Agenda
DAY 1
TUESDAY 13 MAY
9:00am
Chairman’s welcome
9:10am
Building a perfect direct booking strategy: What matters most?
Join us in this interactive session as we open the day by exploring the most important direct booking projects. Share your strategy, see how your priorities compare with other hotels, and discuss the gap between project goals and daily business reality. Then we’ll bring everything together to see what matters most in 2025.
Charlie Osmond
Triptease
9:35am
Survival strategies for every hotelier
Tired of watching your revenue vanish before it hits the bottom line? This session delivers actionable strategies that actually impact your hotel's profitability. We'll explore common profit killers, revenue management techniques that work, and operational efficiencies the top-performing properties implement.
Anthony Melchiorri
Host and Co-Executive Producer of Hotel Impossible and Five Star Secrets
10:15am
What hotel guests and 125 million reservations tell us about the future of direct bookings
Take a data-driven look at how travelers are booking today and uncover the latest trends in hotel discovery, channel use and website expectations. Backed by direct feedback from the world's travellers and insights from millions of reservations, this session will deliver practical strategies to boost direct bookings and stay ahead of evolving traveler preferences.
Anthony Lazzara
SiteMinder
10:40am
Morning coffee break
11:15am
Personalized pricing: What hotels can learn from casinos
Casinos have mastered the art of dynamic, personalized pricing — tailoring offers based on real-time customer behavior, loyalty, and lifetime value. So why are hotels still stuck with static rates and broad segments? This session unpacks the high-stakes strategies casinos use to keep players coming back and shows how hoteliers can apply the same techniques to boost conversion, loyalty, and revenue. If you’re serious about pricing smarter, this is the playbook you need.
Stephanie Wheeler
VP Revenue - Boyd Gaming
11:45am
Winning on TikTok, the new social channel hoteliers need to master
TikTok has become a go-to platform for travel inspiration, actively shaping travel decisions from the initial idea to targeted searches and even bookings. More and more people rely on authentic content from the community. But how can hotels leverage this new dynamic to their advantage?
In this session TikTok will showcase how hotels are reaching new audiences—through organic content, creator collaborations, and targeted campaigns.
Lauren Gourley
Head of Industry - TikTok
12:15pm
How top travel brands are using neuroscience and storytelling to drive conversions
Discover how leading travel brands are transforming their customer experiences through the power of storytelling and the science of the brain. We’ll dive into the intersection of neuroscience and marketing, uncover the emotional triggers that influence decision-making and inspire action. Learn how to craft compelling narratives that captivate your audience, build trust, and drive meaningful conversions. You will walk away with concrete steps you can take to begin using neuroscience in your context strategy.
Jason Craparo
Founder - Hovr
12:40pm
Lunch break
1:40pm
Main stage
Assessing the lifetime value of guests
2024 has marked a major turning point in hospitality—where data has emerged as the industry’s most valuable currency. In this eye-opening session, we’ll explore how the smartest hoteliers are using data to not only understand the full lifetime value of a guest but to actively grow it through personalized, profitable engagement. From creating unified guest profiles and eliminating data silos to deploying AI that makes real-time decisions at scale, discover how to turn guest data into revenue-driving action.
1:40pm
Track
Working with wholesale
The Inside Secrets to Getting the Best for Your Hotel While Protecting the Direct Channel
Anamaria Carillo
Webbeds
2:20pm
Main stage
The parity problem: managing OTAs and price distribution
Rate undercutting. Rogue wholesalers. Price discrepancies on every metasearch channel. In today’s hyper-fragmented distribution landscape, maintaining parity is more challenging—and more critical—than ever. In this session, a leading parity expert will reveal the innovative strategy their team implemented to regain control of rate distribution and protect direct revenue.
2:20pm
Track
Website best practices: Maximizing conversion & user experience
Your hotel website should be your hardest-working employee—bringing in bookings around the clock. In this hands-on session, we’ll walk through the key things that actually move the needle when it comes to user experience and conversion. From mobile-first design tips to booking engine tweaks that reduce friction, you’ll learn how to turn more lookers into bookers. We’ll also cover how to use powerful visuals, smart CTAs, and localized content to grab attention and drive direct bookings—whether your guests are just down the road or halfway around the world.
Chimmy Kalu
Triptease
2:50pm
Main stage
The hospitality AI opportunity
While traditional predictive AI or machine learning has been around for decades and used in many hospitality applications like revenue management – the recent developments in generative AI are creating many newfound opportunities for innovation and productivity improvement in hospitality. During the session I will provide an overview of AI, highlighting AI opportunities and some potential pitfalls of being early.
Christopher K. Anderson
Cornell University
2:50pm
Track
5 mistakes to avoid when using OTAs
OTAs can boost a hotel's visibility and bookings, but missteps in managing these platforms can erode profits and brand integrity. In this insightful session, Jake Mooney, Founder and CEO of Modern Hospitality Solutions, leverages his extensive experience—including his tenure at Booking.com—to uncover the five most detrimental mistakes hotels make with OTAs. Attendees will gain practical strategies to optimize OTA partnerships, enhance direct bookings, and maintain a balanced distribution strategy that safeguards both revenue and reputation.
Jake Mooney
Modern Hospitality Solutions
3:10pm
Coffee break
3:40pm
5 confessions from 20 years with big chains
After two decades in senior roles across major hotel groups, Philippe Garnier has seen it all—from AI hype cycles to tangled OTA negotiations. In this candid session, he’ll share five unfiltered truths that hotel commercial leaders need to hear right now. Expect sharp takes on the illusion of full automation, the real dynamics behind OTA contracting, and the tipping point of too many Direct Connects. He’ll also unpack how to manage ownership expectations in unpredictable market cycles and why smart team leadership means doing less, not more.
Philippe Garnier
WPW Performance Consulting
4:15pm
Using your hotel data to win more valuable bookings
Your best guests spend more, stay longer, and cost less to acquire. But how do you find more of them?
Your PMS and CRM only tell part of the story. The real signals — who’s in the market, where they’re looking, and what drives them to book — are happening right now across search, metasearch, and your website.
Jonathan Hickford
Triptease
Andrew Williamson
Triptease
4:45pm
Your tech stack is killing your direct bookings
Why most hotel systems are set up for failure and what to do about it
Too many hotel websites are held back by clunky, disconnected systems—costing bookings and guest loyalty.
Jason Emanis is joined by tech and commercial leaders to expose the real impact of poor integration between CRS, CRM, and booking engines. Learn why seamless, real-time connections across your tech stack are key to boosting direct bookings and cutting OTA reliance. If your systems don’t recognize your guest instantly, you’re not just losing a booking. You’re losing a relationship—and revenue.
Gabriella Monte
The Dray Hotel
Jason Emanis
SHR Group
5:20pm
AI agents and breaking down data silos
Using no-code AI Agent tools to help you get your job done. Connecting hotel systems and getting more from your tech stack.
Charlie Osmond
Triptease
Alan Gonzalez
Warwick
5:20pm
The Direct Booking Summit Party!
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