The Revination
September 2026
Explore Revinate’s monthly digest of hospitality’s latest insights and tips. As hoteliers, we know you’re flooded with information. The Revination simplifies that noise, making it easier for you to focus on what’s happening in hospitality, why it matters, and what action you can take today. We also share our perspective on industry trends and highlighting the strategies driving game-changing results for hotels like yours. Subscribe on LinkedIn.
Your next direct booking is closer than you think
Hotels don’t have a demand problem. They have a capture problem.
Every day, hotels work hard to bring new travelers through the door. They invest in marketing, compete for visibility on OTAs, and fight for attention in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
But here’s the thing: Some of your best opportunities aren’t strangers at all.
They’re already in your ecosystem.
Past guests. Website visitors. OTA bookers. Guests who abandoned a reservation. Loyal travelers. High-value segments. People who have shown interest but haven’t booked yet.
The data is already there. The real superpower is knowing what to do with it.
When you understand who your guests are, what they value, when they’re likely to return, and which message or offer is most relevant, you turn insight into action and action into revenue.
And that changes the direct-booking equation.
The path to more direct revenue doesn’t always start with finding more people.
Sometimes, it starts with activating what you already know.
Numbers that matter
Your next direct booking might start with an OTA
In the first half of 2026, 18% of travelers who started their hotel search on an OTA ultimately booked direct with the hotel.
That sounds like the opposite of what you may think, but the reality is OTAs can win the discovery moment without winning the reservation. The opportunity for hoteliers is to give those travelers a reason to make the final click to your website and book direct.
Why it matters for hoteliers
Your guest’s booking journey rarely starts and ends in one place.
A traveler might discover your hotel on an OTA, check out your reviews, visit your website, compare options, and ultimately book direct. So while OTAs are often seen as the competition for direct bookings, they can also be part of the path that gets guests to you.
That makes every step of the journey matter.
Your website needs to do more than display a room and a rate. It needs to give travelers a reason to choose your hotel, and a reason to book with you.
The bigger opportunity is understanding what guests need at each stage, then using those insights to turn discovery into a direct relationship.
What’s Revinate’s take?
The guest relationship is the real prize.
The more you understand your guests, the better you can create relevant experiences that move them from browsing to booking, and from booking to coming back.
An OTA might introduce a guest to your hotel. Your job is to give them a reason to choose you.
That starts with putting guest data to work across the journey, not just at the point of booking.
Trends that matter
AI is becoming the new front door to hotel discovery
AI is moving beyond a research tool and becoming part of how travelers decide where to stay. Instead of simply searching for hotels, travelers can ask AI to recommend properties based on their preferences, trip, budget, and priorities.
That means the hotel discovery battle may happen before a traveler ever reaches Google, an OTA, or your website.
Your opportunity? Make sure AI can discover your hotel, understand what makes it different, and send travelers your way.
Why it matters for hoteliers
The hotel discovery journey is changing.
AI is becoming another layer between travelers and hotel brands, helping narrow thousands of options down to a few recommendations. Big brands are already investing in AI-ready brands, partnerships with AI platforms, and generative engine optimization to improve how their properties show up in AI-driven discovery.
For hoteliers, that raises a new question: Can AI understand what makes your hotel worth recommending?
Your website content, reviews, ratings, brand story, and guest feedback all contribute to the picture AI sees. And as AI plays a bigger role in trip planning, being discoverable is only the beginning.
The goal is to make your hotel compelling enough to earn the next click, and ultimately, the booking.
Make the discovery. Earn the click. Own the booking.
What’s Revinate’s take?
Great guest relationships start with understanding what guests actually value.
That matters even more as AI changes how travelers discover hotels. Your reputation, guest feedback, and the experiences you deliver all help tell your story.
You can’t control every recommendation AI makes. But you can control the experience behind your brand, learn from what guests are telling you, and use those insights to make your hotel easier to understand and easier to choose.
Perspectives that matter
Every reservation conversation contains valuable guest data. But if that information stays trapped in the phone call, hotels lose more than a booking opportunity. They lose the chance to personalize the next interaction, strengthen the guest relationship, and drive future revenue. Find out where the data leak happens and how to close the gap.
AI can analyze the data. It can automate the workflow. It can help us move faster. But hospitality is still human. In this episode of Hotel Moment, we explore how hotel brands can embrace AI without losing the authentic voice and human connection that make a guest experience memorable.
Revenue doesn’t always require a brand-new channel. Sometimes, the biggest opportunity is hiding in the channels you already have. Auberge Collection combined voice and email to drive $15.7M in direct revenue, showing what can happen when guest data, personalization, and commercial teams work together. That’s not just revenue. That’s a commercial superpower.