Compiled by Benjamin Verot, Founder of &

Today, hoteliers are facing a seemingly never-ending series of distribution and revenue management challenges; from understanding how AI search and booking functionality will impact their direct bookings, to shortening booking windows, there are A LOT of questions and not a lot of answers.

So, to help hoteliers better understand the impact of the current global shift toward a shorter booking window, I’ve compiled advice from some of Lobby’s hospitality industry experts on the strategic and actionable steps hoteliers should take today to ensure they are competitive and profitable despite these changes…

Bart-Jan Leyts – Otamiser

“This shift toward shorter booking windows reflects a broader change in traveler behavior: people are more spontaneous and expect flexibility, which means operational updates must happen in real-time, as market conditions change. Visibility, pricing, and content need to adapt in real-time to capture last-minute demand, and technology is crucial in facilitating the necessary dynamism in hotels’ operations. Hotels that rely on static strategies will simply miss the booking window, literally.”

Jose Carlos Vazquez Gutierrez – Short-Term Rental Optimization Consultant

“For consumers, I think that the recent trend of shorter booking windows comes down to one simple fact: there are no real benefits to booking in advance, as consumers are now aware that inventory is perishable and that prices are likely to decrease as the arrival date approaches.

The best strategy to incentivize consumers to book their hotel earlier is to provide a real incentive to the guest for booking early and direct – be it a financial incentive (i.e., a discount that won’t be matched or beaten as the arrival date approaches) and/or a value add (i.e., free airport transport, free breakfast, free parking, etc.).”

Martin P. Coghlan - Focus Revenue Management

“Don’t overlook the importance of guest experience and reputation management in generating repeat bookings. It takes time, effort and is costly to source new business so it is very important to make sure your guest experience is flawless, from start to finish.

Always ask for guests’ contact info when they check-in to enable post-stay marketing efforts to satisfied guests, as those who have a positive stay will be your best champions and a fantastic way to drive bookings in periods of softer demand.”

Sarah Stahl – Market Movers LLC

“Hotels need to stop chasing guests based on short-term consumer booking trends and start proactively shaping long-term demand through consistent, creator-driven marketing. When you partner with creators regularly — not just as one-off collaborations — you create a constant stream of authentic storytelling that compounds over time to generate predictable bookings and sustainable demand.

Actionable steps for hoteliers:

• Build a consistent creator program (monthly or biweekly) rather than one-off influencer stays.
• Automate a lead capture + incentive system to turn social traffic into direct conversions.
• Use time-limited offers to create urgency while nurturing long-term brand loyalty; for one of my clients, this strategy converted 34% of leads within 18 hours of receiving the code.

The result? After two years, more than 93% of all bookings were coming through direct channels and many guests booked up to three months in advance.”

Matea Sragalj – Suite707

“Social media is the new booking engine. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are where those impulse decisions happen. TikTok sparks wanderlust (“I wish I were there this weekend”), Instagram converts it with flash sales and Stories, and Facebook’s targeting helps fill those last empty rooms.

To keep up, hotels should…

• Segment by lead time and origin: Reward advance planners and charm last-minute locals.
• Treat unsold rooms like expiring inventory: Run flash deals and “tonight-only” offers.
• Optimize your website to prioritize mobile-first bookings: M

Ultimately, success comes down to agility. The hotels that react fast, post strategically, and make booking via mobile effortless will turn this last-minute trend into real revenue.”

Manuel Kuckenberger – Hotel Tech Fixer

“1. Do. Not. Slash. Rates.

Yes, you’ve heard this before. And no, hotels don’t always listen, especially not when the STLY panic sets in.

2. Don’t let your RMS run wild in short windows

Configure guardrails or take manual control of your pricing, as it’s about not doing long-term damage.

3. Give your guests a third option (not just non-flexible or flexible rates)

Offer semi-flexible rates (i.e., 72h cancellation window) to drive early conversions, reduces cancellation regret and keeps your operational team out of refund debates.

4. Message them before they message you

Guests who booked 14 days ago are probably checking back 7 days before arrival to see if they can get a better deal; after all, many of these last-minute could just be travelers who are rebooking after spotting a rate-slasher?

