07.13.2025: Trends & Scoops Shaping Travel and Hospitality
AI scans your rental car, Comporta’s barefoot luxury boom heats up, and the new flex? Bringing a media crew on your next trip.
→ One luxury travel agency is now offering personal media teams—drone pilots, wildlife filmmakers, and hand-bound photo books—to document your trip.
→ Audrey Gelman reflects on world-building, aesthetics, storytelling, and the intersection of themed hospitality with luxury travel—all through the lens of The Six Bells, her new storybook inn in Upstate New York.
→ This rental car company quietly rolled out AI-powered scanners that detect microscopic dents—and auto-charge customers without human review.
→ A meditation guru is launching the ultimate wellness hotel—set among 28 natural hot springs in one of the most idyllic places in the U.S.
→ The most stunning tennis court you’ve ever seen: a whimsical match played on 93 antique rugs in Jaipur, where an Indian tennis star faced off against artisans in a garden full of peacocks.
→ Airbnb Experiences is looking for folks to try out new experiences in SF/LA/NYC
→ Plus: AI-generated videos so real they fooled me, São Paulo’s $125K surf clubs, and Comporta’s barefoot luxury boom that needed its own bullet point. Also: how Spotify is spotlighting its human curators—betting that taste, storytelling, and emotional intelligence still win—and why the travel industry should take note.
This YouTube episode broke down, in the most practical way I’ve seen yet, how to move beyond using ChatGPT like a basic chatbot and instead turn it into a true productivity partner. I read and listen to a lot about AI—and how to integrate it into my workflows—but this one stuck with me. What really landed was the idea that you can create your own executive coach by training ChatGPT on your personality assessments and communication style. And if you run a service business, the potential goes even deeper: you could build a persistent project around your ideal client profile, so ChatGPT can help you prep for meetings, write proposals, and respond to inquiries like someone who’s worked with them for years.
That said, this kind of power comes with a dark side—Reddit is full of users trying to quit compulsive chatbot use, and Wired recently profiled a startup building AI companions designed to tell you to put down your phone and go outside. It's a strange new frontier, and a good reminder to wield the AI, don’t let it wield you—because even the smartest tools still need a sharp, thoughtful human behind them.
