Innovation

🎰 Barry Diller's People Inc plans to bid for full control of MGM Resorts, valuing it at over $18 billion. As of now, People Inc owns 26.1% of MGM, with two board seats. MGM Resorts has yet to comment on the report from The New York Times.

📰 TikTok GO is now live in the United States, enabling users to book hotels directly through the app. It partners with Booking.com, Expedia, Viator, GetYourGuide, Tiqets, and Trip.com to process bookings. Unlike Instagram, where users are redirected, TikTok allows bookings within the app, except for the transaction, which is handled by OTAs. This initiative challenges traditional search engines like Google by streamlining the travel customer journey from inspiration to booking. TikTok GO's expansion to Europe or Asia is not yet announced.

📰 Hospitality embraces AI rapidly, utilizing it in guest messaging, translation, upselling, and more, which incurs costs measured in tokens. These costs resemble past OTA commissions, now tracked by a proposed metric called TCPG (Token Cost Per Guest ©). As AI becomes integral by January 2026, TCPG will guide operational efficiency and budgeting, similar to RevPAR and ADR. Hospitality's focus shifts to evaluating AI's guest service cost and value, discussing these at HITEC 2026.

📲 TikTok GO launches, enabling users to book hotels, tours, and experiences directly within the app. Integrated partners include Booking.com, Expedia, Viator, GetYourGuide, Tiqets, and Trip.com. This shift reflects the fading of the traditional travel funnel, with inspiration, discovery, and booking now merging in single digital spaces. Key strategic challenges for hospitality include controlling visibility, managing supplier dependency on intermediaries, and adapting to “social commerce” environments. TikTok evolves from a marketing channel to a transactional interface.

💻 Ted Horner challenges the hotel industry's outdated technology approach, highlighting razor-thin margins due to large OTA commissions. Major hotel brands act like marketing companies, while owners underinvest in tech due to weak ROI cases. Horner predicts a future with a seamless, mobile-first guest experience combining high-tech convenience and personalized service. Listen to the full conversation on The Turndown via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

📰 Jun 1, 2026, Amadeus launched its AI-driven Travel Advertising Platform, developed with Accenture, to help hotels identify traveler demand earlier. It optimizes marketing budgets by reallocating spend across search, social media, and other channels based on real-time AI-driven insights. The platform supports human decision-making and is already in use by hotel clients. Future enhancements will include deeper travel demand intelligence and advanced campaign tools, improving marketing efficiency and reducing waste.

🤖 Hotels are adapting to AI-driven marketing strategies, evolving from early 2000s paid media methods. The shift emphasizes less familiar, harder-to-measure channels, urging investment in skilled marketing personnel. Key sources include a Google AI Overview Study (September 2025) and an eMarketer forecast (April 2026) predicting Meta surpassing Google in digital ad revenue. Reports from IAB and Semrush highlight changes in ad spend and search impacts, underscoring the urgency for hoteliers to act swiftly.