Beyond Bias: AI and the Reconstruction of Perception
Rita Jusztina Varga raises an uncomfortable question the industry is only beginning to grapple with: when AI summarizes guest reviews at scale, whose experience actually gets represented? Drawing on her own decade-old stay as a case study, she argues that AI bias in review aggregation systematically amplifies certain voices while quietly erasing others — and that the hospitality industry urgently needs to rethink how it collects,...
Guests really start to form their memories of a stay after they leave, and we are not the ones shaping those memories.
Ten years ago, I went to train one of my boutique hotel partners in Switzerland, where I was greeted with a mug that read: "Come as a guest, leave as a friend." That statement set the tone for my whole stay, and they lived up to it, consistently meeting the expectation they'd set. A decade on, it's a business trip I still remember, and I became a "friend for life" — that was my review. On paper, I served as a data point: a solo female business traveler from Hungary, a short length of stay, a direct booking, and a short booking window. For a machine, that is a data point.
The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
The 2026 HOTEL Yearbook Technology Edition - AI Everywhere is fully geared towards AI and explores how hospitality technology is preparing for a decade of profound change. With a clear focus on practical impact rather than hype, this edition examines how intelligence is becoming embedded across the hotel technology stack and day-to-day workflows, reshaping operations, revenue, distribution, guest experience, and the back office.
The publication will feature 40 editorial articles by domain experts, combined with a catalog of AI Solution Snapshots, offering readers both strategic insight and a curated overview of AI products currently available to the market, as well as an AI Glossary - a glossary of the most commonly used AI-related terms in hospitality. It brings together a wide spectrum of contributors, including academics, startups, hotel brands, established solution providers, and industry insiders, offering evidence-led perspectives, real-world lessons, and actionable guidance on what hoteliers should prioritize now to stay competitive in an AI-driven future. The publication will launch at HITEC 2026, San Antonio.