Innovation

This article was written by Lodging Magazine. Click here to read the original article PARIS—Mews announced the expansion of its food & beverage (F&B) technology deployment for Accor’s premium, midscale,…

📈 Americas Great Resorts analyzed 1,177 AI-generated hotel recommendation responses, noting 6,110 hotel mentions across ten destinations and four engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Copilot. In 95.8% of 379 tested groups, the hotel lineup changed at least once. Google Travel links appeared in 270 of 296 Gemini responses, often directing users to Google instead of the hotel website. AGR offers a free AI Visibility Audit for independent luxury hotels to identify and correct visibility issues.

💳 HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions) launched the "Cancel for Any Reason" (CFAR) flexible payment solution with Aven Hospitality's Booking Engine, offering global hoteliers enhanced cancellation options. New data shows 87% of travelers value cancellation flexibility, and 62% would add CFAR at checkout. The integration requires no extra work from hotels and maintains existing rates and policies. CFAR boasts a 95% satisfaction rate and over 80% repeat purchase rate, handling 98% of cancellations self-serve.

📈 [Paris – 30th September 2026] Mews expands its F&B technology for Accor's hotel portfolio. Mews POS, active in 850+ properties across 20+ countries, enhances Accor's revenue by streamlining F&B operations. Jean Noel Lau Keng Lun, Accor's Chief Distribution Officer, emphasizes its role in guest loyalty. Richard Valtr, Mews Founder, highlights adaptability to local needs. Mews, powering 15,000 customers in 85 countries, was named Best PMS (2024-2026) and Best POS (2026).

Average daily room rates across the UK increased to £156.38 in August as London rates hit £214.90

📑 Dr. Michael A. Kruesi, Assistant Professor at Singapore Institute of Technology, highlights hospitality's enduring value despite AI disruption. In 2025, services represented 63.3% of global GDP and employed over half the workforce. The U.S. service sector accounted for 80% of employment in 2023. Hospitality supported 366 million jobs in 2025, with projections for 91 million new jobs by 2035. Despite technological advances, AI augments rather than replaces hospitality roles, offering young professionals stable entry paths.

📅 Hotel direct bookings can save hoteliers 15-25% in OTA commissions, improving guest relationships and brand equity. A 62-point checklist emphasizes a mobile-first, fast website; search engine visibility; competitive pricing; data-driven personalization; and loyalty programs. Optimizing mobile booking can reduce abandonment by 40%. Websites must load in under 3 seconds, as 53% of users abandon slower sites. Regularly updating Google Business Profiles and utilizing free Google Travel links can boost visibility. Properties achieving 40%+ direct booking share often see double-digit repeat bookings and profitability increases.

💸 Who? LodgIQ™, an AI-powered Revenue Operations Platform. What? Offers data assembly, analysis, and reporting to improve hotel revenue management. How? By providing actionable insights on market changes and revenue impact before the workday starts. Why? To help hotel teams act quickly on revenue opportunities. When? Ongoing, with a focus on efficiency and profitability. Where? Applicable to hotel commercial teams globally. Additionally, the 3rd annual Destination AI Summit took place Sept 29-30 in Washington.

Hilton's CIO thinks AI agents are doing what years of "book direct" ad campaigns couldn't: loosening the online travel agencies' grip on hotel …

📱 ChatGPT, on June 25, examined 240 hotel price queries, reading OTA sites like Booking.com and Expedia 46% of the time, yet linking to them only 11%. Booking.com held 62.57% of US ad space in July. Google, requiring hotels to provide price feeds, stops its auto-rate identification on September 30. In the EU, Google's search results now separate reseller prices from hotel prices. Late August saw Google introducing bookings via AI Mode using 10 partners, excluding independents.