What I Saw at HITEC 2026 That Nobody Else Is Talking About
The author argues that HITEC 2026 overlooked a key market gap: back-office AI that reduces overhead and drives margins, while vendors focused almost entirely on guest-facing tools.
The author argues that HITEC 2026 overlooked a key market gap: back-office AI that reduces overhead and drives margins, while vendors focused almost entirely on guest-facing tools.
A conference recap from HSMAI 2026 in San Antonio covering four recurring themes: resilient consumer spending, commercial team alignment, AI-driven hotel discovery, and the return to hospitality fundamentals.
A HITEC 2026 recap identifies agentic governance, Agent Management Platforms, and Guest Success Management Systems as the defining trends, with AI shifting from point tools to enterprise-wide orchestrated workflows.
UrVenue will exhibit its experience commerce platform at HITEC San Antonio (June 16-18, Booth #538), showcasing tools to manage and monetize non-room inventory and previewing its AI and Model Context Protocol strategy.
Agilysys will lead three sessions at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio covering AI-driven personalization, resort experience merchandising, and data-connected workforce strategy.
Otelier will demo TruePlan at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio, highlighting new features including Critique, a workflow for contextualizing variances and forecast changes across hotel portfolios.
HCN's white paper, debuting at HITEC San Antonio, claims a 500-room Boston hotel can generate $257,645 in annual net revenue via its tablet-based Commerce Media Network managing $3B+ in global ad inventory.
Maestro PMS will exhibit at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio (June 15-18, Booth #2038), showcasing a unified platform with new mobile check-in, spa/wellness integration, BI analytics, and gift card tools for independent hotels.
Gerdts founded POST Integrations in 1991 and EboCom in 2000, providing payment processing exclusively to hospitality, while Gilbert led HSMAI for 30+ years.
The two-day event at Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center features keynotes, 28 breakout sessions, and pre/post workshops for hospitality commercial professionals.