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
News
Plane Rude: Loud Media, Smelly Food and TikTok Filming Top Passengers’ Cabin Gripes
Booking.com survey of 1,000 UK adults finds 67% behave on planes as they do at home, with loud media, smelly food, and TikTok filming topping the list of cabin irritants.
Kollective Completes Initial Data Collection for the Boutique Hotel AI Index
Kollective's Boutique Hotel AI Index analyzed 28,600 AI-generated responses across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot to reveal how these platforms recommend boutique hotels across 100 destinations.
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
Cvent Announces Denver as Host City for Cvent CONNECT 2027
Cvent CONNECT 2027 will be held April 5–8 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, announced at the 2026 edition in Nashville, which drew nearly 5,000 in-person attendees.
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
Lodging Interactive Launches Celebrations Hub and Drives Untapped Social Event Revenue
Lodging Interactive's Celebrations Hub connects social media content to dedicated landing pages and lead capture forms, targeting smaller milestone events like reunions, showers, and parties that hotels often overlook.
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
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
The AI visibility game just got serious for hoteliers
As guests increasingly use AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini to research stays, hotels risk losing bookings to OTAs if they lack visibility or accuracy in AI-generated recommendations.
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.
Why great guest experiences start before check-in
Dream Inn Santa Cruz's Director of Sales and Marketing shares how human-led reservations, pre-arrival outreach, and storytelling convert OTA visitors into direct bookers and build multi-generational guest loyalty.
Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer, Revinate, Inc.
AI Reality Check Series: Before Chasing AI Visibility, Get Your Digital Basics Right
Hotels chasing AI visibility should first fix digital fundamentals: quality content, reviews, social presence, and accurate listings before optimizing for ChatGPT or LLM-based discovery.
Stephanie Sparks Smith, CEO & Digital Matriarch, Cogwheel Marketing, Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics
Why your hotel’s direct booking rate is still stuck below 15%
Namastay founder Frédéric Robles argues that friction at checkout, not pricing or loyalty, is the primary reason hotel direct booking rates remain stuck at 5–15%, while digital wallets have doubled mobile bookings on some properties.
Destination Weddings Drive Group Booking Demand, Reveals Hyatt
Hyatt's Vows Venues study of 2,000 UK adults finds 83% want to marry abroad, with Italy topping destination choices and couples budgeting £36,579 on average for the event.
2026 HSMAI Adrian Awards Open for Entry
HSMAI opens entries for the 2026 Adrian Awards, celebrating the competition's 70th anniversary with 34 categories and new Best-of segments; deadline is September 15, 2026.
Why is Selling Leisure so Hard?
The global leisure economy is projected to grow from $5.5T to $9.57T, but operators face structural sales challenges rooted in consumer psychology, optional spending, and infinite competition.
By Jeremy McCarthy, CEO & Founder, Leisure Alchemy
Booking is scaling the machine that wholesales your rooms
Booking Holdings is unifying Booking.com, Agoda, and Priceline under a single B2B wholesale operation, giving it the ability to resell hotel net-rate inventory across bank apps, airline checkouts, and loyalty portals at scale.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
For Whom the Algorithm Ranks: What Ernest Hemingway Can Teach Us About GEO
A Hemingway-inspired perspective on Generative Engine Optimization and what hospitality brands can learn about visibility in AI-driven search.