Chedi Hospitality partners with JIH Global to develop its first Maldives property featuring both boutique hotel and branded residences.

Three students will receive $2,000 scholarships plus conference registration and industry mentorship through applications due April 30, 2026.

Cherry blossom season remains one of the most aspirational experiences in global travel, firmly positioned on the bucket list of discerning clients worldwide.

New UI templates, fully branded, with support for multi-property hotel groups.

Reading Time: 2 minutesUK: Lifestyle luxury hotel brand The NICI will open two properties this summer, located in Newquay and Lymington. 
The post The NICI reveals two summer UK openings appeared first on Boutique Hotel News.

Reading Time: < 1 minuteUS: Nomada Hotel Group has introduced the Nomada Collection, a third-party management platform designed for independent boutique hotels. 
The post Nomada Hotel Group launches platform for independent hotels appeared first on Boutique Hotel News.

On Jan. 22, Driftwood Capital, a vertically integrated hospitality real estate investment, development, and lending platform, announced that Carlos Rodriguez Jr. has been appointed chief executive officer. Rodriguez Jr. had served as president and chief operating officer since co-founding Driftwood Capital with his father, Carlos Rodriguez Sr., in 2015. Rodriguez Sr., who from the beginning had a very hands-on role in the business as CEO, has now moved to the position of executive chairman. “My dad and […]
The post Passing the Torch: Carlos Rodriguez Jr. Appointed CEO of Driftwood Capital appeared first on LODGING Magazine.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California—Nomada Hotel Group announced the launch of the Nomada Collection, a third-party management platform designed specifically for independent hotels seeking to preserve their identity while achieving modern performance. At a time when many independent hotels face increasing pressure to standardize or affiliate with large brands, Nomada Collection offers a design-forward, systems-driven management model rooted in cultural preservation and high-margin performance. “We believe the most meaningful hotels to the modern-day traveler are those with history, character, and a strong sense of place,” said Kimberly Walker, founder and creative director of Nomada Hotel Group. “The Nomada Collection exists […]
The post Nomada Hotel Group Announces Launch of the Nomada Collection appeared first on LODGING Magazine.

Hotel industry coverage is focusing on operators’ efforts to protect profitability as demand growth cools, costs rise, and policy decisions on aviation, taxation, and labor increasingly shape travel and lodging performance. At the same time, companies are adapting through asset-light portfolio moves and new digital discovery channels, including AI-driven hotel search.

Lifestyle hotels, designed to reflect the unique interests and tastes of their guests, are gaining traction in the hospitality industry, with their growth attributed to the increasing demand for personalized and immersive travel experiences.

