hotels
(9)
Lucky 7 Casino started in a trailer. It built reasons to stay.
On California’s far northern coast, a Tolowa-owned casino grew from 60 slot machines into a place to eat, sleep, gather, and fill the tank. Its most useful business lesson happens beyond the gaming floor.
Trip.com Group Wants the Whole Trip
Flights, beds, train tickets, even the itinerary: Trip.com Group wants a role in every part of your holiday. Its sprawling business reveals both the value of a travel middleman and the trouble that comes with having too much power.
How a Phuket Startup Became Asia's Ticket to the World
It started with two hotel websites and a tropical hunch that Asia would book its next holiday on a phone. Two decades later, Agoda runs one of the planet's busiest travel marketplaces - and quietly powers the trips you book somewhere else.
The Hospitality Giant That Owns Almost No Hotels
Hilton runs more than 8,000 hotels across 140-plus countries and barely holds the deeds to any of them. The real business is a fee machine wrapped around 200 million loyalty members - and it started with one man and a cheap hotel in Cisco, Texas.
The Hotel Company That Still Owns the Building
While the biggest names in hospitality sell their real estate and collect franchise fees, Omni keeps the keys - about 50 hotels, 23,000 employees, and a century-old bet that owning the building still matters.
Flowtel
Flowtel is a San Francisco startup (Y Combinator W25) building an AI operating system for hotels. Its voice and chat agents answer guest calls and messages and complete routine tasks - room bookings, dining and spa reservations, amenity requests and concierge questions - handing off to human staff only when needed. The pitch is a high-touch guest experience for properties that cannot staff a 24/7 front desk. The company was founded in 2024 by Eylon Miz and is led by a small team based in San Francisco.
SensorFlow
SensorFlow is a Singapore-based proptech company that uses wireless IoT sensors and AI to help hotels monitor, analyze and automate their energy use - primarily air-conditioning. Its retrofit-ready hardware installs in minutes with no upfront cost and typically cuts HVAC energy consumption by around 30%, letting properties lower operating costs and carbon emissions while keeping guest rooms comfortable. Founded in 2016 and backed by investors including Openspace Ventures and Gaw Capital, the company serves hospitality brands across Asia-Pacific and beyond.
JAZ Hotel Group
JAZ Hotel Group is the hospitality arm of Travco Group International, Egypt's largest travel conglomerate. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Sheikh Zayed City, Giza, JAZ owns and manages a portfolio of 70-plus beach resorts and hotels concentrated on Egypt's Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts, with newer properties in Zanzibar and the UAE. Its brands - JAZ, JAZ Elite, JAZ Neo, Iberotel, Solymar and others - focus largely on all-inclusive leisure travel for European and regional holidaymakers.
Radiate Hospitality
Radiate Hospitality is a Palo Alto-based hotel and real-estate management company that develops, renovates, and operates a portfolio of boutique and branded hotels across the West Coast. Formerly known as BPR Properties, the firm runs 11 hotels with roughly 988 rooms - from the Autograph Collection Hi-Lo Hotel in Portland to the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto - guided by a mission of 'passionately creating a sense of belonging.'