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LOUISVILLE, Ky.–– Agentic Hospitality is building on the momentum of its recent TravelOS Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server and Agentic Booking Engine launch and extending its capabilities into its ChatGPT app framework to reshape how hotels connect with guests inside AI platforms. Rather than introducing another intermediary layer, the company’s approach enables hotels to exist as fully represented, first-party brands within AI, enabling them to own the interaction, the data, and the booking from start to finish. At a time when the industry is racing to recreate familiar aggregation models inside AI interfaces, Agentic Hospitality is deliberately taking the opposite path. Platforms often compared in the market, including those modeled after The Hotels Network by Lighthouse or similar solutions, continue to function as intermediaries. By aggregating supply, they are requiring hotels to compete for placement while pushing travelers into third-party environments that sit between the guest and the brand. Agentic Hospitality’s ChatGPT app eliminates that layer entirely, enabling guests to engage directly with the hotel itself. The difference is simple but critical. In most models, the guest is still being routed through someone else’s storefront. In our model, the guest interacts directly with the hotel brand. They’re not downloading an intermediary; they’re effectively downloading the brand. Brad Brewer, Founder and Chief AI Officer of Agentic Hospitality This distinction becomes even more important in an AI-driven world where the interface itself determines visibility and influence. Aggregator-style platforms risk repeating the same dynamics as OTAs, where hotels are reduced to interchangeable inventory and must pay or optimize for position within a shared ecosystem. Agentic Hospitality instead mirrors the architecture of the open internet, where each hotel is independently represented, fully branded, and directly accessible. Delivering LIVE, Structured Inventory Central to this model is the TravelOS MCP Server that connects directly to a hotel’s CRS and PMS to ensure that all availability, pricing, and inventory originate from the system of record. This infrastructure enables the ChatGPT app to surface real-time, authoritative data while preserving full control over the guest relationship. Unlike intermediary platforms that rely on duplicated feeds or cached data, Agentic Hospitality delivers live, structured inventory directly into the AI conversation. Just as importantly, the platform captures the conversation itself to provide an entirely new layer of value in AI-driven commerce. Every guest interaction, from initial inquiry to booking intent, is retained and passed downstream into hotel systems, enabling operators to understand what was booked and why it was booked. “We are the only company capturing the full conversation and delivering it into the PMS,” Brewer said. “That context is what turns a transaction into hospitality. Preferences, questions, and intent are the data elements hotels need to personalize experiences and build loyalty in an AI-first world.“ For travelers, the experience aligns more naturally with how decisions are made. Instead of discovering an unfamiliar third-party app and navigating a marketplace of options, guests interact directly with brands they already know and trust. The friction of downloading and engaging with unknown platforms disappears, replaced

When the sun is shining and your poolside is buzzing, expectations are high. Guests want to relax, unwind, and enjoy seamless service - without ever leaving their lounger. But for hotel teams, peak-season demand can stretch resources and slow service. That’s where mobile ordering steps in. IRIS , the global market leader in digital F&B and guest experience solutions for hotels, provides 10 top tips on how activating digital poolside dining can help you maximise revenue, streamline operations, and elevate the guest experience this summer. 1. Put ordering power directly in guests’ hands With mobile ordering, a simple QR code scan will take guests straight to the digital menus where they can browse and order food, drinks, and even extras like sun cream, directly from their phone. No waiting, no queueing or hunting for a menu – guests are firmly in control and it’s just pure relaxation. 2. Turn convenience into higher spend When ordering is effortless, guests order more. From second cocktails to spontaneous snacks, mobile ordering encourages impulse purchases and boosts average check values – especially when you’ve got upsells activated and seasonal specials highlighted. 3. Eliminate the wait (and the wave!) No more trying to catch a server’s attention or queuing at the bar. Guests can order instantly from their lounger or cabana whenever the moment takes them - keeping them relaxed and engaged. 4. Speed up service with seamless POS integration Orders go straight to the kitchen or bar via your POS system, improving accuracy and reducing delays. As a result, there’s fewer manual uploads, faster service and happier guests. 5. Capture revenue - even when areas are unmanned Early morning by the pool? Quiet beachfront moments? Mobile ordering ensures you’re still capturing orders and generating revenue, even without staff being physically present. 6. Lighten the load for your team Less time taking orders and going back and forth from the POS system (especially when covering a large pool area or a long stretch of beach) means more time delivering exceptional service. Staff can focus on guest interaction and efficient delivery rather than running back and forth in the blazing sunshine. 7. Do more with less resource Mobile ordering reduces the need for large poolside teams. With fewer staff required to take orders, hotels can optimise labour while maintaining (or improving) service levels. 8. Keep operations running smoothly at peak Handle high volumes with ease. Digital ordering allows multiple orders to be processed simultaneously, helping your team stay on top of demand during the busiest times. Orders flow direct to the POS so your kitchen team can start processing them straight away. 9. Upgrade your menus - digitally and sustainably Say goodbye to soggy paper menus or out of date promotions. QR codes on loungers, cabanas, or tables offer a smarter, more hygienic solution - while giving you the flexibility to update menus, advertise one-off drink collaborations and promote seasonal specials or events instantly. 10. Unlock revenue potential across every space From poolside to beachfront, terraces

