The Skift Travel Podcast Building Humanity into Hospitality Management with Valor’s Global CEO
In this episode of the Skift Travel Podcast, Skift CEO Rafat Ali talks with Euan McGlashan, Global Co-Founder, CEO, and Owner of Valor Hospitality Partners, about what’s broken—and what’s still worth rebuilding—in U.S. hospitality. With a presence in 20 countries and nearly 100 properties, Valor is redefining what hotel management looks like, from talent pipelines to franchise relationships to frontline culture.
Ali opens with a provocation — that U.S. hospitality has, in many ways, lost the plot. McGlashan doesn’t disagree, but brings a global lens to the conversation, arguing that much of what’s broken can be traced back to culture, misaligned incentives, and outdated management models.
McGlashan shares how Valor has grown by focusing on culture, purpose, and performance—not just scale. He breaks down what’s behind the industry’s worsening labor shortages and how emotional intelligence training has become core to Valor’s model. With a blunt take on the limits of brand-led loyalty and the traditional third-party operator model, McGlashan offers a vision for a more human, more effective version of hotel leadership.
The discussion also covers Valor’s global growth strategy, how it balances working with big brands while protecting team identity, and why “doing the simple things brilliantly” is still the fastest way to win guest loyalty.
Presented by EF World Journeys.
Key Themes
- What’s broken in U.S. hospitality and what it will take to fix it
- Reframing frontline hospitality roles as emotionally complex, high-value work
- Why culture, not branding, drives loyalty and performance
- Emotional intelligence training as a competitive advantage
- Redefining third-party management with purpose and commercial discipline
- How Valor grows globally while protecting team culture locally
- Why innovation means revolution, not imitation
- Building owner trust by running great hotels, not chasing headlines
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