The Great Hotel Branding

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bloomberg Businessweek

Episode Title: The Great Hotel Branding
Date: June 3, 2026
Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec
Guest: Brandon Presser (Bloomberg Pursuits travel columnist)

---

Overview

This episode, "The Great Hotel Branding," explores how hotel rooms around the world—from budget to luxury—are increasingly indistinguishable, despite wide variations in price. Hosts Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec speak with travel columnist Brandon Presser, who shares insights from his extensive hotel experience and recent reporting. The discussion delves into industry consolidation, design trends, and how traveler behavior and service challenges are reshaping the hotel experience.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Why Do All Hotel Rooms Look the Same?

• Homogenization Across Prices

  • Tim points out: "Hotel rooms are all starting to look the same, whether you're paying $500 a night or $1,500 a night." (01:37)
  • Brandon explains the reasons extend beyond corporate standardization:
    "The answer is actually a lot more complicated and has to do with human behavior, too." (02:22)

• Changed Traveler Habits

  • Travelers now take shorter trips, dress more casually, and require less storage space, leading hotels to scale back on amenities like closets and drawers.
    "We use less storage space in a hotel...so all of these things are being taken out...and they're not being replaced with anything." (02:48)

2. The Power of Brand Consolidation

• Industry Structure
  • Tim asks about consolidation with chains like Marriott dominating the market: "Isn't a big part of the story...the consolidation that we've seen with...Marriott and like basically two other hotel companies that own a good portion of the hotels?" (03:44)
  • Brandon details: "It accounts for over 60% of the world's hotels are basically owned by six corporations... it's an easier investment...you get to slap the name of a fancy hotel on your property and the value... will increase instantly..." (03:57)
• Loss of Personality
  • Carol compares bland hotel rooms to selling a house: “You paint everything white or cream…you don’t want to offend anybody…” (04:29)
  • Brandon relays a design executive’s comment: "There's comfort and familiarity. So if it becomes a very agnostic design, then we'll all maybe feel more comfortable." (05:22)

3. The Instagram Lobby and the Experience Economy

• Designing for Social Media, Not for Sleep
  • Investment is focused on lobbies as photogenic, Instagrammable spaces; rooms remain standardized and inoffensive.
    "Lobbies are where a lot of the investment is being focused...we live in this experience economy...you don't really do it [share online] in your room because you're asleep." (05:22)

4. Service Quality and Staffing Shortages

• Declining Service, Even in High-End Hotels
  • Tim describes maintenance and cleanliness issues in expensive hotels: "You go into a room and it’s like, the phone doesn’t work…my door wouldn't lock…toilets sometimes aren't cleaned…" (06:22)
  • Brandon attributes this to labor shortages: "There's almost a 20% gap in service needs at all of these hotels, meaning...millions of hotels are opening, and there's simply no one to work at them." (07:09)
• COVID and Room Maintenance
  • Carol notes measures taken “for the environment” are often responses to labor constraints, like less frequent cleaning. (07:34)
  • Brandon clarifies: “The amount of time it takes to…clean a carpet versus a laminate floor, it’s not huge… it's more those types of things [major repairs] that were sort of a happy accident in Covid that we all discovered.” (08:08)

5. Memorable (and Awkward) Hotel Experiences

• Occupancy Mix-Ups
  • Tim and Carol share stories about walking into occupied rooms, unclean bathrooms, and room assignment fails—highlighting real-world consequences of operational shortcomings. (08:41–09:36)
  • Brandon dryly jokes: “I think I've reached a point where I've been to so many hotels that only bad things are sort of bound to happen. I have definitely checked into a room and opened the door and there was someone on the toilet.” (09:23)

6. The Quiz: Can Anyone Tell the Difference?

• No Obvious Distinction Between Price Points
  • Carol and Tim reference a quiz on the Bloomberg site where listeners must guess the prices of different hotel rooms based on photos—and almost no one gets it right. (01:47; 10:02)
  • Brandon reflects: "We're comparing a room that's $300 versus $1,300. And...if you looked at a house...that same level of difference, you can feel the difference...Why can't we feel the difference between two hotel rooms that are the same level of difference?" (10:02)

7. What Still Matters: The Pillows and the Bed

• Personal Touches
  • Carol: "My measure is always the pillows and the bed…like, don’t you like a good bed?…and the towels." (10:32)
  • Brandon: "Also the air conditioner." (10:45)
  • Tim: "What about the elevator? That is going all night. That's a fun." (10:48)

