Innovation

💻 Oracle announced the Oracle OPERA Cloud Assistant, AI-powered features for OPERA Cloud used by over 2,100 Wyndham properties. These tools automate room assignments, generate rate descriptions, and support global operations in 230 countries. The AI capabilities streamline operations and improve guest experiences by personalizing services, optimizing revenues, and facilitating multilingual communication, enhancing productivity without disrupting workflows per Scott Strickland of Wyndham and Laura Calin of Oracle.

🌍 Spain, DACH, the UK, and Benelux are key markets, while France and Italy are strategic priorities for RateGain's expansion. By April 2026, Oscar Ganuza was appointed Senior VP Revenue, Europe. Since September 2025, the UNO Direct Stack platform, focusing on AI-powered solutions, has seen accelerating adoption. RateGain's region accounts for 31.6% of FY2025 revenue, doubling its European commercial team and expanding to eight countries to support growth. The Sojern acquisition reinforces their European position.

🖥 Oracle announced OPERA Cloud Assistant, a new AI-powered tool for OPERA Cloud. Available worldwide at no extra cost, it streamlines hotel operations, automates guest room assignments, and enhances revenue management across 230 countries. Wyndham Hotels, with over 2,100 properties, utilizes it to boost efficiency and revenue. Visit HITEC booth #842 on June 15-18 to see it in action. The tool offers real-time guidance, supports language translation, and integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, enhancing productivity and service delivery.

💳 Barcelona, Spain, June 16, 2026 — Shiji expands Stellaris Digital Dine with Open Tab and Pay Only features. Open Tab and Pay Only simplify the dining experience, reducing waiting time for 73% of diners. Pay Only saves up to 15 minutes per cover, enhancing table turnover and reducing staff workload. Both features integrate seamlessly with Shiji's POS system, optimizing operations for over 91,000 hotels globally. With Shiji's solutions, guests enjoy a streamlined "Scan, Pay, Go" process.

📈 In June 2026, Duetto and RateGain Travel Technologies Limited announced a strategic partnership in San Francisco, California. By integrating RateGain's AI-powered channel manager with Duetto’s Revenue & Profit Operating System, the collaboration enables automated and real-time rate updates across 400+ distribution channels. The partnership aims to enhance hotel profitability and direct bookings through advanced forecasting, price optimization, and intelligent ARI logic for efficient revenue strategies.

💳 June 16th, 2026, Melbourne: EML Payments partners with OneJourney to enhance hotel operations. The alliance targets luxury hotels, integrating EML's card issuing with OneJourney's automation to innovate payments and gifting. Features include automated virtual cards for supplier payments, reducing manual processes and boosting security. The platform supports QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Xero, requiring no integration costs. This modernization replaces paper vouchers with digital cards, improving financial efficiency and guest experience.

💳 June 16th, 2026, Melbourne, Australia: EML Payments partners with OneJourney to revolutionize the hospitality payment ecosystem. They introduce automated supplier payments using virtual cards and digital stored-value cards for gifting. This move targets luxury hotels, facilitating efficient financial operations, while integrating with systems like QuickBooks and Xero. The partnership eliminates integration costs, modernizes gifting, and enhances guest engagement, transforming traditional practices into strategic financial assets. Eric Hoffman and Brian Dass emphasize streamlining hotel finance processes.

💻 Meyer Jabara Hotels adopts a hands-on tech management approach, emphasizing in-house oversight. Recognizing the complex web of systems in hotels today, the company prioritizes infrastructure—cabling, routers, network segmentation, and security—to ensure seamless communication and operation. The approach shifts from passive maintenance to active management, highlighting the vital role of technology in enhancing human interaction and operational efficiency. This method mitigates disruptions, safeguarding guest experience, staff productivity, and revenue.

💻 In early 2026, the tech industry experienced a surge in "tokenmaxxing," where companies like Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI encouraged high AI token consumption to boost productivity. Meta alone burned 73.7 trillion tokens in a month, only to later face massive internal AI costs. By mid-2026, firms shifted gears, implementing token management strategies like budgets and usage caps. Disney, Microsoft, Paramount, and Uber also adjusted their AI approaches, acknowledging the unsustainable costs and limited benefits of excessive token usage.

💻 Announced on June 16, 2026, at VivaTech, CDS allows travel bookings via AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot. Users book hotels and apply travel policies with a plain language request, ensuring compliance with company policies. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) enables AI interaction with enterprise apps, with CDS managing data governance. The initiative aims to expand to S4BT's eight entities, positioning CDS as a leader in AI-driven business travel solutions.