TOP NEWS

Two people on a pier next to the water in Cannes. Person on the left is standing and the person on the right is seated in a tall chair. Two people on …

Hotels have more data than ever before, but more data doesn’t always lead to better decisions. In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Jeff Michael , Area Director of Revenue Management at Sage Hospitality Group, to discuss why commercial teams often get stuck in reporting instead of taking action. Together, they explore how hotels can align revenue, sales, and marketing around profitability, use AI to make guest lifetime value more actionable, and turn data into a true competitive advantage. Tune in to learn how high-performing hotel teams move beyond dashboards and focus on what drives growth. Meet your host Karen Stephens As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinate’s brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution — including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and lastminute.com As the host of The Hotel Moment podcast, she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading our global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023. Watch the video Transcript [00:00:00] Jeff Michael: The data is there now and AI is going to help us harness that data and become better at personalizing and personalizing at a bigger scale so we can target every single individual that we know is looking at the hotel or considering booking. [00:00:15] Karen Stephens: Welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast presented by Revinate. I’m Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer, joining you from sunny San Francisco, California. [00:00:23] Dylan Cole: And I’m Dylan Cole, Managing Director of Revinate Europe, calling in from Amsterdam. [00:00:28] Karen Stephens: This is the podcast where we explore how technology shapes every moment of the hotelier’s experience. And more importantly, how the right technology delivers real outcomes for hoteliers and guests alike. [00:00:38] Dylan Cole: From revenue strategy and guest communication to operations and marketing, we sit down with the people transforming hospitality around the world. [00:00:46] Karen Stephens: Depending on the conversation, sometimes it’ll just be me behind the mic. [00:00:50] Dylan Cole: And sometimes it’ll be me, bringing a European perspective and stories from across the global hospitality industry. [00:00:57] Karen Stephens: Whether you’re a hotelier, a tech enthusiast, or just curious about where hospitality is headed, you’re in the right place. [00:01:03] Dylan Cole: Let’s get into it. [00:01:05] Karen Stephens: Hello and welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast. I’m your host, Karen Stephens, the Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate. And today we’re excited to welcome Jeff Michael, Area Director of Revenue Management at Sage Hospitality Group. Jeff is an experienced voice in revenue strategy and commercial leadership. With more than twenty-five years of experience,

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Canary Technologies, the global leader in hotel guest engagement technology, today announced a partnership with Ulyses PMS by Septeo, a leading cloud-based Property Management System (PMS) provider in Spain. Hotels using Ulyses PMS by Septeo can now seamlessly connect Canary’s AI powered hospitality solutions with their PMS to streamline operations, automate repetitive workflows and elevate the guest experience across every stage of the guest journey. The partnership further expands Canary’s presence in Spain’s growing hospitality market, where hotels are increasingly investing in AI-powered technology to improve efficiency and guest engagement. Spain’s hoteliers are increasingly looking for technology partners that deliver both operational efficiency and elevated guest experiences. This partnership strengthens our ability to support the Spanish hospitality market with a seamless connection between Canary’s AI-powered guest engagement platform and the Ulyses PMS. SJ Sawhney, Co-Founder and President at Canary Technologies As AI adoption accelerates across hospitality, hotels are increasingly prioritizing platforms that combine automation, operational efficiency and personalization. Canary’s hospitality-specific AI platform is designed to augment hotel staff by autonomously completing repetitive workflows and empowering teams to focus on high-value guest interactions. Hotels require modern, connected, and purpose-built technology ecosystems for the hospitality industry. Our cloud-based PMS centralizes and orchestrates this information, enabling more agile and controlled processes. Integration with Canary makes it possible to extend these capabilities to guest interaction, maintaining data consistency and traceability throughout the entire lifecycle. Francisco Ors, Director of the Ulyses PMS Business Unit at Septeo

💻 The fragmented technology landscape in hotels creates inefficiencies. Modern hotels deploy complex systems like PMS and POS, yet struggle with data integration. Despite these systems managing reservations, transactions, and guest profiles, disconnected data hinders decision-making and personalization. Effective data governance and secure integration are now crucial for strategic advantage, transforming hotel data management into a business capability rather than a mere technical task. Unconnected systems can result in missed opportunities and operational friction.

A new report from UN Tourism and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) shows that women remain severely underrepresented across tourism transport, particularly in technical, driving and leadership roles. The Global Report on Women in Tourism Transport , launched today, provides the first global, sex-disaggregated evidence base on women working across air, land and water passenger transport. It identifies the legal, cultural and structural barriers limiting women’s access to decent work, career progression and leadership. The findings show that tourism transport remains acutely male-dominated. In countries with available data: Women make up 36% of aviation workers but just 6% of pilots, with men continuing to dominate technical, flight deck and leadership positions. 96% of all tourism transport workers are in land passenger transport, yet only 3% of them are women. Just 12% of water passenger transport workers are women, with significant gaps in managerial and technical roles. Safety, sanitation and legal protection remain major barriers. One in five countries still lacks legal protections against harassment at work. In response, UN Tourism and ITF have signed a concrete three-year work plan to deliver the report’s Action Plan for Women in Tourism Transport . The partnership will work with governments, workers, unions and industry partners to strengthen gender-responsive policies, improve working conditions, expand training and leadership opportunities, and improve measurement and reporting. Tourism is meant to connect people and open doors. Yet in every part of tourism transport, too many doors remain closed to women. This report gives us the data to act with precision, not good intentions alone. Our responsibility now is to ensure that the women who keep this industry moving are also able to help lead it. UN Tourism Secretary-General Shaikha Al Nuwais Launching this report is not the end of the story, it is the beginning. ITF and UN Tourism have made a joint commitment to work with governments, employers, unions and industry partners to tackle the inequalities that persist across tourism transport. Our focus now is turning evidence into action. ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton Related links: Women's Empowerment and Tourism Launch Event of the Global Report on Women in Tourism Transport Online Launch of the Global Report on Women in Tourism Transport International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)

🏠 Visa launched the Visa Destinations platform on June 25, 2026, across ten cities, including Paris, London, Dubai, and New York. More than 150 card issuers promote it. The platform focuses on dining, culture, and shopping, with direct deals for the Louvre, Disneyland Paris, and Printemps. Hotels are accessed via the pre-existing Visa Luxury Hotel Collection. The platform moves hotel decisions to a secondary role, influencing how trips are planned and where cardholders spend.

📅 Airbnb hosts pay fees ranging from 3% to 15% per booking. Direct bookings incur around 3% in credit card processing fees, but hosts retain guest relationships and future bookings. Airbnb, a publicly traded company, keeps guest data and potential future bookings. Direct bookings allow hosts to own their business and customer relationships, reducing reliance on third-party platforms. Curious about your guest connectivity if Airbnb ceased tomorrow? Check out a new video on setting up direct booking sites.

This article was written by HospitalityOn. Click here to read the original article The first segment brought two generations of entrepreneurs into dialogue. Serge Trigano looked back on his ousting…