Human X Summit: Pioneering the Future of Hospitality with Innovation and Humanity
EHL's HumanX Summit 2026 in Lausanne will bring together 600 participants to debate balancing technology with humanity in hospitality leadership strategy.
Interviews
The Return of the Concierge: Why Human Judgment Still Defines Luxury Hospitality
InterContinental Seattle's Les Clefs d'Or concierge explains how human judgment and relationships remain essential in luxury hospitality despite AI advancement.
Revenue Management Moves Into the PMS: A Conversation with RoomPriceGenie at ITB Berlin
“RoomPriceGenie launches Revenue Intelligence with 15 PMS partners, embedding pricing solutions directly in hotel management systems to support more accurate, revenue-led operational decisions.
Hospitality Does Not Have a Labour Shortage — It Has a Visibility Problem: A Conversation with Paathz at ITB Berlin
Paathz CEO argues hospitality's talent crisis stems from fragmented recruitment systems, not actual shortage, proposing industry-specific platforms over generic tools.
When ChatGPT Can Prove Your Hotel Is Clean: A Conversation with Valpas at ITB Berlin
Valpas technology prevents bedbugs in real-time and provides verified cleanliness data that ChatGPT can now access for hotel recommendations.
Decisions You Can Trust: A Conversation with IDeaS at ITB Berlin
Klaus Kohlmayr discusses AI trust challenges and the evolving role of revenue managers in hospitality technology.
Booked in Seconds, Inside ChatGPT: A Conversation with Apaleo at ITB Berlin
Apaleo's founder demonstrates live hotel booking through ChatGPT, with 15-20 hotel groups already deploying AI agents in production.
Be Brave: A Conversation with Infor at ITB Berlin
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.
The Always-Reply Future: A Conversation with TrustYou at ITB Berlin
TrustYou's CEO envisions moving from fragmented guest communication to unified conversational AI that maintains context across all channels and touchpoints.
Experiences Are Inventory, Not a Feeling: A Conversation with Journey at ITB Berlin
Journey executives explain how hotels can generate 50% of revenue from non-room sources by treating experiences as bookable inventory rather than add-ons.
Payments, AI Commerce, and Why Retail Went First: A Conversation with Stripe at ITB Berlin
Stripe's James Lemon discusses payment infrastructure challenges in hotels and why AI booking technology is more complex for travel than retail.
Intent, Representation, and the Future of Direct Booking: A Conversation with Aven Hospitality at ITB Berlin
Aven Hospitality's Mark Hollyhead discusses how AI-driven search shifts booking from filling forms to expressing intent, requiring hotels to control their own representation.
The Toggle Tax and the Invisible Lobby Boy: A Conversation with Access Hospitality at ITB Berlin
Access Hospitality's Champa Magesh argues system fragmentation hurts guest experience more than data quality, coining the "toggle tax" for staff switching between platforms.
One Platform, One Source of Truth: A Conversation with Access Hospitality at ITB Berlin
Access Hospitality's Navigator uses natural language AI to query unified hotel data, eliminating the need to toggle between multiple systems.
Social, Search, and the Fight for Direct Bookings: A Conversation with Cendyn and HOSPITALITY X at ITB Berlin
Cendyn's CEO and HOSPITALITY X Co-Founder discuss how social media evolved from brand awareness to direct conversion channel at ITB Berlin.
Friction, Wristbands, and Why Best-of-Breed Wins: A Conversation with TRYBE at ITB Berlin
TRYBE CEO discusses their wristband-based contactless system for spas, arguing specialized software with strong integrations beats all-in-one platforms.
The Regenerative Question: A Conversation with Willy Legrand at ITB Berlin
Dr. Willy Legrand discusses why 40 years of sustainability frameworks have failed to prevent environmental decline and explores regenerative tourism as a transformative alternative.
Meetings, Events, and a Ride in a Trabi: A Conversation with VenueSuite at ITB Berlin
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.
Simone Puorto discussed Humans-as-Luxury, AI, Imperfection, and the Future of Hospitality
Puorto argues AI requires structural process changes, not just tool integration, and introduces "Humans-as-Luxury" as human service becomes a strategic differentiator.
Quinta’s Daniel Doppler on Why Hospitality AI Now Starts With Data, Not Chatbots
Quinta founder argues the AI advantage has shifted from chatbot interfaces to data quality and maintenance, with hotels needing structured knowledge systems for agent-to-agent booking futures.