Welcome to RemoteHotelier #72!
In today’s newsletter:
🔓 Hackers turn hotel Wi-Fi into a hacking tool
🔍 Should hotels have to disclose what their sensors actually track?
⚖️ 10,783 hotels just told Booking.com enough is enough
💳 IHG gets the first access to paid placement inside Google's AI Mode
🛒 + 3 new acquisitions
🆕 + 2 new product updates
🔌 + 3 new integrations
💼 + 3 new jobs in hotel tech
🔓 Hackers turn hotel Wi-Fi into a hacking tool
Hackers are hijacking Wi-Fi gear at hotels and conference centers to steal Microsoft 365 logins from traveling employees.
Attackers get admin access to a hotel's Wi-Fi gateway and change its settings, so the real Microsoft login page gets swapped for a fake one.
Guests who try to sign in land on a counterfeit page asking for their Microsoft 365 credentials.
In some cases the fake page skips the password step entirely and just tricks the user into approving a login prompt, which hands over access without ever triggering multi-factor authentication.
The campaign has hit hotels and conference venues in the US, India, and Saudi Arabia since at least June.
A hacked Wi-Fi doesn’t touch your PMS or your revenue, but it turns your property into a corporate breach… and that's a reputation problem you don't want.
If you outsource guest Wi-Fi, ask that vendor how they protect the admin access to the gateway itself, because most guests won't know the difference between hacked at the hotel and hacked by the hotel. You’d be surprised how many you can access as an admin using the default password (that you can find in Google/ChatGPT in seconds).
🔍 Should hotels have to disclose what their sensors actually track?
This Reddit post argues something I never stopped to think about: your hotel room might already be listening, in an even stricter sense than a smart speaker. Suffice to say, take this with a grain of salt, since the post is anonymous and light on proof.
Marriott properties are already using HALO style sensors that can detect sound, motion, and even count occupants, mostly sold to hotels as a way to catch vaping and smoking and bill for it.
I honestly hadn't considered the trust angle here until I read this. If a device in the room can technically listen or count how many people are inside, that's a very different conversation than a thermostat.
Genuinely curious to know what you think about this. Should sensors like this come with a warning of some type?
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⚖️ 10,783 hotels just told Booking.com enough is enough
More than 10,700 European hotels have joined a collective legal action against Booking.com, and the number keeps going up.
Hotels are seeking damages tied to price parity clauses that restricted their ability to set their own rates between 2004 and 2024.
The case is backed by HOTREC and more than 30 national hospitality associations, and it's playing out in the Amsterdam District Court.
This filing lands right after China hit Trip.com with a $770 million fine for similar anti-competitive tactics.
When one dominant platform gets punished publicly, it certainly empowers everyone else who's been swallowing parity clauses for two decades.
Sure, Booking's rules won’t change overnight… but every hotel reviewing a distribution contract right now should be reading the parity language twice.
RESOURCES
📍 Next Event: Hotel Data Conference (5–7 August).
📅 See the full hotel tech event calendar.
💼 Check which hotel tech companies offer remote jobs.
💻 Get your PMS comparison spreadsheet.
💸 Get your RMS comparison spreadsheet.
💳 IHG gets the first access to paid placement inside Google's AI Mode
We've been tracking how Google brings hotel booking into AI for a while now. A few months ago, in this edition (the first RemoteHotelier edition ever 🤯) we announced the partnership between IHG and Google:
Well, seems like it has been productive because Google confirmed IHG Hotels & Resorts as an early partner for Direct Offers, a new ad format that lets its AI surface paid hotel promotions while people plan trips inside AI Mode.
Google described this as an expansion of a format first tested in retail, and its chief business officer flagged it during the Q2 earnings call as one of the ways the company is turning AI search into a real advertising channel.
ACQUISITIONS
🛒 Wander acquires the Maple team to expand WanderOS: the vacation rental company brings on Maple's founders, former Shopify executives, to build out its direct booking platform for property managers. [Link]
It's a talent acquisition, not a product buy, since Wander didn't disclose any plans for the Maple app itself (for now).
🛒 Expedia Group acquires Layla to accelerate AI trip planning: the Berlin startup's conversational app will fold into Expedia's marketplace, supply, and booking platform. [Link]
🛒 Engine acquires corporate travel manager Options Travel: the company, which has spent three decades in the business, keeps its name, its leadership team, and all its employees stay. [Link]
The deal followed nine months of working together, and it's meant to fund a new AI booking tool for agents stuck with outdated tools.
UPDATES
🆕 Transfeero launches Hotellerie for hotel transfer management: the new B2B platform lets front desk and concierge teams book, track, and manage guest transfers from one dashboard. [Link]
Hotels earn a commission on every completed ride, so it turns a service most properties already handle informally into a small extra revenue line.
🆕 Customer Alliance launches an AI guest feedback platform: the rebuilt system brings reputation management, guest surveys, and feedback analytics together, with AI insights that flag trends and recommend next steps. [Link]
Feedback itself isn't new, but turning it into a clear list of what to actually fix is where most hotels get stuck.
INTEGRATIONS
🔌 Cloudbeds and Lighthouse deepen their integration: Cloudbeds now feeds reservation, occupancy, rate, and revenue data directly into Lighthouse Performance and Lighthouse Distribution, so hotels get pickup, pace, and channel reports without manual spreadsheet work. [Link]
The two companies have partnered since 2023, and this expansion pushes that partnership closer.
🔌 Canary Technologies integrates with Daylight PMS: the connection links reservations, guest details, and payments so the guest journey feels connected before the guest even reaches the front desk. [Link]
It's a fairly standard PMS integration, positioned around smoother arrivals rather than any new capability.
🔌 Duve integrates with Expedia Group for guest messaging: Expedia messages now land directly in Duve's unified inbox alongside WhatsApp, SMS, email, Airbnb, and Booking. [Link]
JOB BOARD
💼 Staff Product Manager | Remote (based in the UK) | Mews.
💼 Account Executive DACH | Remote (based in Community of Madrid, Spain) | Lighthouse.
💼 Senior Mid-Market Implementation Manager | Remote (based in New York, NY) | Canary Technologies.
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