Are Unpredictable Water Levels Ruining European River Cruises?

August 31, 2026

Are Unpredictable Water Levels Ruining European River Cruises?

Are Unpredictable Water Levels Ruining European River Cruises?

Viking River Cruises

https://www.fodors.com/world/europe/experiences/news/are-unpredictable-water-levels-ruining-european-river-cruises

Low water levels are disrupting European river cruises. Here’s what travelers need to know about itinerary changes, travel insurance, and when to book.

I was halfway into my cruise on the Rhine and Moselle Rivers on Riviera Travel’s new Riviera Resplendence, and I couldn’t stop pouring myself chococcinos (sort of a mocha with added milk) from the ship’s coffee machine.

Part of my quest for caffeination was the jet lag. (I really wanted to be alert to see the statue of Karl Marx donated to the Rhineland city of Trier by the People’s Republic of China, which they put up just steps away from where his childhood home is now occupied by a discount supermarket called Euro Shop.) Part of it was wanting to watch the gorgeous scenery slide by without napping. But a big part of it was wanting to hear if there would be any itinerary changes because of the low level of the Rhine.

Riviera Travel had just told Travel Weekly they hadn’t cancelled any of their river cruises, and didn’t plan to, saying some of their guests had begun referring to the itineraries as “Magical Mystery Cruises.” Their primary demographic is U.K. travelers, so the Beatles reference is particularly apt.

There was plenty of discussion on our cruise whether we’d be subject to the same fate, as river levels on the Rhine in July were quite low. Large, rocky bars had appeared in the middle of the river, and there were long, rocky beaches on either side of the river that were normally underwater. On the Moselle, however, we had the opposite problem: river levels were too high, meaning that the sun deck on our ship would be closed for much of our time on that river, because the clearance under some of the bridges would have been too low.

While we slept in comfortably appointed rooms (the bathroom had one of the more spacious showers I’ve encountered on a river ship) and worked our way through multi-course gastronomic tasting menus focused on the cuisine of Europe’s river regions, there was plenty of discussion over whether climate change meant that this would be the new reality for river cruising moving forward.

It’s worth noting that varying water levels are simply part of the nature of river shipping, and always have been. Rivers aren’t static—their water levels are dependent on a number of environmental factors, like the amount of precipitation and how much has been siphoned off for human uses like agriculture or industrial uses, like cooling power plants.

Water levels also dropped on the Rhine and Danube in 2018 and 2022, while in 2013 high water levels stalled shipping because of low bridge clearances. This year, however, the Rhine in particular has reached record lows. Near the choke point of Kaub, Germany (where I noticed the giant bars in the middle of the river on our cruise), the river level kept deteriorating to reach a record low by early August, halting river cruise traffic and reducing payload on cargo ships to just 20% of normal.

The problem is large enough that it risks curbing German economic growth, which had recently shown signs of improvement.

For river cruisers, the impact is more aesthetic than anything—they’ll still reach their next port, it just may be on a bus instead of on their ship. But, depending on the river and the itinerary, the loss of the scenic cruising itself can have a big impact. On our cruise, the ship floated past ancient castles while we sat on the sun deck and received narration from our guide, and seeing the Rhine’s famed Lorelei from the water was a scenic highlight of our cruise. It probably wouldn’t have had the same impact as if we’d had to see it from a bus.

The good news is river levels are dynamic—they change frequently, and there’s data that suggests that river levels in Europe aren’t settling to a new low. Seasonal fluctuations will probably slowly become more pronounced, and there will be real concerns about commerce and the availability of drinking water for riverside communities during low ebbs, but the rivers aren’t going completely dry. Dry spells, however, will likely be more frequent and last for longer, particularly with the continent being plagued more often by extreme heat events, which hasten the drying of the river.

What to Do if Your River Cruise Is Affected

If the cruise line cancels your river cruise, you can typically get rebooked for alternate dates, a refund, or a credit for a future cruise.

If you receive notice that the cruise line has cancelled ports or significantly altered your itinerary, you probably won’t be able to cancel and receive a refund. Cruise line contracts typically have broad language allowing them to cancel or substitute port calls because of river conditions. In these cases, it can help to have a third-party travel insurance policy. Some providers, like Allianz’s specialized coverages offered through AAA, will pay passengers if port calls are cancelled, as long as they provide a letter from the cruise line explaining why the port call was dropped.

