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Development Opening

Crystal Cove Welcomes a New Era of Indie-Spirited Island Escapes as the First Tribute Portfolio All‑Inclusive Resort

Crystal Cove, Barbados, A Tribute Portfolio All-Inclusive Resort, has officially opened on Barbados' celebrated West Coast, introducing an energizing new take on beachfront leisure. The first all-inclusive resort within the Tribute Portfolio, the 88-room resort offers a fresh take on island living, where spontaneous moments, meaningful connections and effortless relaxation define the experience.

Tribute Portfolio
Saint James, Barbados
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When Search Stops Being the Funnel

UCP feels like a real inflection point, not an overnight takeover. It's the missing plumbing that shifts behavior from "Google this" and clicking through links to simply talking to an AI that finds the right hotel and books it on the spot, right in the research moment. That changes the funnel entirely: discovery, decision, payment, and confirmation can happen in one conversational flow. For hotels that move early, this means fewer steps, better conversion, and a much more direct relationship with the guest.

Alan Young
View by Alan Young, VP, Strategy | Hospitality, Infor
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If you build it (the UCP), they (the guests) will come. Kinda.

Google UCP may be the door to a "post booking engine" industry, for both human and non-human bookers. More than a rupture, however, it formalizes a shift that is already underway. UCP, in fact, introduces a shared transactional language that allows AI agents, platforms, merchants, and payment providers to operate inside the same conversational space. Discovery, decision-making, checkout, and even post-purchase actions (such as leaving a review, requesting a change, or seeking support) can all happen within AI interfaces like Google AI Mode or Gemini, without forcing the user to jump between websites or apps.

Simone Puorto
View by Simone Puorto, Head of Emerging Trends and Strategic Innovation, Hospitality Net
Simone Puorto
By Simone Puorto
Expert Views (11)
Muhammad Tanveer
Muhammad Tanveer, Author & Founder, The Sales Leadership Brief

This really resonated with me. People aren't leaving social media; they're moving where they think and decide. The public feed is noise; the real influence now happens inside private conversations. In hospitality, that's seismic: guests no longer "discover" hotels, they ask chatbots where to stay and trust the answer.

Erik Muñoz
Erik Muñoz, Business Development Director EMEA, TrustYou

Chatbots are not replacing social media, but they are taking over the part that matters most. Social networks are still where people watch, scroll, and perform. Chatbots are where people think, decide, and ask questions they would not ask in public.

Ira Vouk
Ira Vouk, Hospitality Tech and AI Consultant, Hospitality 2.0 Consulting

It will turn into "anti-social media marketing", where introverts go down the spiral of never-ending conversations with their AI bff, bombarded by paid ads to reinforce the downfall.

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Why Hospitality Net Leads B2B in Hospitality

Learn what makes us the industry-leader in what we do.
Hospitality Net
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Hospitality Leading the Immersive Experience Economy

EHL Research team argues that hospitality is entering a new phase of the experience economy, where guests no longer seek just “nice stays” but fully immersive, multi-sensory, and often co-created experiences that transform how they feel and remember a place. Drawing on frameworks like Pine & Gilmore’s four realms, it shows how hotels can blend human connection, storytelling, gamification, live events, and technology (VR/AR, projection, sensory design) to create deeply engaging moments that go far beyond functional service.

EHL Research
By EHL Research, EHL Research Team, EHL
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

The Future of Food: From Sustainability in Foodservice to Tech Innovations in Food Production

The EHL Research Team explores how food has evolved into a powerful lever for health, identity, and planetary well-being, with hospitality uniquely positioned to drive this shift through sourcing, menu design, and guest experience. Drawing on new research, they show how foodservice businesses can move from incremental sustainability toward system-level change, reconnecting people with how food is produced while using technology (from advanced cooking to blockchain) to boost transparency, efficiency, and trust.

EHL Research
By EHL Research, EHL Research Team, EHL
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Regenerative Hospitality: Embedding People, Place, and Planet

The EHL Research Team argues that hospitality must move beyond “doing less harm” toward regenerative hospitality, where hotels actively restore ecosystems, strengthen communities, and create net-positive impact. Using their Regenerative Hospitality Canva playbook, they show how place intelligence (local nature and community) and people intelligence (transformative guest–host interactions) can turn regeneration into a viable business model, not just a philosophy.

EHL Research
By EHL Research, EHL Research Team, EHL
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Fixing Hotels’ Biggest Sustainability Blind Spot: Waste

Greg Poirier, Global Director, Hospitality Certification Programs at Audubon International, highlights that, unlike energy and water, hotel waste is still poorly measured and managed, making it a major sustainability blind spot. He argues that real progress depends on circular procurement (designing out waste from the start) and standardized tracking using tools like HWMM and tech platforms to automate data, improve diversion, cut methane and PFAS risks, and reduce hauling costs.

