Here are the articles hoteliers have read the most over the past few months. It is not driven by algorithms or recency. It reflects the topics that genuinely captured industry attention. If you want a quick pulse on what your peers are focusing on, this is the place to start.
RobosizeME Cuts Loyalty Point Update Times From Three to Four Days to Under 24 Hours For Global Hotel Program
Automation initiative accelerates loyalty processing for one of the world’s largest hotel loyalty programs ahead of HITEC 2026 Wilmington, Delaware, June 10, 2026 – RobosizeME, a leading provider of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions tailored to hotel groups, today announced the expansion of its work with one of the world’s largest hotel loyalty programs. The initiative has significantly accelerated loyalty point processing times, reducing the wait for members to see updated points in their accounts from three to four…
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SOCIETIES Magazine’s 6th Edition
The May–August 2026 issue examines how intention, atmosphere, AI, design and cultural relevance are reshaping premium guest experiences PARIS, France, June 15, 2026 – Influence Society, a leading digital marketing agency serving high-end hospitality brands, today announced the release of SOCIETIES Magazine for May-August 2026. The new issue explores what the magazine defines as “The New Language of Luxury”, a shift away from excess and toward intention, emotional depth, craftsmanship, atmosphere and experiences that remain…
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Conduit launches AI operational platform with agents purpose-built for hospitality
SAN FRANCISCO, 4 June 2026 — Conduit, the AI coordination layer for hospitality operations, unveiled the next evolution of its platform, expanding its core automated guest messaging capabilities into an operational AI platform with a suite of pre-configured agents for guest support, sales, cleaning and owner communication. Already used by hospitality operators to automate guest communication at scale, Conduit now enables hotels, serviced apartments, and short-term rental operators to deploy ready-to-operate agents that…
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What AI is telling travelers about your hotel tonight. And you have no idea
By Tony Loeb, cofounder of 10 minutes hotels Fifteen years ago, hoteliers didn’t see OTAs coming. Not because they were naive, but because the shift was gradual. By the time the warning signs were obvious, a big chunk of control was already gone. Something similar is unfolding right now. But this time, it’s not about distribution. It’s about how your hotel is described, understood and recommended by artificial intelligence. To dig into this, I recently sat down on the 10 minutes hotels podcast with Nicki Graham, Chief…
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The visibility game just got serious for hoteliers
For years, hotel marketers knew the rules. Invest in SEO. Optimize your website. Climb the rankings. Win the click. But the game has changed. Here’s why the integration of Wayfinder into Cendyn CMS is the literal game-changer for hotels’ Find, Book, and Grow strategies. Guests are no longer starting every journey on search engines. They’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity where to stay, what hotels to consider, and which properties best match their needs. But there’s a problem with this. Most hotels have no idea…
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Google I/O, it changes OTA positions
Some of my takeaways from Google I/Os announcements last week. It is totally clear that travel search and inspiration is going to completely change in coming years. I can’t imagine a world where this doesn’t totally shift. And OTAs are going to be challenged in the process. The biggest change I think is that travel research starts becoming assembled. What I mean is: inspiration, comparison, itinerary planning, reminders, (possibly even booking), travel delays and small decisions all start getting pulled into one flow. Agents…
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RMS and GoCardless Partner to Help Hospitality Operators Cut Payment Costs
London, 14th April 2026 – RMS, a leading global hospitality platform for hotels, motels, serviced apartments, short-term rentals and campgrounds, has announced a new integration with global bank payment provider GoCardless, to help hospitality operators tackle rising payment costs and margin pressures. With card processing fees commonly sitting between 1.5% and 3%, and often higher for some online or manually entered transactions, payments remain a significant and often overlooked cost for hospitality businesses. For a…
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eviivo launches Device Manager to centralise smart lock and access control for short-term rentals and hotels
