Tell Me More: A Hospitality Data Podcast

Buckle up, listeners: Podcast hosts Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar Group take a deep dive this episode into average daily rate. They unpack the percentage of US submarkets losing ADR and the number of hotels losing ADR to debate whether the US is sliding into a lodging recession. 

July hotel performance in the U.S. continued a downward trajectory, but hosts Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar Group talked about some regional bright spots -- namely Canada and a handful of U.S. markets. Collazo and Freitag warn listeners to get ready for day-of-week and holiday shifts coming up in September and October that will affect big-picture hotel performance numbers. 

In this special episode of Tell Me More: A Hospitality Data Podcast, hosts Stephanie Ricca, Jan Freitag and Isaac Collazo record live at the Hotel Data Conference in Nashville. This episode incorporates Q&A conversations with the audience, featuring AirDNA's Jamie Lane, Highgate Hotels' Ankur Randev and Sonesta International Hotels' Garine Ferejian-Mayo.  This special episode is sponsored by Expedia Group.

Summer hotel performance in the U.S. has been underwhelming so far, thanks to low demand, still-high inflation and general leisure travel weakness. Tell Me More podcast hosts Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar get listeners prepared for a similarly lackluster fall. Mentioned in this episode is a Politico article published on July 15, 2025, titled Event Planners Are Cancelling on Trump-Era Washington. Is This a Sign of Things to Come?

U.S. hotel performance in May was decidedly lackluster, but Tell Me More podcast hosts Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar point out some bright spots, like notable recent hotel transactions and the team's recent gold medal for best podcast at the National Association of Real Estate Reporters' annual conference. This episode also refers to this recent CoStar News Hotels podcast about summer travel trends with Deloitte's Maggie Rauch.

In this special episode recorded on June 2, 2025, at the NYU IHIF conference in New York City, STR's Isaac Collazo and CoStar's Jan Freitag join CoStar News' Stephanie Ricca to talk about the latest U.S. hotel industry forecast revision from CoStar Group and Tourism Economics. Collazo and Freitag debate what might spur positive or negative deviations from this latest forecast as the rest of the year plays out, including changes in demand, consumer confidence and more. Visit www.costar.com/hotelnews.

Tell Me More podcast hosts Isaac Collazo, Jan Freitag and Stephanie Ricca look at how current news headlines are (or are not) reflected in the data. Collazo shares April hotel performance data highlights around the world, and Freitag unpacks the current hotel pipeline. 

Tell Me More podcast hosts Isaac Collazo, Jan Freitag and Stephanie Ricca try to get through an entire episode without saying the word "uncertainty." Collazo shares March and full first-quarter hotel performance data highlights around the world, and the two debate the influence airline performance has on the hotel industry, as well as whether or not consumer confidence can hold. 

Recording live from the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, Tell Me More podcast hosts Isaac Collazo, Jan Freitag and Stephanie Ricca discuss some new ways STR is unpacking hotel industry performance at a micro-market level, their impressions of the current macroeconomic environment and why there's always reason for hope.

January 2025 posted high revenue per available room growth, but sometimes the numbers are not what they seem. Tell Me More podcast hosts Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar unpack the anomalies that made January's number look high, they talk about small movements in the hotel pipeline and they discuss the percentage of hotels around the world that have recovered 2019 occupancy levels. 

Tell Me More: A Hospitality Data Podcast returns in 2025 with a look at recent changes that are having an impact on hotels, like natural disasters and a new U.S. administration.  Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar join host Stephanie Ricca for more in-depth looks at 2024 in review and what to expect as 2025 begins. Mentioned in this episode: 'More peeks of sun' in 2025 hotel industry outlook. And visit Spotify for a bonus playlist of all the songs Collazo, Freitag and Ricca mention on the podcast from 2024 through now. 

Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar join host Stephanie Ricca for this special bonus episode to make some predictions for hotel performance in 2025. Collazo and Freitag highlight key performance indicators to watch in the new year with renewed optimism. Mentioned in this episode: The skies will clear for hoteliers in 2024

November 2024 was "a weird but good month" for hotels around the world, according to Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar. They join host Stephanie Ricca for the final episode of 2024 to talk about November hotel performance, which was influenced by the U.S. presidential election and a shorter period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Collazo shares new data analysis on hotel conversions, and Freitag anticipates some changes a new administration may bring. Mentioned in this episode: An early look at how Trump administration may affect US hotel industry. And visit Spotify for a bonus playlist of all the songs Collazo, Freitag and Ricca mentioned on this year's podcast episodes.

Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar join host Stephanie Ricca to unpack October U.S. hotel performance highlights, talking in detail about demand and revenue per available room trends that indicate leisure travel continuing to normalize. The hosts take a deep dive into what the forthcoming holiday season will look like, with Christmas and New Year's Day both falling on Wednesday. 

This month, Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar welcome special guest Brandon Ehrhardt from Expedia Group to chat about the travel giant's Unpack '25 report forecasting 2025's most intriguing travel trends. Plus, Collazo and Freitag share September 2024 hotel performance highlights. Find the Expedia Group Unpack '25 report here: https://www.expedia.com/unpack-travel-trends/

Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar join host Stephanie Ricca to discuss the U.S. hotel industry's turnaround in August, which signals the end of a summer that ended up having the third-highest room demand since STR began tracking data. The analysts share their predictions of what impact the U.S. interest-rate cut will have on hotel deals and the hotel pipeline. The discussion concludes with a look at the ever-expanding number of hotels around the world charging $1,000 per night or more. 

Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar join host Stephanie Ricca from HNN to unpack July's surprising revenue per available room drop into negative territory. Amid the choppiness of recent performance and continuing bifurcation between low-end and high-end hotels, Collazo and Freitag reassure listeners that group travel continues to regain ground, and August is shaping up well. Lack of new hotel supply continues to keep Collazo and Freitag optimistic, and weekend rates in the top 25 markets are another bright spot. 

It's a first for the Tell Me More team as they record this special episode in front of a live audience at the Hotel Data Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. CoStar's Jan Freitag and STR's Isaac Collazo bring special guest Alex Cisneros, chief commercial officer of Mint House, on stage at the annual conference to talk about the latest trends in what guests really want when they travel, plus some color on the latest STR and Tourism Economics U.S. forecast revision.This special live episodes is sponsored by Expedia Group.

While hotel industry performance continues to improve at least marginally, CoStar's Jan Freitag and STR's Isaac Collazo dive into what's keeping things from being worse than they current are, why the current environment is more stable than it feels and what the hotel industry has in common with the Summer Olympics in Paris.

Tell Me More podcasters Isaac Collazo from STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar join host Stephanie Ricca to talk about U.S. hotel performance in May, and how inflation continues to factor in to otherwise good performance gains. International travel trends take the discussion spotlight, and Collazo and Freitag discuss San Francisco's continued recovery trajectory.