The Lodging Lowdown is a series from Hotel Dive highlighting major headlines that hospitality professionals may have missed from the week.
The annual Lodging Conference took place in Phoenix this week, with industry professionals gathering to discuss the top trends in hotel development, investment and more.
Hotel companies shared major announcements during the conference, including Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which partnered with Travel + Leisure Co. to help the company scale its Sports Illustrated Resorts hotel portfolio. Meanwhile, Hyatt debuted new prototypes for its Hyatt Place and Hyatt Studios brands. Hilton’s newly launched Undergraduate brand also has a new-build prototype underway.
Additionally this week, Hilton named a former Uber executive to its newly created chief technology officer role, and Accor tapped a new leader for luxury development in North America. The appointments followed a slate of notable hospitality executive moves in the third quarter.
Here are some other headlines hoteliers should have on their radars this week:
IHG appoints global sales leader
IHG Hotels & Resorts appointed company veteran Leanne Harwood as senior vice president of global sales, according to a Tuesday news release.
In her new role, Harwood is tasked with leading IHG’s global sales organization, driving strategy, performance and customer engagement across corporate, group and meetings and events segments worldwide, per the release.
Harwood has worked at IHG for more than 20 years, most recently serving as senior vice president and managing director of luxury, lifestyle and managed hotels in the Americas. In that position, she oversaw the operations and performance of IHG’s luxury and lifestyle hotel portfolio across the region.
Spire Hospitality opens Alabama hotel under Series by Marriott
Hotel management company Spire Hospitality has reopened the historic St. James Hotel in Selma, Alabama, under the Series by Marriott collection brand, according to a news release shared with Hotel Dive.
Located in a restored building overlooking the Alabama River, the 55-room boutique hotel features guest rooms with modern amenities such as high-speed Wi-Fi, HDTVs and designated workspaces. The property also has an on-site restaurant, a fitness center and flexible meeting space, per the release.
The Alabama hotel opening comes after Marriott International launched Series by Marriott in May 2025 and later expanded the brand across U.S. destinations such as Miami Beach, Florida, and Santa Monica, California.
Duetto acquires FLYR Hospitality to accelerate AI capabilities
Cloud-based hotel revenue and profit software provider Duetto has acquired FLYR Hospitality, an automated revenue management and business intelligence provider, according to a Thursday news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal expands Duetto’s Revenue & Profit Operating System to include FLYR’s artificial intelligence-powered revenue strategy platform, per the release, and bolsters Duetto’s existing product suite, which includes tools for revenue management, group business and profit benchmarking, the company said.
“FLYR Hospitality's pricing science and plain-language BI [business intelligence] are some of the best in the category, and combined with our own ML platform, world class RMS, and HotStats' data, we can give every hotelier, however sophisticated their team, however complex their portfolio, a genuine path to better performance,” Duetto CEO Alex Zoghlin said in a statement.
The deal follows Duetto’s 2025 acquisition of HotStats, a global financial benchmarking company.
Concord Hospitality expands management portfolio
Raleigh, North Carolina-based Concord Hospitality has added more than 12 hotels and restaurants to its management portfolio across “some of the country’s most dynamic hospitality markets,” including Washington, D.C., New Jersey and North Carolina, according to a news release.
Concord will assume management of boutique hotels One Washington Circle, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, in Washington, D.C., as well as The Satire, Autograph Collection, in Alexandria, Virginia. The company also added two properties in New Jersey, including The Union Hotel Flemington, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, in Flemington, and The Vintedge in Lyndhurst, per the release.
Meanwhile, the company is preparing to open The Beckworth Hotel Charlotte, Curio Collection by Hilton, in early 2027, the release detailed. The 240-room boutique hotel will be located in the city’s historic Johnston Building, featuring a ground-floor restaurant and coffee shop as well as a rooftop bar.
