In today’s newsletter:
Welcome to RemoteHotelier!
🚨 A check-in tool exposes a million passports
✈️ Airlines are solving identity verification while hotels still photocopy passports
🗺️ A new tool helps you map your hotel's entire tech stack
📊 AI is everywhere in hotels except where it matters most to guests
💬 "Why is there no serious open source PMS?"
🚀 + 5 new product updates
💼 + 4 new jobs in hotel tech
MAIN NEWS
#1 A check-in tool exposes a million passports
A hotel self check-in tool left over a million guest passports, driver's licenses, and selfie photos exposed on the internet.
The system is called Tabiq, and maintained by Reqrea, a Japanese startup. It uses facial recognition and document scanning to check guests in across several hotels in Japan.
An independent security researcher found the data sitting in an Amazon cloud storage bucket named "tabiq" that anyone could access with a web browser.
The exposed files date back to early 2020 and include identity documents from guests around the world.
Amazon's cloud storage is private by default and requires multiple steps to make data public, so this wasn't a configuration failure.
We’ve heard many times that any publicity is good publicity. But I don’t think this is the case. A hotel tech tool exposing sensitive customer data isn’t good for a business (on either end). And it reminds of a question every hotelier should be asking: who has access to my guests data, and how is it stored. Hotels increasingly rely on third-party tools that scan IDs and faces. That's a lot of trust to place in a company that may not have a security team, let alone a formal review process.
#2 Airlines are solving identity verification while hotels still photocopy passports
Trip.com is piloting a digital ID concept that would let guests store identity documents in Google and Apple wallets and autofill booking details with a single tap.
The pilot is a collaboration with IATA's data and technology strategic partnership program, with airlines like Air Canada, Turkish Airlines, and Qatar Airways expected to participate.
The concept uses wallet credentials to reduce friction during the booking journey, minimize data entry errors, and give guests more control over their personal data.
US and UK users of Trip.com are expected to be part of any future rollout.
Travel is slowly figuring out how to solve one of its oldest problems in the customer journey: identity verification. Right now, many hotels check-in involves any variation of this ritual: guest shows their passport, and their data gets transferred into a PMS. First of all, this process is slow and prone to error. But it also generates security risks (like in the story above). If digital IDs stored in mobile wallets become standard for airlines, it's only a matter of time before someone asks why hotels aren't doing the same thing.
#3 A new tool helps you map your hotel's entire tech stack
This week I’m sharing this great initiative: MyHotelStack is a new tool that lets hotels visually map their entire tech stack, including integrations, costs, and issues, all in one place.
It's not live yet, but they’ll offer a free tier that covers one property with up to five integrations. That's enough for a lot of hotels to get started. If you've ever tried to explain your hotel tech setup to someone using a spreadsheet or PowerPoint (we've all been there), you know how quickly things get messy.
I don’t have any affiliation with them, but I’m sure this could come in handy for many of you:
Source: myhotelstack.com
#4 AI is everywhere in hotels except where it matters most to guests
A new Mews survey across more than 500 properties about AI adoption in hotels reveals some interesting numbers:
98% of hoteliers have used AI in operations in the last six months, but 59% still want check-in to be done by the staff.
On average, AI is involved in 11 of the 19 most common hotel tasks and handles more than half the workload in those areas.
Adoption is higher in upper-midscale, upscale, and luxury properties.
Properties with formal AI policies report 92% strong trust in AI, compared to 49% among those with no guidelines.
The most important takeaway (at least for me) is that the more experience a property has with AI, the more they value the human touch.
#5 "Why is there no serious open source PMS?"
My eyes stopped at this LinkedIn post because the debate was intense interesting. This is a great question though. There's an open source alternative for almost everything, but not for a PMS:
Source: Matteo Galli’s Linkedin
And it's not because hotels are a small market. There are probably more hotels in the world than mid-size companies running a CRM. My two cents on the topic (three actually 🙂):
Hospitality is still in the stone age when it comes to technology compared with other industries.
Until relatively recently, the PMS market was pretty much a monopoly (hence no reason for them to open source what was making them filthy rich).
I think PMS is one of those things that look easy to build on paper but then would make even the best developer bang their head against the keyboard.
RESOURCES
📍 Next Event: Hotec Operations (8–10 June).
📅 See the full hotel tech event calendar.
💼 Check which hotel tech companies offer remote jobs.
💻 Get your cloud PMS comparison list.
PRODUCT UPDATES
🔌 eviivo becomes the first PMS partner of DirectBooker, helping independent hotels become discoverable and directly bookable on AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude. When guests are ready to book, they're routed directly to the hotel's website, protecting direct bookings and the guest relationship.
🔌 Duetto now integrates with Ulyses PMS by Septeo Hospitality España. The two-way connection gives hotels using Ulyses access to real-time pricing recommendations, demand-driven revenue optimizations, and automated workflows between PMS and RMS.
🔌 TRYBE integrates with HiJiffy to bring spa and wellness bookings directly into the guest conversation. Guests can go from inquiry to booking in a few taps within chat, without switching platforms.
🆕 Tripleseat launches Tripleseat Intelligence, a suite of AI tools built into its event management platform. The system uses data from millions of events across 20,000 venues to automate lead management, draft contracts, forecast demand, and benchmark performance in real time.
🆕 Vingcard launches Novel DIN, a new electronic lock designed for DIN lock cases commonly found across Europe. The lock supports BLE, NFC, and Zigbee connectivity, works with digital wallet keys, and fits both retrofit and new construction projects.
JOB BOARD
💼 Product Support Specialist - Implementation | Remote (based in the US) | Lighthouse.
💼 Manager of Customer Success | Remote (based in Spain) | Mews.
💼 Sales Director - Strategic Accounts | Remote (based in Germany) | Apaleo.
💼 Sales Manager | Remote (based in the US) | Cloudbeds.
That’s all for today, thank you for reading. If this was helpful, share it with someone who'd find it useful too.
See you next week!
Jose