The Booking Was Never the Whole Battle. Now the Payment Is Moving Too.

by Are Morch | Sep 21, 2026 | Hotel AI Strategy

Mastercard and Trip.com just connected AI recommendations to completed purchases inside the OTA’s own environment. For independent hotels, being recommended is no longer enough if someone else offers the smoothest way to pay. A pattern is emerging in hotel AI...

AI Is Moving Too Fast, Even Its Own Creators Say So. Here Is Why That Makes Hotel Readiness a Must, Not a Maybe

by Are Morch | Sep 14, 2026 | Hotel AI Strategy

When the people building AI start asking the world to slow down, the safest place for a hotel to stand is not the comfort zone, and not the fear zone, but the one in between that almost nobody talks about. Something happened this month that should change how every...

AI Is About to Start Making Decisions in Your Hotel. Here Is the Question That Matters Before It Does.

by Are Morch | Sep 7, 2026 | Hotel AI Strategy

The industry is quietly crossing the line from AI that advises to AI that acts. The hotels that navigate it well will not be the ones that hand over the keys, or the ones that refuse to. For the last few years, AI in hotels has mostly been an advisor. It analyzed, it...

Google Just Started Booking Hotels Inside AI. Independent Hotels Were Not on the List.

by Are Morch | Aug 31, 2026 | Hotel AI Strategy

The transaction moved into the conversation this week. Here is what that means for a hotel that was not invited, and what to do about it. Something happened this week that I have been expecting for a while, and it still landed with more weight than I anticipated. On...

Why Your Hotel Ranks on Google but Vanishes in ChatGPT

by Are Morch | Aug 24, 2026 | Hotel AI Strategy

You checked your Google ranking, and it looks fine. Search your town plus “boutique hotel,” and there you are, on the first page, maybe near the top. So you assumed you were visible. Then you opened ChatGPT and asked it to recommend a boutique hotel in...