Inside the Rise of Independent Hotels

Jenn Parks joins Bryan for a conversation two people in the hospitality world had been circling for years before finally landing it — a deep dive into what Curator Hotel & Resort Collection actually is, and why the independent hotel segment is having a real moment. Jenn walks through Curator's model: a membership collection, not a management company or brand, that negotiates preferred vendor pricing and marketing exposure for independent hotels without imposing brand standards.

The two trace Jenn's unlikely path into hospitality — from a high-school front desk job at a Hampton Inn, to an international relations degree during 9/11, to fifteen years at National Geographic building out its Unique Lodges of the World collection before a leap into Curator when it was founded by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust in the middle of the 2020 pandemic.

Bryan and Jenn get into why independent hotels can out-compete big brands on guest experience — the handwritten notes, locally sourced amenities, and curated design touches that get lost as properties get absorbed into bigger systems — and debate whether the industry's shift toward flexible, month-to-month vendor agreements is finally catching up to how every other subscription business already operates.