Greg Poirier
By Greg Poirier, MBA, Global Director, Hospitality Certification Programs, Audubon International
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

AI Agents in Hospitality: Driving Innovation, Well-Being, and Personalization

The EHL Research Team outlines how AI is shifting from hype to practical tool in hospitality, with most professionals expecting a major impact on guest communications, personalization, and operations by 2026. Current adoption is still limited and focused on easier, guest-facing use cases, but early results show clear gains in time savings, efficiency, decision speed, and revenue – provided AI is integrated into a broader digital strategy and used to empower, not replace, staff. 

EHL Research
By EHL Research, EHL Research Team, EHL
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Agentic AI: An Inflection Point for Hospitality in 2026

Wouter Geerts of Mews argues 2026 is when agentic AI moves from hype to quietly running hotel operations—handling routine tasks, predicting demand, and coordinating systems so staff can focus on meaningful guest interactions. The key enabler: a "semantic layer" unifying real-time data across PMS, CRS, and other hotel systems. Without it, AI can't act effectively.

Wouter Geerts
By Wouter Geerts, Director of Market Research, Abode Worldwide
Development Renovation

Coral Sands Inn & Cottages Debuts Second Phase of Inspired Transformation

Coral Sands Inn & Cottages ("Coral Sands") announces the completion of a second phase of inspired renovations and amenities across its iconic property. Since its acquisition of Coral Sands in 2024, real estate and hospitality firm AJ Capital Partners ("AJ") has stewarded a multiphase endeavor that includes the design transformation of all guest accommodations along with enhanced amenities, a state-of-the-art wellness center, refreshed public spaces, new dining concepts, and more.

AJ Capital Partners
Dunmore Town, Bahamas
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Sitting at the crossroads of tradition and AI: What lies ahead for hotel stars?

Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas, tourism consultant and Assistant Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management, explores what lies ahead for traditional hotel star ratings in an AI-driven world. He explains why official classifications still matter alongside guest reviews, how rigid or outdated criteria can distort hotel development, and how cross-border initiatives like Hotelstars Union point to a more harmonised future. 

Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas
By Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas, Principal, Koutoulas Consulting, and Assistant Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management, University of Patras, Greece, Koutoulas Consulting
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Development Pipeline

Meliá Hotels International and Grupo Puntacana Join Forces to Develop Paradisus Miches, the Dominican Republic’s Next Luxury All‑Inclusive Resort

Meliá Hotels International, through a strategic alliance with Grupo Puntacana, has announced the signing of Paradisus Miches, an exclusive, newly built resort that will strengthen the company's presence in the Dominican Republic and support the positioning of Miches as one of the country's next major tourism destinations.

Paradisus by Meliá
Miches, Dominican Republic
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

AI Advantage: Reimagining Hospitality’s Commercial Future

Brian Hicks, President and CEO at Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), outlines how AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to real impact across hospitality’s commercial functions, driving measurable gains in revenue, conversion, and efficiency in revenue management, marketing, sales, and distribution. Drawing on HSMAI research and case studies, he argues that AI fluency has become a core leadership skill and urges hotel executives to adopt AI-first frameworks, upskill their teams, and update KPIs so AI becomes a sustained engine for growth.

Brian Hicks
By Brian Hicks, President and CEO, HSMAI (USA)
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

10 Agentic AI Trends That Will Redefine Hotel Operations in 2026

Florian Montag, VP of Business Development at Apaleo, argues that 2026 will be the year agentic AI quietly becomes the backbone of hotel operations, moving from experiments to embedded agents that coordinate housekeeping, distribution, guest requests and transactions in the background. He outlines ten trends showing how hotels that modernise their tech stack can reduce labour pressure, improve margins and win in an AI-driven distribution landscape.

Florian Montag
By Florian Montag, SVP Revenue, Apaleo GmbH
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

If I were Minister of Food & Beverage

Nico Dingemans, Founder and Managing Director, Hospitality in Health (HIH), lays out a fictional but very concrete National Sustainable Gastronomy Strategy 2026 built around ten “Ps,” linking health, environment, innovation, and social impact across the entire food value chain. Framed as a policy letter, it argues that countries must hard-wire sustainable gastronomy into education, procurement, tourism, and measurement systems to turn food into both a wellbeing driver and a national competitive advantage.

Nico Dingemans
By Nico Dingemans, Founder and Managing Director, Hospitality in Health (HIH)
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

The hidden cost of job shadowing: why hospitality must rethink training

Guido Helmerhorst, Founder & Partner at ScenarioBox, argues that traditional job shadowing is a hidden tax on hospitality operations – expensive, inconsistent, and completely unmeasured – at exactly the moment the industry can least afford it. He makes the case for digitized, immersive “golden copy” training that takes over repetitive basics, so human trainers can focus on culture, nuance, and guest experience, turning training from operational friction into a true strategic advantage.

Guido Helmerhorst
By Guido Helmerhorst, Founder & Partner, ScenarioBox