It’s Thursday, October 2. The theme we’re seeing this week is consolidating fragmented tools into connected ecosystems. TikTok is turning into a booking funnel, Marriott is testing AI with its most loyal guests, Accor explains their unified digital strategy, and Mews is stitching housekeeping management into its platform: all signs that the your competitive edge isn’t just having the best system, but building a smooth, connected experience.
It was great to see you all at the Destination AI Summit in DC a couple days ago. If you weren’t there join in on the conversation via Linkedin. Naz hosted a great event and definitely one to add to your calendar next year.
TOGETHER WITH SERTIFI BY FLYWIRE
Manual payments are costing hotels up to 6% of monthly revenue—new research from Sertifi by Flywire reveals what’s holding operators back and how to fix it.
✅ Revenue at Risk: 77% of hotels are losing income due to uncollected deposits and delays caused by inefficient payment systems.
✅ Staff Burnout: Teams are spending up to 20 hours a week chasing payments, contributing to high turnover and poor guest service.
✅ Security Concerns: 83% of leaders worry about payment data risks, with chargebacks averaging $5,000 lost per property every month.
Flywire’s new hotel payment report uncovers how outdated workflows and fragmented systems are eroding profitability—and what operators can do to turn things around with automation, security, and smart integration.
GOING DEEPER
1. TikTok Debuts New Travel Ads Tool
TikTok has introduced Smart Plus for Travel, a new ad solution that lets travel brands automatically promote hotels, flights, and destinations using AI-driven personalization. The tool dynamically optimizes creative, targeting, and budgets across TikTok reducing the need for manual campaign setup and enabling scalable reach for travel advertisers.
🎯 Why it matters: For hotel marketers, this move signals how social platforms are becoming full-stack distribution channels, not just awareness tools, and 66% of TikTok users say the platform is their best source of travel inspiration. With Smart Plus, TikTok is offering to absorb much of the media complexity, automatically matching content to users’ interests and trip intent. That shifts the burden onto brands to be ready with strong content and clear offers.
🔑 Key takeaway: Hotel executives should evaluate Smart Plus as part of their digital media stack. The value lies in offloading optimization complexity and tapping high-intent audiences in short-form content environments—but success depends on strategy. Brands must provide robust creative, understand TikTok’s attribution model, and ensure back-end systems can support it. Read More →
2. Marriott Holds AI Focus Group With Real Guests
At a recent Marriott-hosted event, 75 Bonvoy members were invited to the company’s headquarters to explore and provide feedback on a new AI-powered booking chatbot, alongside other upcoming innovation initiatives. Marriott is using the session to gauge real user response and refine its AI roadmap.
🎯 Why it matters: Marriott is shifting from theory to experimentation. This is one of the first instances of a major hotel brand exposing its loyal base to early-stage AI tools for booking. By involving active guests in development, Marriott signals that it sees AI not just as a backend efficiency play, but as a guest-facing engagement channel that must be fine-tuned with human insight.
🔑 Key takeaway: Hotel technology leaders should watch Marriott’s approach: involve real guests early, use AI tools as extensions of loyalty programs, and embed feedback loops into development. The path to meaningful AI adoption is not in cold rollout, but rather in collaborative iteration and guest-informed refinement. Read More →
3. Mews Adds Flexkeeping To Its Growing App Stack
Mews acquired Flexkeeping (🎉 congrats Luka and Aljaž!), a leading housekeeping automation platform, integrating smart scheduling, real-time task coordination, and shift optimization into its hotel operating system. On a recent episode of our Hotel Tech Insider podcast, Strawberry’s Head of Hotel Systems Sven Ephithite raved about both Mews and Flexkeeping rolling out at his portfolio (more on this below).
🎯 Why it matters: Mews’ M&A strategy is evolving beyond smaller regional PMS rollups into buying an entire hotel tech stack beginning with the acquisition of revenue management system Atomize. Despite it’s robust marketplace and app ecosystem, Mews wants to strategically play beyond the PMS.