Use your guest messaging tools to reassure them their rate is still the best or offer them a last chance to switch to non-flexible payment terms. You’ll protect your booking curve, reduce rebook churn, and maybe even secure payment, without ever touching your rates.”

Stefanie Händel – Simple Hotel Strategy

“As someone focused on revenue management and data-driven decision-making, I’d like to share my “first-aid” tips for hotels that may not yet be very tech-savvy but still want to adapt to the rise of last-minute bookings…

1. Review and adjust rates more often. Even without advanced software, checking nearby competitors’ prices daily or every few days and making small adjustments keeps you competitive.
2. Keep some rooms available for short-notice guests. Don’t sell out too far in advance – flexibility can pay off.
3. Add simple last-minute offers. A free breakfast or late checkout can motivate spontaneous travelers to book directly.
4. Communicate directly. Use social media or a short newsletter to promote last-minute deals – guests value the personal touch.
5. Track your own booking patterns. Even a simple spreadsheet helps you notice when bookings spike and plan smarter next time.

Small, consistent actions can make a big difference… no fancy tech required.”

Basile Jodeau – Operations & Revenue Management Consultant

“Here are actionable steps hoteliers can take to capture more last-minute reservations and drive direct revenue growth:

1. Google My Business Setup & Optimization:

• Create and fully optimize a Google My Business profile to boost local visibility and capture spontaneous search traffic.
• Use Google Posts and Q&A to share offers and highlight direct booking benefits.
• Connect Google Hotel Ads to enable real-time price comparison and frictionless booking.

2. Enhance Content & SEO for International Reach:

• Use dynamic SEO and image alt-texts with location-based keywords to improve ranking for “near me” searches.
• Simplify rate structures with both flexible and non-refundable options to appeal to last-minute travelers.
• Create exclusive packages (e.g., “weekend escape” or “local experience” bundles) unavailable on OTAs.
• Keep all pricing and booking conditions transparent to build trust and reduce hesitation.
• Offer travel insurance add-ons to reassure spontaneous bookers.

3. Refine Pricing & Promotions Strategy:

By combining visibility, trust, localization, and automation, hotels can remain competitive despite the shorter booking window, and convert spontaneity into opportunity!” 

Diogo Vaz Ferreira – Consultant in Digital Transformation & Commercial Performance

“Hoteliers need to consider two key points when establishing a strategy to accommodate this shift in consumer booking behavior…

Ways to drive more early bookings:

• Email targeting campaigns focusing on segments or markets that tend to book earlier (i.e., group bookings or other corporate committed allotments)
• Calendar driven campaigns with exclusive perks for specific periods well in advance
• More aggressive early booking discount and regressive (30% more than 90 days, 20% more than 60 days, etc.)
• Best price guarantee if book in advance 

How to remain competitive & attract as many last-minute bookers as possible:

• Prioritize mobile-first website design, due to higher share of mobile bookings done at the last minute
• Offer flash promotions and last-minute deals
• Retargeting campaigns to market to previous website visitors when approaching travel booking window 
• More active management on the RMS with alerts to reflect real-time demand
• Implement messaging to drive urgency (i.e., tags with number of rooms left, etc.)
• Geotargeted marketing focusing on neighboring regions and domestic market, who are more likely to plan to travel at the last-minute
• Partner with local events that will drive last-minute sales”

5 ways online training can attract and retain talent across all levels of the workforce

By Drew Smith

The hospitality industry is knee-deep in budgeting season, and there is no better time to begin equipping hotel teams with the right tools and knowledge to operate efficiently, deliver seamless guest experiences, and maintain brand consistency. One of the most essential components of workforce communication is the Learning Management System (LMS). Today’s technology providers are redefining the way hotel teams are continuously trained, and new, intuitive tools contained within modern LMSs are gaining traction across the industry.

Because hotel operations are inherently complex, with multiple departments working together in real time, communication needs to be consistent and error-free. But high turnover rates and language barriers can make that a challenge. This is where user-friendly training tools become invaluable.

