Weekly Brief: February 16, 2026
Hospitality Earnings Calls
Full year and fourth quarter earnings calls happened last week from multiple hospitality brands, including Marriott, TripAdvisor, Hyatt, Airbnb, and Hilton. Notable takeaways from the calls include brands flagging AI platforms as potential threats to direct bookings, rising distribution costs, and agentic testing initiatives underway.
Job Market
I am observing a decline in overall job postings over the past few weeks, particularly for remote and senior-level roles. The majority of new listings appear to be concentrated at the manager level. As a job searcher or hiring manager, any trends you’ve noticed?
End of Late Checkout
Apparently, Late Checkout, the newsletter created by Bread & Butter, is coming to an end, according to senior editor Daria Smith. One of my favorite weekly reads, it began as a LinkedIn series curating culinary and hospitality news and trends before evolving into a standalone newsletter.
Newsletters are time and budget resource intensive commitments that do not always translate into clear revenue. Bummed to be losing an amazing industry resource. Daria Smith is also available for project based editorial assignments.
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Marketing Briefs
Did You Know?
Trending news, marketing news, and reports:
Best Hotels in the USA for 2026 // U.S. News & World Report
2026 Forbes Travel Guide Star Award Winners // Forbes
TikTok Launches Local Feed in the US // Social Media Today
Google Releases Core Update Targeting Discover Feed // Social Media Today
Google Revises Discover Guidelines Alongside Core Update // Search Engine Journal
OpenAI Begins Testing Ads In ChatGPT For Free And Go Users // Search Engine Journal
Bing Webmaster Tools officially adds AI Performance report // Search Engine Land
Living offline has become Gen Z’s quiet luxury // Thred
Sabre, PayPal, and Mindtrip launch AI travel experience // Travel Daily Media
State of Digital PR Report // Buzzstream
How to Optimize Your Owned Content for AI Search // LinkedIn Business
Helpful things you might not know about LinkedIn // Annie-Mai Hodge
Employee-generated content is the next big thing for brands // Sprout Social
Programming & Activations
Kaleidoscope Partners with ResortPass on New “Elixir” Drink // Arizona Foothills
Away Names Fora Its Official Travel Agency Partner // WWD
BÉIS Founder Shay Mitchell On New Role As Capital One Travel Ambassador, Brand Collaborations // Variety
The New Sustainable Hotels to Check into in 2026 // Virtuoso
Industry Updates
Agency News
Magrino Public Relations announced as PR Agency of Record for AVA Resort Cancun
CIIC PR is appointed agency of record for Aimbridge All-Inclusive (via O’Dwyer PR)
Job Postings & Career News
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What is the 5.15
Leading luxury hotel marketing across resorts and task force marketing roles over the past 15+ years led me to begin publishing The Hotel Marketing 5.15 in 2025 as a way to help keep clients up to date on hospitality marketing news and activations. I currently work remotely for Ka Laʻi Waikīkī Beach, LXR Hotels & Resorts and manage email marketing and newsletters for hospitality clients. I am always available for coffee chats, networking, and to discuss project-based assignments.
Based on a communication method developed by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, the 5.15 is a weekly format designed to synthesize key insights in 15 minutes or less and be read in five minutes. This newsletter applies the same principle to hotel marketing: concise, actionable trends and opportunities curated for industry professionals.
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