🔑 Key takeaway: For hoteliers, this means potentially easier vendor management, smoother workflows, and more leverage from a single platform. Mews has long been an advocate of “best-of-breed” stacks over vertically integrated stacks but this may be a hybrid approach where the team is buying what they believe to be the best of breed. What’s really interesting here is that Mews is buying up point solutions across the hotel tech stack while also leaning into it’s robust app ecosystem and marketplace. It feels like Mews is following the voice of its customers and using app store data to buy up popular integration partners opportunistically. Read More →
TOOLS & TACTICS
⚒️ Hotel Tech Tools You’ve Gotta Try
✅ Sertifi: Streamline hotel check-ins and payments with secure digital solutions.
✅ ClickMaint: Simplify maintenance tasks with user-friendly software for hotel operations.
✅ Actabl: Turn powerful BI data into actionable insights that maximize profits.
✅ ROH: Automate sales and finance to save time and capture more revenue.
✅ Hireology: Find and hire reliable staff faster to fill key hotel roles.
✅ Tripleseat: Manage hotel group bookings, catering and event sales with AI.
✅ Canary Technologies: Powerful but simple AI powered digital guest journey platform.
✅ Vouchercart: Turn gift vouchers into prepaid revenue across rooms, dining, and spa.
AROUND THE HOTEL INDUSTRY
Other hospitality happenings this week
📚 Yale’s latest study finds no large-scale job losses from AI
👵 Senior travelers are adopting new booking technologies, reshaping how platforms design experiences for an older, tech-savvy market.
🧠 The “AI memory” debate could reshape travel by changing how personalization, privacy, and regulation collide.
⚙️ Accor’s digital chief Alix Boulnois drives massive tech and commercial transformation, from AI to guest experience.
🇨🇳 Chinese travelers are embracing AI-powered trip planning as outbound demand surges back.
🏕️ Marriott debuts Marriott Bonvoy Outdoors, linking hotel loyalty with hiking, camping, and adventure perks.
🎭 Hotels are diving deeper into the experience economy, creating events and offerings beyond the room.
🥘 José Andrés’ group is testing AI-powered food waste tech to shrink costs and boost sustainability.
📸 Motto by Hilton taps social storytelling to give guests “main character energy.”
⚠️ A potential U.S. government shutdown threatens billions in travel spending.
✨ The age of AI is here—where experience becomes the product and personalization drives loyalty.
🧹 Clean data is the foundation for an agentic AI travel future, as automation shifts from reactive to proactive.
🌍 Radisson commits to 100 net-zero hotels by 2030 in a major sustainability pledge.
🤖 DoorDash reveals Dot, its autonomous robot, aimed at last-mile food delivery.
📉 Harvard Business Review: AI “workslop” could tank productivity if low-quality output overwhelms workflows.
🏨 Are hotels staring down an industry-specific recession? Analysts weigh weak demand and rising costs.
💹 Mizuho initiates coverage with a cautious outlook for Expedia and Tripadvisor, balancing optimism with risk.
🌴 Radisson COO Chema Basterrechea outlines bold growth plans in the Gulf region, betting on leisure and luxury demand.
PODCAST OF THE WEEK
Cloudbeds CEO on Multimodal AI in Hotel Tech
In this episode, Adam Harris, co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, reveals how innovative tech solutions are reshaping the guest experience and operational efficiency in hotels worldwide.
Key Takeaways:
Discover how Cloudbeds' multimodal AI is transforming data into actionable insights, enabling hoteliers to optimize revenue and enhance guest journeys.
Learn about the five essential pillars of hotel operations that can streamline processes and improve staff efficiency, from guest acquisition to operational intelligence.
Understand the surprising gap in customer engagement within the hospitality sector, as Adam shares his personal experience of receiving minimal birthday greetings from hotel brands, highlighting the industry's need for better personalization.
👉🏼 Check out the interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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