商旅纵横Business travel insights that drive better decisions.
SearchEmail briefings

All published updates

Use the filters below to find published updates by topic, region, source and time.

Clear filters

Filtered updates

25 updates.

25 updates shown

Thursday 24 September

13 updates
Hotels
Hotel Dive FeedUnited States / Miami

My Place Hotels relaunches conversion-friendly Trend brand

My Place Hotels of America relaunched its Trend by My Place brand at its 2026 convention in Miami, introducing a three-tier platform that gives independent hotel owners and conversion candidates a path into a national franchise system without heavy capital requirements. The tiers include Trend Hotels for modern select-service properties, Trend Hotels & Suites for transient and extended stay properties, and Trend Inns & Suites for well-located upper economy and midscale properties. Franchisees gain access to My Place's central reservations, systems and technology, and national sales platform. The brand originally launched in June 2020 but was sidelined during the pandemic.

Hotels
China Tourism NewsChina / Beijing

Beijing Cloisonne Court Art Exhibition Opens at Prince Gong's Mansion Museum on 25 September

From 25 September, the exhibition 'Resplendent Imperial Vessels, Glorious Revival: Beijing Cloisonne Court Art' will open in the East Zone 2 gallery of the Prince Gong's Mansion Museum, co-hosted by the museum under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Beijing Enamel Factory Co., Ltd. It displays replicas of representative Yuan, Ming and Qing cloisonne objects and nearly 58 original works by contemporary master craftspeople. Three sections trace the craft's development, and the exhibition runs until 6 December, closed on Mondays. Master lectures and hands-on craft experiences will also be offered during the run.

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaChina / Chongzuo / Guangxi / Guilin

Borrman Hotel Chongzuo Reports High Occupancy and Service Case

Borrman Hotel Chongzuo Youyi Avenue Municipal Government Branch, under Dossen Group, reported operating data: last month's comprehensive occupancy rate reached 95% with 28 consecutive full-house days; September occupancy remained stable at 90%, with revenue per available room consistently above RMB 250. The hotel also received a thank-you letter from an elderly couple from Liaoning after staff explained local attractions, purchased high-speed rail tickets from Chongzuo to Guilin and booked a Guilin hotel. Since opening, guest ratings on OTA platforms and the official website are 5 and 4.9 respectively.

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaShanghai / China

2026 TravelDaily Accommodation Summit Focuses on Stock-Market Shift and AI Operations

On September 22-23, the 2026 TravelDaily Summit & Digital Travel Show was held at Shanghai International Convention Center, split into three forums: the TravelDaily Summit, the Accommodation Summit and the Business Travel Digitalization Summit. The September 23 Accommodation Summit centered on Chinese hotels moving from scale expansion to value deepening, covering macro mobility trends, local brand leaps, AI operations, mid-to-high-end breakthroughs, regional group transformation and global competition. Executives from BTG Homeinns, Huazhu, Hilton, IHG, Shangri-La, Meituan, Wanda Hotels, Fliggy, Atour, Jin Jiang, Marriott and Delonix participated.

Hotels
Hotel Dive FeedLas Vegas / United States

People Inc. withdraws bid to acquire MGM Resorts

People Inc. withdrew its proposal this week to acquire MGM Resorts International, leaving the resort operator to continue as a standalone public company. People Inc. made a go-private bid in June valuing MGM at more than $18 billion, and a special committee of MGM's board evaluated the proposed transaction over several months. Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of People Inc., said the mix of ingredients did not come together as hoped, but the company still holds 66.8 million MGM shares, roughly 27%, expressed total confidence in MGM's management and prospects, and remains open to a strategic transaction. MGM board chairman Paul Salem said the board remains excited to lead MGM as a…

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaChina / Hangzhou

Meituan's Hotel AI Jibai Serves Over 100,000 Merchants

On September 23, Meituan released the full solution for its hotel AI product Jibai, covering the entire operating chain including business diagnosis, market assessment, pricing reference, budget management and review reporting. The solution includes the Jibai Lite edition for single-channel small and mid-sized hotels and the Jibai Flagship edition for multi-channel high-star and chain hotels, with built-in "AI expert teams" handling data analysis, diagnosis and recommendation generation, while final decisions remain with merchants. Jibai Lite launched in June 2025 and now covers 140,000 small and mid-sized hotel merchants.

