There’s an old proverb that says if a stranger shows up at your door, feed them for three days before you ask who they are, where they’re from and where they’re going. And that's a perfect illustration of true hospitality.
One of the biggest changes in guest behavior is the expectation around hotel communication. In an always-on digital world, travelers expect to be able to message properties at any time of day, and to get considered responses quickly and in their own language.
Imagine this: two hotels side by side. Both boast rooftop pools, chic lobbies, and decent coffee. Yet one is bleeding profits while the other thrives, not by doing more—but by doing different. The latter doesn’t compete on price or amenities; it sails in its own Blue Ocean, where competition becomes irrelevant.
It usually starts with a simple fix. One team wants better upsell options, so a new CRM is added. Another needs richer analytics, so in comes a reporting tool. The spa needs its own booking interface. The restaurant team demands a POS that talks to the kitchen the way they like. All good intentions.
In the summer of 2025, traveling on business, I checked into a U.S. boutique hotel that promised cutting-edge hospitality: a 100% automated operation. No front desk, no humans—just email confirmations, entry codes, text messages, and chatbots. What could possibly go wrong?
Those who know me know that I relish in the technical details of how specific features on software systems work, how integrations are built and how relational databases can be linked to integrate fields or perform valuable queries.
What if I told you that while you're reading this, a handful of hotels worldwide are secretly deploying AI agents so advanced they're generating additional revenue streams that didn't exist 12 months ago? What if these same hotels are using technology so sophisticated it makes Siri look like a calculator?
There’s a popular myth making the rounds in hospitality tech circles that AI will fix everything. That you can plug in a chatbot here, an algorithm there, and suddenly your operations are running on autopilot and every guest gets a “wow” moment.
The announcement from Cloudflare regarding their default blocking of AI bots and the introduction of a “pay-per-crawl” system is a significant and largely positive development for the digital landscape, particularly as it pertains to our core industries of hospitality and travel.
Hotel bidding sites allow you to fill slow periods in your operations. These unexpected dips in demand can tie up cash flow and leave staff staring at half-empty corridors. Bidding platforms give you a quiet back door to move those vacant rooms, protecting the rates guests see on OTAs while topping up revenue that would otherwise slip away.
The impact of a major water leak incident in a hotel can be both immediate and long lasting. Among the immediate consequences can be dealing with guest complaints, cancelling reservations and managing renovation work.
In hospitality, the tech can be perfect, the workflows seamless, and the reports dialed in — and yet, things still stall. Why? Because the people meant to power the system were never really trained to use it.
Rising costs, a shrinking labor pool and soaring guest expectations have created the perfect storm for hoteliers. It's a squeeze that shows no signs of letting up, and it means that hotels are often required to run with leaner teams – while still delivering standout service.
The hospitality industry has always been about people, connecting with guests, anticipating their needs, and delivering memorable experiences. But what happens when the hospitality sector embraces a new kind of partnership: one where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and humans collaborate to amplify these experiences? What if AI could empower hoteliers, streamline operations, and enhance guest interactions in a way that was never possible before?
The business community has welcomed artificial intelligence as a key means of adapting to today’s changing workforce and recommending actions based on data analytics; however, according to experts, the hotel industry has yet to leverage it fully. A recent study by McKinsey found that as many as 78 percent of respondents say their organizations use AI in at least one business function, a 6-percentage-point increase from 2024. With so many core processes now informed by AI, hoteliers must bring these capabilities into the heart of their operations: the property-management system.
Africa’s transformation story is often centred around infrastructure. Cables, towers, devices, datacentres. However, transformation doesn’t start with hardware; it starts with people, with connections and insights on platforms designed to help companies understand their customers and serve them more effectively. As Mandla Mbonambi, CEO of Africonology, points out, African businesses need technology solutions flexible and agile enough to thrive despite the challenges of infrastructure, and that are localised and capable of growing with them.
Hotel technology can get complicated. If I had to explain why this is to a kid or a golden retriever, I would say it’s because we used the best tools at our disposal at the time, stitching things together as best we could over years or even decades, and then tried to continuously pivot to newer, better systems while keeping the engine running.
For a long time, accommodation, which evolved into hospitality, was a key component of the travel chain. It was an essential link, certainly, but it came at the end of the transportation chain and served as the starting point for the chain of tourist or business activities. This travel chain created – and still creates – a variety of ecosystems with their specialized actors: transport providers, accommodation providers, receptive agencies, leisure sites, restaurants... Solid by nature, yet often rivals, even antagonistic, when it comes to sharing the value chain.
After three decades in hospitality technology, we've watched countless operational trends come and go. But AI concierge tools represent something different, they're not about replacing the human touch that makes hospitality special. Instead, they're about freeing your team to deliver more of it.
In today's hospitality sector, discussions among hoteliers invariably lead to artificial intelligence (AI). Announced as a transformative force, AI is poised to redefine everything from guest services and dynamic pricing to predictive analytics and content creation. However, a significant gap exists between this potential and its current implementation. This raises critical questions: what is the true state of AI adoption in the industry and what primary obstacles are impeding its progress?