Hospitality Daily and Destination AI Launch Industry-Wide Survey to Benchmark How Hotels Are Using AI Today

Hospitality Daily and Destination AI have partnered to launch the State of Hotel AI, a comprehensive survey designed to give the hotel industry a clearer and more honest view of how hotel teams are using artificial intelligence today. 

The research is meant to examine what is actually happening inside hotel organizations: where teams are using AI, where companies are investing, what has produced measurable value and what hasn’t, how employees feel about the technology, and what may be preventing broader adoption.

The survey is now live at https://stateofhotelai.com/

.What the Survey Explores

The survey examines AI from both the leadership and employee perspectives.

Executives and above-property leaders are asked why their organizations are investing in AI, where those investments have actually paid off, how budgets are changing, and where their companies sit on the maturity curve, from informal experimentation to scaled execution supported by strategy and governance.

On-property and frontline employees are asked how AI is affecting their day-to-day work, whether it is making their jobs better, how much they trust its outputs, and what they wish leadership better understood about using AI in their roles.

The goal is not to produce another report about AI’s potential. It is to give hotel leaders a practical view of what their peers are doing, where the industry may be overestimating progress, and where real opportunities are beginning to emerge.

“Everyone is talking about AI in hospitality. Far fewer people know what hoteliers are really thinking, doing, and getting from it right now,” said Josiah Mackenzie, founder of Hospitality Daily. “That is the question this survey answers, and it is exactly what our audience keeps asking us.”

“Most hotels are still in an experimentation phase, and that's fine, but the conversation at conferences often runs ahead of the reality on the ground,” said Nazpari Aydin, Founder and CEO of Destination AI, the hospitality industry's leading AI event. “Owners and operators keep asking me the same thing: what is everyone else actually doing? This survey answers that with data instead of anecdotes, and it lets people honestly compare where they stand against their peers.”

Why This Research Matters

Hotel leaders are being asked to determine where to invest, which use cases to prioritize, how quickly to move, what governance is needed, and how to prepare their teams. At the same time, the industry still lacks clear data on some of the most important questions:

Are hotel companies seeing a return on their AI investments, or is it still too early to tell? Are the areas receiving the most investment the same areas producing the most value? Do executive perceptions of AI match the experience of the employees expected to use it? And how many organizations have moved beyond isolated experimentation to a coordinated strategy with governance, ownership, and measurable goals?

The State of Hotel AI was created to establish that baseline and will also create a benchmark the industry can revisit over time, making it possible to track where adoption is accelerating, where gaps remain, and whether AI is ultimately improving hotel performance and the experience of the people doing the work.

Take the Survey and Receive the Findings

The survey is anonymized and does not require an email address to participate. It is open to hotel owners, operators, executives, above-property leaders, and on-property teams.

The frontline survey takes approximately two minutes to complete, while the leadership version takes approximately five to six minutes.

Participants will receive access to the complete benchmarked findings, including the ability to compare their responses with peers across the industry.

The full findings will premiere at Destination AI 2026, taking place September 29 and 30 in Washington, D.C.

Take the survey at stateofhotelai.com.