River cruises also typically don’t cover the cost to rebook flights affected by a date change or cancellation (although some offer more flexibility if you have bought your air ticket directly from them) so it’s worth having travel insurance to cover those costs.

You’ll also be subject to cancellation penalties if you choose to cancel before the cruise line has made any announcements about cancellations or itinerary changes, so wait to hear from them before taking any action. If you have concerns, it’s worth taking them up directly with the cruise line. Because these situations aren’t uncommon, their staff are well-versed in talking their passengers through the procedures, whether it’s reaching a port on a bus for tours, transferring passengers to another ship past the shallow portions of the river, or choosing alternate ports altogether.

It’s also worth noting that altering these itineraries isn’t done on a whim by the cruise line. The Rhine and Danube are both heavily trafficked rivers with numerous locks to navigate, most of which require advance reservations and tolls. Docking facilities can also be limited when traffic stacks up, so there really is quite a bit of finesse to “fixing” a river cruise when water levels decline.

Travelers can also attempt to avoid the peak drought periods by booking their river cruises earlier in the summer season (think May or June) when river levels trend higher after spring rains and winter snowmelt is still ongoing. Both of my cruises in June and July—the Danube with Smithsonian Journeys x AmaWaterways, and the Rhine and Moselle with Riviera Travel, respectively, operated as originally scheduled without missing any ports.

Destination choice can also play a part. Far inland stretches of rivers like the Upper Danube and Upper Rhine can be prone to drought, while downriver stretches like the Rhine in Belgium and the Netherlands, and the Gironde and Garonne Rivers in southwest France are more regulated by estuarine tides. Rivers with heavy lock systems like the Rhône and Saône in southern France can also weather shorter-term droughts better without affecting cruise departures.

In any situation, travelers can still book European river cruises into the future with confidence. And if it does turn into a “Magical Mystery Cruise,” that’s just part of the adventure.

Update: Riviera sent Fodor’s the following statement: “Riviera has put together a River Cruise Update Center here with information on affected sailings, rebooking options, and timelines for when guests can expect to hear about their sailings. They are also exploring options to move affected sailings to alternative rivers where possible. Guests whose sailings are canceled will have the option to receive a full refund or rebook for a future sailing, with a $350-per-person credit applied if the new sailing is more expensive than the original.”

Hoteliers seek strategies to increase visibility to travelers on AI platforms

Consumers could soon ask AI agents to book hotels for them

The rate at which large-language model AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and more are reading hotel websites is improving fast, and soon booking decisions will be made by consumers in these AI apps, according to hoteliers. (Getty Images)

https://www.costar.com/article/2055477779/hoteliers-seek-strategies-to-increase-visibility-to-travelers-on-ai-platforms

By Dan Kubacki

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — How people search the internet has been revolutionized by artificial intelligence, which has major implications for how visible hotels are online in this new era.

Google, for example, integrates its Gemini AI assistant into its search engine, placing AI-generated responses at the top of search results. If a user searches for vacation destinations, a suggested trip itinerary, or hotel recommendations, it's imperative that hoteliers update their websites to have a better chance of appearing in those AI responses, said Michael Goldrich, founder and chief adviser of Vivander Advisors and president of HSMAI New York.

"Now people are putting into this [search] box — instead of keywords — a question, and instead of 10 blue links, you're getting one answer, an answer that's in a paragraph, and in this paragraph could be five to seven hotels. That's it. If you're not in that list of five to seven hotels, you're invisible," Goldrich said on the "Search, AI and the new path to booking" panel at the recent Hotel Data Conference.

2026 Hotel Data Conference

How well hotels appear on ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or other AI tools will depend on how streamlined their websites are for search engine optimization, answer engine optimization, and generative engine optimization, Goldrich said. A Q&A section on a hotel's website goes a long way toward better visibility on AI platforms.

