Explora Journeys President Anna Nash discusses reframing ocean travel as a floating luxury hotel experience, with 30% first-time sailors and a fleet growing to six ships by 2028.
EHL Next CEO Andrea Monti argues hospitality over-relies on ADR and RevPAR, calls for impact metrics covering workforce and community value, and challenges the industry to prove AI actually frees staff time.
Maria Haggo, brain health strategist and ex-hotelier, argues that staff burnout and dysregulated nervous systems directly undermine guest experience, and that psychological safety is a practical fix.
Label Gamelle, founded in Paris in 2020, employs homeless people and refugees as its first job in France, turning surplus food into 2,500+ meals daily while achieving 80% housing and employment outcomes within 18 months.
Legendary designer Adam Tihany argues emotion in hospitality spaces comes from control and storytelling, and dismisses technology at the table as harmful to genuine warmth and luxury.
EHL Dean Achim Schmitt argues hospitality's decades of comfort-driven complacency left it unprepared on talent and innovation, with retention, human connection, and competency-based education as the path forward.
Accor Deputy CEO Jean-Jacques Morin, speaking at EHL HumanX in Lausanne, argues that human relationships trump data in hospitality and that AI should augment, not replace, the people behind the brand.
Equinox Hotels CEO Christopher Norton shares how he built a hotel brand around health pillars including fitness, nutrition, recovery, and sleep, pulling 1,500 locals daily through a 60,000 sq ft gym.
Posadas COO Enrique Calderon discusses the company's 200+ hotel portfolio, a 30-hotel pipeline, 25 new proprietary experiences, and why Mexico's domestic leader consistently outperforms global chains.
Jason Zvatora discusses OUTRIGGER's focus on place-specific cultural experiences, balancing family and romance guests, and prioritizing total revenue over room revenue alone.
“RoomPriceGenie launches Revenue Intelligence with 15 PMS partners, embedding pricing solutions directly in hotel management systems to support more accurate, revenue-led operational decisions.
Paathz CEO argues hospitality's talent crisis stems from fragmented recruitment systems, not actual shortage, proposing industry-specific platforms over generic tools.
Valpas technology prevents bedbugs in real-time and provides verified cleanliness data that ChatGPT can now access for hotel recommendations.
Klaus Kohlmayr discusses AI trust challenges and the evolving role of revenue managers in hospitality technology.
Apaleo's founder demonstrates live hotel booking through ChatGPT, with 15-20 hotel groups already deploying AI agents in production.
Infor's David Poprawka argues hospitality must rebuild its data foundation before AI can succeed, showcasing AR proof-of-concepts for check-in and housekeeping.
TrustYou's CEO envisions moving from fragmented guest communication to unified conversational AI that maintains context across all channels and touchpoints.
Journey executives explain how hotels can generate 50% of revenue from non-room sources by treating experiences as bookable inventory rather than add-ons.
Stripe's James Lemon discusses payment infrastructure challenges in hotels and why AI booking technology is more complex for travel than retail.
Aven Hospitality's Mark Hollyhead discusses how AI-driven search shifts booking from filling forms to expressing intent, requiring hotels to control their own representation.
Access Hospitality's Champa Magesh argues system fragmentation hurts guest experience more than data quality, coining the "toggle tax" for staff switching between platforms.
Access Hospitality's Navigator uses natural language AI to query unified hotel data, eliminating the need to toggle between multiple systems.
Cendyn's CEO and HOSPITALITY X Co-Founder discuss how social media evolved from brand awareness to direct conversion channel at ITB Berlin.
TRYBE CEO discusses their wristband-based contactless system for spas, arguing specialized software with strong integrations beats all-in-one platforms.