Hospitality Folks podcast · Episode S2E01
Why trust beats hype every time with AI
What makes someone great at hospitality tech sales? It might have nothing to do with sales experience.** In this episode of Hospitality Folks, I sit down with Arne Hegstad, Chief Craft Officer at Suusify, to talk about the people, decisions, and unexpected moments that shape a career in hospitality technology. Arne spent 17 years helping grow VisBook from a team of 13 into a much larger business. His entry into hospitality tech? A lost game of rock-paper-scissors, a conversation with a farmer, and an opportunity he never saw coming. We get into why some of his best salespeople had never worked in sales before, how asking someone about their dream can change the way you hire, and why hospitality tech companies need to stop selling artificial demand and start solving real problems for hotels. We also talk about the gap between hospitality technology and hotel operations, why trust matters when hotels choose new technology, the reality of expanding across Europe and the US, and what it takes to make your next career move. In this conversation:
- Why the best hospitality tech salespeople may come from hotel operations, not sales
- The interview question that can reveal what really motivates a candidate
- Why understanding a hotel’s problems beats pushing another product
- The gap between hospitality tech innovation and what hotels actually need
- AI in hospitality: why adding AI to an old product isn’t necessarily the future
- How technology companies can earn trust from hoteliers
- What it takes to expand into new markets and build relationships
- Why getting out of your comfort zone matters for your career
Whether you work in hotel operations, hospitality technology, sales, marketing, recruitment, or business development, this conversation offers a practical look at the people behind the industry. *About Arne Hegstad* Arne Hegstad is Chief Craft Officer at Suusify, a hospitality business intelligence platform that helps hotels turn data into a clearer picture of performance, forecasts, bottlenecks, and opportunities. He brings extensive experience in hospitality technology, sales, business growth, and international expansion.
Learn more about Suusify: https://www.suusify.com
Connect with Arne on LinkedIn: 
/ arne-hegstad-12293338
Follow Alicia Dick Wahlberg on linkedin: / aliciadickwahlberg
