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Loyalty Programs May Be the One Asset AI Agents Can't Take, the Application Layer Owns the Guest, Hospitality's Real Question Is Cultural Not Legal
Monday opened with three converging arguments about who controls the guest relationship in an agentic AI era: loyalty data as the chains' structural hedge, the application layer around the PMS as where AI value actually accrues, and a CDR Global World Panel piece arguing the industry's real challenge is building cultures that elevate human potential rather than absorbing legal risk. One HITEC floor conversation with RobosizeME, the AIHA member survey, and Accor's conversion of a 16th-century citadel rounded out a strong opening to the week.
Ask ChatGPT About Your Hotel. Now Ask It the Question Your Next Guest Actually Asks.
Hotels that pass the name-search test on AI engines often fail category queries like "best luxury hotel in [destination]," where guest shortlists are built from third-party sources hotels rarely manage.
By Andrew Paul, Managing Director, Americas Great Resorts
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HFTP Announces Slate for 2026–2027 Global Board of Directors
HFTP's Nominating Committee has selected six new leaders for its 2026-2027 Global Board, bringing expertise in AI, hospitality finance, IT, club management, and education.
How to Mentor in Hotels in the Modern World
A practical guide to hotel mentorship covering structured onboarding, digital tools, soft skills coaching, reverse mentoring, and department-by-department checklists for front office, F&B, kitchen, spa, HR, and engineering.
By Nasir Zahir
HFTP and Destination AI Collaborate to Expand Practical AI Education and Implementation Across Hospitality
HFTP and Destination AI partner to expand year-round AI education, with the 3rd annual Destination AI Hospitality Summit set for September 29-30, 2026 in Washington, D.C., targeting 500 attendees.
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View AllHotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
Creating Atmosphere: Design, AI, and the Human Experience of Hospitality
James Watson argues that AI's most promising role in hospitality design is not to generate atmospheres autonomously, but to give human designers the precision and responsiveness needed to make spaces that genuinely breathe — adapting in real time to occupancy, mood, and moment. The risk, he warns, is not that AI replaces designers, but that without strong human vision guiding it, it flattens the industry into an algorithmically pleasant, characterless sameness.
By James "Eightch" Watson, Designer & Creative Director, FAKE MOON
Webinar: Robotics in Hospitality: ROI, Adoption & Operational Reality
A panel discussion with four industry executives on where hotel robotics is generating real ROI, barriers to wider adoption, workforce implications, and what lies ahead.
What Horst Schulze Understood About Excellence That Every Hotel Investing in AI Needs to Hear
Drawing on Horst Schulze's service philosophy at Ritz-Carlton and Capella, the piece argues hotels abandon AI too early by measuring the wrong outcomes on the wrong timeline.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach
Loyalty programs may be the one asset agents can't take
Major hotel loyalty programs, with hundreds of millions of members, may become the critical data asset that AI booking agents depend on, giving chains structural leverage in the agentic travel era.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Accor and Banque des Territoires Join Forces for the Revival of La Citadelle Vauban in Belle-Île-en-Mer
Accor and Banque des Territoires will transform the 16th-century La Citadelle Vauban into a 90-key Emblems Collection luxury hotel and museum, set to open in summer 2027 on Belle-Île-en-Mer.
Supplier News
View allLodging Interactive Introduces CruVu™, a New Private Guest Recognition Service for Hotels and Restaurants
Lodging Interactive's CruVu captures private guest recognition by department or staff member, turning it into internal operational intelligence for hotel and restaurant managers to coach teams and improve service.
The Quiet Details That Shape a Hotel’s Spatial Identity
The article argues that a hotel's atmosphere is built through a unified design logic applied consistently across materials, finishes, and objects, down to items like a wooden key card.
Hotel Details That Elevate the Coolcation Experience
Hotels catering to coolcation travelers can strengthen guest experience through natural materials, locally inspired amenities, and operationally practical details like gear storage and flexible breakfast hours.
10 critical hospitality challenges AI is transforming and why hotels can no longer ignore them
RateGain's VP APAC MENA outlines 10 AI use cases for hotels, from predictive pricing to 24/7 chat, as 70% of APAC travelers already use AI across the travel journey.
