TOP NEWS

🛩 AirMall by InterLnkd transforms inflight Wi-Fi into a digital shopping hub, connecting travelers to 20,000+ brands without onboard stock. Airlines can offset connectivity costs and offer passengers a personalized shopping experience via their devices, with home or travel destination delivery. Robert Goldsmith, COO of InterLnkd, highlights this as a new revenue stream for airlines. The platform supports payments, integrates with loyalty programs, and uses a matching engine for personalized product curation.

🏠 Sep 26, 2025: Airbnb has retired its Category search, a 2022 feature, to focus on Homes, Experiences, and Services. This strategic shift aims to broaden its offerings beyond rentals. Rival platforms like Booking and Expedia did not adopt the feature, prioritizing traditional search methods for higher conversions. Although Airbnb intended to inspire flexible travel, the feature's practical utility was limited. Hosts reported mixed outcomes, with some experiencing fewer bookings or poor placement.

🎃 Casa Dorada Los Cabos and Arcotel, during Halloween 2025, leveraged seasonality to enhance direct bookings through strategic digital campaigns. Casa Dorada used a layered message strategy with live countdowns to create urgency, while Arcotel presented exit-intent promos to retain potential guests. These methods aimed to boost conversions and ancillary revenue by integrating themed experiences and tailored messages into their digital strategies, maximizing the festive spirit's revenue potential.

🏨 Hotel executives are facing significant challenges in fall 2025. Key concerns include talent acquisition and retention, guest experience, rising operational costs, and efficiency. Labor and technology are central, with automation potentially enhancing service. Boutique hotels attract capital from private investors, while Marriott explores innovative loyalty strategies. AI presents opportunities for operational improvements, but caution hinders tech adoption. The industry grapples with macroeconomic volatility, sustainability, and distribution challenges, highlighting the need for strategic modernization and efficiency improvements.

💻 HEDNA Lisbon 2025 focused on hospitality innovation. Key strategies include practical AI integration for efficiency, prioritizing frictionless travel for a seamless experience, utilizing real-time data for informed decisions, and navigating increasing complexity with agility. These strategies help businesses stay ahead in the fast-evolving industry by reducing costs, enhancing guest engagement, and maintaining competitive advantages.

📱 2025, hotel industry, tech convergence. Cloud technology, AI, and mobile tools revolutionize hospitality. Mobile devices, like iPads, replace fixed workstations, enhancing guest interactions. Cloud-based PMS and POS platforms become essential, ensuring accessibility and innovation. AI offers 10-20% efficiency gains but demands modern infrastructure. Prioritize cloud-based systems and empower staff with mobile tools. AI should enhance, not replace, personal service. Aim for improved guest experiences over cost-cutting. Luxury brands lead by example; focus on experiential differentiation.

📈 Between 2022 and 2025, Adobe reported a 35% increase in the cost of acquiring new customers in travel and hospitality, while customer lifetime value grew by 4.5%. Marriott hosted its first "Member’s Day," focusing on direct customer engagement. Guests tested new products, previewed rooms, and provided feedback. Chief Customer Officer Peggy Roe and nearly all of Marriott's C-suite participated. CEO Anthony Capuano aims to transform Bonvoy from a transactional system to an emotional one, emphasizing customer loyalty.

💻 Sébastien Félix, CEO of Influence Society, discusses AI's role in hospitality. Faster design concept development shrinks timelines from ten weeks to two. AI helps hotels personalize at scale by unifying guest data. Marketing teams leverage AI for strategy, letting it handle repetitive tasks. Emotion drives bookings; hotels should build an "emotion stack" of stories and images. The main barrier to AI adoption is cultural, not technical. AI supports staff and enhances service, without replacing the human element.

📈 In 2023, 25–40% of travelers use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others for hotel recommendations, leading to a major shift in booking channels. These platforms recommend 2–8 hotels per query, based on web data, reviews, and integrations, although they can't process payments yet. By 2025, AI's role in decision-making is expected to grow, with direct bookings via AI chats predicted by 2027, emphasizing the need for hotels to adapt to AI-readable content and the new MCP standard.

📈 Hospitality leaders in 2025 are tackling technology integration while enhancing service quality. A report titled “The State of Hospitality Tech in 2025” from SkiftX, Sojern, Duetto, and Hospitality Solutions gathers insights from executives at companies like Minor Hotels and Hilton Grand Vacations. The emphasis is on technology as an enabler for modernized systems and improved guest experiences, illustrating the shift from tech as a differentiator to a fundamental part of operations.