Drawing on Kerten Hospitality’s methodology and case studies, Marloes Knippenberg shows how purpose led frameworks, deep local engagement, and embedded ESG can create scalable projects that stay authentic, coherent, and adaptive as guest expectations and societal demands evolve.
As hotels race to automate, Tanja Stegmüller, co-founder of TRUSTmenti, makes the case that resilience will come from intentional hybridity: blending digital efficiency with human wisdom, global standards with local soul, and automation with empathy. She lays out a ten point playbook for building hybrid leaders, learning ecosystems, and people centred cultures, arguing that technology can handle tasks, but only humans can deliver judgment, emotion, and the moments that define great hospitality.
Hotels have perfected AI powered personalization online, yet the experience often falls flat on property because guest insights stay trapped in fragmented systems and are not translated into simple, actionable cues for front line teams. Floor explains how unified data layers, predictive and agentic AI, and open standards like MCP could finally bridge this digital physical gap, as long as hotels pair the tech with training and a culture that turns insights into meaningful moments.
AI may be rewriting hospitality’s playbook, but the toughest part of adoption is not the software, it is the quiet anxieties it triggers on the front line. By tracing three common fears that surface whenever AI enters the workplace, Lynn Zwibak shows how leaders can turn resistance into readiness and make change something teams help build rather than brace against.
Hilton (NYSE: HLT) has signed DoubleTree by Hilton Kintele in the Republic of Congo, further expanding its presence in Central Africa. Located in Brazzaville's emerging Kintele district, the property will bring DoubleTree by Hilton's signature hospitality to a fast-developing area of the capital.
Hilton (NYSE: HLT) will enter Togo with the signing of DoubleTree by Hilton Lomé Airport, developed in partnership with SODEXH SA. Strategically located opposite Lomé International Airport, the hotel will become the country's first internationally branded airport property, delivering upscale services and conference facilities for business and transit travellers.
Hilton (NYSE: HLT) will further expand its presence in Morocco with the signing of DoubleTree by Hilton Marrakech La Palmeraie, a resort-style property set in Marrakech's renowned Palmeraie district.
This is a pivotal shift. The issue is no longer which channels we use, but who controls the guest narrative and the data behind it. Hotels will not win by fighting OTAs on scale or ad spend. We win by aligning revenue, marketing, and sales around a single guest intelligence strategy using data to drive relevance, not just reach.
OpenAI, Google and Perplexity will reshape this landscape again. Nobody knows how exactly but 2 years from now the picture will be very different.
Stop playing the OTA game—change the game with the product. Yes, third parties are taking control of search, booking flows, and traveler data—but copying their playbook won't reclaim the guest relationship. If you try to "out-CRM" Expedia or "out-loyalty" Airbnb, you're choosing a scale game you can't win.
Fairview Hotel Nairobi - one of Africa's most cherished heritage hotels - is joining Vignette Collection, a growing family of one-of-a-kind hotels in destinations to remember. The 99-room boutique hotel, affectionally known as Upper Hill's living garden hotel, represents the brand's first in Africa and first on the continent to join IHG Hotels & Resorts' leading Luxury & Lifestyle portfolio, now the second largest in the world.
Marriott International, Inc. and V&A Waterfront Holdings today announced a signed agreement to open The Cape Town EDITION within the V&A Waterfront in 2026. This milestone agreement is anticipated to mark the debut of EDITION Hotels in Africa, bringing its signature taste-making design, innovation, and consistent, excellent service to Cape Town.
IHG Hotels & Resorts, one of the world's leading hotel companies, has announced the signing of a franchise agreement with Sirayane Hospitality, a local high end hospitality investor and operator with over twenty years' experience in Marrakech, to develop Kimpton Marrakech, a 67-key luxury lifestyle hotel opening in Q4 2026. The signing marks the introduction of the Kimpton brand in Morocco, further expanding IHG's luxury and lifestyle footprint in the country.
