Automatic - 10 Minutes News for Hoteliers

5 min

51% of European Hotels Report OTAs Underselling Their Rates, With 65% Using Booking.com's Payment Service

🏨 Sep 28, 2026: In Europe, 51% of hotels report OTAs selling rooms below hotel rates, up from 40% two years ago. Booking.com, used by 65% of hotels for payments, leads with 66.1% of OTA bookings. Booking Sponsored Benefit lowers rates, impacting revenue management. By early 2026, 72% of Booking Holding's bookings used its payment service. Independent hotels manually monitor OTA prices, while large chains automate rate matching with systems like Radisson's.

Your uncharged Booking.com cards become Booking’s revenue after a year.

Booking.com’s partner rules give you 365 days after check-out to charge each virtual card. After that, the unused balance becomes its revenue. Expedia’s cards expire at 180. Sep 28, 2026…

Amex GBT has already told your corporate buyers what your 2027 rate increase should be

In Madrid it’s somewhere between 6.1% and 9.2%. The biggest corporate travel agency has told buyers to plan on the low end, and they’ll have read it before they answer…

Your guest keeps checking the price after she books. She cancels while it’s still free.

Four in ten travelers keep watching the price of a room they’ve already booked. Two million real bookings show what they do when a hotel nearby gets cheaper, and why…

Austria’s hotels have taken Booking.com to Brussels. Four of their five complaints are in the contract you signed.

Austria’s hotel association asked the European Commission to find Booking.com in breach of the Digital Markets Act over five practices, from uncapped payment fees to suspension without warning, and four…

3 min

Accor Launches AI Concierge on WhatsApp and iMessage After Over a Million Pilot Conversations

📱 On September 24, 2026, Accor launched its AI concierge on WhatsApp and iMessage after over a million pilot conversations since July 2025. The service, supporting 11 languages, suggests hotels, answers property questions, and integrates with Accor's booking system. This strategy aims to meet guests on familiar platforms. Meta's Muse AI, available since September 8, and Expedia's integration announced on September 22, highlight the competitive landscape in travel booking through messaging apps.

3 min

Meta's Muse AI Agent Integrates Expedia for Hotel Bookings, Downloaded Over Two Million Times in Initial Weeks

💻 On September 8, 2026, Meta launched Muse, an AI agent downloaded over 2 million times by September 23. By September 22, Expedia joined, allowing Muse to book hotels directly in chat. The integration streamlines booking without leaving the chat, but specifics on functionality remain unclear. The agent can book flights through a partner or an airline site, but requires user interaction for logins. Expedia's integration is pending, with no public testing yet.

3 min

Booking Holdings Shares Drop 9% Due to AI Competition Concerns, Highlighted by Meta's Muse Launch

📈 Shares of Booking Holdings fell 3.9% on September 22 and about 5% more the next day, due to Meta's Muse AI agent, launched September 8, which compares prices and books travel. Booking.com relies on independent hotels and small rentals for 90% of revenue. Analysts argue AI will challenge OTAs by accessing member-only discounts, while Wall Street counters that signing these properties manually is difficult for AI. Booking Holdings was trading 29% below its August high by late September.

5 min

OpenAI's ChatGPT Memory Feature Retains Traveler Preferences, Omitting Specific Hotel Names in Recommendations

📑 June 4, 2026, OpenAI announced updates to ChatGPT's memory, allowing it to store traveler preferences like wildlife photography, strong AC, and quiet dining spots, but not specific hotel names. Preferences are portable, transforming into specifications that many properties can match. This update is initially available to Plus and Pro users in the US. Memory is user-specific and can be turned off. The memory converts past trips to history, influencing future travel planning.

2 min

SiteMinder to Launch AI-Powered Engine to Address 11% Room Listing Gaps on Distribution Channels

💻 SiteMinder, serving 56,000 properties, announced its Dynamic Commerce Engine to address distribution channel issues, potentially costing billions to hotels. By September 25, 2026, it found 11% of hotel rooms (about 24,000) were missing from a top channel. The engine, launching soon, will identify broken connections, requiring hotel approval for changes. SiteMinder's CEO, Sankar Narayan, highlights room type and inventory mismatches as key problems. Only SiteMinder connections are checked, and costs are unspecified.

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