Tuesday turns on a single question: is agentic AI the next Internet, or the next metaverse? Direct booking economics, Middle East tourism momentum, and a sharp warning about frictionless design all push at the same nerve. Viewpoint: Will Agentic AI Be as Significant as the Internet, or as Insignificant as Blockchain and the Metaverse? A new viewpoint frames the debate that has been running through the industry for months. Proponents argue agentic AI will change everything in travel and hospitality, with autonomous systems handling research, booking, and travel logistics end to end. Skeptics point to its current value proposition as thin and the useful applications as still narrow. The piece notes the industry has had this same conversation about the Internet, blockchain, and the metaverse, with very different outcomes each time. The viewpoint also surfaces a real strategic split: some experts believe agentic AI will disintermediate the OTAs and let hoteliers sell directly on platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini. Others point to Google's chosen path, building agentic AI in partnership with Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott, IHG, Choice, and Wyndham. The two paths point to very different futures for hotel distribution. Share your view → Direct Bookings Generate 60% More Revenue Per Reservation Than OTAs An opinion piece pulls together the most concrete numbers yet on the direct booking case. SiteMinder data shows direct bookings generate 60% higher revenue per reservation than OTA bookings, and BookBetterDirect research found direct rates beat OTA rates in 59% of cases that were tested. The argument: direct is no longer a brand-loyalty argument, it is a unit economics argument that operators can run on a spreadsheet. The piece links the direct case to the unified PMS conversation. A fragmented stack means fragmented data, which means a hotel cannot run the targeted retention and personalization that closes the gap with OTA convenience. With agentic AI now entering the booking layer, the operators with clean unified data are the ones positioned to capture direct bookings through the new channels rather than lose them through them. Read the analysis → Saudi Arabia Leads Middle East Tourism at $178 Billion, Business Travel Spending Up 23% WTTC data shows Middle East travel and tourism GDP reached $385.8 billion in 2025, with Saudi Arabia leading the region at $178 billion. Business travel spending across the region surged 23% year on year, growing at nearly twice the global rate. The numbers confirm what hotel operators in the region have been seeing on the ground for the past 18 months: Saudi Arabia is no longer a future story, it is a current one. The growth is set against the backdrop of a Middle East conflict that hit UAE operations hard from late February, as Accor reported in its Q1 results. The regional split is becoming sharper: Saudi Arabia and Egypt continued to grow through Q1 while UAE RevPAR fell 9%. The WTTC data suggests the underlying demand engine remains strong even as short-term geopolitics redistribute where the demand lands. Read the analysis

SEATTLE — Expedia Group Advertising today released new research revealing how travelers represent a valuable and receptive consumer audience for brands across retail, financial services, beauty, electronics, and beyond. As the advertising arm of Expedia Group's global travel marketplace, Expedia Group Advertising connects brands with millions of travelers across Expedia Group sites and partner publishers through its travel media network. The study surveyed 3,500 travel decision-makers across seven global markets and found the majority of travelers make meaningful non-travel purchases tied to their trips, spending an average of $500 USD per trip, roughly a quarter of the approximately $2,000 USD travelers spend on the trip itself. The data shows that as travelers plan and take trips, they are actively purchasing across non‑travel categories. Ultimately, this creates a powerful opportunity for brands outside the travel category to reach highly receptive consumers primed to spend. Travelers buy well beyond the booking Trip planning doesn't just drive travel spending; it sparks a cascade of shopping across dozens of categories: 62% of travelers made a non-travel purchase for their most recent major leisure trip — rising to 75% among Gen Z and 72% among Millennials While average spend is $500 USD globally, this is even higher among travelers in the U.S. ($660 USD), France ($650 USD), and Australia ($610 USD) Select countries have a higher volume of travelers who made non-travel purchases for their most recent trip, especially in North America with Mexico (83%), the U.S. (64%) and Canada (62%) The purchase window opens before the bag is packed. Travelers actively shop at every stage of the journey — before, during, and after the trip. Before departure, the top non-travel purchase categories are: Clothing, shoes, and accessories (70%) Beauty and personal care (63%) Travel gear and equipment (53%) Electronics and new technology (39%) Gen Z travelers over-index across several categories before travelling, compared to the general traveler population: travel gear (60%), electronics (51%), and financial products or services (38%). During the trip, local retail shopping (66%) and packaged food and drinks (61%) top the list. Notably, the purchase window extends well beyond the return flight. In fact, 72% of travelers who bought something for their trip also made at least one post-trip purchase, rising to 87% among Gen Z. Travelers return feeling inspired, leading to behaviors like: Shopping online for foods and drinks they discovered while traveling (40%) Seeking out clothing or accessories from newly discovered brands (30%) Documenting travel by purchasing photo printing, books, or frames (27%). Travelers are open to relevant advertising For brand and agency marketers, one of the study's most actionable findings is how positively travelers respond to non-travel advertising in travel environments. The majority are comfortable seeing advertisements for relevant categories on travel websites and apps. Consumers say the offers give them useful ideas and inspiration (60%), remind them of things they need to purchase (58%), and help save money on products they would have purchased anyway (57%). Travel planning is one of the most powerful consumer intent signals

