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Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

The AI Shift: Rethinking Digital Ads in Hospitality’s F&B Sector

Kalani Bandaranayake, Ex-Cluster Assistant Director Digital & E-Commerce at Raffles Doha and Fairmont Doha, explains how AI is turning F&B marketing from guesswork into a living, adaptive system that listens, learns, and reacts in real time. She shows how unified data, weather and event-based personalization, and smarter, more responsive campaigns can lift performance, but insists that the real advantage will belong to teams who pair algorithmic precision with human empathy so ads do not just reach guests, they genuinely resonate with them.

Kalani Bandaranayake
By Kalani Bandaranayake, Ex-Cluster Assistant Director Digital & E-Commerce, Raffles Doha and Fairmont Doha, FRHI
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

No Ads My A*s (or the Slow Googlization of OpenAI)

Simone Puorto, Head of Emerging Technologies at Hospitality Net, draws a sharp parallel between Google’s early “no ads” promise and today’s reassurances around ad-free, unbiased generative AI. He argues that monetisation will inevitably seep into AI answers themselves – shifting us from pay-to-rank to “pay-per-mention” in a post-search world where hotels, OTAs and brands compete not for clicks, but for the right to be named by the model at all.

Simone Puorto
By Simone Puorto, Head of Emerging Trends and Strategic Innovation, Hospitality Net
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

How Hotel GMs Must Evolve to Lead in the AI Era

Jitendra Jain (JJ), hotelier and founder of Hotelemarketer.com, says the real challenge of the AI era is not technology but culture – and that tomorrow’s General Manager must evolve from “captain” to “Chief Orchestrator.” He explains how GMs can bridge the gap between messy legacy systems and AI’s promise by using small, practical “edge AI” wins, making psychological safety a key KPI, replacing rigid scripts with prompt playbooks, and using automation to free up time for more human, high touch guest moments.

Jitendra Jain (JJ)
By Jitendra Jain (JJ), Hotelier, Tech Enthusiast and Founder, hotelemarketer.com
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Forget infinity pools. Cultural capital is luxury’s real advantage.

Youri Sawerschel, Founder of Creative Supply, warns that luxury hotels are drifting into sameness and that infinity pools, marble lobbies, and “local experiences” are no longer enough to justify a premium. He argues that in an AI-fuelled copy-paste world, the real long-term advantage will come from building cultural capital – a clear cultural point of view, active cultural production, and carefully curated communities – so that luxury brands become genuine cultural forces, not just nice places to sleep.

Youri Sawerschel
By Youri Sawerschel, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Creative Supply
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Top 10 Luxury Hospitality Design Trends for 2026

Scott LaMont, Chief Executive Officer & Principal at EDSA, outlines ten luxury hospitality design trends that will shape 2026, from mixed-use integration and regenerative landscapes to human-tech balance, embedded wellness, and “destination-first” thinking. He shows how thoughtful, flexible design can turn hotels into living landmarks that serve guests, locals, and the environment while staying adaptable and commercially strong over time.

Scott LaMont
By Scott LaMont, Chief Executive Officer & Principal, EDSA
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Beyond “No-Reply”: The Missing Link in Hybrid Hospitality

Ben Jost, Co Founder and CEO of TrustYou, explains that hybrid hospitality will only work when hotels fix the “conversation gap” created by no reply emails, siloed channels, and systems that do not share context. He describes how an AI powered “AI Operator” sitting on top of unified communication and guest data can turn every email, chat, and call into one continuous, informed dialogue, reducing staff workload and making the guest experience feel faster, more personal, and truly connected.

Benjamin Jost
By Benjamin Jost, Co-Founder and CEO, TrustYou
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Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

The Anti-Strategy Strategy: How Doing Less Will Win 2026

Julia Krebs, Senior Lecturer and Hospitality Consultant at Les Roches Marbella, argues that the stand-out hotels of 2026 will be the ones that dare to do less, not more. Her “anti-strategy” swaps add-ons and AI hype for staff-led revenue insight, fixing basic integrations, owning slow days like Tuesday, and turning the luxury of less into a clear commercial advantage.

Julia Krebs
By Julia Krebs, Senior Lecturer and Hospitality Consultant, Les Roches-Marbella
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

SX = GX. Square!

Mark Fancourt, Co Founder and Principal Consultant at TRAVHOTECH, argues that the guest experience can only be as strong as the staff experience behind it, and that 2026 must be the year the industry finally treats SX = GX = $ as a real strategy, not a slogan. He calls out fragmented tech, context switching, and poor visibility as design failures that exhaust teams, and makes the case for tri-discipline leadership, integrated systems that give staff a 360° guest view, and tech that amplifies human service instead of replacing it.