---

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Brandon Presser on Service Decline:
  “There's almost a 20% gap in service needs at all of these hotels, meaning...millions of hotels are opening, and there's simply no one to work at them.” (07:09)

• On Room Homogeneity:
  “Even the Google lens...has trouble distinguishing which hotel room is where.” – Carol Massar, quoting Presser’s article (09:50)

• Brandon’s Take on Generic Design:
  “For me...my favorite hotels are the ones that nine people love and one person hates.” (05:22)

• Personal Nightmares:
  “I have definitely checked into a room and opened the door and there was someone on the toilet.” – Brandon Presser (09:23)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:37 – Why all hotel rooms feel the same
• 02:22 – Brandon’s explanation: Beyond corporate standardization
• 03:44 – Impact of hotel industry consolidation
• 05:22 – “Agnostic design” and the Instagram lobby
• 06:22 – The decline of hotel service quality
• 07:09 – Labor shortages post-COVID
• 08:41 – Hosts sharing awkward hotel moments
• 09:50 – Even Google can’t tell hotel rooms apart
• 10:02 – The unbridgeable gap between price and experience
• 10:32–10:55 – What still differentiates hotels: small amenities

---

Tone and Style

The conversation is informal, witty, and anecdotal, reflecting both the frustrations and curiosities of frequent travelers. The hosts, joined by Brandon Presser’s travel expertise, blend humor and insider knowledge to break down complex industry trends into relatable observations.

---

Final Thoughts

The episode ultimately questions whether the industry’s drive for efficiency and broad appeal is robbing hotel stays of their specialness and value-for-money. The conversation is a candid, sometimes humorous exploration of what’s lost when branding trumps individuality—even in the world’s most expensive hotels.

Try Brandon Presser’s quiz: See if you can tell $700 from $1,400 a night! (11:46)

Transcript

[Anna Kendrick]

With LPL Financial, we provide the services to help push you forward when it comes to your finances, your business, your future. The only question should be what if you could Paid Advertisement Anna Kendrick is not a client of LPL Financial LLC and receives compensation to promote lpl. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. LPL Financial LLC Member Finras IPC At

[Ryan Reynolds]

Venture Global, we think about what can be done, not what's usually done through innovation. Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.

[Anna Kendrick]

Being a small business owner isn't just a career, it's a calling. Chase for Business knows how much heart and effort go into building something of your own. Manage all your business finances, from banking to payments to credit cards, all all in one place with Chase's digital tools. Plus access online resources designed to help your business thrive. Learn [e-mail] business chase for business make more of what's yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co.

[Carol Massar]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvick on Bloomberg Radio.

[Tim Stanvick]

You're not going nuts, don't worry. Hotel rooms are all starting to look the same, whether you're paying $500 a night or $1,500 a night.

[Carol Massar]

Listen, there's a little quiz on the website and it's three hotels and you have to put what they cost and

[Tim Stanvick]

nobody will get these right.

[Carol Massar]

I got one right?

[Tim Stanvick]

No.

[Carol Massar]

You got one right? No.

[Tim Stanvick]

And you can do it in Kyoto. You can do it in Miami. Yeah, Brandon Presser would know. He's been in more than 3,000 hotels. He spends an average of 200 nights on the road each year. He recently wrote about what he calls, quote, the Great Hotel Blanding. Brandon Presser is Bloomberg Pursuits travel columnist. He's on the road, as he usually is. So why are all hotels starting to look the same, whether you're paying $1,500 a night or $500 a night?

[Brandon Presser]

Well, I think the answer is actually more complicated than it seems. I think that we can think about big corporations and the pipelines where they all buy the same beds and the same nightstands from the same Places. But the answer is actually a lot more complicated and has to do with human behavior, too.

[Carol Massar]

What do you mean?

[Brandon Presser]

We travel. It seems like we travel a lot more and in a way we do, but our trips have become a lot shorter over the last hundred years. And we don't dress up for different activities like we used to. We dress more casually now, so we use less storage space in a hotel as well. So all of these things are being taken out of hotels, like drawers and closets, and they're not being replaced with anything.

[Carol Massar]

That is so true. And I will say, like, we do a lot of quick tricks.

