After a little over two years leading Avani+ Fares Maldives, where he was named Resort Manager of the Year 2025 at the Hospitality ON Awards, Australian hotelier Judd Rabbidge joins Avani Singapore to lead its pre-opening, the first property from Minor Hotels' lifestyle brand in the city-state.

Marco Benvenuti, co-founder of Duetto and creator of the Open Pricing method, passed away on 28 August 2026 in San Francisco following a three-year battle with cancer. He founded the company in 2010 with Patrick Bosworth before helping build it into one of the leading revenue management software providers for the global hotel industry.

Dubai-based Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is welcoming two independent hotel brands from Turkey and Poland: The Marmara Hotels and PURO Hotels. Together, they add 15 properties to the GHA Discovery loyalty programme, in a move announced on 27 August 2026 that highlights the growing appeal of the alliance model among regional hotel groups keen to preserve their local identity while gaining international visibility.

Crescent Hotels & Resorts has announced the promotion of Kristi Kastrounis to Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing. In the role since October 2025, she now leads the group's marketing and eCommerce strategy across a portfolio of more than 120 hotels in the United States and Canada. The appointment forms part of Crescent's internal promotion policy, coming just weeks after two other executives within its commercial organisation were similarly elevated.

CUSTARD chief executive Petra Clayton has taken control of Set-Jet, the world's summit dedicated to screen tourism, acquiring it from Martin Evans, founder of The Tourism Business. The takeover comes a year after the inaugural edition, which drew 220 delegates in the UK, marking a new chapter for this emerging event at the crossroads of the tourism and screen industries.

Unveiled with great fanfare in 2021 as the twelfth jewel in the Bulgari Hotels & Resorts collection, the 58-room project tucked into Benedict Canyon ran into six years of regulatory battles before being permanently shelved by the City of Los Angeles. A look back at the reasoning behind the decision — and at the fate of the site, now back on the market.

Alastair Laird has taken charge of Mango House, LXR Hotels & Resorts, and Canopy by Hilton Seychelles, in Mahé, as Cluster General Manager since July 2026. The appointment follows a two-year spell leading The Bristol Belgrade, a heritage hotel in the Serbian capital, and marks his return to the Hilton fold after several years outside the group.

🔎 Today's trend: the courts take centre stage in hospitality news. Between a validated dismissal in Spain and a conviction of Disneyland Paris a decade after a tragedy, the sector finds itself before the judges - while hotel groups continue expanding their territorial footprint, from La Ciotat to the Basque Country.

Canarian hotel group Lopesan Hotels & Resorts is to receive €300 million from the Canary Islands government, under an amicable settlement that brings to a close more than twenty years of litigation stemming from the 2001 and 2003 urban planning laws. Announced on 26 August 2026, the wider agreement, covering €485 million paid out to a group of hotel developers, is expected to allow the reactivation of more than twenty projects that have been stalled for two decades in the south of Gran Canaria.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Tourism has opened public consultation on draft regulations setting minimum staff-to-room ratios by property category, rising to three employees per room for luxury hotels. Due to take effect on 1 January 2027, the text goes well beyond service quality alone: it forms part of the Kingdom's strategy to build a national middle class and grow the domestic labour market.

Destination Québec cité announced on 27 August 2026 the appointment of Stéphane Morin to head its new Business Tourism & Commercialisation Division. With more than thirty years of experience in the hospitality industry, including ten years as Director of Sales and Marketing at Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, he will be tasked with strengthening the destination's positioning among organisers of international conferences and business events.

Prime Hotel Assets Fund, backed by J&T Investiční společnost and J&T Banka, has acquired the mixed-use Prague Marriott Hotel & Millennium Plaza complex in the heart of the Czech capital from PH Properties. Dosfield Group is acting as strategic partner on the deal, with the seller advised by CBRE. This is the largest single-asset hotel transaction in Central and Eastern Europe in 2026, and one of the most significant in Europe this year.