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaChina

Poly Hotels Details Vertical LLM Path, Lightweight Model Deployment Under RMB 100,000

Zhang Ye, deputy general manager of Poly Hotels Management, disclosed to TravelDaily the R&D path and industry enablement plan for its hotel vertical large model. Poly argues general-purpose LLMs struggle to reach core hotel operating decisions due to data-security risk and prohibitive private-deployment costs. Its approach applies hotel-specific reinforcement learning on a general model base, then distills and compresses it into a lightweight small model retaining over 95%-98% of core capabilities, with deployment cost of only RMB 200,000, or even under RMB 100,000. The model is in internal testing for business analysis and is planned for external release in October or November.

Hotels
IHG NewsroomParis / Europe / France / Marne-la-Vallée

Crowne Plaza by IHG opens Crowne Plaza Paris Marne-la-Vallée

Crowne Plaza by IHG announced on 24 September 2026 the opening of Crowne Plaza Paris Marne-la-Vallée in Magny-le-Hongre, at the heart of Marne-la-Vallée. The hotel spans 2.5 hectares of landscaped grounds and offers 250 guestrooms and suites, most overlooking Golf Paris Val d'Europe. It sits about 40 minutes from central Paris and provides a complimentary shuttle to Marne-la-Vallée Chessy station and the region's theme parks. Event facilities include 1,500 square metres of flexible space, 14 meeting rooms and capacity for up to 400 delegates. The brand has 96 hotels and more than 20,400 rooms open across Europe, with a pipeline of 21 properties and over 4,300 rooms.

OTA / TMC
Skift Feed全球

Sierra and OpenAI's Taylor on AI's Broad Impact on Travel

Bret Taylor, founder of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI's board, said at Skift Global Forum that AI agents can already handle the entire journey — booking, pre-arrival, in-stay and post-stay — as one continuous conversation. He criticized companies that route customers between departments, saying shipping your org chart should never happen in the world of AI. Taylor said the difference between marketing and service is just who initiates the conversation, and that every company's agent will eventually handle booking, onboarding, cross-sell and service as a single interface. He also said over-constraining AI produces worse results, and companies should set goals and guardrails instead of script…

Hotels
Hospitality TechnologyUnited States

Long John Silver's Advances Digital Transformation

Long John Silver's, a seafood and chicken chain with nearly 500 locations, is advancing a digital transformation led by Tim Newton, chief technology officer and head of brand operations, who joined in 2024. The brand upgraded its point-of-sale system to a cloud-based setup in 2019 and is now replacing static cardboard menu boards with digital displays, testing computer vision and predictive analytics at the drive-thru speaker box, and piloting five voice AI solutions. With average unit volumes of $1.1 million, any technology added must make financial sense and fit a demographic that includes older and more rural guests. Newton said tech integration is not about cutting labor but redistribut…

Hotels
Skift FeedUnited States

Wyndham CEO: Gen Z Now Makes Up Nearly 10% of Membership Base

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts President and CEO Geoff Ballotti said at the Skift Global Forum in New York that Gen Z now accounts for nearly 10% of the company's revenue and membership base, up from around 3% three years ago. Combined with millennials, that share has risen from roughly the high 20s to approaching 40%. Ballotti called the demographic's downstream earnings potential important, and said reaching it requires more than a competitive points program, with experiences playing a key role — for example, dozens of packages built around the Harry Styles world tour through a partnership with Madison Square Garden.

Hotels
Hospitality TechnologyAtlanta / United States

How Church's Texas Chicken manages tech creep

At the Restaurant Technology Network's (RTN) September town hall, Jeff Caplan, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Church's Texas Chicken, shared how to manage growing technology demand with limited resources. Church's has more than 1,500 locations worldwide, and the broadening scope of technology, accelerated by AI adoption, is increasing pressure. Caplan grounds every technology decision in maximizing unit-level economics, focusing on guest experience, making it easier to prepare great food, and making restaurants easier to manage. About 80% of U.S. locations are franchised. The company is building a corporate data lake producing AI-based and traditional analytics delive…

Hotels
Skift FeedNew York / United States

Hilton CEO Sees More Room to Improve Owner Margins

Hilton President and CEO Christopher Nassetta said at the Skift Global Forum in New York City that hotel owners have had an abnormal, difficult decade — from the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and anemic growth in 2017-2018, to the pandemic wiping out more than 90% of revenue, a stimulus-fueled recovery, and then weak growth with high inflation. He said he began developing a response in late 2024 and early 2025; Hilton launched Project Rise last June and rolled it out this year, committing to return 75 to 100 basis points of incremental margin to owners.