[Tim Stanvick]

Don't even make me.

[Carol Massar]

Okay, well, I do.

[Tim Stanvick]

Don't even make me go there.

[Carol Massar]

But there's a lot of times if I'm just there for a couple days, I'm living out of my suitcase, even like, you know what I mean? So that I can quickly. Cause we just have to, you know, I carry a lot of suitcases. This is his point, Brandon. So he's laughing, but I agree with you. There's like, there's the closet and there's the thing to lay your suitcase on, but there's not a lot of storage stuff.

[Tim Stanvick]

But that's not even. I mean, that's, that's part of the story. But isn't a big part of the story to the consolidation that we've seen with, with Marriott and like basically two other hotel companies that own a good portion of the hotels?

[Brandon Presser]

Yeah, absolutely. They're sort of a big six. And basically it accounts for over 60% of the world's hotels are basically owned by six corporations. And you know, if you're someone who wants to open a hotel, you're sort of incentivized to bring them in to, to manage your hotel because they have access to this pipeline. So everything becomes cheaper, it's an easier investment. And then you get to slap the name of a fancy hotel on your property and the value of that property will increase instantly, you know, because it's, you know, now it's Park Hyatt.

[Carol Massar]

Well, listen, the other thing I would say, right, Brandon. I mean, a hotel that will remain nameless. But when it first came out and it was kind of cool and it was a boutique Y hotel, but it was so super dark. Right. And for those of us. And it was very much a part of like the business choices that you'd go there. Don't. Don't. Sounds like. But it's just like, I get who it was for, but like, we'd be there for work and like, I'D be like, I need a light. I can't see anything. So I guess what I would say is that hotels want to be. You know, it's like when you're selling a house, you paint everything white or cream. Right? You don't want to offend anybody because you just want to sell it. Same thing with a hotel room. You want to go in, you want to be, ah, it's relaxing. Right. You don't want to play around with too many crazy pieces of art or something, or a crazy rug or. Or bedspread that people are like, I really don't like it. I. I want to be out of here.

[Brandon Presser]

Absolutely. I mean, for me, personally, I think that I. My favorite hotels are the ones that nine people love and one person hates. But I think that, you know, I spoke to a lot of execs, a lot of design execs at all of these big corporations, and one of them said there's comfort and familiarity. So if it becomes a very agnostic design, then we'll all maybe feel more comfortable. I don't know. But I think one of the things that you were, you were touching on too, is this very moody hotel that we won't name was bring. Was kind of ushering in an era of turning the lobby into a cool space. And that's also why the rooms are bland, because lobbies are where a lot of the investment is being focused. And we live in this experience economy, so we're keen to post our experiences on Instagram and sort of commodify those experiences. And you don't really do it in your room because you're asleep.

[Tim Stanvick]

One thing I'm curious, Brandon, about your view on this because you spend so much time in hotels, but one thing that's really surprised me over the last couple of years is the way that even at expensive hotels that should have these things working properly. You go into a room and it's like, the phone doesn't work.

[Carol Massar]

Don't get Tim started on this.

[Tim Stanvick]

I was somewhere recently, my door wouldn't lock. Like, it, like, wasn't that the door lock wasn't working. I couldn't leave the room without my stuff. The toilets sometimes aren't cleaned. And like, these are places where, where we travel for work and they're the only place game in town. And you have to spend so much money and they're expensive because there are conferences there. Is it just me or is the service getting worse?

[Brandon Presser]

Yeah, no. Service is an issue too. And, you know, if you, if you're looking at all the Stats of the ascended generation of future hotel employees. There's almost a 20% gap in service needs at all of these hotels, meaning every year, millions of hotels are opening, and there's simply no one to work at them.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah. Yeah, I do.

[Tim Stanvick]

That makes sense.

[Carol Massar]

Well, and then so, you know, you kind of COVID this too, Right. In the story that there are certain things that are easier to clean. Right. You know, a laminate floor versus a carpet with a stain on it, which is always like, ew in my fashion anyway. But I mean, you know. Right. If you can't have enough staff, I see increasingly, like, know, do you want our room clean? Do you want to pass it? Do you like. And I understand some of it's for the environment and hang out of the towels for the whole week, because that does help the environment. But I do think about not having the labor that's needed to kind of care for the spaces.