"All of you have probably heard that these LLMs really like Reddit, and the reason they like Reddit is that Reddit is question/answer, question/answer, question/answer," he said. "People are asking questions and want these AI assistants to give them answers. So you need to structure your content to address questions that your guests will have, and then [provide] the answers. ... GEO, the generative engine optimization, where it's going around and it's looking across the entire internet to look to kind of reconcile what is the best answer to give to that question. So it's looking for consistency. It's looking for entity signals in terms of what people might be wanting to look for and matching them up."

Getting better visibility on AI platforms requires a uniform marketing message, said Sam Trotter, head of digital marketing at The Indigo Road Hospitality Group.

AI is "getting information from your website, from your listings, from your reviews in your listings, from PR, from YouTube, from all these different channels," Trotter said. "... So if you tell everybody on your website that you're the most romantic hotel, and that everybody in the reviews is talking about how it was great for our kids, then that's mixed signals, right? And so you really want everything to line up."

Spending for better AI visibility

As AI functionality continues to proliferate into daily life and threaten to fully disrupt different industries, there's a clear winner in the travel space, said Scott van Hartesvelt, founder at Gcommerce. Right now, it's the online travel agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com that are way ahead of hotel companies in terms of integrating AI into their trip-planning tools.

The most aggressive spenders in this space right now are the OTAs, he said. Hoteliers are at risk of being disintermediated again in ways that may be hard to recover from as an industry.

But "the direct booking channels ... are advantaged in these platforms, and so over time if we as an industry respond collectively, I think that there's a way to still fight that fight, but we are being outspent," van Hartesvelt said.

Whether a consumer books a hotel directly on the property's website, through its brand loyalty app or via a third-party engine such as Expedia or Booking.com has historically been a bit of a headache for hoteliers. The same nightly room rate must appear on both the hotel's website and the OTA's, but hoteliers lose a percentage of that rate in OTA fees if a guest doesn't book directly with the hotel.

Now add AI to the picture and it's enough for hotel owners to demand more help from their brand partners, said Priya Chandnani, executive vice president of commercial strategy at Sage Hospitality Group. Sage is a Denver-based owner-operator with more than 60 hotels in the U.S.

"I'll say it: The brands are not keeping up at this point," Chandnani said.

It falls on owners and operators to hold brands accountable through continuous conversations, sharing best practices and pushing the brands to work it out faster, she said.

Hoteliers previously thought the rise of LLM platforms would create a more even playing ground with OTA partners, she said. That's not necessarily the case.

"OTAs are way ahead of the game; they've invested highly effectively in that space and are very well on their way to being that authority [to AI trip planning tools] for your hotel," she said.

The problem with a wait-and-see approach

There is a temptation for the hoteliers to sit back and wait to see how AI fully integrates into internet search, marketing and business operations. After all, the hospitality industry is notoriously a late adopter on most technology solutions compared to other industries. But van Hartesvelt warned that's an easy trap that leads to falling behind the competition.

Priya Chandnani, executive vice president of commercial strategy at Sage Hospitality Group, participates on a panel at the recent Hotel Data Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. (CoStar/Andrew Nelson)

"I've been through essentially four marketing technology cycles in this industry. It started with search, then moved to socials. Then I think in late [2019] and early 2020s, you had kind of the emergence of data and data privacy, and now you have AI," he said.

Initially, no one thought consumers would put their credit cards online, he said. That was a repeated refrain from clients.

Then people thought only kids were on Facebook, not paying customers who would see a hotel ad and book it, he said.

"The people who have waited for the dust to clear have consistently played catch-up, and with the speed that this is moving, that's an impossible task," he said.

Plus, the next evolution of AI tools in trip planning involves AI agents, which Goldrich said will collect user preferences from asking just a couple of questions and then book airfare, a hotel, and a rental car all on a person's behalf.

"I think you're going to look back on this time and realize this is just a blip because things are about to change and go much, much faster, and those are through AI agents," he said. "If you think about the process of how people book right now, they think about where they want to stay, they ask them questions, and then they act on it. ... The AI being used right now is very reactive. It's going to start to be proactive.

"It's going to know your schedules. It's going to know your affinities, your loyalty programs, and it knows that you come into Nashville, and it knows what your budget is, and it's just going to go ahead and book that [hotel] for you."

AI is driving innovation in hotels. Where should the industry focus?