Wednesday 23 September

12 updates
Hotels
Accor News & StoriesGermany / Berlin / Europe

Accor's SO/ Berlin Das Stue to Rebrand as Sofitel in Q1 2027

Accor announced that SO/ Berlin Das Stue, a 78-room boutique hotel housed in a heritage-protected former Royal Danish Embassy overlooking Berlin's Tiergarten, will transition to Sofitel Berlin Das Stue in Q1 2027, joining Sofitel's global luxury collection. The property will retain its Danish heritage and contemporary design while undergoing a curated enhancement program covering guestrooms, bedding, public spaces, signage, corridors and a reimagined lobby. The move strengthens Sofitel's presence in Germany and Europe; Accor currently operates nearly 300 hotels with more than 43,000 rooms in Germany, with around 30 projects in development.

Hotels
Skift FeedCaribbean / Antigua / Jamaica

Royal Caribbean to Buy 50% Stake in Sandals for $3 Billion

Royal Caribbean Group is acquiring a 50% stake in Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts for about $3 billion in cash, valuing the business at roughly $6 billion. The 50% figure was disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and the deal is expected to close in early 2027 subject to approvals. It marks Royal Caribbean's biggest step from sea to land, covering the family-owned Caribbean all-inclusive brands.

Hotels
Accor News & StoriesChina / Indonesia / Brazil / France / Thailand / Cote d'Ivoire / Spain

Novotel and Paris Saint-Germain Launch 'The Long Game' Global Wellbeing Programme

Novotel and Paris Saint-Germain unveiled 'The Long Game', a global programme translating Novotel's 'Longevity Everyday' vision into immersive hotel experiences, a worldwide digital content platform and a new campaign. The programme spans seven Novotel hotels across five continents, built around four wellbeing pillars—Eat, Sleep, Move and Meet—co-created with five Paris Saint-Germain Legends. Each hotel features themed spaces and QR codes unlocking exclusive player videos and tips; a global campaign launches in Q4.

Hotels
Business Travel News全球

Accor Launches ALL Concierge Conversational AI Assistant

Accor announced the launch of ALL Concierge, a conversational AI assistant that helps with inspiration and destination search, hotel comparison, booking changes, in-stay questions and loyalty coaching on optimizing status and points. The tool is available in 11 languages via the ALL Accor app, Accor's website and the WhatsApp and iMessage messaging channels. Accor SVP of data science and AI Nicolas Maynard said next steps include more languages, local experiences and full integration of loyalty partners beyond Accor. Chief commercial, digital and tech officer Alix Boulnois said the tool does not currently assist with meetings and event spaces, but that this is on the roadmap.

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaChina / Yichang / Chongqing

Century Cruises' Yangtze Flagship Century Vision Debuts with New Premium Experience

Century Cruises' new Yangtze flagship, Century Vision, held its maiden voyage ceremony at Chongqing's Chaotianmen on 21 September 2026, joining the Century Premium fleet. The same day, Century Cruises launched its 'Century Premium Brand Experience' centred on dining and service, covering four-day/three-night Chongqing-Yichang and five-day/four-night Yichang-Chongqing itineraries. The Yangtze fleet will form three product tiers: Century Select, Century Premium and Century Luxury. Century Vision is 149.99 metres long, 15,000 gross tonnes, with seven decks, 236 cabins and a maximum capacity of 650 passengers.

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaNanning / Guangxi

China-ASEAN Expo Drives Consecutive Full Occupancy at Yishang Hotel Nanning

The 23rd China-ASEAN Expo closed in Nanning, Guangxi on September 21, 2026, with concentrated business visitor flows lifting citywide accommodation demand. The Yishang Hotel Nanning Chaoyang Square Rongchuangmao store in the Jiangnan core business district has been fully booked since September 8 for more than 10 cumulative days, with occupancy reaching 105% and blended RevPAR staying high for midscale hotels in the area.

