Here's our roundup of the people, product and partner news from the global travel industry this week.
This roundup was created with the assistance of Claude.
Katanox names Rob Torres chairman
Rob Torres has been named chairman of Katanox, deepening a relationship with the hospitality payments and distribution company he has been involved with since its early days.
Torres said hospitality bookings are becoming more connected and complex while financial infrastructure has not kept pace, and Katanox is building the layer to help businesses transact with more speed and control.
Airbnb names global head of public policy
Airbnb has named David Spielfogel global head of public policy.
Spielfogel spent nine years at Lime, most recently as chief business officer and previously advised Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at City Hall. CEO Brian Chesky said Spielfogel understands "both sides of the table" and can help Airbnb build lasting relationships with cities.
Spielfogel succeeds Jay Carney, who is departing the company but will remain through August to aid the transition and advise through year-end.
HBX Group, Sabre
HBX Group has partnered with Sabre to expand access to its global accommodation portfolio across Sabre's worldwide agency network. The deal brings 250,000 HBX Group properties into Sabre Mosaic Marketplace, and agencies with existing HBX Group credentials can continue using them via Sabre APIs without new technical setup.
RMS, TrustYou
RMS has partnered with TrustYou to integrate its property management system with TrustYou's customer data platform, creating a unified "golden profile" for each guest in real time.
The integration syncs booking, stay history and preference data from RMS with feedback, customer relationship management and marketing data from TrustYou, letting operators personalize offers and upgrades. Adam Seskis, CEO of RMS, said the tool gives front desk staff a real-time view of guests without switching between systems. Will Howes, TrustYou's VP for Asia-Pacific, said it turns scattered data into actionable guest intelligence.
Amex GBT launches Egencia AI connector
American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has launched an Egencia artificial intelligence (AI) connector in Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, letting travelers and enterprise AI agents book and manage policy-compliant air and hotel trips without leaving the tool.
The connector, one of the industry's first agentic integrations, runs on Amex GBT's new agent-to-agent architecture and will reach Egencia customers in the third quarter. Amex GBT is also expanding Egencia's conversational AI into Google Chat and piloting it in Microsoft Teams for Neo customers.
Travel Tech Associations' Start-Up Summit
Travel Tech Association has opened registration and pitch applications for its second annual Start-Up Summit, set for Oct. 14 at Concorde in National Landing in Arlington, Virginia.
The event connects emerging travel technology startups with investors, industry leaders and potential partners through a live pitch competition, a showcase option and general attendance. Finalists will present live and take part in a judge question and answer session, competing for a cash prize and added visibility. Pitch applications are due Sept. 1.
Atlas, Volaris
Atlas, a flight API for low-cost carrier retailing and fulfillment, has added Volaris, Volaris Costa Rica and Volaris El Salvador to its platform, giving travel sellers single-connection access to one of Latin America's largest ultra low-cost airline networks.
Clive Ashmore Butler, COO at Atlas, said the deal builds on the company's strategy to consolidate low-cost airline distribution onto one platform. Jorge García, Volaris' director of market development and cargo, said the partnership expands the carrier's visibility in new markets.
OneJourney, Managed Payment Services
OneJourney, an embedded payments and automation platform for hospitality, travel and mobility, has signed a referral partnership with Dublin-based Managed Payment Services (MPS), expanding OneJourney's European partner network.
Under the deal, MPS will introduce hospitality, travel and payments businesses across Ireland and the U.K. to OneJourney's embedded payment programs, including its SwiftPay platform. Brian Dass, founder and CEO of OneJourney, said the partnership taps MPS' relationships in the Irish hospitality market. Donough McGillycuddy, CEO of MPS, said it gives his network access to added profitability.
Hospitable integrates with Google Nest
Hospitable has become the first vacation rental property management system to natively integrate with Google Nest thermostats.
The integration automatically adjusts temperatures based on reservation status, warming or cooling homes before guest arrival and cutting energy use during vacancies, and joins existing support for Ecobee and Honeywell devices. More than 1,500 hosts have connected over 4,000 thermostats through Hospitable, generating over 191,000 automated adjustments to date. Pierre-Camille Hamana, CEO and founder of Hospitable, said climate control is the next task hosts are automating after messaging and pricing.
D-flo launches TravelComms Disruption Intelligence
D-flo has launched TravelComms Disruption Intelligence. The tool identifies operational disruption such as weather, geopolitical issues and outages and connects it to affected reservations and travelers, integrating with existing reservation and operational systems.
It flags relevant events, affected destinations, impacted travelers and required actions, so teams can prioritize and communicate faster. It can run standalone or with the TravelComms Platform.
WeatherMyTrip launches
WeatherMyTrip launched a platform that monitors weather at a traveler's destination and triggers proactive alerts plus concierge-assisted rebooking before departure.
Founded by travel technology veterans Jonny Levine, Jacopo Benedetti and Kasper Rasmussen, it embeds into existing booking flows via API for airlines, online travel agencies, tour operators and advisors. The company is backed by Blue Ribbon Bags Group, which also owns ancillary commerce platform TripAdd.