LONDON, 23 April, 2026 — eviivo, the all-in-one property management system (PMS) provider for short-term rentals and hotels, has launched Device Manager, a new module within eviivo Suite that centralises smart lock and property access management into the same platform as bookings, payments and distribution. Device Manager supports hundreds of smart lock models from major manufacturers, giving operators a single place to connect hardware, automate access codes and monitor lock status across individual properties or entire…
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KeyData appoints long-serving COO Scott McLeod as President to deliver the next stage of growth and team development
Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., 16 June 2026 — Short-term rental analytics company KeyData has appointed Scott McLeod as President. McLeod has served as Chief Operating Officer since 2018, his appointment reflecting the company’s focus on leadership continuity as it expands its product offering and market reach. During his more than eight years at KeyData, McLeod has led operations across customer success, product delivery, partnerships, and team development, giving him a broad view of how the business operates and where it creates…
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Access Hospitality launches Access Evo, an AI intelligence layer for hotels
Booth 2821, HITEC, Texas – June 15, 2026 – Access Hospitality has launched Access Evo, a new AI-powered intelligence layer that connects CRS, CRM, RMS and Booking Engine data into a single operating environment for hotel teams. Launching at HITEC 2026, Evo addresses one of the hospitality industry’s most persistent operational challenges: fragmented technology stacks that slow decision-making, increase manual reporting and make it harder for teams to act quickly on commercial opportunities. By bringing revenue, distribution,…
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The Five Subconscious Signals in Hotel Experiences
One of the advantages of working closely with hotel operators is occasionally getting a glimpse into how they think. Not the polished version that appears in presentations or on websites. The real operational thinking that happens behind the scenes. The habits, observations, and frameworks that experienced operators use every day to identify problems before they become complaints. During a recent campaign with Paris-based hotel management company EnSuite Gestion, we had the opportunity to preview some of the methods their…
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Hospitality tech drew over $1 billion in the last year, with PMS and AI-led platforms capturing biggest share
LONDON, 13 April 2026 — Hospitality technology startups raised more than $1 billion across 40 companies between April 2025 and March 2026, with property management systems (PMS) and AI-led platforms attracting the largest share of investment, according to the “Abode Worldwide’s Hospitality Tech Investment Index 2026.” These findings point to a market where investor confidence is centred on the core systems hospitality operators use to run their businesses, especially platforms that centralise operations, improve automation,…
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eviivo partners with DirectBooker, enabling independent hotels to get found and booked on ChatGPT and Claude
LONDON, 7 MAY 2026 – eviivo, the all-in-one property management system (PMS) for independent hotels and accommodation providers, has become the first PMS partner of DirectBooker, giving thousands of independent hotels a new route to visibility and making them directly bookable on AI platforms, including ChatGPT and Claude. The integration connects hotels using eviivo to DirectBooker’s AI discovery infrastructure, enabling official hotel information, including direct rates, real-time availability and rich property content, to…
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Hotel Brands are Aggregators
We tend to think of hotel brands as, well, brands. Distinct identities. Lifestyle positioning. Design, tone of voice, target audience. But as I’ve repeatedly called them, they’re labels. Traffic data shows the real power is at the holding company level. And that is where traffic, distribution, and ultimately control start to concentrate. Take the top six hotel groups. Together they capture roughly 84 percent of all organic traffic across 36 major players. And here is where it gets interesting. Outside of industry…
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Fewer than 3% of STR searches result in bookings, new data reveals