Noida, 2nd April, 2026: RateGain Travel Technologies Limited (NSE: RATEGAIN), a global leader in AI-powered SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality industry, today announced a strategic partnership with Razorpay, ​​India’s omnichannel payments platform for businesses​​​​, as a Platinum Partner for RG Pay, RateGain’s unified technology infrastructure for the global travel and hospitality ecosystem. Through this partnership, RG Pay will bring Razorpay’s payment gateway and processing capabilities into its ecosystem to improve payment outcomes at the final step of booking. Travel brands will be able to offer locally preferred payment options such as UPI, cards, net banking, and EMI, enabling smoother transactions aligned with how travelers pay in different markets. This will help reduce friction during checkout and improve booking completion rates. As travel companies expand across regions with diverse payment behaviors, delivering a consistent and reliable checkout experience becomes critical. This partnership supports travel brands in adapting to these variations while maintaining performance and reliability at scale. RG Pay brings together adaptive checkout experiences, affordability options, virtual card (VCC) enablement, and cross-border settlement capabilities to help travel and hospitality companies strengthen conversion outcomes and manage payments more effectively across global markets. Commenting on the partnership, Rahul Kothari, COO, Razorpay, said​​, ​​“Travel and hospitality is at an inflection point, where digital adoption is accelerating rapidly, and traveler expectations are being shaped in real time. As more bookings move online and across borders, payments are no longer just a backend function; they are central to the overall customer experience. At Razorpay, we believe payments are a key driver of conversion, trust, and global scale. Our partnership with RateGain brings together deep ecosystem intelligence and payment innovation to help travel and hospitality businesses deliver seamless, locally relevant checkout experiences wherever their customers are.” “RG Pay is built to address how payments influence conversion in travel,” said Parijat Tiwari, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Distribution, RateGain. “With Razorpay as a Platinum Partner, we are strengthening our ability to support high-quality payment experiences that improve booking completion and reduce transaction friction for travel and hospitality companies worldwide.” Together, RateGain and Razorpay enabling travel and hospitality brands to deliver more consistent and dependable payment experiences as they scale across markets with varying payment preferences. About RateGain RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality, working with 13,000+ customers and 700+ partners across 160+ countries. RateGain helps travel and hospitality businesses accelerate revenue generation through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion. Today, RateGain is one of the world’s largest processors of electronic transactions, price points, and travel intent data, enabling revenue management, distribution, and marketing teams across hotels, airlines, destination marketing organizations, online travel agents, metasearch companies, package providers, car rentals, travel management companies, cruises, and ferries to drive better business outcomes. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in India, RateGain works with 33 of the Top 40 Hotel Chains, 4 of the Top 5 Airlines, 7 of the Top 10 Car Rental companies, and all leading DMOs, OTAs, and metasearch platforms, including 25 Global Fortune 500 companies, unlocking new revenue every day. Media Contact: Aastha Khurana: media@rategain.com
The post RateGain Partners with Razorpay as Platinum Partner for RG Pay to Power High-Conversion Checkout Experiences for Global Travel Brands appeared first on RateGain.

India, 26th March 2026: RateGain Travel Technologies Limited (NSE: RATEGAIN), a global leader in AI-powered SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality industry, today announced a strategic partnership with Cashfree Payments, a ​leading ​payments platform, as a Platinum Partner for RG Pay, RateGain’s unified technology infrastructure for the global travel and hospitality ecosystem. Through this partnership, RG Pay will bring together Cashfree Payments’ domestic payment gateway and cross-border payments ​stack ​to strengthen ​transactions​​ across the travel ecosystem. This​ partnership will enable Indian customers to seamlessly pay to international travel merchants across 176 countries through​​ familiar local payment methods such as UPI​ and ​RuPay​ cards​​. It will further help international travel brands​​ improve​ their​ checkout performance and transaction success rates. This collaboration strengthens the ability of travel and hospitality brands to deliver reliable, locally relevant payment experiences while improving checkout performance and enabling more efficient settlement across international markets. RG Pay brings together optimized checkout experiences, affordability options, virtual card (VCC) enablement, and cross-border settlement capabilities to help travel and hospitality companies improve conversion performance and manage payments more effectively across global markets. “Payments in the travel sector are inherently complex, involving multiple stakeholders and high-value cross-border transactions,” said Akash Sinha, CEO & Co-founder, Cashfree Payments. “By combining Cashfree Payments’ payment infrastructure and cross-border capabilities with RateGain’s deep understanding of travel and hospitality, we aim to help travel brands deliver secure, reliable, and locally relevant payment journeys for travelers worldwide. This partnership is a significant step toward setting a new global standard for travel financial infrastructure.” “RG Pay extends RateGain’s platform capabilities into the financial layer of travel commerce, helping brands improve how payments are accepted and settled across markets,” said Parijat Tiwari, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Distribution, RateGain. “By bringing Cashfree Payments’ scalable payment infrastructure into the RG Pay ecosystem as a Platinum Partner, we are enabling travel and hospitality companies to support local payment preferences and deliver more reliable transaction experiences for travelers worldwide.” Together, RateGain and Cashfree Payments are enabling travel and hospitality brands to operate with greater confidence as they serve travelers across increasingly diverse and digital payment environments. About Cashfree Payments Founded in 2015, Cashfree Payments is ​a leading​​ payments platform, processing over $80 billion in transactions annually for more than a million businesses–from high-growth startups, ecommerce & D2C brands, SMBs, and enterprises. Businesses use Cashfree Payments to collect payments across 180+ payment modes, provide seamless one-click checkout to their customers to improve conversions, and conduct cross-border payments across 176+ countries and 140+ currencies. Built for scale, Cashfree’s infrastructure handles an industry-leading 12,000 transactions per second, processing peak volumes without friction. Cashfree Payments is India’s first AI-native payments platform, enabling AI agents to process invoices and conduct payments autonomously through its MCP server, and allowing businesses to embed payments natively within AI chatbots through Cashfree Here. The company was one of the first fintech companies to hold all three RBI licenses of Payment Aggregator (PA), Payment Aggregator-Cross Border (PA-CB), and Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI). Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, State Bank of India (SBI), KRAFTON, and was incubated by PayPal. About RateGain RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality, working with 13,000+ customers and 700+ partners across 160+ countries. RateGain helps travel and hospitality businesses accelerate revenue generation through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion. Today, RateGain is one of the world’s largest processors of electronic transactions, price points, and travel intent data, enabling revenue management, distribution, and marketing teams across hotels, airlines, destination marketing organizations, online travel agents, metasearch companies, package providers, car rentals, travel management companies, cruises, and ferries to drive better business outcomes. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in India, RateGain works with 33 of the Top 40 Hotel Chains, 4 of the Top 5 Airlines, 7 of the Top 10 Car Rental companies, and all leading DMOs, OTAs, and metasearch platforms, including 25 Global Fortune 500 companies, unlocking new revenue every day. Media Contact: Aastha Khurana: media@rategain.com
The post RateGain Partners with Cashfree Payments as Platinum Partner for RG Pay to Enable Local Payment Acceptance for Global Travel Brands appeared first on RateGain.

