As AI gives buyers near-instant access to market data, the author argues trust built through consistent delivery and relationship history is the one advantage hospitality sales teams cannot be commoditized on.
Marriott's nine-year Alibaba partnership gave it exclusive AI agent commands on Fliggy, letting agents book rooms and F&B packages, while rival chains and independents remain limited to a basic five-field room search.
Trailing Millennials and Early Gen Z, dubbed the "Emerging Experience Generation," represent 78M+ US travelers who prioritize mobile-first tech, social media discovery, authenticity, and locally grounded experiences when choosing hotels.
TRevPAR declined 8.8% vs RevPAR's 6.3% in HotelData's 2025 U.S. sample, illustrating how room-only metrics obscure F&B, spa, parking, and other in-stay revenue trends.
Pertlink applies McKinsey's Global Energy Perspective 2026 to hospitality, arguing that energy constraints will determine where AI and guests can be served, and proposes tracking AI token costs alongside utility costs per occupied room.
An intern at GRACE La Margna, St. Moritz examines whether commission-based upselling incentives motivate genuine service or just sales, and how to design systems that reward both.
Ultra-high-net-worth travelers increasingly prioritize privacy over personalization, pushing luxury hotels to rethink data retention practices and invest in exclusive-use villa and private residence products.
The author questions whether agentic AI in travel is ready for real-world disruptions, arguing that booking trips is the easy test and true accountability comes when things go wrong.
A review of 129 studies finds that hotel robot deployments often succeed operationally while quietly undermining staff engagement, with clear communication, role definition, and supportive leadership as key remedies.
Global branded residence supply has tripled in a decade to 900+ developments, with 835 more in the pipeline, as Dubai, Miami, and NYC lead demand and non-hospitality brands reshape the sector.
Six strategies for winning lifelong customers, centered on prioritizing retention over acquisition, aligning employees to a clear CX vision, and consistently delivering experiences that earn loyalty.
A Booking.com executive's claim that no hotel depends on a single platform is rebutted using the same HOTREC study he cited, with Booking Holdings holding ~70% of European OTA bookings.
Bain analysis warns travel operators that rising AI referral traffic and agentic booking tools threaten direct bookings and margin, urging proactive content, pricing, and personalization strategies.
AI-referred traffic to hotel sites quadrupled in a year but remains under 1%, yet conversion rates now match Google organic, making it a metric worth tracking, not rebuilding around.
The article argues that robotics and automation have become standard hotel infrastructure by 2026, shifting human labor toward high-touch guest experience roles that technology cannot replicate.
An editorial exploring how high-value repeat guests can become a liability through entitlement, review leverage, and extended-stay legal complications, with real case examples.
An overview of how warm lighting across lobbies, guest rooms, and restaurants shapes guest comfort, perception of quality, and emotional connection to a property.
A former hotelier turned Mews employee shares hard-won advice on PMS procurement: start with operational pain points, involve all staff, and use the switch as a chance to rethink workflows.
Insights from GBTA 2026 show travel managers consolidating hotel programs around top performers, using AI-driven data, and prioritizing duty of care, compliance, and service quality.
The article argues that targeted email campaigns to outside luxury traveler lists offer hotels a fixed-cost, commission-free alternative to OTAs for acquiring new guests.