Fwd: What our top 50 articles reveal about 2025 — and what comes next

Dear reader, This is the final Hospitality.today newsletter of 2025. Thank
you for reading, sharing, and supporting the publication
throughout the year. This edition looks at the 50 most-read Hospitality.today
articles of 2025 and what they reveal about the year and the
choices facing hoteliers in 2026. Across the top 50 articles, several clear themes emerged: AI moved from experimentation to everyday use. The most-read articles focused on practical applications in
search, pricing, customer service, content, and internal
workflows. For hoteliers, the discussion shifted from whether
to use AI to where and how quickly to deploy it. Distribution continued to evolve. APIs, GDS developments, direct connectivity, and AI-driven
discovery featured prominently. The overall picture is a more
fragmented distribution landscape that requires clearer choices
rather than additional channels. Discovery changed. Interest grew in how AI-powered search and recommendation
systems affect hotel visibility. Being findable increasingly
depends on structured data, relevance, and context. Brand gained renewed importance. As acquisition costs rise and channels blur, brand clarity
supports pricing, loyalty, and long-term demand, particularly
for independent hotels. The guest journey became less linear. Guests move between platforms and devices, entering and exiting
the journey at different points. This pushes hotels to think
beyond linear funnels and focus on system-wide consistency. Simplicity emerged as an advantage. Many readers gravitated toward articles about reducing
complexity through fewer tools, better integration, and clearer
ownership. Taken together, the top 50 articles suggest that 2025 was a
year of understanding change. 2026 will be about execution,
especially in AI use, distribution strategy, brand positioning,
and organisational focus. Below is the full list of the 50 most-read Hospitality.today
articles of 2025. Thank you for being part of Hospitality.today. We look forward
to continuing the conversation in 2026. Warm regards, Markus