10minhotel.com

In hospitality, the most memorable expressions of local culture are often found in unexpected places. While architecture, interiors, and culinary experiences are commonly used to communicate a destination's identity, some of the most frequently handled objects within a hotel remain largely overlooked. The hotel key card, for example, is one of the first items guests receive and one of the few they interact with repeatedly throughout their stay. Yet despite its ubiquity, it is typically treated as a purely functional object. A growing number of hospitality brands are seeking ways to create deeper connections between guests and the places they visit. This shift reflects a broader movement within the industry: from standardized experiences toward a stronger sense of place. As travelers increasingly value authenticity, cultural immersion, and meaningful storytelling, every touchpoint is an opportunity to communicate local identity. This is where traditional craftsmanship offers unique possibilities. Embroidery, one of humanity's oldest textile arts, has long served as a repository of cultural memory. Across regions and generations, embroidered motifs have recorded histories, beliefs, social customs, livelihoods, and relationships. Unlike written archives, embroidery communicates through pattern, texture, color, and symbolism, carrying narratives that are both deeply personal and collectively shared. Translating this heritage into hospitality design presents an intriguing challenge. Rather than simply applying embroidered motifs onto a conventional card, GCSTIMES textile-based key cards reimagines the object itself. The entire card is a piece of structured, tactile needlework, integrating contemporary access technology through a discreetly embedded chip. This distinction is important. By allowing guests to physically engage with texture, craftsmanship, and materiality, the key card becomes more than a tool for room access. It is a small but meaningful encounter with local culture. Consider a design inspired by maritime heritage, incorporating symbols such as dolphins, pearls, and mother-of-pearl. These motifs can reflect centuries of connection between coastal communities and the sea, evoking stories of livelihood, trade, and cultural identity. Alternatively, patterns derived from traditional costume conveys regional aesthetics, ceremonial traditions, and social histories that have been preserved through generations of artisans. For hotels committed to celebrating local identity, such approaches offer opportunities that extend beyond branding. Custom-designed, embroidery-based key cards can be developed around regional crafts, indigenous motifs, architectural details, or cultural symbols unique to a destination. In doing so, they help reinforce a property's narrative while creating a more distinctive guest experience.

[Amsterdam, 4 June 2026] - Mews, the hospitality operating system, shared findings from a live audience poll held during Mews Unfold 2026, the company's annual hospitality forum. The event brought together more than 750 hoteliers, operators and industry leaders in Amsterdam. Mews polled attendees throughout the day and their answers show how a room of industry experts sees the forces reshaping hospitality: the role of new technology, the place of AI in a people-first business, and the move from fragmented software to connected systems. Appetite for new technology is high. 80% of respondents said they are excited about the role new technologies will play in hospitality. The finding matches Mews' wider hotelier research, in which 92% said they were optimistic about AI in hospitality. 1 That enthusiasm reflects a wider change in what hoteliers expect technology to do. The conversation on stage returned to a single idea: hotels sell the whole trip, not only the room. Guests book an experience and a moment, and the room is one part of it. The opportunity is to serve more of that trip, through new services and partnerships that meet guests where their expectations already sit. Mews' new partnership with Uber brings ride booking inside the operating system. The trip to and from the property becomes part of the stay, not a separate transaction outside the hotel. Food and beverage, local experiences, transport and wellness are all revenue that leaves through the door today. For hoteliers, the wider experience is where the growth sits. Most believe technology will make hospitality more human. At the start of the day, 60% of attendees felt that new technology would make hospitality more human. By the close, that figure rose to 80%. The change across a single day of talks, presentations and workshops is clear, and it reframes one of the industry's oldest worries. Many fear that technology erodes the human core of hospitality. The case made at Unfold was the opposite. AI is now hard to avoid, and doing it well is the real test. Technology providers need the right architecture, clean data and sound processes, not more systems stacked on top of one another. Hotels need their data in order and a clear view of where AI helps. Staff need the willingness to change and experiment. Roles will not disappear, but they will change. The front desk agent becomes a host, the revenue manager becomes a strategist. Hoteliers are moving from fragmented tools toward connected systems. At the start of the day, just over half of attendees (51%) said that having all their tools work together mattered more than assembling best-of-breed point solutions. After Mews introduced the Mews Operating System, 83% said the operating system strategy was the right fit for their business. The two questions are not a direct comparison, but the movement points to a real change in mindset over the day. That change sits at the heart of what Unfold set out to argue: For forty years, hotel software has run on