Fitzroy Island Resort Australia Achieves 50% Night Audit Efficiency Gain With Agilysys Hospitality Ecosystem
Fitzroy Island Resort replaced fragmented legacy software with the Agilysys cloud-native ecosystem, cutting night audit time by four hours per shift and enabling AR reports to be configured in under five minutes.
Laasie and Stayntouch Announce Strategic Integration to Power Next-Generation Hotel Loyalty Experiences
Laasie and Stayntouch have integrated their loyalty and cloud PMS platforms, giving hotels real-time profile sync, flexible reward options, and tools to boost direct bookings across 3,000+ properties.
GreenStar Hotels Elevates Sustainable Hospitality with Canary Technologies
Finland's first carbon-neutral hotel chain has deployed Canary's digital check-in, AI messaging, and upsell tools across its five-property portfolio.
Suncani Hvar Hotels standardizes operations with Shiji’s Infrasys POS across multi-property portfolio
Suncani Hvar Hotels deployed Shiji's Infrasys POS across nine properties and 40+ outlets in Croatia, unifying order management, payments, and reporting on a single cloud platform.
Find Your Way Amidst Ancient Wilderness: Auko Eco-Wellness Lodges Opens in Phong Nha from 20th July
Set along the Son River and embraced by the limestone peaks of Phong Nha–Ke Bang UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to the world's largest cave system including the legendary Son Doong caves, Auko Eco-Wellness Lodges is set to open its doors on 20 July 2026, as a new expression of regenerative hospitality in Vietnam. This summer marks the perfect moment to be among the first to find your way.
AIHA 2026 Member Survey Report
Survey of 100 AIHA members finds hoteliers prioritize practical AI guidance, shared standards, and benchmarking over generic AI commentary, with 78% citing trend leadership as their top engagement driver.
RobosizeME’s Sean Anderson: why not all hotel automation should be AI
RobosizeME CRO Sean Anderson explains why the company uses RPA over AI for defined hotel workflows, citing cost, reliability, and compliance as key factors over AI-first approaches.
The Back Hallway
A 23-year-old accountant uncovered $1.4M in vendor fraud at a midsize hotel, exposing how weak purchasing and receiving controls enabled a 12-year scheme by a trusted chief engineer.
By David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach, David Lund
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
True Recognition at the Front Desk: A More Personal Check-In
Alan Young argues that voice recognition technology at the front desk is not a cost-cutting measure but a means of restoring something the industry has been quietly losing: the agent's attention. By offloading administrative commands to speech, the technology frees staff to do what no system can replicate — make a guest feel genuinely seen upon arrival.
By Alan Young, VP, Strategy | Hospitality, Infor
The Chancellor on Hobson Reveals Rooms Revamp
Central Auckland apartment hotel, The Chancellor on Hobson, has completed a full soft refurbishment of all 65 guest rooms, delivering modernised contemporary accommodation in one of the city’s best-located properties.
Canopy Debuts in South East Asia with Canopy Bangkok Sukhumvit, Now Accepting Reservations Ahead of August Opening
Canopy Bangkok Sukhumvit is now accepting reservations ahead of opening its doors on 1 August 2026, marking the brand's debut in South East Asia. As a high-end boutique hotel brand, Canopy brings together layered design, considered food and beverage, and social spaces shaped by the neighborhood, offering travelers a welcoming sense of home while they discover somewhere new. Located on Sukhumvit Soi 12, the hotel will introduce a locally inspired experience to Asoke, one of Bangkok's most connected neighborhoods.
The Layer That Owns the Guest
A strategic analysis of why AI value in hospitality lies in the application layer around the PMS, not the underlying model, as Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, and Anthropic all launch major deployment units.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
Cultural Relevance in Marketing
A Conrad New York Downtown executive outlines how hotels can use destination storytelling, co-created itineraries, multilingual content, and local partnerships to build cultural relevance into their marketing.
Azuma Brand Launch Signals Larger Hotel Category Trends
Adrian Zecha's Azuma Farm Koiwai launch is used as a lens to examine the 50-year structural rise of agriluxury, driven by guest demand for calm and simplicity in an overstimulated world.
By Adam Mogelonsky and Larry Mogelonsky