Set along the Lusail Marina promenade, Rosewood Doha debuts as an experience-rich retreat at the confluence of tradition and progress. With reservations now available for stays beginning July 15, the property invites guests to engage with a new expression of luxury in Qatar's "City of the Future"—where desert breezes, ocean rhythms, and immersive storytelling converge in every detail.
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.”
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed record-breaking data for Egypt’s Travel & Tourism sector, with 2024 marking the highest-ever contribution to the national economy, and 2025 forecast to surpass that record once again.
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.
Hospitality Tech Vendors: one-stop-shop or best-of-breed plug-in?
From a technology perspective, the hospitality industry will continue to have a PMS-centric hotel tech stack approach. Today's PMS is the hotel 's command center for rooms and F&B management, sales and catering, distribution, availability, pricing, reservations, guest interactions, issue resolution, housekeeping, reporting, billing, guest communications, etc. and is often described as the central nervous system of the hotel operations.
Your take is spot on, and it echoes the reality I've seen play out time and again in the trenches of hospitality tech. The debate isn't really about "all-in-one" versus "best-of-breed"—it's about how we work together to deliver actual results for hotels and their guests.
If you’re flipping through this publication in search of buzzwords and hype, I’ll save you some time… this isn’t that kind of yearbook. HYB Technology 2025 is where we talk about what’s working, what’s not, and what’s just been duct-taped together for the 20th year in a row.
A very topical question which also came up at the HFTP Barcelona CIO Summit recently. There was no single answer as it will always depend on the particular situation. For a small hotel/BnB, a combo PMS/POS/IBE product like Avon Data, Heart or BookAssist may suffice and would do a very good job.
In a word, yes. All the major players in industry are working towards a hospitality 'platform' solution. Yes, you may be able to purchase the pieces separately, which is purely commercial. But they are designed and intended to support across business operations.
Since when it's a good thing for the government to determine commissions in the private sector? Commissions are charged in many industries: from insurance to sales to real estate. Why doesn't the government regulate them all? And why decrease the commissions by 25% and not by 19.5% or 26.8%?
I firmly agree that, in many cases, the fees are excessive and that OTA's have exploited the industry's vulnerabilities—particularly targeting independent hotels and softer brands. That said, I do not believe government intervention in commission structures is the answer.
It certainly sounds appealing at first. Let's protect the poor hotels from high commissions but if we've learned anything from economics it's that government price controls tend to create more problems than they solve. Take the example of rent controls.
Miraval Resorts & Spas, an industry leader and pioneer in transformative wellbeing and personal growth within the luxury hospitality space, in collaboration with Red Sea Global, a visionary developer shaping the future of regenerative tourism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, proudly announces the launch of Miraval The Red Sea Residences. This collection of only twenty exclusive beach villas are designed for holistic living with a dedicated focus on wellbeing and life in balance.
Accor, a world-leading hospitality group, today announced the signing of Mövenpick Cairo West, a 220-key hotel set to rise in the heart of West Cairo. The signing marks the Group's continued expansion in Egypt and further strengthens Mövenpick's well-established presence in the country.
Travco Group is proud to announce the opening of Giza Palace Cairo, a landmark destination redefining luxury hospitality in Egypt and the latest addition to the Leading Hotels of the World.
Minor Hotels, a global hotel owner, operator and investor, has signed a strategic hotel management agreement for a prominent beachfront property on Dubai’s iconic Palm West Beach in collaboration with valued partners, Seven Tides. Effective by 1st August 2025, the addition of this new resort and serviced residences—currently operating as Dukes The Palm, a Royal Hideaway Hotel—to Minor Hotels’ managed portfolio further strengthens the group’s growing footprint in the United Arab Emirates and establishes it as the largest operator on the Trunk of the Palm.