The same week that IHG launched a ChatGPT booking app across its global estate, Hilton published research showing that what hotel workers actually want is better human leadership. China's travel and tourism economy hit $1.8 trillion last year and is heading for $3.5 trillion by 2036. And Meliá quietly exited 15 Cuban hotels, citing conditions that had made operations untenable. It was a week that kept complicating any simple narrative about where hospitality is heading. Viewpoint: The Best Sustainability Resources in the Age of AI The World Panel turns to a practical question: as AI reshapes how information is found and synthesised, which sustainability resources are actually worth using? The viewpoint invites industry voices to identify the tools, frameworks, and sources they rely on, cutting through the noise at a moment when sustainability content is proliferating faster than most operators can track. Share your take → Hilton: Human Leadership Still Beats Technology for Staff Engagement Hilton's 2026 Trends Report, drawing on Ipsos and Morning Consult surveys of over 2,000 U.S. workers, finds that human-centred leadership, mentorship, and sense of purpose outrank perks and technology as drivers of engagement and retention. The finding lands in the same week that three EHL HumanX interviews made the same argument from the operator side. It is the closest thing to a consensus the industry produced this week. For hotel operators building business cases for technology investment, the implication is not that AI is wrong but that it does not substitute for the management fundamentals that keep people in their jobs. IHG Launches ChatGPT Booking Across 7,000+ Hotels IHG deployed a ChatGPT-powered app enabling natural language search across its full estate with real-time pricing and availability. Conversational AI search will also be added to IHG.com and the One Rewards app. It is one of the most significant AI-to-distribution moves by a major brand this year, and it lands directly in the context of this week's discussion about where hotel bookings will actually be completed. The practical question is whether IHG's integration routes guests through its own direct channel or feeds a ChatGPT interface that could eventually surface OTA results alongside branded ones. The architecture matters more than the announcement. China's Travel Economy Is Heading for $3.5 Trillion WTTC's 2026 Economic Impact Research shows China's travel and tourism sector grew 9.9% to $1.8 trillion in 2025 , with 68 million international arrivals. WTTC projects the sector doubling to $3.5 trillion by 2036, putting China on course to become the world's largest travel economy. For brands and developers with Asia Pacific exposure, the scale of outbound and inbound demand growth in China is the single most important long-term number in the industry. EHL HumanX: The Brain as Core Business Infrastructure The fourth HN interview from EHL HumanX is the most unusual of the series. Transform8 founder Maria Haggo argues that the brain is core business infrastructure , and that guest experience improves measurably when staff are helped to regulate their own nervous systems and feel safe to

Lotte Hotels & Resorts , the global hospitality arm of South Korea's Lotte Corporation, and Highgate , the largest owner and operator of hotels in New York City and one of the world's leading hospitality investment and management platforms, today jointly announced a strategic partnership that will see Highgate assume management of the iconic Lotte New York Palace Hotel , the 909-room luxury hotel at 455 Madison Avenue. The Palace engagement, which takes effect in June 2026, anchors a broad collaboration between the two companies spanning hotel management, distribution, technology, and talent development across the Americas and Asia. The Palace will continue to operate under the Lotte New York Palace flag, with Lotte retaining full ownership of the asset. Highgate will assume day-to-day operations, revenue management, sales, marketing, and labor relations functions effective June 2026, with on-property transition activity already underway. A Landmark with More Than a Century of New York History Few addresses in Manhattan carry the historical weight of the Palace. The property is anchored by the landmarked Villard Houses, the brownstone complex commissioned in 1882 by railroad financier Henry Villard and designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. The 55-story modern tower, opened in 1981 as New York City's first true modern luxury hotel, established the property as a leading destination for heads of state, business leaders, and cultural figures — a position it has held for more than four decades. Lotte Hotels & Resorts acquired the hotel in 2015 — its first North American investment — and rebranded the property as Lotte New York Palace Hotel. More recently, Lotte purchased the underlying land from the Archdiocese of New York, consolidating fee ownership of one of the most prominent addresses in Midtown Manhattan and signaling its long-term commitment to the asset. The hotel sits directly across Madison Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral and steps from Rockefeller Center, and its Madison Avenue Courtyard and Gold Room remain among the most recognizable hotel interiors in the city. Highgate's New York Footprint Highgate is the largest hotel owner and operator in New York City, with a portfolio that spans full-service luxury, lifestyle, and select-service assets. Recent additions to Highgate's New York platform reflect both the firm's scale and the breadth of its operating capability across every tier of the market. Highgate has relaunched The Row Hotel on Eighth Avenue, acquired and now operates the InterContinental New York Times Square, partnered with the legendary Ian Schrager on the iconic Public Hotel, and taken over operations of the Courtyard Hotel on Third Avenue. Few hospitality companies operate at this combination of concentration, range, and brand sophistication in any single market in the world. The addition of Lotte New York Palace Hotel gives Highgate one of the most significant single-asset luxury operating assignments in the city and deepens its leadership position in the Manhattan luxury and group-driven segments. The property's union workforce, scale, and meeting and event infrastructure align directly with Highgate's core operating expertise in the New