Upcoming Hospitable and IntelliHost report suggests guests are browsing more listings, comparing more options, and taking longer to commit to stays SAN FRANCISCO, 12 MAY 2026 – New data from short-term rental software provider Hospitable and short-term renal analytics platform IntelliHost suggests hosts and property managers are facing a growing conversion challenge as travelers compare more listings before following through with bookings. The report suggests the challenge for hosts is no longer simply getting discovered.…
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RMS partners with SUNY Niagara to prepare tech-ready hospitality graduates
HITEC, Booth 3634, Texas – 15th June 2026 – RMS, a leading global hospitality technology platform, has partnered with SUNY Niagara’s Hospitality Management Program to provide students with hands-on experience using industry-leading property management technology. As part of the partnership, students studying at the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute (NFCI), a division of SUNY Niagara, will use the RMS platform throughout their Hospitality Management degree, gaining practical experience across key hotel operations including…
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Uneducated
Here’s a revolutionary idea to deliver an excellent hospitality experience with a lean, efficient operation: let’s just not train anyone. Ever. In fact, let’s go further and drop the whole charade of formal education altogether. Primary, secondary, tertiary—pull the plug on the lot. Let’s just sit the staff in a dark room with a high-speed connection and wait for knowledge to arrive via osmosis. Based on the intellectual development of our species to date, this strikes me as highly misguided bullshit with absolutely no…
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eviivo Suite Named “Hotel PMS Platform of the Year” in 2026 TravelTech Breakthrough Awards
Award recognizes eviivo’s all-in-one property management system for helping hoteliers simplify operations, grow revenue and improve guest experience. LONDON, May 6, 2026 – eviivo, the all-in-one property management system (PMS) for hotels, short-term rentals, and other accommodation businesses, has been named “Hotel PMS Platform of the Year” in the 4th annual TravelTech Breakthrough Awards, an award program for the most innovative hospitality technology products. The recognition comes as independent hoteliers face higher…
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Operto launches ‘Predatory OTA’ skill within Marketing AI Agent to help hotels combat brand search hijacking
New capability detects third-party affiliates targeting hotel brand searches and helps recover direct booking demand Vancouver, Canada, 27 April 2026 – Operto today announces the launch of a new ‘Predatory OTA’ skill within its Marketing AI Agent, designed to help hotels identify and reduce lost direct bookings caused by third-party brand hijacking in search. The new capability enables the Marketing Agent to detect when affiliate sites bid on hotel brand names, mimic official listings, and divert guests before they reach the…
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Square Peg. Round Hole.
You often hear people in this industry talking about technology as if we’re just trying to jam a square peg into a square hole. It’s a comforting, albeit lazy, metaphor. The idea is that if you find the “right” widget for the specific gap in your operation, the puzzle is solved and you can get back to the business of beds and bread rolls. But after thirty years in the trenches of hospitality technology, I can tell you that we aren’t dealing with square pegs, and we certainly aren’t working in square holes. We’re standing in a…
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Meta’s New AI Agent Could Turn WhatsApp Into the Hospitality Industry’s Next Booking Channel
For years, the hospitality industry has been experimenting with conversational commerce. Chatbots have appeared on hotel websites, AI concierges have been added to mobile apps, and startups have raised millions promising to let guests book rooms through messaging platforms. The vision has always been compelling: instead of navigating websites, comparing room types, and filling out booking forms, travelers would simply have a conversation. At Meta’s Conversations conference in London, that vision moved significantly closer to…
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Dumb and Dumber
I was listening to a podcast the other day—Stephen Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO—hosting one of the foundational father figures of the AI movement. The conversation took a turn that was both fascinating and deeply unsettling. He suggested that, as a species, we are currently getting a measurable percentage dumber every single day. Why? Because the sheer pace of technical development and the encroaching shadow of the Singularity are essentially offloading the heavy lifting of human existence. It made me pause. If technology is…
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Every Robot was Kung-Fu Fighting!
