Welcome to RemoteHotelier!
I’ve been tracking how some big hotel tech names choose which tools to trust. The latest release from Cloudbeds tells us a lot about where PMS platforms are heading.
In today’s newsletter:
⚙️ Airbnb bets on AI, but not as you think
🛳️ What hotels could learn from the way cruise lines use AI
🫵 Cloudbeds wants to make picking hotel tech a lot less painful
🏨 + 5 deals & updates
💼 + 3 new jobs in hotel tech
🗞️ + 4 hotel tech extra news
#1 Airbnb bets on AI, but not as you think.
Airbnb is making AI a core part of its strategy, using it to improve the guest and host experience instead of just launching trendy new features.
The company believes specialized AI will win in hospitality tech, not generic chatbots that don’t know how to perform basic tasks.
AI is already live in customer support and handles 15% of all requests, reducing resolution time from hours to seconds.
In 2026, they’ll launch AI search, letting guests describe what they want in natural language.
Their unfair advantage is their huge dataset: listings, reviews, photos, calendars, host rules, guest intent, etc.
Why this matters: I like how Airbnb isn’t rushing to integrate its whole booking system into ChatGPT. Instead, they’re focusing on improving what they already started before Agentic AI was trendy. If the tech helps users get what they need faster while the company saves costs, that’s a win-win.
#2 What hotels could learn from the way cruise lines use AI.
Cruise lines are using AI to fix real operational problems first in different areas, delivering faster processes, higher sales and better guest personalization.
Virgin Voyages launched an AI marketing assistant trained with the brand’s voice. Thanks to this, just last July the team reduced the time spent on campaign copy by 40% and saw an increase of 28% in sales.
Royal Caribbean uses AI to personalize guest offers. Nearly 90% of onboard revenue is now purchased before sailing, mostly through digital channels.
HX Expeditions applies AI in moving data from their old booking system into their CRM, with humans supervising every step. This saved them from hiring around 5 people for six months just to do manual data entry.
Why this matters: Hotels could benefit from the same mindset. Use AI to fix what’s slowing you down before jumping onto the next thing. Start with the bottlenecks and get quick wins.
#3 Cloudbeds wants to make picking hotel tech a lot less painful.
Cloudbeds launches a new platform to help hotels find trusted tech solutions that are reliable and easy to integrate.
The idea is to create a trusted list of technology partners so hotels don’t have to waste time researching which tools are the best for their needs.
Each partner is vetted using data points like how many hotels use it, the quality of the integration and the results it delivers.
Partners like Amadeus, IDeaS or Siteminder are selected because they offer strong integrations and solid customer support. Plus, they’ve been collaborating with Cloudbeds for a long time, so they have plenty of feedback.
Why this matters: You can tell Cloudbeds is moving into something bigger. A few weeks ago, they were testing new AI ideas, and now they’re building what looks like a marketplace. For me, flexibility in a PMS is everything, and they seem to understand this very well.
THE RESOURCE HUB
📍 Next Event: Phocuswright Conference (18–20 November 2025).
📅 2025/2026 hotel tech event calendar.
💼 Hotel tech companies offering remote jobs.
💻 Cloud PMS comparison spreadsheet.
🏨 DEALS & UPDATES
OpenAI releases GPT 5.1 with smarter performance and new personality presets for more natural conversations.
Lark Hotels partners with Olive to bring smart booking tools to nearly 80 hotels, promising easier reservations, higher conversions and more direct bookings.
Google brings Gemini to Google TV. This AI assistant will offer conversational controls for any TV with an HDMI port. I wonder if they’ll launch a hotel mode so guests can use their voice to control the TV.
And two updates from RMS this week:
💼 HOTEL TECH JOB BOARD
🗞️ HOTEL TECH EXTRAS
Amenitiz raises $45 million to expand its hotel management platform, making advanced tech more available to independent hotels.
BCD Travel and Conferma launch a new tool to let business travelers and managers evaluate hotel payment reliability and boost data transparency using real transaction data.
M7 Services and Tesselate partner to deliver automated compliant IT infrastructure for hospitality, offering 24/7 support and predictive monitoring.
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See you next week!
Jose