🛎 AHLA: Solve Hiring Woes With Tech

Scaling fast is one thing. Launching a 405-room flagship resort is another. When tech entrepreneur turned hotel owner Allessio Ripanti prepared to open Malta’s Vegas Resort, he needed a platform powerful enough to support rapid growth, custom development, and total operational control. He chose Cloudbeds and never looked back.

By centralizing operations on Cloudbeds, Ripanti’s Leo Property Group streamlined distribution, automated rate management, improved guest feedback scores, and built a tech-driven foundation for long-term growth—all on a system they trust completely.

👉 See how Cloudbeds powers high-stakes hotel growth

Accor has linked procurement team bonuses to how well they engage suppliers aligned with the company’s decarbonization targets, a policy in place since 2024. Already, over 1,000 suppliers—covering 77% of Accor’s global spend—have joined the company’s “Achieving Net Zero Together” program, which aims to cut Scope 3 emissions by 28% by 2030.

🎯 Why it matters: Scope 3 emissions—mainly from food, laundry, and supplier transport—are the largest contributors to a hotel’s carbon footprint. By incentivizing its 260 procurement specialists through bonus structures and supplier scoring, Accor is pushing climate accountability upstream while proving that greener operations can also improve margins.

🔑 Key takeaway: For hotel owners and operators, Accor’s model shows that sustainable sourcing isn't just good PR—it can cut long-term costs through smarter buying (e.g., durable furniture, heat pumps, low-temp linen washing). Owners should expect more structured climate-linked procurement from brands, and may need to prepare for both data demands and supplier audits in the coming years. Read More →

Travel demand is splitting sharply along income lines: luxury hotels saw 6% RevPAR growth in Q4, while economy hotels fell 8%. But Truist analyst C. Patrick Scholes sees early signs of recovery in budget-focused brands like Choice Hotels, forecasting RevPAR to rise 2.1% by 2026 after a decline in 2025. He also highlights Hyatt as a standout among upscale operators and calls Airbnb overvalued given its mid-market exposure.

🎯 Why it matters: A dramatic bifurcation in traveler behavior—unseen in the past 40 years—is reshaping hotel performance. Upper-income guests are spending, but mid-to-lower-tier consumers are pulling back, exposing over-leveraged brands and inflating luxury operators.

🔑 Key takeaway: Hotel operators in the economy and midscale segments (like Choice) must plan for uneven recovery, but may benefit from easy year-over-year comps, major events (World Cup, U.S. 250th), and favorable holiday timing. Luxury-focused brands like Hyatt are better positioned for growth, while valuations at Airbnb and even Marriott may not justify their exposure to pressured customer segments. Read More →

The American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2026 State of the Industry report highlights cautious optimism: hotel guest spending is expected to reach $805 billion this year a 1.7% increase while the industry adds over 30,000 jobs. However, gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) remains stuck at 90% of 2019 levels due to persistent cost pressures.

🎯 Why it matters: Hotels can’t rely on traditional labor-intensive service models alone. Tech is a core part of adapting to tighter labor markets, higher guest expectations, and competitive pressures from both OTAs and non-traditional platforms.

🔑 Key takeaway: To future-proof their businesses, hotel executives should align technology strategy with core operational and revenue goals: adopt systems that support contactless service, dynamic pricing, personalized guest experiences, and real-time data insights. Thoughtful tech investment will help hotels navigate labor constraints, enhance guest satisfaction, and strengthen resilience in 2026 and beyond. Read More →

✅ Cloudbeds: All-in-one hotel management software at the speed of AI.

✅ Journey Rewards: Drive repeat visits & upsell revenue with targeted perks and rewards.

✅ ROH: Automate sales and finance to save time and capture more revenue.

✅ Canary Technologies: Powerful but simple AI powered digital guest journey platform.

1️⃣ See How Linchris Hotels Transformed Hospitality Operations with Canary

Learn how ChatGPT and similar tools are fundamentally changing the way guests plan their trips and discover hotels and how you can secure visibility and bookings today.

2️⃣ Bluesun Hotels Doubles Revenue with HubSpot

Since implementing HubSpot Marketing, Sales and Service Hub, Bluesun doubled direct revenue, enhanced customer support and satisfaction while improving operational productivity and efficiencies.

3️⃣ Hotel payment systems explained: Security, convenience, and cost-saving strategies

Read the ebook to see how hotels are leveraging advanced communications tools & AI to enable next-generation guest and employee experiences.

🔋 HBR: Early signs of AI burnout are emerging among heavy AI adopters.

📜 Regulations impacting travel are reshaping data, sustainability, and competition strategies in Europe.

💬 OpenAI pilots ChatGPT ads, signaling new monetization paths for conversational AI in the travel industry.

🏨 Hotel giants confront softness in the midscale segment with new brands, renovations, and tech to capture middle class travelers.

☁️ Databricks’ CEO says AI will soon make SaaS obsolete, accelerating platform evolution.

🔍 Google earnings show that AI Search Is changing travel discovery

📊 Deloitte’s 2026 travel outlook predicts continued growth tempered by cost pressures and tech disruption.

🍔 Yum Brands makes restaurant tech a top priority in its 2026 growth strategy, investing in digital ordering and automation.

💼 Marriott’s Q4 2025 earnings beat expectations as fee income and global demand strengthen results.

🧩 Hotels are breaking up with fragmented systems, with brands like Wyndham and Accor adopting unified platforms for efficiency and data flow.

🏢 Engine rolls out Engine Spaces, a marketplace to expand hybrid meetings and event offerings.

🤖 Research on agentic AI shows cautious scaling and experimentation across travel companies.

🤿 Job openings plunge to lowest level in more than five years: BLS

📈 Marriott shares rise as branded credit card fee revenue bolsters investor confidence.

🚢 Travel stocks including Hyatt and Norwegian rally as markets bet on strong leisure demand.

🚀 Loop AI raises $14M in Series A led by Nyca Partners to scale agentic AI for restaurant and retail operations.

What if your busiest check-in nights didn’t require a front-desk line at all—even when most guests booked through OTAs? In this episode, Fabio Passos, Owner & CEO of QDI USA Developments (a multi-property operator with hotels across Florida and Brazil) breaks down the practical playbook he’s used to modernize arrivals, improve security, and squeeze more signal out of property data—without waiting for a brand to catch up.

Key Takeaways:

Fabio’s operator mindset spans two very different markets (Florida + Brazil), and he brings a distribution-aware view of tech—specifically solving for OTA-heavy demand where brand-only mobile keys don’t help. He also shares a practical “aha” moment using ChatGPT to consolidate multi-hotel financials and dashboards from CSV exports—an unusually pragmatic, owner-level use case that goes beyond the typical “AI for marketing” talk.

👉🏼 Check out the interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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