How has hospitality tech changed in recent years?
Technology spending in hotels is not increasing significantly, but where hotels are spending is changing. There is more investment in cloud systems and in revenue enabling technologies such as revenue management, profit optimization and revenue optimization tools.
Where previously around 10 to 20 percent of hotels had access to these systems, they are now becoming available to a much larger share of the market. AI is expected to be the next area of focus.
At the same time, overall technology spend still represents a small part of total hotel spending and is expected to increase only slightly.
Where is automation and AI making the biggest difference?
There is a significant amount of automation happening across the industry, with many technology providers focused on automating different parts of hotel operations and distribution.
Automation remains the key area of impact. Many processes are still manual and can be improved so that hotel teams can spend more time delivering hospitality rather than working in systems.
AI is now widely discussed across the industry, but both vendors and operators are still working to understand how it can be applied in practice. There is growing interest in how AI can support automation and improve processes further.
What will define tech-enabled hospitality in five years?
AI is evolving rapidly, making it difficult to predict how it will develop over the next five years. One of the key questions is how AI will change booking behavior and how guests search for and book hotels.
The larger impact is expected on the operational side. AI could support hotel teams by acting as a personalized assistant, helping staff understand what has happened, what decisions need to be made and where to focus their attention.
This would allow teams to be more strategic and focus on higher-value work.
What are you most excited about in the next year?
There is growing focus on AI acting as a support layer within hotel systems. At Mews, this includes the integration of DataChat, a US-based company with experience in building AI systems and agentic layers.
These developments are focused on creating tools that can act as co-workers for hotel teams, helping to automate tasks such as managing spreadsheets, handling reservations and completing administrative work.
The goal is to reduce manual effort and allow staff to spend more time engaging with guests and delivering hospitality. Over the next year, these capabilities are expected to become more visible within hotel systems.
🎧 Listen to more interviews from the ITB 2026 series, where we speak with hospitality and travel tech leaders about the future of the industry.
If you want to understand how your brand stays visible and relevant as AI continues to shape hospitality technology, get in touch with Abode Worldwide.
