Innovation

This article was written by Travolution. Click here to read the original article Emerging Travel Group (ETG), the parent company of RateHawk, ZenHotels and Roundtrip, has announced the rollout of…

This article was written by Travolution. Click here to read the original article Rory’s Travel Club, a subscription service for exclusive offers on hotels, flights and attractions from just £10…

This article was written by Travolution. Click here to read the original article Artificial intelligence is bringing greater peace of mind to travellers; according to new research from the University…

The September 2026 digital edition of HOTELS magazine is now available. In this issue, you’ll find: The story of IDeaS and its founders, Ravi Mehrotra and Sanjay Nagalia: Two students…

📈 Sep 9, 2026, Markus Busch reports AI search costs $0.01 per query, with Anthropic and OpenAI charging $10 per 1,000 searches. Hotel queries are costly, needing 10+ searches. Google's August 26 change and Microsoft's API shutdown make searches pricier. A travel assistant's budget limits results, favoring well-known hotels over boutique ones. The cost-effective hotels answer all queries in one go, not requiring extra searches, which affects visibility and recommendations.

📄 Sep 9, 2026, Google and Microsoft, among others, proposed the Agentic Resource Discovery specification. Published on June 17, version 0.91 asks hotels to publish a file, `/ .well-known/ ard.json`, listing what AI can interact with—like availability and bookings. Cryptographic proof prevents squatting, but the standard doesn’t determine which listing takes precedence. Cisco, GitHub, Nvidia, and Salesforce co-authored it, none selling hotel rooms. Publishing the file takes an afternoon, impacting distribution significantly.

📊 Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations plummeted 86% from August 14-17, 2026, dropping to an average of 0.52%. Dispute arose between Promptwatch and Petra Labs over whether ChatGPT changed its reading strategy or citation display. Promptwatch claims searches directly target trusted sites, while Petra Labs contends Reddit consultations persist but are not cited. Each firm's AI visibility product only counts visible links, highlighting the opacity in AI operations. Reddit made no changes during this period.

I've now had a few days with Instinct. My takeway - > the moment everyone predicted just arrived. I ran hotel bookings, restaurant …

He was preparing to develop a 300-room property when the war changed everything

There is no shortage of technology investment options available to hoteliers today, but it can be challenging for operators to discern what is actually delivering an improvement in operations and…