The AI information gap and the CIO’s mandate for transparency

This cio.com article argues that by 2026, B2B buyers have become more skeptical and discerning about AI, shifting their focus from flashy capabilities to transparency, governance, and trust. Buyers now expect vendors to clearly explain how AI systems work, what data they use, how privacy and security are protected, and what safeguards are in place. Because many vendors are unprepared to answer these questions, trust is eroding and deals are slowing. The author contends that CIOs must lead a cross-functional effort to close this AI information gap by aligning product, sales, marketing, legal, compliance, and support around a consistent, truthful, and transparent AI narrative that helps customers evaluate risk and build confidence. 3 key takeaways: AI trust matters more than AI hype. Buyers are no longer impressed by buzzwords alone; they want proof, clarity, and accountability. Transparency is now a sales advantage. Vendors that openly explain their models, data practices, and guardrails are more likely to earn trust and win deals. CIOs need to lead the response. They are best positioned to coordinate company-wide AI messaging, documentation, and governance so every customer-facing team can answer tough questions consistently.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) today mourns the passing of Kirk Kinsell, former CEO of Loews Hotels & Co. and President of the Americas for IHG Hotels & Resorts. A respected industry leader, Kinsell was also a dedicated champion of AHLA and the AHLA Foundation. Kirk brought an unmistakable presence to AHLA and the AHLA Foundation and an even bigger heart. He was a friend and trusted advisor, always eager to share an insight, an anecdote, or a lesson about our industry. Kirk loved the hotel business passionately. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him closely years ago on several AHLA and AHLA Foundation initiatives and saw firsthand his commitment to supporting young people preparing for careers in hotels. I will miss his guidance and his big, hearty laugh, and love of life, but I’m so grateful for the legacy he left us all AHLA President & CEO Rosanna Maietta I had the pleasure of first meeting Kirk in his role as President of Loews Hotels during my time with American Express, and it was immediately clear that he was both an exceptional business leader and someone committed to giving back to the industry. I reconnected with Kirk when I joined AHLA and was thrilled to work closely with him and Peggy Berg to merge the Castell Project with AHLA, building an even stronger FORWARD initiative. Whether leading one of the largest hotels brands in the world, raising funds to propel the mission of the AHLA Foundation, or leaning in to advance the representation of women in industry leadership roles, Kirk made a lasting impact. At the AHLA Foundation, we are committed to carrying on Kirks's legacy of creating opportunity and access to advance the people of the industry Kevin Carey, AHLA Foundation President & CEO and AHLA Chief Operating Officer of AHLA At points in his career, Kinsell served in leadership roles on the AHLA Board of Directors and the AHLA Foundation Board of Trustees. His leadership and contributions to both organizations and to the hospitality industry at large will be felt for decades to come.

