Research shows 31% of customers distrust businesses with no negative reviews, making how hotels respond to criticism a stronger marketing signal than five-star ratings alone.
GBTA's 2025 Annual Business Meeting covered financial performance and org highlights, and announced five newly elected Board of Directors members starting August 5 at Convention in Chicago.
The hotel robotics market, valued at $0.76B in 2026, is expanding rapidly as labor costs hit 33% of revenue and turnover stays 76% above pre-pandemic levels, driving adoption of delivery, housekeeping, and concierge robots.
Fattal Hotel Group acquires the 117-room Blakely Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, its first US property, with plans to close, renovate, and reopen it under an existing brand by mid-2027.
Nocturne Luxury Villas acquires Jayne's Luxury Rentals, a 300-property manager in Ontario's Muskoka region, bringing the group's total collection to nearly 1,400 villas across North America and the Caribbean.
We didn't go to HITEC 2026 for the demos. We went for the conversations. We sat down with exhibitors right there on the show floor. No script, no prepared questions, just one starting point: tell us what you do, in plain language. This is where it went with Brett Kohn, Chief Marketing Officer at Lighthouse.
A 30-year hotel developer argues that repeat visitation, driven by universities, medical districts, and community ties, is a more reliable demand signal than traditional destination discovery metrics.
A Pertlink white paper translates eight AI engineering signals from MIT Technology Review into property-level implications, with a 12-month readiness roadmap for hoteliers navigating chip costs, agent orchestration, open-source models, and AI-enabled fraud.
GBTA backs the Quiet Skies Act, which gives the DOT 180 days to enforce a voice call ban on commercial flights that Congress mandated in 2018 but never implemented.
A hotel executive's insight reframes how hoteliers should think about non-room spaces as untapped revenue drivers.
Beechwood Hospitality merges with MMI Hospitality Group, a private investment partnership founded in 1956, forming a combined portfolio of 24+ hotels, resorts, private clubs, and restaurants across the Sun Belt.
The author argues that AI citation share, not just AI query costs, is the next major distribution battleground, with data showing visibility concentrating among a small group of hotel brands across AI platforms.
Wednesday brought hard data showing ChatGPT's hotel recommendations are unstable and winner-take-most by market, a white paper arguing robotics will split hotels into automation winners and legacy properties forced out, and Actabl's HITEC argument for AI that admits what it doesn't know. Navan and Hilton's direct TMC connect, Aspen Hospitality's New York debut, and a record properties day from Punta Cana to Tuscany completed the session.
Windsor Aughtry completed a $2.6M full-property renovation at Hampton by Hilton Roanoke Downtown, covering all guestrooms, meeting rooms, public spaces, and the fitness center.
Mews announced five new native features at Unfold 2026 in Amsterdam: guest messaging, workflow automations, BI dashboards, integrated RMS, and accounting, all sharing one data model and UI.
AI platforms now resolve hotel recommendations to a single dominant name per market, creating a winner-take-most dynamic that bypasses traditional attribution tools entirely.
Amsa Hospitality will manage three Riyadh properties under Hyatt brands for owner Artal Hotels, covering one new-build and two conversions across Al Muhammadiyah, Al Sahafa, and Al Nafel, all expected to open by end of 2026.
HFTP partners with The Hospitality Law Conference for a half-day roundtable at the Washington, D.C. event on October 28–29, 2026, targeting legal, development, and finance professionals.
Danubius Hotels will rebrand its 126-room Hotel Erzsébet as a Radisson Individuals property in Budapest, marking the brand's first appearance in Hungary and bringing Danubius's portfolio to 16 hotels across five brands.
An explainer on how AI co-pilots, dynamic housekeeping routing, and IoT-based predictive maintenance can shift hotel operations from reactive firefighting to proactive service delivery.