Lodging Lowdown: Mews launches POS in North America, Borgata announces $107M tower renovation project
This week's hotel industry highlights: Mews launches POS system in North America; Borgata announces $107 million tower renovation; Hotel Equities partners with Lodgic Hospitality to manage three Austin hotels.
Lodging Lowdown: Mews launches POS in North America, Borgata announces $107M tower renovation project
This week's hotel industry highlights: Mews launches POS system in North America; Borgata announces $107 million tower renovation; Hotel Equities partners with Lodgic Hospitality to manage three Austin hotels.
Travel CEOs meet with Trump to encourage international travel after World Cup
The US Travel Association said hotel and tourism executives met with President Trump at the White House to discuss measures to attract more international visitors. Association CEO Geoff Freeman called for leveraging the momentum of the World Cup and the America250 celebration to strive for 100 million international visitors annually by 2030, stating this would bring $81 billion in additional spending and over 400,000 jobs.
Crowne Plaza Manhattan Times Square opens after renovation
InterContinental Hotels Group's Crowne Plaza brand reopened its flagship property in New York's Times Square on September 2 — the fully renovated Crowne Plaza Manhattan Times Square. The 22-story, 685-room hotel, developed by Qatar's Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company and managed by Highgate, previously operated as The Manhattan at Times Square.
Half of Air Travelers Would Switch Airlines Over a Carry-On Fee; Service Reputation Is the Only Premium Driver | Hotel Dive
Sogolytics released its report "Non-Negotiables in Hospitality Customer Experience," based on a survey of 1,003 American adults, finding that air travel is the most price-sensitive category, with 62% of travelers favoring the lowest fare; nearly two-thirds of travelers (64%) expect free carry-on bags, and 50% would switch airlines due to the fee. Service reputation is the only metric ranking in the top three premium drivers across all three industries, while high ratings did not enter the top five.
Cloudbeds Unveils Major Platform Upgrades Across Revenue, Operations, Data Intelligence, and AI Capabilities | Hotel Dive
Hotel management system provider Cloudbeds announced on June 8, 2026, a series of new platform features covering group sales, direct booking, operational workflows, accounting infrastructure, business intelligence, and conversational AI. The release, described by the company as one of its most comprehensive product expansions to date, includes Groups & Events, Spaces, an immersive booking engine, an updated calendar, Cloudbeds Accounting, enhanced Data Insights, and an early preview of Ask Signals.
Lighthouse Launches Ernest, the AI Teammate That Transforms General AI into Hospitality Performance | Hotel Dive
Lighthouse, a commercial operations platform for the travel and hospitality industry, announced the launch of an AI colleague named Ernest, positioned as a new member of commercial teams, aimed at connecting cutting-edge general AI models with hotel-specific data, systems, and decision-making scenarios. Ernest provides three core capabilities: cross-platform intelligence integration, next-step action recommendations, and automated execution based on preset guardrails, and supports integration with over 500 existing hotel platforms. The product is now available in beta to select customers and is planned to expand globally within 2026.
Canary Technologies Launches Agentic Sales Coordinator for Hotel Group and Event Sales | Hotel Dive
On June 15, 2026, Canary Technologies released Agentic Sales Coordinator, a product based on Canary AI built specifically for the hospitality industry, which automatically handles the sales process from initial inquiry to confirmed booking, helping hotel sales teams reduce administrative burden, improve lead response speed, and increase deal closure opportunities. The product will be officially unveiled at the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference and HITEC 2026.
Lighthouse and Bowerbird Technologies give hotels the first end-to-end solution to rate parity | Hotel Dive
Lighthouse and Bowerbird Technologies announced a partnership to deliver the first end-to-end rate parity solution for global hotel groups. The solution combines Lighthouse's AI-driven Parity Insight real-time monitoring with Bowerbird's copyright enforcement capabilities, forming a "detect-remove-protect" closed loop. In a Radisson Hotel Group pilot, all targeted unauthorized sellers were removed, rate parity losses decreased by approximately 25%, and the Parity Meet rate improved by 20%.