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.
Eviivo, Mr & Mrs Smith
Eviivo has added a channel integration with Mr & Mrs Smith, allowing properties in the boutique travel club's curated portfolio to manage availability, rates and reservations directly through Eviivo's property management system (PMS).
Eligible properties can sync rates in real time, with bookings automatically imported into Eviivo alongside other channels. For independent luxury operators, the partnership reflects a broader move toward selective distribution over mass online travel agency (OTA) exposure.
Yotel names COO, promotions
Yotel has appointed Paul Harnedy as COO and promoted two senior leaders as the hospitality brand plans to triple its portfolio by 2031.
Harnedy joins from Cedar Capital Partners, where he served as EVP and head of asset management. His previous roles include serving as COO and managing director at Amaris Hospitality, VP of operations at Interstate Hotels & Resorts and in operations director positions at InterContinental Hotels Group and RBH.
Michael Whitehead has been promoted to SVP of people, talent and learning. Ryan Dance has been promoted to SVP of commercial strategy.
OwlTing Group launches booking engine agent
Blockchain company OwlTing Group has announced the upcoming launch of OwlPay Booking Engine for Agent Checkout, a hospitality booking engine designed to support artificial intelligence (AI) agent-initiated bookings and payments, with rollout expected in June 2026.
The service integrates booking confirmation, AI agent-authorized payment and cross-border supplier settlement into a single pathway. OwlTing plans to onboard its existing 2,800-plus hotel clients through its OwlNest PMS at launch.
IHG launches ChatGPT app
IHG Hotels & Resorts has launched an app in ChatGPT that lets users search and compare its more than 7,000 hotels across 100-plus countries, with real-time availability and pricing surfaced directly in the interface.
Conversational search is also coming to IHG.com and the IHG One Rewards app. The moves are part of IHG's broader AI strategy targeting guest experience and hotel performance.
D-edge recruits CRO
D-edge has appointed Frédéric Kingue Johnson as chief revenue officer, joining the executive committee with responsibility for sales, marketing and customer success.
Kingue Johnson joins from Contentsquare, where he spent eleven years, most recently as general manager for Southern Europe. He is also a board advisor and early-stage investor in around ten French software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. D-edge's platform combines a central reservation system (CRS), customer relationship management (CRM), digital marketing and data intelligence, processing several billion euros in hotel transactions annually.
Shiji, Omniboost
Shiji has partnered with Omniboost to connect its Daylight PMS with a range of point of sale (POS) and accounting platforms via Omniboost's data integration layer.
The integration supports both application program interface (API)-based connections and structured file exports to accounting systems, and synchronizes room charge and closed bill data between POS and PMS. The stated goal is reducing manual reconciliation and simplifying what is typically a complex, fragmented integration process across hotel tech stacks.
Airbnb's Earnings Protection
Airbnb has launched Earnings Protection, an optional income insurance product for U.S. hosts, developed in partnership with MIC Global. It is currently available in 45 states, with full U.S. rollout planned for early 2027.
The product pays out when external factors—severe weather or property damage—prevent hosts from taking bookings. Payouts are calculated using each listing's historical average earnings rather than a flat rate. It sits alongside AirCover, Airbnb's existing built-in host protection, which remains automatic and free.
Eligibility requires hosts to have five or fewer listings, 50+ nights reserved in the past year, at least one year of hosting history, and Automated Clearing House (ACH) as a payout method.
Intuitive's Universal API
Intuitive has launched a Universal API for iVector, its travel reservation platform used by tour operators and OTAs, opening the platform's full functionality—booking logic, supplier connectivity, pricing, inventory, contracts and MI data—through a single API layer.
The stated goal is enabling both AI-assisted tooling for internal teams and agentic automation of operational workflows such as invoice matching, stop-sale management and contracting. The API is documented for both human developers and AI consumption.
Intuitive positions this as a direct response to two trends: AI compressing software development timelines and the emergence of agentic capabilities that can handle complex operational tasks end-to-end.
Entravel acquires Moca Traveltech
Entravel Group has acquired Barcelona-based B2B travel startup Moca Traveltech Group, which will rebrand as MocatravelX and operate as Entravel's fourth division.
Founded in January 2025 and led by former Trip.com Group B2B hotel distribution director Alex Pedret, Moca built 100+ API integrations and direct hotel contracts across Spain and Latin America. Entravel's stated rationale is access to relationships and contracts in Spanish-speaking markets that its own platform couldn't reach organically.
Post-acquisition, MocatravelX gains Entravel's distribution infrastructure and AI-driven room mapping. Pedret remains CEO.
Phunware appoints CEO
Phunware has appointed Dmitry Kroshka as CEO, replacing interim CEO Jeremy Krol, who returns to the COO role. Kroshka has been advising the company since October 2025.
Kroshka will lead the company's 2.0 strategy, which aims to unify mobile engagement, indoor location and behavioral data into a single AI platform, with hospitality and healthcare as primary verticals. Its AI Concierge product integrates generative AI with blue-dot wayfinding, on-property mapping and points of interest. Agentic itinerary planning and booking capabilities are in development. The company intends to extend the platform into additional large-property enterprise verticals as the product matures.
InterLnkd launches ancillary upsell platform
InterLnkd has launched Nexora, a platform designed to help airlines and inflight connectivity providers sell ancillary products and services during flights.
The platform combines supplier content across categories including experiences, dining, transport, connectivity and lodging, then uses personalization signals such as route, cabin and loyalty status to rank offers for passengers. The company said the it is designed to work in both full Wi-Fi and closed onboard network environments.
123Compare.me launches hotel rate benchmarking report
123Compare.me has launched WPM Hotel Price Check, a monthly report designed to help hotels compare their direct rates against online travel agencies and metasearch platforms.
The report is based on the company's Beat, Meet and Lose metric, which measures how often a hotel's direct rate is lower than, equal to or higher than intermediary prices. Hotels receive property-level results benchmarked against broader market trends, with breakdowns by OTA, sponsored listings and hotel group size.
Geneva Airport adds travel discovery platform
Geneva Airport has partnered with Smartvel to launch Explore&Go, a digital platform designed to help travelers discover destinations, routes and fare information.
The platform will be integrated into the airport’s digital channels, allowing passengers to search destinations, view route options and access live flight pricing. The initiative is part of efforts to expand the airport’s role in the travel planning process and strengthen digital engagement with passengers.
Sensible Weather expands weather guarantees internationally
Sensible Weather has expanded its weather guarantee product to hotels across Europe and the Caribbean, allowing travelers to purchase weather protection during the booking process.
The rollout includes properties in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria and the Caribbean, with Aven Hospitality among the initial partners. The product provides automatic reimbursements for qualifying weather events such as rain, high winds or heat without requiring claims or trip cancellations.
Agoda adds KakaoBank partnership
Agoda has partnered with KakaoBank to bring hotel booking capabilities into the South Korean digital bank’s mobile app.
KakaoBank users can browse and book accommodations from Agoda’s inventory without leaving the banking platform. The integration includes destination discovery features and accommodation offers, reflecting a broader trend of travel services being embedded within financial and lifestyle apps.