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If you build it (the UCP), they (the guests) will come. Kinda.

Google UCP may be the door to a "post booking engine" industry, for both human and non-human bookers. More than a rupture, however, it formalizes a shift that is already underway. UCP, in fact, introduces a shared transactional language that allows AI agents, platforms, merchants, and payment providers to operate inside the same conversational space. Discovery, decision-making, checkout, and even post-purchase actions (such as leaving a review, requesting a change, or seeking support) can all happen within AI interfaces like Google AI Mode or Gemini, without forcing the user to jump between websites or apps.

Simone Puorto
View by Simone Puorto, Head of Emerging Trends and Strategic Innovation, Hospitality Net
Simone Puorto
By Simone Puorto
Expert Views (11)
Muhammad Tanveer
Muhammad Tanveer, Author - The Sales Leadership Brief (Linkedin Newsletter), The Sales Leadership Brief

This really resonated with me. People aren't leaving social media; they're moving where they think and decide. The public feed is noise; the real influence now happens inside private conversations. In hospitality, that's seismic: guests no longer "discover" hotels, they ask chatbots where to stay and trust the answer.

Erik Muñoz
Erik Muñoz, Business Development Director EMEA, TrustYou

Chatbots are not replacing social media, but they are taking over the part that matters most. Social networks are still where people watch, scroll, and perform. Chatbots are where people think, decide, and ask questions they would not ask in public.

Ira Vouk
Ira Vouk, Hospitality Tech and AI Consultant, Hospitality 2.0 Consulting

It will turn into "anti-social media marketing", where introverts go down the spiral of never-ending conversations with their AI bff, bombarded by paid ads to reinforce the downfall.

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If you've caught a glimpse of the Phoenix shining brighter than ever over Aruba's stunning Palm Beach, you're witnessing the transformation of one of the island's most iconic resorts. The famed Divi Aruba Phoenix Beach Resort, a landmark on Palm Beach since 1996, has just completed an extensive, top-to-bottom refresh. Divi Aruba Phoenix is kicking off 2026 revitalized, reimagined, and ready to welcome guests home to Aruba.

Divi Resorts
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EHL Research team argues that hospitality is entering a new phase of the experience economy, where guests no longer seek just “nice stays” but fully immersive, multi-sensory, and often co-created experiences that transform how they feel and remember a place. Drawing on frameworks like Pine & Gilmore’s four realms, it shows how hotels can blend human connection, storytelling, gamification, live events, and technology (VR/AR, projection, sensory design) to create deeply engaging moments that go far beyond functional service.

EHL Research
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The Future of Food: From Sustainability in Foodservice to Tech Innovations in Food Production

The EHL Research Team explores how food has evolved into a powerful lever for health, identity, and planetary well-being, with hospitality uniquely positioned to drive this shift through sourcing, menu design, and guest experience. Drawing on new research, they show how foodservice businesses can move from incremental sustainability toward system-level change, reconnecting people with how food is produced while using technology (from advanced cooking to blockchain) to boost transparency, efficiency, and trust.

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Villa Del Palmar Beach Resort & Spa Cabo San Lucas Unveils Inspired Renovation as Part of Visionary Growth

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Minor Hotels Announces First Signing under its New Minor Reserve Collection Brand

Minor Hotels, a leading global hotel owner and operator, has announced the signing of the first property under its new luxury collection brand, Minor Reserve Collection. Slated to launch in 2028, Aventora Resort Baía Formosa, Minor Reserve Collection, will be located in Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte in the northeast of the country, in an area recognised as a key destination for eco-tourism.

Minor Reserve Collection
State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
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Regenerative Hospitality: Embedding People, Place, and Planet

The EHL Research Team argues that hospitality must move beyond “doing less harm” toward regenerative hospitality, where hotels actively restore ecosystems, strengthen communities, and create net-positive impact. Using their Regenerative Hospitality Canva playbook, they show how place intelligence (local nature and community) and people intelligence (transformative guest–host interactions) can turn regeneration into a viable business model, not just a philosophy.

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Fixing Hotels’ Biggest Sustainability Blind Spot: Waste

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Greg Poirier
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AI Agents in Hospitality: Driving Innovation, Well-Being, and Personalization

The EHL Research Team outlines how AI is shifting from hype to practical tool in hospitality, with most professionals expecting a major impact on guest communications, personalization, and operations by 2026. Current adoption is still limited and focused on easier, guest-facing use cases, but early results show clear gains in time savings, efficiency, decision speed, and revenue – provided AI is integrated into a broader digital strategy and used to empower, not replace, staff. 

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Agentic AI: An Inflection Point for Hospitality in 2026

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Sitting at the crossroads of tradition and AI: What lies ahead for hotel stars?

Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas, tourism consultant and Assistant Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management, explores what lies ahead for traditional hotel star ratings in an AI-driven world. He explains why official classifications still matter alongside guest reviews, how rigid or outdated criteria can distort hotel development, and how cross-border initiatives like Hotelstars Union point to a more harmonised future. 

Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas
By Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas, Principal, Koutoulas Consulting, and Assistant Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management, University of Patras, Greece, Koutoulas Consulting
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AI Advantage: Reimagining Hospitality’s Commercial Future

Brian Hicks, President and CEO at Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), outlines how AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to real impact across hospitality’s commercial functions, driving measurable gains in revenue, conversion, and efficiency in revenue management, marketing, sales, and distribution. Drawing on HSMAI research and case studies, he argues that AI fluency has become a core leadership skill and urges hotel executives to adopt AI-first frameworks, upskill their teams, and update KPIs so AI becomes a sustained engine for growth.

Brian Hicks
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If I were Minister of Food & Beverage

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The hidden cost of job shadowing: why hospitality must rethink training

Guido Helmerhorst, Founder & Partner at ScenarioBox, argues that traditional job shadowing is a hidden tax on hospitality operations – expensive, inconsistent, and completely unmeasured – at exactly the moment the industry can least afford it. He makes the case for digitized, immersive “golden copy” training that takes over repetitive basics, so human trainers can focus on culture, nuance, and guest experience, turning training from operational friction into a true strategic advantage.

Guido Helmerhorst
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Top 10 Branding Trends for 2026

Sean Danson, Founder and CEO of New Pantheon, maps out ten branding shifts that will define hospitality in 2026, from regenerative hospitality and AI-as-infrastructure to immersive storyworlds and quiet, conscious luxury. He argues that the strongest brands will be “hybrid by design,” built from the tension between opposites with employee culture and emotional texture as visible parts of the brand itself.

Sean Danson
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Not another one

Andrew Sangster, editorial director and owner of Hotel Analyst, takes a sceptical-but-curious look at AI, setting its impact somewhere between “nothing burger” and “end of humanity,” and ultimately framing it as the next big platform shift rather than a doomsday machine. He explores how AI will reshape hotel systems and roles and argues that the real long-term story is a cultural and workplace reordering where empathy and craft in hospitality gain ground on traditional “exam-tested” professions.

Andrew Sangster
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