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.
I feel Airbnb's move does not create a new problem — it exposes an existing one.
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. Some owners are wealthier than entire EU countries and act like mini-kings, beholden to no one. Many have taken the view that it's more cost-effective to steal the IP of original authors (text, image, video, music, etc.) for use in Gen AI model training and pay to throw legal challenges at any copyright penalties. A $100 million pro-AI super PAC formed in August backed by OpenAI's president has identified its first democrat target to oust. Anti-regulation, deep-pocketed Silicon Valley interests are injecting themselves into local US contests from afar.
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.
South Africa's G20 Presidency secured commitments from leaders representing 70% of global tourism to advance digital innovation, air connectivity, and sustainable tourism financing.
This is a really thought-provoking take. I agree that metasearch isn't dead. it's evolving, quietly powering AI-driven interfaces rather than existing as a visible marketplace. The first to benefit will be those who can move fast and think at scale likely OTAs while traditional booking engines risk becoming just another costly layer.
Rather than disappearance, we're witnessing transfiguration: the logic of metasearch is alive, but its form is shifting from a visible comparison table to an invisible, integrated intelligence layer.
Simone's argument resonates strongly with me. If metasearch has dissolved into the invisible infrastructure of distribution, then the next challenge is redefining where real value lies. With conversational AI agents now capable of pre-filtering, recommending, and contextualizing travel options, simply consolidating data from various sources is no longer enough.
Kerten Hospitality, the global lifestyle operator renowned for creating community-driven destinations, today announced the signing of Cloud 7 Dersa Tetuàn in partnership with Oromecanica Group, a distinguished Moroccan jeweler celebrated for its commitment to authentic craftsmanship and fine artisanal heritage. The signing, which took place in Casablanca, marks Kerten Hospitality's foray into Morocco's vibrant and rapidly growing hospitality market.
The shift from revenue growth to profit optimization isn’t just about changing metrics—it’s changing how hotels think about performance. With rising costs across labor, energy, and distribution, a strong RevPAR doesn’t guarantee a strong bottom line. Being busy isn’t the same as being profitable.
Radisson Hotel Group proudly announces the debut of Radisson Residences Taghazout Bay, in the heart of Morocco's surf capital. Nestled on the scenic hills of Taghazout Bay with sweeping views of the Atlantic, the new property features 208 modern serviced apartments, padel court, two outdoor pools and a kids area.
Revenue management isn't just yielding prices. In fact, the difference between yield management and revenue management is precisely that revenue management doesn't stop at room revenue and captures all revenue streams.
Brilliantly articulated. This is exactly where the conversation needs to be moving forward. The era of chasing topline numbers is over, today's commercial leaders are being judged by flow-through intelligence, not occupancy percentages.
We've been having these conversations for about 20 years now. A lot has been said and published on this topic, including my own articles, podcast episodes, webinars, and even dedicated chapters in my last two books. The answer, at least to me, is obvious: until RMS providers build true profit optimization capabilities into their products (which requires proper data flow for the missing pieces of the equation), we're not going to move forward.
The ambitious vision for Total Profit Optimization is not a destination we are equipped to reach today. It's not a pipedream, but a strategic challenge demanding a phased, constructive approach. The core issue is a structural disconnect stemming from the historical focus on Rooms: The Talent Evolution: We currently possess excellent Rooms Optimizers, whose skill sets were sharpened by focused toolsets and market dynamics.