Mark Fancourt
By Mark Fancourt, Co-Founder & Principal Consultant, TRAVHOTECH
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

The Future of Hospitality Is in a Fine-Tuned Blend of Humans and Technology

Max Starkov argues that guests are already comfortable with “human-less” service in accommodations, and hotels should respond by using AI, robotics, mobile, and cloud tools to do more with fewer staff while keeping a warm human face where it matters most. Using vacation rentals as proof that self-service works at scale, he links accelerated tech adoption to solving labor shortages and rising costs, and predicts a major staffing reduction by 2030 as automation moves from the back of house into core operations. 

Max Starkov
By Max Starkov, Hospitality & travel technologist and digital strategist, Hospitality Net
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

It’s Time to Rewrite Hospitality’s Story for the Next Generation

Christina Reti, Founder and CEO of CDR Global, reflects on why hospitality keeps losing young talent to misconception rather than reality. She argues that hotels remain one of the rare industries where starting at the bottom can lead to global leadership, but only if the sector updates its message and its internal practices, with clearer growth routes, stronger coaching, and workplaces that feel modern, purposeful, and human.

Christina Reti
By Christina Reti, Founder & CEO, CDR Global
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Beyond the Room: What the Next Era of Hotel Growth Will Look Like

Emily Weiss, Senior Managing Director and Travel Industry Lead at Accenture, argues that the industry cannot rely on higher ADRs to grow as RevPAR growth slows and costs rise. She explains how hotel brands are already shifting toward revenue beyond the room and stay, using retail and e commerce, bundled experiences, and next generation loyalty to keep guests engaged before, during, and after a visit. The message is clear: winners in 2026 and beyond will build lifestyle ecosystems that fit into how guests live and shop, not just how they sleep.

Emily Weiss
By Emily Weiss, Global Travel Industry Sector Lead, Accenture
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Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Can we please not say Hybrid, please

Hybrid is hospitality's buzzword du jour—but what if it's a dead end? Matthias Huettebraeuker, Hospitality Strategist & Senior Executive Advisor, argues that "hybrid" represents terminal thinking, not transformation. Instead of reassembling old boxes, he proposes three conditions for discovery: convergence, fluidity, and versatility. The key metric? Engagement—and redefining hospitality around how much of someone's life we hold space for.

Matthias Huettebraeuker
By Matthias Huettebraeuker, Hospitality Strategist & Senior Executive Advisor, Matthias Huettebraeuker
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Context-Driven Hospitality: The Next Evolution

Rok Kokalj, Co-founder and CEO of Nevron, describes “context-driven hospitality” as the next step for an industry facing uncertainty and rising complexity. He argues that hotels should move from binary thinking to hybrid intelligence, building clear identity and purpose first so technology, especially AI agents, can support human connection and turn back-end complexity into front-end simplicity that feels seamless for guests.

Rok Kokalj
By Rok Kokalj, Co-founder & CEO, Nevron
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

How AI is Powering Efficiency and Imagination in Hospitality Design

Lisa A. Haude, Principal-Interior Designer at Studio RYS, shows how AI is becoming a practical creative partner in the studio. She describes using AI to speed up drafting, modeling, admin work, and BIM based visualisation, letting designers test more ideas, reduce errors, and give clients richer, real time ways to see and shape a project. Her main point is that AI should stay in the background as a tool for precision and sustainability insight, while the human side storytelling, taste, and emotional sense of place remains what makes hospitality design truly memorable.

Lisa A. Haude
By Lisa A. Haude, Principal-Interior Design, Studio RYS, Studio RYS (formerly RYS Architects)
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Why Presence is the Next Amenity

Susie Arnett of Six Senses explains that as hotel service becomes more automated, the real value of hospitality moves back to the human relationship between guest and host. Drawing on lessons from retreat centres, she shows why future staff must act more like guides than service workers, and why training should focus on presence and emotional intelligence so guests feel truly seen, not just served.

Susie Arnett
By Susie Arnett, Director of Wellness Programming, Six Senses
Hotel Yearbook Article The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Annual Edition

Bringing it All Together: How All-Inclusive Resorts Changed the Narrative

As all inclusive resorts shed their old value only reputation and reemerge as serious players in the upscale leisure space, Ricardo Orozco Arce of The Villa Group shows how the category’s revival is powered by “hybrid by design” thinking. He maps the unlikely pairings redefining the model luxury and explains how blending these forces can broaden appeal, deepen loyalty and keep the guest experience feeling effortless and worth it at every step.

Ricardo Orozco Arce
By Ricardo Orozco Arce, Vice President Operations, The Villa Group