Your wholesaler isn't worried about AI
Wholesalers like RateHawk's parent Emerging Travel Group appear unfazed by AI-driven booking agents that are reshaping how travelers plan and book hotels.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Opinion Articles
Hospitality investment: making your joint venture with an international operator a success
A practical guide for hotel owners approached by international operators, covering JV structuring, governance, financing, management agreements, and exit planning.
By Christopher Boinet and Anne Epinat
The room's the same. You wouldn't recognize who's buying it now
Wholesale contracts now route hotel rooms through bank rewards portals and airline loyalty sites, stripping hotels of guest data, direct relationships, and future bookings while the rate discount remains.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
What ADR Doesn't Tell You
Hotels track ADR and RevPAR precisely but have no equivalent instrument for the true operational cost of delivering each stay, leaving labor, coordination, and unplanned effort invisible in the financials.
By Hideki Hayashi, Founder, Pulse Hospitality Group
AI Is Now Writing Your Hotel's Reputation. Here Is How to Make Sure It Gets It Right.
AI assistants now synthesize reviews and web content into hotel summaries that travelers see before visiting any owned channel, reshaping how first impressions are formed.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach
Rethinking Distribution in The Age of Data and Direct Relationships
A Club Quarters executive argues hotels should treat distribution as a strategic ecosystem, prioritizing data connectivity, direct booking conversion, and guest lifetime value over raw channel volume.
By John Paul Nichols, President and CEO of Club Quarters Hotels, Club Quarters
The Psychology of Revenue Leakage: Why Your Guests Want to Spend More And Why Your Hotel Won't Let Them
A hospitality consultant argues that most hotels lose ancillary revenue not from product gaps, but from poor language framing, mistimed offerings, and invisible services that prevent willing guests from spending.
By Julia Krebs, Senior Lecturer and Hospitality Consultant, Les Roches-Marbella
Marriott’s Lefay Acquisition Signals a Future of Wellness Cobranding
Marriott's acquisition of Lefay Resorts is less about net unit growth and more about owning the Lefay SPA Method as a scalable wellness playbook for repositioning existing luxury properties.
By Adam Mogelonsky and Larry Mogelonsky
HVS Webinar: How Will Hotel Operating Models Evolve and Change?
Senior leaders from HVS, Hyatt, LR Hotels, Westmont, and Aareal Bank discuss how hotel operating models must blend flexible contract structures, AI-driven distribution, and human-centred experiences to succeed by 2030.
10 signs your hotel needs F&B mobile ordering now - and the solutions to fix them
IRIS outlines 10 operational and revenue warning signs that indicate a hotel's F&B setup needs mobile ordering, from order errors and slow service to multi-property brand inconsistency.
By Kate Fuller, Head of Marketing, IRIS
The Financial Blind Spot in Vacation Rental Management
A vacation rental operator argues the industry lacks a unified financial standard, proposing an "Owner-Adjusted Performance Report" that consolidates both management company and property owner costs into a single net return view.
Beyond the Script: Rethinking Hospitality Education
The author argues that hospitality training must move beyond SOPs to incorporate applied psychology, equipping teams with tools to understand human behavior, manage emotions, and adapt in real time.
By Miranda Allison, Experience Designer & Founder, Pretty Darn Delightful
When AI Serves the Guest, Hospitality Wins
A luxury hotel GM with 20+ years of experience argues AI amplifies rather than replaces hospitality professionals, citing Hilton's AI Planner, Be My Eyes partnership, and operational forecasting as real-world examples.
By Chintan Dadhich, Complex General Manager, Hilton
Win the Match That Counts
The final installment of an 8-part series argues that RevPAR is a vanity metric, urging hoteliers to measure profit kept after acquisition costs and total guest spend instead.
By André Santos, Director of Hospitality Solutions EMEA, Duetto
Hotel connectivity stopped being plumbing
Expedia Group and RateHawk published research the same week recasting hotel connectivity from neutral infrastructure into the entry condition for AI-driven, platform-controlled distribution.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Why Hotel Sales Teams Lose Their Best People
A hospitality sales leader argues that top salesperson departures are preventable, outlining a "Stay Stack" framework of fair targets, real coaching, recognized effort, and visible career paths.
By Muhammad Tanveer, Author - The Sales Leadership Brief (Linkedin Newsletter), The Sales Leadership Brief
A full events diary doesn't guarantee a profitable one
Hoteliers and venue managers are urged to move beyond diary fullness as a performance metric, tracking utilisation rate, attendee density, RevPASM, and booking pace instead.
By Lauren Hall, Founder & CEO, iVvy
The Presence Premium™
Cvent CEO Reggie Agarwal argues that AI-driven content saturation makes in-person presence the highest-trust signal in modern marketing, with implications for event strategy.
By Diana Tamboly, Manager, Field Marketing, Hospitality Cloud, Cvent Europe Ltd
Hospitality Technology Pain Points: Why Hoteliers Are Switching Systems
With 38% of hoteliers citing integrations as a top pain point, the case for open APIs, best-in-class systems, and intuitive UX over all-in-one platforms has never been stronger.
By Priya Rajamani, VP of Implementation & Support, Stayntouch
AI Is Already Describing Your Hotel. Make Sure It's Right.
As AI tools increasingly shape traveler decisions before they visit a hotel website, brand consistency across reviews, listings, and third-party sources has become a critical marketing priority.