The idea of AI-crafted reviews doesn't worry me as much as the possibility of losing the emotional color that real guests bring to the table. Yes, quick prompts will make feedback easier and remove a lot of noise but hospitality has always lived in the small details that guests describe in their own words.
Can the future of hotel reviews be completely AI-generated? - Yes. Will it? Only if we think reviews will continue to be read by humans, which is highly unlikely, as already they're mostly digested by LLMs through semantic analysis to derive trends, sentiment, and suggested areas of improvement.
In the next 3–7 years, expect: 95% of reviews to be AI-generated from structured input, platforms to become "reputation orchestrators", users to see personalized, not universal, review summaries, hotels to optimize for models, not guests, because models shape guest choice.
Inspired by the raw beauty, vibrant culture, and laid-back spirit of Cape Town, Morea House, Autograph Collection, has opened its doors in Camps Bay. The new 90-room hotel joins Autograph Collection Hotels, Marriott Bonvoy's diverse and dynamic portfolio of independent hotels championing individuality.
The most transformative disruption we’ll bring to the hospitality industry by 2026 lies in end-to-end workflow automation across hotel operations, not just individual tasks, but entire processes that currently require too much manual effort with too many handoffs and that may unnecessarily create security risks in today's high data security environment.
We believe AI will most profoundly disrupt operational scheduling and resource allocation across spa, wellness, and leisure departments. These areas are traditionally managed through manual guesswork, disconnected systems, or static templates.
I believe the biggest disruption isn’t a single task - it’s the entire commercial workflow behind meetings and group bookings. A third of all hotel room nights tie back to a meeting or group, yet hotels still burn thousands of hours on manual qualification, data gathering, and proposal-building.
Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff Johannesburg today celebrates the official opening of its Destination Lobby and Lobby Lounge, a light-filled, architecturally striking space that completes the hotel's most ambitious transformation to date. The debut represents the final chapter of an extensive building project initiated in 2023, bringing enhanced facilities, new business opportunities, and renewed energy to one of Johannesburg's most distinguished addresses.
Hotels don't need another mega OTA, rather, they need partners who create real value. Airbnb's shift into hotels is less innovation and more defense. With Booking.com dominating STR volume and commissions rising, Airbnb is simply repositioning to stay competitive.
To be fair, one could argue Airbnb has already been functioning as an OTA for years. It facilitates transactions, controls the marketplace, shapes pricing behavior, and now they are onboarding more hotels and aligning its commission structure.
I believe we're at the point where it really doesn't matter anymore how many OTAs we have. It's gotten so bad for hotels that it almost can't get any worse — and it barely matters which one of them is draining our margins or taking over our guests.
The brand's first African properties include three safari lodges in Zambia and Botswana, managed by African Bush Camps.
Marriott International (www.Marriott.com) has made its debut in The Democratic Republic of the Congo with the opening of Four Points by Sheraton Kinshasa. The launch of this distinct hotel introduces a globally recognised brand to Kinshasa, offering tailored experiences for business and leisure travellers in one of Africa's most vibrant and strategically important capital cities.
has made its debut in The Democratic Republic of the Congo with the opening of Protea Hotel by Marriott Kinshasa. The launch of this distinct hotel introduces a globally recognised brand to Kinshasa, offering tailored experiences for business and leisure travellers in one of Africa's most vibrant and strategically important capital cities.
It's abundantly clear that the US hyperscalers are unable and unwilling to regulate themselves. A $100 million pro-AI super PAC formed in August, backed by OpenAI's president, has identified its first pro-legislation target to oust.
The divergence in AI regulation is less about "innovation versus control" and more about who will define the operating system of the future economy. The US optimises for velocity and scale; the EU for rights, accountability, and systemic risk.
Yes, the gap in AI innovation and adoption will continue and expand. This disparity is less about well-intentioned policy and more about an ongoing geopolitical battlefield where technology sits squarely in the 'armed forces' of the major powers.