HITEC 2026 drew 6,100+ professionals to San Antonio's Henry B. González Convention Center, featuring 400+ exhibitors across 85,000 sq ft and a strong focus on AI, cybersecurity, and digital guest engagement.
Otherwander Soho, a 566-pod digital hotel on Dean Street, chose Apaleo's open PMS after a 4.5-year tech evaluation, enabling keyless entry, online check-in, and a reception-free operating model.
Karen Stephens and Dylan Cole discuss how Google's Universal Commerce Protocol and AI-powered booking agents are reshaping hotel distribution, and what hoteliers must do to stay competitive.
Revinate's Hotel Moment podcast examines how Google's Universal Commerce Protocol and AI-driven booking agents are reshaping hotel distribution, and what hoteliers must do to stay visible and competitive.
Hospitality operators are legally liable for AI failures on their platforms, as Air Canada's chatbot ruling shows, making adversarial red-teaming a regulatory and operational necessity.
Mews has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for revenue management systems, recognizing its native PMS-RMS-BI integration built on its 2024 acquisition of Atomize.
Grevon launched at HITEC 2026 with Kore, an MCP-based connectivity layer powering AI booking, voice, and staff intelligence tools to drive direct revenue and reduce OTA dependence.
Pricepoint launches a fictional AI-generated micro-drama series where five hotel revenue managers compete on pricing in the same city, using storytelling to illustrate real commercial scenarios.
Shiji's Daylight PMS now embeds task management directly into the housekeeping mobile app's room-level view, letting attendants handle cleaning and guest requests in one screen without switching between systems.
HITEC day three recap covers E20X startup pitches, candid booth conversations with Oracle, HotelKey, Revinate and Shiji, and a closed-door round table with hotel CIOs and senior supplier executives.
Innspire's app-free Guest Flows product covers the full hotel stay via SMS, WhatsApp, and browser, with pilot data showing pre-arrival completion rates rising from 5% to 20%.
Zenzap CEO Guy Weiss argues that hospitality's reliance on WhatsApp for operations creates data loss, privacy, and security risks, and that purpose-built work communication can cut turnover by up to 50%.
Revinate's Ivy is trained on 17 years of hospitality data and 1.1 billion guest profiles, currently powering chat resolution and call scoring, with planned expansion into automated guest communications.
Revinate announced AI-powered call scoring (96% accuracy, 30+ hours saved monthly) and a digital concierge chat tool, both launching for general availability in mid-to-late 2026.
Classic Norway Hotels cut forecast error by ~50% across 22 properties using Demand Calendar's automated BI platform, reducing Excel use by 95% and aligning all departments on a single nightly-updated forecast.
Behavioral shift toward AI-driven question-and-answer is already complete among consumers, leaving businesses across hospitality, accounting, and healthcare racing to replace dashboards with conversational tools.
RoomPriceGenie's new price explanations feature gives hoteliers plain-language context behind each rate recommendation, including how their own pricing rules may be limiting revenue potential.
Wilhelm Luxem, Head of Quality Commission at Swiss Deluxe Hotels, shares how luxury properties can adopt technology while preserving authentic human connection, drawing on a 50-year career.
A first-person recap of HITEC 2026's opening days finds consensus that AI will transform hospitality distribution and operations, but deep disagreement on costs, brand survival, and the role of human staff.
Thynk's Lead Qualification Index scores incoming hotel inquiries across Intent, Fit, Impact and Relationship dimensions, automating RFP capture and prioritization to help sales teams respond faster and win more business.