A podcast-based reflection on hotel cross-selling argues that data quality and guest qualification matter more than offer volume, with guest profiles and selective automation enabling more meaningful interactions.
Holiday Inn Express Australia launches a limited-edition pillow with built-in speakers playing breakfast-inspired white noise tracks, available at all ANZ properties from August to November 2026.
The Luxury Collection launches 10 curated journeys across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, positioning its hotels as gateways to immersive cultural, culinary, and ecological experiences.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
As AI agents read guest urgency and personal data to mark up room prices, hotels receive only their listed rate while channels pocket the premium, making direct booking the only channel that cannot exploit guest data.
As AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini replace traditional search for travel planning, hotels must understand why they are or aren't recommended across multiple platforms, not just whether they appear.
Independent luxury hotels risk repeating the OTA dependency trap as Expedia, Booking.com, and major chains have already secured positions inside AI travel recommendation platforms like ChatGPT.
Tripadvisor Group's 425,000+ tours, activities, and attractions catalog will become bookable on Airbnb's platform, with the partnership expected to launch later this year.
Cogwheel Marketing shares hands-on results from the ChatGPT Ads beta for hotels, including targeting options, CPC benchmarks ($3–$3.50), CTRs of 1.6–1.9%, and July 2026 platform updates.
The Ava Hotel Paso Robles, a Curio Collection by Hilton property opened in August 2025, deployed IRIS mobile ordering and digital directory integrated with Toast POS to streamline F&B operations and drive ancillary revenue.
Mandarin Oriental's 25-year-old Fan Campaign returns with pianist Yuja Wang and DJ Charlotte de Witte, translating their personal performance rituals into two new exclusive guest experiences launching August 4, 2026.
Millennium Hotels and Resorts partners with HXE's digital MICE platform to tap into a network of 400,000+ corporate clients and drive qualified meetings and events demand across its 145-property global portfolio.
Independent hotels risk losing AI-driven bookings to OTAs by default; syncing live rates, availability, and direct booking links across AI platforms can close the discovery-to-booking gap.
Hotels risk being excluded from AI-generated travel shortlists if their websites lack clear, structured, and accessible content; this guide outlines four pillars to improve visibility and convert AI-led demand into direct bookings.
HSMAI DC hosts its annual State of the Industry panel on Aug. 19 in Washington, D.C., bringing together experts from Knowland, Amadeus, Kalibri, and Destination DC to guide hoteliers on 2027 budget planning.
A framework for shifting hotel commercial teams away from individual-dependent "sales hero" cultures toward repeatable, system-driven revenue processes using a three-stage H2S model.