Hospitality — Hotel chains diverge on strategies as Whitbread initiates asset sale.

Hospitality · 2026-05-01

TODAY'S SIGNAL — The hospitality industry is being reshaped simultaneously from the top of the funnel and the bottom of the P&L. Google's AI Max is rewriting paid search for travel, stripping keyword-level control from advertisers just as AI Overviews cannibalize organic traffic — a double squeeze on hotel distribution economics. Meanwhile, Wyndham and the UAE government are betting that AI can…