Come recent news out of Shenzhen this week had me double-checking the calendar to ensure I hadn’t slipped into a Real Steel fever dream. But it’s 2026, and China has officially launched the world’s first commercial humanoid combat league. We’re talking full-blown martial arts—spinning kicks and aerial rotations—all for a 10-kilogram gold belt worth nearly $1.5 million. It’s peak spectacle, part Bloodsport, part high-stakes laboratory. While the crowd cheers for the knockout, the real play here is the “stress test” for…
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RMS Partners with Pride of Britain Hotels to Strengthen UK Luxury Hotel Offering
LONDON, 28 April 2026 – RMS, a leading global hospitality technology platform, has announced a new partnership with Pride of Britain Hotels (PoB Hotels), a curated collection of over 50 of the UK’s finest independent luxury properties. The partnership reflects a shared commitment to supporting independent hotels as they navigate rising guest expectations, operational complexity and increasing competition, while staying true to the individuality that defines them. As luxury travellers prioritise more personalised,…
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Hotels Risk Losing Bookings as Travelers Shift to AI Search
HOUSTON, TX, 23 April, 2026 – Hotels risk losing visibility and potential bookings as traveler search behavior shifts beyond traditional search engines to AI platforms, according to Access Hospitality, the hospitality technology division of The Access Group. Travelers are no longer relying on traditional search engines alone to discover and compare places to stay. Deloitte’s 2026 Travel Industry Outlook cited nearly a quarter of travelers using Gen AI tools for trip planning in late 2025 – thrice as many as in 2022. With AI…
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Enterprise AI Is Scaling Fast Hotels Are Still Catching Up
The most honest way to describe where enterprise AI stands today is this: it is no longer experimental, but it is not yet simple. What is emerging is not a clean transition, but a messy, deeply operational shift that touches everything from budgeting to org structure to infrastructure. In a recent series of conversations with IT and AI leaders across banking, media, retail, healthcare, consulting, tech, and sports, Aaron Levie CEO of Box.com captured this transition with great clarity. His observations read less like hype and…
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Shiji releases 2026/27 Hotel Distribution Technology Chart: From Channels to Discoverability and “Bookable Everywhere”
New edition highlights the rise of AI discovery, map-based commerce, conversational booking, and the growing importance of structured hotel data. BARCELONA, Spain, 10th June – Shiji, the global leader in hospitality technology, today announced the release of its 2026 Hotel Distribution Technology Chart, offering hoteliers a visual guide to the rapidly evolving distribution ecosystem as the industry shifts from traditional channels toward AI-powered discoverability and “bookable everywhere” commerce. Now in its eleventh year,…
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IDeaS and Hotel Insider Announce Rate Shopping Integration Partnership
Competitive rate intelligence with deep local expertise integrated into revenue workflows to support faster, more confident commercial decisions ATHENS —29 April 2026— IDeaS, a SAS company and the world’s leading provider of AI-powered hospitality revenue management software, today announced a technology integration partnership with Hotel Insider, a trusted provider of competitive rate shopping insights known for its deep market intelligence and widely used by hotels across Greek and Mediterranean leisure markets. The…
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Sadio Mané’s Next Transfer Could Help Solve Overtourism
When successful athletes invest in hospitality, the pattern is usually predictable. Luxury villas in Dubai, boutique resorts in Miami, branded residences on the Mediterranean coast. The logic is straightforward: invest where tourism demand already exists, where the customer base is proven, and where luxury real estate has a long track record of delivering returns. That is what makes Sadio Mané’s latest project so interesting. The former Liverpool and Bayern Munich star has acquired the former Hôtel des Finances in Bourges, a…
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Pass the Keys expands into Chester and the Wirral with a new holiday-let property management franchise
Chester, 27 April, 2026 — Pass the Keys has launched a new Chester and the Wirral franchise, expanding its professional short-term rental management services in the region and marking a significant investment in the local holiday let market. The new operation is led by Sarah Cadwaladr, an experienced franchise operator and hospitality professional with more than a decade of business management experience. Cadwaladr joins Pass the Keys following a decade running a separate franchise, successfully growing a children’s swimming…
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eviivo integrates Mr & Mrs Smith to support curated distribution for boutique and luxury hotels
LONDON, 20 May, 2026 – eviivo, the all-in-one property management system (PMS) for independent hotels and vacation rentals, has added a channel integration with Mr & Mrs Smith, enabling properties in the curated travel club’s collection to manage availability, rates and reservations directly through eviivo. The integration allows eligible Mr & Mrs Smith properties using eviivo’s Channel Manager and property management platform to synchronise rates and availability in real time, with bookings automatically imported into…
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Hotels Lose Up to 2% of OTA Revenue Monthly. RobosizeME’s New Automation Addresses That Leakage
Enhanced OTA VCC reconciliation automation, now available on RobosizeME’s new website, enables hotel groups to identify and recover lost revenue daily. Wilmington, Delaware – RobosizeME, a leading provider of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions tailored to hotels groups, has launched an enhanced version of its widely adopted automation, Reconciliation of OTA Virtual Credit Card Balances, designed to help hotels identify and recover revenue lost through discrepancies in OTA VCC payments. With industry data indicating that…
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The Way We Were
In my mind I am hearing Barbara Streisand sing that classic lament. “What’s to painful to remember, We simply choose to forget”. I’m standing in a hotel lobby—after dragging my own bag through the revolving door—pondering that age-old industry cliché: “Your home away from home.” It’s a lovely sentiment, isn’t it? It conjures images of comfort, ease, and a place where your burdens are lifted. But looking around the modern hotel landscape, I have to ask: have we evicted the “home” and just left the bill? Cast your mind back.…
