This week’s Not Done Podcast is a masterclass in modern luxury and leadership.
Sloan sits down with Arash Azarbarzin, CEO of Viceroy Hotels & Resorts and Principal at Highgate Hotels, whose career has spanned Four Seasons, St. Regis, W Hotels, SBE, and SH Hotels.
🔑 Highlights from the Episode
From Chef to CEO: Arash began as a culinary student at CIA, worked under Four Seasons legends, and parlayed kitchen precision into executive leadership.
Scaling Luxury: “It’s easy to do for 10 guests—hard to do for 600.” His insight: luxury is consistency at scale without losing soul.
Brand Built on Connection: His personal brand is connection — with staff, guests, owners, and community. “People work with me because they want to, not because they have to.”
Viceroy 2.0: He’s relaunching the brand with purpose, intimacy, and experiences you “can’t pay for” — from sheep herding in Portugal to chef-led taco tours in Los Cabos.
AI as a Compass, Not a GPS: “If you count too much on AI, you’ll become too commoditized.” He believes AI should guide, not replace, the human touch that defines great hospitality.
Time as a Luxury: His leadership hack — calendar blocks for yourself. “Otherwise your calendar dictates your day instead of you dictating your day.”
Talk Less, Listen More: His best career lesson — the quietest leaders often carry the most weight.
🎧 Listen to “Lessons in Luxury” wherever you get your podcasts.
📊 Next Week: Data Doesn’t Lie — Amanda Hite of STR
Dropping next week: a candid conversation with Amanda Hite, President of STR (now part of CoStar). She and Sloan break down the state of hotel performance, the margin pressure owners feel, and how AI is reshaping data intelligence across the industry.
Quick Preview:
U.S. RevPAR has turned slightly negative (–0.1% forecast for ’25).
Luxury is holding, midscale is softening, and business travel remains muted.
Supply growth still sub-1% — a silver lining for owners.
STR is shifting from Excel reports to AI-driven analytics inside CoStar’s platform.
Amanda’s leadership advice: “Don’t wait for perfect data. If it won’t kill the business, make the decision and iterate.”
🎙️ Coming Soon on Not Done
We’re just getting warmed up. Upcoming conversations include:
Kurien “KJ” Jacob - Partner at Highgate Tech Ventures and former CRO of Highgate
Joshua Wohle – AI entrepreneur & learning-tech visionary
Anthony Rivera – former Navy SEAL on grit, discipline, and transitioning to civilian leadership
Richard Garcia – SVP of F&B of Crescent Hotels on why hospitality starts in the kitchen
Jason Reader – COO of Davidson Hospitality Group
Tony Capuano – CEO of Marriott International
Chris Silcock – President of Hilton Worldwide
Chip Rogers – former CEO of AH&LA, on what’s next for the industry
Keep your notifications on — the next few weeks are stacked.
💡 AI Corner: What I Learned from MIT Coursework:
A few takeaways from MIT’s recent deep dive into AI:
Scale = Smarts: As models grow, new abilities emerge — reasoning, translation, creativity.
Quality > Quantity: High-quality, recent data beats sheer volume. Stale data leads to stale models.
Prompting is the New Programming: Clear step-by-step prompts can triple accuracy.
The Next Wave: Longer context windows, multimodal (voice, image, video), and autonomous AI agents.
Leadership Lesson: Data quality is the new brand quality. AI agents are your next associates — but human empathy still defines trust.
(Source: MIT LLx Foundation Model Primer | Oct 2025)
✉️ Closing Thought
Whether it’s Viceroy redefining luxury or STR redefining data, both conversations remind us of one truth: Technology should enhance connection, not replace it.
Thanks for listening, sharing, and staying Not Done.
— Sloan Dean
Host | Not Done Podcast