Despite global economic pressures, both business and leisure travel continue to grow, with global tourism rising five percent in the first six months of 2025. Amidst that growth, the sector is becoming increasingly competitive as more destinations seek to boost their economies and create jobs through tourism.
During the Cayuga Hospitality Consultants Annual Conference 2025 in Scottsdale, Rick Blackburn, Founder of brn solutions and Cayuga Hospitality Consultant moderated these exceptional panelists:
If your hotel’s top-line revenue is stalling or declining, you should consider ways to increase the other line items.
Have you ever found yourself buried under a mountain of spreadsheets at midnight, still trying to close your weekly forecast? You’re not alone.
It haunts your every KPI, even though it has already been buried, deep in your archives: STLY, same time last year.
The final U.S. hotel performance forecast of 2025 is in – and it’s not the news many hoped for. According to the latest from CoStar and Tourism Economics, both 2025 and 2026 projections have again been downgraded across occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR, signaling a tougher environment ahead.
In hotel groups and event sales, timing is everything. The moment a lead comes in, whether from a meeting planner’s RFP, a trade show connection, or a casual inquiry, the clock starts ticking. The speed, accuracy, and professionalism of the initial response can make the difference between securing the booking or losing it to a competitor.
A few years ago, the best hotel salespeople had one superpower: they could read their guests.
Hoteliers have mastered the art of direct bookings; sophisticated marketing automation, optimized booking engines, and data-driven website design have helped shift share away from OTAs and reclaim control over the guest relationship.
Since we here at Cogwheel Marketing are all about sharing our knowledge with others, we did a little research on which brand between Hilton, Marriott, and IHG has the best contactless opportunities for guests.
Guests are more distracted than ever. Inboxes are filled with hundreds of emails and whatever message your property is sending to them, it can be easily ignored.
Hotel revenue teams have access to more data than ever before — yet decision-making has never been harder.
Picture this: You’re standing on the beach in Zanzibar - oh yes, it is another lessons of those. The sun’s out. The sea’s calm. And within seconds, you’re surrounded AND ... everyone selling the same thing.
I have good news. Calling customer support is getting better, even if you don’t notice it yet. Part of the reason you might think it’s not improving is that past bad experiences have left such a “metaphorical scar” that you avoid making the call for many reasons I’ll share in just a moment.
Recently, I was planning a vacation to Portugal. Not having the time necessary to sift through endless options and reviews, I found myself looking to my travel companions Chat GPT and Perplexity to do some of the research and help me build just the right experience that allowed my wife and I to focus on the experiences that mattered to us.
The current industry dialogue confirms a harsh truth: a strong top-line no longer guarantees a healthy bottom line, and the painful truth is: Volume without profit is just activity. The era of RevPAR as a sole performance indicator is over. It has to be over, because if this is the only thing we are truly capable of optimizing today, the industry is structurally broken. The industry has been discussing this strategic migration for some time now, yet the tension between this ambition (talk/ideas) and the current systemic reality (action/capability) is the core structural challenge. The new scoreboard demands Total Profit Optimization (TPO), driven by metrics like GOPPAR. This is the goal of Total Profit Optimization Hospitality.
Everyone in hospitality talks about pricing strategy, distribution mix, and guest experience. But ask who owns room assignment, and the room goes quiet.
In this article I described the relationship between Model Context Protocol (MCP) that helps AI systems access external data and A2A (Agent-to-Agent communication) that helps them talk to each other. This shorter article reflects my vision on the possible evolution of the A2A concept and how this affects our industry.
I watched a Director of Sales break down last month.
The hospitality industry doesn’t need more buzzwords or metaverse-ready ideas. What matters is creating online experiences that put guests first and drive measurable results.