🦈 Google smells ChatGPT's blood and Apaleo raises the bar

Welcome to RemoteHotelier!

In today’s newsletter:

💥 The hotel bookings battle between Gemini and ChatGPT

💨 Radisson steps on the accelerator with net zero hotels…

🤔 … and it’s harder to ignore than ever

🤝 Two hotel tech heavyweights build together

💬 Apaleo has a lot to announce this week

🚀 + 5 new product updates

💼 + 4 new jobs in hotel tech

Do you remember how two weeks ago ChatGPT killed embedded direct hotel bookings? Well, Google might have seen an opportunity here and they’re moving full steam ahead with cart, inventory and loyalty features to make it happen. I guess that when one door closes, another opens.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. This is how fierce the AI competition is surrounding travel. Sure, there’s still work to be done, but with the speed technology is moving these days, this hopefully will be the foundation of direct hotel bookings through AI.

Radisson Hotel Group is rolling out a plan to convert 100 existing properties into verified net zero hotels by 2030, using pilot results from Manchester and Oslo to make a financial and operational example.

That 20% of guests who booked because of the net zero isn’t a huge number, but it's not insignificant either. My guess is that number will grow as younger generations get older and as net zero certifications become more visible in booking channels.

I think this goes beyond economic profit. With oil prices rising and energy bills going through the roof, any hotel or tech company focused on reducing energy costs should pay attention to whatever happens here. You might have something very valuable in your hands.

It’s not just about going green (which is also great). It’s about not being at the mercy of an energy market you can't control.

By the way, one more news about traditional hotels this week: Hilton has signed an exclusive franchise agreement with YOTEL, making the brand the first to join its newly created Select by Hilton umbrella.

TrustYou and Apaleo launch Magic Moments, a tool that picks up every guest inquiry, on any channel, at any hour to make sure no guest message goes unanswered (before, during, and after a stay).

The combination isn't random: TrustYou has the guest intelligence, and Apaleo the open infrastructure to connect everything. What's interesting here isn't the AI promise (that’s everywhere now), it's the architecture. Feeding guest data directly into automatic workflows is the kind of integration hotels rarely get out of the box. The real question is how well this holds up with a real front desk team in the middle of a busy weekend. That's when technology gets really tested.

This isn't the only news from Apaleo this week. They also launched a new AI Copilot built directly into their PMS. It works through a chat interface and handles operational tasks like room assignments, reservation extensions, overbooking resolution, and housekeeping coordination.

Hotels can even upload their own SOPs to train the tool on their specific processes (which is very cool if you ask me), so it's not just generic automation.

And on top of that, they also announced a new integration with Char's Pmslink to allow hotels to connect IPTV, Wi-Fi systems, and trigger room control scenes directly from the PMS.

I mean, how many hours in a single day do they have?

🆕 Roomiy Finance launches NOI-as-a-Service, a platform that converts a portion of future room nights into predictable cash flow to help hotel owners protect margins without adding debt. It works alongside existing revenue management systems and charges a single flat fee.

🆕 Operto launches GEO Consultant, an AI visibility tool that shows hotels how they appear in generative AI travel recommendations. Hotels enter their website and target prompts, and the tool returns a visibility score, a breakdown of whether OTAs or their own site is driving results, and practical steps to improve their presence.

🆕 Bilt, the rewards platform, adds Wyndham Rewards as its sixth hotel partner. That opens up access to over 8,300 hotels across 25 brands, from budget options to upscale properties.

💰 Berlin startup Bounti raises €4 million in seed funding to expand its AI platform for businesses in hospitality, logistics, and fitness. The platform turns brand standards and procedures into mobile workflows for frontline staff, and proactively links revenue drops to operational issues like incomplete checklists or undertrained teams.

💰 Lobby raises $2.2 million to automate group and B2B hotel bookings that still run on email. The platform reads inbound requests in over 100 languages, checks availability, applies your pricing rules, and drafts responses without manual input.

That’s all for today, thank you for reading.

See you next week!
Jose