It’s Thursday, September 25. Will I see you at the Destination AI Summit next week in Washington DC? Come say hi after my panel where Cloudbeds CEO Adam Harris will be talking about rolling out Signals, their new revenue and marketing engine that claims forecasting accuracy of up to 95%. Lighthouse just launched Smart Distribution, aimed squarely at independents tired of juggling OTAs and commissions; it automatically updates rates across channels and nudges bookings toward lower-cost ones. At the same time, Accor is sharpening brand positioning with campaigns and loyalty personalization, Apaleo is making AI agents operationally useful, and AHLA survey data shows many U.S. hotel owners delaying projects as costs climb and demand softens. Let’s dive in 🤿
🎧 Special shout out this week to our podcast guest and TFE Hotels Europe CEO Asli Kutlucan. Asli, thank you for giving us a look under the hood at your lab hotel to see how you and your team test and roll out new tech and service configurations.
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GOING DEEPER
1. Airbnb’s Chesky Says He’s Coming for Hotels
Speaking at the Skift Global Forum last week, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky signaled a strategic shift: the company is “getting serious about hotels,” starting with a pilot to integrate boutique and independent hotels into its core Homes shopping experience. The move targets cities like New York and will feature hotel listings alongside short-term rentals, rather than as a separate category.
🎯 Why it matters: Airbnb’s push into hotels is a clear signal that it wants to compete more directly with traditional hospitality, not just as an alternative lodging platform. By folding hotels into its existing discovery flow, it blurs the lines between home-sharing and hotel booking, creating more pressure on branded hotels to demonstrate differentiation rather than rely on distribution exclusivity. In addition, if hotels take advantage of Airbnb’s lower commission and shift their business away from legacy OTAs, it could usher in a major shakeup in the world of hotel distribution.
🔑 Key takeaway: As a hotelier, you shouldn’t dismiss Airbnb as a “peer-to-peer” threat. Airbnb’s new strategy opens a nice opportunity for boutique and independent hotels to gain some net-new visibility and traffic through Airbnb’s reach. Evaluating partnerships and presence on Airbnb becomes more strategic as it evolves from a long-tail listing channel to formidable OTA competitor. Read More →
2. New FAU Study: AI Agents Will Soon Choose Your Hotel
A new paper from Florida Atlantic University researchers warns that AI agents will soon make travel decisions for consumers, shifting customer loyalty away from hotel brands and toward algorithmic recommendations. Hotels must now win over not just human guests, but also the AI systems that filter, rank, and book their stays.
🎯 Why it matters: This marks a fundamental shift in how loyalty is built and maintained in hospitality. As AI agents act as gatekeepers to bookings, hotels that fail to optimize for algorithmic visibility risk becoming invisible to future travelers.
🔑 Key takeaway: Operators must rethink loyalty programs to appeal to both humans and machines — blending emotional branding with data-driven relevance. Visibility in AI-driven search results will be just as critical as great service on-property, demanding digital fluency across marketing, pricing, and guest data strategy. Read More →
3. OpenAI Chair Says Voice Agents Will Redefine Guest Service
OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor says the next phase of travel tech is voice-first AI agents that replicate high-touch service at scale. These agents—already capable of planning entire trips and managing customer conversations—are becoming smarter, more multimodal, and more persistent across the guest journey.
🎯 Why it matters: Voice remains the last major channel yet to be fully digitized in travel, and AI now makes it possible to run A/B tests on phone interactions—something unthinkable just a few years ago. For hotels, this shift can transform voice from a cost center into a scalable driver of loyalty and guest satisfaction.
🔑 Key takeaway: If you're already considering voice agents for reservations or in-stay service, now’s the time to actively diligence solutions and keep a pulse on capabilities. With AI tools that remember guest preferences across calls, chats, and stays, early adopters can cut labor costs while delivering consistent, high-touch service 24/7. Don’t wait for OTAs or tech-first competitors to define this experience before you do. Read More →
TOOLS & TACTICS
⚒️ Hotel Tech Tools You’ve Gotta Try
✅ Hireology: Find and hire reliable staff faster to fill key hotel roles.
✅ Actabl: Turn powerful BI data into actionable insights that maximize profits.
✅ Tripleseat: Manage hotel group bookings, catering and event sales with AI.
✅ Everguest: Improve the guest experience with valuable feedback insights.
✅ Vouchercart: Turn gift vouchers into prepaid revenue across rooms, dining, and spa.
✅ Canary Technologies: Powerful but simple AI powered digital guest journey platform.
✅ EntryReady: Guests unlock rooms with phones—no cards, lines, or front desk delays.
AROUND THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
Other hospitality happenings this week
🧠 Cloudbeds unveils advanced revenue intelligence and guest marketing capabilities powered by Signals AI foundation model
🛎️ Accor credits its tech overhaul with stronger guest personalization and leaner operations.
🤖 Lighthouse unveils Smart Distribution tool to automate not only pricing but also channel management.
🖥️ Apaleo debuts an MCP server to simplify property management integrations for hotels.
💼 Deloitte’s corporate travel outlook stays mixed as cost-cutting offsets demand from returning road warriors.
🌱 Travalyst launches a hub to compare hotel sustainability claims, aiming to cut through greenwashing.
🚨 States continue rolling out panic button laws as workplace violence incidents climb across hospitality.
🏗️ Global hotel development slows under high interest rates, rising costs, and tighter lending.
📞 Red Lobster adopts AI phone ordering to handle takeout calls and free up staff.
🪪 Digital identity and AI in travel are converging, raising both convenience and privacy questions.
🇺🇸 Ruby Hotels targets U.S. expansion as part of its “lean luxury” growth strategy.
🏨 Hilton CEO says conversion deals are driving growth as independent hotels seek brand backing.
⚠️ Consumer group Which? launches a super-complaint against home and travel insurers.
PODCAST OF THE WEEK
CEO of TFE Hotels on Innovating Through Lab Hotels
What if you could design the perfect hotel room—not on paper, but by testing it in real life with 200 real guests? In this episode, Asli Kutlucan, CEO of TFE Hotels Europe, reveals how her team built a “lab hotel” in Berlin to reimagine hospitality from the ground up.
This episode is tailored for experienced hoteliers, executives, and owners who want to stay ahead of shifting guest expectations, leverage new technology, and explore strategies that balance innovation with operational efficiency.
Takeaways:
Inside the Lab Hotel: Learn how TFE turned a redundant retail space into a living R&D hub, where design, tech, and guest behavior are tested in real time.
Guest Experience Platform (GXP): Hear how TFE built a scalable tech stack that eliminates admin work for staff while delivering a more intuitive, guest-driven journey.
Surprising Innovations: Discover unexpected experiments like “upgrade boxes,” where guests can rent add-ons like Nespresso machines or hair straighteners by phone—transforming upsells into a frictionless, tech-enabled experience.
👉🏼 Check out the interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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