A lawsuit says Expedia ranks you lower when you're cheaper elsewhere - The offer strength score, Automatic Rate Match and VIP Access in your Partner Central are now part of a court case, built mostly from Expedia's own advice to hotels.

Oct 9, 2026 • Hospitality

McKinsey tells travel companies to compete for guests who have already booked - A confirmed booking used to mean the guest had decided; McKinsey now treats it as a pause that lasts until the free-cancellation deadline, and Marriott's chief information officer says the industry allowed that.

Oct 9, 2026 • Hospitality

Google stopped filling in hotel rates on September 30. Here is what your card looks like now. - We checked 17 independent hotels' Google Maps cards in five European cities. On six, the hotel's own price was gone, and resellers from Booking.com to Evendo filled the space under its name..

Oct 9, 2026 • Hospitality

The rules for AI hotel booking are out. Changing the reservation isn't in them. - Google's standard for AI hotel booking, merged September 24 by a council with three OTAs and no independent hotel, ends at the confirmation number.

Oct 7, 2026 • Hospitality

The AI guest is still rare - AI's share of hotel website visits quadrupled in a year and is still under one in a hundred, while half the travelers who have used it for a trip now rely on it most of the time.

Oct 7, 2026 • Hospitality

Your non-refundable rate can now be canceled - Guests booking direct through Aven's engine can now pay Hopper to refund a non-refundable rate, and the hotel keeps its money plus a commission on the plan that neither company discloses..

Oct 7, 2026 • Hospitality

The hold on your guest's card expires long before she arrives - Card networks let a hotel hold money on a card for about 30 days, so the guest who books in spring for summer arrives with nothing blocked, only a card number in your system.

Oct 7, 2026 • Hospitality

Booking.com says Europe's hotels don't depend on it - Booking.com's head of public affairs calls Europe's hotel distribution balanced, two weeks after an EU court upheld that Booking dominates online hotel sales.

Oct 7, 2026 • Hospitality