I opened Claude to find a family lodge. I didn’t expect to worry about you.

Hey folks, Adam Harris here, founder and CEO of Cloudbeds. I’m going to start pulling back the curtain on what we’re seeing across the industry. Here’s what’s been on my mind.

A few months ago, my family and I were planning a trip to Montana; our first one taking the kids! I had a rough idea of what we needed. And without really thinking about it, I opened Claude.

I typed something like: “Family-friendly lodge in Montana, near hiking, not a resort, good for kids who want to be outside all day.” It gave me three options in plain language, and provided the tradeoffs to each.

Part of me was delighted. This is genuinely useful. But another part of me (the part that serves hoteliers every day) immediately thought about the lodges that weren’t in that answer.

And I have a right to be worried for you.

According to our State of Independent Hotels report, the share of U.S. travelers using traditional search engines for trip planning fell from 51% to 36%. Use of generative AI platforms more than doubled. The rules of visibility are being rewritten faster than most operators realize.

The Montana properties that surfaced in my results had one thing in common: they’d made themselves legible to systems that read the internet differently than humans do. Which means they had consistent information across platforms, strong review volume, and descriptions that actually answered the specific question being asked. We cover this in depth, along with a lot more, in our State of Independent Hotels report, because most operators have no idea if they’re even showing up.

The lodge we ended up booking in Montana was exactly what I’d described. The owner had no idea I’d found them through an AI assistant. They had no idea they were even playing the game, and yet, they were winning it.

That’s what I want for all of you.

Onward!

Adam

What I’m reading

Let me help you cut through the noise. Here’s a few things I’m paying attention to:

The signals behind hotel AI recommendations: This research digs into exactly what made those Montana lodges show up in my results, and what you can do about it.
Journey to the moon: I showed my kids these photos. Whether it’s the awe of nature, the thrill of travel, or the impossibility of space…wonder never gets old.
A guide to the new era of demand forecasting: Most forecasting tools tell you what happened. The shift we’re seeing, and building toward, is tools that tell you what to do next.
My unfiltered thoughts on AI visibility: Worth a read if you’re getting hit up by agencies promising to make your hotel appear in LLM results.
A 2026 guide to hotel deflagging: I’ve worked alongside our CGO, Rafael Blanes, for a long time and as he’d describe it, deflagging is the moment the right question finally takes over. Here’s what experts say it takes to navigate the transition.

Enough one night stands | A guest marketing playbook for driving repeat revenue

Hotels spend more than ever to attract guests, only to lose them after one stay. OTAs keep the relationship. Hotels keep paying the commission.

But it doesn’t have to work that way.

This playbook shows how independent hotels can turn scattered guest data into meaningful relationships, repeat bookings, and long-term revenue.

Download playbook

How Hotel 1550 ditched the flag and turned independence into revenue growth

“Cloudbeds allows me to control my own technology, my own marketing, and my own guest experience — all in one place.”

For Vipul Dayal, going independent wasn’t just a business decision — it was personal. After years under a franchise, he reimagined Hotel 1550 as a boutique property with its own identity, taking full control of pricing, brand, and guest experience.

But fragmented systems slowed him down. After switching to Cloudbeds, direct bookings nearly doubled (8–10% → 18%), while new campaigns and upsells unlocked additional revenue, giving him the flexibility to move faster and run the hotel on his own terms.

Read the full story

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