HBX Group ( HBX.SM ), a leading B2B travel technology marketplace, has received the Queer Destinations Committed distinction , recognising its efforts to make travel more inclusive through awareness, education and service standards across its teams and partner network. The announcement coincides with Pride Month, a moment that highlights the importance of visibility, understanding, and collective action for the LGBTQ+ community. To achieve this distinction, HBX Group rolled out a dedicated employee training programme focused on building awareness and understanding of LGBTQ+ inclusion, as well as on how to embed these principles into the services provided to customers and partners. Participation reached close to 90 percent, a strong reflection of the engagement and commitment shown across the organisation. The Queer Destinations Committed programme recognises destinations and organisations that actively champion safe, respectful and trusted environments for LGBTQ+ individuals, whether they are travellers or part of the workforce, while ensuring teams have the knowledge and sensitivity needed to deliver those standards consistently. This milestone reflects the progress we are making in embedding inclusion into the way we work, collaborate and support our partners across the travel ecosystem. It speaks to a shared belief that more inclusive travel starts with awareness, education and everyday actions across the entire value chain Elena Pérez, Chief People & ESG Officer at HBX Group This distinction also marks a natural next step in HBX Group’s strategic alliance with Queer Destinations, which launched in September 2025 . Earlier this year, HBX Group and Queer Destinations launched a first-of-its-kind conscious online travel platform (OTA), transforming how LGBTQ+ travellers and residents discover, trust, and spend with businesses and destinations worldwide. Building on the initiatives both organisations have already launched to expand access to conscious travel products, the distinction brings that same vision closer to HBX Group’s teams and partner community, laying the groundwork for future collaboration across the wider travel ecosystem. The future of tourism depends on our ability to understand new generations and adapt to evolving market necessities. Companies and destinations that fail to welcome all types of travellers risk facing reputational challenges that can directly impact their image and credibility. This milestone is not only a step forwards for the industry; it also reinforces HBX Group’s leadership in attracting new markets through a more diverse, inclusive, and forward-thinking vision of tourism. Welcome, HBX Group, to this great family! Edgar Weggelaar, CEO at Queer Destinations In this context, the distinction strengthens HBX Group’s ability to help partners deliver products and services that better reflect what today’s global travellers expect, while contributing to a more responsible and inclusive travel ecosystem.

For branded hotels, the guest experience begins before check-in. It begins the moment a traveler pulls into the parking lot, steps out of the shuttle, walks through the lobby doors, or sees the property for the first time. That arrival moment is a powerful organic social media storytelling opportunity. Many branded hotel websites show the standard exterior image, lobby photo, and room photography. These assets are important, but they often feel polished, static, and similar from one property to another. Organic social media gives the hotel a chance to show what arrival actually feels like in real life. This type of content is easy for on-site teams to capture with a mobile phone. No models are needed. No professional photography is required. The goal is to document the natural guest journey. A branded airport hotel, for example, might show a quick video of the hotel shuttle pulling up, the front entrance at sunrise, a business traveler friendly lobby setup, or a quiet seating area where guests can reset after a long flight. An urban hotel might show the front doors opening to a vibrant downtown location, nearby skyline views, walkable restaurants, or the warm lobby lighting in the evening. The arrival story helps answer an important question for future guests: “What will it feel like when I get there?” Simple content ideas to capture Show the exterior entrance during golden hour or evening lighting. Record a short walk from the front door into the lobby. Capture the front desk team preparing for arrivals. Show lobby seating, coffee service, digital check-in areas, or welcome signage. Record a shuttle, valet area, parking entrance, or airport convenience moment. Show seasonal lobby decor or local destination displays. Easy mobile phone video idea Create a 15 second reel called “Your Stay Starts Here.” Start outside the hotel entrance. Walk through the doors. Show the lobby, front desk, seating area, and one final detail such as a welcome drink, local map, or smiling team member. Keep the video natural. Use steady, slow movement. Add a simple caption that says something like: “From arrival to check-in, we’re ready to welcome you.” Why this matters For branded hotels, the arrival story helps make the property feel real, current, and distinct. It gives guests a sense of place that a brand website may not fully communicate. Organic social media allows the hotel to move beyond standard property facts and show the beginning of the guest experience. It helps travelers imagine themselves arriving, checking in, and feeling comfortable before they even book. That is the power of storytelling.

