Innovation

🛫 On March 31, 2026, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) announced Hopper would power its Avion Rewards Travel platform. This marks a shift from Expedia to Hopper, reflecting a trend where financial institutions embed travel booking into their loyalty programs. More than 90% of Hopper's revenue now stems from B2B partnerships. The deal aims to streamline bookings for flights, hotels, and car rentals while delivering flexibility products, highlighting a competitive push in the white-label travel platform space.

💻 Mar 31, 2026: Hotels are integrating AI to streamline operations, potentially lowering service costs. However, AI often prioritizes speed over guest satisfaction, risking loyalty. While automation reduces costs per contact, it can lead to fragmented guest experiences and erode lifetime value. AI scales existing service flaws, emphasizing operational efficiency over empathy. Aligning AI with guest value can transform service into a revenue driver, enhancing satisfaction and operational effectiveness—a competitive edge for hospitality leaders.

💻 Mar 31, 2026, OpenAI's ChatGPT platform faced challenges six months post-launch. Despite hundreds of integrations, user adoption remains limited. Apps often require users to leave ChatGPT for transactions, undermining convenience. Partners hesitated, fearing loss of control over payments and relationships. Developers struggled with approval delays, bugs, and poor documentation. Limited analytics hinder app optimization. Consumer trust issues and competition with established platforms like Google impede adoption, highlighting the complexity of creating a viable app ecosystem.

💻 Integrating AI in hospitality is transforming operational excellence by streamlining tasks and enhancing guest experiences. Smart systems optimize resource management, while predictive analytics monitor energy and water usage, preventing costly issues and promoting environmental conservation. AI personalizes services at scale, elevating human connections without replacing them. These innovations empower staff, aligning with growth and sustainable excellence, making them essential for leading in today's fast-paced market. #HospitalityInnovation #SmartOperations #AIinHospitality

🏖 In Falmouth, Massachusetts, Red Horse Inn offers a cozy retreat minutes from the beach, ideal for experiencing Cape Cod. The inn features a peaceful atmosphere, where guests can enjoy waterfront strolls and fresh seafood. To enhance operations, Red Horse Inn recently implemented the cloud-based WebRezPro Property Management System.

📖 In early 2024, ChatGPT ditched old plugins for new connected apps via the Model Context Protocol, launched in late 2025. A family tested seven travel apps, aiming for a July NYC trip. Apps like TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and Priceline offered live hotel data, while itineraries relied on ChatGPT's training. Hotels like Hyatt and ALL Accor revealed price ranges, with Accor's options between $4,400 and $12,400. Despite live data, ChatGPT's training influenced recommendations, highlighting a lack of connected loyalty accounts.

🏨 ChatGPT, during multiple tests, consistently recommended the same hotel as its top choice, despite variations in connected apps and live data inputs. This hotel is ranked 15th on TripAdvisor and doesn't appear on Booking.com's first page. The tests involved major ChatGPT travel apps like TripAdvisor and Booking, plus a control. Further surprises and discrepancies, such as differing app opinions on the same hotel, are detailed in the full blog breakdown.

📅 Celebrating 10 years with CEO Jane Pendlebury, HOSPA has excelled since 2016. In 2020, it adapted to pandemic challenges by going digital. The association's learner success rate is 95%, with courses like Revenue Management for Meeting Space. Pendlebury led the 20th HOSPACE event to record attendance, focusing on finance, technology, and bridging software with service values. The association's growth underscores a shift to a value-driven approach in hospitality.