Innovation

💻 Radisson Hotel Group unveils a new app in ChatGPT enhancing travelers' journey from trip planning to booking. The app provides personalized hotel options, current rates, and direct booking pathways. This initiative supports Radisson's strategy to integrate agentic commerce, streamlining the travel experience by merging technology with customer service.

💻 Beta launch began in the US for IHG.com and the IHG One Rewards mobile app.

Fora’s $1 billion valuation at its latest funding round is a bet that low cost distribution can earn a software price while staying … low cost. Fora, founded in New…

📷 Cincinnati, Ohio—Hospitality Visual Group (HVG) launches, spearheaded by Saahil, Lina, and Bipin Patel, to deliver visual media for hotels and resorts. HVG supports branded and independent hotels with services like website photography and marketing collateral. It caters to all hotel chain scales and lifecycle stages, including pre-opening and renovations. Hemal Patel of Red Roof Middleborough commends Saahil's creativity in capturing hotel and community essence.

This article was written by Lodging Magazine. Click here to read the original article ATLANTA, Georgia—IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) announced the beta launch of AI-powered conversational search on its…

IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG), one of the world’s leading hospitality companies, today announces the beta launch of AI-powered conversational search on IHG.com and the IHG One Rewards mobile app, marking a new chapter in the evolution of the travel discovery experience. The new conversational search functionality brings intuitive, customized trip planning directly into IHG’s digital channels, making it easier and faster than ever for guests to move seamlessly from inspiration and discovery to booking one of more than 7,000 hotels globally. At the same time, it allows hotel owners to increase their property visibility in AI searches and connect travelers with more of what they truly want. The beta launch is a scaled approach, starting in the US before expanding to users across multiple markets, with IHG continuing to refine the experience based on user behavior and feedback. A More Intuitive Way to Discover and Book Travelers searching on IHG.com and the award-winning IHG One Rewards app can now describe their travel needs using everyday language to better explore all that IHG has to offer. Prompts such as destination, trip purpose, preferences and amenities can serve up tailored hotel recommendations and rich content including interactive maps, real-time availability, pricing and detailed property information. In addition to cash rates, travelers will have the ability to shop in points or a combination of points and cash. Recommendations are grounded in IHG's verified property data and guest reviews for reliable details, photos and amenity information. During the beta, users will also continue to see IHG’s existing search functionality alongside the option for AI search, allowing choice in how travelers find their right stay. Launching conversational search in IHG’s digital channels transforms how guests interact with IHG and discover our incredible collection of hotels around the world. It’s a milestone that builds on years of strategic investment in our digital foundations, including the unification of our data in the cloud and the continued evolution of our best-in-class technology platforms. With these capabilities in place, and more to follow, we are very well positioned to harness the power of AI at scale and deliver rich, inspiring and seamless travel experiences that delight our guests and deliver benefits to our hotel owners Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts Future Ready To help IHG hotels become more AI-search ready, a new AI-optimized hotel content platform will roll out over the next several months, making it easier for hotels to upload rich, detailed information and improve how their properties are discovered. The platform will support new content such as floor plans, videos and updated imagery that reflect how travelers search today. Whether through IHG or third-party digital channels, hotels will be able to better showcase their unique attributes and improve how they are matched to travelers seeking specific experiences and amenities. The addition of conversational search on IHG’s booking channels follows the recent launch of an IHG app in ChatGPT and will be supported by further significant developments this year. These latest technology advancements

IHG has begun testing AI-powered conversational search on its U.S. site and app, the company announced Tuesday. Travelers in the test can describe a trip in ordinary language, including destination,…

CLEARWATER, Fla., July 2026 — roommaster, the cloud-native hospitality platform serving thousands of hotels worldwide, today announced the launch of Linq , its AI-powered guest management platform designed to manage guest conversations across web chat, WhatsApp, and email, from the first pre-booking question through post-stay follow-up. The launch comes as guest communication becomes increasingly difficult to manage manually. Industry surveys converge on 30 to 40% of calls to hotels going unanswered, and research from across the sector shows that 90% of guests now prefer messaging over phone calls, spreading inquiries across web chat, WhatsApp, email, and social channels. The average hotel now fields roughly 1,200 guest inquiries a month across these digital touchpoints. For independent properties, monitoring every channel at every hour requires human effort most teams simply do not have, and each unanswered message risks sending the booking to an online travel agency, along with a commission. roommaster Guest Management addresses this by placing an AI agent inside the hotel's existing booking engine and connecting it to the messaging channels guests already use. The system answers questions about availability, rates, and policies in seconds, in the guest's own language, and guides them to complete their booking directly on the hotel's website, commission-free. When a conversation calls for a human, hotel staff can step in with one click, with the full conversation history preserved. "Independent hoteliers are competing with brands that have entire teams dedicated to guest communication," said Kent Howard, CEO of roommaster. "Our new AI-powered guest management agent is available 24/7, answers in seconds, books direct, and remembers every returning guest. This is where hospitality technology is heading: cloud-native, intelligent, and built to serve the guest relationship, not replace it." Beyond answering inquiries, the platform unifies every guest message from every channel into a single inbox, threaded by reservation. Conversations that do not end in a booking are captured as structured inquiries for follow-up. Guest profiles are built automatically from each interaction, so returning guests are recognized and greeted with their preferences and stay history already known. Each reservation also receives a branded, mobile-friendly Guest Hub with booking details, special requests, and in-stay chat, along with a digital booklet of maps, tips, and local recommendations. According to the company, hotels using roommaster AI tools have seen a 35% increase in direct bookings, with 80% of guest messages handled automatically and full context preserved, and 15 to 25% saved on OTA commissions when guests book direct through AI chat. Implementation is designed around the hotel's existing roommaster setup. Hotels connect their roommaster account, train the AI on their tone, amenities, and policies, and activate conversations across web, WhatsApp, and email. Most properties are live within days, and the AI continues to learn from the hotel team over time. Guest Management joins roommaster Concierge, the company's AI voice agent, and roommaster Revenue Management as part of the expanding roommaster AI suite. With AI now supporting the company's own product development, roommaster says it is in a position to bring new

💳 OneJourney, based in Miami, announces a referral partnership with Dublin's Managed Payment Services (MPS) to expand its reach in Ireland and the UK. The collaboration aims to connect hospitality and travel businesses to OneJourney's SwiftPay platform, enhancing financial operations through embedded payments. This aligns with OneJourney's strategy to grow its European partner network. MPS will leverage its connections in the hospitality sector to introduce OneJourney’s solutions, promoting efficiency and profitability for hotels.

📈 In 2020, David Garabedian acquired Newbury Guest House, a historic Boston brownstone from the 1800s. By utilizing the cloud-based roommaster platform, the guest house competes with major hotel chains, enhancing direct bookings and pricing strategies using AI-powered tools. The platform offers stability and sophisticated pricing akin to larger competitors, contributing to the property's modernization and growth without expanding its back-office team. Roommaster supports independent hotels with consolidated hospitality management solutions.