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Entertaining marketing
Most hospitality marketing still operates on a simple assumption. If the product is good and the message is clear, demand will follow. Entertain or Die 3.0 challenges that assumption head-on. This report argues that attention, not clarity, is now the primary constraint. And attention is no longer earned through information. It is earned through entertainment. Here are five key takeaways that matter directly for hotel brands and hotel tech companies. 1. Most marketing is not just ineffective. It is invisible. The report…
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No, Luxury Is Not Dying
At a conference this week a familiar narrative making the rounds again. Luxury is dying. People do not want things anymore. They want experiences, purpose, sustainability. It sounds good. It feels right. It is also, at least in its strongest form, not supported by what people actually do when money is on the table. If the shift were as dramatic as some claim, we would not see waitlists stretching months or years for high-end watches. We would not see handbags priced at 40,000 euros quietly disappear from inventory. We would…
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Luxury U.S. Hotel Group Increases Monthly Time Savings To More Than 3,000 Hours With RobosizeME Automation
Hospitality operator exceeds original 600 hour savings target by five times through finance and operational workflow automation Wilmington, Delaware – RobosizeME, a leading provider of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions tailored to hotel groups, today announced that a luxury-focused U.S. hotel group has surpassed 3,000 hours saved per month through an ongoing hospitality automation initiative, significantly exceeding the organization’s original goal of saving 600 monthly operational hours. The hotel group, which…
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Shiji sets new benchmark with 100+ hotel PMS rollout for a single group completed in two months
Complex multi-property rollout demonstrates Shiji’s capability to execute high-volume PMS deployments without operational disruption Berlin, Germany, May 21, 2026 – Shiji, the global leader in hospitality technology, today announced the successful completion of a 100+ property management system (PMS) rollout across in a two-month record. The project demonstrates the strength and maturity of Shiji’s cloud-based Daylight PMS as an enterprise solution capable of supporting complex, multi-property environments and high-volume…
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Two typical marketing errors
There is a pattern I keep seeing in founder and executive teams: Marketing gets switched on, budget gets deployed, a campaign goes live, invoices come in and the anxiety kicks in. Is this our ICP? Why are we paying this much per click? Can you prove that the leads come from marketing? We need to pause this until analyzed. It seems rational but it often kills growth before it has even started. There are two first-principles of marketing concepts in marketing that are consistently misunderstood, even by experienced managers. 1.…
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The PMS Wars and AI
I read The PMS Era Is Ending a few days ago and it raised good points, especially around how slow PMS innovation has been historically, I believe this problem alone has been one of the biggest issues in hotel tech innovation over the last three decades. But, I do not think the PMS era is ending. One of the recurring problems in technology is that everyone tends to see the industry from the center of their own world. Distribution people believe distribution is the heart of hotel tech. Marketing agencies see the fight against…
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Journey selected as preferred digital provider for The Leading Hotels of the World
CHELTENHAM, 7 May, 2026 – Journey, the market leader in hotel retailing and the hospitality industry’s first unified Hospitality Performance Platform, has been appointed by The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) as a preferred provider of digital marketing, website, and gift voucher solutions within its Leading Strategic Sourcing (LSS) program. LHW is the largest collection of independent luxury hotels, with over 425 properties in over 80 countries. Through its LSS program, run in collaboration with DayBlink GPO, member hotels…
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Holiday rental site, Simply Owners, celebrates a decade connecting owners directly with holidaymakers
Mansfield, UK, 9 June 2026 — Simply Owners, which offers over 6,000 holiday rentals in the UK and abroad with no booking fees, is celebrating 10 years in business. Founded by Tim Parkes in 2016, Simply Owners was created to give holiday rental owners an alternative to online travel agencies (OTAs), allowing them to build direct relationships with guests while retaining control over pricing, communication, and revenue. Over the past decade, the platform has grown into a trusted marketplace for independent owners and…
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Influence Society Brings Hospitality Leaders Together for New York Summer Rooftop Mixer
Hosted in partnership with EPIC and PRIMA, the June 30 event at PUBLIC Hotel ROOF will gather hospitality executives, marketers, creatives, and industry partners for an evening of curated networking in Manhattan. PARIS, France, June 9, 2026 – Influence Society, a leading digital marketing agency serving high-end hospitality brands, today announced its Summer Rooftop Mixer, an exclusive hospitality networking event taking place on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM at PUBLIC Hotel ROOF in New York City. Hosted in…
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Bob W to open design-led aparthotel in Stuttgart’s historic Bad Cannstatt district
Stuttgart, 3rd June 2026 – Bob W, the award-winning AI – and tech-powered hospitality operator, has announced plans to open a new 136-unit aparthotel in Stuttgart’s historic Bad Cannstatt district, bringing its signature blend of technology, design and local storytelling to one of Germany’s most significant cultural neighbourhoods. Scheduled to open in 2027, the new property will occupy a site spanning more than 3,000 square metres and is built on the location of a former World War II bunker. The development will feature 136…
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The Rise of “Fakefographics.”