Benefits of Online Training

Online training enables management and Human Resources teams to onboard new staff quickly while reinforcing consistent procedures across departments. Using a self-guided, online training portal, operators can introduce team members to workforce automation tools, enabling them to learn at their own pace. This is especially helpful for properties that have frequent new hires or seasonal workers, as it minimizes downtime and ensures employees are up to speed quickly.

With an online learning hub, managers can assign role-specific training modules and track progress. Staff can complete interactive tutorials, watch video walkthroughs, and access support resources from any device. This flexibility is crucial in an environment where people are constantly on the move and may only have short windows for training.

An intuitive interface, real-world application examples, and the thoughtful design of training content are key to success. Many companies feature generic or overly technical documentation. This is not beneficial; staff want tools that are practical, visual, and written in hospitality-friendly language. Seek out a platform with role-specific training paths — for instance, front desk agents and engineers see only the tools they’ll use relevant to their tasks.

Training materials should contain real-time learning and continuous updates to reflect system enhancements and new features. Users should not be left to figure out changes on their own; new tutorials should be rolled out in tandem with software updates, ensuring no one is left behind.

Make Training Fun

Research shows that gamification is one of the most successful methods for motivating employees to actively participate in training. This process turns learning into a game by assigning points or badges to employees as different training levels are completed. Rather than perceiving training as a mandatory task, gamification makes it interactive, enjoyable, and goal-driven.

As people climb up the leaderboard, they gain recognition from their peers and managers. This can foster friendly competition and encourage continuous improvement. Instead of training being perceived as passive or mandatory, gamification makes learning fun, and it fosters friendly competition and peer recognition. By encouraging continuous improvement and recognizing effort with certifications, everyone wins. Employees stay motivated throughout the learning path. The organization achieves higher course completion rates. And certification feels like a reward and recognition of effort, not just a compliance requirement.

Meeting People Where They Are

People want to learn on their own schedule without lengthy in-person sessions. Managers, too, appreciate the ability to track completion and ensure accountability. Equipping staff with training tools that are simple, clear, and accessible is key. Multilingual support and mobile accessibility also help overcome language and device barriers, further simplifying training across diverse teams. In an industry where time, clarity, and consistency are everything, easy-to-use training tools are proving to be a game-changer.

Here are 5 ways online training can attract and retain talent across all levels of the workforce:

1. Streamlines Onboarding with Speed and Consistency

The initial phase of learning on the job can be overwhelming. Online training allows new team members to:

·   Start learning immediately — even before their first day.

·   Learn at their own pace, revisiting content as necessary without feeling rushed.

·   Access standardized, consistent information across all departments and properties.

·   Receive role-specific training — focusing only on what’s relevant to their job from day one.

New hires should be able to receive role-specific guidance through step-by-step tutorials, videos, and knowledge checks. This eliminates the guesswork, reduces the burden on managers for in-person instruction, and allows employees to build confidence faster.

2. Enhances Flexibility and Accessibility

Online training meets employees where they are:

·   It’s mobile-friendly, so staff can train during downtime or from different locations.

·   It supports multiple languages, making it inclusive for diverse workforces.

·   It offers visual and interactive content, which is easier to absorb than text-heavy manuals.

This flexibility is especially attractive to younger workers and tech-savvy employees who expect digital tools to be part of the workplace. It also removes barriers for those with non-traditional learning styles or limited prior training experience.

3. Attracts Talent with a Professional, Supportive Environment

Today’s workforce — particularly Millennials and Gen Z — looks for companies that invest in their development from day one. A strong online training program signals that the employer:

·   Values employee success and growth

·   Provides structured support for advancement

·   Cares about making work easier and more rewarding

By promoting these training tools during recruitment and orientation, hotels can differentiate themselves in a competitive labor market and appeal to workers seeking a long-term opportunity.

4. Increase Retention by Reducing Frustration and Burnout

When employees are properly trained and feel equipped to do their jobs, they’re more likely to:

·   Perform better, with fewer mistakes

·   Feel confident and empowered, leading to greater job satisfaction

·   Stay longer, because they’re less stressed or confused by unclear expectations

Online training helps employees continuously develop their skills. Access to resources and updates keeps teams engaged, reducing turnover caused by frustration or lack of support.

