The Invisible Operating System
The author argues that hotel competitiveness in the AI era depends on invisible operational infrastructure, as AI amplifies data inconsistencies rather than hiding them.
AI in Hospitality
This dedicated AI in Hospitality section explores how AI is reshaping the industry, from guest communication and marketing personalisation to revenue management, operations, staffing, cybersecurity, and the evolving role of data and automation across the hotel and travel ecosystem. It brings together practical use cases, expert insights, product and partnership news, leadership viewpoints, and real world lessons from properties and brands of all sizes, helping hospitality professionals separate substance from hype and make informed decisions about where AI delivers value today and what to prepare for next.
Most Hotels Do Not Need a 2030 AI Strategy. They Need Confidence About 2026
The author argues hoteliers should focus on near-term AI confidence for 2026 rather than abstract long-range strategies, drawing on a year of deep AI research.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, AI Champion
I photographed the future standing behind the past
A hospitality executive argues that hotels must build AI-ready operations now, ahead of AGI, using a four-dimension framework called PHAL that unifies Performance, Profit, Preference, and People.
By Saurabh Prakash, CEO and Founder, PHAL
Cloudbeds' Josh Graham on why AI finally favors the independent hotel
We didn't go to HITEC 2026 for the demos. We went for the conversations. We sat down with exhibitors right there on the show floor. No script, no prepared questions, just one starting point: tell us what you do, in plain language. This is where it went with Josh Graham, Head of Market Development for North America at Cloudbeds.
When AI Serves the Guest, Hospitality Wins
A luxury hotel GM with 20+ years of experience argues AI amplifies rather than replaces hospitality professionals, citing Hilton's AI Planner, Be My Eyes partnership, and operational forecasting as real-world examples.
By Chintan Dadhich, Complex General Manager, Hilton
We Were Never Eight, We Were One
An operator-turned-founder argues that hotel groups have optimized individual functions at the expense of cross-functional rhythm, and introduces PHAL OS, an AI leadership layer targeting top-10 hotel groups.
By Saurabh Prakash, CEO and Founder, PHAL
Revinate thinks the AI trusts your guests more than your brand
We didn't go to HITEC 2026 for the demos. We went for the conversations. We sat down with exhibitors right there on the show floor. No script, no prepared questions, just one starting point: tell us what you do, in plain language. This is where it went with Frank Trampert, Chief Revenue Officer at Revinate.
As AI Reshapes Hospitality, Authentic Human Connection Remains the Ultimate Differentiator
The author argues that AI should handle back-office tasks to free hotel staff for authentic guest interactions, positioning human connection as the hardest-to-replicate competitive differentiator.
By Brendan Cronin, Visiting Professor, Les Roches
One Less Clock Change, One New Set of Problems
The Sunshine Protection Act, passed by the House in July 2026, would make DST permanent, shifting winter sunrises an hour later and disrupting morning operations, early staffing, and cross-state scheduling for multi-property groups.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
HSMAI Europe launches new whitepaper on the agentic future of hospitality technology
HSMAI Europe's AI Advisory Board whitepaper examines how autonomous AI agents will reshape hotel discovery, booking, and communication, and what hotels must do to become "AI-bookable."
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
Afterword: Loving the Alien. Hospitality at the Edge of the Human Era
There is a tendency, whenever a new technology emerges, to describe it using the language of those that came before it. The automobile was initially called a horseless carriage, early cinema was dismissed as photographed theatre, and the internet was variously described as a global library, a digital encyclopedia, an electronic newspaper, or, in one now-famous 1995 Bill Gates television appearance, something that even David Letterman struggled to distinguish from a particularly sophisticated radio.
By Simone Puorto, Head of Emerging Trends and Strategic Innovation, Hospitality Net
By Max Starkov
Expert Views (24)
Ira Vouk, Hospitality Tech and AI Consultant, Hospitality 2.0 Consulting
The reality is much more complex than black and white. There are already many humanless hotels (mostly in Asia). So there will be: - regional differences in approach to human vs machine balance - variations between different segments (short-term rentals adopted self-service from the get go, many limited service hotel properties followed, but we won't expect to see if in the luxury segment any time soon, maybe never) It will be a spectrum.
Mark Fancourt, Co-Founder & Principal Consultant, TRAVHOTECH
In the future, a purely automated, no-human operational model will increasingly become the way of things. For this to fully materialize, our industry and our customer will have accepted all forms of artificial intelligence—both soft and hard.
Erik Muñoz, Business Development Director EMEA, TrustYou
No. Humanless hotels will become more common, but they are unlikely to become the norm.Automation and AI are excellent for repetitive tasks like check-in, payments, and guest requests, helping hotels reduce costs and improve efficiency.
The Hotel Identity You Chose to Protect May Be the One AI Cannot See
AI travel assistants interpret hotel identity rather than match keywords, putting soft-brand affiliates at risk of being deprioritized when their boutique and chain signals conflict.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, AI Champion
Grevon joins AI Hospitality Alliance as a founding partner
Grevon joins the AI Hospitality Alliance as a founding partner, contributing to technical standards and direct-booking workstreams as AI reshapes hotel distribution and guest ownership.
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
The Remains of the Stay: Memory, Identity, and the Afterlife of the Guest
Edmondo Grassi approaches the post-stay phase as a sociologist rather than a technologist, and the perspective is unsettling. When a guest checks out, he argues, their stay does not end — it migrates into a data infrastructure that remembers with absolute precision what the guest themselves only vaguely recalls, raising a question the industry rarely asks: who has the right to hold that memory, and on whose behalf?
By Edmondo Grassi, Assistant professor (RTT) in Sociology, San Raffaele University of Rome
Canary Technologies built its software around the guest, not the property
We didn't go to HITEC 2026 for the demos. We went for the conversations. We sat down with exhibitors right there on the show floor. No script, no prepared questions, just one starting point: tell us what you do, in plain language. This is where it went with SJ Sawhney, Co-Founder and President of Canary Technologies.
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
The Ethics of the Traveler: Responsibility in an Intelligent Ecosystem
Jonathan MacDonald reframes the post-stay phase (typically dismissed as administrative afterthought) as the moment where the ethical stakes of AI-mediated travel become most visible. Once a guest checks out, their experience dissolves into data, and the central question becomes not what they remember, but who owns the narrative, and on what terms.
By Jonathan MacDonald, Founder, SELF
Now Live: The First Industry-Wide Crowdsourcing Initiative
The AI Hospitality Alliance and HEDNA launch an open, crowdsourced catalogue of real-world hospitality AI use cases, inviting all industry professionals to contribute in 60 seconds.
AI is confidently wrong about your hotel, and the guest arrives believing it
AI tools confidently describe hotels based on outdated sources, leaving front desk staff to manage guest disappointment when closures, renovations, or changes don't match expectations.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Technology Edition
Panem, Circenses, and Prompt Engineering: What Ancient Rome Already Knew About AI
Andrzej Wajda traces the AI revolution back to Antiquity, arguing that what we call automation today is structurally indistinguishable from what ancient Romans achieved through slavery — and that Aristotle essentially predicted it. The real lesson for hospitality, he contends, is not technological but perennial: if you cannot manage people and operations well today, no tool, ancient or artificial, will save you.
By Andrzej Mateusz Wajda, Hospitality consultant & Sociologist, Wajda Hotel Consulting