Lighthouse has launched The Hotels Network app, enabling direct hotel booking within ChatGPT. Powered by Connect AI, it's open to all hotels. Hotels can display brand-verified content, live rates, and direct-booking links without changing their websites or systems. Lighthouse calls it a new distribution channel, not an incremental improvement.
At the GBTA Conference, SAP Concur announced TripLink network expansion with more than 400 hotel properties joining through integrations with Accor, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott. 8.9 million TripLink eligible users and more than 13,000 companies can capture hotel bookings made outside Concur Travel. A poll with the GBTA Foundation found 71% of travel buyers will own technology that captures direct bookings within the next year. TripLink has more than 28 major partners worldwide. TripIt will add an AM/PM view for neighborhood safety scores and an LGBTQ safety score category.
A SAP Concur blog post uses Buzz Aldrin's 1969 Apollo 11 expense report to trace the evolution of travel and expense management from paper processes to cloud automation, and announces more than 400 additional hotel properties joining the Concur TripLink network and a forthcoming TripIt feature to view neighborhood safety scores by day or night.