The message from this year’s International Hotel Investment Forum was of an industry of two parts. On one side a resilient, fast-growing leisure segment driven by affluent consumers. On the other, a more uncertain landscape of urban and corporate demand, increasingly exposed to geopolitical shifts and changing travel patterns. Leisure assets, particularly resorts and destination properties, are now at the centre of capital allocation strategies. The logic is straightforward: wealthier travellers are travelling more frequently and proving less sensitive to macroeconomic volatility, which is being reflected in average daily rates at luxury properties continuing to outperform. Yet the enthusiasm is not without caveats. Seasonality remains an inherent risk, while certain urban markets are showing signs of softening, particularly this reliant on Middle Eastern demand. Even standout performers such as Italy carry a degree of fragility, given their reliance on US travellers. If leisure is the demand story, scale is the capital story. Across private equity and institutional investors, the shift away from single-asset deals toward platform strategies is now well established. Large investors are seeking aggregation: portfolios, branded collections and operating platforms that offer both efficiencies and clearer exit routes. Geographically, capital is converging on a familiar map. Southern Europe has emerged as the industry’s core investment focus. The appeal is both practical and structural: strong leisure fundamentals, global brand recognition and a depth of repositioning opportunities. Portugal in particular, has gained prominence as a market combining growth potential with relative accessibility. France remains desirable but difficult to penetrate, while Eastern Europe continues to represent a strong secondary market. Rising construction costs and increasingly complex repositioning requirements are forcing investors to reassess underwriting assumptions. Deals are still being done, but with greater scrutiny on the true cost of transformation. In this environment, renovation is favoured over ground-up development, offering a more controlled path to value creation. This pressure is also exposing a structural weakness: the industry’s limited supply of independent, high-quality asset management. Investors, lenders and advisors alike point to a gap between ownership objectives and operational execution, particularly in the luxury segment, where performance differentials can be significant. At the same time, the traditional boundaries of the hotel model are shifting. Brand strategies are fragmenting, with operators expanding into softer, more flexible concepts and investors showing increased willingness to adopt white-label approaches. Boutique and ultra-luxury positioning continues to gain ground, often at the expense of standardised mid-market offerings. Parallel to this, branded residential has moved from peripheral feature to central pillar. By integrating residences into developments, investors can unlock upfront capital, reduce project risk and extend brand reach beyond the hotel stay. The model is no longer experimental; it is becoming standard practice. Even so, not all sources of capital are moving in lockstep. Middle Eastern investment remains significant but is showing signs of caution. Geopolitical tensions are beginning to affect both development timelines and outbound travel flows, with knock-on effects for European markets that had come to rely on this demand. Leisure demand is reshaping performance expectations. Platform

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY The CEE hotel investment market demonstrated significant growth in 2025, with investment volumes increasing by 170% year-on-year. This growth was primarily driven by heightened activity in the Czech Republic, followed by Hungary. Most hotel transactions in the region involved Upper Upscale assets, followed by Upscale properties. The positive momentum is expected to continue into 2026, with several deals already completed and others in various stages of the disposition process. PRIME YIELDS Throughout 2025, prime yields in the Prague, Budapest and Bucharest hotel markets experienced some compression. The hotel market of the rest of the CEE-6 capitals (Warsaw, Bratislava, Sofia) remained relatively stable, although prime assets in top-tier locations benefitted from some yield tightening. Factors such as stabilising inflation, improved access to financing, and increased capital inflows suggest the potential for further yield compression as we transition into 2026. SUPPLY In H2 2025, 8 hotels and serviced apartments with 761 rooms opened across the CEE-6 capitals. These include branded properties such as the Movenpick Budapest, as well as the addition of 101 newly renovated rooms at the Radisson Blu Hotel Bucharest. Openings reflected a strong focus on the Upper Upscale and Upscale segments. In 2025, room supply in the region increased by 2.7% year-on-year, primarily due to developments in Warsaw (+5.5%), Budapest (+2.8%), and Prague (+2.2%). This trend is expected to continue in 2026, with Warsaw leading the way. PERFORMANCE The region recorded an 8.9% year‑on‑year increase in RevPAR in 2025, supported by a 4.6% uplift in ADR and a 2.7pp. rise in occupancy. The growth was particularly notable in Bulgaria and Romania, both achieving double‑digit RevPAR gains. At the city level, Bucharest (12.0%), Warsaw (9.1%) and Prague (8.3%) posted the strongest RevPAR growth in 2025, while Prague and Budapest ranked as the highest‑performing markets in terms of nominal RevPAR.

