Booking Holdings Now Collects Payment on 73% of Sales, Charlotte Weatherall of Corinthia London on Leading from the Heart, Paathz Rebuilds Hospitality Hiring Without CVs

OTA share of hotel bookings held flat in 2025, which is the number most hotels watch. The number Markus Busch leads with today is a different one: Booking Holdings now collects the guest's payment on 73% of its sales, up from 25% in 2019. That makes the merchant model, not channel share, the variable that determines who controls the price a guest sees. Two HN originals sit beside it: Charlotte Weatherall on what a first year running Corinthia London taught her about leading through people, and Henri Roelings in conversation with the founder of a platform trying to fix how hospitality hires.

Hotel Distribution in 2026: The OTAs Still Sell Your Rooms

Markus Busch at hospitality.today and reconline AG finds that OTA share of hotel bookings held flat at roughly 30% in 2025, which on its face suggests a stable distribution landscape. The change is in how the money moves: Booking Holdings now collects the guest's payment on 73% of its sales, up from 25% in 2019. Under the merchant model, the party holding the payment is the party able to set and adjust the guest-facing price.

The piece extends the pricing-control argument that has run through the last two months of briefs, from the merchant model float in August to Booking setting guest-facing prices below loaded rates in September. A flat channel share and a rising merchant share can both be true at once, and together they mean the rate a guest sees is increasingly set by the OTA rather than by the hotel. Read the analysis →

Charlotte Weatherall of Corinthia London on Leading from the Heart, the TMT Programme, and Running London's Most Central Luxury Hotel

Charlotte Weatherall, General Manager of Corinthia London since July 2025, joins Adam Mogelonsky to look back on her first year. The conversation covers what it takes to run London's most central luxury hotel, her approach of leading from the heart, and the TMT programme, which gives staff up to £200 to create spontaneous guest moments.

The £200 allowance is a concrete answer to a question that has run through October's briefs: if AI absorbs the routine work, what do staff do with the time? Simone Puorto's Choosing Humans framework last week and Martin Soler's argument that hotel staff had already been reduced to computer operators both point toward discretionary, human-led moments as the part worth protecting. Weatherall describes a programme that funds exactly that. Listen to the episode →

Breaking the Hospitality Hiring Crisis: In Conversation with Ayush Soota, Founder of Paathz

Henri Roelings speaks with Paathz founder Ayush Soota about an AI-powered hospitality hiring platform that attracted 50,000 professionals in beta. Paathz replaces traditional CVs with structured profiles and hospitality-native matching, an approach Soota presents as a direct response to the industry's hiring crisis.

The interview is a useful counterpart to the labor-efficiency thread from September, when Actabl's data showed Full Service hotels cutting hours per occupied room while RevPAR grew. Efficiency measures what hotels do with the staff they have; Paathz is aimed at the earlier problem of finding them. Read the interview →

Signals

HVS forecasts strong fall 2026 U.S. hotel performance on ADR gains, with occupancy still about two points below 2019 norms. Rodney Clough's October U.S. Market Pulse also flags rising cap rates and outsourced staffing becoming an industry norm, a mix that fits the margin pressure behind this month's RevPAR-versus-costs coverage.

Expedia Group launched Autonomous Onboarding, letting properties connect through their existing PMS or channel manager and go live in under 24 hours. HotelRunner announced its hotels can use it with rates and availability flowing automatically, removing duplicate data entry and separate workflows.

RoomPriceGenie's survey of 450 senior hoteliers finds 53% use AI to price rooms but only 10% would rely on it for most pricing decisions. The survey is vendor-run, but the split between adoption and delegation matches the pattern in the h2c and AIHG data earlier this month.

GHA signed Far East Hospitality, adding 26 properties and 6,212 rooms across Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. Integration into the GHA DISCOVERY loyalty programme is planned for early 2027.

Data Appeal's report for Turespaña finds 47% of Spain's international tourism now falls outside peak season. Argentina, Poland, and Brazil are among the fastest-growing off-peak source markets.

People

Paul Cummins was appointed Executive Chairman at Safestay Hostels. John Calcao joins Avalora as VP of Global Sales, and Yuribell Chez was named General Manager at Vignette Collection, IHG Hotels & Resorts.

Properties

QURO Bangkok Riverside opened as Thailand's first Unscripted by Hyatt hotel. Hilton Santa Clara unveiled a multimillion-dollar renovation in Silicon Valley, and Signia Hilton Savannah reached a major construction milestone with its topping out ceremony. Grand Hotel et des Palmes in Palermo marked 150 years with major refurbishments and a cultural events programme, and Casa Cook El Gouna unveiled new signature suites. IHCL opened Vivanta Indore, Amaltas, and The Warbler opened as New Orleans' newest boutique hotel.