Naz Aydin is the founder of Destination AI, an AI-focused conference for the hospitality industry. It will be held Sept. 29-30 in Washington, D.C.

https://hotelsmag.com/news/ai-is-driving-innovation-in-hotels-where-should-the-industry-focus/

Artificial intelligence is creating the most active period of innovation the hotel industry has ever seen. New tools are emerging at a breakneck pace across revenue management, marketing, guest communication, labor, operations, data analysis, maintenance, distribution, and other areas. Established technology companies are adding AI to their platforms; startups are introducing entirely new capabilities; and hotel organizations are testing a growing number of pilots and use cases.

Despite the pace of new product announcements, most hotel companies have not yet scaled AI across their organizations. Many are still experimenting with individual tools, trying to understand where AI can create value, and working through fundamental questions around data, governance, trust, training, and ownership.

One of the clearer goals is to track how hotels are using AI, where they are investing, how employees interact with these tools, whether the technology is producing measurable results, and how adoption evolves over time. That clarity is becoming more important as hotel economics grow more challenging. Even when revenues increase, rising labor, insurance, utilities, technology, maintenance, brand, and other operating costs continue to put pressure on profitability. For owners, that means the standard for technology investment is getting higher.

The five areas below highlight some of the most immediate opportunities for hotels to apply AI across their operations while staying focused on the business problems that matter most.

Hotel Operations: Finding Value Behind the Scenes

Some of the most meaningful AI innovation may happen in areas guests never see. Hotels still rely on a significant amount of manual coordination, with employees moving between systems, re-entering information, building schedules, reconciling invoices, assigning rooms, responding to maintenance issues and creating reports. Many of these processes can increasingly be supported by automation.

Housekeeping systems can help prioritize rooms based on checkout status, arrival patterns, staffing and guest needs. Maintenance platforms can identify early signs of equipment problems, while labor tools can help managers align staffing levels with expected business volume. Financial systems can also flag unusual expenses or performance variances before they become larger issues.

These applications may not sound as futuristic as an AI concierge or humanoid robot, but they may have a more immediate impact on hotel margins. For owners and operators, the question should not simply be where AI can be added; it should be where the organization is currently losing time, money, or consistency, and whether technology can help solve that problem.

Marketing and Discovery: Preparing for a New Travel Journey

AI is also changing how travelers discover and evaluate hotels, and this is creating a new challenge for hotels. A property can perform well in traditional search and still fail to appear when a traveler asks an AI platform for a recommendation. Hotels will need to think more carefully about whether their information is accurate, structured, specific and credible enough for AI systems to understand and reference.

Property descriptions, amenities, reviews, destination content, local recommendations, and website data all play an integral role. At the same time, marketing teams are using AI internally to produce content, translate messaging, analyze intent, and personalize the digital experience.

Commercial Strategy: Better Decisions, Not Just More Data

Revenue management has always combined historical performance, market data, and human judgment. AI is expanding the number of signals hotels can use to understand demand and make pricing decisions.

Rather than relying primarily on last year’s performance, booking pace and competitive rates, newer systems can analyze local events, search activity, customer behavior and changing market conditions in real time. The value is not just a more sophisticated forecast, but the ability to respond earlier and make better commercial decisions.

AI can help hotels recognize shifts in demand, identify opportunities within specific customer segments, personalize offers, and understand where a property may be leaving revenue on the table.

Guest Communication: Moving Beyond the Basic Chatbot

Guest communication is one of the most visible areas of AI adoption, and the technology has improved significantly from the first generation of hotel chatbots. Newer tools can answer routine questions, provide property information, support multiple languages, manage service requests, and identify opportunities for upgrades or additional purchases.

The value is clear: guests receive faster responses, employees spend less time handling repetitive questions, and hotels can create more opportunities to generate revenue throughout the stay. AI is best suited to simple, high-volume needs, while situations requiring empathy, discretion, personalization, or context should remain human.

Enterprise Intelligence: Making Existing Data More Useful

Hotel companies do not necessarily have a shortage of data. The larger challenge is making data connected, accessible, and actionable.

Information is often spread across property management systems, revenue platforms, labor tools, guest feedback systems, accounting software, maintenance platforms, and spreadsheets. Even when the data exists, answering a relatively simple question may still require several people and multiple reports.