5. Supports Managers and Improves Team Integration

Online platforms enable managers to:

·   Monitor training progress and completion

·   Identify knowledge gaps early

·   Onboard multiple people simultaneously without overwhelming supervisors

·   Ensure employees are equipped to use tools effectively, maximizing the company’s investment in technology.

This makes the integration of new hires into the team smoother, more scalable, and more effective, improving morale and collaboration for everyone.

The bottom line is this: Today’s Learning Management Systems ease onboarding by making it faster, clearer, and more accessible while also helping employers attract forward-thinking talent and retain workers through ongoing support and development. It is not just a training tool — it’s a strategic advantage.

Agentic Hospitality’s Brad Brewer to explain why these three actions are essential for hotels seeking to thrive in the AI era at Destination AI Conference next week in Washington, D.C.

[LOUISVILLE, Ky.––September 23, 2025]––Hotels are at a crossroads. For decades, they’ve leaked valuable guest data, surrendered the booking journey to third-party platforms, and watched lifetime loyalty slip away. At the , Brad Brewer, Co-Founder and Chief AI Officer of , will deliver a keynote showing how hotels can break free with three simple but powerful actions: Retain. Reclaim. Reinforce.

In a session titled, Agentic Hotel Distribution: Owning the AI Era of Travel, Brewer will outline a protocol-first vision powered by the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to help hotels:

• Retain the conversion details they’ve been giving away for decades. Hotels leak their most valuable data daily—guest intent, cart actions, loyalty behavior—while OTAs monetize it. Agentic AI ensures hotels own every click, query, and preference.

“It’s like keeping the blueprint of your customer instead of letting someone else sell it back to you,” Brewer says.

• Reclaim the guest journey from intermediaries. AI-native orchestration puts the booking button back on the hotel’s surface, giving guests personalized, loyalty-aware journeys instead of generic OTA funnels.

“This isn’t about another widget or chatbot. It’s about reclaiming the journey from discovery to checkout,” Brewer says.

• Reinforce direct bookings by building loyalty and lifetime value at scale. Every interaction becomes fuel for upsells, repeat visits, and loyalty growth, strengthening hotels’ long-term resilience.

“Direct bookings aren’t just more profitable — they’re the foundation of lifetime value,” Brewer says.

 is the inventor of. He has more than 20 years of experience in travel tech and AI, and he pioneered theto help hotels bypass traditional online travel agencies (OTA’s) for direct, personalized revenue. His company, Agentic Hospitality, is redefining hotel distribution for the AI era with protocol-first infrastructure that empowers properties to regain control of guest data and booking channels. Its flagship platforms—the Agentic Hospitality Cloud and —equip hotels of any size to compete with global OTAs and reclaim ownership of their guest relationships.

“When hotels retain the signals, reclaim the journey, and reinforce their own booking channels, they move from dependency to resilience,” Brewer says. “That’s the only way to win in the AI-native travel landscape.”

The next era of hotel distribution won’t be won by OTAs or legacy systems. It will be owned by hotels that embrace Agentic AI. In this Destination AI session, attendees will discover how AI-native surfaces, loyalty portability, and regulatory shifts are creating a rare opening for hotel independence. Real-world examples, including —a catalyst of Agentic Hospitality—will illustrate how even small properties can now compete head-to-head with global platforms.

Vital Prediction

“By 2026, an independent hotel—not Marriott, Hilton, or Expedia—will be the first to reach one billion loyalty-aware interactions, powered by open MCP distribution and personalization at web scale,” Brewer says.

His three-step call to action for hoteliers is clear:

1. Adopt MCP to make (ARI) universally accessible and AI-ready.
2. Deploy for hotels and resorts to deliver contextual, loyalty-aware booking flows.
3. Apply the Agentic Hospitality three R’s to break OTA dependency and build resilience.

“Hotels that act now will own the AI era of travel. Those that wait will fund the intermediaries of the next 20 years,” Brewer says.

