How to Map the Hotel Customer Journey and Increase Bookings
A practical guide to mapping all six stages of the hotel guest journey, from inspiration to post-stay loyalty, with tactics to increase direct bookings at each step.
Sales & Marketing
Marriott solved the discovery problem. It traded one intermediary for another
Marriott's Google AI Mode partnership lets guests book directly inside Google's interface, bypassing OTA commissions, but cedes discovery data and risks paid "priority" placement fees as the product matures.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Doug Kennedy’s Next Staff Training Webcast: Proactive, Polite, and Productive Hotel Sales Prospecting
Doug Kennedy's free July 24 webcast covers proactive hotel sales prospecting habits, CRM use, and warm-calling tactics, with future sessions on humanification and upselling.
What HSMAI 2026 Kept Saying (Whether It Meant To or Not)
A conference recap from HSMAI 2026 in San Antonio covering four recurring themes: resilient consumer spending, commercial team alignment, AI-driven hotel discovery, and the return to hospitality fundamentals.
By Sonya Taylor, Director of Operations and Marketing, Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics
Hoteliers beware: AI versus search is a false narrative
AI is not replacing search but expanding it, and hoteliers must adapt by optimizing for conversational queries, structured data, and AI-driven recommendation engines alongside traditional SEO.
By Shearly Reyes, Media Director, Cendyn™
Hotel chains built AI for the traveler who comes to them first. That traveler is leaving
Major chains have built AI tools to defend direct booking conversions, but the discovery journey now starts on ChatGPT and Google AI, platforms brands cannot see, measure, or control.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
The 2026 RFP Season Is Here – And It’s Unlike Any Before It
Amadeus-backed research finds 63% of hotels struggle to find qualified leads, urging a data-first approach to corporate RFP targeting, pre-season visibility, and post-contract account management.
By Joerg Schuler, Executive Vice President of Hospitality Commercial, Amadeus Hospitality
MIMARU Highlights How International Travelers Are Turning Japan's Marathons into Family Holidays
MIMARU reports nearly 80% of guests at its Tokyo Shinjuku property during marathon season are race participants, reflecting a growing trend of travelers building Japan holidays around marathon events.
Accor and H World Group Expand Long-Term Partnership Across Direct Booking and Loyalty Platforms
Accor and H World Group will give their combined 430 million loyalty members cross-access to each other's properties and select benefits across China, Europe, and the Middle East starting in 2026.
Pullman Hotels & Resorts Brings its Brand Evolution to Life
Pullman Hotels launches a new global brand campaign centered on human connection and cultural exchange, supported by the Pullman xChange event in Paris and a pipeline of 60+ new properties targeting 200+ hotels within five years.
Culture First – The Most Important Investment We Make
HSMAI Europe President Ingunn Hofseth reflects on lessons from mentor Mike Leven, arguing that culture and people-first leadership are the foundation of lasting business success.
By Ingunn Hofseth, President & CEO, HSMAI Europe
AI-native distribution isn't a project you run
Hotels face a hard deadline on AI-native distribution as AI shopping assistants already query inventory in real time, making machine-readable availability and direct booking pipes a competitive necessity, not a future option.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Cold Calling in the Hotel Industry: What It Is, Why Hotels Swear by It, and How to Make It Work
An explainer on cold calling for hotel sales teams, covering targeted outreach to corporate travel managers, event planners, and travel agencies to drive group and event bookings.
By Nasir Zahir
Unlocking the City with GCSTIMES Wooden Key Card: Where Screen Stories Become Real Journeys
GCSTIMES promotes a wooden key card shaped like a cat's head featuring cityscape designs that doubles as a 3D fridge magnet, framed around the "set-jetting" travel trend.
Hotels now pay to be looked at
As AI agents run thousands of hotel searches per session, the cost of being "looked at" shifts from OTAs to hotels that go direct, exposing a hidden infrastructure cost once buried in commissions.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Is Your Hotel Measuring the Right AI Prompts?
Kollective argues hotels are tracking too many low-value AI prompts and should focus on destination-contextualised, commercially meaningful queries to influence actual booking behaviour.
By Lynn Patchett, Founder & Head of Marketing, Kollective
Is your Hotel Website lying to Future Guests?
With 33% of AI responses about hotels containing factual errors and only 16% of hotels appearing in AI recommendations, the article outlines six steps to make hotel websites AI-ready and drive direct bookings.
By Melissa Rodrigues, Lead Content Manager, GuestCentric Systems
Hotel Tech needs to move past Mousetraps
A fractional CMO argues that hotel tech vendors over-invest in product features while underinvesting in marketing, citing data showing winning SaaS companies spend 44% on sales and marketing vs. 31% on product.
By Martin Soler, Partner, Soler & Associates
Personalization: hospitality’s most powerful driver of revenue growth
Amadeus' Travel Dreams 2026 research shows travelers pay more when hotels deliver relevant, personalized experiences, making AI-powered personalization a direct driver of conversion, spend, and loyalty.
By Joerg Schuler, Executive Vice President of Hospitality Commercial, Amadeus Hospitality
The Standard, Brussels Joins World of Hyatt
The Standard, Brussels becomes the first Hyatt-affiliated hotel in Belgium, allowing World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points at nearly the full Standard portfolio.