Revenue Management & Channel Opt

At first glance, quantum physics and revenue management should never meet.

Algorithm-based applicant tracking systems (ATS) have been in place for over 20 years. Recruiters have generally come to rely on the algorithms to find the most qualified talent for the specific roles that are being filled. AI is exposing the weaknesses in ATS applicant ranking and selection. The odds are that top candidates are being ignored because of this strategy and sent to the “Thank you for applying” waste field of untapped talent buried in the applicant database. Talent acquisition strategies and tactics need to have a human intervention that mines the forgotten treasure of talent that is sitting in ATS platform databases.

Luxury hotel marketing has become increasingly sophisticated — better creative, more channels, smarter automation — yet growth remains fragile. Direct bookings plateau. Customer acquisition costs rise. Dependency on intermediaries deepens.

You could call it the Monday morning problem. You open your device and stare at the firehose of information: pick-up, pace, compset shifts, event calendars, rate reports, reviews, demand curves, flight data, and that’s before your first coffee. We’ve never had more data. But we’ve also never had less time to make sense of it.

Circa 2009. Late September. I’m the regional controller for five hotels. Sitting at my desk minding my own business, doing my own work when the phone rings.

For centuries, hospitality has been rooted in a simple but powerful principle: make people feel welcome, valued, and understood. From a handwritten note waiting in the guestroom to a concierge remembering a favorite table at dinner, the industry has long relied on human connection as its defining strength. But today, the way hotels deliver that sense of personalization is quickly and permanently evolving.

Over the past few years, like to 3 to 5 years, conversations about generational differences in the workplace have grown noticeably more charged. What once felt like manageable tension has turned into open and public frustration, with leaders and teams often speaking past one another instead of engaging productively. These challenges are frequently attributed to differences in values, work ethic, or even expectations, yet that explanation overlooks what I consistently see on the ground: a leadership education that has not kept in pace with the workforce that is now expected to lead.

Modern sales leadership must rethink talent, incentives, and team design to scale revenue in 2026.

Let’s talk about a silent problem that’s costing hotel groups thousands of hours a year, and quietly strangling their ability to scale.

It’s been the recent talk of the industry. We’ve been sensing it for a while, and now it’s getting clearer: AI is slowly but surely disrupting online travel discovery, search and possibly booking. Markus Busch recently broke this down in one of the better hotel industry pieces I’ve read lately. And Thomas Reiner has an excellent take as well. Here’s my take (which is a slightly more detailed version of the post I shared).