Global Hospitality Industry Review - First Half of 2026
H1 2026 global hotel performance shows continued RevPAR growth at 3–4% for major chains, but occupancy has plateaued in most markets, while the Middle East saw declines of up to 43%.
Opinion Articles
Hotels don't need more data, they need direction
Cendyn argues hotels are drowning in data but lack direction, and positions AI-enabled actionable intelligence as the shift from reporting to decision support across its CRM, Knowland, and Wayfinder products.
By Nicola Graham, Chief Marketing Officer, Cendyn™
We’re Not Happy Until You’re Not Happy – Revisited
Customers build their opinion of a brand through cumulative service interactions, not slogans, making every touchpoint a de facto brand promise that marketing alone cannot override.
By Shep Hyken, Customer Service and Experience Expert, Keynote Speaker and Bestselling Author, Shepard Presentations, LLC.
Homo Hackabilis: Why Hack a Server When You Can Just Call a Human?
A hospitality consultant recounts four near-identical cyberattacks on clients, all exploiting staff via phone-based impersonation rather than technical exploits.
ChatGPT starts selling ads in Europe next week, but hotels can't buy them directly yet
OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads launch across 31 European countries next week, but hotel advertisers must go through agency partners until self-serve access opens, and ads appear below AI responses without influencing them.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Tollbooths on the Token Highway
Stripe's reported $7B acquisition of OpenRouter, combined with its earlier Metronome buy, creates a vertically integrated AI billing stack that makes model routing costs opaque to operators and demands new cost-tracking disciplines for hospitality.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
Chat, Workflow, Agent or Orchestration: What Does Your Hotel Actually Need?
A practical framework for hotel leaders to distinguish between chat, workflow, agent, and orchestration AI modes, with a decision matrix to avoid over-buying autonomy for problems that are simply workflows.
By Darko Bosancic, SVP, Sirma
Budget Like It’s 2027 (not 1999)
Lodging Interactive urges hotels to allocate dedicated 2027 social media budgets, recommending $100–$750+/month, and connecting campaigns to landing pages and lead magnets for trackable revenue.
By DJ Vallauri, Founder & CEO, Lodging Interactive
Beyond the Budget: Building a Smarter Business Plan for 2027
Newport Hospitality Group outlines its three-part business planning framework, integrating a capital plan, commercial strategy, and operating budget to create a cohesive roadmap for ownership and operators.
By Wayne West III, President, Newport Hospitality Group
Five-star service at villa scale
Opinion piece examines how small villa teams can sustain five-star service standards by front-loading operations, building redundancy into key roles, and planning recovery responses before problems occur.
Your Next Guest Is A Robot: How AI Is Rewriting The Path To Booking
As AI tools like ChatGPT increasingly influence hotel discovery and trip planning, hotels must now optimize their digital presence for both human guests and the AI agents acting on their behalf.
By Jordan Brannon, President and Co-Founder, Coalition Technologies
The Invisible Hero of the Guest Journey
The guest arrival shapes the entire stay through the Halo Effect, setting a positive emotional baseline that makes guests more forgiving and receptive to peak moments that follow.
By Miranda Allison, Experience Designer & Founder, Pretty Darn Delightful
How to Build a Hotel Budget Like a Leader
A hotel finance coach outlines three habits for building a defensible hotel budget: zero-based construction, driver-based forecasting, and presenting it as a personal commitment to ownership.
By David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach, David Lund
Paying Travel Advisors on Time Is a Commercial Strategy, Not Back Office
The author argues that timely commission payment to travel advisors is a commercial strategy, noting the agency channel grew 11.8% YOY in H1 2026 while average commission per night rose only 0.8%.
Your Gen Z guest finds hotels through influencers
Hotels can tap creator marketing without big budgets by offering stays in exchange for content, but the real cost is staff time spent vetting pitches, negotiating rights, and filtering for authentic audience fit.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
How Lodging Properties Can Personalize Guest Stays Without Complicated Technology
Independent lodging properties can personalize guest stays using simple context like travel purpose and group type, without relying on complex systems or large software platforms.
By Diann Turner, Marketing Director, Frictionless Guest App
You own the resort. You don't own its guests.
A resort operator opinion arguing that OTAs, wholesalers, luxury travel advisors, and now AI platforms each capture a piece of the guest relationship, leaving hoteliers with only the stay itself to build loyalty from.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Chapter 7 — Three Things at Breakfast
A case study from a 130-room Mid-Atlantic hotel shows how a new GM cut breakfast cost per occupied room by 21% in 90 days by addressing unauthorized access, chronic abusers, and untracked compensation.
By David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach, David Lund
Your Hotel Now Has Five AIs, and None of Them Have Met Each Other
Opinion arguing that siloed AI tools across pricing, messaging, and booking create contradictory guest interactions, making hotels feel less coherent than before AI adoption.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, AI Champion
Engineering the Wine List: Price Laddering as a Revenue System – Part II : Building the Ladder
Part II of a strategic series on wine list engineering, detailing how to build a four-tier price ladder (accessible, core, premium, prestige) and activate it through sourcing, service language, and mix performance metrics.
By Joël Bracco, Director of Food and Beverage, Accor
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