The first rule of management: "What is not measured, cannot be managed."
That means we need KPIs, and ideally, lots of them. The more, the better... right?
Courtyard Bridgetown, Barbados is proud to unveil a $350,000 thoughtfully designed renovation of its lobby and signature restaurant, Kitchen & Bar, drawing inspiration from the vibrant colors and atmosphere of the Caribbean. This transformation aims to create a serene and welcoming oasis that captures the spirit of the island while offering guests a modern and comfortable hospitality experience.
As the hospitality industry stands at a crossroads between tradition and innovation, Ian Millar—Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at EHL and a leading authority in hospitality technology—invites readers to rethink long-held assumptions about the guest experience. Drawing on his dual expertise in hospitality and information technology, as well as his experience advising hotels and technology startups worldwide, Millar explores how a technology mindset is not only compatible with great service, but essential for meeting the evolving expectations of guests in 2025 and beyond.
If you have traveled in the past couple of decades, you have likely experienced a hotel room overflowing with printed material. Menus, brochures, directories, safety guides, city maps, and the occasional glossy magazine were all part of the package. While once helpful, this paper overload feels increasingly out of place in today’s connected world. Guests now expect simplicity, clarity, and digital access.
To KPI or not to KPI assumes that metrics are the lever. But in real estate and hospitality, the real lever is sequencing. We don't have a KPI problem, we have a decision logic problem. KPIs are just the output of upstream workflows. Yet in 2025, asset upgrades still rely on fragmented, manual processes that break long before reliable data is even available. We have seen how KPIs can backfire, especially when short-term metrics or legacy certifications are mistaken for long-term assurance. One of our clients proudly achieved BREEAM Excellent just a few years ago, only to now face an EPC E rating and a multi-million-pound retrofit bill. The upgrades were superficial, the certification held weight at the time, but the building is now non-compliant. KPIs weren't wrong: they were simply disconnected from science-based targets and emerging regulation. At SustainCRE, we are not optimising metrics. We are codifying the system logic that gets buildings upgraded faster, cheaper and with measurable yield. Think of it like a self-driving car. You feed it inputs — destination, weather, traffic — and the system determines the best path, recalibrates in real time, and gets you there more efficiently. The result? Optimised KPIs as a by-product:
The hospitality industry is undergoing a powerful transformation, shaped by the rise of artificial intelligence and the growing demand for highly personalized guest experiences. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group survey, 80 percent of consumers worldwide now expect tailored interactions. This shift is not about replacing people with machines. It is about using technology to create smarter, more intuitive service that exceeds expectations, strengthens loyalty, and supports long-term business success.
I believe the hospitality industry is standing at a pivotal moment, with both the opportunity and the responsibility to shape what comes next. This future will not be defined by technology alone but by the clarity of vision we bring as hoteliers and professionals. As innovation accelerates, it is our purpose, empathy, and intent that will determine whether these tools help us build a more resilient, human centered industry or simply add to the noise.
If we want KPIs to reflect meaningful progress—not just numbers in a dashboard—we need to start at the top. That means rethinking how we incentivize leadership. Most hotel bonus structures are still tied exclusively to revenue. But what if hitting sustainability KPIs—like reducing waste, engaging local communities, or improving staff well-being—was also rewarded?
Share price and value are correlated to current and expected future profits, which can depend on decisions from governments with short term priorities who legislate for GDP growth as a solution to most of their problems. We should be pushing for a lasting global commitment to change the collective vision of success, and to accept that success shouldn't be measured in purely economic terms.
What do KPIs, certificates, and ESG ratings have in common? They're all tools we use to measure impact and performance. But can one metric, or even one system, capture everything at once? Probably not. As we navigate ESG reporting, the challenge isn't just what to measure, but how much, how specifically, and how meaningfully.
Talk to any hotel executive today and artificial intelligence is almost guaranteed to be part of the conversation. From predictive analytics to personalised guest messaging, AI is widely seen as the next frontier in hospitality innovation. But how far have we really come, and where is the line between aspiration and implementation? To answer that, we surveyed over 1,000 hotels across Europe. What we found was a mixed picture, one that reveals both strong belief in AI’s potential and the practical barriers still holding many hotels back.
