| It's Thursday, February 26. Insane amount of news this week headed into ITB Berlin, where do I start? | Wyndham says AI is cutting handle times and lifting upsells as it expands automation across operations. OpenAI says AI still hasn't penetrated core enterprise workflows, even as pilots multiply. Hackers claim they stole Wynn Resorts employee data and demanded 22.34 bitcoin. Booking posted full-year growth, Accor and Marriott reported earnings amid cooling RevPAR, European hotel investment topped €27B, dealmaking surged in H2 2025, and Accor agreed to penalties after missing climate-linked bond targets. Costs are rising as tariff risk builds. | | 📢 Special shoutout to Plusgrade president and Oaky co-founder Erik Tengen for joining us on this week on the Hotel Tech Insider podcast to talk AI and how to think (and act) beyond RevPAR. Proud to be part of your journey Erik and can't wait to celebrate in person soon. | | TOGETHER WITH JOURNEY LOYALTY | | Tired of hotel loyalty programs that just hand out points and discounts? So were the 1,496 distinctive properties that joined Journey in just seven months including Castle Hill Inn, NIHI Sumba, and Dunton Hot Springs. | Journey takes a different approach. Instead of training guests to wait for deals, it helps independent hotels build real loyalty with personalized, meaningful rewards that reflect each property's unique brand. | ✅ High-Value Guests: Gain access to a curated member base of well-traveled guests who spend more, stay longer, and book direct. ✅ Brand-Aligned Rewards: Design your own experiences like spa access, signature cocktails, or private tours that reinforce your identity while building deeper loyalty. ✅ Effortless Integration: Seamlessly connect with your PMS and CRM to capture preferences and deliver personalized service without added operational complexity.
| Journey is a global alliance of independent hotels united by character, experience, and a shared loyalty engine that grows revenue without discounting. | 👉 Discover how Journey helps you build loyalty on your terms | |
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| | | GOING DEEPER | 1. Wyndham CEO Updates on $425M AI Bet | Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has moved AI from pilot to production across 5,000+ hotels, using its Wyndham Connect platform to handle 25% of guest inquiries and drive 885,000 upsell requests in 2025. One Howard Johnson property in Anaheim is generating over $10,000 per month in incremental upsell revenue. Meanwhile, global RevPAR declined 6% in Q4 and 3% for the full year. | 🎯 Why it matters: While RevPAR is under pressure—especially in the U.S.—Wyndham is using AI to protect margins by cutting labor costs and creating new fee revenue streams. The strategy reframes AI not just as a booking tool, but as an operating profit lever for franchisees. | 🔑 Key takeaway: For hotel owners, this signals that AI adoption is no longer experimental—it's becoming embedded in brand platforms and directly impacting P&L. In a flat-to-down RevPAR environment for 2026, operators should focus less on demand growth and more on AI-driven cost reduction and ancillary revenue capture to defend profitability. Read More → | 2. OpenAI COO Says AI Hasn't Shifted Enterprise Workflows Yet | OpenAI launched OpenAI Frontier, a new platform aimed at helping enterprises build and manage AI agents, but COO Brad Lightcap admitted that AI still hasn't deeply penetrated core enterprise business processes. While demand for OpenAI's products is strong with over $20 billion in annualized revenue by end of 2025 real operational transformation inside complex organizations remains limited. OpenAI is now partnering with major consultancies to push AI deeper into enterprise workflows. | 🎯 Why it matters: There's been loud industry talk that AI agents would replace SaaS, but even OpenAI still heavily relies on traditional tools like Slack — signaling SaaS isn't going anywhere. The real battle isn't model capability; it's integrating AI into messy, multi-system, team-based enterprise workflows. | 🔑 Key takeaway: Hoteliers should treat AI as enterprise infrastructure, not just a gadget. That means defining clear business processes before applying AI, building integration pathways (via APIs and unified data layers), and measuring impact on revenue, cost, and guest satisfaction. The winners will be those who operationalize AI deeply and lean into vendor technical expertise rather than trying to do it on their own. Read More → | 3. Wynn Resorts Hackers Demand $1.5M in Bitcoin | Wynn Resorts disclosed that an unauthorized third party obtained certain employee data and demanded 22.34 bitcoin (about $1.5 million). The company says it has launched an investigation with external cybersecurity experts and, so far, has seen no evidence the stolen data has been published or misused. Wynn also stated the breach has not impacted guest experience, operations, or its physical properties. | 🎯 Why it matters: This is another example of hospitality companies being targeted for employee data, not just guest information or operational systems. Even when guest-facing systems remain untouched, ransom demands in the seven-figure range show how financially motivated and organized these attacks have become. | 🔑 Key takeaway: For hotel operators, It's all about strong processes, MFA everywhere, vetted vendors, and a real incident response plan aren't optional — they're survival tools. This reinforces that back-office systems and employee records are just as much a target as PMS or booking engines. Owners should confirm their management companies have incident response plans, external cybersecurity partners on retainer, and clear protocols for handling ransom demands—because attackers are explicitly monetizing stolen HR data now. Read More → |
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| | TOOLS & TACTICS | ⚒️ Hotel Tech Tools You've Gotta Try | ✅ Duetto: Maximize hotel room revenue using real-time pricing and demand data. | ✅ Journey Rewards: Drive repeat visits & upsell revenue with targeted perks and rewards. | ✅ Triptease: Drive higher direct booking revenue with data-led pricing, targeting, and messaging. | ✅ Cloudbeds: All-in-one hotel management software at the speed of AI. | ✅ MeetingPackage: Simplify MICE bookings and boost event revenue. | ✅ Canary Technologies: Powerful but simple AI powered digital guest journey platform. | |
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| | | | | | PODCAST SPOTLIGHT
Plusgrade President on Agent-Ready Hotel Revenue | What if 70% of your guests are willing to upgrade—but your pricing strategy is leaving that revenue on the table? In this episode, Erik Tengen, President of Hospitality at Plusgrade and former co-founder of Oaky, explains why the future of hotel profitability isn't RevPAR—it's total revenue, frictionless upselling, and becoming "agent-ready."
Experienced hotel operators, GMs, commercial leaders, and ownership groups focused on driving profit—not just topline revenue—in an increasingly AI-driven distribution landscape. | Why TrevPAR Beats RevPAR in 2026 and Beyond Dynamic Pricing Isn't Just for Rooms "Commercial Empathy" as a Competitive Moat What It Means to Be Agent-Ready Scaling Upselling Without Nickel-and-Diming Guests
| 👉🏼 Check out the interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. |
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| | Thanks for reading! If you have any questions you can contact info@hoteltechreport.com | Disclosure: Some things in this newsletter may be a sponsored post or CITYKEY LLC (D.B.A "Hotel Tech Report") may be getting a small commission if you sign up / fill out their form or CITYKEY LLC might own a percent of the business. In particular, but not always, those sponsored or commissioned or owned posts might have an * in the subject headline. Read our privacy policy here. |
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