All Posts

Smiling hotel professional working on a laptop outdoors near palm trees at a resort, representing modern hospitality work and remote data management.

Your Guests Have an AI Concierge. Your Team Is Still Doing Data Janitor Work.

Hotels have poured millions into AI-powered guest experiences — chatbots, personalized recommendations, dynamic pricing. But the teams running the business behind the scenes? They're still copy-pasting data between spreadsheets and hoping the formulas hold. It's time to give the back of the house the same intelligence we've been giving guests for years.

Dave Goulden

Feb 101 min read

Hotel revenue manager standing at the entrance of a modern glass meeting room, reviewing business insights on a smartphone before joining a meeting with the ownership team seated inside, in a bright hospitality office setting.

Owners Are Asking Harder Questions. Can Your Management Company Answer Them?

ALIS 2026 sent a clear signal: ownership groups are done accepting assumptions. Compressed margins and rising costs mean they want proof — which campaigns drive profitable guests, which channels have the highest cancellation rates, which marketing sources bring guests who actually spend at the restaurant and spa. The management companies that can answer those questions with real data will keep their contracts. The ones reporting on bookings alone won't.

Dave Goulden

Feb 51 min read

AI Should Be a Thinking Partner, Not Just an Answer Machine

Everyone's racing to build AI that answers questions faster. But the real opportunity is AI that helps you ask better ones. When a hotel team queries labor patterns, the right response isn't just a chart — it's a set of follow-up questions that move from 'here's what happened' to 'here's what this means.' That's the difference between a data tool and a thinking partner.

Dave Goulden

Jan 291 min read

Hotel marketing manager reviewing performance dashboards and charts on a desktop monitor in a modern office environment.

A Computer on Every Desk. An AI Analyst for Every Knowledge Worker.

In 1980, 'a computer on every desk' sounded like science fiction. Today, 'an AI analyst for every knowledge worker' sounds the same — to most people. But those who got curious about PCs early didn't just learn a new tool; they built careers that didn't exist yet. The same window is open right now with AI. Are you the person asking for the computer to be wheeled in, or the one waiting to see what happens?

Dave Goulden

Jan 272 min read

Hotel executive sitting on a sunny resort terrace reviewing information on a smartphone, with the ocean and hotel guests in the background.

I Built a Virtual Board of Advisors With AI — Here's What I Learned

What happens when you replace your advisory board with AI personas? At LaderaAI, we've built virtual team members — complete with job descriptions, context, and real stakes. Some gave brilliant advice. One had to be fired for using outdated financial models. Here's the honest playbook for running your business with an AI board, and why context maintenance is everything.

Dave Goulden

Dec 16, 20252 min read

Hotel operations analyst reviewing hospitality performance dashboards and guest experience data on large multi-screen displays in a hotel management office.

The Switzerland Approach to AI: Why Model Agnosticism Matters

The 'best' AI model changes every few months. Six months ago, one model led on complex analytics. Today, another handles visualizations better. Hotel operators shouldn't have to care — and with the right architecture, they don't have to. Here's why LaderaAI built a model-agnostic platform, and why staying neutral in the AI arms race is the smartest long-term bet.

Dave Goulden

Dec 2, 20251 min read

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