I’ve spent thousands of hours over the years researching and building market maps and industry infographics. Done well, they’re incredibly valuable. They simplify complex markets. They help buyers understand categories. They spark healthy debate. They are never perfect, and they always generate comments like “you missed us” or “that company belongs somewhere else.” That’s part of the process. Judgment is involved. Lately, though, LinkedIn has been flooded with AI-generated market maps and infographics. They look fantastic.…
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Fake Advice
Let’s clear the air on a job title that’s been abused more than a hotel buffet at breakfast. “Consultant.” It looks serious on a business card, doesn’t it? Implies wisdom, experience, and, crucially, independence. But in our industry, the term has become a convenient trojan horse for what is often just a slightly more sophisticated form of peddling. Here’s the cold, hard truth: Are you a consultant? Or are you a salesperson in disguise? Because the distinction isn’t just semantic; it’s ethical. If you offer advice, strategy,…
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What Happens When One Developer Rebuilds an OTA with AI?
For years, building a hotel booking platform required large teams, significant investment, complex supplier agreements, and years of engineering work. Today, a single developer with AI tools can launch something that looks remarkably close to an online travel agency in a matter of weeks. That is exactly what entrepreneur and developer Pieter Levels, better known online as @levelsio, has been experimenting with through Hotelist, an AI-powered hotel discovery platform that aims to rank hotels based on traveler sentiment rather…
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Influence Society Launches AI Studio to Scale Premium Content Production for Luxury Hospitality Brands
New AI-powered creative hub blends generative technology with luxury brand standards to accelerate marketing output without compromising quality PARIS, 27 April, 2026 – Influence Society, a leading digital marketing agency serving high-end hospitality brands, has announced the launch of its AI Studio, a next-generation creative hub designed to help luxury hospitality brands produce high-quality marketing content at scale. Positioned as a strategic complement to traditional photo and video shoots, AI Studio combines generative…
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RobosizeME Unveils Its Automation Center, Bringing Performance Tracking and ROI Forecasting to Hotel Groups
New Automation Center gives operators a single interface to monitor live workflow activity, access run histories, and model cost savings before deployment Wilmington, Delaware, May 5, 2026 – RobosizeME, a leading provider of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions tailored to the global hotel industry, is making its Automation Center available, a platform designed to give hotel operators full visibility into the performance and impact of their automated workflows. Combining real-time monitoring with pre-deployment ROI…
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Casago Expands Idaho Presence with New Locally Led Franchise in McCall and Boise
BOISE and McCALL, Idaho — 16 April 2026 — Casago, a premier franchise-based vacation rental management company, has expanded its Idaho presence with a new locally owned and operated franchise serving McCall and the greater Boise area, led by Idaho residents Alex and Susan Pedigo. The launch marks the continued rollout of Casago’s franchise-first model following its 2025 acquisition of Vacasa, converting markets into locally owned and operated businesses. Under this structure, local franchise owners lead operations on the…
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