AI can make that process much more efficient by allowing leaders to ask questions in plain language, compare performance across properties, identify anomalies and understand what requires attention without manually working through every underlying system. For an ownership or management group, this could mean quickly identifying unusual labor costs, declining guest scores, missed revenue opportunities or operating expenses moving outside expected ranges.

The longer-term opportunity is predictive. Rather than identifying a problem after the financial period has closed, hotel leaders may be able to spot early warning signs and intervene sooner. Still, AI cannot solve fragmented systems, inconsistent definitions, or poor-quality data on its own, so organizations need confidence in the underlying information before they can rely on more sophisticated analysis.

For many hotel leaders, the biggest question is no longer whether AI matters, but where to begin.

As margins remain pressured, hoteliers will expect more than an interesting pilot or an impressive demonstration. They will want to know whether a tool solves a meaningful business problem, improves property performance, and can be implemented responsibly across the organization.

The opportunity is significant, but the right starting point will look different for every hotel company. What matters most is focusing on the areas where AI can create real value today while building the capabilities needed for what comes next.

Canadian Boycotts Hit Florida Tourism

Sean Pavone/iStock

https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/canadian-boycotts-hit-florida-tourism

Fodor's News Desk

And more of today's top travel news stories.

Today in travel, we have several stories that may have flown under your radar. Among them: fires in Nevada may impact Burning Man; Canadian tourists are avoiding Florida; and the TSA is working on a modernization plan.

Dive into these and more as we examine the latest in travel news.

Some or all of this article was crafted with help from AI. An editor reviewed and vetted this article before publishing.

PHOTO: TRUNGDBNGUYEN/DREAMSTIME

1 OF 5

Hawk Fire Near Reno Forces Thousands to Evacuate, as Burning Man Approaches

A rapidly spreading wildfire northwest of Reno has forced tens of thousands of people from their homes as firefighters battle the blaze amid dry conditions and unpredictable winds. The human-caused Hawk Fire began Saturday and had burned more than 15,000 acres by Monday morning, with no containment reported. Roughly 42,000 residents were under evacuation orders, while another 45,000 were in areas where people were told to prepare to leave. Several structures have burned, and six people—three civilians and three first responders—have been injured.

Schools across Washoe County were closed Monday because of the evacuations and to reduce traffic for emergency crews. Portions of U.S. Route 395 have also been closed as firefighters work to keep the blaze away from additional residential and commercial areas. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency in Washoe County and mobilized National Guard personnel and helicopters to assist with the response.

The fire is also unfolding just as thousands of travelers begin heading through northern Nevada for Burning Man, which opens in the Black Rock Desert on August 30. Reno serves as the principal air and supply gateway for the event, and approved crews are already allowed to enter Black Rock City ahead of opening day. Reno-Tahoe International Airport remains outside the evacuation zone and commercial flights have continued, although nearby Reno-Stead Airport has been closed to general aviation so it can support firefighting operations. Road closures, evacuations, and heavy demand for local lodging could nevertheless complicate travel through the Reno area as Burning Man arrivals increase this week.

2 OF 5

Florida Tourism Dips as Canadian Visits Fall and Inflation Persists

Florida tourism declined for the second consecutive quarter, with the state recording an estimated 34.01 million visitors between April and June—0.7% fewer than during the same period in 2025. Through the first half of 2026, Florida welcomed 73.5 million visitors, down 1.4% year over year, although tourism outside the Canadian market remains above pre-pandemic levels.

Canadian travel continued to be a weak spot. About 721,000 Canadians visited Florida during the second quarter, a 4.2% decline from a year earlier, while the first-half total of 1.68 million represented a 13.9% drop. The decrease comes amid a broader pullback in Canadian travel to the United States that began in 2025 during heightened political and trade tensions. Statistics Canada described an 11-month stretch of year-over-year declines as the deepest and most sustained on record outside the pandemic period.

Florida economists have also warned that inflation has been outpacing wage growth, contributing to greater reliance on credit. Meanwhile, Visit Florida is emphasizing historic attractions connected with the America 250 celebration and new efforts to draw visitors to rural communities.

Search This Blog https://travel-news-duhospitality.blogspot.com

Travel-News-duhospitality.blogspot.com