OVERVIEW The sample of over two thousand European hotels in the HotStats database recorded a moderate increase in profit during the 12-month period ending in December 2025. The GOP per available room (GOP PAR) rose by 2.1% YoY, reaching €69.3, supported by total revenue growth of €6.1 (+3.3%), despite operating expenses also increasing by €4.7 (+3.9%). Rooms department performance improved as RevPAR grew by €4.2 (+3.1%) to €139.7, driven by a 2.0% rise in occupancy to 72.9% and a 1.1% increase in ADR to €191.6. F&B revenue grew by €1.7 (+3.8%), reaching €45.6 PAR. Total expenses increased by €4.7 PAR (+3.9% YoY), primarily led by Payroll at €60.5 PAR (+5.7%) and supported by Other Expenses at €43.3 POR (+1.9%). All months in 2025 recorded higher occupancy levels compared to 2024. The most significant gains were in winter months, led by January and February (+3.1%) and followed by December (+2.9%). Overall, the nominal growth in total revenues exceeded the increase in expenses, resulting in a GOP flow through of 23.5%. Nominal GOP reached €69.3 in 2025, representing a 35.7% margin (-0.4pp). In Q4 2025 the selected hotels achieved a GOP of €67.6 PAR (+€4.6 YoY), driven by €9.5 increase in total revenues. This was partially offset by €4.9 growth of total expenses with payroll costs showing the largest increase among expense lines, rising to €61.2 PAR (+€3.1). London leads the GOP levels reaching €155 PAR during the period, followed by Paris (€141) and Edinburgh (€128). Meanwhile, Milan and Warsaw leads in terms of GOP PAR growth (+8.6% and +7.7%, respectively), ahead of Lisbon (+3.4%) and Prague (+3.1%). The highest profitability was achieved in London (46.8%), followed by Prague (45.5%), Edinburgh (45.4%), Lisbon (45.3%) and Barcelona (43.6%). HOTEL SUPPLY IN 2025 & OUTLOOK 2026 Strong performance growth in recent years, combined with rising interest from real estate investors, has helped revive hotel development activity across Europe despite elevated construction costs. Nevertheless, the pipeline remains relatively modest across most key European markets, with many developments still several years from completion. Recent data indicate that although more hotels are in the pipeline, around half of the rooms expected to open over the next two years remain in the planning stage, with many projects delayed or on hold. In major cities, hotel supply growth is expected to remain steady but moderate, rising from around 2% in 2025 to 3% in 2026. In 2025, Brussels led the supply growth (+6.1%), followed by Lisbon and Warsaw (+3.2%). On the other hand, two of the selected markets, namely Amsterdam and Barcelona grew less than 1% in 2025. The cities that will see the highest growth in supply by the end of 2026 are Lisbon, Budapest and Dublin. Meanwhile, space and cost limitations will put pressure on supply growth for cities like Paris, Amsterdam and Prague. Luxury hotels continue to lead the way and are expected to record the strongest growth in 2026 (+4.5%). This trend is likely to support ADR growth on the long term and drive leisure

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The intelligence shift creates operational advantage for properties that centralize data architecture while competitors remain fragmented across disconnected systems. Patel Family Office launched $1B Saudi Arabia platform targeting 50 hotels by 2029, and study finds 47,300 monthly TikTok searches for London hotels alongside 74,000 Google queries. Viewpoint: Is Traditional Search Marketing Still Relevant? Recent LinkedIn posts declared the end of traditional search engines, with some proclaiming search dead as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity reshape discovery. Some experts herald the end of Google's monopoly and claim search marketing is becoming obsolete. Others argue rumors about traditional search engines dying at the hands of AI Search are highly exaggerated. The question facing hoteliers: is traditional search marketing becoming irrelevant, and should properties continue investing in it? The answer determines marketing budget allocation between legacy SEO infrastructure and emerging AI platform optimization. Properties that maintain dual strategies hedge against platform volatility while capturing traffic across both traditional and conversational search. Those that abandon traditional search entirely risk losing visibility among travelers who still use Google while betting entirely on AI platforms that haven't yet proven conversion rates match legacy channels. Join the discussion → AI Shifts Data Collection From Reports to Predictive Intelligence AI transforms hotel data collection from reactive reporting to predictive intelligence systems that unify fragmented platforms to anticipate guest needs and optimize revenue in real-time. Hotels operating disconnected systems across PMS, CRM, revenue management, and marketing platforms lack unified guest intelligence required for AI-powered personalization. The architectural shift creates competitive advantage for properties that centralize data infrastructure. Traditional systems generated reports showing what happened last week or last month, requiring manual analysis to identify patterns and inform decisions with significant lag time. AI-powered platforms analyze real-time data streams across all touchpoints, identifying patterns humans miss and predicting future behavior before guests articulate needs. Properties can adjust pricing dynamically based on emerging demand signals, personalize offers matching individual preferences detected across past interactions, and allocate resources anticipating service bottlenecks before they materialize. Hotels maintaining siloed data architecture cannot leverage AI capabilities regardless of technology investment, as algorithms require complete guest context to generate actionable intelligence. Read the analysis → Hotels Risk Losing Visibility as Search Fragments Across Platforms Study finds 47,300 monthly TikTok searches and 28,100 Perplexity searches for "hotels in London" alongside 74,000 Google searches, revealing fragmentation requiring new optimization strategies. Hotels built SEO infrastructure assuming Google monopoly on travel discovery, leaving properties invisible across emerging platforms capturing significant search volume. The platform proliferation exposes strategic risk in concentrated search optimization. Properties investing exclusively in Google visibility miss travelers discovering hotels through TikTok videos, Perplexity AI answers, ChatGPT recommendations, and social platforms that didn't exist in traditional search strategies. Each platform requires different content formats and optimization approaches: TikTok favors authentic video showcasing property experience, Perplexity responds to structured data enabling AI comprehension, ChatGPT needs direct booking integration for conversational commerce. Hotels lacking resources to optimize across all platforms face difficult allocation decisions, choosing which discovery channels to prioritize while