CHMWarnick (CHMW), the leading hotel asset management and owner advisory services company to the hospitality investment community, today announced the expansion of its proprietary Proph+IT™ business intelligence platform, with the introduction of a new Performance Quadrants Dashboard and Proph+IT™ Select, a purpose-built module designed specifically for select-service hotel portfolios. These enhancements represent the next phase in CHMW's evolution toward a more data-driven, AI-enabled asset management and advisory model, combining four decades of operating experience with advanced analytical capabilities to support more informed investment decisions. Asset management requires speed, precision, and the ability to identify performance opportunities across a portfolio in real-time. Our continued investment in Proph+IT™ reflects our focus on equipping owners with the tools and insights needed to drive stronger performance, optimize returns, and make informed strategic decisions Chad Sorensen, CEO, CHMWarnick The new Performance Quadrants Dashboard provides a portfolio-wide visualization of asset performance by plotting every property in a portfolio across two key performance metrics, Revenue and GOP margin. This approach enables owners, asset managers, and lenders to quickly identify overperformers, underperformers, and outliers across mixed-brand, mixed-tier portfolios. Proph+IT™ Select extends the platform’s capabilities to the select-service segment, offering a tailored solution aligned with the unique operating model and cost structure of these assets. The module incorporates key performance indicators such as flow-through, GOP per occupied room, brand contribution, and focused labor productivity metrics, providing owners with a more relevant and actionable benchmarking tool. Profit Select™ is pre-mapped to the chart of accounts for all major brands and leading select-service management companies, enabling rapid onboarding and seamless integration for multi-property portfolios. These enhancements to Proph+IT™ are about giving owners and operators faster, clearer insight into portfolio performance. Performance Quadrants highlights where to focus immediately, while Proph+IT™ Select delivers analytics tailored to how select-service assets actually operate Jonathan Newbury, EVP and Proph+IT™ lead, CHMWarnick These enhancements advance CHMWarnick’s integration of analytics and automation across its platform, simplifying data and performance analysis while enabling faster, more informed decision-making for hotel owners and investors. Proph+IT™ currently provides portfolio analytics and performance benchmarking across hotels representing approximately 22,000 rooms and $12 billion in asset value under CHMW's management and is available to the broader investment and management communities. To see Proph+IT™, the Performance Quadrants Dashboard, or Profit Select™ in action, visit prophitplus.ai or email [email protected] to schedule a demo.

Remington Hospitality, a dynamic hotel management company providing genuine hospitality and deep operational expertise, announced today it has assumed management of Aruna Resort & Villas in Ambergris Caye, Belize, further expanding the company’s presence in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region. The addition supports Remington’s ongoing strategy to grow its portfolio in high-demand leisure and resort markets, where professional management, revenue optimization, and strong owner partnerships can enhance asset value. Located 1.3 miles west of San Pedro, Aruna Resort & Villas features a collection of canal-front and beachfront villas and studios. The resort offers onsite dining at Akasha Restaurant, which presents a globally inspired menu using locally sourced ingredients, as well as spa services, open-air living spaces, and access to a wide range of island activities. Aruna represents a strong opportunity to bring Remington’s operational expertise to a distinctive independent resort in a growing CALA destination. Our focus will be on enhancing operational efficiencies, strengthening revenue performance, and supporting ownership in maximizing the property’s long-term growth and competitive positioning Keith Oltchick, Chief Development Officer, Remington Hospitality With the addition of Aruna Resort & Villas, Remington continues to scale its independent and boutique portfolio while broadening its reach in resort-driven leisure markets. The Belize resort marks a strategic step in expanding the company’s management footprint in the broader CALA region.

