Hospitality — Google Inserts Itself Into Hotel Price Discovery as Loyalty Programs Evolve Into Commercial Engines and U.S. Hotel Owners Face Mounting Franchise Cost Pressure

Hospitality · 2026-04-17

TODAY'S SIGNAL — The distribution and commercial architecture of hospitality is shifting on multiple fronts simultaneously. Google's new individual hotel price-tracking alerts represent a quiet but consequential move: the company is building a persistent, personalized layer between hotels and travelers that could erode direct booking gains hotels have fought years to achieve. Meanwhile, new…