Innovation

📍 NUMA Group has launched "Native by Numa" to expand its hospitality brand across Europe. The Berlin-based group targets urban markets like Rome, Paris, and Athens, focusing on properties with 80-300 units. Their digital model automates 90% of operations, enhancing profitability and guest experience. NUMA operates 10,000 units in 42 cities across 15 countries, with assets over €2.5bn. Their gross operating profit margins are 55–60%. "Native by Numa" currently has 20 properties and 1,000 signed units in the UK.

🛌 Aimbridge Hospitality, based in Plano, Texas, highlighted its growth strategy at the Lodging Conference on October 6. Chris O’Donnell was named president of select service, while Allison Handy became chief commercial officer. Aimbridge is managing the 150-room VOCO Kissimmee Orlando and will oversee Nashville's tallest tower, featuring 400 rooms, opening in 2028. The company's new All-Inclusive Division signed two properties in the Dominican Republic. Investments in AI tools and career advancement initiatives are enhancing operational excellence and staff retention.

🛒 OpenAI's Instant Checkout, launched in October 2025, enables over 1 million Shopify merchant purchases (e.g., Glossier, Skims, Spanx, Vuori) directly within ChatGPT, revolutionizing e-commerce. This frictionless process eliminates redirects and abandoned carts, offering AI-powered discovery and conversational commerce. Users can describe needs, and ChatGPT suggests and completes purchases. This could redefine e-commerce, challenging platforms like Amazon by merging AI assistance with shopping in a seamless experience.

💻 Hotels must adapt to AI-driven guest behavior changes quickly. Guests now demand immediacy, conversational interfaces, and multilingual support. Voice messaging is becoming standard, and personalization, proactivity, and trust are crucial. AI agents can deliver 24/7 service across platforms like WhatsApp, but require accurate information from hoteliers. Websites need to evolve into intelligent assistants. Legacy systems may struggle unless they integrate AI. The shift is rapid; hotels need to act now to remain competitive.

💻 Last month, Skift Global Forum hosted a discussion between Booking Holdings and Dennis Schaal about the transformative impact of generative AI on travel planning and booking. Early AI implementations have enhanced customer experiences, pushing the “Connected Trip” concept from vision to reality. Booking Holdings aims to optimize supplier relationships, like hotels and car rentals, by leveraging AI for personalized marketing and seamless travel adjustments, aiming to surpass competitors with superior service offerings.

💰 English Lakes Hotels Resorts and Venues now accepts Bitcoin payments for booking rooms and services at locations like Low Wood Bay Resort and Spa. The shift aims to attract the global Bitcoin user market, leveraging CoinCorner's digital currency exchange system. This strategic move aims to grow international bookings and build a Bitcoin treasury. Director Ben Berry notes benefits like avoiding bank fees and mitigating price volatility for international customers, enhancing payment speed and convenience.

🚀 OpenAI's launch of Apps inside ChatGPT revolutionizes travel interaction, integrating platforms like Expedia and Booking.com. Travelers can directly book hotels, such as finding options in Vienna with EV charging, through conversational AI. This shift towards frictionless, context-aware personalization could diminish hotels' direct relationships unless they integrate. The entities controlling guest data will dominate loyalty and upselling. Onsai empowers hotels with AI-driven experiences, ensuring they maintain brand control amidst this transformative shift in hospitality.

✈️ Travel Ads, powered by Smart+, are TikTok's catalog-based solutions for travel advertisers, promoting hotels, flights, and destinations. TikTok supports three travel catalog types: Flights, Hotels, and Destination (beta). Creative formats include Single Video, Catalog Video, and Catalog Carousel. These ads utilize TikTok's travel intent model to target high-intent audiences, enhancing engagement and performance.

📈 In September 2025, Apaleo launched the MCP server, becoming the first property management platform to connect AI agents with hotel systems, unveiled at The Annual Hospitality Conference in Manchester. MCP simplifies hotel operations by allowing AI agents to handle tasks in hours instead of weeks. This advancement moves hotels from automation to autonomy. Apaleo's new Agent Factory lets hotels co-design AI agents. MCP empowers independent hotels, enabling rapid innovation and competitive equality.