How to List Your Hotel on ChatGPT, Your Rights When Booking.com Closes Your Account, Questions to Ask Before a Loyalty Partnership

Distribution runs through the week's last brief, from a new front door in ChatGPT to the rules that govern the old ones. Simone Puorto of Hospitality Net claimed a profile on OpenAI's new Businesses in ChatGPT on launch day and explains what hotels can and cannot do with it yet. Stephan Mulders sets out the rights a hotel has when Booking.com closes its partner account under the EU's P2B Regulation. And Robert Firpo-Cappello of HFTP uses Monday's Accor and Hard Rock deal to list the questions operators should ask before signing any loyalty partnership. Signals carries CoStar's latest U.S. week, Are Morch on what aviation teaches about AI dependence, and Muhammad Tanveer on who gets to say no to revenue.

How to List Your Hotel on ChatGPT

On November 10, OpenAI launched the beta of Businesses in ChatGPT, which lets eligible companies claim their profile, manage how they appear and see a 28-day dashboard of mentions, clicks and discovery topics. Simone Puorto claimed his own consultancy's profile on launch day, but none of the hotels he searched for was yet eligible. His advice is to join the waitlist now and get the name, address, website and description consistent across every channel before claiming.

He walks through the six steps, from verification by phone, email or DNS record to identity checks through Persona, and stresses that OpenAI says claiming a profile does not change its visibility in ChatGPT. The bigger story, he argues, is what surrounds it: business agents, product feeds and ads could give ChatGPT most of the architecture of metasearch. That raises the question of who owns the booking, a question Markus Busch raised yesterday in explaining why OpenAI bought Odessia. Read the guide →

Booking.com Terminates Your Partner Account: What Rights Do You Have?

Stephan Mulders explains that under the EU's P2B Regulation, Booking.com cannot simply close a hotel's partner account. It must point to a clear ground in its terms, bear the burden of proving a breach, give at least 30 days' notice except for repeated breaches, and state specific reasons. Under Dutch law, closure must also be proportionate, a last resort after warnings, suspension or a lower ranking.

In practice, he writes, Booking.com sometimes uses the repeated-breach exception to close accounts immediately and gives only limited reasons, which leaves the hotel losing revenue while it works out what went wrong. His advice is to know these rights in advance and run an internal check for the likely cause, such as a guest complaint or payment issue. A follow-up post will cover the practical steps after a closure. Read the explainer →

The Loyalty Partnership Questions Operators Should Be Asking

Robert Firpo-Cappello starts from the Accor and Hard Rock partnership announced on Monday, a deal with no ownership stake and no rebrand. The opportunity is real: Hard Rock's New York hotel went from 84 room nights in its first month on Accor's channel to more than 1,500 a month by July, and more than 90% of those guests were new to Hard Rock.

Before signing a similar deal, he says operators should know their real cost of acquisition by channel, test whether demand is incremental or just redirected, settle who owns the guest profile, check how redemptions are reimbursed against peak ADR, bring finance and technology in early, and read the exit terms closely. Read the column →

Signals

U.S. RevPAR rose 4.7% in the week ending 7 November. CoStar reports St. Louis leading the Top 25 Markets, with markets outside the top 25 up 7.1%.

Are Morch says aviation already knows how AI dependence ends. Drawing on aviation's lessons about automation complacency, he argues hotels must pair AI adoption with deliberate human competence to avoid fragility disguised as efficiency.

Muhammad Tanveer asks who is allowed to say no to revenue. His framework sets out defined roles, a decision test and a turn-down ledger so hotels can build commercial judgment about which business to refuse or reshape.

Shangri-La issues its first offshore renminbi bond. The group raised CNH1.02 billion through a seven-year Dim Sum Bond at a 2.70% coupon, following earlier Panda Bond issues onshore.

Corinthia's Alfred Pisani receives the WTTC Icon Award. The founder and chairman, who opened Corinthia as a Malta restaurant in 1962, was honored at WTTC's 26th Global Summit for his lifetime contribution to hospitality.

People

Melissa Krueger was named President at Global Travel Collection, Internova Travel Group's luxury division of more than 1,500 travel advisors, joining from Classic Vacations, where she was CEO. Xavier Destribats, formerly Kempinski's Chief Operating Officer for EMEA and the Americas, was named General Manager at Hôtel du Palais Biarritz - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, and Kristina Sanz was appointed Director of Sales and Marketing at Fairmont Mayakoba.

Properties

Sofitel announced Sofitel Kaštela, the first international luxury hotel brand in Croatia, and SAHARA Las Vegas will debut The Alex in 2027 after transforming its Alexandria Tower. IHCL signed Taj Barapani in Meghalaya. Atura Hotel Oran Park opened in Western Sydney, and Essendi combined two hotels into Novotel Madrid Feria and Airport.