Anyone can chase topline growth. The managers winning awards and winning for their owners know that real performance lives below the revenue line. There’s a familiar story in hospitality asset management: RevPAR goes up, the team celebrates, and then someone looks at the bottom line and asks why profit didn’t follow. It happens more than anyone likes to admit. Revenue is visible. Profit is harder. And the gap between the two is where asset managers either earn their seat at the table or don’t. The nominees for the HAMA US Asset Management Award for North America , presented in partnership with Questex and HotStats, understand this distinction. These are professionals who don’t just push general managers to hit revenue targets. They push for margin. They interrogate cost structures. They hold operators accountable to benchmarks that go beyond occupancy and ADR. The best asset managers today aren’t just reporting performance—they’re engineering it. That means understanding not just what the numbers are, but how they compare, where profit is being lost, and what actions will close that gap. That level of clarity is quickly becoming the standard. Michael Grove, CEO, HotStats That’s a different skill set. And it requires a different kind of data. Why Revenue Alone Misleads In a post-pandemic market defined by labor volatility, rising operational costs, and uneven demand patterns, topline performance can paint a flattering but incomplete picture. A hotel can run 85% occupancy and still underperform its competitive set on GOPPAR. A market can see strong demand and still return shrinking owner returns because expense management didn’t keep pace. Asset managers who rely solely on traditional PMS data or brand reporting are navigating with one eye closed. The best ones want more. They want to see gross operating profit per available room. They want to benchmark against comparable properties in real time. They want to know not just what happened but why , and what to do about it . The Intelligence Behind the Discipline This is where HotStats and the broader Duetto ecosystem it's part of — changes the conversation. Duetto has long been the standard in revenue strategy — connecting demand signals, pricing science, and forward-looking data into decisions that drive topline performance. HotStats brings the other half: deep, benchmarked profit and loss analytics that let operators and asset managers see exactly how their properties stack up on cost efficiency and bottom-line delivery. Together, through the Revenue & Profit Operating System (RP-OS) , these platforms close the loop. Asset managers are no longer choosing between revenue intelligence and profit intelligence. They get both, integrated, in a single strategic view. That means a conversation with an operator is no longer just about rate strategy. It’s about whether F&B margins are in line with the comp set. Whether labor costs per occupied room are drifting. Whether the pricing decisions being made today are showing up in the right places on the P&L tomorrow. What It Looks Like in Practice Consider a hypothetical that will feel familiar to

Radisson Hotel Group's 2025 Responsible Business Report demonstrates how the Group is turning its Net Zero transformation into real, measurable progress across its hotels and operations, and cares for people and communities. In a rapidly evolving operating environment shaped by shifting guest expectations, climate risk, and increasing regulatory requirements, sustainability continues to guide the Group's strategic direction. Radisson Hotel Group remains committed to supporting careers and communities, as well as achieving Net Zero by 2050. The Group focuses on strengthening the long-term competitiveness of its hotels and owners through sustainability and contributes to the transition toward a low-carbon hospitality sector. The report highlights how this strategy is being embedded across the business through a structured five-year plan and operational priorities focused on energy efficiency, electrification, renewable energy, and responsible resource use. A key milestone in 2025 was the launch of the Group's first Verified Net Zero hotels, establishing a scalable model for reducing emissions across both existing and new properties. These projects demonstrate that meaningful decarbonization can be achieved within operational hotel environments. The report also provides a transparent view of performance across Radisson Hotel Group's Think People, Think Community, and Think Planet pillars, translating strategic priorities into measurable outcomes across its global portfolio. This ensures that sustainability remains embedded in decision-making, building trust with guests, owners, partners, and team members, while supporting long-term value creation. Highlights from the report include: Think People People are at the heart of Radisson Hotel Group's success, with a strong focus on investment in talent development, well-being, and inclusive career growth across its global team of more than 75,000 team members in over 100 countries. The Radisson People Foundation, launched in 2024 to support team members in times of need, assisted more than 250 team members globally. Additional progress includes: 84% team member engagement score, outperforming the industry average by 18% 31% of women in leadership positions, supporting greater gender balance 206 hotels certified by Safehotels, strengthening safety and security for guests and teams Radisson Hotel Group continues to invest in learning and growth, with its Radisson Academy delivering more than 8.5 million learning hours and 40% of job openings filled internally, reflecting a clear commitment to career progression. Think Community The Group continues to create shared value in the wider value chain and communities it is part of through local initiatives and global programs. Its partnership with Just a Drop has helped provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene access to more than 34,000 people. Further impact in 2025 includes: €890,000 in cash and in-kind donations globally 79,000 volunteer hours contributed by hotel and corporate teams EcoVadis Silver Medal , with 76% of global suppliers assessed, reinforcing responsible sourcing practices These initiatives support community access to essential resources and bolster the Group's commitment to ethical and inclusive business practices. Think Planet Radisson Hotel Group is transitioning to Net Zero by 2050, focusing on the adoption of sustainable building standards, renewable energy and resource-efficient hotel operations. The new Verified Net Zero program provides a practical,

