🛎️ The next OTA looks conversational

Welcome to RemoteHotelier!

What if the next OTA isn’t a website at all? With Booking.com and Expedia moving inside ChatGPT, the way guests search and book hotels might change faster than we think. The question is: who will own the guest?

In today’s newsletter:

💻 The next OTA might not look like an OTA

🛏️ Small hotels are stuck on autopilot

💡 The new face of hotel upselling

🏨 + 6 deals & updates

💼 + 4 new jobs in hotel tech

🗞️ + 4 hotel tech extra news

#1 The next OTA might not look like an OTA.

Booking.com and Expedia now run interactive apps inside ChatGPT, letting users search and book hotels directly through OpenAI’s ecosystem.

• Users can get hotel, travel and flight information without switching platforms or downloading additional apps.

• Expedia’s app within ChatGPT can offer real-time hotel availability, pricing, and suggestions tailored to the user’s prompts.

• Booking.com’s integration focuses on simplifying discovery, helping users refine searches through conversational filters.

• Growing travel partnerships suggest more companies might launch apps inside ChatGPT soon.

• For hospitality companies, it’s a chance to reach customers where they already chat and plan, without requiring extra logins.

Why this matters: Hotels could benefit if these integrations bring visibility without more commissions, but that’s a big if. When guests start to book rooms through ChatGPT, we might need to rethink the definition of what an OTA is.

#2 Small hotels are stuck on autopilot.

According to this research, only 16% of small hotels focus on guest acquisition. Most prioritize daily operations, and they lack tech adoption for booking growth anyway.

• Nearly half of small hoteliers spend more time on operations than on attracting new guests.

• 40% of hotel owners say they lack tech knowledge to improve guest acquisition.

• 29% still use static room pricing, missing out on dynamic market adjustments.

Why this matters: Naturally, if your time is consumed by running operations, growth goes to a second place. There’s simply no room for creativity, and for a good reason. It’s not that small hotels don’t care about tech, it’s that no one’s showing them where to start.

#3 The new face of hotel upselling.

Plusgrade acquires Oaky to deliver a unified upselling solution, giving hotels new ways to boost ancillary revenue and personalize the guest journey.

• Oaky’s automation helps hotels boost incremental revenue with upsell offers like early check-ins and room upgrades.

• This partnership is oriented to offer broader distribution and advanced experimentation tools for improving upsell campaigns.

• The move creates stronger competition in the upselling technology space.

• Oaky’s CEO (Erik Tengen) will take on the role of president of the hospitality upsell unit at Plusgrade, ensuring product continuity and vision alignment.

• Connecting upselling to loyalty programs is part of the long-term strategic vision.

Why this matters: Upselling works best when it feels natural, not forced. This deal might push smaller vendors to specialize and integrate faster, raising the bar for personalization in hotel tech.

THE RESOURCE HUB

• 📍 Next Event: Independent Hotel Show Munich (29–30 October 2025).

• 📅 2025/2026 hotel tech event calendar.

• 💼 Hotel tech companies offering remote jobs.

• 💻 Cloud PMS comparison spreadsheet.

🏨 DEALS & UPDATES

• RateGain acquires Sojern for $250 million. The plan is to help improving marketing for over 13,000 hotel and travel clients and strengthen its leadership in the hospitality technology industry.

• Sabre rolls out a chargeback solution with Chargebacks911, streamlining dispute resolution for travel companies. The tool automates this process into a single interface within Sabre Direct Pay.

• Expedia partners with Perplexity to launch Comet, a browser that can perform travel assistant tasks. The collaboration combines natural language search, trip planning, and booking in one interface. This is part of Expedia’s broader push to integrate agentic AI into travel planning.

• HBX Group launches an AI voice solution with Ayesa, automating over 30% of customer requests. They want to boost support speed and satisfaction across travel tech channels.

• Safara partners with Hotels Above Par to offer booking access and perks at over 500 boutique hotels. They blend curated editorial content with technology for guests who look for beautiful hotel design.

• Brøchner Hotels, with six hotels and around 500 rooms, partners with Canary Technologies to offer mobile check-in, real-time messaging, and automation.

💼 HOTEL TECH JOB BOARD

• Senior Account Manager, Global Franchise | Remote (based in Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, or France) | Mews.

• Account Executive - Italian Speaker | Remote (based in Spain or Italy) | Mews.

• Sales Executive - Independent Hotels (German Speaker) | Remote (based in Barcelona, Spain) | Lighthouse.

• Sales Enablement Manager EMEA | Remote (based in Spain) | Lighthouse.

🗞️ HOTEL TECH EXTRAS

• This project management tool has helped Hyatt open their 200th hotel, streamlining 211 hotel launches so far with 180 checklists for local compliance, boosting operational efficiency and brand standards worldwide.

• A report from Cloudbeds and h2c shows 78% of hotel chains use AI, but only 6% have a strategy.

• According to Amadeus, AI use for travel planning increased by 64%, with travelers increasingly favoring tech solutions like remote check-in and biometric gateways to reduce friction.

• Pacaso launches a luxury rental model, and aims to expand its offerings for renters seeking exclusive vacation homes.

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See you next week!
Jose