TrustYou and Apaleo's joint solution enables hotels to provide 24/7 AI-powered guest communication across all channels from booking to post-stay.
Oh boy, dear Simone, looking 5-10 years ahead with so much happening during one month is a bit above my weight class. Which of course doesn’t prevent me from giving my quick comments 😉
In a word, no. Websites were designed to entice humans to view, discover, consider, buy. They are heavy with images, HTML, JavaScript, etc. to entice us in and encourage us to dwell. APIs were invented for M2M, machine to machine, transactions.
Agents will be everywhere, but behind the scenes. Booking agents are a short-term solution; using AI to simulate human behavior is like asking for a faster horse. Agents that behave as people, visiting websites and simulating human behavior (clicking on links, filling forms) are an incredible technological feat, but are a poor solution to most real-word problems: - Agents are very slow, because they have to replicate user paths built for humans- They fail often, because every website they visit is differentThe future will be MCP- and API-based, with agents interacting with those MCP/API.
Crystal ball time. 5 to 10 years i think we will quite similar to where we are today. the slow pace of change will not change and traditional tech stacks will still be around. lack of motivation to change, contracts and low investment will hinder the change.
Industry leaders at ITB Berlin discuss moving from traditional front desk operations to mobile-first hospitality that follows guests throughout their journey.
The travel industry's AI conversation at ITB Berlin 2026 moved beyond hype toward practical maturity and real-world applications.
Valpas technology prevents bedbugs in real-time and provides verified cleanliness data that ChatGPT can now access for hotel recommendations.
Klaus Kohlmayr discusses AI trust challenges and the evolving role of revenue managers in hospitality technology.
At ITB Berlin last year, one topic dominated almost every conversation: Artificial Intelligence. The big question in 2025 was simple — “Do you have AI?”
Apaleo's founder demonstrates live hotel booking through ChatGPT, with 15-20 hotel groups already deploying AI agents in production.
Hotels are better positioned for the AI era than most people think. They own something no LLM can replicate: years of proprietary guest data and a direct relationship with the customer. That's a genuine competitive moat, and agentic AI is finally what turns it into action.
The takeaway that stays with me isn't about any single technology. It's about what AI can actually do to change the way we experience travel.An example of this was the live demo I gave on stage to change my own flight home - not by calling a helpdesk, not by navigating an app - but by having a natural conversation with an AI agent that handled everything live: rebooking, seat, baggage, transfer all in one simple phone call.The audience went quiet for a moment.
What stood out to me most at ITB Berlin this year was how much the conversation around AI has shifted from theory to real, everyday use. Hoteliers and operators are no longer asking whether AI matters, but where it can make the biggest difference for guests and teams right now.
Infor's David Poprawka argues hospitality must rebuild its data foundation before AI can succeed, showcasing AR proof-of-concepts for check-in and housekeeping.
TrustYou's CEO envisions moving from fragmented guest communication to unified conversational AI that maintains context across all channels and touchpoints.
Journey executives explain how hotels can generate 50% of revenue from non-room sources by treating experiences as bookable inventory rather than add-ons.
Stripe's James Lemon discusses payment infrastructure challenges in hotels and why AI booking technology is more complex for travel than retail.
Access Hospitality's Navigator uses natural language AI to query unified hotel data, eliminating the need to toggle between multiple systems.
TRYBE CEO discusses their wristband-based contactless system for spas, arguing specialized software with strong integrations beats all-in-one platforms.
VenueSuite announced demand-based pricing for meetings and events, applying room revenue management logic to meeting spaces with early results showing increased bookings on lower-demand dates.
The solution extends dynamic pricing beyond guestrooms to meeting spaces, with early adopter KAS Meeting-Event Location reporting increased bookings on lower-demand dates.
Day two coverage of ITB Berlin highlights live AI booking demos, regenerative hospitality debate, and production-ready hotel automation systems.