Hotels
Hotel Dive Feed全球 / France

Accor Launches AI Travel Concierge ALL Concierge Across Full Journey

French hospitality group Accor announced the launch of ALL Concierge, an AI-powered conversational travel tool designed to guide guests from initial travel inspiration and hotel comparison through to booking management and post-stay support. Accor calls it the hospitality industry's first end-to-end conversational travel companion deployed at scale. Following a pilot phase, the tool will roll out across Accor's global digital channels, including the ALL Accor website, mobile app, and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and iMessage. Accor also debuted The Butler, an AI tool for hotel teams. Alix Boulnois, Accor's chief commercial, digital and tech officer, said the launch is part of Accor'…

Hotels
Hotel Dive FeedUnited States / Chicago

7,000 union hotel workers in Chicago authorize strike

More than 7,000 Chicago hotel workers with Unite Here Local 1 voted 85% to authorize a strike over better wages and benefits. Contracts expired Aug. 31, and a strike could be called at any time, which the union says would be the largest hotel strike in the city's history. Employers include Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott International. Workers seek higher pay to keep up with inflation, healthcare and pension benefits, civil rights protections and safer workloads. The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association said it is deeply concerned about the negative impact on employees, visitors, hotels and the city, but impacted hotels have robust contingency plans and plan to remain open. Chicago's last major…

Hotels
IHG NewsroomKota Kinabalu / Tawau / Sabah / Malaysia

IHG Accelerates Malaysia Expansion with Garner Hotels and Franchise Model

IHG signed a two-hotel portfolio agreement with King Park Hotel Sdn. Bhd, launching its franchise model and midscale conversion brand Garner in Malaysia for the first time. The 202-room Garner Hotel Kota Kinabalu will be rebranded from King Park Hotel Kota Kinabalu, with 106 rooms opening in 2027 and 96 more in a second phase in 2029; the 140-room Holiday Inn Express Tawau will open in 2028 after refurbishment, becoming IHG's first hotel in Tawau.

Hotels
Pinchain TourismChina

Atour Partners with Zhima Credit and Huabei to Expand Member Service Touchpoints

Atour Group entered a strategic partnership with Ant Group's Zhima Credit and Huabei, under which eligible users with Zhima Credit scores above 800 and Huabei intimacy levels V3 and V4 can claim Atour Gold membership and enjoy benefits including free breakfast for two, 12% off bookings, and late checkout. iiMedia Research data shows that among Chinese consumers' main reasons for joining hotel loyalty programs in 2025, 47.33% cited exclusive services such as room upgrades and late checkout, and 46.67% valued convenient services such as priority check-in and dedicated customer service, both higher than the 41.78% seeking member price discounts. Atour has previously partnered with Didi, Starbu…

Hotels
TravelDaily ChinaShanghai / China / Chengdu / Hangzhou

Meituan Jibai Launches Flagship Edition, Hotel AI Moves Toward Business Advisor

On September 23, Meituan announced an upgrade to its hotel AI product Jibai at the 2026 TravelDaily Summit in Shanghai, officially launching a flagship edition that provides full-chain AI support for market insight, business diagnosis and performance review for upscale and chain hotels. With merchant authorization, the flagship edition can connect with hotel PMS and other local operating systems to consolidate data scattered across channels. Meituan said merchants deeply using Jibai saw RevPAR rise an average of 11%, diagnostic recommendation accuracy reached 98%, and full-chain management efficiency improved 20%.

Hotels
Hotel Dive FeedCalifornia / San Jose / United States

Hilton debuts Home2 Suites Clean Energy Prototype

Hilton launched the Home2 Suites by Hilton Clean Energy Prototype, an optional design concept for the upper-midscale extended-stay brand featuring all-electric systems, renewable energy and high-efficiency building technologies, and its first prototype designed for zero operational emissions. Hilton says it addresses rising hotel operating costs and evolving energy markets, with potential annual energy cost reductions of 18% to 40% and roughly 30% greater energy efficiency. Energy modeling in San Jose, California, found an estimated 32% annual energy cost reduction, a $670,000 increase in potential asset valuation and a 0.6% lower net cost to build versus the traditional prototype.