zero financial metrics (ADR, RevPAR, occupancy uplift, package revenue) and no verifiable data to support the key claims made, leaving the episode thin on evidence a B2B operator could act on.

“Kimpton is actually, as of 2017, a brand of, um, IHG hotels”

“we had eight from my property. And then in total between the four, uh, close to 40”

The host and guest are personal friends, producing a warm but almost entirely unchallenging interview; claims go unverified and tangents go unredirected for long stretches. Two notably sharper questions - probing whether major hotel brands' Pride absence reflects political risk calculus, and pushing on whether LA Tourism generates traceable room nights - stand out as exceptions in an otherwise casual chat.

“Do you feel that it's mostly tied back to the current political situation in, in trying to be under the radar again?”

“Do you, do you sense that an organization like LA Tourism, can you see like actual room nights going on your books”