Hilton’s latest Trends Report special section “The Hospitality Mindset: A New Blueprint for Culture and Performance for Any Industry ,”blends research on what workers are seeking most in 2026 and insights from Hilton leaders to prove the power of a people-first culture to drive performance and retention. Shift return-to-office towards connection and community: 94% of workers say the office still serves a purpose, primarily as a hub for workplace relationships and connection. AI anxiety in the absence of AI agency: 52% of workers feel anxious about AI’s impact on their jobs, while 55% expect employers to provide AI tools, skills and workplace training, creating an AI skills gap. Human ‑ centered leadership outweighs other perks: Job security (57%), feeling valued (50%), career growth (46%), flexibility (46%) and strong workplace relationships (~40%) rank as top drivers of worker engagement and loyalty while 71% say they would be more likely to stay at their job if their manager offered flexibility for personal needs. The creation of purpose and agency is the formula for worker retention: 88% say purpose influences career decisions and 85% say that work that makes a difference influences their career decisions, while 52% of workers say a good day is defined by a sense of accomplishment (like checking off a to-do list) and 77% more likely to stay when purpose is paired with trust belonging and autonomy. Drive mentorship and personalized development: 74% of workers say mentorship opportunities are important, 77% say mentorship opportunities improve happiness at work and 75% are more likely to stay when employers invest in personalized development. MCLEAN, Va. – As work becomes more digital, fast-paced and increasingly disconnected, a critical driver of workplace performance in every sector is being overlooked: human-led hospitality. Today, Hilton unveiled “The Hospitality Mindset: A New Blueprint for Culture and Performance for Any Industry,” a new report where workers overwhelmingly cite human-centered factors as the strongest drivers of productivity and satisfaction at work. The report combines new workforce research from Ipsos and Morning Consult among U.S. workers with insights from leaders at Hilton’s top-performing hotels to identify the emerging behaviors shaping the future of work and examine how hospitality-inspired leadership can strengthen workplace culture across industries. Recently named the World’s Best Workplace by Great Place to Work and Fortune, Hilton offers a real-world view into the leadership behaviors that drive connection, retention and performance at scale as it operates a global business with hundreds of roles and team structures in 144 countries and territories. That perspective is especially relevant as the business case for employee engagement continues to grow: According to Gallup , companies with high employee engagement experience 18% more productivity and 23% more profitability than those with low engagement. The project challenges current assumptions about workplace culture, revealing that workers continue to seek connection, trust and belonging in a hybrid world, with nearly 50% of early-career workers reporting feeling lonely at work (Ipsos). At the same time, as organizations navigate rapid AI-driven change, work is becoming more transactional,

You’ve arrived at a hotel straight from your flight. The queue has ropes, as if you were back at the airport. By the time you reach the front desk, the receptionist can't find your booking. The confirmation number doesn't work in their system, and they don't accept contactless payment. Sound familiar? This is exactly what happened last month to Matt Welle, Mews CEO and host of Matt Talks Hospitality. Matt spent time as a front office manager at a large hotel about 20 years ago, running a DOS-based system on busy convention days with 400 to 600 check-ins. His view, having just lived through a painful arrival from the guest side, is that there's no excuse for it in 2026. Here's what he'd do differently if he were running that hotel today. The queue starts in housekeeping The afternoon surge doesn't start at the front desk. It starts hours earlier, when early arrivals are told their room isn't ready and asked to come back at 3pm. In most large hotels, housekeepers work from a printed sheet with no real-time prioritization and no visibility into which guests have actually left. Departure rooms and stay-overs get treated roughly the same. The fix: give housekeepers a mobile app that reprioritizes their task list as the day moves. Flexkeeping, part of Mews Operating System, does exactly this. When a guest checks out, that departure room moves to the top of the nearest housekeeper's list. Technology is one part of the equation; the other is culture. If every housekeeper returns four departure rooms before mid-morning, the property suddenly has inventory it didn't have before. That inventory lets front desk teams offer early check-in as a paid service – typically around €25 – rather than turning guests away. Most guests take it. The revenue adds up. And a meaningful share of that afternoon queue disappears because those guests are already in their rooms. Online check-in does most of the work before arrival The average hotel check-in takes around five minutes. Most of that time is admin: finding the booking, printing a registration card, taking payment details. The upsell, if it happens at all, is often an afterthought. Cloud-native systems move those steps online, before the guest arrives. With Mews, the moment a booking lands in the system, the guest gets an email to check in online. A reminder follows two days before arrival. Hotels that add an SMS reminder one day out see conversion increase noticeably. Mews SMS reminders led to a 25% engagement boost with online check-in, with a 164% ROI. In other words, people read their messages. The online check-in flow handles profile completion, room upgrade and ancillary upsells, and secure card tokenization. By the time the guest arrives, most of the work is already done. For properties without digital keys, the only remaining step is cutting a physical key card – seconds, not minutes. Hotels doing high-volume arrivals have the most to gain. Getting 25 to 40 percent of guests through online check-in