Your hotel’s performance and success are invariably tied to the context of its destination. By tapping into local organizations, cultural events, and neighborhood experiences, you can inspire and amplify your marketing strategy and create offerings that resonate with travelers. Listed below are some ways to leverage your destination resources effectively and in ways that still differentiate you from your competitors. Start with CVB, DMC, and BID Resources Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVBs), Destination Management Companies (DMCs), and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are invaluable partners. While CVBs focus on citywide tourism and major events, DMCs specialize in curated experiences for groups, and BIDs promote local businesses within defined neighborhoods. Each of these resources offer unique opportunities to drive demand. Convention & Visitors Bureau Take New York City Tourism & Conventions as an example. The CVB runs programs like NYC Hotel Week, which aligns with its Restaurant Week and Broadway Week promotions. These coordinated campaigns position the city as a desirable destination during the slower winter months after the holidays and allow hotels to ride the wave of demand generated by dining and theater promotions. CVBs also often organize FAM trips for journalists and niche travel groups, giving hotels the chance to host key opinion leaders and showcase their property to targeted markets. Last but not least, CVBs host tradeshows in feeder markets that member hotels can register for, affording your sales team an opportunity to market offerings directly with event planners and group bookers. Destination Management Company Destination Management Companies (DMCs) are invaluable partners when it comes to creating seamless, memorable experiences for groups and events. DMCs specialize in customized, on-the-ground logistics and programming tailored to your specific client’s event needs. They act as an extension of your hotel team, handling everything from airport transfers and local transportation to exclusive venue access, themed décor, and curated itineraries that showcase the destination’s best offerings. For example, Cohera (formerly Destination Group 360) works often with our team at Conrad New York Downtown to design immersive experiences for corporate meetings and incentive groups. By partnering with a DMC, your hotel can offer clients turnkey solutions that go beyond accommodations, such as private museum tours, chef-led culinary classes, or sunset cruises paired with branded amenities. These enhancements not only elevate the guest experience but also position your property as a full-service destination expert, capable of delivering convenience and creativity at scale. Business Improvement District Your local Business Improvement District is another powerful ally. BIDs exist to promote economic vitality within a defined neighborhood, which means they regularly organize events, campaigns, and activations that attract both residents and visitors. By engaging with your BID, you gain access to a network of local businesses, marketing channels, and collaborative opportunities that can amplify your hotel’s visibility. For instance, The Alliance for Downtown New York hosts an annual food festival spotlighting neighborhood restaurants. Our hotel restaurant participates, and we amplify our involvement by sponsoring a social media giveaway for a free night’s stay, driving additional awareness for both the

A U.S. investment firm has teamed up with a Saudi Arabian industrial conglomerate to invest $1 billion into the region’s business hotels. A statement from Patel Family Office and Saudi…