Skyscanner renames its Hotels tab to "Stays," reflecting a portfolio of 3.5M properties including hostels, campsites, and unique options, driven by Gen Z and Millennial demand for experience-led accommodation.
Google's commission-free Universal Cart is a placement play: by owning the AI surface where travel decisions are made, Google charges for consideration rather than transactions, shifting auction dynamics against hotels and OTAs alike.
Google I/O's AI announcements signal a shift toward assembled, agentic travel planning that could upend how OTAs capture travel discovery and disrupt the top of the booking funnel.
Tambourine One's booking engine now supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, and expanded international payments, with a zero transaction fee model to reduce distribution costs for hoteliers.
Google's agentic booking partners include Booking.com and Expedia, suggesting agentic AI adds a new distribution layer above OTAs rather than bypassing them, shifting who owns the traveler relationship.
A practical guide for hoteliers on using long-tail keywords, structured data, and FAQ content to improve visibility in AI-powered generative search and drive direct bookings.
Orea Hotels CEO Gorjan Lazarov shares how the Czech group grew direct bookings from near zero to 60% of revenue by combining brand investment, data infrastructure, and technology-driven guest experience.
Opinion piece arguing Southeast Asia hoteliers can cut OTA dependency from 65-70% to 35-40% within 18 months using AI chatbots, behavioural triggers, and direct-rate advantages now available for under $50/month.
Lodging Interactive launches a weekly blog series offering branded hotels practical organic social media storytelling tactics, focused on mobile-captured content requiring no professional production.
A tactical guide for hoteliers on optimizing hotel websites to convert high-intent World Cup 2026 traffic into direct bookings using urgency messaging, personalization, and upsell strategies.
TRIBE launches a limited-edition double LP, NEW GROUNDS, and vinyl listening stations across hotels in Paris, London, Düsseldorf, and Budapest, partnering with local record stores to position hotels as cultural destinations.
Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics, a hospitality-focused marketing firm, ranked No. 32 on the Inc. Regionals Rocky Mountains list with 137% revenue growth between 2022 and 2024.
US state privacy laws are creating a consent infrastructure gap that causes hotel GA4 dashboards to underreport actual PMS revenue by up to 27%, distorting AI bidding and campaign ROI.
The article argues that successful salespeople focus on understanding client needs through strategic questioning and silence rather than traditional pitching techniques.
A Marriott Bonvoy survey of 1,731 APEC travelers finds 66% participate in hotel loyalty programs, with engagement shaped by three distinct mindsets: Loyalty Strategists, Value Optimizers, and Experience Seekers.
AI is shifting travel discovery earlier in the journey, pushing hotels and DMOs to compete for traveler attention before a booking platform is ever reached.
GuestCentric argues that generic upsell menus hurt conversion, citing data showing only 3% of guests buy add-ons, and presents adaptive, reservation-aware offer targeting as the fix.
AI didn't create unreliable travel content but amplifies it at scale, shifting competitive advantage toward media brands with genuine editorial authority and citation-backed recommendations.
ETG has expanded its SynXis CRS integration to include independent hotels, enabling automated rate and availability sync and access to 110,000+ travel professionals via RateHawk and ZenHotels.
We're at a crossroads and this can go in either direction.And the answer depends on whether we, as an industry, do something to push it in the right direction. That's one of the main reasons why AI Hospitality Alliance exists.
As to who will benefit from AI search, it depends entirely on what hotels are willing to do. And by AI search, I mean mostly agentic search, not chatbot search. For the first time in forever, AI search via OpenAI or Anthropic will give hotels the opportunity to exploit a structural advantage (leveraging customer knowledge) that OTAs won't be able to match.