To learn more about Agentic Hospitality and its flexible deployment-as-a-service models, Tag Manager enabled AI assistants, and AgentSite, visit

This month in Washington, D.C., , Co-Founder and Chief AI Officer of , will deliver a stern warning to hoteliers: “Seize agentic hotel distribution now and become indispensable, or don’t, and remain invisible.”

In a presentation at the titled: “Agentic Hotel Distribution: Owning the AI Era of Travel,” Brewer will explore how autonomous AI agents, real-time personalization, and structured hotel data are reshaping distribution, loyalty, and profitability for the next decade. He will challenge hoteliers to confront the seismic shift underway in travel distribution as booking migrates from websites and apps to AI-native platforms. He also will discuss how hotels can build an AI-native commerce layer today that will become the default layer for all future bookings.

“Travel is shifting from websites and apps to AI-native surfaces where the conversation is the booking,” Brewer said. “AI is not an add-on—it’s infrastructure. And if hotels don’t own it, they won’t survive. With new , travel preferences will only need to be set once, and the web will adapt around them. Every rate, room, local activity, and perk will be filtered through persistent, personalized logic. Hotels that act now can anchor that experience in their own AI stack. Those that don’t will hand off the guest journey to third parties.” 

Brewer, a hospitality technology innovator, is transforming how hotels and resorts compete in the AI era. He has more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of travel, AI, and structured data, and has pioneered agentic AI systems that give hoteliers control of their agentic hotel distribution, loyalty, and guest personalization. A recognized industry voice, Brewer led critical contributions to Schema.org standards for hospitality, ensuring hotels and resorts could surface rich, AI-readable data across search and booking platforms. Under his leadership, Brewer launched the TravelOS Model Context Protocol (MCP) and —tools that were inspired by the need for direct conversational commerce and loyalty-aware AI personalization among Brewer Digital clients such as global travel brands Travel + Leisure Co., Drury Hotels, Red Lion Hotels, and G6 Hospitality. 

In his presentation, Brewer will:

• Trace the industry’s reliance on the OTA XML standard in 1999 that handed Expedia, Booking, and Google effective control of hotel distribution. Today, OTAs and Google capture more than 60 percent of hotel digital demand, leaving hoteliers burdened with high commissions, little ownership of guest data, and weakened loyalty.
• Unveil a NEW playbook — powered by Agentic Hospitality’s AI-native infrastructure — that gives hotels the ability to reclaim the guest journey. By leveraging Model Context Protocol (MCP) and AgentSite endpoints, hotels can capture guest intent, score and route that intent with SAR + MCP’s Intent Matrix, and seamlessly convert queries into direct bookings, upsells, and loyalty engagements.
• Highlight the aggregator MCP story as a real-world example of orchestration in action.
• Share findings from Universal Orlando Resorts, one of the world’s most competitive resort markets. Despite millions invested in guest experience, Universal was found to be missing essential structured data — including LodgingBusiness, HotelRoom, Offer, and Review schema — as well as real-time inventory, rates, and availability markup. The result: AI systems cannot “see” their offers, forcing AI-native queries like “show me Orlando suites near Volcano Bay with family perks” to default to OTAs. Ads control search today; it's broken and hotels have given up on paid-to-play.
• Explain how Agentic Hospitality protects hotels in the AI era: shielding profitability by blocking high OTA commissions, safeguarding guest data for long-term marketing and engagement, and restoring loyalty by enabling hotels to fully own repeat business and direct bookings.
• Argue that new regulatory frameworks, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), are not working with suppliers; rather they are causing chaos and change by gatekeepers in the European Union, further disrupting the OTA and Google duopoly and opening new opportunities for hotels to reclaim share. It’s time for a course correction—one that actually protects suppliers, not gatekeepers and intermediaries.

“AI-native infrastructure is the North Star for hotels,” Brewer said. “Without it, hoteliers will always be renting their guests from someone else. I encourage all Destination AI attendees to join the movement to own the AI era of travel. We’ve already done it for Brewer Digital clients Wyndham and the Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa. The next success story could be yours.”

To learn more about Agentic Hospitality and its flexible deployment-as-a-service models, visit