Lights On

Kevin Aucello has spent 30 years in Hawaii hotel transactions.

When first-time sellers come to him, he doesn't just tell them what the hotel is worth. He tells them what investors actually want, where the property is underperforming, and what needs to change before going to market.

That's the difference between a broker and an advisor.

🎙️ Full episode with Kevin Aucello, co-founder of Powell & Aucello: https://www.lightson.co/posts/brokers-view-of-hawaiis-hotel-market-with-kevin-aucello

The smartest AI move for your hotel right now is not buying more AI.

It's auditing what you already have.

Josh Graham put it simply: clean your data, consolidate your systems, build one source of truth. Do that over the next 6 to 12 months and you will be ready when the real AI wave hits.

Hotels chasing the next shiny tool will still be stuck with 15 systems that don't talk to each other.

🎙️ Full episode with Josh Graham on the Lights On Podcast:

https://www.lightson.co/posts/5-questions-that-separate-real-hotel-ai-from-expensive-guessing-games-with-josh-graham

Jessie Fischer started answering hotel guest questions at age 12.

Check-in time. Cancellation policy. Can I bring my dog.

Same questions. Every day. On repeat.

Fast forward to today and those same FAQs still eat up 70% of front desk call volume across the industry.

So she built GuestOS to handle them.

🎙️ Full episode with Jessie Fischer, founder of GuestOS, link in bio.

70% of front desk calls never get answered.

Sue Graves asked the obvious question nobody was asking: how many of those are bookings you just lost?

AI phone systems are now deflecting 50 to 70% of front desk call volume. The revenue math on that is worth doing.

🎙️ Full episode with Sue Graves, founder of Experience Alive:

https://www.lightson.co/posts/how-chemical-cost-savings-fund-revenue-technology-investments-with-sue-graves

Rodger Wada thought revenue managers ran the show.
Then his entire exec team turned over at once and he had to cover every role himself.

Housekeeping. Sales. Asset manager communications. All of it.
He came out the other side with a very different perspective on what it actually takes to run a hotel. Clicking a button in a revenue system is easy. Understanding what happens after that button gets clicked is everything.

🎙️ Full episode with Rodger Wada on the Lights On Podcast:
https://www.lightson.co/posts/hotel-growth-stories-beyond-numbers-with-rodger-wada

Dan Wacksman thought he was starting a marketing consultancy.
Hotels had other plans.

Every client kept coming to him with the same problem: technology decisions that had been sitting on someone's desk for six months with no end in sight. Not because the team wasn't capable. Because nobody had a process.

So he built one. Now he walks hotels through the whole thing and hands them a decision at the finish line.

Sometimes the market tells you what you're actually good at.

🎙️ Full episode with Dan Wacksman, founder of Sassato and Hawaii Hotel Hui:
https://www.lightson.co/posts/hidden-economics-of-hotel-growth-in-the-ota-era-with-dan-wacksman

Nobody plans to become a hospitality legend.

40 years later, Geoff Graf has helped run some of Hawaii's most recognized hotel companies.

Started as a houseman at a 60-room boutique at the foot of Diamond Head. Right place, right time, right people.
Sometimes the best careers start completely by accident.

🎙️ Full episode with Geoff Graf on the Lights On Podcast: https://www.lightson.co/posts/the-evolution-and-resilience-required-in-hospitality-management