[Brandon Presser]

Yeah. You know, in fairness, the amount of time it takes to, you know, clean a carpet versus a laminate floor, it's not huge numbers, like, it wouldn't account for having one less housekeeper on the staff, but it's things like having to take a room out of commission because there's a huge stain on the floor that they then need to, you know, bring in, you know, the engineer to tear the floor up. And it's more those types of things that were sort of a happy accident in Covid that we all discovered.

[Tim Stanvick]

I always like when I go to a room and there's somebody already in there.

[Brandon Presser]

Excuse me.

[Carol Massar]

Excuse me.

[Tim Stanvick]

Sorry.

[Carol Massar]

Sorry. It's not the equivalent when you get on a plane and somebody's sitting in your seat.

[Tim Stanvick]

Or the time last year, Carol, where we went and you had three hotel rooms and Sebastian and I had none. That was a fun adventure, too.

[Carol Massar]

That's so true. It's like kind of cray cray stuff. I'm trying to remember, too, where there was some man. It might have been with my family, where we walked in. In the bathroom. Or was this on a work trip? And it was.

[Tim Stanvick]

I've had two bathroom. I've had three bathroom incidents in recent years.

[Carol Massar]

You're like, I'm out of here. I don't even want you to clean it. I'm out of here.

[Tim Stanvick]

I don't know what you. Maybe my standards might be too high. I don't know.

[Brandon Presser]

I think I've reached a point where I've been to so many hotels that only bad things are sort of bound to happen. I have definitely checked into a room and opened the door and there was someone on the toilet.

[Carol Massar]

That is so wrong. That is so wrong. Hey, listen, just to wrap up, though, I love how you kicked off the story that you say it's not like, listen. People are probably listening. They're like, oh, these guys, they're just so complaining. I mean, they're traveling. They get to go to hello.

[Tim Stanvick]

That's fine. People can say that about me. That's fine.

[Carol Massar]

But you said, even the Google lens Alphabet's powerful photo identification tool has trouble distinguishing which hotel room is where. Correct.

[Brandon Presser]

It's true. And the thing that I really want to drive home about this story and the quiz is that we're not comparing a room that's $300 versus four. We're comparing a room that's $300 versus $1300. And you can take that to other factors in your life. Like if you looked at a house. If you add three zeros and look at a house that's, you know, $300,000 versus a house that's $1.4 million, you can feel the difference between those two houses. Why can't we feel the difference between two hotel rooms that are the same level of difference?

[Carol Massar]

I'll tell you that my measure is always the pillows and the bed. Right. Like, don't you like a good bed? And the pillows are like, there are towels and the towels. Towels are another thing.

[Brandon Presser]

Also the air conditioner.

[Tim Stanvick]

What about the elevator? That is going all night. That's a fun.

[Carol Massar]

I don't know what it is. All you have to do is when you make the reservation, just say, I'd like not to be near the elevator.

[Tim Stanvick]

Then you get there and they're like, oh, sorry. The only room we have is next to the elevator. It's in between the elevator and the ice machine. I'm a fun guy to travel with.

[Carol Massar]

He's funny.

[Tim Stanvick]

Don't worry.

[Carol Massar]

I know. And then we actually have a colleague we work with who always seems to get like the presidential suite.

[Tim Stanvick]

Yep, that's Sebastian.

[Carol Massar]

Whose name. Yes, exactly.

[Tim Stanvick]

Interesting.

[Carol Massar]

We go to his rooms and we're like, how did you get this? What is up with that, Brandon? Your stuff, whenever it pops up, we're like, we know. We want to talk with you. It's always a fun read and just a fun reporting out by you, Brandon. Thanks so much. Brandon Presser. He's Bloomberg Pursuits, travel columnist. He is on the road as he usually is. You can check out his story. It's fun. Do the quiz. See if you can figure out which hotel is 700 versus $1400.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big wireless Way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. That's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Anna Kendrick]

of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required Intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] hey, it's Ryan Seacrest

[Ryan Seacrest]

for Albertsons and Safeway for you. Save days are here now through June 23rd. Find hot deals throughout the store and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from angelsoft, Silk, All Spam, Hormel Planters and Can Canada Dry. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings. When you shop in store or online for easy pickup or delivery, restrictions apply. See the website for full terms and conditions.

[Kel Penn]

Hey everyone, it's Kel Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Hearsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on AUD Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.