Operational Intelligence in hospitality has come a long way. Business Intelligence platforms helped pave the path by giving property leaders visibility into key metrics through dashboards and web portals. But while these tools showed what was happening, they often stopped short of explaining why. That missing piece is now within reach. Thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence, we are entering a new phase of Operational Intelligence. Property teams can now access real-time insights, uncover root causes, and take smarter actions to drive profitability and performance.
It’s 2025. You can fly across the Atlantic, binge watch a series at 30,000 feet, call a ride with a tap, and unlock your front door with your phone. But step into many hotels and suddenly it’s like the future hit pause at the front desk. The check-in process, still clunky, still manual, still weirdly sacred, somehow remains frozen in time. And the most ironic part? We keep calling it “hospitality.”
Labour shortages and global uncertainty are putting serious strain on hotel operations. Margins are tighter, expectations are higher, and operators are being asked to deliver more with fewer resources. In this environment, technology is no longer a nice to have. It is essential. From automation to integration, the right tools can help you streamline operations, improve the guest experience, and protect your bottom line. Here is a practical look at what to do and what to avoid when using tech to ease the pressure and run a smarter, more efficient property.
Thinking about technology in hospitality, I often reflect on how it used to feel like something separate, an add-on. Today it is woven into everything we do, especially in something as crucial as managing our talent. And with artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI tools, grabbing headlines, we are entering a new era in how we think about and handle our people strategies.
Believe it or not, this isn’t another late night monologue about AI sentience or the metaverse melting our brains. This one is about something simpler and, honestly, more urgent. It is about consulting, what it is, what it is not, and why it is time we stopped treating it like an Instagram filter for our careers. Somewhere between rooftop selfies and recycled slide decks, the core of this job got lost. So whether you are thinking of becoming a consultant or about to hire one, consider this your cheat sheet. No fluff, no pitch, just the truth.
Hospitality is undergoing a fundamental transformation - driven not only by digitalization and artificial intelligence, but by a new understanding of what human-centered service means in a tech-enabled world. Based on insights from the FutureHotel Innovation Network at Fraunhofer IAO, this article explores how hotels are shifting from standardized procedures toward more adaptive, emotionally intelligent service models. Automation is not replacing humans - it’s freeing them to do what they do best: create genuine, meaningful guest experiences. In this new era, technology doesn’t undermine hospitality’s human core; it enables its renaissance.
Hospitality is on the edge of its next great transformation, and this time it is not mobile driving the change. It is AI. Just look at the numbers. In April 2025, ChatGPT recorded over five billion visits, while traffic to Google declined. This shift marks more than a trend. It signals a complete rethinking of how travel is researched, planned, and booked. And at the center of it all is Agentic AI, the technology that may soon redefine the entire guest journey, from inspiration to reservation.
Let’s be honest. Hotel tech is a mess. Not a quirky, fix-it-with-duct-tape mess, but a full-on, integration-induced identity crisis. Every time a vendor tries to connect to a PMS, a developer cries. The industry has spent years chasing standards, frameworks, and white papers, only to end up with a Frankenstein stack of systems that barely speak to each other. And for what? So we can proudly say we built a digital house of cards that collapses the moment someone updates an API?
Luxury in hospitality is no longer defined by marble floors or high thread count sheets. It is measured by how seamlessly your digital ecosystem meets guest expectations. The modern traveler is not impressed by a fruit basket or a bathroom phone. They are looking for instant connectivity, intuitive digital touchpoints, and a smooth journey from booking to check out. In this new era, your hotel’s ability to deliver digitally is not a bonus. It is the baseline.
It’s easy to think wellness is just another bolt-on, like bath salts or green juice in the minibar. But the truth is, wellness isn’t just a trend. It’s a trillion-dollar shift in how people travel, spend, and stay. And if you are in hospitality, it’s your business to care. Not just in the fluffy “feel good” sense, but in a data-driven, revenue-boosting, loyalty-building kind of way. Because when guests start choosing hotels based on how they feel after check-out, you will want to be the one showing them measurable results.