Is the PMS era ending?
The traditional way of how we see property management systems as an all-in-one solution trying to solve all of the pain points or goals of a hotel is definitely dying.
We’re looking at a transformation of the property management system category becoming much more focused on making sure that you have access to your core data, to your core functionalities, to then be able to adopt new trends. If it’s more apps—which we already see in the software world today—or especially with agents and AI agents coming to market, this shift is becoming more and more significant and faster.
How will AI agents transform the hospitality industry?
AI agents will change the pace of innovation.
Today, building new applications to solve certain pain points takes a lot of investment, a lot of time, and real companies. But now, when you have the right infrastructure—access to your PMS data, maybe CDP data—you can leverage agents to solve specific pain points and achieve your goals.
The pace of innovation, customization, and personalization will be at a much faster scale than before.
Do you think the future is tech-enabled hospitality?
It’s already the present of hospitality. Hotels are selling most of their rooms online. Hotels have become hybrid businesses. There are a lot of personal experiences that make the difference—but digital is becoming more and more important.
What I define by tech-enabled hospitality is looking at all parts of your business and seeing how you can leverage tech to offer a better guest experience, better distribution, and better business performance. It’s not about implementing tech for the sake of tech—but tech that supports your business goals and delivers a better experience for your guests.
How can hoteliers maximize tech investments for revenue, efficiency, and guest experience?
That’s a complex and long question.
The number one topic is: think about where your infrastructure is today in terms of core systems. If your systems are still quite closed and you try to cover everything yourself, you’re typically very locked in with your vendor and their roadmap. There, the pace of innovation and trying out new things is much more complicated.
So, first step: where’s my base? Once you have that base, you can much more easily identify specific processes to optimize. Talk to your staff, listen to your guests, look at your business performance. Based on that, create a backlog of topics you want to achieve and then prioritise. Try to go step by step
Don’t think only in terms of two-year RFP projects. Think about how you can make small impacts and incremental changes toward your north star vision—which is also very important to set.
Amid ITB’s innovations, how can hoteliers stay agile and choose the right tech?
It always goes back to making sure your systems are open and are truly open so you are not locked in by one vendor offering specific functionalities.
Make sure third-party systems can connect to your system easily. That you have access to their APIs, their functionality, and their data.
How do you find that out? Talk to partners. If you’re at ITB, it’s the right place to be. Talk to other partners, to other hoteliers. Learn from their experiences and build your opinion from that. This is where you will have the real value of people telling you the difference in specific cases which is why people come to these trade shows. You can leverage your network and experiences.
How can technology help hoteliers unlock new revenue beyond room sales?
We’ve moved away from just putting heads in beds.
Especially in the co-ownership space, owners are diversifying their risk. They might have different revenue models and business models in one property.
Tech can support you to track your data and understand your different business models. It can support you to manage a well-organised F&B outlet, try out co-working, or diversify your rooms—long stay vs. short stay, or new guest segments such as hostel business.
Tech allows hospitality concepts or operators to have multiple concepts in one building and through that create more revenue per square metre, and at the same time diversify risk in terms of long term strategy.
Is the future of hospitality tech in specialized platforms or all-in-one solutions?
I have to say—it’s clearly in specialized platforms.
I don’t see how any all-in-one software can stay on top of their game for years to come. And the only thing we know for certain is that innovation and new technology is coming faster than ever.
So saying one specific partner will stay on top across all categories for five to seven years? I don’t think that’s realistic.
At the end of the day, you need a flexible setup. One where you can choose specialised systems but also re-evaluate and adapt quickly, at lower investment, to make sure you’re always ahead.
What are you most excited about for Apaleo in the next year?
It’s a super exciting time at Apaleo.
We’ve been growing internationally with some of the most renowned tech-enabled hospitality concepts—CitizenM, Numa, Limehome. They’re excelling in tech. But we’re also working with many independent hotels who are leveraging the value propositions of Apaleo for operational efficiencies or offering better digital experiences.
Now, with the wave of AI agents, there’s more awareness that people need open infrastructure. They want to act faster. The next generation of hospitality leaders wants to be in control of their technology—not driven by vendor lock-in.
That’s a big change in the industry and it’s accelerating. I’m really looking forward to what’s to come in the next year or the years ahead.
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