310 articles
The Prostay Blog
Practical thinking on hotel technology, revenue, operations and the guest experience, from the team building the platform.
Digital Marketing
Hotel Metasearch Bidding in 2026: An Honest Guide for Independents
Google Hotel Ads retired commission bidding for new campaigns on 30 April 2024, then sunset existing commission campaigns on 20 February 2025, with final reconciliation closing 30 November 2025. Trivago Rate Connect moved to a CPA-only bidding model on 1 September 2025 with five commission tiers from 12 percent to 25 percent. Most published hotel metasearch guides still cite the bidding models that no longer exist. This is the honest 2026 read on hotel metasearch bidding for a 30 to 150 room independent: the four bidding models you actually use today, the four platforms ranked by ROI, the per-platform CPC and CPA benchmarks, the look-to-book math that determines whether your campaign breaks even, the four mistakes that quietly destroy metasearch ROI, and the 90-day plan one person can run without a metasearch agency on retainer.
May 24, 2026 · 24 min read
Hotel Operations Optimization
PCI DSS 4.0 Compliance for Hotels: An Honest 2026 Survival Guide
PCI DSS 4.0.1 has been the only currently active version of the standard since 31 December 2024, and the 51 future-dated requirements became mandatory on 31 March 2025 with no grace period. The fines run from $5,000 to $100,000 per month, the cost of getting it right on the SAQ A path is closer to $1,500 a year, and the difference between those two numbers is the entire point. This is the honest read on what PCI DSS 4.0 means for a 30 to 150 room independent hotel in 2026, which SAQ you actually qualify for, the ten new requirements hotels fail most often, the seven places card data is hiding in your hotel, the real cost benchmarks, and a 90-day plan one operationally-minded person can run without a QSA on retainer.
May 23, 2026 · 22 min read
Hotel Operations Optimization
Hotel Chargebacks: How to Reduce Them by 60 Percent (Real Numbers, Reason Codes, and Templates)
Hotel chargebacks jumped 816 percent between 2023 and 2024 to a 0.916 percent industry rate, with the highest average dispute value of any category at $120. The real cost is closer to $450 once fees, lost revenue, and labor are counted. Most of the lift is friendly fraud, which the 2023 Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 rules and the 2025 to 2026 VAMP enforcement regime were designed to fix. This is the honest read on what works, the named reason codes you actually meet, the dispute templates that win, and the 90-day plan to cut your chargeback rate by 60 percent without writing a single agency check.
May 22, 2026 · 21 min read
Revenue Management
Hotel Demand Forecasting in 2026: Methods, Models, and What Actually Works
Less than ten percent of independent hotels run a dedicated RMS, and most of those that do are getting less from it than the Cornell and HSMAI uplift studies suggest is on the table. This is the honest read on what works in hotel demand forecasting in 2026, which methods the peer-reviewed literature actually backs, the four failure modes that break every forecast, and a 90-day plan you can run without writing a check.
May 21, 2026 · 22 min read
Hotel Technology & Innovation
AI Search Optimization for Hotels: How to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews (Without the Snake Oil)
AI search is producing more variance in hotel discovery than any change since Google promoted TripAdvisor up the SERP. The vendors selling AI SEO services know this and most are selling vapor. Here is what the published data actually says works, what does not, and the 90-day plan a small hotel can run without writing a single check to an outside consultant.
May 20, 2026 · 18 min read
Hotel Operations Optimization
Pre-Arrival Emails for Hotels: The Five-Email Playbook (With Real Examples)
Pre-arrival is the most under-managed surface in independent hotels. The right five-email sequence lifts upsell revenue 4 to 12 percent, cuts check-in friction by 60 to 120 seconds per arrival, and quietly improves the arrival sub-score on TripAdvisor and Booking.com. Here is the 2026 playbook, with real examples you can paste in tomorrow.
May 18, 2026 · 14 min read
Hotel Technology & Innovation
Mews Alternatives in 2026: When to Switch, What It Takes, and Which Option Fits Your Hotel
Mews works for many hotels. For others, the two-year contract, the payment-processing lock-in or a simple operating-model mismatch pushes them to look elsewhere. A 2026 guide to deciding if you should switch, and what to switch to.
May 16, 2026 · 15 min read
Revenue Management
The Hotel Revenue Manager: Roles, Skills, Tools and 2026 Outlook
Walk into any well-run hotel and find the quiet person at a desk with three screens open. That is the revenue manager, and their job has never mattered more.
May 9, 2026 · 14 min read
Industry Trends
Eco Friendly Hotels: Systems & Strategies for Hoteliers
The conversation around eco friendly hotels has shifted. Five years ago, sustainability in hospitality was a marketing angle, a badge on the website, a towel…
Apr 10, 2026 · 17 min read
Hotel Operations Optimization
Hotel Scams With Credit Cards: Prevent Fraud at the Desk
Hotels are frequent targets for fraud because they combine three things fraudsters love: high transaction volume , fast check in pressure , and sensitive guest…
Apr 8, 2026 · 10 min read
Revenue Management
OTA Commission Calculator: True Net ADR After Fees
If you manage rates on Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, and a handful of smaller channels, you already know the headline numbers on your dashboard. Average daily…
Apr 2, 2026 · 11 min read
Hospitality Industry
Bed and Breakfast B&B: Running a Profitable Property
The bed and breakfast model has survived every disruption the hospitality industry has thrown at it. While large hotel chains chase scale, while online travel…
Mar 28, 2026 · 17 min read
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