Hotel Designs
The Dallas EDITION Hotel – marking the brand’s first location in Texas
The Dallas EDITION Hotel – marking the brand’s first location in Texas
Pauline Brettell.

Hotel Designs
Case study: Hypnos delivers intentional design in Claridge House by SLO
Case study: Hypnos delivers intentional design in Claridge House by SLO
Pauline Brettell.

Learn how Auténtico Hotel in San José, Costa Rica, gained strategic control over pricing, distribution and revenue by switching to SiteMinder's all-in-one hotel platform.

What is rate parity in the hotel industry? Hotel rate parity is the process of ensuring a property’s rates are consistent across all distribution channels, from online travel agencies (OTAs) to direct bookings. It is a contractual requirement that ensures the likes of Expedia and Booking.com aren’t undercut by properties that want to avoid commission […]

AUSTIN, TEXAS (April 1, 2026) – A new chapter is coming to South Congress. The Standard brand is set to debut its first Texas outpost with The Standard, Austin, opening Spring 2027 as a vibrant...

CHICAGO (April 1, 2026) – Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) has been named to Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For ®” list for the 13th consecutive year. Compiled in partnership...

The fastest-growing traveler segments are defined by purpose, not demographics. Independent hotels are naturally positioned to serve them — if the positioning is deliberate

As Google overtakes Tripadvisor, hotels must rethink where reputation truly drives bookings

A long layover at Honolulu airport doesn’t have to be wasted time. During an HNL airport layover, you can rest at a nearby hotel, grab a shower, explore Waikiki, or just find a quiet place to recharge before your next flight. The problem with a long layover at Honolulu airport is that HNL itself doesn’t […]

The best spring break destinations in the U.S. for 2026 include Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Diego, Scottsdale, Austin, and New Orleans. If you want to head international, Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, and Punta Cana are all within easy reach. Spring break falls between March and early April, and if you are still figuring out […]