Marketing

As partners of federations and tournaments, the major hotel groups are turning their properties into the backdrop of the sporting event. Hilton and Marriott film the pre-match ritual there, Accor redefines a palace hotel in the colours of a Grand Slam, and Hyatt records a podcast by women tennis players.

🏨 Pic PR launched PressStays.com on Thursday, 29 October, connecting over 50 hotels with 500 vetted journalists and influencers. Introductory hotel membership costs £299 plus VAT monthly per property; approved media join free. Hotels arrange hosted stays in exchange for potential exposure, without extra influencer fees. Editorial coverage remains independent and unguaranteed. Built on nearly 15 years of hospitality PR experience, the platform averaged five new media applications daily during final testing.

📨 Based on an analysis of 2 million emails from 48 hotels, the "Inside the hotel inbox 2026" report reveals that speedy replies don't guarantee higher booking rates. Only 2% of unanswered offers received a follow-up, representing a potential €3.7 million in bookings. The research, covering leisure and business stays, excludes groups and events. Founded in 2024, Altek AI helps automate and enhance hotel communications, improving response times and personalization while preserving hospitality's human touch.

📈 October 2026, Phoenix, Arizona—BWH Hotels launched WorldHotels, integrating 4,000 hotels and 18 brands under a single loyalty program with 70 million members. This transformation aims to unify and enhance global recognition, featuring a streamlined loyalty system with three membership tiers. Key strategic changes include a new digital platform, investing over 10,000 hours in insights, and a unified WorldHotels Collection across six categories, including Luxury and Residences, preserving individuality while expanding global reach.

✈ MakeMyTrip, India's largest online travel agency, reported $2.7 billion in gross bookings for Q2, up 21% year-over-year. Adjusted operating profit reached $46.2 million. Non-air businesses contributed 63.2% to bookings, up from 61.5%. Domestic air departures fell 7%, international 4%, while fares increased 25%-30%. MakeMyTrip holds over 30% of domestic air-ticketing. Hotels and packages constitute 40% of the business, with stand-alone hotel room nights up 18.6% and domestic room nights up over 20%.

💸 In 2025, OTAs accounted for 29.9% of European hotel bookings, while direct bookings slightly increased to 51.3%. Expedia's share rose to 16.6% in Europe. Booking Holdings now collects payments on 73% of its bookings, a rise from 69% in 2024, enabling them to set prices lower than hotels do. Radisson has automated price matching to OTAs, affecting over 1,600 hotels. Expedia's B2B side saw 21% growth, while consumer brands grew 8%.

🗺 Booking.com aims to attract more Indian travelers by enhancing its relevance to local bookers, particularly in a market dominated by MakeMyTrip. The company is expanding beyond hotel bookings, building its own payment system, and offering small businesses a free tool for booking business trips. Santosh Kumar, the regional head for South Asia, noted that Middle East tensions are not significantly affecting Indian travelers' aspirations. This strategic move targets both business and leisure travel sectors.

🏨 Expedia Group’s Autonomous Onboarding™, launched with HotelRunner, allows hotels to join Expedia’s network in under 24 hours. The platform, active since an announcement at the Explore 2026 conference, reaches 75,000+ partners and 200,000+ travel agents. It processes 1 billion+ monthly searches and 415 million+ room nights yearly. Travelers spend 21% more and stay 11% longer than average. HotelRunner, an Elite Connectivity Partner for 2026, integrates existing hotel data seamlessly, boosting growth without added work.

📱 On 9 February 2026, OpenAI began testing ads in the US, expanding to 31 European markets by 31 August 2026. Hotels can advertise via ChatGPT Ads, which appear under responses and are visually labeled as sponsored. Radisson’s July 2026 campaign saw a booking conversion rate 1.5 times higher than organic search. Hotel campaigns can choose objectives for views, clicks, or conversions, with daily budgets starting at €15. Sponsored Agents and visual formats are developments to watch.

🏨 Hotels can use YouTube’s Video View Campaigns, launched globally September 28, 2023, to potentially gain 40% more views at 30% lower costs through Google AI targeting. Performance Max reportedly boosts conversions by over 20%. Its search themes feature, introduced October 26, 2023, supports up to 25 themes per asset group across Search, YouTube and Maps. Privacy Sandbox and first-party data support privacy-focused guest engagement.