AI Is Killing Software Outsourcing. It May Also Save It
As AI commoditizes coding capacity, the competitive edge in software outsourcing shifts to domain expertise and legacy system knowledge, with travel tech cited as a prime example.
Opinion Articles
56% of Guests Are Ready to Book—Why Do 98% Abandon Your Hotel Website?
GuestCentric's AI assistant Melissa shows 56% of engaged hotel website visitors have high booking intent, yet a 2% average conversion rate persists due to unanswered questions and checkout friction.
By Joao Trindade, VP of Marketing & Product, GuestCentric Systems
Build the Truth Once
Vietnam's "1+1+34+N" tourism data governance model is held up as a template for the Philippine DOT, arguing that a data ownership framework must precede any AI or chatbot deployment.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
Can AI Make Hospitality More Authentic?
The author argues that AI does not inherently undermine authentic hospitality; what matters is the intent behind its use and whether it empowers employees to respond more thoughtfully to individual guests.
By Dr. Andreea Antonescu, Associate Professor, Les Roches
The Real Bottleneck In Hotel AI Adoption Is Human, Not Technical
A LodgIQ executive argues that over 50% of AI pricing recommendations are overridden industry-wide because hotels skip the trust-building stages needed before full automation, not because the technology fails.
By Mark Charlinski, President & CCO, LodgIQ™
Why most hotel guest directories are outdated and how to improve them
Digital guest directories, accessible via QR code without an app, reduce front desk load, enable real-time promotions, and drive ancillary revenue across dining, spa, and local experiences.
By Kate Fuller, Head of Marketing, IRIS
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: How PMS Technology Supports Multi-Property Hotel Groups
Maestro PMS argues that multi-property hotel groups should standardize data, reporting, and controls at the portfolio level while preserving property-level flexibility for workflows and guest experience.
By Lisa Jane Wheaton, Senior Project Strategist, Maestro
Predicting AI is futile, preparing isn’t
A strategic case for why hotels should prioritize open APIs, data accessibility, and AI-ready PMS flexibility over chasing today's best AI features.
By Martin Soler, Partner, Soler & Associates
Google just put agentic hotel booking into testing
Google's live agentic hotel booking test includes Booking, Expedia, Marriott, Wyndham, and IHG, with Amadeus confirmed as the first GDS infrastructure partner, leaving independents reliant on OTA or GDS pipes.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
The Terminal Is the New Homepage
Shanghai's 100 AI-powered tourist terminals, built on 84,000+ content entries and 14,000 booking links, are presented as a reference model for destinations like the Philippines to build a unified data layer first, before any interface.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
Hotels don't need more data, they need direction
Cendyn argues hotels are drowning in data but lack direction, and positions AI-enabled actionable intelligence as the shift from reporting to decision support across its CRM, Knowland, and Wayfinder products.
By Nicola Graham, Chief Marketing Officer, Cendyn™
Homo Hackabilis: Why Hack a Server When You Can Just Call a Human?
A hospitality consultant recounts four near-identical cyberattacks on clients, all exploiting staff via phone-based impersonation rather than technical exploits.
Tollbooths on the Token Highway
Stripe's reported $7B acquisition of OpenRouter, combined with its earlier Metronome buy, creates a vertically integrated AI billing stack that makes model routing costs opaque to operators and demands new cost-tracking disciplines for hospitality.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
Chat, Workflow, Agent or Orchestration: What Does Your Hotel Actually Need?
A practical framework for hotel leaders to distinguish between chat, workflow, agent, and orchestration AI modes, with a decision matrix to avoid over-buying autonomy for problems that are simply workflows.
By Darko Bosancic, SVP, Sirma
Your Next Guest Is A Robot: How AI Is Rewriting The Path To Booking
As AI tools like ChatGPT increasingly influence hotel discovery and trip planning, hotels must now optimize their digital presence for both human guests and the AI agents acting on their behalf.
By Jordan Brannon, President and Co-Founder, Coalition Technologies
Your Hotel Now Has Five AIs, and None of Them Have Met Each Other
Opinion arguing that siloed AI tools across pricing, messaging, and booking create contradictory guest interactions, making hotels feel less coherent than before AI adoption.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, AI Champion
How Hotels Get Recommended by AI Agents before Their Competitors Do
Hotels risk being invisible to AI booking agents unless they address five readiness layers: machine-legible data, rate parity, reputation signals, specific positioning, and protocol presence.
By Muhammad Tanveer, Author & Founder, The Sales Leadership Brief
5 Things Every Hotelier Should Know About PMS Data Protection
Hoteliers are urged to treat PMS outages as operational crises, with practical guidance on backup validation, offsite redundancy, and recovery drills to minimize downtime.
By Doug Wagner, Manager, Technical Services, Maestro
Here’s What Happens When AI Starts Making Decisions and Bookings for Hotel and Travel Guests
Agentic AI is shifting travel from search-and-select to ask-and-act, but nearly 70% of travelers still prefer to complete bookings via trusted brands rather than AI agents, signaling the need for appropriate, not maximum, automation.
By Ivana Johnston, Co-Founder and CEO, Puzzle Partner
Beyond the Rooms View: Deconstructing the Great PMS Debate from the Inside
A closed-door HITEC San Antonio debate between PMS CEOs and hotel CIOs exposes structural gaps in hospitality tech, from labor-cost bias to the myth of seamless cloud integration.
By Mark Fancourt, Co-Founder & Principal Consultant, TRAVHOTECH