214 | High-Altitude Hunger

About this episode

Al Lagunas is the co-founder of Levee, an AI-driven vision-and-voice platform that converts room inspections into verified data and automated workflows. A first-generation Mexican American from Chicago, Al’s people-first lens was shaped by his mom’s hotel housekeeping career. Susan and Al talk about pitching, personalization, and productivity.

What You'll Learn About:

• How physical and digital products sell differently

• Lessons from scaling a startup 

• The people-first lens Al brings from his family’s housekeeping roots

• "Time to Value" as the overlooked metric in hotel ops

• How Levee’s one-button vision and voice AI verifies room setup

• Real-time feedback that gets new housekeepers to three-month performance by their fourth room

• Closing the personalization fulfillment gap

• The near-future mix of human teams plus AI agents and robotics

Our Top Three Takeaways

1. Time to Value Is More Important Than “Training Time”

Al reframed the industry’s labor challenge: the real problem isn’t a shortage of workers, but how quickly hotels can turn new hires into valuable contributors. Instead of focusing on a 10–20 day training period, operators should measure “time to value”—how fast a team member begins producing quality work. Using Levy’s AI-assisted inspections, new housekeepers reached the performance level of 3–6 month veterans after cleaning just four rooms, which radically reduces onboarding friction.

2. Personalization Requires Operational Fulfillment, Not Just Data

Guest personalization has long been a “white whale” in hospitality, but Al emphasized that data alone isn’t enough. Knowing a guest’s coffee preference or pillow type doesn’t matter unless the front-line team can reliably act on it. Levy addresses this by making room setup checklists dynamic and verifiable, turning guest data into consistent fulfillment. This shifts personalization from an abstract idea to a repeatable process embedded in daily operations.

3. The Workforce of the Future Will Be People + AI Agents

Al predicts that hotel back-of-house teams will evolve into a hybrid workforce of humans, AI agents, and robotics. Instead of viewing AI as a replacement, he sees it as an extension of labor—helping staff complete inspections, surface data, and automate tasks. This diversification enables leaner, more efficient teams while also opening the door for new types of roles and responsibilities as hospitality operations modernize.

Al Lagunas on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/allagunas/

Levee https://www.levee.biz/

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