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) today revealed that the Middle East is experiencing strong Travel & Tourism growth, with the sector expanding by 5.3% in 2025, outpacing the global average of 4.1% and reinforcing the region’s position as one of the world’s most dynamic travel markets. WTTC’s latest Economic Impact Research (EIR), a leading global study of Travel & Tourism performance, highlights the region’s strong performance across key indicators, including international visitor spending, domestic travel, and business travel. Middle East shows strong growth momentum Travel & Tourism in the Middle East continues to outperform, with growth exceeding the global average and also surpassing the wider regional economy. International visitor spending rose 5.2%, compared to 3.2% globally, reflecting strong demand and increasing global connectivity. The region’s Travel & Tourism sector contributed $385.8 billion to GDP in 2025, supporting 7.1 million jobs, underlining its growing economic importance. Saudi Arabia drives regional momentum At the heart of this growth is Saudi Arabia, the largest Travel & Tourism economy in the region, accounting for $178 billion in GDP and 46% of the Middle East’s total Travel & Tourism economy. The Kingdom continues to deliver standout performance, with Travel & Tourism GDP growing 7.4% in 2025, nearly double the global sector growth rate of 4.1%, and around 40% higher than the regional Middle East average of 5.3%. International visitor spending also rose 8.2%, significantly outperforming the global average of 3.2%, further underlining Saudi Arabia’s growing appeal as a leading global destination and its position as a leader in the region . Business travel has been a particularly strong driver, with spending increasing by over 55%, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s growing role as a global hub for business, events, and investment. Alongside Saudi Arabia, other markets across the region are also delivering strong performance. The UAE’s Travel & Tourism sector reached $68.5 billion in GDP in 2025, with international visitor spending of $56.9 billion, reflecting its position as a major global hub. Jordan recorded 5.5% growth in Travel & Tourism GDP, with international visitor spending reaching $8.5 billion, while Oman also saw strong growth of 5.5%, alongside international visitor spending of $4.0 billion, highlighting continued momentum in 2025 across key GCC and regional markets. Business travel powers growth Across the Middle East, business travel is accelerating rapidly, with spending rising 23% in 2025, making it one of the strongest-performing segments in the sector’s growth. This growth reflects increased demand for in-person engagement, alongside the region’s expanding role in hosting major international events, conferences, and investment activity. Against the backdrop of recent regional challenges, the Middle East’s Travel & Tourism sector continues to demonstrate exceptional resilience, with recovery expected to be swift once long term stability returns to the region. Supported by strong fundamentals, sustained investment, and its strategic role in global connectivity, the region remains well positioned to maintain its growth trajectory. Unlocking continued long term growth WTTC’s research highlights that sustained investment in infrastructure, connectivity, and destination development, alongside a focus on high-value travel

AI in hospitality is moving fast. New tools, new promises, new conversations, every day. But for all the activity, one thing is still missing: Clarity on what we actually want AI to do for our industry. Right now, adoption is fragmented. Priorities are unclear. And too often, the direction is shaped for the industry, not by it. The AI Hospitality Alliance was founded to address these challenges, to create a place where the industry can come together and help define what comes next. But instead of guessing, I want to ask you directly: If you could redesign hospitality with AI… what would you change? What would you fix? What would you build? What’s missing today? {{cta id="15"}} I’ve put together a very short survey (it takes less than a minute) to capture exactly that. The responses will directly shape the direction of the Alliance, and we’ll publish the key insights as part of the industry conversation at HITEC. If you care about where AI in hospitality is heading, this is your opportunity to influence it. Because the future of this industry shouldn’t be decided by a few voices – it should be shaped by the people building and running it every day.